Ropecon 2016

This was my first Ropecon, biggest and greatest Finnish roleplaying games, miniature games, tabletop games, card games, boffering, larping, and other fine hobbies convention. This is my report, full of photos of the event. Please enjoy!

D-OOM PRODUCTS AT ROPECON

My gratitude belongs to Lamentations Of The Flame Princess and +James Raggi who carried D-oom's products at his booth. Without him D-oom wouldn't have been presented at Ropecon. I was working for Myrskyn Sankarit, but used lots of my free time hanging around at LotFP booth. It was fun and James was great! I did not only sell my publications, but also answered some questions of LotFP products (stating that I don't work for LotFP of course), because I am a fan. People were for example interested which of the products are suitable for beginners (Tower Of The Stargazer and Death Frost Doomin are the answers). Oh, and a big hand for James for breaking a record! Well done!

About my sales, the start was a bit sticky but eventually I sold more. I am quite happy with the result! I was a bit concerned that sales could be slow because right next to my publications there were these awesome book with hard covers, stylished images and extremely high production values. But I did good enough! Thanks to my customers and everyone who was itnerested in D-oom's publications!

News is, that Syöksykierre-Nick (Facebook) will be available at Hiidenpeli, really awesome games store who don't only sell games but also plays with their customers!

DAY 1

I had some problems getting in the event. I got an email that "Thaumiel Nerub" has a ticket there by his name - but it was not. No Thaumiel, no my real name, no my social security number, no nothing. Fortunately Mike Pohjola sweeped there to help me out. With his Charisma score it took only 5 seconds and I was in!

Quickly I threw my stuff to the cloakroom and hurried to Myrskyn Sankarit (also available as Age Of The Tempest in English) booth. Tiina Uusi-Rasi was already there. We have been a sales team at Tracon Hitpoint 2015 already, so we knew each other. We are so good team!

Mike Pohjola's new book, 1827, was officially released this monday, but the release was held at Ropecon. Mike has also done a great makeover from elf to a viking.

Juhana Pettersson with his new game Tsernobyl, rakastettuni (Tsernobyl, My Love if translated). The cover art is neat and a cool detail is that the photography illustration he has captured himself from the area!

Jan Spinner from Sotakone miniatures. Somehow a game I have been drooling on since 2015 Tracon Hitpoint, Malifaux, managed to sneak on the picture. This must be a sign! Someday I will buy it... Sotakone is a kick-ass store for everyone interested in figures and wargaming. I haven't visited their store Bunkkeri yet, but it will be my main target next time I visit Turku (my family lives there).

Jukka Sorsa with his new game Hood. Unfortunately I didn't have time to check out this one, but the cover looks good and it is an adventure game in footprints of Robin Hood. Sounds interesting!

Samuli Ahokas from Ironspine-Myrrysmiehet. Awesome t-shirt.

Ville Takanen, who has all kinds of projects.

James Raggi showing Jokaisen roolipelaajan SAATANANPALVONTA opas. Re-release by D-oom from an old classic from the era when satanic panic was great in Finland. Fun fact: James plays air guitar when he's bored. I also saw his lovely wife live!

Absolutely fantastic artist, Haltijakäpälä (Elfpaw translated). I encourage you to check out her website at http://haltijakapala.tumblr.com/. So nice and inspiring. D-oom will propose some coop with her in near future!

A living legend, Risto Hieta, and D-oom's publications of his work. Risto revealed some ideas of his next game. It will be weird and awesome and slimy.

Mordheim always looks so cool and spectacular. It is one of those games I'd love to play so much. I never played it, but I did enjoy Necromunda.

Atmosphere in this diorama is strong.

Realistic paint job but the base catched my eye. The sign is cool little detail. This model was quite big.

I'd love to see this dog helmet armor on a person.

It is inspiring that even after destruction people continue to decorate themselves with what ever scrap they can get their hands on. If you don't believe me, watch Mad Max!

Yes, Fallout stuff.

It would be fun to make a package like this circling flea markets and looting trash.

Porin Pöytäpeliseura Pöllökarhut (Translation, Pori's Tabletopgaming club Owlbears) needs one of these.

Infinity and so much... everything.

Getting over that rock was fun to watch.

Looks like this scenario is loud! Look at the amount of those dice.

These were quiet big - and impressive.

One of the many speech programs. I didn't stay long. I didn't want to sit down and listen. I wanted to explore more.

First day finished with 1827 Infernal Musical. The musical was entertaining video'd at a theatre with lots of coreography and heavy music. The plot was about Turku's fire (half of the city was burnt) and the reasons were demonic! Lots of fun.

First night I stayed at the con, sleeping on concrete floor with a yoga mat. Shelter was well organized, but my back didn't like thin "thing" I slept on. But I woke up early and rested!

DAY 2

After waking up, tidying and eating breakfast I headed to Myrskyn Sankarit booth to work and start my second day at Ropecon. I also decided I'd focus on photoing people this day.

ENERGY DRINK!!!111ONE1!

I met Tommi Brander when having my breakfast. I have never met him in person, even though he's credited in Temple Of Greed. Roleplaying games hobby is great, you can make friends online and when you meet them the first time, you already are friends with them and can continue from there without any extra fuzz! Later Tommi mapped the area and found a nice pizzeria we had lunch. He's such a great guy! Unfortunately I didn't get to play Dungeons & Dragons with him. Bummer.

Plague doctor, steam punk, alchemy. Good compilation.

Miska Fredman, one of Finland's best cartographers. He also won Golden Dragon this year at Ropecon. Well done Miska!

Cool occultic stuff.

"Fairy balsam"
"Fairy balsam inculdes three fairies' holy trees: oak, something-that-translate-couldn't-find, hawthorn. Use fairy balsam to get contact with fairy world, to lure fairies to you or to your garden and to create positive, light and good feel.
Use fairy balsam with candles, ritual tools, altar tables and altar slabs and jewelry. You can stroke it lightly and quickly on your garden corners or insides of your wrists.

I didn't buy this.

Mikael "Miihkali" Tuominen. OSR is strong in him, even though he's more a BRP guy.

I like how this costume has so many different things. A little ranger, a little roman warrior, a little indian. Still it is a harmonious entity.

Here is a pose perfect for X-wing recruitment poster.

Jonas Mustonen watches Japanese cartoons (his t-shirt says so). He also wears sneakers because he was running all over the place doing tasks and delivering stuff and meeting people. You cannot find more sporty geek anywhere! Jonas is also a good friend of mine.

Skeleton hand bottle holders, tentacle cutlery. Lots of cool utensils.

This lolita also had sugar skulls in her skeleton themed dress hem. Nice little detail.

They didn't have any rare cards in their outfits. Or that's what they claim. I bet they lied because they didn't want people to rip their clothes off them!

Ninja outfit is simple to make, but rarely you see this convincing ninjas! The armor next to her is great contrast.

Word "credible" had a new meaning here. She didn't have to pose to make her character and costume look great.

You didn't see many of these great bigger costumes around. This was fun!

Ville Vuorela (Burger Games) with his broken leg, yet in good mood. Ville is always fun to talk with. Praedor had a new release, Salaisuuksien kirja (Book Of Secrets, if translated).

Is this from Skyrim?

Excuse me, I have no idea who you cosplay, but I am certain you do a 100% great job!

Dark and serious.

Guess which one cheered me up.

Always these religious weirdos...

Yes, she could walk and navigate with her helmet on.

It looked great when a big group of Star Wars characters walked by. Obi Wan looked just like Obi Wan!

This assassin's wristblade/mini x-bow was mechanic. Neat detail.

There were quite a few gentlemen around.

The one and only Flame Princess. I'm not kidding you! Her costume was Ariel. I asked James, and he'd never seen anyone cosplay Flame Princess. If the real Flame Princess doesn't cosplay the Flame Princess, then who does?

Post-apocalyptic customer support.

Finnish blacksmiths.

View from my second night's lodging. Thanks to my friends I didn't have to sleep on cold floor another night. I could have done it no problem, but this was a nice option to hang out.

Late night character creation for Fantasy Age. Really fun system with strong flavors from D&D even though the spices are different. I highly recommend this if you have to play something else than D&D/OSR.

Night gaming. We tried D&D 5E DMG random dungeon generator with Fantasy Age. It was lots of fun! With my favorite DM rapstar +Kookko Jaskinen

DAY 3

8 o'clock up and back to Ropecon and Myrskyn Sankarit booth. No, I did not jump down the balcony +Evey Lockhart.

Our neighbor Bard & Jester, also D-oom's partner.

With this glove getting lost is nigh impossible.

That's the end of the pictures. Both battery and photographer started to wear down. Everywhere I go I spend lots of time taking pics so I decided that I will enjoy Sunday without constantly looking around and finding something interesting to take pictures of. It was a right decision for the rest of the Con.

I think Ropecon was great. This was first time it was held in a fair building. As a first timer myself, I cannot compare it to the previous locations, but I think it was good. There was space, lots of space. Roleplaying games could have been in more open location though, now it felt like there was lots of gaming, but no roleplaying.

At the convention I didn't play anything! I just didn't have time! I am so glad my friends took me to their place, so I had a change to play something. It can feel a bit heavy to visit a con and just do everything else than the one thing you love the most.

LOOT

Ropecon programme and special dice. At first I thought I'd buy just one as a souvenir, but 3d6 for the win!

Hounds Of The Sea. Card graphics are great and I like that all picture cards have different kings, queens and jacks. Only minor problem is that there are no Jokers, so you cannot use these also as ordinary deck of cards. Such a big shame! The game I have no idea of how it works, but I'll write about it later, when I got time.

Some guy gave these for free for vendors and sales staff. Nice traditional pictures.

There was a section called Experience point where you could paint minis. This was a mini I got, but I didn't have time to finish him! Luckily I could take him with me to finish at home. He is really fun to paint!That purple ink I bought from Sotakone. (It's already Tuesday now. I tried it yesterday on Space Crusade android I painted silver. And it looks great!)