The Cast Are Dice 2016 - 13th & 14th August

The dates for this friendly little convention have just been announced. A bunch of us went last year and it was good fun. It's a convention run in Stoke-on-Trent by the owners of local board game store Shire Games. It's all about playing games, and they have an excellent library of their own games that they make available. The venue is the 6th form college there and it's good for gaming as they have lots of separate rooms with big tables available, so plenty of room and not too noisy. There's usually fairly inexpensive accommodation available for those who want to go to both days.

I'm planning to go for both days and will have some space in the car if anyone wants a lift...

Last year's thread about this:
http://www.sheffieldboardgamers.com/t533-the-cast-are-dice-2015

Here's the announcement from this week's Shire Games Newsletter:

Shire Games wrote:The Cast are Dice 2016 -- Saturday 13th August & Sunday 14th August - Stoke-on-Trent 6th Form College

I'm pleased to announce that I can finally confirm the dates for our fun games weekend. As always, it's the second weekend of August.

There will be a couple of changes - The quality of the "free game for all advance weekend tickets" has been going down in my opinion, so I think we shall be scrapping that and reducing the weekend advance price to £10, saving you a fiver a head. And the walk-in price will probably stay the same, making the advance price a much better deal.

Otherwise ... Same times, same place. Full details coming next week, but I'll get the tickets available on the website on Monday. Almost certainly.

I'm there for both days too. Happy to chauffeur or be chauffeured.

Hoorah, Team Paul! I'm tempted to book into the 'official' hotel which is about 100m away from the venue. Saves the fun of driving to that other hotel through road closures and the one-way system :-) There are currently rooms for £42.50 for the Saturday night through https://www.britanniahotels.com. What do you think?

paulyg wrote:Hoorah, Team Paul! I'm tempted to book into the 'official' hotel which is about 100m away from the venue. Saves the fun of driving to that other hotel through road closures and the one-way system :-) There are currently rooms for £42.50 for the Saturday night through https://www.britanniahotels.com. What do you think?

Yeah, sounds like a good idea. Though having spent an hour driving around the one way system last year, I know it like the back of my hand now!

Right then, I've booked a room. Carpe diem and all that.

Likewise - I had a few problems with the website, but called them to get the same rate.

This is the same weekend as the X-wing nationals, but I don't know if I'm going to go to that.

I've booked a room at the North Stafford anyway, I can always cancel it later.

I might go for the day again. Anyone want to split petrol costs?

Aneurin wrote:I might go for the day again. Anyone want to split petrol costs?

If I'm in the country...

Tickets are now on sale!
http://www.shiregames.com/tcad/index.htm

Ticket purchased!

Though they said they were ditching the free game - it seems they've un-ditched it...

PaulC wrote:Ticket purchased!

Though they said they were ditching the free game - it seems they've un-ditched it...

Perhaps... Though I think it's possibly just a big copy and paste from last year. We'll see!

Free games confirmed! From this week's newsletter...

Shire Games wrote:It's all back to normal!
The tickets are on sale on the website now, and ALL details are the same as in previous years.
So the weekend advance tickets are staying at £15, and there's a free game for everyone who books in advance. Personally, I was thinking that the novelty of this was wearing off a bit, but it turns out that an overwhelming number of people thought differently, so we're leaving it in!
I would encourage you to book as early as possible, as the numbers have been going up and up from year to year, and if they were to go up at the same rate for next year, we would definitely be cutting off the advance sales well before the beginning of August.
But at the moment, there's about twelve of us going!
It's going to be great ....

Just tried buying a weekend ticket. The payment page wouldn't load (hopefully just my work's firewall), but I'm trying! Haven't looked at beds yet.

This sounds really good. I've bought a weekend ticket and am also happy to drive whomever down.

I would've liked to attend, get Path to Panic playtested some more, but I'm in the US at the time. Have fun though, y'all.

This is the same weekend as the Sheffield comic con which I'll be attending again this year. Hope to see a few more of you there again.

Tom_S wrote:This sounds really good. I've bought a weekend ticket and am also happy to drive whomever down.

I now have a weekend ticket.

It's this weekend! I think there are four of us going - me, PaulC, Sam and Tom? Anyone else?

Does it make sense to take a couple of cars to ensure plenty of room for games? I'm still happy to drive, but also happy to be chauffeured if someone else feels strongly.

paulyg wrote:It's this weekend! I think there are four of us going - me, PaulC, Sam and Tom? Anyone else?

Does it make sense to take a couple of cars to ensure plenty of room for games? I'm still happy to drive, but also happy to be chauffeured if someone else feels strongly.

Likewise...

How was it?

Aneurin wrote:How was it?

It was fun! I think the free games were of a higher standard but otherwise the event was much the same as in previous years. The library continues to have a good selection of classics and brand new games (we punched out at least a couple of games that we borrowed as they hadn't been played yet). On the Sunday I was on my own there for the first time and I found people were super friendly and approachable.