Freelance Traveller

#73: Perhaps It’s Not Traveller After All

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2024 issue.

I report elsewhere that TravCon has returned.  We last met in March 2020, so an October 2024 event means that we’ve not seen each other for four and half years. Nearly half a decade.

Perhaps it’s not surprising then that the overwhelming feeling on meeting everyone, and I don’t think I was alone, was that it had been too long and it was more than ‘really great’ to see friends and fellow travellers once again. For once, British reserve was inappropriate for the occasion and meant we struggled to find the language. We had to fall back on hugs.

This time last year I wrote about the sense of community engendered by Traveller friends and this was writ large this weekend. Personally, it was much more than ‘really great’ to see Nigel F again. He had been instrumental in offering great advice and much sympathy when I was going through a particularly dark period healthwise. It was a complete surprise to meet Alex T and partner Kez who I see regularly on Saturdays but had never met in personSee the previous linked Confession for his tracking skill. It was also a surprise to find he’s much taller standing up than is apparent from sitting in a small rectangular window during virtual games.

There were others who’d been through health issues as well. D having had a heart attack in the interim, S who admitted to issues around getting older, and R who faced difficulties too. It’s invidious naming names as there were no doubt others who I didn’t get a chance to talk to. Travellers may be used to going ‘through the wars’ in play, but it’s clear that half a decade hasn’t been kind to us in real life either. Perhaps it’s not surprising – although I hadn’t planned it that way – that I’d bought an adventure which was themed around aging.

It was good to see new and young faces as well, although as usual TravCon’s density – should you want to play all the games you’ve come for – doesn’t allow heaps of time to socialise and speak to everyone. Not if you value sleeping time as well somewhere in the mix. Hopefully they weren’t too put off to return another time. Seeing Andy, our organizer, was also a treat once again. I managed to play in a game he ran, but it wasn’t enough to properly catch up – which goes for lots of others too.

Of course the games were great and some of us even managed to squeeze an extra one in despite the lack of formal facilities. But perhaps it’s not the Traveller that draws us to Cambridgeshire. Perhaps it’s being able to sit around the gaming table, sit around the meal table, sit around the bar and interact with friends and soon-to-be friends that makes TravCon so special. Here’s hoping that it’s on again next year and perhaps back in its Spring slot so it will only be six months away. Clearly we’re ready for it!