Big Game Hunting Live presents TableTop Day 2015 [Gather Your] Party!

by Rae

For this year's International TableTop Day, Proud Lion are proud to present the TableTop Day 2015 [Gather Your] Party! Join us from 6:30pm until 11pm at 2PIGS in Cheltenham for an epic evening of board and party games! We will be playing host to an assortment of games, including:

• Cash 'N Guns tournament, where players will compete for a place at the top table, the Mafia Don Showdown!
• exhibition-style Star Trek: Attack Wing, where players are invited to bring a 60 point fleet (one or two ships) to join forces with the Oversized Borg Cube or help defend the DS9! *
• Star Wars: X-Wing "Podrace In Space", where players are invited to bring a single ship (points TBD) and speed through two laps to be first to the finish line! This is just a bit of fun for TableTop Day! *
• D&D Attack Wing custom scenario, where players are invited to bring a 80 point legion to combat each other over hand crafted tabletop scenery! *
• late night game of Cards Against Humanity, minimum age 16 - please be aware this game can be considered offensive and may not suitable for those of a sensitive disposition!
• Dead of Winter (TableTop Edition), a new and very popular post-apocalypse game where humanity is struggling to survive a zombie infestation, but a betrayer hides amongst them...
• Pints of Blood: it's Shaun of the Dead in board game form. Seriously. We may even put the soundtrack on!

Several more games will be available to play, but feel free to bring your own as well! Every ticket purchased includes one entry into the Cheltenham TableTop Day Prize Draw. More details about the prize draw will be available soon.

* Please contact Proud Lion to reserve a slot for the Star Trek: Attack Wing, Star Wars: X-Wing, or D&D Attack Wing games. Participation is open to all ticket holders.

A free buffet will be available to all ticket holders in the venue, and drinks will be available for purchase from the bar.

So what are you waiting for? Get your tickets now!

Tickets are available for ages 14+. Children under 14 are free when accompanied by a paying adult (maximum two children per adult). Advance tickets will be available for purchase until 5pm on the day. Tickets purchased online will incur a 50p booking fee. Tickets on the door will be available from 6:30pm for £5.00.

Rae is starting to wonder if she can clone herself and play all the games.

Big Game Hunting Live presents TableTop Day 2015

by Rae

Every year, Proud Lion takes part in an event devoted to encouraging people to play more games: International TableTop Day! This year the local gaming community in Cheltenham is joining forces to bring you the biggest and best TableTop Day yet. On Saturday 11 April 2015, take part in a Camden Crawl-style game day, where an assortment of locations will leave players spoiled for choice!

What is International TableTop Day?

International TableTop Day is an annual event celebrating tabletop gaming. People are encouraged to play more games, anywhere they can, and encourage others to join in. Many locations run open gaming for anyone to get involved, as we are! For more information about TableTop Day, how it began, and other events running on the day, check out the official website at www.tabletopday.com.

Where can I play games during the day?

Here at Proud Lion, we'll be offering a selection of card and dice games throughout the day, as well as a few of our favourite board games. Some of the games on offer include King of New York, Forbidden Desert, Munchkin Panic, Fluxx, and Ninja Dice! More details about when you can play these (and more!) will be available soon. All games will be open to the public, so just turn up and play! Proud Lion will be hosting open gaming in store from 10am to 5pm.

Around the corner at the 2PIGS, Pork Chop Gaming will be hosting tables full of epic games! Join in for some Warhammer 40K, Star Trek: Attack Wing, Star Wars: X-Wing, Wings of Glory and more. Pork Chop Gaming will be hosting their event from 10am until 6pm.

Slightly further afield you'll find St Paul's Boardroom! Based at St Paul's Church, this is where you'll find eurogames, co-ops, and classics. Some of the games you'll find here include Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, 7 Wonders, and Five Tribes. St Paul's Boardroom will be running from 10am to 6pm.

Why should I go to more than one place?

You mean besides trying out a bunch of new games and meeting like-minded gamers? How about a prize draw where you can win some cooling gaming stuff? To encourage people to try out new locations and expand the local gaming community, Proud Lion will be hosting the Cheltenham TableTop Day Prize Draw!

The rules are simple. When you go to any venue, you can pick up one of our TableTop Day flyers. Play at least one game at any of the participating venues to get your flyer stamped or signed by the organiser. If you collect two stamps, you will earn one entry into the prize draw. Collect three stamps to get three entries! You will also receive one entry to the draw if you purchase a ticket to [Gather Your] Party! (more details below).

Prize draw? What kind of stuff could I win?

Prizes are currently set to include a month's membership with Pork Chop Gaming, a Munchkin hoody, games, vouchers, and more! A full list of prizes will be available soon.

What is [Gather Your] Party?

[Gather Your] Party is a Proud Lion hosted event taking place at the 2PIGS! Just in case we haven't packed enough into TableTop Day, in the evening we will be running even more gaming! Some of the events include a Cash 'N Guns tournament, exhibition-style Attack Wing games, and a late night game of Cards Against Humanity. There will be food, there will be a bar, and there will be a lot of gaming going on! Details about how to get tickets for this event will be available very shortly.

Questions? Comments?

Feel free to contact us at shop@proudlion.co.uk. If any other venues are participating in tableTop Day and would like us to help spread the word, please do get in touch!

Rae has decided that gaming is definitely more important than sleep.

Big Game Hunting - D&D Encounters: A new adventure begins!

By Rae

For the last six months, Proud Lion has been leading two groups of would-be heroes through burning villages, enemy camps, and evil creature-infested caves in our first ever season of Dungeons & Dragons: Encounters. This casual-style gaming event allows players to grab a character and join in the adventure at almost any time, and is particularly suited to those new to D&D or role-playing games in general.

We're pleased to let you all know that the new season of Encounters is about to begin! This month we will start a brand new adventure, Elemental Evil. This will feature content from the upcoming Princes of the Apocalypse. Once again we will be inviting players to join in and have fun as we battle minions, acquire allies, and defeat evil every week!

We will kick off this season with a session devoted to developing characters. On March 18th, we will be supporting players in building a character that is uniquely their own, and creating a background that will get them off to a running start. If you want to make a character but have no idea how to get going, this is a good place to begin. Experienced DMs (Dungeon Masters, the leaders of the game) will be on hand to answer questions and help generate your character.

On March 25th, we will being the adventure itself! Bring your newly created character (or grab a pre-generated character if you'd prefer) and get stuck in! Spaces for D&D Encounters are on a first-come, first-served basis, and we currently have enough space for a maximum of 14 players (2 groups of 7 players each). These do tend to fill up fast, particularly in the first few weeks, so don't be disappointed if we can't fit you in straight away!

To keep up to date with D&D Encounters, please keep an eye on the event pages on Facebook: the character building session, and the first play session.

Rae is planning and plotting for an epic TableTop Day this year!

Ramping up! EPOSible! Comic Wars! Gaming Tournaments! And TBCF16!

by Ben Fardon

Phew! What a busy time here at Proud Lion!

The shop itself has just seen several great upgrades in the past few weeks.

We've finally taken delivery of a folding access ramp. If anyone needs to make use of it, please ring either of the doorbells by the front door and we'll bring it out and set it up for you.

This is great news and something we've been working towards since we relocated the shop last year.

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Apologies to anyone who has noticed that our email newsletter has become a little intermittent over the last few weeks. We're in the middle of an extensive EPOS upgrade that propels Proud Lion into the 21st Century with barcode scanners, touch screen tills and all manner of other great functions. This will allow us to unveil a host of excellent new features to our services in the coming months, and should speed up the queues on big events like Free Comic Book Day.

I'll keep you posted with the new developments as they become available and I'll endeavour to keep up-to-date with the mailing list during the upgrade as best I can. Thank you for your patience.

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Thank you to everyone who has completed the DC Convergence order form we've been circulating in February; it's been a huge help! We have a little bit of every Convergence title on order for the shelves, with extra of the main title and the seemingly standout offerings like the Harley Quinn and Batman: Shadow Of The Bat issues, but I'd still advise you to pre-order anything you know you want to avoid disappointment!

To do so now that the survey is closed, please email shop@proudlion.co.uk.

The aim next week is to bring you a roundup of all of the Secret Wars titles on offer from Marvel in May. I'm also delighted that after the frustration of Convergence, I find myself actually very excited about the following launch of DC's new Divergence titles in June!

“This heralds in a new era for the DC Universe which will allow us to publish something for everyone, be more expansive and modern in our approach and tell stories that better reflect the society around us,” said DC Entertainment Co-Publisher Dan DiDio.  “Whether you’ve been a DC fan your whole life, or whether you are new to comics – there will be a book for you beginning in June.”

More on that at the end of this month. Stay tuned.

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We've just had our biggest weekend of gaming tournaments thus far, with both a Marvel Dice Masters Rainbow Draft and a Star Trek Attack Wing OP yesterday, followed by a really fun Netrunner draft tournament today. Our huge thanks to everyone who helped to get the word out about these events, and congratulations to all of our players from this weekend, not just the winners. Fantastic sportsmanship conduct throughout all of the events; you're all a credit to the local gaming community.

Work has also begun on bringing you our biggest and best TableTop Day event to date, on Saturday 11th April. Further details to follow, but for now you can follow the news at our TableTop Day 2015 Facebook event.

We're aware that not everyone uses Facebook, so work has begun on bringing a dedicated forum to the Proud Lion website; initially for gaming, but eventually intended to expand to include comics, TV, films, and more. This should hopefully create a place for everyone to discuss our favourite hobbies!

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Finally, we're all booked in for the True Believers Comic Festival 2016 on Saturday 6th February next year. Save the date!

Ben Fardon really enjoyed Power/Rangers!