Islands around Anglesey

We’ve just returned from a holiday on Anglesey where we spent much of our time looking at even smaller islands.

Church Island

Church Island is in the Menai Strait, accessible on foot at all times by a causeway. The island is the home of St Tysilio's Church and graveyard and is delightful. This was my second visit – while the girls were looking at bookshops in Menai Bridge, I took Monty (our dog) and walked to Church Island.

Before the current causeway was constructed, the island was accessible only at low tide – and during services, a lookout was posted to warn churchgoers of the incoming tide.

Ynys Llanddwyn

Ynys Llanddwyn is a tidal island on the edge of Newborough Forest on the south of Anglesey. (Looking at the OS maps, it looks as if it’s only just an island at high tide. Perhaps it was more of an island in the past.)

As dogs aren’t permitted off the lead on the island, we went for a long walk along the beach to the north (allowing Monty to be off-lead for a while) before coming back through the forest and eating our picnic on the island. We also stopped for a while and watched seals and the seabirds.

The ruin of St Dwynwen's Church is situated on Ynys Llanddwyn, and according to the interpretation board, Dwynwen, the Welsh patron saint of lovers, lived here as a nun with a magical well of enchanted eels that told the fortunes of lovesick travellers.

After our walk, I fancied a cup of tea. The kiosk in the car park was very busy, so we drove to the café at Anglesey Sea Salt, where I had a very welcome cuppa and absent-mindedly ate a dog biscuit.

The Little Church in the Sea (St Cwyfan's Church)

We encountered St Cwyfan's by accident. On our last day, we went to Aberffraw for a walk, either around the dunes or along the coast. Studying the map in the car park, we saw there was a church on an island. And so, dodging the high tide, we set off to find it.

The church is lovely and is still used. A wedding was setting up as we got there (as we walked back, we could see the wedding party negotiating the still-wet causeway in all their finery). Apparently, there are about a dozen weddings a year.

As we headed back, I reflected on the appeal of building churches on small islands. It’s not just Anglesey – there’s St Cuthbert’s on the Farne Islands and Eynhallow in Orkney, and probably more. Were they built because it was so hard to do so and thus a sign of your devotion to God?

South Stack Lighthouse

We chose a sunny but windy day to visit South Stack Lighthouse. Luckily, it wasn’t windy enough to close the lighthouse – a couple of days earlier, the wind had been gusting at 40 mph, and they closed it to visitors.

Access to the lighthouse is down the cliff via innumerable steps, across a metal bridge, and then up onto the island. At least I was doing it in 2024, I reminded myself. I bet it wasn’t so easy when they started building it in 1809.

On the island itself, there’s a small exhibition indicating what life was like for the lighthouse keepers, the engine room (life can’t have been much fun with the generator running), and then a tour up to the top of the lighthouse itself.

While the guide told us about the lamp’s 24-mile range and the bath of mercury the optics sat on, I gazed out at the sea, watched gannets and wondered about Liminal ghost realms. Megan spotted a porpoise (it may have been a dolphin).

Ynas Dulas

We didn’t actually visit Ynas Dulas – it’s a bit far out. But we saw it when we went to Anglesey’s west coast (visiting the Din Lligwy ancient village). Rather splendidly, Ynas Dulas features a rescue tower (for stranded seamen) completed in 1824.

The tower drew my attention the first time we went to Anglesey, and I subsequently set a scene from The Aurors on it and wrote a Tale of Terror.

Continuum 2024

Unlike much of the weather in 2024, the last weekend in July was delightfully warm and sunny. So obviously I spent it inside, playing games. I was at Continuum 2024.

Megan and I in our Home of the Bold costumes. Photo by TsiJon.

Continuum had two big differences this year. First, it relocated to the Cranfield Management Development Centre. Second, I had my 17-year-old daughter, Megan, with me.

Being a parent/guardian at a residential con was a new experience for me. Megan comes to Airecon, but this was the first time she’d been away overnight with me, so I was a little nervous. Fortunately, she loved it.

The venue

The new venue is excellent. I found it slightly tricky to find, and we got lost in the hotel at one point, but once we found our bearings, it was great. The atrium was a lovely social space to meet and play games, and there were lots of rooms of various sizes to suit tabletop rpgs and freeforms alike. And it was all in the one place – no trekking from place to place like in Leicester.

The atrium

Oh – and the best convention breakfasts I’ve ever had. (The bar meals were a bit meh, and I didn’t try the buffet.)

So, my fingers are crossed that we are going back.

Friday

We arrived early Friday afternoon after a longer-than-expected journey. I think it was the first Friday of the school holidays, which I wasn’t expecting because Megan had broken up over a week earlier.

We checked in, dumped our stuff in our room, and headed to the main space to see what was going on. There, we found idle gamers, so we tried a game of Flamecraft, followed by a couple of games of Transamerica. (I didn’t win any of them.)

We had an okay bar meal, and then it was time for our first game proper.

Backstage Business

Backstage Business. Photo by TsiJon.

Backstage Business is Freeform Games' new murder-mystery freeform. It’s written by Dutch author Jasper Haenen, and I’ve been working on it with him since the start of the year. We’ve given it to several of our customers to playtest, and it was time for me to run it. 

Backstage Business is set after the final concert of 1980s hair-metal band Eruption’s first tour. However, tensions in the band are causing friction.

Overall, it went well. I was fairly busy as a GM, and the players gave me plenty of feedback to improve the game.

And Megan? She played Paula Gibb, the guitar technician. This was her first “proper” freeform (she played in on I ran for the family during lockdown). After a shaky start when she wasn’t sure what to do, she seemed to have a great time once the game got going.

An early-ish night

One advantage of sharing a room with Megan is that I wasn’t tempted to stay up too late. I stayed for a short while in the bar to chat, but I was back in the room by 11:30 pm. However, the room was too hot and wasn’t a great first night.

Saturday

While I was a bit bleary in the morning, it didn’t stop me from enjoying a lovely cooked breakfast. (Did I say it was the best convention breakfast ever? I might have mentioned that.) Anyway, Megan and I chatted over breakfast with Jon from TsiJon Photography, who was here to take photos. (He took the lovely one of Megan and me at the top of this post.)

After breakfast, Megan and I went to the atrium to do our Home of the Bold homework – as we both needed to remind ourselves of our character sheets. Megan then returned to the room for a nap while I fortified myself with yet more tea and played Tony at Terraforming Mars Dice Game. (Which I prefer to full Terraforming Mars, largely because it’s shorter and easier to grok.)

I also spent some money on the Pelgrane Press stand – I picked up Paula Dempsey’s The Book of the Smoke and The Book of The New Jerusalem. Not because I’m planning to play (or run) Fearful Symmetries or Bookhounds of London, but because I do like a good occult guide – and I think they’ll be useful for Liminal and Other London.

Con swag

Then, lunch. For lunch, we walked to the Co-op (five minutes away) and bought a sandwich and some chocolate. We ate these on some nearby benches in the sun before returning to the convention centre for the highlight of the con: Home of the Bold.

Home of the Bold

Home of the Bold is a 51-player Gloranthan freeform written by David Hall and Kevin Jacklin that lasts for about six hours (with a break in the middle). It’s very densely plotted, with lots of backstory. And while you don’t need any Gloranthan knowledge (I have very rudimentary knowledge, and I know many players had none), it helps – particularly with all the letter-salad names.

Deep in discussion, but I can't remember about what. Another photo by TsiJon.

This was my third time through Home of the Bold. It was my first ever freeform (Convulsion 92), where I played Captain Morak Moran. Then, I played Count Stolwitz (in 1996?), and this time I was intrepid reporter Tatius Bracegirdle. Megan was my older sister, Nerissa.

For me, Home of the Bold was fine but not brilliant. While I enjoyed reporting on the court cases and events, I found it hard to investigate anything. That’s mainly because, as a reporter, I wanted to discover secrets, and other players (understandably) didn’t want to share them. We've developed some mechanical tricks over the years to help investigative characters (reporters, detectives, police), but Home of the Bold didn’t use them.

Megan had a fabulous time. She was a cleaner and was very proud of her “ignore me, I’m just cleaning” ability, which allowed her to eavesdrop on almost any conversation. It was definitely the best game of the con for her – she much preferred it to Backstage Business. 

With Home of the Bold over, we were shattered and headed back to the room for a good night’s sleep.

Sunday

Sunday started with another glorious breakfast, over which we chatted about Home of the Bold with fellow players. Strangely (for me), Megan knew them better than I did, because she interacted with them more than I had.

Then we did some boardgaming: Coral, Terraforming Mars Dice Game, Dixit and Ohanami.

Brest or Bust

Our last game of the con was Brest of Bust, a light-hearted freeform of aerial racing set before the Great War and run by Graham and Suey. Inspiration for the game was Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines and Wacky Races/Stop the Pigeon.

I played Edward Edwards, the co-pilot of Ric Reprehensible (a thinly-disguised Dick Dastardly). We had a lot of fun modifying our plane for the race – we added a tea set (to provide refreshments if the race dragged on), go faster stripes, a boxing glove on a spring for biffing our enemies, a tail-gunner position (with dog basket) for Ric’s dog, Tyke, and a third engine (taken from a car). We weren’t taking it very seriously – but then, we were cartoon characters…

The GMs had a nice mechanic for item cards. Basically, Suey had a stack of blank item cards, and you asked her for whatever you wanted. Within reason, she gave you the card. I think the best one I saw was the oompah bad ordered by the Prussians.

I also had a small bit of plot, which I resolved when I heard some other players discussing a topic I had an interest in.

We didn’t win the race, but it was light and silly and mostly about the ludicrous modifications to our plane (and occasional sabotage of others). 

(Megan also enjoyed the game, although not as much as Home of the Bold. Mind you, she’s not seen Wacky Races or Stop the Pigeon, so the cultural references passed her by.)

Another con over

And then we were done. We said our goodbyes and headed back to Yorkshire.