Home again, home again...

Didn't get to the Dead Dog in the end - there was a huge crowd waiting outside when I got to the hotel where it was being held and I got the impression it was going to be very crowded if I ever got inside. Ended up going into town for a meal with friends. At which point, wanting to take a couple of pictures of the architecture of Helsinki Station, I discovered that my little Fujitsu bridge camera appears to be dead. I could have used my iPhone but for some reason it never occurred to me, so I've ended up with no photos of Helsinki. I hope it's just bad batteries, charging them now and crossing my fingers, but I've a feeling it's more serious.

My flight home turned out to be an hour earlier than I thought so there wasn't really time to do any sightseeing today - plus the most direct route to the airport was the station near the convention centre so I didn't need to go back to Helsinki station anyway. For Dublin in 2019 I really must add a couple of days one side or another of the con to do some proper touristy things.

Got home about five to the usual pile of mail - unfortunately the battery for the Eos 400D I got hasn't arrived, so I can't test it yet. But everything else is OK so far, I had a pretty good time, and given the total cost of the con (and food at the convention centre) the dead camera (if it is) is about two extra meals worth of annoyance rather than a huge disaster.

later - forgot to mention something announced at the closing ceremony: the predicted membership was around 3000, in line with previous worldcons in non-English speaking countries. Instead they got a hell of a lot more - I think they said 5800 plus, the second biggest membership ever. The reason for the initial confusion with room sizes was that all of the arrangements were made with the lower figure in mind, most of the excess signed up in the last couple of weeks before the con.

I have no idea what caused this, but they did handle it reasonably well once the initial panic was over.

Another RPG bundle offer - Esoterrorists

Esoterrorists is a game I've looked at and found quite interesting, from some excellent designers, but have never run:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Esoterror2017

"Revived from November 2015, this collection features The Esoterrorists by Robin D. Laws (Feng Shui, HeroQuest, Hillfolk) from Pelgrane Press. As an investigator for the benevolent secret conspiracy Ordo Veritatis, you defend modern-day reality against a loose network of occult terrorists, the Esoterrorists, who try to weaken the protective Membrane and summon Unremitting Horrors from the Outer Dark. The Esoterrorists was the first RPG to use Robin's GUMSHOE System (seen in Trail of Cthulhu, Night's Black Agents, and many other RPGs of detection and mystery).
We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders and music players.
Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to the charity chosen by Pelgrane Press co-owner Simon Rogers, Cancer Research UK.
The total retail value of the titles in this offer at launch is US$106. Customers who pay just US$8.95 get all four titles in our Player's Collection (retail value $44) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:

• The Esoterrorists 2nd Edition (retail price $15): The original GUMSHOE System investigative game of sinister occult conspiracies. We also include The Esoterrorists 1st Edition (retail $9), because Pelgrane gave it to us so why not?
• The Esoterror Factbook (retail $15): An indispensable reference for assets, protocols, psychogeography, Membrane permeability, and Techno-Macho Utterances.
• Dissonance - Music for Esoterrorists (retail $5): Four atmospheric tracks by composer James Semple encompassing suspense, action, and horror for The Esoterrorists or any modern mystery game. Includes the music that introduces the ENnie-winning podcast Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff.

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $17.95 to start, also get our entire Gamemaster's Collection with seven more titles worth an additional $62:

• The Esoterror Summoning Guide (retail $10): The Ordo Veritatis summarizes what it knows of the enemy's world-threatening methods.
• Book of Unremitting Horror (GUMSHOE version, retail $15): A boundary-crossing collection of truly disturbing modern monsters.
• Albion's Ransom: Little Girl Lost (retail $9) and Worm of Sixty Winters (retail $9): A complete two-part campaign of battle against a climate catastrophe in northern England.
• The Love of Money (retail $10): A full-length campaign investigating Esoterrorist funding sources, and what they're doing with all that rhodium.
• Profane Miracles (retail $5): Leonard (Fate Core) Balsera's fast-paced investigation of a millionaire supposedly raised from the dead.
• Six Packed (retail $4): A gruesome revenge killing in a London slaughterhouse leads to a terrible threat from the Outer Dark.

There's going to be at least one item added after launch: When a title is added after launch, ALL customers who previously purchased the bundle automatically receive the newly added title, REGARDLESS of whether or not they paid more than average. This is their reward for buying early."

This is a fun system and I think it's pretty good value - but as usual (especially when I recommend things) I have to point out that I get this stuff free if I want it, your opinion may differ.