So what's a Phenomenon anyway?

Phenomenon contains a wide range of exciting, creative, imaginative, and fun roleplaying games for your enjoyment. Pheno aims to extend the roleplaying community in Canberra—to provide a place where you can relax, chat, make new friends, play games both familiar and unfamiliar, and otherwise do stuff you wouldn't normally do on a weekend.

What's a roleplaying game (RPG)?

Do you remember playing 'Let's pretend' when you were a younger? Same thing, only with rules. Have you ever watched a movie or TV show, or read a book, where you wanted to be a person in that setting? Or one of the main characters? Did you ever want to show them how it would be done properly? That's roleplaying.

In most RPGs:

• You have an invented persona, your character, who participates in a fictitious world via your interactions with the other players in the game.
• One player makes up the world and arbitrates any challenges the world may throw at your character, or conflicts between your character and other characters. We tend to call this heroic soul a GM (short for game moderator or mistress or master or Morph).
• There is no winner. You play to invent/tell a shared story and to have a good time with your friends. When everyone has a good time, everyone wins.

Although RPGs have no winners and losers, most Pheno games are judged competitively. The GMs (who mostly, have written their own games) are looking for the players that best depict their characters and that entertain them—and the players you're with—the best. They will give trophies or certificates to these players.

But that's only one aspect to playing in games at a convention like Pheno. If you have fun, if you meet new people, if you laugh, you cry, you swear undying enmity on your (fictitious) new arch-enemy, then you're doing it right.

So what now?

Check out the games on offer.

If you want to play some games with us, you can pre-book a places in them. Otherwise, you can just turn up at the door and sign up.

You don't have to have a team!

You can enter as an individual and Pheno's Futuristic Art-Deco Citizen Scheduler will schedule you into team games before the Con. Freeforms are all individual entry, so no problem there.

Because most games are designed for five players, part-filled teams will be really keen to meet/recruit you. This is a fabulous way to meet new friends and try out new games.

If at any point you're not sure what's going on, ask an organiser. They're wise in the ways of prophecy and are always happy to help you out.

Can I write a game for Pheno?

Yes. We'd love you to! Pheno welcomes and encourages new designers. There is even a shiny New Designer award .