Whooo, and that Friday's a holiday too. How convenient. 8)
August - bummer, prime School Holiday time so I'll be holidaying with the family, in (North) Wales. Perhaps another year,.
Shame it's North Wales. We are not far from the South Wales border 
cj x
I'm planning to be at this. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the authors, and, I hope, a whole bunch of fans.
OK, Grand Tribunal 2008 will take place in Cheltenham on August 16th/17th 2008. It's an Atlas Games/Ars Magica con, and i won't bore people as you have probably read about last years.
Our Very Special Guest will be the Line Editor David Chart.
Other special guests to be announced shortly.
Accomodation can be had from about £30 in local hotels, cheaper if several people share rooms, and we try to help as much as we can.
If you wish to confirm your place (which are limited by venue space i'm afraid) you can book now at the very reasonable advance price of £8 for the whole con, by pm'ing me for paypal details.
If you'd like further details, feel free to sign up to the mailing list
games.groups.yahoo.com/group/grandtrib/
(very low traffic until 2 weeks before the con).
All profits (if any) to charity. 
Hope to see you all there!
cj x
Delighted to confirm new Special Guests: Neil Taylor and Sheila Thomas.
Also Atlas Games have kindly offered to support this years con with Prize support! Really getting excited now!
cj x
Triyng to look into going to Cheltenham (It's quite a bit off the beaten path, isn't it?) from Norway, and my friendly travel agents are nice enough to inform me that I have 4 Airoports in London to chose from:
Stanstead, Heatrow, Gatwic and Londn City.
(And possibilities for flying in to Bristol or Birmingham, but that is a little more expensive, it seems).
Which is the most convenient place to fly in? I prefere some sort of direct transportation from the Airport, not a lot of changing of trains.
HÃ¥kon
My problem is that it is on vacation time. That is the equivalent of a ReCo spell D: moon to spend time with my couple. Need to roll well for intrigue and folk ken to see the mood and when to interoduce the issue....
Xavi
I'm not working the weekend in question, so the first hurdle is out of the way, and I'm now looking into if I'll be able to afford going - but I really want to come along this year.
Gulla, I haven't heard the best of the public transportation in the UK, maybe some of the locals can tell that isn't the case, and it's many years since I've been outside London when visiting the UK. BUT... I was wondering that if we are enough and if getting to Cheltenham is off the beaten track, then we might benefit from pooling together for a rental car? I hope that I might convince a fellow Dane or two to come along, but can't be sure, and having a car might be easier (despite the fact that all the Brits have mixed up their roads!) 
HI chaps, Leif and Karl can advise you on car hire they did it last year. Actually Cheltenham is VERY easy to get to from Bristol or Birmingham, you just book a train which will be about £12 sterling, maybe more but not much. So if its not much more expensive, I would suggest getting a flight to Bristol (50 miles south of the venue) or Birmingham (50 miles north) or even Cardiff (50 miles west). All have good reliable hourly or so train links to Cheltenham.
I'm hoping to get the wiki updated today, but the yahpp group is a great place to organize car pooling etc - thats what the Norwegians and German contingent did last year. If you have a choice and have to a London airport Heathrow is the one to go for - Gatwick as second choice, it's a lot further, whereas Stansted is about 3 and a half hours drive away on other side of London.
From Heathrow there is a reliable approx. hourly coach service to Cheltenham - you can get here and back no problem, but it's £27 per person return. If you don't mind two hours on the bus, that's not too bad, but Matt and Erik last year managed to get train tickets for half that by some miracle I just do not understand.
Just in case fo use, and it may work out cheaper especially if there are 3 or 4 of you coming together - meet at airport? - this is the car hire place who have a branch near my house. Erik and Matt can tell you if they are any good - enterprise.co.uk/car_rental/ ... arc=UKGO24
Join the yahoogroup chaps. Thats exactly what this is for, and if you want to try and keep costs down you can ask people for help in that respect? Cheltenham is a bit of an adventure, but others have survived the trip.
cj x
I flew into Heathrow last year, and there's a train that goes from the airport right to Paddington station where the train to Cheltenham Spa leaves. Matt and I bought one-way tickets for £12.5 each two weeks in advance through the National Rail Enquiries web site. This required that I give them my credit card number, and that I had that card with me to claim the tickets. I can't check the actual GT dates because the system doesn't go that far in advance, but looking at random days in March and April I still see tickets at that price.
The car rental was excellent, but if you're just going to Cheltenham for the convention and don't plan on doing any sightseeing, I'd recommend sticking with the train. You can see some of London from Paddington if you have time-- the British Library and the Tower of London are both a quick hop on the Underground, and there's a left luggage office at Paddington so you don't have to lug your bags with you. I thought the real highlight was meeting everyone else and geeking out with them on Ars Magica, though, so the more time in Cheltenham, the better, in my opinion.
I'd love to host a regional Tribunal in Northern California that same weekend, for those who can't make it to England this year, but it would have to be very low-key. Anyone interested? We might be able to conference call to the Grand Tribunal or something.
Perhaps but a ticket to Sacramento (?) would still be a fair chunk of change and I don't know what my work and family situations will be at that time.
Maybe. It's just the cost of a train ticket and a cheep motel 
Depends on if there is any substantial interest. I was thinking about GT, but planefare is a hefty chunk of change.
If we could put together a contingent of delegates, I'd look at us playing in Berkeley, which seems appropriate to the Mythic history of Ars Magica. I think that's the same weekend as GenCon, though, which may sap away a lot of the American gamers.
pfffft, GenCon ShmenCon.
If you set up a RT in mythic Berkley, I'll sell pints of blood to afford the train ticket.
Not my blood mind you, but that's a different story 
All right, stay your blood-letting for a few days, and I'll investigate potential venues.
So far I havent persuaded any of my Ars-chaps, but if I get any one board I'll make sure to attend (possible spending some extra days going for a sightseeing at our saga locations in Shropshire). On the other hand I have a brother in London so just maybe I might go anyway.
Hi Erik that is a really cool idea. It's a shame you can't join us this year but it too far to do every year. If GENCON clashes why not run yours a couple of weeks earlier, or later? There is no need for the dates to be the same, then some of the UK crowd might be able to come as well? Also that might maximise attendance?
Unfortunately my budget will not stretch to a bus to Gloucester let alone California, unusually broke again even by my standards, but I'm sure California sunshine would appeal to many folks!
cj x
This year, I do have a job, thus some money, so I do hope to be there.
I'll see if I can come, but I very much doubt it. I'm already living above my (pitiful) means