Category: Conventions

This year’s Furnace was a magical experience for me … exit reality and enter its warm rosy glow for lashings of AWESOME and WIN!

Arrived on time for once due in part of missing the Manchester rush hour. Then on to eattings and a well balanced evening of booze and chat. Good start to the con

Saturday

Slot 1: Fate Accelerated : Cowboys and Dinosaurs.
A full table of six players who very quickly got into the excitement of being Cowboys and Cowgirls of various flavours and the mystery of the Town of Nowhere. Lots of fun moments, and this scenario will go into the book when I publish it early next year As well as a fun game I had a big insight about Fate, which I’m still coming to grips with, and how the fate point economy really is the ebb and flow of the game and replaces Hit Points and other forms of bean counting in older games as a measure of player success.
Esteemed players: Brian….opps sorry Ryan, Sue, Andrew, Andy, Remi and Paul.

Slot 2: Project Darklight: Neon Knights.
Another full house +1 (we had an extra player in Malcolm who very quickly created a character and got stuck in) and what could have been a very dull “you are a Street Gang defend your Territory” game, was spiced up by the players who quickly groking Wordplay and running it with it. Two waves of attackers then taking it to the villian in his cyber fortress at the end of adventure with style and flair. Playing PD reminded me why WordPlay is one of my favourite games ever
Thanks to the players: Malcom, Peter, Harriet, Martin, Barry, Tony and Dom.

Slot 3: Tenra Bansho Zero: Lotus Blosum’s Bridal Path.
Ok this one could have gone really wrong. This was the “see that game you’ve never played before, but really want to? Spend a month or so learning it and then just run it!” game. I was working from a pre-written adventure, quite a straightforward Travel capper, with pre-gens and the basic system is reasonably straightforward ( a dice pool system ), but what I hadn’t groked during my quick run through 300+ world background and a 400+ rules book that the setting is basically Ninjas, Samurai and Sorcerers but each character type is a monster with Awesome Aweful Powers which they are fighting the use of to stay human. Take Keary’s character, on the surface it just another Ninja….but come combat the “worm” that has been implanted in his chracter turns him into Hulk like monster with a laser cannon on his shoulder. So character powers where the bit I hadn’t read and needed a bit of quick referencing/working out during the game. I had a very humble GM moment when I realised how well everyone round the table had pulled together to help me run the game. The best bit was when players asked me to run the game again
Many thanks to Barry, Tony, Martin, Neil, Tim and Keary.

Sunday

Slot 4: Mediyfal: Bad King John pt 1. Murder at Theford Priory.
Yet another satifyingly full table of players, playing ex-soliders, christian mystics, pagan beserkers, pole axe wielding witches and the most pious woman in England. A game of two halves with the first being a lot of really good roleplaying as the players found their feet in medieval Thetford and then the second shorter half when they tracked down the murderer and a short but viscous dungeon crawl ensued. I was especially happy that the players groked the 4 page d100 varient I was using, which allowed me to have all the character info on two sides of A4 and that they took to the weird fantasy 13th C England like ducks to water
My thanks go to Simon, Helen, Andrew, Richard, Keith and Simon H.

Maximum thanks to Elaine, Graham and Dom for organising and running, and to the rest of the attendees for making it such a lovely weekend

7 Hills was a laid back, but strangely perky con and everything I wanted out of my first con of the year, banishing the last of the winter blues. Paul and Graham had efficiently organised the con, which ran like clockwork and purred like a satisfied pussy cat 🙂

Friday Night
I arrived straight from work, courtesy of Guy Milner. Despite being stuck behind red lorry and driving through thick fog over the tops we would not be stopped. Quick check-in then food, booze n chat at the social. Perhaps bit too much booze, but ooooooooh the Bombardier was on form [For real ale lovers despite being a hotel the Garrison has a decent selection now]. Note to self: “can no longer drink like its my 20s”. Awesome to see friends old and new, but don’t ask me to remember what we talked about 😉

Saturday
After a typical but satisfactory Garrison full English with concessions to veggies breakfast it was time to game. I was expecting the lack of numbers compared to Furnace to really show, but everyone was up for it so their natural exuberance spilled out all over the place during the very quick opening speech by Dr Mitch.

Then on to game.

Sat Morning: Operation Mudbrick (The Company)
A game of two Johns (Ruddy & Ossoway) who along with the rest of Assault Group Maximum #5 hub nobbed with archaeologists from the British Museum, dug out ancient secrets in the Mesopotamian city of UR, and when confronted with the ‘strangeness’ at the heart of the adventure decided a tactical withdrawal was in order. Classic moment alone in the desert “Where is everyone?”. Great stuff. There was always a chance with this scenario it would turn into a bad Cthlulhu adventure, but the players helped me keep it on track for being a good little Ufology mystery, with the Company’s trademark Military action underpinning it. Which is exactly what I wanted. I’ll stop there since its a contender for a re-run at Furnace. Big thanks to the two Johns.

Sat afternoon: Out of Step (River of Heaven).
This was a “big ideas” type of sci-fi scenario and thanks to the players for running with it and making it work. The adventure is very much an ensemble piece, but I ran out of time to write up characters that I had originally intended to use who were tightly bonded to the adventure. So I used a group of pre-gens from one of John Ossoway’s scenarios, who had a very tight group relationship but no ties to the place were the adventure is set. Which meant part of the player’s entertainment was watching my face as I reacted unconsciously to them taking the adventure in different directions to what I had intended. John was also tickled by who the scenario went, which seeing as he created River of Heaven is a good thing for me.

Saturday evening: Zarth Wars (Crypts and Things).
This was me pulling inspiration from John Carter from Mars, Flash Gordon and even Prometheus (watch it with the attitude that the characters are a typical D&D group and you’ll get where I’m coming from). There’s always a chance with OSR stuff that players won’t take to the setting assumptions or nature of the rules, but Alex, Andrew and Richard took it and ran it out of the ball park. A game that was never in danger of dragging and had some excellent fun Roleplaying. It will definitely get a write up and be published in the near future 🙂

Post gaming there was more chat and booze, and perhaps a bit too late to bed.

Because…..

Sunday
…I was spent, so I had a nice restful morning pawing though my pressies from Patriot Games (who were nice enough to run a stall, even though the number of customers was so small), before gleefully floating back over the hills with John O back to the ample bosom of my family unit.

Definitely up for it again next year. Well done organisers and attendees for such an Awesome con so full of Win!

Conpulsion 2013 was fantastic, and while I was only able to stay one day fully the mad awesome fun I had Friday-Sat means that this going to be my annual “break out of Winter” con. Hats off to Phil Harris and Greggor Hutton for refining last years format and taking it forward. Cast solid gold recommend from me 🙂

One of the highlights of Conpulsion was Friday night when I got to sit down with almost the full membership of the Collective Endeavour. I’ve spent the last year or so in a mental locked box of confusion about where D101 is going, so it was glad to get more than a few things straightened out from these chaps who have a fair weight of publishing experience behind them.

Unfortunately Conpulsion was cut short by issues at home and I’m gutted my planned visit to UK Games Expo (which is on like now) fell victim to this as well. With the house extension done I was hoping for things to return to ‘normal’. I’m now once again rolling with the changes and fitting D101 alongside that, which is a more realistic way of looking at things.

I’m now in a period that I’m firming up D101. First order of the day is working solid on the games that have to go out. OpenQuest 2 is the absolute priority, with River of Heaven coming next. Getting better at business is also a big aim. Getting a web store up and running for direct sales (I’ve still got a pile of stock from last years Continuum!) and making print editions available at Drivethrough for a start.

This and getting my home group back up and going for playtesting and fun are my priorities until I hit the last quarter of the year where I get to be out and about again. Furnace in Sheffield Oct 19-20 is up first (if you haven’t signed up yet, get in now last ten or so places last I looked) , this is more about me kicking back running games. Its followed by Dragonmeet in London on 7th December, where I’ll be in full sales mode with the D101 stall 🙂

A bit of a quick review here, mainly as a bit of positive propaganda on my part to publicise this VERY VERY fine convention to folk outside the region.

The Quick and the short. Conpulsion is a two day gaming convention held at Teviot Union, Edinburgh University , traditionally over the Easter Weekend (although this years is week after 12-14th). 2012’s incarnation covered RPGs, LARPS, Boardgames and games for kids. It was attended by young perky student types and old crusty Grognards like myself. A gaming con for everyone!  Despite being under new management, it was very well organised and atmosphere was very friendly.

The Long and the drawn out…..(with Pictures)…..read on.

Continue reading Conpulsion 2012 con-report