What: A fun, friendly RPG meetup, for gamers old and new
When: Sunday 11th Nov & Sunday 16th December, 12pm start, 1pm Games start, 5pm Finish.
Where: Fan Boy 3, Central Manchester see www.fanboy3.co.uk for directions.
More information: goplaymanchester.org.uk or contact me at newt@goplaymanchester.org.uk
Well I’m now officially closer to Forty than Thirty. Reaching he heady heights of 36 is weird, after grappling with myself to go back in time to my twenties, I suddenly find myself feeling ageless.
But enough ot such existential meanderings. Onto cold hard facts of why this was the best birthday weekend EVAR!!
Friday – The day of the Birthday itself – Off work chilling out with a very happy giggly Eve. Couple of beers in the evening (remember 3 is the new 5!)
Satuday – Relatively chilled day, combined with fast n furious house tidy in preparation of Dad turning up. Had a relaxed evening with Dad, Rach and Eve.
Sunday – Eve’s christening. A smallish event (30 odd people) made up of close friends and family. Big thanks to everyone who turned up, esp the Mad Man Ginger Matt who got up at 5 in the morning, drove all the way from South Wales, for the 10:30 service and then drove straight back after coffee at ours at about 4 in the afternoon!!! After everyone went home opened big pile of christening presents and put helium balloons in new porch – which is now officially the Balloon Garden!!
This Saturday our little girl starts weening (that’s eating solid food to the unenlightened).
Rach is going to be blogging about the experience
My favourite bit from the FAQ section has to be;
“My husband Newt is the Veggie Daddy, he’s been a vegetarian since he started University and financial strife forced him to make a choice between beer and meat. Beer won. No contest really.”
Had a grand time at Furnace. I can happily report that we exceeded last year for attendees and the number of games run. We had some growning pains, and a venue that badly let us down on a busy Saturday night, but otherwise it went immensely well, with more quality games and double the number of attendees from last year.
Highlights
1. Playing a rather energetic game of Monkey, selling three of my ‘ashcan’ versions of the game and getting lots of possitive feedback.
2. Chatting to Tim Gray of Silverbranch Games about whimscal fantasy and nailing what I don’t like about settings such as Warhammer 40k, which are deliberatly bleak and grim.
3. Loafing around and chatting to people on Saturday. Lots of nonsense and great ideas came out it.
4. Playing in Lawrence Whitaker’s Gloranthan RQ game, as a rather uptight Dara Happan Noble Solider visiting the demon city of Alkoth with his peers. Was very nice to actually play in a Gloranthan game than run it.
5. Seeing so many happy people playing so many great games.
6. Being interviewed by rpg podcast Yog Radio, (now out Yog Radio #26)
Had a fantastic time. It left me with alot to think about and a warm happy feeling.
Looking forward to Furnace 2008 🙂
I saw this and thought of you
So after I picked myself off the floor decided to do the meme that is doing the rounds at the moment
20 years ago (1987)
The thrash metal outsider years well underway. That summer I had moved from Loughbourough, were I had an overactive social life with a good gang of twenty or so metalheads and geeks (strangely enough the two overlapped), to Hexham op North, were the yoof’s idea of being cool was the farmer look (barber jacket, flat cap). Major interests RPGs and METAL! Not that I wasn’t open minded, its just that I had enough to interest me in these two areas. I figured Girls could wait until I was older. Spent a year not fitting in, getting nearly beat up by the roughs (but not because I could handle myself after people had bullied me earlier in my yoof) and being looked down upon by the in crowd. Six months after moving there my GP said I was heading towards a breakdown of some sort.
15 years (1991)
Predicted breakdown had happened, end of fresher’s week during my second year at Leeds University. This major life event saw me even more disconnected from reality, seeing blood flow down walls, regular mini-blackouts, and an emotional balance shot to hell. My chemistry course took a back seat to my social life with lots of RAWK and late night drinking. Had decided to that it was time to bother about Girls, and despite being a damage case managed to get together with my first girlfriend Karen.
10 years (1997)
The psychedelic 90s were in full swing for me during my post-student years. Finding it very hard to remember the details (for some strange reason). Think I was living with Da Boyz From the Groove at no 6 in Woodhouse, and had just finished going out with Petra the summer just gone. Also had just jacked in my first civil service job, working as Admin Assistant at the DLVA. Lots of Hendrix, RCHP, Fishbone, meditation, Taoism, Tai-chi, kung fu, beer and da Herb! . Still a mess head wise, but a happy mess:D [user pic I’ve used for this post was from that time]
5 years ago (oct 2001)
Finally got my head together. Had left the Department of Health the year before and had just finished a Masters in Software Development with Merit that proved that I was no ones fool! Living with the Good Lady of Smethurst, later to be my wife Rachel, and our two cats Holly and Tiswas in the lovely but cramped 1 bedroom terrace in Beeston, Leeds.
1 year ago (oct 2006)
Now working at the University of Manchester, as Web developer for the School of Nursing and Midwifery, while Rach is working as a Midwife over at Halifax. Have just moved to Sunny Oldham and expecting our first child. Getting ready for the first Furnace.
Yesterday
Boring day at work, dragging knuckles as things grind down here. Came home to the bosom of my little family. Cats whinging for meaty treats, Eve being delightful as long as she was entertained, and Rach needing a break and rest from it all.
Today
Decided to be productive and motivated about work and it worked!!
Tomorrow.
More adventures in IT land + Driving lesion.
Picked this up at lunchtime. My its a big chunky book too 350 pages, with the combined contents of the main rulebook, companion, and monsters. Reasonable value for money to at £20.
Producton wise its still the cheap and cheerfull Mongoose POD quality, which meant I snagged the only copy that came into FanBoy 3 who refuse to buy in more than one copy because of the early snfus when they went inhouse, but no warped covers this time out 🙂 Still in glorious grey blah.
I post a more detailed nit pick when I’ve had chance to read the bugger, but they have updated some rules; I noticed the ‘half your skills’ rulling for opposed tests involving one or more characters with a skill over 100% has gone and the much more reasonable rule thats in Elric (I sense the hand of Loz here) in its place.
Bottom line is though, if you hate Mongoose RQ and all that it stands for you won’t find anything new here to make you fall in love with the game BUT if you were put off by the by the buy in cost of three slim rulebooks at a combined cost of £55, this might be the time to give the game a chance.
Everythings coming together nicely, games programme is filliing up with more games of Cthulhu, various indie games (Burning Wheel, Shadows of Yesterday, Conspiracy of Shadows, Cold City), Eternal Champion (Elric and Hawkmoon), HeroQuest (Serenity and Myrhic Russia) and Savage Worlds (SLA/Serenity/Pirates of the Spanish Main) than you can shake a stick at.
We’ve got a limit of 70 places, due to fire regulations, and only about ten places left earlier this week when our treasurer reported numbers. So if you want to come, book your place NOW! I doubt there will be any left after the weekend.
See the Furnace website for more details including online registration.
My mate keefybabe is an excellent muscian. Not only has put out three cracking lps (Widnes Years, Pure Language and Red Eye) but he occasionally fiddles about and puts out some great stuff for free. This is what he put on his LJ this morning;
Not sure what to do on your first day off?
Why not write a 26 minute long ambient track?
No drums, no shocks, just 26 mins of evolving ambient.
Dunno if it’s any good or not, it was just something to do after breakfast.
Cracking stuff, this is getting used for backing music for a Sci-fi Horror game (of a certain game thats being released in Feb) this weekend.