After Disneyland Paris and Games Expo it was time to take it easy and just well have a family summer. Which is what according to my photographic record is what we did 🙂
June 2016
Category Archives: Gaming
Games Expo 2016
This was the second time that I’ve been to Games Expo, hiring a stand to trade as D101 Games with my trusty wingman Guy Milner. It was Expo’s 10th Anniversary and they celebrated by breaking out the trade hall of the nearby NEC Hilton Hotel and into the NEC Exhibition centre proper. There were minor teething problems but on the whole it was impeccably run 🙂 I was less than organised, to be honest I won’t have been there if various folk hadn’t reminded me, poked me and generally helped me over a serious feeling of doubt. Despite having no big release, I made enough money to cover costs and make a couple of hundred. Oh and fun I had lots of fun at this show talking to folk who have just discovered what I do as well as existing customers 🙂 Its at events like this that D101 really comes to life. I’m booked in to do Dragonmeet 2016 in London on Saturday Dec 3rd as a result 🙂
So onto the photos…
May 2016 in Photos
Another catch up photo post, this time for May.
Highlights:
Spring finally gets here, garden goes beserk in response 🙂 Nice to have some ‘normal’ weather for a change.
Evie turns nine, we go bowling and lazerquesting with her friends. Parents some how survive the experience of the small girls screaming and squealing. Touching moment when they all broke into song singing five or so songs from Joseph’s Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat which they are doing with school soon.
A day out in Manchester with the family, travelling via the tram (which was a big success) and then pottering about town centre. Surprisingly this is something we’ve never done before.
Getting the proofs for my latest book Project Darklight (squee!!!) 🙂
The much delayed Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Kickstarter finally delivering and it being a thing of complete beauty. Hats off to Mike Mason and Paul Fricker 🙂
April 2016 in photos
Another photo post to sum up what happened earlier in the year (I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S JUNE ALREADY!!!!).
Highlights:
Evie’s Birthday diner at Frank and Bennies + ‘test’ bowling at the end fo the month, which Uncle George came over the t’other side of the hills for.
7 Hills Gaming convention – which kinda snuck up on me and was a ton of fun.
The stupid pointless office move, into smaller digs because Research IT want our big office. Bah! 😛
The variable weather, one moment its Winter the next its Summer! Spring really didn’t happen. Once again its either Climate change or bloody Ragnorok! 🙂
March in Photos
This is getting to be a habit as the months whizz by in 2016. Proper post with thoughts, feelings and broad sweeping generalisations soon my beauties 🙂
Fun and Games Christmas 2015
Best Christmas ever…
Brother George arrives fresh from his Arctic expedition 🙂
Let the gaming commence, Mousetrap! 🙂
The Star Wars team cautiously make their way across the lounge, lookin for the Death Star plans I got as a present, while Henry plays his new Skylanders game.
Talking of the Death Star plans 🙂
Hey that was May!
It’s been a busy month.
First off our Rach is getting used to be being nearly full time now that she’s taken up a position as Research Midwife two days a week. Currently she still has to do two days of clinical practice, and its that which is the tiring stressful bit. We are hoping she goes full time with the Research job if a position comes available. She’s doing well at it and is a lot happier. Plus it seems to have opened up our weekends. Which meant a couple of weekends we could…
Go camping!!! First trip out this year, due to a combination of me being away at 7 Hills and it being feckin’ freezing, and we went to a campsite just five miles south of Chester on a farm These pictures of the meadow next to the site, were the kids all went to play don’t do it justice.
We drove down Friday straight after school, and spent the Saturday in Chester (because we needed to do a quick shop, something we won’t do again). Sunday we went to the Cotebrook Shire Horse Centre which was a nice walk in the countryside and finally Monday we had a nice pack up and drive home. Very hard work, and a bit more stress full due to our disorganisation. Next time everything in boxes and no shopping trips for things we’ve forgotten.
Couple of days at work then it was time to me to go to UK Games Expo at the NEC Hilton Metropole to run a stall for D101 Games. Been wanting to go to this when it started 7 years ago, and various family things kept on getting in the way. But not this year! Went with my mate Guy, who drove me and the stock down. We had a fun time working 5-7 hour days selling on the stall 🙂 Overall it was awesome. We did well on sales, saw lots of our mates (it was nice to be next to Nabil, Steve and the rest of the Traveling Man crew) and get a huge sense of achievement for D101 Games. Full of Awesome and Win. Already planning next year 🙂
Here’s some of the sights from the show….
IM IN FOR TEH BOX OF AWESOME!!
Of this “No Thank You, Evil!” a Game of Make-Believe for Families
Seriously we sat down this Sunday to play a Fate game that I’m working on, and our Henry (5 1/2 years) comes in to say hi to the gang. He looked at all the maps, dice and other cool stuff on the table and asked to join in. He was geninuely creastfallen when I said no (the game was a grown up game of monster hunting in ancient Alexandria not U by any stretch of the imagination). So this comes at the right time for both him and his sister, who although she’s 8 the game is designed so older children can have move involved characters and play along side younger siblings 🙂
Off to 7 Hills
Spring has sprung, and a couple of weeks in its finally energising me.
A small weekend break away for me beckons, at the 7 Hills Gaming Convention in Sheffield. I drive down with Lynn and John from my home group later today, after a couple of catch up meetings with my new Web Support team (what a surprise eh, me a web developer transfered in to that team as part of the IT restructure) which should be fun. Fingers xed there will be no traffic jams as we go over the hills via Snake Pass, that would be less fun. Really looking forward to seeing a bunch of folk I only get to see at cons a couple of times a year. Hang out, waffle on and drink a few beers.
Looking forward to giving my four games an outting. I’m cursing that I ran out of time to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s, but they are all more than functional and half the fun is letting things emerge through play 🙂
This is what I’m running:
Name of the game: Stainless Steel Providers
System: Project Darklight
Game Slot: 1
Number of Players: 6
Game Description:
They call you the Losers 242, since you come straight out of District 242 and to them you are just yet another street gang. A bunch of suicidal cyborg motorcycle gangers out to make mayhem and die in a blaze of glory.
But they don’t know the story. How you and your comrades from the infamous 5th Mechanised Regiment (Imperial Sterling INC) where demobbed to the shit hole of a planet they call New Oldham after the Galactic War. A burnt out, crashed, cesspit of belligerent idiots who claim descent from the clans of Northern England. You only ‘agreed’ since your Corporate Liaison said there would be a great relocation package. They even agreed to move your families to New Oldham. That’s where it all went to hell. The transport carrying your loved ones burned up in atmosphere – the victim of a terrorist attack- on the way to your new home. How you’ve spent the last year howling in grief fighting off constant attacks from racist hooligan locals.
Now a beacon of hope has been lit. A signal from the transport ship has been detected coming from the wilderness beyond the city.
Time to jump on your steel stead and ride off into the dust!
Project Darklight is a rules light cyberpunk game , set in the bright Corporate future of the 23rd Century after a mass exodus from Earth.
Tags: Mad Max, Cyberpunk, Cyborgs, Ufology, Steel, MGF.
[I decided to change the system I was using and throw in a new homebrew system. Might be a bit shakey here, but I’m confident enough to pull it through]
Name of the game: Wootz!
System: Monkey 2nd Edition
Game Slot: 2
Number of Players: 6
Your great trek to India from China to collect the lost cannons of Buddhist lore is nearly over. Standing in your way is the great foundry where they make the famed Wootz metal. Wootz metal is famed for its sharpness and strength is misused by tyrants and warlords all over the east. In the hope of spreading compassion you and your fellow pilgrims feel compelled to end this factory of suffering and defeat the Demons of Pain that blight this place.
You are wary of the old saying that even the wise man must melt and dissolve to attain new form of enlightenment.
Come play Monkey, in its second incarnation which features a much streamlined and simplified version of the game system, a game of epic light hearted Chinese kung-fu flavoured adventures. You play an Immortal out of favour with Heaven. Help them cultivate their Te (or personal power/virtue) and amass awesome chi-powers in the process. No prior knowledge of the system or Chinese Mythology required.
[Early days for Monkey 2nd ed, small changes in how the main mechanic works, and a few tweaks.]
Name of the game: Old Steel Ruins
System: Crypts and Things
Game Slot: 3
Number of Players: 6
Game Description:
In days of yore hot molten metal poured from the wounded Zarth. Mighty Sorcerers melded it into buildings of glittering Steel. They enslaved the land and the people. Until the Gods themselves were moved by the evil wizards hubris and buried them and their city under hot scolding sky fall ash! So the Steel Empire came to end, its treasures buried for millennia, its location a mystery.
UNTIL NOW! Brave scouts have discovered the City of Steel and have shared its location. Join the expedition to explore the Old Steel Ruins and discover THE SECRET OF STEEL!
An adventure for up to six 5th Level characters, using Crypts and Things a distinctly British Old School game, based upon the classics from the late 70s/early 80s, of Swords and Sorcery Adventure.
Tags: OSR, D&D, Swords & Sorcery, Foul smelly Khaos, Hair caked with the Ash of Ages, Lightly Gritted Sinews.
[Rar! Playtested this a couple of weeks ago and it was Maximum Game Fun ! 🙂 [
Name of the game: The City of Ironsmash
System: HeroQuest
Game Slot: 4
Number of Players: 6
Game Description:
The long lived Trolls of the Queendom of Halikiv have deep memories.
They remember the Gbjai Wars of the Dawn Age. How the men of light came out of the east over the mountains. How they conspired with Dwarfs and build a Forge-City on the Queendom’s borders, spawning iron armed and armoured warriors. If the Night Queen herself had not sent her son Arkat Kingtroll to lead the Black Legions against the city, how the Queendom would have been exterminated. Instead it was the Trolls who did the extermination and how the city is named after their deeds there. Happy memories of victory in the City of Ironsmash.
Now the storm scum are back in dark Halkiv and a small band of Black Legionaries travel to the city of Blackrock to ask for reinforcements from the Great Hag of the city. For they fear the forges of Ironsmash have been seized and once again good Troll hunting lands are threatened.
This is a big straightforward war story of Troll Warriors getting their Darkness on to trash Human barbarians. It requires no knowledge of the system or Glorantha. All will be gently introduced in an entertaining way over the course of the adventure. A Mega Gloranthan Fun game, so no basket weaving, sheep herding or anthropological discussions, only big fun adventure !
Tags: Glorantha , Trolls, Steel, Mega Gloranthan Fun!
[An oldy and goody originally run for RuneQuest 3 back in about 1997-98, now updated to hot of the press HeroQuest Glorantha system. ]
Here’s a picture from Crypts & Things to get you in the mood 🙂
My four influencial RPGs
This one’s a photo post.
