After much nonsense and faffing around on my part I am proud to say that the Furnace website is now up and going
If you’ve been before, you find lots more info about the con on the website, a flash flickr gallery embedded in the site and a new online registration system.
If you’ve not, there’s lots of info to show what a fun time we have and persuade you to come.
Visit http://rpgfurnace.com/ for more info
Update from my previous post. I’ll be going ‘public’ with this on Monday once website is up and submission guidelines/ideas is written up, but I’ve now got a license from Greg Stafford to publish a Gloranthan Fanzine called ‘Hearts in Glorantha’. As well as the expected HeroQuest stuff I can publish stuff for other systems including RQ and 2nd Age MRQ stuff!
I go public with this on Monday but already I have four firm offers of contributions as well as the stuff I’ve written already. So that’s an outstanding start even just asking round my contacts. Can’t wait to see what comes through the door when I go public. My only worry at the moment is art (because there’s only a very small pool of established Gloranthan artists), so I’m kinda consoling myself to the idea that issue 1 if it is going to be out for Continuum is going to be ‘art minimal’ or creative use of free art (which to be fair has been done before by a 90s RQ mag called Codex).
So far its going well and I’m well excited!!
This time Its me coming back to the great oversized fantasy setting that is Glorantha.
Plots and plans are being made. Greg has greenlighted it 🙂
Will say more soon (and stop being a tease) when I’ve firmed up details.
Very excited, plan should come to fruition by Continuum.
We’ll our first meetup went well 🙂
Big thanks to Dave who runs Fanboy 3. The gaming environment was top notch and he was friendly and helpful even though the shop was busy.
Thanks to the players who turned up
John, Lynn, Kevin, Reagan, Rob, Mike, Stephen and Mark.
In the end we all huddled round one big table and I ran SimpleQuest (a D100 Fantasy game based off the Mongoose RuneQuest SRD). A very good game, despite me loosing my voice due to a bit of a throat infection. The players were awesome and got on famously despite it being a large group. It was a pleasure to GM for you 😀
Everybody said they would come next month, and John and Lynn have got the details of the Stockport Games Society off Stephen and Mark and said that they be turning up to their Tuesday nights. Result!!
So overall a good time and fun was had by all.
Looking forward to next month 😀
After years of playing one shots at cons, and a series of short unsatisfying campaigns which either fizzled out or exploded, I’ve been running a campaign since Feb.
Its worked marvelously, because I was upfront that I wanted it to have a beginning, a middle and an end rather than a game that just goes on and on. Its important to note this is not a ‘time-limited’ campaign, although I did state I didn’t see it going on further than a year at the begining which we a close to. We’ll play until we’ve finished the story,
The players already know the structure of the campaign and contributed much of the plot and setting ideas, since we have a strong commitment to running a very cooperative game. I deliberately chose a part of the setting (Black Horse County in Glorantha) which has minimal write up so we have lots of scope for creation as a group.
Since players have a stake in the creation of the setting this allows them to invest more in their characters and I’ve made it very clear that although I’ve got a outline for the game (beginning/middle/end) its all about their characters and any thing can happen!
So in short
If any of this looks familiar, its because its completely nicked from Burning Wheel/Burning Empires and various comments Luke Crane has made via podcasts (mainly the excellent Sons of Kyross).
Its making a very memorable game for everybody out of a setting and system that I was beginning to get a bit jaded of.
Its also worth mentioning we have had the occasional break for people being away, mainly me on Paternity leave, and also to have one shots adventures using other systems. Because we have the focus of the campaign structure, getting back to the game is aways easy. It also means that we can always have a break when the campaign is getting a bit heavy, which it does from time to time.
Also the big benefit for me of us making the setting up cooperatively as we go along, is unlike other Gloranthan campaigns I’ve run, I hardly have to do any prep between sessions!!
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
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 🙂
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.
One for all you Japan RPG freaks out there. A supplement to the mindboggling excellent Burning Wheel roleplaying game, a game of gritty and intense struggle that revolves around the characters where every decision is leads to definate consquences, ‘The Bloosoms are falling’ is set in the Heian period, specifically the Genpei war which saw the rise of the first Shogun. Apparently it mixes Japanese mythology and religon with the historical setting, and even has rules for using poetry to your advantage in the game!
The game is being printed for GenCon US, but the special pre-order gives you a pdf available at the end of the preorder period (July 17th) as well as the 200+ rulebook when it comes out. Here’s the link http://www.burningwheel.com/sss07preorder.html
BW is an excellent game. I picked up on it when I was thinking of quiting the hobby, and it really re-energised my and got me going again. This should be an ideal setting for it.
My Monkeython continues favorite quote this episode (4 of 52) is
Tripitaka – You should live without fear, there’s a good a chance of good things as bad things
Sandy – Its a cheerful philosophy, I’ve heard it before from people. They’re all dead now.