Lists, Lists and more Lists - Part 2

An equipment table with unique items highlighted

Following on from the previous post, I quite often skim equipment lists very quickly. The picture here shows why. It shows a table of firearms for Fading Suns (but this isn't about that game, this is just an exemplar I had to hand, plenty of others do this). Within the table, I have highlighted the items where the game mechanic related statistics vary. 

Across ninety-one data points (13x7) there are six numbers which are ever so slightly different. four of those relate ammo capacity and only one of those is a really significant change.

Yes, there are differences in the provenance (faction) of the weapons, and their names, and some slight variations in costs, but they really don't make much difference. There's a lot of effort here for very little benefit. I do wonder it it would have been better done with a base weapon and some tags for extra features that adjust cost, and some modifiers for price and quality based on faction.

I do know that there can be some pleasure in looking at weapons when the statistics make meaningful differences, but here they don't really. When they're all so close mechanically there's very little point in have a table to differentiate, especially if there's no flavour text that may call out the difference.

Then again, I'm not really a gun bunny any more, my days of getting excited over getting hold of a M41A Pulse Rifle in game have long gone. Except in the Alien RPG...

Hat tip to Dr Mitch for triggering these thoughts in his response to the original post on Facebook.

10 November 2024

Lists, Lists and more Lists

Lists, lists and more lists

I've just finished reading the second of the Fading Suns 4 core rule books, the Character Book. It's the largest volume and it was a bit of a slog. Although the book is well written, albeit occasionally a little long-winded, it nearly killed my interest once it hit the lists.

The game uses traits as a broad descriptor and there are pages and pages of descriptions. I nearly game up as it bored me. It's the kind of thing that you won't see in play and I'm sure that players will have loads of fun working through and making choices about their character, but reading the book from a GM perspective it just disengaged me. I had the same issue with Old Gods of Appalachia (and I know I will with Numenéra once I dig into that). I've lost the passion I once had for reading spell lists, monster descriptions and all the various forms of list that certain flavours of roleplaying game.

It's strange, as I used to pour over these in detail, but now they bore me and I end up wishing for a hypertext linked character generation tool where you can just click through. At least the Cypher games abstract this all away for the GM when creating characters. I need to read the next book to see how Fading Suns deals with this.

I know that it all falls away when it's on the character sheet but it just doesn't excite me anymore. Is it a sign of age or perhaps a change of taste? How do you feel about this kind of approach?

8 November 2024

 

Books in October 2024

 

The October cover collage

October brought eight books and 2,147 pages. One non-fiction, one roleplaying and the rest fiction. Apparently I'm down 27% on books and 30% on pages on September! I'm on 85 books in total for the year so far.

The non-fiction was 'Pathogenesis', by Jonathan Reynolds. A fascinating listen on Audible, it covers the impact of infections disease on human society, a very different lens to the usual 'great men and empires' take. 

The roleplaying game was 'Root' by Magpie Games. A superbly written and beautifully illustrated Powered by the Apocalypse game of the boardgame of the same name. Characters take the role of a band of vagabonds in a war-torn wood. Putting the anthropogenic animals to one side, it's probably the closest take to a decent Robin Hood roleplaying game that I've seen. 

I read to Aliette de Bodard novellas, 'In the Shadow of the Ship' and 'Navigational Entanglements' and enjoyed them hugely. Her books remain an automatic purchase and go to the top of the reading pile! James SA Corey's 'Livesuit' is set in their new SF universe, but there wasn't an initial obvious link to the first book. I'm sure that will develop as the series progresses. An enjoyable novella.

'The Wife Swap' by Jack Heath was an impulse by on a Kindle offer, and it was a diverting murder mystery. Different to my usual fair and consumed quite quickly.

'Moscow X' by David McCloskey was pretty brutal; once again, this wasn't James Bond style spy fiction but espionage seen through the lens of realism. I look forward to the next book. This was just pipped to the post as my favourite read of the month by 'The Curse of Pietro Houdini' by Derek B Miller. Set in Monte Cassino around the time that the Allies assault the Abbey in World War Two, it tells the story of a young refugee from Rome who falls in with Pietro Houdini, a man sent by the Vatican to help protect the art at the Abbey. It felt very different and I enjoyed it immensely.

1 October 2024

First Impressions - GURPS Traveller Starships

This review was originally posted on RPG.net by myself on 30 September 2000. I'm adding a copy here to preserve it for posterity.

GURPS Traveller Starports (just 'Starports' hereafter) is the second book in the mercantile and starships operations set of sourcebooks published by Steve Jackson Games, Inc. This second volume follows the impressive 'Far Trader', released twelve months before, and precedes the as yet unreleased 'Starships'.

The subtitle of the book, 'Gateways to Adventure' summarizes the key role that starports play in a Traveller campaign, a role discussed in depth within the book. The back page blurb heading, 'Anchors of the Imperium' describes the key role that interstellar trade, starports and the Imperial Starport Authority (SPA) play in holding the fabric of society together.

Description.

Starports is the usual 8" x 11" size of a GURPS supplement, and 128 pages long. It is the first of the supplements for GURPS Traveller to benefit from the increased print quality recently adopted by Steve Jackson Games, Inc. The cover is glossy, and seems to resist damage better than previous books.

However, what is most immediately striking about the cover is the near photo-quality image of a starport produced by Jesse DeGraff (see http://www.vision-forge-graphics.com/ for more of Jesse's work)

His work has previously only graced the insides of the GT supplements and GURPS Space 3rd Edition, and has lost the benefit of the color with which it is prepared. The picture itself shows a merchant vessel being loaded with cargo, and has many interesting touches including a number of real people's photographs integrated into the cover as starport and ships personnel. Other aspects, such as the translation from the Vilani text font on the cargo container are equally interesting, with hints towards Traveller folklore.

After looking at the cover it's easy to feel jaded by other images, but the black and white illustrations inside the book (by Glenn Grant and Jesse DeGraff) help set the scene and feel of starports very well.

The Contents:

Starports is divided into 6 chapters, with two appendices. There are frequent sidebars with flavor text, background information and details of organizations such as Brubeks (for which a deckplan is included!).

The first chapter, 'Outposts of the Imperium', describes the facts about starports: that they are often the only permanent Imperial representation in a member system, and that they are key to trade in Imperial space. This is discussed in respect to Imperial policy (bear in mind that that the Imperium grew out of a response to trade issues in the Sylean Federation) and there are a few notes on how this policy interfaces with the local system. This is expanded on with the difference between Imperial and local Starports and the impact of competition between then being mentioned. By 'local' Starports is referring to ports run by organizations in the planetary system other than the SPA. Such systems may be beyond the Imperial border.

The history of the SPA and its growth out of the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service is given, before the text moves on to describe the likely facilities and key points of Imperial Starports of each class from I (Traveller type E) to V (Traveller type A). The ports of the various Imperial services (ranging from naval and scout bases through to Way Stations and Depots) are also detailed. Finally, the chapter concludes with a brief description of research stations and privately owned starports.

Entries in the sidebars discuss such areas as the differences between Imperial Starports and those of other races, economics of ports, and the standard operational plan for capturing a starport. This is interesting, but seems to neglect operations against the Highport. However, as an orbital facility with little maneuverability it may be assumed that it will either surrender or be destroyed. Focus within the book as a whole does tend to be more on the downport than the highport, perhaps understandably. Sea and air ports in 21st Century Terra can be used for models of the downport whereas there are no true analogies to highports. 'Inside the Starport Authority', the second chapter, is unsurprising in its contents which are a description of the structure of the SPA and how this translates to the operational structure at each port. This is where the book really beings to shine, with plenty of descriptive text about each department which a referee can use to make a starport come alive for their players. The Adminstration Department ranges from the executive (the Port Director, a very powerful individual), the line office (planetary liaison), to Concessions, Personnel and Public Relations. The Traffic Department handles all the aspects of managing starships, cargos, passengers, security and customs. Other departments include medical, emergency services and physical plant. The few paragraphs given on each office describe their activities so a referee can develop a port beating with the trade lifeblood of the Imperium. The organization described does not mirror the narrow, small teams of 'Babylon 5' or 'Deep Space Nine'. Rather, it mirrors the complexities of real air and sea ports today.

Chapter 3, 'Planetary Relations' describes the way that the SPA and each Port's Director deal with the governments and population of systems in which they are based. This ranges from Imperial systems through to starports on those worlds actively opposed to Imperial contact and in a state of war. The Extra-territorality (XT) of the starport, and the infamous XT line are discussed. The people and organizations that a starport may have to deal with are also mentioned, including groups such as business and unions, environmental lobbies and special interest groups. One of the areas favoured by player characters, 'Startown' is described. This is the down and seedy area just outside the port, often a grey area between Imperial and planetary authority. Extensive notes are given on law enforcement, doing business and the ever present opportunities to get into, and out of trouble with both the law and the locals.

Sidebars give nuggets of information about such widely different people as 'floaters' (people who reside at ports and have no visible means of support - a little like those in the 'Downbelow' of Babylon 5) to Embassies and Trade Stations. Chapter 4 is the first entirely GURPS specific section of the book presenting a number of character templates relating to starport operations. These differ slightly from those presented in the GURPS Traveller Sourcebook in they are intended for characters actively working in the SPA (rather than retired or mustered out characters). The templates range from the Port Director, to Imperial Consul, to dockworker, security officer or crime boss. There are two pages describing how specific advantages and disadvantages need to be approached in a Starports campaign, and notes on the new skill for handling hazardous materials.

If you are interested in developing active campaigns in other versions of Traveller you will have to use the existing character types with a little modification, or seek out a copy of the paper JTAS 19 with John M Fords' earlier work ('Skyport Authority') on the SPA and characters for Classic Traveller.

The next chapter, 'Starport Design' presents an expansion of the modular design system used for starships to allow the construction of starports. However, before the design sequence starts there is a section in common with Far Trader, detailing the generation of the 'world trade number'. This provides data on the likely trade and passenger volumes to allow the design of an appropriate sized port. There are notes on how to use the increased level of detail of Far Trader in this design sequence. The text then takes the reader through the design sequence step by step using the Mertactor system in the Spinward Marches as an example.

The design sequence proceeds by calculating the volumes that need to be handled, and then the likely income from these operations. Using these figures, the design sequence proper is approached working in much the same way as that in the GURPS Traveller Sourcebook. However, the system is more flexible than that for starships, as scope is left for the designer to flavor a port's facilities. Using the GTL10 and GTL12 standards of the modular system is the only area that disappointed me in the sequence - it would have been nice to have the option to design spun habitat stations and ports, if only as older, local, stations. (In writing this I haven't tried the design sequence seriously as I tend to handwave starport designs as my players don't usually want to do things like attack them; in addition, I don't like GURPS meld of metric and American units).

Another area that's annoying is the decision that all starships dock in bays like Star Wars, and that runways aren't used at Imperial Downports. Both of these restrictions differ from my vision of the Traveller universe.

This chapter has a number of interesting side bars describing types of port varying from the pirate havens of 'Ports Royal' to the 'Grand Central' communication hubs. There are notes on exchange rates, construction times for starports, typical sizes of naval and scout bases and the variations in local starports with technology. There are further notes on the XT line and on starport facilities such as casinos and chapels.

One of the most interesting discussions is on how traffic control of space vehicles varies by Port Class. This is very useful for any campaign where players control a starship, and have to interface with the starport control. Further flavor is given on the different stages in the lifecycle of a starport. In many ways, these sidebars are more immediately useful to a game than the design sequence itself.

The final chapter is entitled 'Campaigns' and provides sets of ideas on how to run a campaign based at a starport. It admits that in most campaigns the port would only serve as a backdrop for adventure, but, as well as some ideas on how to use a port as a backdrop, the chapter also looks at ways in which to style a campaign in the manner of series such as 'Babylon 5' or 'Deep Space Nine'. Events suggested vary from interesting visitors to local issues to disasters.

The other campaign types suggested include those based at a highport and those where the player characters are the directorate (the Port Director and rest of the command crew). The more intriguing campaigns include those where players are the SPA Inspectorate (effectively an investigation team with wide ranging powers) and those involving corporate espionage. One thing that would have been nice to see would have been a sidebar suggesting fiction, films & TV Series that would be good sources of ideas, as there are plenty out there for a referee to use. The first appendix details equipment for use in and around starports; these include rescue vessels, cutters and the Blakeway First Response Vessel first seen a couple of months ago in SJ Games electronic version of JTAS. Cargo handling equipment is included, along with the new habitat modules for large ships and starports. There are four sets of deckplans, drawn up clearly and detailing some of the ships in the section.

Expanded standard ship design modules including bunk rooms, traffic control, battledress morgue and bars are also detailed.

The final section, Appendix B - Port Samples, includes 18 pages of deckplans and maps for starports and facilities within them. These are cross referenced with keys, given separately from the image as they may have information that the referee wants to retain as secret from the players. Again, the plans are clear and well drawn, and should prove useful in supporting a campaign.

The last two pages of the book are a detailed index.

Conclusion.

Starports is a worthwhile buy for both GURPS Traveller and the other Traveller rules editions. The book is not as immediately useful for a campaign type as, say, Far Trader, but it is an excellent resource. The strengths of the book are in the background information and small details which can be used to make your Traveller universe come to life. It is well presented, and comprehensive.

GURPS Traveller players will find the whole book a good addition to their collection, as the design sequences and character templates are immediately usable in addition to the background material.

Users of other Traveller editions should be able to use the background information and deckplans as valuable support material for their campaigns, with the possible exception of non-Regency based Traveller: The New Era games.

Users of GURPS Space may find this book of use for core developed star systems especially. Other games systems may find it useful to mine for ideas.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

First Impressions - Creatures and Cultist (Eos Press)

I originally posted this review on 27 October 2024 (so twenty years ago today!) on RPG.net and I've decided to put a copy here on my blog so it doesn't disappear for posterity.

Creatures & Cultists was originally released in 1992 to 1993 in both the fourth issue of Pagan Publishing's Call of Cthulhu magazine The Unspeakable Oathand as a stand-alone game sold at GenCon & Origins and by mail order. It is written by Jeff Barber and John Tynes, and is best described as Lovecraftian Cthulhu Mythos silliness in a card game.

I'd not really been aware of it until I looked at Eos Press' website to find out about the forthcoming release of Pagan Publishing's Delta Green in a d20compatible version. I saw Creatures & Cultists there with some cool art, so decided to pick it up at GenCon UK this last weekend. Interestingly, the old zip-lock bag version was on a second hand trader's stand at £75 GBP, somewhat higher than this version's £11.99 GBP.

Components The game is supplied in a 7"x5"x1" box, with an amusing cover by John Kovalic showing Cthulhu, a cultist and a Shoggoth playing the game. The box is sturdy and the lid a little difficult to remove as it is tight. The cover picture has slight wear marks on it - this was common on all the stock at GenCon UK and may be a shipping issue.

Inside the box are: - 128 colour cards (approximately the same size as a Magiccard so you can use standard deck protectors if you want to). - 3D6 - a sheet of rules - a number of cult sheets (additional copies of which which can be photocopied or downloaded from the Eos Press website ).

All the component are good quality - the cards include 4 reference cards for play and 6 blanks to add your own madness. The cards are all illustrated by John Kovalic and are very amusing, especially if you've played or read Call of Cthulhu.

Gameplay

The game can play with 2 or more players but is recommended for three to five people. Less than this and it looses the fun of interaction. More than this and it could go on for aeons!

A group of four of us tried the game late one evening, none of whom had played the game before.

The game starts with everyone picking a cult name (e.g. the 'Cult of Cthulhu', or the 'Order of Wheeltappers and Re-animators Social Club') and a slogan (e.g. "Ia! Cthulhu Phtagn!" or "Whacking wheels and dead bodies for over 2000 years"). You also pick a symbol, which really needs to be easy to draw (more later). This is written on your cult sheet. Once this important stage is done, you roll three statistics – Conjuring, Sorcery and Thuggery – on 2D6+3 and record them on your cult sheet.

Everyone is now ready to play - the cult sheets are placed in front of you.

The sheets have sections for the information just mentioned, a score track for 'Fuggly points' and 24 cultists laid out in three rows of eight. These cultists are either 'Thugs' or 'Conjurers' with strengths in magic or being violent. The rows are important because you can only attack a cultist on the front-most row, and as they are more whittled away more powerful cultists become available when a complete new row is exposed by the deaths of all the cultists on the outermost rows. Each cultist is worth a number of 'Fuggly points' if they are killed.

The aim of the game is to either kill off all the opposition's cultists (very hard) or get to get enough fuggly points to successfully summon your own Great Old One to bring on the End Times and kill everyone else off.

The game is played in rounds, during which each player has a turn. Turn order changes each round and is determined by the roll of a D6. The lowest rolling player is the 'favoured by the stars' and goes last in the round. Being favoured means that your skills are effectively 2 points higher, and that you can attempt to summon your Great Old One if you have enough Fuggly points.

Once the favoured cult is chosen, all players draw cards to a total of 6 in their hand. There are six types of card (seven if you accidently mix the blanks in like we did!):

1. Mondo cards. These must be played at the start of your turn if you have any, and the card is immediately replaced (very like the 'Secret' and 'Top Secret Cards' in Nuclear War by Flying Buffalo). Most of these have good effects on your cult and have weird titles like 'Girl Scout Raid', 'Herbert West' and 'Special Delivery'. They can sometimes have a bad effect on you.

2. Event cards. These can be played at any time in your turn on other cults and usually do nasty things to them.

3. Thuggery cards. These are used to make Thuggery attacks and include the mundane ('a Scimitar' or the 'Tommy Gun') to the ridiculous ('Blam Keg' or 'Big Honkin' Truck').

4. Conjuring cards. These are used to summon creatures to make an attack. Most of the famous Cthulhu mythos creatures are here, ranging from Cthugha to Deep Ones.

5. Sorcery cards. These are spell cards which can attack or defend, and can be played at any time in your turn.

6. Defense cards. These are specific defenses against 'Thuggery' and 'Conjuring' attacks. Examples include 'It's a Bluff' (where an innocent party gets killed instead of your cultist), 'Dodge' (where you, err, dodge the attack) and the 'Elder sign' (which wards against the mythos creatures).

With the cards in their hand, each player takes their turn. They play their Mondo cards, and then can play any event or sorcery cards. Sorcery cards require a successful roll on 3D6 under your Sorcery number to make sure the effect happens.

Each cult can make two attacks per turn – one conjuring, one thuggery – and either type can be done by either kind of cultist. However, thugs are better at thuggery, and and conjurers are better at conjuring. In both cases, the attacking player nominates a cultist on their frontmost row to attack a cultist on the enemy's frontmost row by either method. 3D6 are then rolled, with the result needing to be under their 'Thuggery' or 'Conjuring' skills to be successful.

Victims of a 'Thuggery' attack make a defense roll under half their 'thuggery' or are killed. Victims of a 'Conjuring' attack must roll 3D6 under the monster's rating to survive. In both cases, a successful defense allows a counter-attack immediately.

If a cultist is killed, the cult attacking writes its symbol on the cultist on the victim's cult sheet entry to show they killed them (Bwa-ha-ha!). They also get the Fuggly points from the victim.

Play continues around the table until the 'favoured of the stars' has their go. The main difference here is that if the 'Favoured' has enough Fuggly points they can attempt to summon their Great Old One to end the game. If this doesn't happen, the round ends and the whole process is repeated.

Game design

The description of the gameplay above shows how the game works. The section below details the key mechanics which add to the fun.

Fuggly points: Fuggle points act as a limit to when you can summon your GOO, and also can be used as a way to boost your target number to roll under. If you have spare Fuggly points you can increase your target number by +1 for every Fuggly points you sacrifice.

Spooges and Boofs: These are a critical and a fumble mechanic. If you roll 3,4 or 5 you 'Spooge'. This means something good happens (e.g. Spells can be more powerful, or if you are attacking, the attack can automatically succeed). If you roll 16,17 or 18 you'boof'. This is bad. If conjuring, you can be attacked by the creature you summoned. In the absolute worst case you can put yourself out of the game.

In the game we played this happened twice. In the first instance a player had summoned their Great Old One successfully, then another player played a special event card ('Dr Armitage suspects') that converted the success to a boof. The Great Old One turned up and duly ate the cult that had summoned it. But, showing what goes around comes around, the player who had used the event card tried to summon their GOO a couple of turns later and boofed naturally. So the same thing happened, resulting in the player in the weakest position winning!

Boofs effectively limit the number of Fuggly points you'd want to spend on boosting any individual roll. There is very little point in boosting a skill above 15 (unless its being used to defend against thuggery and would be halved) as if you roll a 16 or more you'll fail.

Onion Layer effects: The onion layer effect of having to wipe out all the cultists in one row of the cult sheet means that you have to balance protecting the last few cultists to protect the rest of your cult with getting the more powerful cultists into play. There are some cards (the worst being 'the Seed of Azathoth' ) which will attack rows further back, but generally it takes time to work through the rows. However, some 'thuggery' attacks like 'dynamite' and the 'big honking truck' attack several adjacent cultists. The 'Tommy gun' allows you to attack a whole row so can be devastating.

Conclusion

Being the first time that we played this, we took some time to get into it. At first we were worried that it was going to go on forever (like the end game of Zombies we played the night before). However, we soon realised that the aim was to summon your GOO rather than win by wiping the enemy out, which speeds the game.

The interesting thing is that you can't call the play's conclusion. The player who won was in the weakest position. Two of the other cults died in failed summonings, and the first cult to die was wiped out by all the others the turn they tried to summon their GOO as everyone worked together to finish them off. At the start of the game we'd been skeptical about it, but by the end we all thought it was great. It took around three hours to play with four people. It was faster towards the end when we were all fully happy with the game. If you wanted to play faster you could probably knock out a few columns of cultists.

It was a fun – and silly – game. If you've read any Call of Cthulhu and have a sense of humour about it you'll enjoy it. (You'd also like the Goomi's Unspeakable Vault of Doom comic which has similar humour, but that's a different story). However, knowing the mythos isn't critical - the game is fun and quite fluid. It's a bit more involved than Munchkin (for example) but not particularly complex.

I recommend it - I can see it being played again with my friends and players, unlike some games that just sit on the shelf gathering dust. Fuggly Fun!

17 years of gaming distilled down (the Furnace Timetable File)

One of my fellow convention organisers - our Tsarina of Games, Elaine - has compiled a master file of all the games that have run at the convention since 2008. This means that there are only two years missing (2006 and 2007). Hopefully someone will have details, but these are mostly pre-smartphones as we currently know them being a thing.

You can find the spreadsheet here on Google Sheets.

I'm going to take a nostalgia trip now, and look at what I ran. It's interesting that until recent years, I've mainly offered games with six player spots. These days I'd more commonly offer four or five.

I've linked after-action reports when I have them, but many are lost to the ether as they were posted on earlier versions of the Gaming Tavern or UK Gamers boards and not to my blog. I've also linked off reviews other to more details about a game if I think it's worthwhile.

The sad part of this is looking at the list of names of people who don't or can't attend any more. Some of them are no longer with us. RIP.

So, now on to the forty-three games I've run over this set of records. There's probably enough to make the half-century if we could find the records of the missing two years. There's even more games played to add to that. Lots of fun with great people. 

2008 - III

• They Came From Beyond Space, Savage Worlds
• A Patent Inspector Calls, Sufficiently Advanced
• The Fall of House Atreides, Conspiracy of Shadows

This was around the time that I first encountered Savage Worlds; I ended up running a SF B-Movie game as a filler in Slot 1. I think the first time I'd played the system was in the 2004 Continuum when EvilGaz and the Smart Party ran a complicated and fun game that involved table swapping.

The Sufficiently Advanced game was very epic, as it ended with the players triggering the detonation of multiple stars in novas to avoid a hegemonic alien swarm consuming the galaxy. I can also remember feeling very advanced in this game because I had my notes on my iPad 1 with an external keyboard which felt very Star Trek. Sufficiently Advanced gave me a lot of insight on how to a handle a high technology game but not get bogged down by the system; this started a move away from harder simulationist games for me, and the earlier Wordplay playlists also influenced this.

The Fall of House Atreides is a game that uses the Conspiracy of Shadows engine in Blood Opera mode to set the players against each other as parts of House Atreides as they are crushed by the Harkonnens. The traitor's identity is random (everyone gets an envelope with details if they are or aren't), so Paul or Jessica can be the traitor. I've always had fun with this kind of character-vs-character(*) game and this has come back periodically. 

(*) I prefer 'character-vs-character' because it should never be 'player-vs-player'.

2009 - IV

• Singularities: Sandbox, Wordplay
• Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors
• Broken Dreams, Savage Worlds:Runepunk

This was the first outing for my British New Wave SF inspired game, Singularities. I'd written it as a theme for Wordplay, but it's never actually got to print despite a good reception and lots of runs out with generally a good reception.

Wilderness of Mirrors is a spy based game written by John Wick (not the Baba-Yaga guy with the pencil and dog) which I ran as a Sunday morning game. It's very much a storygame, with a lot of co-creation. I can remember it feeling quite challenging to run and I had to work hard to draw it all together.

Broken Dreams, for Runepunk was a fantastically fun game. I seem to recall that we played through the whole investigation without a single combat roll; the players were mostly Call of Cthulhu hands who didn't want to get into a fight (quite sensibly). The key thing I learnt was that Savage Worlds works really well without a fight, and that the steampunk science-fantasy style of Runepunk is a fantastic space to play in.

The other thing of note that I remember from 2009 was the fantastic Beat to Quarters game that Neil Gow ran on Saturday night. I have never laughed so hard in a game, but I think we traumatised Neil and nearly broke him as we went completely off the rails of the serious Napoleonics vibe that he was aiming at. Fantastic game, a happy memory for me and the folks it but probably less so for Neil. 

2010 - V

• Down to Earth, Traveller
• Singularities: Turing Test, Wordplay
• A Taste for Murder
• Reunion, River of Heaven (OpenQuest)

A four game year.

'Down to Earth' was a Traveller game which I'd previously re-run at TravCon earlier in the year. The concept is that the players wake up on a beach (a bit like Lost) with very little memory of what has happened before. They know they were on a ship and that they had to abandon it. The scenario was very much a sandbox with beats, and along the way people's memories would recover. This was using Mongoose Traveller. I've always advocated for reusing scenarios you write for conventions as many times as you can. This is especially true if you plan to publish them.

'Turing Test' was the second scenario developed for Singularities; this was very much another playtest of the game. Again, it worked well but I cannot remember the outcome.

'A Taste for Murder' is an Agatha Christie British Country House style mystery storygame. I've run this several times, and each time the players have veered it towards the raunchy end of the genre (so I think they'd fit in well with Bridgerton). What's fun is that you develop the reason and motives as you go along.

'Reunion' was a scenario for John Ossoway's excellent River of Heaven hard-SF game. I think that this was using one of his early scenarios and I gave some feedback afterwards. I'm no longer a huge fan of d100% based games, but this one just works nicely and fades to the background.

2011 - VI

• Singularities: Turing Test, Wordplay
• Utopia: In a Strange Land, Wordplay
• Smoke and Lies, Wilderness of Mirrors
• Singularities: Houllier's Heroes, Wordplay

Four games again, with two new scenarios.

I added a new Singularities scenario (Houllier's Heroes) this year, which very much explored the experience of mercenaries who had their brain cored and made transferable to an armoured chassis. While they were on a mission, their own bodies were on ice, hibernating.

I also added a scenario for Utopia, an expanded world setting in Singularities where a colony had become a dystopia. Again, another project I've not got to print. 

Wilderness of Mirrors was pretty much the same as the run two years earlier; obviously it didn't put me off enough.

2012 - VII

• Utopia: In a Strange Land, Wordplay
• Singularities: Sandbox, Wordplay
• The Fall of House Atreides, Conspiracy of Shadows
• Singularities: Against the World, Wordplay

Four games and what looks like a very lazy amount of preparation, probably informed by the fact that I had a one-year old and a five-year old to handle! I reused three scenarios but did add a fourth scenario for Singularities. The Singularities scenario was the one I'd pitched (I'd only planned to do one game) but I ended up running four because people dropped out from running and playing. The Utopia scenario was a challenge as one of the players went a bit off-piste and I had to intervene as a referee and organiser as the behaviour wasn't acceptable.

2013 - VIII

• Singularities: Landgrabbers of Gliese 581, Kingdom
• Durance
• Singularities: Sandbox, Wordplay

Only three games, and only one re-tread. Sandbox got a run out again! 

Durance is a game set on a prison colony in space and always really interesting. It's based on the Australian colonies that Britain established to some degree. I do recommend the supporting card sets. I've run it a couple of times and it's always been satisfying. 

'Landgrabbers of Gliese 581' puts the players in charge of a slower than light ship that decelerates into system after many years of travel through space to find that the world that they aimed at has already been settled by colonists from Earth (because technology has advanced and they got there faster). They're on a nuclear pulse engined Daedalus drive ship, and the players get to be the command crew. There is a sub-optimal world they could use in system, or they could move on, or they could try and find a resolution. Somehow, the end game was the takeover of the existing colony and the establishment of a religious dictatorship. I used Kingdom, as this is the kind of thing it excels at. I could have used Wordplay, but I wanted to experiment.

2014 - IX

• The Last Garrison, Dead of Night (Cancelled)
• The Song of Loeul, Stormbringer hacked into Wordplay.

I committed to two games this year but ended up running one as I developed a migraine on Saturday and was still feeling the after effects on Sunday morning. 

I never ran the Last Garrison and never returned to it. A shame in some ways, as it was a self-referential game of what happened when the apocalypse comes at a gaming convention in Sheffield in October of a year. I've subsequently lost the notes. I felt so bad cancelling it, but I wouldn't have been in a good state to deal with it.

'The Song of Loeul' was a cracking adventure set in Michael Moorcock's Young Kingdoms that I'd run several times using the Stormbringer rules, but I ported it to Wordplay (what else?). It ran brilliantly well, although I did almost feel a let down as the players came up with schemes that thoroughly trounced their operation. But they seemed to love it, which was the most important thing! This led to a very ambitious three-parter the year after.

2015 - X

• Heart of Dust, A Hand of Death (Madcap Laughs 1), Wordplay (Young Kingdoms)
• Ruins in Madness (Madcap Laughs 2), Wordplay (Young Kingdoms)
• Empress on the Emerald Shore (Madcap Laughs 3), Wordplay (Young Kingdoms)

This was the tenth Furnace, and saw lots of celebration and a very ambitious side project. Graham (the convention chair) and I are both big fans of Michael Moorcock's Young Kingdoms setting. Graham also wrote Wordplay (which you may have noticed that I have been running a lot over the conventions listed so far). I came up with a crazy plan to run the 'The Madcap Laughs' scenario trilogy from White Dwarf between us using Wordplay, based upon the learnings from the year before when I ran 'The Song of Loeul'. We agreed to co-GM for all three sessions; one of us would be lead GM, while the other would focus on playing NPCs and supporting the other. I took the lead for the first and last sessions. 

Unlike later years, when multi-slot games became common, we ran each part as a distinct and independent session. This made things a little easier because we had a reset point for each scenario. It also makes it easier for the Games Tsar, as it doesn't lock down spaces and options quite as hard as dedicated single group of player multi-slots do. Of course, we ended up with a core of players who played the entire mini-campaign, so we did have some continuity between episodes. 

Overall, this was fantastic fun and convinced me that a lighter, more narrative engine was the best way forward for this kind of game. I also loved the co-GMing approach as it lightened the load for both of us. A fittingly epic approach to the tenth anniversary of the convention.

2016 - XI

• Wolves at the Door, Mongoose Traveller
• Barbarians at the Gates, Uncharted Worlds (PbtA)

This year I stuck at the two game limit, and both were Traveller related, being set in the game universe. Both had been developed for TravCon and BITS previously, so this was the second run through.

The first game had the players as a mix of children and grandparents on a small agritech colony outside the Third Imperium, a place that is growing bio-engineered crops for drugs. A large Vargr warship arrives in time for the harvest festival and the party have to understand and address their intent. It's one of my favourite recent Traveller scenarios.

The Uncharted Worlds game used a modular SF PbtA engine to have a game set when the Terrans first encountered the Vilani First Imperium. The party were free traders cross over into hostile space. It is very much a sandbox with beats again, as there is a timeline for a growing threat, but how it manifests will depend upon how the players attack the scenario. I do want to go back to explore this era, most likely with the Traveller or Cepheus rules.

2017 - XII

• Ice Cold in Arrendale, Heroic Fantasy (Black Hack based OSR)
• They Came Back Haunted, Coriolis

I'd really discovered the OSR over the last few years and loved what the Black Hack had done, so I was delighted to do some play testing and feedback with Graham's Heroic Fantasy game (in its first edition form). I melded it with an idea that was born from watching Frozen to many times with my youngster. At its heart, like many fairy tales, Frozen is pretty nasty. I decided to do an 'alt-history' take on it, imaging that Ana had accidentally been killed in the final stages of the story, and Elsa brought Fimbulwinter down upon the world in her anger and despair. The players are a party sent by their monarch to try to find out what has happened and if anything can be done about it. This was a fun game.

'They Came Back Haunted' was written when the Coriolis campaign books hadn't been released, and deals with a foreshadowing that the lost colony ship, the Nadir, may be closer than people thought and pose a threat. There were echoes of a Blakes 7 episode in this, and I enjoyed running it. I wanted to run the Coriolis Mercy of the Icons campaign after this, but one of my fellow regular players pitched it first and unfortunately it fizzled out.

2018 - XIII

• The End of Laughter and Soft Lies, SCUP (PbtA)
• A Cthulhu City Story: Weeping for the Memory of Lives Gone, The Cthulhu Hack

Two games again this year. The first was a full on blood bath of character-vs-character factionalism. I ran The Sword, the Crown and the Unspeakable Power, which is an epic fantasy game designed for players who are happy to push hard. The pitch was pretty simple - the players are part of the court and they've just found out that their armies have been shattered by the advanced hordes across the plains. Will they stay and fight, embrace the jihad or flee? I wrote this up in detail here. 

'Weeping for the Memories of Lives Gone' was a swerve ball as I took a Trail of Cthulhu campaign which intrigued me and then went and ran it with Paul Baldowski's 'The Cthulhu Hack'. I've already posted about this during #RPGaDay this year, so will point you at the more detailed write up here. For the record, I've subsequently picked up the book again, so may explore it some more.

2019 - XIV

• Here Comes the Rain Again, A Town Called Malice
• Det kan ingen tena tvo herrar, Cold Shadows

The first game I ran was the Scandi-Noir story game, A Town Called Malice, where the players were movers and shakers in a town threatened by a rising river and a hundred year storm. It escalated nicely.

The second game drew on the unsolved Isdalen Woman murder in Norway during the height of the Cold War. The characters were sent from Oslo to Bergen to investigate what had happened and uncovered a story of espionage. I remember that I enjoyed the game but found the system didn't quite work. I had loads of plots and handouts which made it fun.

There's more details on the games linked above on the year entry.

2020 - XV - COVID - Online

• A Wicked Secret, Vaesen
• Utopia: reEnlightenment, Tripod (Wordplay 2e) - cancelled

This was our second online Garricon (North Star went first) and I found preparation hard as my head wasn't in a good place because my mother had just died the month before. I ended up not running the Utopia game, because I needed to take my father back home (he'd moved in with us after the funeral) and Graham kindly ran Scheherazade instead. The Vaesen game used the scenario that had kept out at me from the adventures book, and it worked well. It did run on past midnight though!

2021 - XVI - Back at the Garrison

• The Treasure Hunt, Through Sunken Lands
• Operation Horatio, Delta Green

This was the smallest Furnace ever, with only 40 or so people attending, partly limited by social distancing reducing the numbers of table but partly limited by the nervousness people had at returning to a social space.

I ran the playbook led Through Sunken Lands on Saturday night and it was very much a fun game where everyone just embraced the swords and sorcery genre. We laughed a lot, and I still chuckle at the gods Nin'tendo, Ga Me'Boy and the dread rites of Wii when I look back at this. I really need to run this again at a con.

Operation Horatio was a bit ambitious; it took the timeline of the first Stranger Things series and turned it into a Delta Green operation. I enjoyed this, and learned a lot about the game system and how it differs from Call of Cthulhu. I much prefer it.

2022 - XVII

• The Slow Knife
• Trouble in Paradise, Blue Planet: Recontact
• Time to Pay the Piper, Blue Planet: Recontact

The Slow Knife is a character-vs-character story-game where the players reconstruct the revenge of a young person on the conspirators who had ruined their life. It was a bit arts and crafts at times as we built the board of relationships and connections, but it was great fun. I definitely will run this again!

I then spent Sunday running two Blue Planet games back to back. The first was the Quickstart, and then I ran a sequel to it. I had a continuity of players for the game, which was nice. The new version of the game ran nicely, and the scenarios seemed to work out fine. I've never had a player playing a dolphin before in a game, and it was a blast.

2023 - XVIII

• And Also The Trees, A Town Called Malice
• Expedition XIV, The Zone
• Murder Most Foul, Swords of the Serpentine

The first game I ran was a return to the Nordic Noir I'd last run in 2019. Overall, it worked well but was marred by the noise levels from the adjacent table.

The Zone was brilliant Annihilation / Roadside Stalker fun, which everyone getting into our tale of disaster.

I had my first experience of running a Gumshoe game, a scenario that Pelgrane Press kindly sent me for Swords of the Serpentine. I had a lot of fun as we explored this fantasy take on Venice, which characters up to no good!

2024 - XIX

• Expedition XV, The Zone
• Revolt
• Welcome to the Hotel Grand Perdusz, The Dying Earth Revivification Folio

I ran the Zone as an extra game, as we struggled to fill the game timetable. This time I had the proper game, not just the print and play, and it went down just as well as the year before. One of the players came back too!

Revolt was an interesting story game about a rebellion. Lots of world building fun.

The Dying Earth was a game that I'd long wanted to play or run, so I decided to grab the opportunity with both hands and run it at the convention. It was nerve-wracking but it definitely caught a really Vancian vibe. I may well try this again, especially as there's a sequel scenario to the one I used!

--

27 October 2024

Public Service Broadcasting - O2 Academy Leeds - 19th October 2024

Everest, with four people on Brass!

Although we'd been asked nicely not to use mobile phones, I couldn't resist taking this picture because how often do you have four people playing brass instruments on stage at once during a rock gig? I'm still not certain if Public Service Broadcasting are really rock, but the last description I saw was Art Rock; in my head they walk this space between electronic and rock. Whatever they are, they're brilliant.

The eldest and I had spent the day at the University of Leeds open day, followed by a quick browse at Travelling Man and Forbidden Planet (but no purchases). We'd got to Leeds much easier than at the Maxïmo Park gig as I'd checked the map out and worked out how to get the car park we wanted. We dropped everything back at the car having had a Pizza at Zizzi's in The Light and headed off to the early gig. Doors opened at 6pm because the O2 Academy becomes a night club later on. This meant the gig started an hour before the rest in the tour.

Halo Maud

The support act, Halo Maud, were intriguing and I'm going to have another listen to their studio recordings. A French three-piece band whose lead singer has recorded with the Chemical Brothers and others, it was very different and interesting, hence wanting to listen again.

People, Let's Dance

Public Service Broadcasting had EERA with them again on vocals, and they had their audio/visual designer (Mr B?) on stage with them too, driving a stunning show. They played a set of nineteen tracks, with a surprise treat from an EP in the encore, Elfstedentocht, Part 1.

Main Set:

Towards the Dawn
Electra
The Fun of It
Signal 30
Night Mail
People Will Always Need Coal
Progress
The South Atlantic
Arabian Flight
A Different Kind Of Love
Blue Heaven
Monsoons
Spitfire
The Other Side
Go!

Encore:
Elfstedentocht, Part 1
People, Let's Dance
Gagarin
Everest

The performance reminded me just how hard PSB can rock, with the drums and guitars running at pace. I'm not certain if Wilgoose was on the guitar more than usual, as EERA was playing keyboards. Anyway, it sounded glorious.

Wrigglesworth got a big cheer when the fact he came from Leeds, with one of his bandmates playing the theme from Last of the Summer Wine on brass, and then he was regaled with chants of "Yorkshire, Yorkshire, Yorkshire..." from the audience, followed by laughter! 

When we came to see them at the same venue in 2022, it was the eldest's first gig and we sat next to a younger child dressed up smartly like Public Service Broadcasting. It was the lad's first gig too, and it was nice to see them again. The gig was child friendly, which was nice.

The only thing that marred the start of the show was a couple who decided to go and stand at the front of the balcony, blocking the view for a good chunk of those attending. However, security gently moved them on, with a round of applause from everyone who couldn't see.

As we left early with the gig's start time, we were home by 11pm. 

Overall, a brilliant gig, with loads of energy. 

20 October 2024

Maxïmo Park - Leeds Beckett University Student's Union - 15th October 2024

Rocking it

Had an unusual Tuesday night where the eldest teen and I went to see Maxïmo Park at Leeds Beckett Students Union. It was a bit of a rush to get there as I hadn't realised that the A58 was in part closed and so was City Square (still!) so we ended up parked at the Q-Park by Bibi's Italian.

Maxïmo Park

The venue was great; we still managed to arrive early enough to get a drink and raid the merchandise store before the gig kicked off. Support was provided by The Research, a Wakefield band that I'd never heard of before, but were great fun and self-deprecating, getting a great response when one of the band member's teenage child came up to play as part of one of the tracks. As a band they'd disbanded a long time ago, but have recently done a few festivals; there wasn't any ego on show.

Through the crowd.

This was the eldest's first time on the floor like this; usually, we've ended up with tickets on the balcony or seated areas. He seemed to enjoy being in the crowd.

Maxïmo Park delivered, as they always do, and Paul Smith remains really open in his views with the usual white T-Shirt with a slogan on. Of course, if you've ever listened to his lyrics, you'll know where his politics are. Unusually, they did an acoustic song "Armchair View", from the new album, which went down well

Great set list that spanned their career as well as the new album. 

Main Set:
Your Own Worst Enemy
Postcard of a Painting
Dormant ’til Explosion
Questing, Not Coasting
The End Can Be as Good as the Start
Armchair View
The National Health
I Knew That You’d Say That
Partly of My Making
No Such Thing as a Society
Drinking Martinis
Our Velocity
What Did We Do to You to Deserve This?
Favourite Songs
Books From Boxes
Apply Some Pressure

Encore:
Nosebleed
Going Missing

Post concert, we went to McDonalds for dinner (the eldest's choice) and then managed to be home before midnight (always good on a school-night, especially when I had to be up by 5:30am to get to Peterborough).

20 October 2024

Furnace XIX (2024) - After Action Report

Badges with the refreshed logo and QR code to the timetable

As with previous after action reports for Furnace, this is written through the lens of an organiser who is also a games master and player.

The weekend just passed saw the nineteenth Furnace, something that I find quite scary. Where has all that time gone? Furnace is the first and oldest of the Garricons, and came from a desire to have a weekend focused on play rather than seminars and other events. The tag line is "It's all about the Games", which is really as much as you need to know about the approach. Five sessions of tabletop roleplaying games in a former barracks gaolhouse, with around seventy people attending. This year, I ran three games and played in two more. In truth, two of those games were much more narrative story games, so I facilitated rather than acted as a traditional GM.

As usual, I was doing the badges for the convention, and this year I needed to modify them to add a QR code for the timetable (an innovation we'd added in March for Revelation which had gone down well). This meant I needed to regenerate the logo; we couldn't find the original file (it's been the same since at least 2015) so I found a similar but more modern font. The original Furnace logo was finally retired; it has lasted 19 years, but it was too long and thin to work with a QR code effectively. The substitution worked first time, which was a relief. 

I'd taken the Friday before the convention off to allow myself enough time to do all the logistics things, but I still managed to end up rushed. That meant that I didn't bring anything for the Bring 'n' Buy for the first time so there was no way to assuage the slight guilt I had buying some new books from Patriot Games and All Rolled Up.

Every year, Elaine and I ask Graham if he's booked us a room at the hotel, and every year the answer has been 'yes', once he's checked. This started getting referred to as "the question", so this time I was determined not to ask it. That meant I was pretty shocked when, fifteen minutes from the Garrison, a WhatsApp message gets read out from Graham querying why I'm driving to the hotel as "you're not staying over on Friday". Fortunately, this got resolved; Graham uncanceled my room having canceled it a few hours before. That does leave me with the conundrum of whether to ask the question next convention...

When I arrived at the bar, there were two groups of gamers. I said hello to one group and sat down with a pint to watch a fascinating worker placement game (Pan Am) which the other group were playing. Andrew and Richard were happy to have a good chat while they played, and it was a chilled and fun evening. I headed for a relatively early bed.

Morning brought the 8am meet up for the traditional Garrison cooked breakfast, and we were soon in full set up mode. Graham gave the traditional opener, and we were off! Patriot Games and All Rolled Up were present, and swarms of gamers descended to see their offerings.

My character for Old Gods of Pangea, a Union Boss.

My Slot 1 game was run by Paul Baldowski and was called "Old Gods of Pangea". The scenario had come about thanks to a throwaway comment I'd made about the Welsh and Scottish mountains being part of the original Appalachian range (thanks to my A-Level Geology studying son) so why couldn't they set 'Old Gods of Appalachia' in the UK. Paul ran with it and we had a really scary adventure on the Isle of Skye. I wish we'd had some more time, as I think that we only scratched the surface of the plot and it was really evocative. I had a great group of fellow players. This was the first time I'd actually played a game that used the Cypher Engine, and I enjoyed it. That's good, because my copy of the Invisible Sun should arrive in the next month or two.

Taking glee at playing a 'Not So Easy' Card

A quick lunch from Morrisons before the first game I was running. This was 'The Zone', which I'd run previously. I'd really enjoyed it, as it evokes the Southern Reach Trilogy and other weird fiction, and one of the players from the last run through rejoined. I had a full house of six players so I facilitated rather than played, and Expedition XV headed to their doom in the heart of the Zone. The final denouement was when the cat revealed it could talk and calmly explained to the last surviving human that now it was time for them to meet their fate. I was nervous that Fil's selection of the cat could risk farce, but she played it brilliantly, and the ending was full of tension. It was also really surreal, as the cat escaped their fate several times in the session, with another character finding their doom instead each time. I must call out Dan for playing out that final scene fantastically, and also for pushing hard during the scenario. Really enjoyable, and I would play again.

Dinner was at KFC, and Keary, myself and John held our usual Furnace Bookclub, along with another con-goer. We each chicken and compare notes on good books and TV-series we've seen.

The game of Revolt, held in a darkened cell.

Slot 3 had me facilitating 'Revolt'. This was an impulse purchase of mine; the game has a woodland full of insect factions oppressed by Mortimus the Toad King, a cruel ruler who had murdered Queen Renata, the Bee Queen, to steal the throne. Totally card driven, the game has a lovely map, and the players weave a story of how a revolt brews and is then resolved. I really enjoyed listening to the story the players wove. If I did it again, I'd get some labels and standees so we could add some notes on the map to remember the tale we'd told at each location they'd visited. I think everyone had a good time.

It wasn't that late when I finished, but the bar was (surprisingly) empty, so I headed to my room for an early night and the chance to review my Dying Earth scenario. Morning brought another Garrison breakfast, and then we plunged back into the games.

Liminal fun

I played in Elaine's Liminal game in the morning, and had great fun. Liminal is such a great game and can be played with many different tones. The scenario was set in London and we tried to prevent an evil cabal of sorcerers opening a chaos gate in a long lost underground station near the Barbican. The tone was very different to the Fae, vampire and werewolf focused campaign that I'd played during COVID as a playtest for the Liminal Casebook. We had great fun, and once again, everyone got really stuck into their characters.

Lunch by Morrisons, and then the raffle. My highlight from that was Lynn and John's toddler pulling the tickets and building a huge amount of tension as he struggled to open the folded tickets and then gave out a squeal of delight. I did technically win, but put the prize back as I'd spent enough already!

The ten character cards that define a Dying Earth Revivification Folio Character

The afternoon brought 'The Dying Earth Revivification Folio', something that had filled me with both dread and excitement. I've long been a fan of the Jack Vance setting and Pelgrane's game, but the engine had left me feeling I wasn't eloquent or clever enough to run it. The Revivification Folio is a more simplified approach, but still was fun to play and absolutely captured the feel of the setting. The characters found themselves press-ganged as servants due to hidden terms and conditions in their registration at a Hotel run by a sorcerer. They were very much in denial of this (or rather the player's were) and only eventually did they begin to accept their situation.  One of the players picked exactly the wrong moment to be distracted and managed to miss when their peers had their characters take on roles at the Hotel Grand Perduz, leaving only the job of the mucker for them, a very smelly and icky role.

We had the same character letting out a human eating deodand from its prison because they were convinced that they'd persuaded it not to eat them. The character ended up locked in the the deodand's cage in case they needed a snack later on. Another character cruelly abandoned their concubine to the same deodand, running out of the room and locking the door behind them. The scenario was brought to a fun conclusion, with the characters escaping by the skin of their teeth. I enjoyed it, but was forced to handwave at one point when I realised that the method of escaping from the Hotel was impossible as it needed a magic skill test and none of the six regenerated characters had that as an option. However, no harm done. Except to the young vat-grown concubine. And perhaps to the viability of the Hotel as a going concern.

And then it was the end, and I headed off home. A great weekend of gaming, and next year will mark two decades of the convention.

14 October 2024

Books in September 2024

The September 2024 cover collage…

I read a fair bit over the last month, and journeys for work meant that I made my way through several heavier books on Audible when travelling between sites. Raw stats are 11 books (2 non-fiction, 2 roleplaying and 7 fiction) and 3,052 pages read.

Non-fiction included Dr Jack Lewis’ “Sort your brain out” which is an wonderfully approachable exploration of how your brain works, how it influences your behaviour and the choices that you can make to influence it. It builds on some of the work that we have done for safety at work, so it was fascinating. “Why I’m no longer talking to White People about Race” (by Renni Eddo-Lodge) was a well written but challenging read, as it explores how sub-conscious (and conscious) prejudices and privilege plays out and how you most likely won’t see it if you are from a white background in the UK.

The roleplaying books were Cepheus Universal, which I reviewed here already, and The Dying Earth Revivification Folio, which I will be running at Furnace.

On to fiction; I start with the book that my brain keeps on trying to think of as non-fiction, The Fall of Númenor. This is a very approachable compilation of Tolkien’s writings on the Second Age, focused around the establishment and fall of the Edain island state after the end of the First Age, through to the Last Alliance’s almost pyrrhic victory over Sauron where Elendil, Gil-Galad and later Isildur where killed.  The audio presentation is excellent. If you want to know what Rings of Power is drawing on, then this goes much further as it has IP that the TV producers don’t have access to.

Tom Bradby’s Shadow Dancer was a brutally sad tale of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which doesn’t end well for many involved. Charles Beaumont’s A Spy Alone is a thriller that imagines that there was an Oxford spy ring as well as the Cambridge one, and takes that forward. Paul Vidich’s Beirut Station is another gripping espionage tale set in the middle east.

James SA Corey (The Expanse…) returns with the opening of a new series, The Mercy of Gods. It begins with a human settled world being overrun by overwhelming alien forces and follows the fates of some of the prisoners taken as they start to find out what is really going on. A promising beginning that kept the pages turning.

The last two books were novellas. The first - The Masquerade of Spring by Ben Aaronovitch, is a prequel to the Rivers of London series where Nightingale visits New York after the First World War. It was a fun read. The second, and probably my favourite book of the month (just) was Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Saturation Point, a great bit of world building that has a cyberpunk feel. A team is sent into uninhabitable jungle to find out what is going on. The protagonist used to work there as a scientist and slowly discovers what was really happening when she worked there and after. Gripping, and one that I found hard to put down.

7 October 2024

TravCon 2024 - After Action Report

My character, ready for action.

Five years is a long time. That's how long it has been since the last TravCon, and perhaps the most uncomfortable thing about this pilot relaunch was just seeing how all the familiar faces have aged. However, it was a fun-filled weekend of Traveller focused gaming with friends old and new, which very much captured the feel of past events.

There were some differences; although the accommodation was still at Redwings Lodge in Sawtry, the gaming moved three miles down the road to Alconbury Memorial Hall. This was a forced change because Redwings have got rid of their meeting room suite, so we had nowhere to game onsite. The format saw three normal (~4 hour) length slots on Saturday and one longer slot on Sunday. Mongoose were present over Saturday lunch and Matt Sprange gave a keynote on the state of Traveller, which was especially interesting given that most of the rights have transferred over from Marc Miller.

Although I've been active with BITS in the past, I've never really got involved in organising TravCon. Instead, I just turn up and run and play. Richard Talbot was key in the background, finding the new location and helping pull things together. He deservedly won a Starburst for Extreme Heroism for this by general acclaim of all present, and was given a limited edition book donated by Mongoose as a prize! The "P*ng, F*ck it!" prize was won by Graham Spearing for his brave but futile and fatal attempt to take a sample from a xenomorph with a spoon.

He's won a book!

I offered to run two games for the convention, figuring that I could draw upon the Scoundrels of Brixton setting zines that I've picked up recently. This is a crime focused setting, with a very cyberpunk edge to it. Officially, it isn't part of the Traveller universe, but you can easily hack the Brixton star system to being a Terran deep range colony set up a long distance rimward of the Solomani Confederation. The setting material uses the Traveller SRD in Cepheus form, and I decided to use Cepheus Universal as the engine. At the table, it just felt like Traveller.

Scenario development (screenshot of reMarkable file contents)

Two scenarios were possibly a bit ambitious, especially as Furnace falls the week immediately after TravCon, and I'd already committed to running three games and also have the con-organiser duties to deal with. I read through the three zines I've got (two physical, one PDF at the moment) and identified a number of adventure seeds that looked worth working up. Cepheus Universal outlines a recommended 5-stage approach for adventure session design, so I built everything around that, sketching out notes on my reMarkable and building the two adventures in parallel.

Loke Battlemap in action

I decided to avoid needing to prepare any maps by picking up two of the Loke Battlemap sets that I'd been eyeing up for quite a while. I grabbed the Cyberpunk and SF Giant sets, and they proved great to use in play. I think the Cyberpunk set is more useable, but both are excellent. 

My first game 'A Nice and Easy In and Out"

The two scenarios were each a little different - the first one involved at heist where the party needs to extract some valuable equipment from a remote warehouse on the edge of a corporate mining town and get it back to orbit. The second was escort duty for a courier; take them to a meet, make sure that nothing bad happens to them, then get back to Sky City with the merchandise. On reflection, the first scenario provided more freedom for the party to find their own way and have some great character-led interactions. The second was much narrower; yes, it had lots of scope for the party to find its own way, but overall there was quite a clear path to follow. It wasn't a railroad, but the options were limited. It was fascinating that the players in the first group managed to mostly avoid violence, whereas it was more prevalent for the second mission. Perhaps I got the 15 and 18 ratings I gave the scenarios right.

My second adventure - "Drugs for Life".  A right dodgy crew!

I generated up six characters using the UPP strings and points build method, and then rolled life path options. I did mostly flesh out the skills not taken on the career life paths as Level 0 (ie competent but no bonus). I left some of this deliberately vague so the players had the scope to tweak what was there and how they could use it in play; the first group made good use of family connections, the second leaned on their friends.

The final thing I did was steal from The Sprawl, using the Legwork and Action clocks, and using variants on the 'You get the Job' move. These worked really well, and built tension, encouraging the players to push forward and not get lost in analysis paralysis.

I was pretty much ready by Wednesday before the convention, which was when the complication struck; the kids brought 'back-to-school-itis' home and I came down quite hard with it on Thursday. I ended up deciding not to come down on the Friday night and to miss the first session (which was a shame as I was looking forward to Jeff's game of 2300AD using the Bayern mission). It was the right decision; even though I loaded up with paracetamol, Lucozade and plenty of throat lozenges, I was definitely in a better place that I would have been when I was running. The disappointment to this was missing the first 15 minutes or so of Matt Sprange's address. 

The Keynote

I had a lot of fun playing Graham's game on Sunday morning; very much a frontier exploration of an Ancient's site. What was strange was that it gave me echoes of the Coriolis: The Great Dark Quickstart adventure that I played at North Star earlier this year, and then I realised that Traveller has been doing this for so much longer with Twilight's Peak and Shadows leading the way. I played a cocky pilot and we stumbled our way through the adventure to find potential riches for our very crippled merchant venture.

"A Ticket to see Oasis" - Graham's Traveller game

 

It was great to see so many old friends, but a bit scary to see them suddenly five years older.

Redwings was much as it ever was, pretty much on par with a Travelodge that has a small bar and games room. The Alconbury Memorial Hall was a good venue; lots of space and enough for us to easily have five games underway. I suspect that this could have been pushed to seven if we'd had enough attendees.

Andy Lilly (BITS lead) answers a question in the keynote.

It's likely that TravCon will return around March/April 2025; it's been noted that the comms needs to be better, and we'll get an opportunity to feedback some more over the next few weeks. It would also be nice to broaden the group attending, although space may limit that opportunity. Most likely it will be in the same area. There was a brief discussion on TravCon North, but there wasn't much enthusiasm for that from Andy. 

The nearest thing we'll have to that is North Star, which happens in May next year in Sheffield. It's larger than TravCon already, and covers all SF RPGs, so that may well be worth pursuing if you fancy a North of England based SF con where Traveller is welcome. 

In conclusion; a fun weekend playing my long term favourite roleplaying game.

6 October 2024