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