Once again, it was our triumvirate of Graham, Elaine and myself who were organising it, and once again it pretty much ran on rails. We did have some bumps along the way (changes of events coordinator at the Garrison for example) but nothing insurmountable.
I usually take the Friday off before the convention to leisurely complete preparation, but I ended up travelling for three days with work and then having a meeting I couldn't get out of moved to Friday morning. As a result, I had a pretty hectic Friday, arriving at the convention just after 22:30 but before last orders. I managed to park in the dedicated car park for the first time ever, which was a shock. There was Karaoke on as an event, but I managed to arrive too late to avoid the attempts from the ladies at the event to drag folks in to dance with them. I had a quick catch up with folks but went to my room before midnight. Of course, I then managed not to get to sleep until 2am!
Breakfast was early - the hotel had brought it half an hour earlier because we were using the restaurant again - but service was quick and friendly as ever. I found the food was better than the previous year and it was lovely to see the staff who come to know over the years.
I had time to quickly read through my scenario before heading up to the rooms to do final set up. This was mainly getting the badges out, making sure the extra Taylor's Coffee Bags were out to compliment the instant coffee, and getting the table signs in place. We've also been adding a box of tissues and - this year - some antibacterial wipes (as the little hand sanitizer's are harder to find) on each table at the convention in an attempt to minimise cases of 'con crud' afterwards. Graham tried to cleverly avoid me recording the opening speech by sending me upstairs but I managed to get back in time.
The Opening Speech
This year, I'd decided to simplify what I was doing and run the same game multiple times, albeit with different scenarios. These meant all the pressure to forget one game engine and adopt another was gone. I'd chosen The Hooded Man RPG (which I reviewed previously) and decided to run the three example scenarios in the book back-to-back with the same characters as if it was the Robin of Sherwood TV series. By making it episodic, it meant that people who signed up for three games got a mini-campaign, but other folks could sign up for a single episode. I had two players who played all three episodes, and three that played two of the episodes, the balance being folks who played a single session.
In preparing for the convention, I went down a bit of an expensive rabbit hole. I decided I wanted some maps on the table to make it feel more grounded, and ended up picking up several of the Tom Cartos 'Into the Wild' battle map books for the game. I'd previously purchased some modern day sets from him via a Kickstarter (TC Modern) and had a variety of Cyberpunk and SF battle map books from Loke, but nothing suitable for a fantasy game. I planned to use these with tokens, but I really struggled to find some nice ones that were either sensibly priced or looked right. I asked The Hooded Man Discord forum on Osprey Games' server, and some folks suggested some miniatures ranges that may work. Now, I rarely use miniatures for gaming; my games are usually over a VTT, but I have painted miniatures for games before (most notably for a Savage Worlds Hack of 2300AD's Mission Arcturus at a very early Furnace).
The forum folks pointed me at North Star Figures and Wargames Atlantic, and ended up picking up a set of Oathmark British Light Infantry for the Outlaws (from North Star) and some Baron's War Foot Serjeants for the Sheriff's men. I also picked up a box of Villagers, mainly to raid for female heads and bodies. Finally, I ordered some STL printed Men at Arms to use for the Norman leaders from OttsWorkshop on Etsy. I was wincing at this point as I had spent far more than I intended on the game bling. That was the point that I found out that my paints had all mainly dried up, so I needed to get some quickly. I found a set of NicPro Modeling Acrylic Paints for a decent price with 30 colours, and picked up some matt varnish.
I spent several hours assembling the models (14 Normans and 12 Outlaws) wondering when the STL characters would arrive (I'd ordered about 5 weeks before the convention from a UK printer, and chased after three weeks but they hadn't arrived), and then a chunk of a Saturday painting them. Overall I was pleased with the outcome and, so long as you didn't look too closely, they looked great. I'd made sure that the outlaw characters had the right gender and equipment, which worked well.
There's a really simple random character generation system in The Hooded Man, so I produced six characters and their companions. I'd offered spaces for five players in my game, but ended up running two of the sessions for six, which wasn't a problem. If I ran the same again, I'll probably loose the companions because it does make the game quite busy; then again, it does give the feel of an outlaw company.
One worry I did have was that the scenarios as written did have less in than I would normally have done if I wrote them myself, and I'd prepared some injects/beats to add if it seemed like they're run very short. However, as two of the slots were shorter than the ones that I usually pick (I often pick the four hour slots) this probably worked in may favour. Two of the sessions finished a bit early, but the players cleverly steered their characters to resolve the issues very effectively.
Your life has been turned upside down since the Sheriff of Nottingham declared you outlaws. Hunted, you fled into Sherwood Forest, hiding amongst the ancient, verdant and shady trees from the Sheriff’s men. You have fallen in with others who have suffered the same fate, a small community of lost souls, but life is hard and lean, and every day a struggle. You have heard rumours of the Hooded Man, an outlaw who protects the poor and weak, but is it just a myth?
The first scenario had Neil, Jon, John, Tamar and Dr Mitch playing, and instantly got the vibe of the setting. Fortunately most of them had seen Robin of Sherwood, so understood the influences that the game carried on its sleeve. I used the sting from the main title music a couple of times to emphasise this, but it was sparing as we were in a room full of other games being played. They met Robin and his band, and undertook a mission to deal with Norman tax collectors. What I loved is that having ambushed the advance scouting party, they grabbed their outfits and carried out a ruse where they managed to head off with all the taxation and two prisoners ('witches'), while misdirecting the heavily armed guards into a wild goose chase for Robin Hood. It was Tamar's first convention game and she gelled with the group really well so we had a lot of fun.
Over lunch I went to Morrisons and caught up with some folks.
At the village of Oston, your allies, news comes of a young woman from nearby Wellbury who has been seized by the Sheriff’s men after she rebuffed their advances. They accuse her of witchcraft, a crime which will likely lead to her torture and death. Her father pleads that you save her…
The second scenario sees the outlaws called to rescue a young woman, Jenny, who has been kidnapped by the Sheriff's men. They soon found out that she didn't really need saving, and at least one of the characters became enamoured with her. They used the tabards stolen in the first episode once more. This session saw Neil, John, Jon and Dr Mitch returning, joined by Simon and Tom. This was also the session when Neil realised that his character was the only one that hadn't really committed a crime, and that his character's traits pushed him to be a leader for the group. All of a sudden we had an Outlaw Band forming from a group of individuals. We also learned that Dr Mitch's character was a genius for cunning plans. Simon really brought his character's hunting dog into the fore, which was fun. Towards the end of the session, Tom's character suddenly realised that she'd never be a potter again, and the anger that brought out led to a very nasty end for the Norman leader. Following that, she ended up seeing a vision and meeting what could be Herne the Hunter (I described a very mist laden, back lit situation) with Jenny, and realising that even if Jenny wasn't a witch then she was well on the way to becoming one. They recruited her to their band along with her father to avoid reprisals on the village of Wellbury.
Dinner was at KFC, as is now traditional. The Garricon Bookclub continues, with a widening group joining each convention. We sit around and talk books, films and other media while enjoying fried chicken.
It’s All Hallows Eve, and Nottingham is bustling from the people who have come to celebrate Hallowmas and All Souls Day at the Church of St Mary the Virgin. Your company have taken the risk of visiting an Inn in Nottingham to meet an informant who has passed word that they have news from a prisoner of the Sheriff. Can you evade recognition and find out more?
The final scenario sees the characters entering Nottingham. As presented, this was totally underwritten, as the author had mentioned the possibility of rescuing the prisoner of the Sheriff, but there was absolutely no information on how to do this. Naturally, this became a big thing during the game session. This session saw Jon and Dr Mitch reprising their roles as the cutpurse and slightly menacing but cunning bowyer along with Simon returning as the huntress with her loyal dog. Dr Bob, Jenny and Elina joined us. Elina took over Thomas from Neil, and the change in approach led to jokes that the character's hair had changed colour (like the change in actor for Robin Hood in the TV series). The character became known as Modest Tom. They met an informant in an Inn, then spent All Souls Day recovering a talisman taken by a veteran forester in a foreign war, and ambushing a band of the Sheriff's men who had tortured the forester to get details of the treasure. This led to a spectacular fight when they ambushed the soldiers as they crossed a bridge. It caused a mild bought of panic when they realised that the leader of the soldiers was far stronger than any opponent that they'd faced with armour and a villain trait that made them very dangerous. The outlaws prevailed, but not without some injuries.
That was the point when the scenario went completely off the track in the book and they staged a very apt Robin Hood style rescue of the forester before he was hanged. This included impersonating a priest and using the tabards again! A crowd was gathered for the hangings; they ended up rescuing five people but leaving a nasty murderer to die. It was very dramatic, and they just escaped Nottingham. My only regret (in hindsight) was that I didn't offer some kind of archery contest for them to become involved with, but we had fun and escaped.
I had a quick drink in the bar with some of the folks, then headed to bed.
Sunday brought an early breakfast, and then a very relaxed day.
Slot 4 saw me playing Coriolis: The Third Horizon run by Hattie (who plays Arda in my Coriolis: The Great Dark Campaign). The scenario, Eye of the Beast, had vibes of Avatar, and we had great fun with the factional interplay; if anything, too much fun as we became pressed for time to follow all the threads in the three hour session. That's always the challenge for a GM, if the players are really getting into the roleplaying, then it's hard to move them along. Hattie did brilliantly, and helped us to come to a satisfying conclusion. This reminded me why I love playing in the Third Horizon; I was grateful for the opportunity to return.
Lunch was Morrisons again.
Before the final session, we had the raffle which was done by friend of the convention and Most Worshipful Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Andy Sanger. Andy's been a Garricon regular from the start and his year as the leading citizen of Sheffield means he can't join us properly. He gave a short speech, and then we were off for our final session.
This time I was playing in Graham's game of Aegean, The Curse of the Golden Bull. This was a game that was new to me, where you can play mortals and demi-gods in Ancient Greece. Being honest, I was fading a bit at this point as I'd not slept brilliantly on Saturday night, but the story was compelling and interesting. The route we chose through favoured our brave warriors (and I was a talky character) but it was great fun. The conclusion was appropriately epic, with potential future repercussions for our Polis as we may have offended at least on of the gods. I really liked the system, which was a d10 dice pool based, and I ended up ordering a copy from Patriot Games.
And then it was all over; Graham and Elaine headed off and I finished off tidying up. We certainly enjoyed ourselves.
As ever, we'd welcome feedback from attendees and always love seeing after-action reports of how it was for you. We always want to make Furnace better; that's why we brought the new space into play last year and have changed things like the slot lengths.
Hoping to see some of you at Furnace XXII next year, or at North Star, Revelation or LongCon before that.
It's a wrap.
17 October 2026
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