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I’ve been peripherally aware of this game for a little while now but had never had the chance to play. When I saw it on the list at this years Furnace I grabbed the chance to give it a go. My preconceptions were that the game was indie, it’s focus is on fighting as a space marine against a horde of aliens, that success is measured in kills, and that’s about it. Turns out I was right.
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This year I attended my first Furnace, a smallish con held in Sheffield, now in it’s 4th year. The Smart Party were four strong for this outing, and between us we had 8 games to run that covered the gamut of gaming.
The location was really cool, a converted gaolhouse including the original cells to play in. There was a cosy bar that served excellent food. I’d have liked it to stay open a little later but they had beer in vending machines for the desperate, so not so bad after all. The rooms were ‘motel’ like, which means they were fine for getting your head down, but not for much else. That’s all I need from a Con though, and at £25 a night I can’t complain. Breakfast was perfunctory, but appreciated after a long night of game talk.
I’m set to run two games at this year’s Furnace. Here’s what the frothing horde will see at the sign up scrum…
I’ve been working up a set of characters for Furnace. This is (one of) what I’ve got so far.
It’s a Word Doc designed to be printed 2 pages to a sheet making it an A5 booklet. You’ll see it as pages 2,3,4,1.
I’m going for ease of use at the table mostly. There’s still some tinkering to do, but overall I’m fairly happy. My IT skills are pretty basic, and I’m sure it could be a lot more colourful and professional. Still, first effort and all that.
EDIT: My USB flash drive containing this and many, many more Mb of gaming goodness has just died. All data lost. At least I still have this sheet.
Furnace is my big Convention this year and I’ve just sent in my two games for inclusion. I’m going with two games of D&D 4e, both set at 5th level and the stories play off of each other (slightly). I’m going with my ‘Feywild and Shadowfell at war’ theme. The first game is ‘The Fey Team’ and is an assassination mission behind enemy ley lines. The second is ‘Night Rider’ and tells a similar tale from the Shadow perspective, except with sabotage in mind. Hope I get some players!
So I’m getting down to organising my D&D games for this year’s Furnace convention. I’ve got my plot all done and I’m fleshing out a series of encounters. As suggested by Lemur in a previous comment, I want to show off some of the bells and whistles of the game. I think it’s really important to do this. A great many punters at Cons will want to try out new games, to get a flavour of what’s going on without having to commit time and money to a game that isn’t for them. Even existing fans of your system or storyline will want to play something they are less likely to get at home, otherwise why bother coming out to play at all? Read the rest of this entry »
For those that don’t know, The Smart Party are based in the UK and as such most of our Con attendance is here, plus the occasional European jaunt. We have a lot in common with the US in the way that our Con gaming is generally set up and run, but it’s not the only way. Over in Ireland they play by a very different system indeed, and recently there has been lots of debate about it. Will it stay, will it change, and to what? Here’s a summary from this discussion: Read the rest of this entry »
Our house sale finally came through today, so we’re moving tomorrow. Very exciting. It means I’ll be offline for a week or two until I can get my IT sorted out at the new place. Feel free to add comments to all the other posts while I’m gone though eh? I’ll be sure to reply when I get the chance.
Evilgaz will be all over the site like fleas on a tramp in the meantime I’m sure.
See you soon.
Following my last post about linked games, I’ve been mulling it over a bit more. I think there may actually be potential there, even if I still believe it’s not an easy road to take.
I’m getting my prep in super early for this years Furnace. I’m going to run two D&D 4e games. One will be set in the Feywild and the other in the Shadowfell. Despite my own advice I’ll probably have some links between the two, but it will only be minor stuff tucked away in the story.
The advice I’m getting at the moment is to pitch the games at the mid heroic tier, that’s about levels 4-7. Initially I wanted to go paragon, but apparently that slows the game a little if you have 4e novices at the table (and I imagine I will do).
What would you like to see if you were to play? What wouldn’t you?
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