Furnace 2012 Con Report

Furnace was great as always. Been every year, coined a catch phrase, nominated it for victory in the convention awards and well, yeah, I know, I’m nothing to do with organising it, but I’m going to steal whatever reflected glory I can get just for showing up…

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The Kraken – A Gaming Vacation

Only vaguely prepared – as frankly I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, and packing hippy left-field Indie games after all – I headed out on the strange and wonderful adventure that is The Kraken. Tuesday I headed off with a stop at Lemur’s house that evening to play games and break the journey to Stansted airport. We played a few hands of Dominion, which has always been highly rated by anyone I’ve talked to and it was indeed a great little game. This would prove important later in the week when I’d got to Germany.

Con-Quest Announced

Four old hands from the gaming scene have seen a Midlands shaped hole in the UK gaming calendar. Much like taking your own games to run at cons if other people aren’t providing them, we decided to provide our own convention as no-one else seemed to be putting a show on. What could possibly go wrong?

With all that’s good in gaming and a broad church appeal that will see everything from D&D 4e to Indie publishing, via home brew settings and systems any other flavour you can think of, we aim to have the best in RPGs, board games, card games, miniatures, whatever the gaming public demands – plus a select array of traders.

We’re currently getting the website built, but initial information can be found on UK Roleplayers and we’ve already had game submissions in the first 24 hours. So if you can make it on 10-4-10 (that’s 10th April 2010) to the Derby Assembly Rooms (that’s UK for you colonials) for a full day of sociable, varied gaming, you’d be well advised to come on down and say hello.

My only current worry is not getting to play or run any games myself, I’ll just have to organise. But maybe if I’m sneaky… regardless, we’ll have the other Smart Party members there in force, so come along and jump on in for the big win!

Evilgaz Dragonmeet Report

For me DM started with a stopover at Lemur’s house on the Friday, and boy was I disturbed to note the picture of geese in the spare room, worrying that he might be subconsciously brainwashing me into playing Mouseguard the following day. I need not have feared…

Evilgaz First Time Virgin IndieCon Report

IndieCon is a new and slowly growing little convention right in the south of England, ostensibly catering to small press publishers, but open to anyone and any game really – although the emphasis is on new games, independent concerns and trying different things. Sometimes using Jenga or magnetic fish as a resolution mechanic…

Evilgaz Furnace Report

Furnace starts on a Saturday morning, but unofficially some delegates meet up on the Friday, with one or two organisers for a pint. I’ve done this once before out of the previous three Furnaces, and as some of the Smart Party were joining in this time, we thought we may as well make a proper weekend of it. Friday rush hour traffic being what it is, even finishing at half three with their lazy part-time-teacher hours Lemur and G2 couldn’t get to mine until after seven, but that still left us plenty of time to get up to Sheffield for a few social ones.

First Post Dance

…right, let’s try this blogging lark…

…wonder what this button do…

Hi all,

Inspired by the weekend’s events, I’ve decided to try my hands at using my fingers to wordalise some of my own gaming thoughts. They are few and far between, and that’s why I’m hiding them behind a few introductory words of guff. At worst, they’ll give Evilgaz apathetic headaches. At best, they’ll give him dyspeptic ulcers, and provide some light relief or deep thoughts for the rest of us.

Tentacles Omega Con Report

How can you not be tempted by a journey to play games in a castle on the Rhine? I was there for my third year and it was as great as ever.

The journey to Bacharach was as easy as ever, with only a slight delay at the airport on the Deutschland side while the bus turned up, but the sun was shining and a free beer on the journey over was most welcome. Everything about the con was ruthlessly organised as always, with the notable exception of games, for which there seems to be an almost masochistic desire to make it a scrum to sign up for things. I took to my usual method of avoiding troubles by taking lots of games to run. Apparently I now hold the record for most games played at a Tentacles, and as that was the last one…

The Road to Furnace

This year there’s four members of the Smart Party heading to Sheffield to take part in Furnace. It’s my first time at this Con, and from what the other guys have told me, it’s well worth looking forward to.

We’ll all be bringing games of one stripe or another, and I’ll be letting you know how  preperations are going. Last I heard Evilgaz was all about the zombie apocalypse, Sexy Lemur was going with maximum Spirit of the Century and I’m doing my D&D 4e thing. G2 will be representing as player in excelscis. News as and when…

What To Talk About

People have always been complaining about the games at conventions.

How do we make them better?  Why isn’t there enough variety?  Where do you start?  There aren’t enough.

With any luck we’re going to get more people gaming and being better at it.  We’re going to lead from the front and show how its done.

Mostly though, its up to everyone else to pitch in.

Watch out for hints, tips, reports, rants, and lots more here.  And of course, feel free to have your say.