www.gamingtavern.eu

[Jane]

[Wolverine]

[Dom]

I've just posted an after con report on my blog, so here is a shortened extract with the key bits:

I've been to every Furnace so far (since 2006) and this was perhaps my best. So, what did I do?

I always miss the first session, and use it as a chance to catch up with people. I'd hoped to meet John Ossoway and discuss his forthcoming SF RPG River of Heaven, but unfortunately events conspired to prevent him coming to the convention. I consoled myself looking at "Wordplay". I had a good natter with Tom Zunder, and a few others, visited the Patriot Games and other stands, and made a bee-line to go and pick up a copy of "Beat to Quarters", Neil Gow's excellent Napoleonic Naval RPG. Absolutely lovely, and I hope that he forgives me for the later atrocity. So that was Slot 1, ended with a trip to Morrisons for supplies.

Slot 2 on Saturday afternoon saw me run my first game, a Wordplay engined SF adventure in the Singularities universe I've developed for the forthcoming deluxe version of the core rules. I'd run the adventure once before, at a TomCon, and the story evolved in much the same way as before. Most amusing point was when two of the players who had played at TomCon tried to sign up before they released that this was, in fact, the previously unnamed scenario that they'd previously played. Nanotech swarms, Duplicitous AIs and STL starships combined with a hick frontier world intent on celebrating the arrival of the first starship in nearly 40 years to create carnage. Wolverine had it right as "Dallas meets hard SF". I was a bit worried that some of the players were getting lost, as the game is heavily influenced by Banks, Asher, Stross, Reynolds and more and if you haven't read the new wave of British SF it can be a shock to the system, but everyone seemed to have a good time. The one thing I'm still not satisfied with is the new take of the variant scale rules for Wordplay I was testing, but it was a lot closer to what I wanted to achieve than the first playtest.

Saturday evening, Slot 3, saw me make a grown man call for help. Neil Gow had foolishly decided to set a game of "Beat to Quarters" on the Irish Rover (of Pogues song fame) and he got everything he had hoped (or feared). The plot ranged widely, with missions from God, the whale-with-the-grail, drinking, wenching, a wide sargasso sea, sea monsters, shipwrecked pirates (from the Dutch Antilles) and a huge volcano, but the Irish Rover broke with the tradition of the song and made it to New York. One of the amusing parts for me was the way my character ("Johnny McGurk") was picked on by Mick's ("Malone") and a bitter rivalry erupted, to the point that my character had the personal objective to make sure Malone looked like a fool. In the end, he was transformed into the Goat Captain! I loved this game; Neil handled it just right, but I think he was horrified with the monster he created. So that was my one chance to play a game and it was brilliant, a definite high spot. It also convinced me about the "Duty and Honour" and "Beat to Quarters" rules mechanics, which handled everything that could be thrown at them and more. I look forward to the special supplement that Neil must be duty bound to create.

I headed back to my hosts house, and Tom and Nathan and I stayed up a little longer drinking tea and eating scones and putting the gaming world to rights.

Sunday dawned almost too early, but in reality it was a lie in for me. Slot 4 saw my now-traditional Indie-special. I ran "Wilderness of Mirrors" by John Wick, which is tagged as a 'better spy game". It has some interesting tricks, including handling the core of plot development over to the players, and a clever mechanic to reduce their chance to succeed as time goes on. Highlights of this include one of the players using a special ability of his character to finish off another character (brutal but oh, so clever) and the horror of the players about the plot that they created. Certainly, by the end of the game I wasn't sure if the characters were actually worse than the terrorists that their spies were after. I'd like to run this again, perhaps at a TomCon.

Slot 5 on Sunday afternoon was the game I'd put the most preparation into: Runepunk: Broken Dreams, a Savage Worlds game. This was set in the Runepunk setting, and was the sandbox scenario from the DarkSummer Nights supplement loaded with accelerant and handouts. The setting is a Neo-Victorian Metropolis dominated by magic and steam power science, with a very definite vibe. The most clear analogies in fiction are Mieville's Perdido Street Station and In Viroconium by M John Harrison. Lovely stuff. The scenario is rich and layered, and I was worried that the players may have got bogged down. But they didn't, and they ran a tight investigation which got to the right answer. We finished 25 minutes early; had we had 45 minutes, we'd have got to the final denouement, but the characters actually completed the mission that they had been set. The final twist was that they managed to play Savage Worlds for nearly four hours without a combat, which is a first for me for that particularly crunchy skirmish based system, yet seemed to really enjoy the game. I also enjoyed riffing with some of the players in character.

Sadly, the whole convention soon wrapped up after this, and I headed home, managing to get back before Jill and Nathan who had gone across the Pennines for the weekend. I had a great time, and I can't wait until next year's Furnace to be back again!

EDIT: formating tweaked.
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"We live in a nuclear powered universe. We're the oddballs by getting energy from burning carbon."
James Lovelock

[dr_mitch]

Right- the longer part two of my con report- in which I focus on the games themselves! Warning- this is pretty long.

Slot 1: Wild Talents
The Curse of Apollo- the first of my Wild Talents in ancient Greece games. I felt terribly brave running in the first slot. I was pleasantly surprised to see two players who had been in my legendary “demon-possessed cows” Reign game last Furnace.

Anyway, the heroes went to the temple at Delphi to investigate how to cure a plague that had struck Athens. They found the oracle had been taken over by Medusa's two sisters. They defeated the two gorgons and learned from the terrified temple guards that the gorgons had given the oracle herself to a group of Spartans.

Naturally, a rescue mission followed, and all but one Spartan was slaughtered in the first onslaught of arrows.

It went pretty well, and had a bit of a Saturday morning cartoon vibe to it- mainly because of free expenditure of Willpower (encouraged by me), and the fact that one character's powers meant that all wounds were healed between scenes.

The end was not much of a challenge- I should have ended it right after the minions were all killed with a single flurry of arrows. Actually, I should have had far more minions in the first place. Still, overall it was great fun, and Wild Talents worked smoothly.

Slot 2: Bliss Stage
It took me a while to realise Cthulhu Rising was not running. I won't mention the Singularities incident (Dom already has). Fortunately, I found a game of interest- Bliss Stage, run by Phred.

Interesting that my spell-checker recognises Cthulhu, but not Phred.

Anyway, in the Bliss Stage setting, all people above the age of eighteen or so fall into a coma due to the influence of psychic aliens. The PCs enter dreamscapes in mecha, matrix-style, to fight them.

Now, the game's all about relationships. The mecha in the dreams are built out of relationships. Actually, the only stats on the character sheet are the character's relationships. Each player, as well as his own character, plays various others associated with the main player characters.

The player portraying a mecha pilot's anchor- their contact in the real world while in a dreamscape- narrates the dreamscape until the GM calls a challenge. Challenges can hurt the mission, the pilot, or his relationships.

In between missions there are various scenes (one called by each player) dealing with relationships and how they have changes.

Confused? I was, but thanks to lots of help and hooks from the other players and the GM I eventually got the hang of things. I liked the character I'd been given- Keanan- who had slept with pretty much every other character and was almost universally mistrusted if not hated.

I basically enjoyed the game, though things took a very dark turn at the end in a way I'd really rather not go into.

However, it's also a game that went beyond my Indie-threshold – something I was unaware I had. Mechanics for personality, relationships, and so on are for me the icing on an rpg cake. I like icing, though not all cakes need it. But I'm not a fan of cakes made entirely of icing.

Another criticism- the game uses big pools of fudge dice- at one stage Jag had a pool of 28 dice. This is immoral! Fudge dice are not the cheapest or easiest dice type to get hold of.

Slot 3: Spirit of the Century
Saturday evening I got to play in Pete's Spirit of the Century game. I refuse to refer to him as Sexy Lemur- it might blow my tiny mind. Well, the game rocked, as I had guessed it would based on my experience when he ran SOTC at Furnace last year.

We were all members of the Iron Society, just back in London after another mission. We hailed a cab another gentleman had left abruptly. Then, in a dramatic case of mistaken identity, a box full of snakes was hurled into our vehicle from a passing car.

Panic- my journalist was terrified of snakes! At least we had a clue- an appointment card belonging to the previous occupant of the cab.

Several investigations, encounters, and fights later, we found the Thuggees were involved, and as was a snake-demon creature (a naga), and an evil artifact called the Hand of Kali. Which we tracked down and destroyed.

Now I've run Spirit of the Century with mostly good results, but the feeling it could have been better. So I came to this game with another agenda beyond enjoying myself- Pete knows how to make the system absolutely sing. Anyway, I've picked up some tips, and will definitely run Spirit of the Century or another FATE-based game (the underlying system) soon.

Slot 4: Call of Cthulhu
Sunday morning I was in another of Phred's games, this time Call of Cthulhu. Furnace for me isn't Furnace without a bit of Cthulhu.

Anyway, the set-up of the game was absolutely brilliant. We were all Finnish miners in a small copper mining camp at the turn of the 20th century. What's so great about that I hear you cry?

Glad you asked. We were in a setting with tensions between miners of different nationalities, exploitation of the miners by the company, and the beginning of trade union agitation for worker's rights. Adding the mythos- subtly at first- made for an explosive mixture.

So I really enjoyed myself, as much exploring the characters and setting as anything else. The one flaw was that the game ended quite abruptly (though in good Cthulhu fashion with us dynamiting the mine) when Phred fell foul of forecasting a four hour game; the morning slots are of course only three hours.

Too bad- the game needed a leisurely exploration. Actually, I'd be absolutely delighted to play a short campaign in the setting- a single con slot does not quite do it justice.

As an aside, I generally like the mixture of three hour and four hour slots at Furnace.

Slot 5: Wild Talents
Me running Wild Talents in Ancient Greece again! This time the heroes were after the new Golden Fleece, which had appeared in Colchis.

They completed the first two of the labours they had been set as a price for the fleece by the king of Colchis, and observed that the third labour was a death trap.

So they discovered the fleece's location, made off with the king's daughter (who wanted to go anyway) and stole the fleece, although they were forced to fight it's guardian (well- except “Leonidas”, who was betrothed to the princess, carrying the fleece, and safely hidden).

The game went well- I think everyone enjoyed themselves. One thing sometimes said about Wild Talents (and the underlying ORE system in general) is that it cannot handle large parties.

Without going into details, I understand this concern- ORE involves dice pools, some sorting of dice, and everyone rolls at once before the order of actions is decided. The system is not for everyone.

However, there are ways around this. One way is to have the enemy be a chief opponent, and a group of minions- who roll a single dice pool. Another way is to break a fight into several smaller battles, focusing on each smaller battle for a few rounds (or until there is an outcome), and then switching to another. This gives a really good feel for things in any case.

I successfully used this technique in a battle between the five PCs and three cyclopes (who were individually tougher than the PCs). I'd be happy with big enemies and minions as well.

Just thought I'd share.
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Paul Mitchener

Maths Sensei

Author: Blood of the Gods (Wild Talents in Ancient Greece), Drowned Lands (in Adventures in Wordplay), Dragon City (in the OpenQuester).

[Dom]

[Guvnor]

[grim@reapersrevenge.co.uk]

Grim offers his apologies to all Furnace delegates who wanted to purchase dice on Sunday, due to severe food poisoning we were unable to open the trade stand on Sunday.

I would also like to thank Joolz, Sue & all those who helped them pack up the stock & carry it back to the car/van for me, your help was very much appreciated.

Also, congratulations to the Furnace committee for an excellent weekend (well what i saw of it anyway), we'd certainly like to attend again next year!

G
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Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone!

[ElaineM]

A summary of Furnace 2009 (with quotes and photos!) can now be found on the website at http://rpgfurnace.com/about/previous-years/furnace-2009/.
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Furnace Games Tsar

[First Age]

[dr_mitch]

[dr_mitch]

[First Age]

Furnace was an island of fun for me and came just in time.

Friday
Zoomed over as soon as I could and arrived just in time to buy all of the Smart Party a Guinness. A pleasant evening chatting about games continued, which was fun and diverting.

The hotel rooms are absolutely fine. They have all that you might need fo a place to crash in between games.

Saturday
Continental breakfast and the the usual rush round to get the venue and tables setup in time for kick off. Not sure that I covered enough things in the opening speech but the venue was full and people wanted to game, so all good.

Qin was a blast. The players seemed to enjoy the game a great deal. It is slightly involved mechanically but as we got into it the players were on top of the twiddles and busy exploiting innocent peasants and beating up Qin warriors.

Managed to get a steak sandwich and then played in Bliss Stage. I share the Doc's view of it. Struggling teenagers losing themselves and their connections to other grim survivors in the most indy indy twaddle I have ever played. Got very dark and horrible. It out Iny'd me.

The evening got me playing my first PDQ having just purchased 'Jaws of the Six Serpents', which is well worth anybody's money. The game gave me a real taste for the system and i like it. The only house rule I feel compelled to add in is some kind of damage quality reduction threshold for an instant knock out - but a minor mechanical thing that had little bearing on play. PDQ is officially all right.

More drink and chat in the late evening set me up for a night's sleep and one more game...

Sunday
The morning saw me play in Dom's Wilderness of Mirrors, a John Wick game of espionage where the players define the mission and solutions and then play them out. You can't even complain about the bizarre plot you are following, because it's the players who make it all up! Good game.

The raffle was all kinds of awesome with loads of prizes given away on top of the vouchers for multi game GMs. Sweet.

There was no call for my last game so got into Gaz's Feng Shui, which was perfect for a last slot game. I played a big created monster who could survive any fall intact. Cue the 30 story building, top floor and plane glass window... Fun (and yes it was fairly fast and furious too).

A special mention to Tom and Elaine for making it all happen and to Darran for the Con book and Russell for printing it for us.

There were a few things to improve upon as usual but overall I thought it was a top convention. It's great that the organisers can just get on and enjoy gaming too. Furnace is pretty hardcore gaming, but then that's the way I like it.

We have no plans to do anything with the base format of the convention. Venue, numbers of delegates and focus will remain the same (because it works and is what we want). We may fiddle round the edges on slot times and so on but furnace will stay much the same because it is about right now. book early when it becomes available to register next year.

Hoorah!
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First Age

[Dr Moose]

[Herbert West]

[First Age]