Furnace 2025

It’s October, which means it’s my annual trip to the Garrison Hotel in Sheffield and two days of great ttrpg gaming.

It was Furnace’s 20th anniversary, and the organisers gave us each a nice dice tray! (You can’t miss them in the photos below – they’re bright orange.)

New for this year was taking over the hotel restaurant space for eight tables of games. That gave more space for games, but more importantly, the new space was light and airy – a huge improvement on some of the dingier tables elsewhere. (I predict that next year they will be snapped up quickly!)

I played four games. (I don’t play in slot 3, Saturday evening, as I go home instead.)

Calli’s Heroes - Traveller

John ran Kelli’s Heroes, a military heist adventure for Traveller, inspired by a certain movie. Set during the Fifth Frontier War on Becks World (or “Space Iceland” as we described it), we were a Recon company sent to check out a downed shuttle that led us to rescue some scientists who had discovered a vault of Ancient technology.

Lots of fun – with a nice scene where we intimidated the heck out of some Vargr, forcing them to flee rather than actually engaging them in battle. I played squad leader Calli, a compulsive gambler, who was heavily in debt and happy to go after priceless Ancients artefacts!

We had two firefights – the first lasting no more than two rounds, the other over in the first salvo.

The Price of Arrogance – 7th Sea

Remi ran The Price of Arrogance, a swashbuckling adventure involving sinister conspiracies, a mysterious artefact, a race across the sea and a slave uprising. I played Eberhardt Fischer, a merchant.

It was my first time playing 7th Sea. We were playing second edition, and there was some debate as to whether it was better than first. I have no idea – it seemed fine to me, very dramatic and encouraged over-the-top actions.

I particularly liked the rule that gave you an extra die to roll if you describe what your character is doing with flair (rather than just say “I attack”). I’d happily incorporate that in other games.

Good Society

I ran Good Society, the Jane Austen rpg, on Sunday morning. I  had five players, and I used the Romantic Comedy playset from the book. (I used Storybrewers one-shot advice from here.)

The players seemed to enjoy themselves and leant into the spirit of the game – secret betrothals, marriage attempts, a very sweet gay romance between two of the minor characters, and even a duel.

A few things I will take away:

• I made a mistake in also playing a character. It wasn’t my original plan, but one of the players suggested I do so. Well, I wouldn’t do it for two reasons.
• Six main characters is too many in a three-hour slot. (Storybrewers recommend 3-5 players.)
• I found it hard to juggle both facilitating and running a character, and I don’t think I did my characters justice. With longer, or fewer players, I’d happily facilitate.
• Strangely, the players found the minor characters almost more interesting than their main characters. I don’t know if that’s because we had the main characters (as cards) on standees, while the main characters were just character sheets.

Anyway, I will run Good Society again, probably with a different playset.

Pirate Bait – Cepheus Universal

Graham ran a Cepheus Universal game, which put our crew of adventurers on a remote survey outpost as bait for pirates.

I played Tara Vix, an ex-media star (rank 6, “National Treasure”!) turned navigator on the Quicksilver, our 300-ton starship.

Our adventure ended with a space battle against the pirates (we were only supposed to be bait – our backup never arrived…), which I think is the first time I have ever used space combat rules in Traveller (or a Traveller-derived game). We destroyed two fighters and got away.

Graham had good table bling, including stands for the characters, a full-colour hexmap, and standees for the ships.

And that was me done! I wonder what I’ll run and play next year?

Furnace 2024

A couple of weekends ago I attended Furnace, the RPG convention in Sheffield. As usual (previous reports here), I ran one game and played in three others.

Furnace is a lovely, friendly convention and would be the highlight of my gaming calendar if it wasn’t for all the other lovely events I go to.

Anyway, here’s what I played and ran.

Kids on Bikes

Fergus ran Swallows and Elder Things, an investigative scenario for Kids on Bikes where we played WW2 refugees sent to the country to stay with our uncle. (We were effectively Enid Blyton’s Famous Five – including a dog. I played Bea, nine years old and the youngest.) We uncovered dark secrets of an expedition to the Antarctic where our uncle had brought back something he shouldn’t. And thanks to some bad rolls, we all died in the climax to the ancient creature we really shouldn’t have reawakened…

Lots of lovely details (tongue sandwiches, ribbons, throwing sticks for Tommy the dog) – and everyone leaned into their characters. In fact, we had so much fun roleplaying kids that the scenario overran the slot a little – but it didn’t matter. Neither did the TPK ending.

DramaSystem (ie Hillfolk)

After lunch, I ran Success too Soon, a game for DramaSystem (ie, Hillfolk). My four players played members of a successful pop band who had reached the end of their first tour. We created the characters as usual in DramaSystem, and then their manager told them their record company wanted them to sign the next contract tonight, which kicked the game off.

While the band argued about what to do with the contract, I raised the stakes by introducing a parent who wanted to remortgage the house (and was relying on their income), and a music journalist looking for a scoop. We ended up with the band fracturing and one member going their own way.

This was the first time I had run this playset and it seemed to go well. As ever when I’m running a DramaSystem game, I felt drained at the end of it – I find it a very intense game.

Anyway, I’ve now put the playbooks on Itch.

Liminal

Elaine ran The Forgotten Station, a Liminal investigation into an old book which led us to a forgotten underground station and a dangerous magical ritual. I played Morgan, one of the Hidden, those who are easily overlooked (and inspired, I think, by Neverwhere).

As always, Liminal was a lot of fun. Lots of inventive London magic by our geomancer, and plenty of in-character chat, which I always like to see. We ended with a climactic battle against the forces of darkness (we won) and finished pretty much on the dot.

Mouse Guard

For my last game of Furnace, Guy ran Mouse Guard, where we had to track down a grain peddler who was suspected of being a spy. We faced terrible hazards including rain and a mink. I played Lillye, an enthusiastic guard mouse. (It’s fun being given an enthusiastic character – you just volunteer for everything!)

This was my first time with Mouse Guard. I had the book a while ago (a rare raffle win from a previous Furnace – it’s not the sort of thing I would normally buy), but I never got it to the table because it didn’t really make sense. And although it made some sense when Guy ran it, I felt the lack of system mastery when it came to the challenges – we were nearly defeated by the rain, and in the final battle, when two of us went up against a mink, we lost. I’m not regretting getting rid of Mouse Guard, but I’d like to play it again.

As for our adventure, we had a nice time, although it would have been nice to have a bit more time for some character stuff - we were all done a couple of hours or so.

Until next year

And that was Furnace 2024 for me.

There are other conventions at The Garrison (see them all here), but they are all too close to other gaming weekends, so I give them a pass.

Next on my calendar is Consequences, the freeforming convention in November.

Furnace 2023

It’s October and that means I’ve been to Furnace, the RPG convention in Sheffield held over two days (five sessions of gaming). I ran one game and played in three. This is how they went.

Dragonbane

First up was a Dragonbane scenario, The Village of the Day Before, ably run by Graham. I played grumpy mallard, Makander of Halfbay.

The scenario had a videogame feel about it – there was a problem to solve, which we had to solve by doing things in the right order. Fail (or run out of time), and everyone dies and the scenario resets. Fortunately, Graham didn’t make us go through everything for every reset – that would have been tiresome. We ended up with a tricky battle against a demon in which I (as the party tank) led the assault and almost died.

As a system, Dragonbane was new to me. It was extremely easy to pick up, which I was grateful for, and probably made it good for conventions.

It would have been nice to have fifteen minutes of session zero at the start to get the characters to bond with each other and create links to the scenario. As it was, we were an “adventuring party”, and we were going to the village because it might have some treasure. I know those are RPG tropes, but I’ve never been convinced by them.

DramaSystem

After lunch, I ran Hazelwood Abbey, which is Downton Abbey for Hillfolk/DramaSystem. My five players were Elina (Eldest Daughter), Lynn (The Heir), Dee (The Earl), Paul (The Spare) and Becky (The Youngest Daughter). 

Most players were new to the game, so I ran through the system, and we dived in. Everyone leaned into their characters and the situation. We had a lovely dramatic game with illegitimate children, money problems, a dodgy Heir and more.

This time, I found I needed some GM scenes to keep up the pressure on the main plot established at the start. (That wasn’t something I needed when I ran Hillfolk at Continuum.) So halfway through the game, I inserted a “GM” card into the deck I was using to call scenes; when it was my turn, I played whichever minor character I needed to play to keep things on track.

We wrapped up after about 2.5 hours with a satisfactory climax. It felt like an intense session, and I was grateful for a slightly longer break after the game. 

I will do a couple of things differently next time as The Heir and Spare need adjusting. The Heir decided that they were a distant relative, which put The Spare in an odd position. We sort of fudged it, but I’ve adjusted The Heir’s playbook to say that if The Spare is in the game, then the Heir should be a family member (ie an older brother). I think that would have been clearer.

I’ll make the playbooks available shortly.

Saturday evening

I never play slot 3 at Furnace; instead, I head home to see the family. So I re-read the Hillfolk rules. Having run it twice now, I’m already questioning some rules. I don’t know if that’s the difference between campaign and one-shot play, or whether I’m missing something, but it’s something I will reflect on as I run more Hillfolk/DramaSystem.

Unknown Armies

On Sunday morning, I played in Elaine’s Unknown Armies game – another system new to me. Elaine ran Jailbreak, a classic Unknown Armies one-shot featuring escaped convicts and an isolated farmhouse. I played Uder, the loving husband, and I’m not going to say more than that for fear of spoiling an excellent scenario. (And that’s a shame because I had a lovely scene with Elina, playing my lovely wife, which I won’t mention because it was sooooo spoilery.)

Jailbreak gets a thumbs up from me for using characters tailored for the adventure – it wouldn’t be as effective with a random set of pre-gens.

A couple of the players had played it before but couldn’t remember the details. Playing the scenario a second time isn’t a problem if you are deliberately antagonistic and help drive the action, which is what happened this time.

I didn’t get the hang of the rules – particularly the Madness Meter. But I think I made only one or two rolls, so it didn’t matter.

I expected the game to end up bloodier than it did – no characters died. Maybe we’re all getting more reasonable as we get older.

Liminal

And finally, a Liminal investigation run by Neil set in and around Newcastle (and written to accompany the forthcoming Novocastria book). With its vampires and werewolves, it’s easy to head towards horror in Liminal, but instead, Scream! If you want to die faster? focussed on genuine Newcastle folklore involving a traditional fair (The Hoppings) with its “danger night” and even an old curse). 

We played members of the Worshipful Company of Investigators – I was posh boy Simon D’Oliviera, a clued-in mortal. (And if that sounds familiar, it’s because the characters were taken from Pax Londinium – the Crew was sent on a mission outside London to the Grim North.) I’m not sure I played Simon particularly well – but I rolled dice, followed the clues, danced, was ineffectual in combat and enjoyed exploring liminal Newcastle.

One character was a London geomancer. Outside of London, you’d think their powers would be limited, but Neil had a great way to connect them to Newcastle through the gift of a magic Newcastle United shirt. (Geomancy is a tricky power if you run a game set in many locations – this was a neat solution.) 

Overall

So, three great games played, and I enjoyed running Hazelwood Abbey. Best of all was catching up with old friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in years.

Maybe next year I’ll make one of the other Garrison conventions?

Furnace 2022

Last weekend found me in Sheffield for Furnace 2022. 

Furnace runs over a weekend – three games on Saturday and two on Sunday. It takes me about an hour to get there, so I don’t play the Saturday evening game (slot 5).

One of the nice things about Furnace is putting faces to names that I see on The Tavern. Anyway, on with my games.

Slot 1 Saturday morning: The Raven Stone (AD&D, GM: Simon)

A proper, old-school game of AD&D. We had six of us trying to figure out what was causing the dead to rise (the eponymous Raven Stone) and then putting it back where it belonged.

We nearly had a player-induced TPK when our mage decided to kill a room of kobolds by drop-kicking bottles of ‘nitroglycerine’ at them. We cleared the kobolds, yes, but sadly (or, deservedly) our mage perished in the inferno.

Although I’ve been roleplaying since 1981, this was my first proper game of AD&D. I never played it back in the day (it was Traveller and Call of Cthulhu for me), and I rarely play D&D now. I found the system confusing – it lacks a modern consistency (sometimes you need to roll high, sometimes low). Luckily Simon had all the modifiers in his head, and I just needed to roll the dice.

Slot 2 Saturday afternoon: The Haunting of Abbeyham Priory (They Came From Beyond the Grave! GM: Tom)

This was delightful fun with lots of hammy fun with five of us investigating a mystery in the style of a 70s Hammer Horror movie. 

The system was simple (although we had the usual business of finding that the skills don’t quite work for the situation you want) and I really liked the quips – each character has several catchphrases that give them extra dice when they say them. So we did that often, and the system rewarded us with more dice.

A great, light-hearted con game – although I can’t imagine playing this as a campaign.

Slot 4 Sunday morning: Perfect Organism (ALIEN, GM: me)

My turn to run something. I had a few preflight nerves, but I always get that with a scenario I’ve not run before. I had one player drop, which was fine - the other three were awesome and really leaned into the conflict and agendas I’d created.

The scenario worked well (phew!), and I didn’t even kill any of the characters (although there weren’t many NPCs left alive by the end.) 

Some lovely moments: All the character banter, particularly the ICC lawyer and the W-Y executive. The players gamely ignoring what they knew and playing their characters. One player throwing an NPC into the path of an attacking facehugger. Kathar Station blowing up.

Slot 5 Sunday afternoon: Mischief Night (Liminal, GM: Sue)

Four P-Division agents tracking down some missing cream for a Halloween-themed adventure. Very irreverent, with some great banter around the table and trips into Northampton’s medieval tunnels and a creepy fairy realm.

I really like four-player games – it gives me space to develop a relationship with the other players and their characters, which I don’t find so easy with higher player counts. However, I appreciate the difficulty at conventions as it means you need more GMs.

Furnace 2023

I’m already looking forward to Furnace 2023 – but next for me is Retford freeforming in November and then Airecon in March.

Furnace 2019

I’m writing this in the middle of October and that means that it was Furnace last weekend. This is I think the fifth Furnace I’ve attended, and the third time I’ve run a game. It’s always a friendly convention, although that’s partly because I now know so many of the regulars.

The Garrison hotel from a previous Furnace

And this year the quality of games seemed particularly good…

Although Furnace officially starts on Saturday morning, many players arrive Friday night and hang out in the bar or play boardgames. However, I missed all this as I’m only a 50 minute drive away it seemed a bit extravagant to stay overnight. One day I’m sure I will, as I know I don’t get the full Furnace effect without staying at the Garrison.

Slot 1 (Saturday morning)

Assault on Irondelve (D&D5e), run by Neil Gow. I played Kromm, a 4th level dwarf fighter in D&D 5e. We were dwarves and our under-mountain realm was under assault from an enormous army of goblins and orcs. Defend the city!

I don’t play much D&D, and I think this was the highest level character I’ve ever played. Unfortunately I think the fact that I don’t play much D&D hindered me a little bit - I obviously lack system mastery which might have made playing Kromm a bit more satisfying.

Afterwards I realised that my lack of mastery also spreads to the background. I don’t play many fantasy games, and strangely enough I had a hard time grokking the world. What’s a dwarven city like? How many entrances are there? Where are the weak points? Neil gave us permission to invent the details that we needed, but that didn’t help. As an example, it took me a while to think that what we really needed to do was send help to the dwarf king and just hold out long enough for the cavalry to arrive. Obvious in hindsight, but looking back it took ages to realise that.

I liked how Neil used magnetic disks instead of miniatures - much more portable and I can imagine doing that if I used miniatures in games. (But I don't and I’m not sure that’s what I want from my RPGs - everything always becomes a bit boardgame-y when the miniatures come out. I like boardgames, but not while I’m roleplaying.) Neil explains how to create his disks here.

I also struggle with a very rules-based system like D&D. At one point I wanted to cut an Ogre’s arm off in combat, but because D&D’s combat system doesn’t obviously give you permission to do that, when it was my turn I just rolled to attack. (Which is stupid - I just needed to ask Neil!)

Slot 2 (Saturday afternoon)

Beneath the Stones (Liminal) by Paul Mitchener. I was really pleased to play in this - I backed the Liminal Kickstarter but hadn’t played or run it. And this was my first Liminal game.

I played Eve, a fae illusionist. I imagined her very young, just out of school. Liminal is a modern-day British urban fantasy setting (and very similar to the Other London games I’ve been running and talking about), and I felt very comfortable with the setting.

The game itself involved the disappearance of Haltwhistle, which we was reported on the news and we went to check it out. When we found it we found a circle of mist (impenetrable to ordinary folk I think) and we found dark goings on involving a stone circle and a Fae realm.

Some nice moments I enjoyed: some good banter amongst the players; getting to drive the werewolf’s van even though I hadn’t passed my test; facing down the Hunter (and getting speared for my efforts).

There were a couple of oddities - I would have expected some encounters with BBC film crews or other reporters on the outskirts of the mist. I think the main issue for me was Liminal’s concept of the “crew” (or the adventuring party) and our reasoning for investigating. It felt a bit like we were investigating because we were playing Liminal, not something that arose out of our characters. That’s a fault of many other games as well, of course.

As for the rules system, it was fine. Roll 2d6 and add your skill level - try to beat 8  (normally). It was very reminiscent of the old GDW Traveller rules, with a few tweaks here and there.

But more on Liminal later.

Slot 3 (Saturday evening)

I skipped slot 3 because the slot finishes at midnight and I don’t fancy driving home at that point. Another reason to one day stay overnight.

Slot 4 (Sunday morning)

I ran The Aurors, a game set in the Harry Potter Wizarding World using Fate Accelerated. The players were Aurors and had a dark wizard to chase.

I wasn’t sure how a Harry Potter game would be received, but in the end I had three pre-bookings and a full game. Everyone knew Harry Potter and seemed to enjoy being Aurors chasing a nasty dark wizard.

The game in full flow - is that an acromantula I can see?

I structured the group with two senior Aurors shepherding three trainee Aurors (although in Fate Accelerated terms there was no difference between them) and that worked really well, with the senior Aurors marking the others and taking notes.

I started with a setting grid and some questions from Backstory Cards. I seeded the setting grid with locations and people from the scenario, and I liked how that gave some scenes a bit more resonance when they appeared in the game.

My players were great. They really got into the game and seemed to enjoy being experienced or trainee Aurors. Due to time constraints I did have to skip a couple of scenes as I wanted to make sure we ended up with a climactic battle against a powerful dark wizard. One of the things I really like about Fate is when the players get the opportunity to set an ambush and they can create aspects in advance. So in preparation for the final battle we ended up with:

• Dark shadows
• Where’s my box?
• Not where I put it!
• Giant spider hiding in the ceiling
• Look at me, I’m a white crow!
• Not where I put it.

I appreciate that this isn’t to everyone’s taste, but with the dark wizard, a couple of dementors and some henchmen to deal with, the Aurors needed all the bonuses they could get and the scenario ended with the dark wizard vanquished and our heroes triumphant.

I finished the session by asking everyone to describe what we see their Auror doing as the credits roll, which is always a good way to finish off a one-shot.

I’ll post the files up here before too long, along with some more thoughts about the game.

Slot 5 (Sunday afternoon)

Oh, before I get to the game, I won The Mouse Guard RPG in the raffle. I haven’t looked at it in detail yet, but it looks interesting.

Five for Silver, Six for Gold (Liminal) by Matt Nixon. My second Liminal game, this time we were all members of P-Division (the supernatural section of the police), and I was an ex-marine Detective Inspector in charge of the group. I was non-magical this time, which was a change.

Our team was more focused than Saturday’s, which I felt helped the scenario (although, for whatever reason, the banter between the players was better in the previous game). For me, I think giving the “crew” more of a focus definitely helps - particularly for one-shots.

We battled motorcycle ghost-zombies, explored lost underground stations and ended up battling more zombies. We discovered that Liminal can be brutal - we nearly died in the final encounter (against four zombies). Partly that was due to a lack of system mastery on our part as there were things we could have done (magically warded weapons to do more damage, for example) that we didn’t do. Even though we had used warded weapons in a previous battle, we didn’t think to use them this time. As it was, we just scraped through.

And then we found out that we’d trodden on toes that we shouldn’t have, which was a really nice twist and would have lead neatly into further adventures. As the “leader” of the group I found myself getting very cross with our bosses and the NPC from MI6/MI5 or wherever, which seemed about right for the game.

Back next year

And that was Furnace. I thoroughly recommend it - friendly weekend convention in Sheffield. I’m already thinking about what to run next year.

Furnace 2018

Last weekend I attended Furnace, one of several roleplaying conventions held at the Garrison Hotel in Sheffield. I last wrote about this two years ago (last year I could only attend one day and didn’t get around to writing up my thoughts).

Slot #1: Blades in the Dark

Pete Atkinson ran The Gaddoc Rail Heist with four players, and it went really well. I played a grungy female sharpshooter (whose name completely escapes me). The heist worked, and the dice were really with us until I was savagely mauled by some kind of spectral beast. I survived, but it was fortunate that we were at the end of the session.

I didn’t know anything about Blades in the Dark before I started, other than it was the game where you do heists. I was surprised by the background (a sort of dieselpunk fantasy world very similar, I'm told, to a video game I’ve not played) - for some reason I was expecting something in the modern day and we’d be recreating The Italian Job or Ocean’s Eleven.

I think more games could make use of the flashback mechanic to avoid planning paralysis - which nobody has time for in a convention game. (The idea is that you just dive into the heist, and if you come up against a problem then there’s a flashback where you set things up to overcome the problem.)

It was a great convention game, but I’m not sure I’d want to play a campaign. I wonder if lots of heists becomes a bit repetitive. I gather that the downtime stuff becomes more important, but even so.

Slot #2: The End of Laughter and Soft Lies

Dom Mooney ran this using The Sword, the Crown and The Unspeakable Power, which is a PbtA game that I’d not heard of before. It felt very like Game of Thrones, and was very player-v-player, which was a pleasant change of pace from the other games I played.

Dom started with character generation followed by sorting out the setting. That worked well, with all of us having a good idea of the setting, despite never having played the game before. (That contrasted with Blades in the Dark, which had an established setting that meant Pete kept having to explain things.)

I played Pill, a bloodletter (physician) and the only problem I had with it was that I found myself slightly sidelined at the start, as I found my character wasn’t particularly tied into the power play that kicked off. I eventually found my feet and started reanimating some of the key NPCs...

Looking back, it must have been very easy to run. Apart from the Emperor’s younger brother asking one of us for a speech, and the (not very unexpected) announcement of the death of the Emperor towards the end, Dom pretty much left us to it and we played the game ourselves.

Afterwards I did wonder if more structured scenes would have worked - as with Hillfolk. In Hillfolk everyone gets to call a scene, and I might have been less passive at the start if I’d been forced to act instead of just watching everyone else.

Slot #3: An early night

As usual, I skipped Slot #3 and headed back home for an early night while the rest of Furnace carried on without me. One day perhaps I'll book a room and stay for Slot #3.

Slot #4: The Bone Swallower

I ran The Bone Swallower using Fate Accelerated. I’d already run it for my online group, and it was interesting seeing how new players took to it. The adventure ran pretty much on time, and the players seemed to enjoy themselves.

I had four players for The Bone Swallower, which felt about right. I had five characters prepared, and I’m sure it would have been fine with five, but I find that four players is more manageable and ensures that everyone gets a chance to shine.

Slot #5: A Cthulhu City Story: Weeping for the memory of lives gone by

Another game run by Dom, this one using The Cthulhu Hack (which isn’t really my cup of tea). Dom somehow managed to turn the epic sandbox campaign that is Cthulhu City and turn it into a one-shot. And it worked!

I played Professor Hermes Winchester, a mathematics professor at Miskatonic University, and had a great time trying to figure out what was going on and how to get back to our reality.

I don’t know if this is how The Cthulhu Hack normally works, but Dom used the Gumshoe principle of letting us find the clue no matter what we roll on the dice. (I took the same approach for The Bone Swallower as well - I can’t imagine running a mystery any other way now.)

Overall

Overall I had a great time at Furnace. I think I chose a good set of games this year (that doesn't always happen) and I hope my game didn't lower the standard.

Furnace XI

The Garrison

Last weekend I had a wonderful time playing tabletop roleplaying games at Furnace XI, held in Sheffield’s marvellous Garrison Hotel. As usual I drove down and back each day, but this year for a change I actually ran a game.

Here’s how my convention went.

Slot #1: Fate Accelerated

This was my slot - I ran The Crasta Demon, a  Fate Accelerated demon hunt set in my own fantasy background. I had a full group (five players) and we finished just about on time, with a fifteen minute break. Everyone looked like they were having fun, and they threw me some curve balls that I had to think about, so that was good.

I tried out my "DramaAspects" again, and again some players took to them and some didn't. I'm certainly going to continue with it.

Because I knew that time was likely to be tight, I didn't roll the dice much, Instead, I assumed that all the bad guys would always roll zero on their Fate dice (actually the most likely result anyway), and that speeded up combat as I always knew what my result was.

There were only a couple of things I would do differently next time, both of which concern preparation rather than my running of the game:

• For Fate pregens I would give each character five useful stunts, and let the player choose three.
• I would give each character the rules summary and the background summary (which Richard did for his Owl Hoot Trail game).

Anyway, I'll post the scenario on the blog when I've made a couple of minor amendments to it.

Slot #2: Owl Hoot Trail run by Richard Lock

I played Tuco, a taciturn orc gunslinger in this fantasy Wild West game. Our mission was to find a railroad engineer and save the day from an evil railroad rival. While I took the name from Eli Wallach's character in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, I think I was channelling the Man With No Name as I pursued a shoot-first-don't-say-much-at-all policy.

I'd not played Owl Hoot Trail before, and I put my character in significant peril early on when I called out my arch enemy to a duel. It was the right thing to do storywise (him being my arch enemy), but I didn't realise quite how badly it could have gone until much later. Luckily the dice were with me.

I liked the character packs (character sheet, map of Perdition, rules summary) that Richard provided - I will do that next time.

Slot #3: An early night

The biggest downside of not staying on-site is that I miss the Saturday evening slot. But they have a habit of dragging on into the early hours of the morning, and I know I wouldn’t be safe driving back.

The upside, on the other hand, is that I see my family instead, and I was so tired on Saturday that I ended up with a relatively early night.

Slot #4: Spirit of 77 run by Matt Nixon

I played Father Nick ‘The Priest’ James, a tattooed martial artist, and one of four deniable government black-ops assets. Our mission was to capture a triad leader in the top of an office building, which we accomplished after wading through dozens of mooks and causing untold property damage.

Very enjoyable, although once again I found myself slightly dissatisfied with a PbtA game. I’ve now played three PbtA games (Dungeon World, Monsterhearts, and now Spirit of 77) and in each case I’ve come away thinking that I’m missing something.

I don’t think it’s the system itself, as from what I can see it should be right up my street. Instead, I suspect that in each case it has been my lack of familiarity with that particular variant, and how the GM is running it; each time I’ve played convention one-shots, which probably doesn’t help.

In this case, although I was playing a tattooed martial artist, my reading of the character playbook suggested that he was more effective in battle using his revolver. So that’s what I mostly did. It was only at the end of the game, when I mentioned this, that Matt pointed out how effective my martial arts skills could be. It wasn’t that clear to me from the playbook, and I think if I were playing a second session then I’d be more likely to play the character ‘properly’.

Slot #5: Demon Hunters run by Declan Feeney

I played Claudia Hawk, a vampire combat medic (and yes, that went about as well as you might expect). I was one of six members of a team of government demon hunters – except that we were the clean-up crew hoping to break into the big time. Our adventure involved encountering the kraken at Hoover Dam, demonic possession and a strange ritual at a roller derby. Demon Hunters is ‘supposed’ to be a comedy-horror roleplaying game, but Declan played it straight, with full-on angst for some of the team, and it was all the better for that.

I found the Demon Hunters system a bit frustrating. It’s a Fate hack, but in my view it’s not an improvement. It seemed much more complicated, and I spent much of the game wondering why they didn’t just use Fate or Fate Accelerated.

Over for another year

So that was Furnace XI. Overall a huge success – I played in some great games, met some new people, and I didn’t disgrace myself running Fate Accelerated.

Here’s looking forward to next year!