Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to one and all!

Here’s to another year of great gaming.

 

Games for the Winter Quarter 2020

Tags

gaming, Roleplaying, RPG

Our games for the Winter quarter 2020 are as follows:

1. D&D 5th Edition
2. D&D 5th Edition – Strahd / Ravenloft Setting
3. Masks: A New Generation
4. Cyberpunk
5. Insight RPG, plus one or two other short games (to be determined)

 

Games for the Autumn Quarter 2019

Tags

Cthulhu, Deadlands, gaming, Roleplaying, RPG

We currently have five games on offer:

1. D&D 5th Edition – Ravenloft setting.
2. Band of Blades – a military and fantasy story about a group of soldiers in a long retreat from a catastrophic defeat while being pursued by the undead enemy. It’s based on the Blades in the Dark system, which is itself an outgrowth of Powered by the Apocalypse.
   
3. Metro – a game inspired by the novel Metro 2033, using the Ellipses RPG system.
4. After the Bomb – a post-apocalypse, mutant animal game, using a variant of the Basic Roleplaying (BRP) system.
5. Deadlands – adventures in the Weird West.

 

All the games have spaces for new or returning players.

Happy gaming!

 

Games for the Summer Quarter 2019

Tags

gaming, Referee, RPG

Hello everyone,

We only have a couple of sessions before the end of the quarter, so if you’re keen to run a game, please respond to this post with some details and/or post them on the Slack channel.

As things stand, we only have one confirmed game, which is Nathan’s Planescape.

I’m intending to run something, but am still working out exactly what that will be.

Cy may be running the next installment of his ongoing Samsara campaign. I’ll get confirmation as soon as I can.

Stew may continue with his Firefly game for another quarter. As above, I’ll get confirmation as soon as I can.

Matt

 

Planescape- Summer Quarter

I’d like to offer up a game for next quarter. The last one was a success so I would like to return once again to the exciting and varied world of Planescape. In the previous adventure the players started as newcomers to  Sigil- a city full of portals to countless realms of existence. Amongst other things, they solved a kidnapping spree, mounted a daring rescue, made some friends and stopped a plot to make the city fall into hell.

I’ll be using a slightly modified version of the Mouse Guard (itself a simpler form of Burning Wheel) system as I did before. A simple d6 dice pool system with emphasis on teamwork and character’s personal beliefs.

Home Brew Rules

Tags

Game design, gaming, Referee, Roleplaying, RPG

I’ve been roleplaying since the dim and distant days of the early/mid-80s. It wasn’t too long after I started that I found myself making tweaks to published rulesets and not too many years after that I started to venture into writing my own rules.

In the early 90s I bought a supplement for Rolemaster RPG called ‘At Rapier’s Point’, for gaming in the 17th Century Europe of the Three Musketeers. Rolemaster was, in my opinion, a pretty wretched set of rules, but I really wanted to run a game set in this historical period. Even though I had a copy of Rolemaster, I wanted a more approachable system, but at that time I didn’t have anything that would work with the swashbuckling game I had in mind. I did have Middle-Earth RPG (also known as MERP) from the same company (Iron Crown Enterprises), which had a system that could be called ‘basic’ Rolemaster, and that I thought would allow me to use – at least in some form – the new rules presented in the At Rapier’s Point supplement. I quickly realised, however, that in order to make the MERP system support the concept I had for At Rapier’s Point, I had a fair bit of work on my hands. I ended up having to rewrite a good chunk of the character generation rules: ditching the fantasy races and replacing them with social backgrounds;  coming up with new skill categories and skills; designing a whole new set of character professions; etc.

Over the years I’ve been running At Rapier’s Point, the parts of the MERP system that I didn’t initially discard have – bit by bit – been replaced to the point where there’s nothing left of it and I have my own set of rules. These have been used – with amendments – for other genres and settings, so have proved incredibly useful.

So, have any of you designed your own rules, whether it’s for an entirely new game, or to replace an existing set of rules that you didn’t like? Or maybe you’ve simply hacked an existing ruleset to make it work ‘better’ for you and your players? If you haven’t done either of these things, have you considered doing it, or are you more than happy with the rules in the published games you already have?

 

Games for the Spring Quarter 2019

Tags

gaming, Referee, Roleplaying, RPG

Hello everyone.

We’re three weeks away from the end of the current quarter and so far the following games have been offered up:

1) Firefly (referee: Stewart). This is part 3 of an ongoing adventure. There may be a place available in this game: please post in the Slack workspace if you haven’t previously played in this adventure, but are interested in doing so.

2) DnD 5E- Kasora Oriental Campaign (referee: Snowy). Please speak to or message Snowy for more details.

3) Who You Gonna Call (referee: Cy). Ghostbusters themed game. Please speak to or message Cy for more details. **Update** After chatting with Cy last night, I can confirm that he would like to run the original Ghostbusters RPG from West End Games (1986). He is looking for three players, with a fourth slot available for new players.

4) At Rapier’s Point (referee: Matt). This is part 2 of an ongoing adventure, which will probably run for the next two quarters. The game is now full, although I am keeping a slot open for new players (only).

If anyone else is intending – or would like – to run a game next quarter, please post the details on the Slack workspace.

If you have any other queries, either grab me at the Club or message me.

Cheers,

Matt

 

AIRECON

Tags

gaming, harrogate

Hi all,

This is a quick reminder that the AIRECON “Analog Gaming Festival” will be on in Harrogate at the Convention Centre from Friday, 8th March to Sunday, 10th March.

This is a great convention, so please go along, show your support, and have a great time!

Check out the website for more details:

https://airecon.uk/

Cheers,

Matt

 

Review Time

Tags

gaming, harrogate, Referee, Roleplaying

Hello everyone,

I think the time has come for a review of how (and perhaps how often) we start new games. After another slightly painful first quarter game selection, I’ve come to the conclusion that the ‘beauty parade’ approach is not a particularly good way to determine which games will run. Part of the problem is the lack of certainty on the part of both referees and players: prospective referees will undoubtedly spend time preparing to run a game, only to find there’s a lack of interest; likewise, players gear up to play in a game only to find that it doesn’t run, or it’s oversubscribed.

I don’t think that there’s a perfect solution to this problem: we have a lot of players – some regulars, some less so – and it’s difficult to determine in advance of a new quarter who will be available and, even if they are, whether there will be a game they want to play in.

The question, therefore, is how do we get more certainly? One suggestion I’ve had is that games are offered up four weeks out from the start of a new quarter and a final decision regarding the games that will run and who’s in each game, is made in the final week of the quarter. It will be the responsibility of each referee to advertise their game and secure players by the final week. This is similar to the Survey Monkey approach we used for a little while, but puts the emphasis on referees and players to arrange things directly.

Another (possibly throwaway) suggestion, was to switch from quarters to ‘trimesters’, so that there are only three sessions in a year, reducing the amount of messing around and increasing the opportunity for longer games.

Now I may be the only one that thinks changes are needed. If so, we can carry on as before. However, if I’m not and anyone else has any ideas for improving things, leave a comment.

Cheers,

Matt

 

 

 

Sins Campaign Q4

Tags

gaming, Referee, Roleplaying, RPG

From Cy

Hi all just a quick note to say I am playing to make an offering to the Next quarter. Still trying to iron out a few things but as it stands.

System: sins. no knowledge of the system is required and role play over rules.

Style: horror, very dark souls/bloodborn esk

Setting: a alternate 1650 ish (post english civil war) with fantastical elements. a muskets and right of kings sort of thing