October 2019 Update

GAME ON, THIS MONTH!

This is, more than anything, just an update of what I posted last week. Significantly, two of the events from late last month are no longer on the horizon. Project Blue Starlight, my current Call of Cthulhu scenario, is still treading water, but there's plenty of things still going on.

On Friday 27th September, at the Bad Moon Cafe, there was a meet up for members of the London Tabletop Industry Networking group, a group for any involved in table top RPGs or board games. It felt a bit weird sitting amongst the likes of long time game designer James Wallis, who I spent a fair bit of time chatting to, and newer big name Grant Howitt, behind games such as Spire (they both worked on the most recent Paranoia together), as well as Jay Iles (of Legacy: Life Among the Ruins fame) but it was really nice being part of 'a scene'. I also had the pleasure of meeting in the flesh Twitter user Ursidice, fledgeling game designer from Reading, who I've conversed with a fair bit online (please check out his Patreon here).

The event was organised by the lovely Jane Hermiston who, although not a game designer herself, likes to play - I first met her at Thirsty Dragon, when she offered to host last year's Werewolf charity event.

I ran my Call of Cthulhu scenario Roots for some friends on Saturday 28th September, certainly the darkest thing I've ever written. Of three player characters, one was killed by a lady who stabbed him through the heart as he lay in the road, his guts already spilling out, a second was in a religious fervous so was dimly aware of what was going on as his throat was slit and he was sacrificed to the big horrible monster, and the third joined the cult, having believed that she was one of them due to some strange power she'd been exhibiting (which, in fact, was nothing to do with her and everything to do with something she was carrying). So, effectively, a total party 'kill' (although insanity and joining a cult is sometimes considered a win for these sorts of games).

With this same group I'm also planning to start running the Tatters of the King campaign (Call of Cthulhu), the Orpheus campaign (the standalone World of Darkness game), and at the tale end of the year a game of Ninja Burger based on Home Alone, and hopefully - I say this every year - a game of Unknown Armies set in snowy medieval Prague.

Sunday 27th of October sees the 3rd annual Game On, Werewolves charity event (technically it's only the second time it's been called that, as the first year was dedicated to a different charity). We'll be playing a big game of werewolf (Legacy) in the bad Moon Cafe, just south of the river, near London bridge and Borough. If you're interested, message me (or check out the event on Facebook or the official fund raiser page here).

Curtain Call is still not developing much. I've just literally not had the time.

These Kickstarters, at the time of writing, are still live:

• Root, based on the board game, and using the popular Powered By The Apocalypse system, Roots lets you play cute cartoon animals in a Robin Hood style era, where the players are vagabonds, helping the simpler folk whilst the armies of the cats and the birds clash around the woodlands. It's better than that, honestly. Check out the link here.

• Heart: The City Beneath is the follow up to the popular RPG Spire, which was set in a dystopian sort of steam punk fantasy world that features dark elves oppressed by high elves in a massive towering... spire... Heart takes the action into the, ah, dark heart of the setting, moving away from revolutionary dark elves fighting the power and focussing on dungeon crawls through a living dungeon of darkness, madness and opportunity. Check it out here.

• SLA Industries, 2nd Edition, is a game that's been a long time coming. I always describe it as Blade Runner as if Los Angeles had been replaced by Gotham City, given as your players will player operatives sent out into a crazy world of masked serial killers, terrorist organisations and monsters, but it's so much more than that. Described as horror noir, and leaning into splatterpunk, it's all about the show - operatives do the jobs they do in an attempt to become wealthy and get high status in a world where media presence is everything, so don't worry about about the truth - just put on a good show, keep the idiots watching at home happy and you'll be rewarded. Genuinely, one of my favourite games. Check out the link here.

And last month was also the month that the free, 13 page Consent For Gaming booklet dropped into the world, for just checking you're not pushing your players TOO far. There's a handy form at the back, which I made a digital version of here that people can fill in. It's naturally, got a lot of flack from people who don't like optional rules being put into the world that encourage you to give more of a shit about your friends than your story, but these are people you're always going to have a hard time convincing might have their priorities screwed up.

Right. October is starting busy, and I've got a fair bit to do before I go to Ireland for a wedding on Thursday - by the time you read this that may well have happened and I may have other stories to tell (in which case I'll probably post about it in November, if it's still fresh enough in my memory).

That's it for now. Bye!