Conventional Diplomacy

Golden-Crown-Awards-FurnaceI had a great weekend in Sheffield, as the gaming-focussed Furnace event. A little poor health aside, I had a lot of fun and All Rolled Up has the chance to show off some product to old and new customers alike.

We clashed with Spiel this weekend. That meant my wife had to make up SEVENTY All Rolled Up to send to Germany last week. Having made up that big package, we had only about a dozen ARU left in stock – so, the sewing machine was going all hours of the day creating more for Sheffield. And she managed to make another two dozen, all finished and quality checked.

Furnace is, like I say, focussed on the games. While Patriot Games (from Sheffield), Arion Games and All Rolled Up attended (and Newt Newport waved the 101 Games flag while also GMing), the event runs for the 70 or so attending players, giving them 5 official (and one unofficial) slot of gaming across genres and systems. Packed into the function room and cells of the Garrison Hotel, it makes for a cosy environment. Plenty of chatter and energy, though the late night revelries seem to cause energy to wane as early as the afternoon session…

We arrived on the Friday night and had a curry with friends. The following morning we returned to the hotel to set-up and then both my wife and I had a chance to play some Fate Core – she in Age of Arthur and me Fate Accelerated in some cowboys versus dinosaurs action.

After lunch, I initially looked to play something – though I avoid the frenzied scrum of the initial sign-up – then discovered a slot had come free unexpectedly leaving a bunch of players adrift. Always prepared to GM, I pulled Night’s Black Laundry from my bag and ran a mission some brief notes, hand-outs and memory in a somewhat tight 3.5 hour slot. Tight especially as it included actual character generation – using my method pulled from The Gaean Reach – rather than pre-gen sheets.

It went well enough, from memory. I could have done with a bit more time, but I just about squeezed in the essentials. It was a pared down version of Legacy Code (by W J McGuffin) from Unconventional Diplomacy. While it ended up in eastern Europe, it almost went to Skegness – which could have been an adequate diversion.

In the evening, we had takeaway sushi in our room, then played card games in the function room.

I seem to have frittered away my energy reserves over the course of the day, because the following morning it all caught up with me. I had a headache on ther Saturday evening and it persisted to Sunday, along with a general malaise of fatigue.

We met a lot of nice people, had a chance for a fair few conversations, played a little, sold a little – all good stuff and well worth the trip. I plan to be less ill for future visits to Sheffield and run more games, as this environment feels very welcoming and safe. Recommended.


Posted

in

by

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.