Gazing at the Embers
22 Oct 2008 21:56 Filed in: Games
Well, Furnace has been and gone and I really enjoyed myself. Highlights as follows:
* The way the players really ran with the whole 1950s B-Movie SF in the Savage Worlds game. Andy's character's attitude to humans (who are obviously beneath contempt!) and the big robot's approach were absolutely sweet and really a pleasure to GM for.
* The Mythic Russia game, where I accidentally ended up with the Ice-Queen over-achieving feminist noble envoy and it was such fun! Mark Galeotti had a fun murder mystery with Pagan / Russian Orthodox Church clashes and I had a great opportunity to be really pushy and stroppy. The game had drama, hilarity and some dark moments too!
* Sufficiently Advanced let me have the fun of watching very high tech Sf play with the heads of the players again. The game was as much fun as the first time I ran it, and probably had one of the most epic results of any that I've run (15 star-systems sent nova to prevent an Alien Inhibitor menace!). This was so not-Traveller it was untrue.
* "The Fall of House Atreides", my Conspiracy of Shadows game had me breaking into a cold sweat when one of the players pulled out The Dune Encyclopedia, only for me to find they just wanted to remind themselves of a detail on their characters.
* The fact that the game had Paul Atreides as the traitor. Having had Jessica in the same position in the first game at Continuum, I was pretty shocked at another core member of the family being the main threat again.
* It was also cool that a number of the player who tried my Conspiracy of Shadows game last Furnace came back again form more. I hope they enjoyed it.
* Playing Wordplay again, this time in the Faded Suns SF universe. I enjoyed this, but ended up with another pushy noble whom I inflicted on the rest of the gaming table. Good fun, but in some ways I preferred the Conan games I tried previously, probably because they were much more fresh to me as I've read a lot of Faded Suns before.
* Having a good natter with Mark Galeotti, who I have great respect for as a gamer, author and general media tart on programmes like Today and PM.
* Neil Gow's excellent 'Duty and Honour'. Respect is due! He has set a bench mark for the layout of Wordplay.
I had a great time and can't wait until 2009's Furnace!
* The way the players really ran with the whole 1950s B-Movie SF in the Savage Worlds game. Andy's character's attitude to humans (who are obviously beneath contempt!) and the big robot's approach were absolutely sweet and really a pleasure to GM for.
* The Mythic Russia game, where I accidentally ended up with the Ice-Queen over-achieving feminist noble envoy and it was such fun! Mark Galeotti had a fun murder mystery with Pagan / Russian Orthodox Church clashes and I had a great opportunity to be really pushy and stroppy. The game had drama, hilarity and some dark moments too!
* Sufficiently Advanced let me have the fun of watching very high tech Sf play with the heads of the players again. The game was as much fun as the first time I ran it, and probably had one of the most epic results of any that I've run (15 star-systems sent nova to prevent an Alien Inhibitor menace!). This was so not-Traveller it was untrue.
* "The Fall of House Atreides", my Conspiracy of Shadows game had me breaking into a cold sweat when one of the players pulled out The Dune Encyclopedia, only for me to find they just wanted to remind themselves of a detail on their characters.
* The fact that the game had Paul Atreides as the traitor. Having had Jessica in the same position in the first game at Continuum, I was pretty shocked at another core member of the family being the main threat again.
* It was also cool that a number of the player who tried my Conspiracy of Shadows game last Furnace came back again form more. I hope they enjoyed it.
* Playing Wordplay again, this time in the Faded Suns SF universe. I enjoyed this, but ended up with another pushy noble whom I inflicted on the rest of the gaming table. Good fun, but in some ways I preferred the Conan games I tried previously, probably because they were much more fresh to me as I've read a lot of Faded Suns before.
* Having a good natter with Mark Galeotti, who I have great respect for as a gamer, author and general media tart on programmes like Today and PM.
* Neil Gow's excellent 'Duty and Honour'. Respect is due! He has set a bench mark for the layout of Wordplay.
I had a great time and can't wait until 2009's Furnace!