Furnace XVII

Things were a bit touch and go on the run up to Furnace.  Two weeks beforehand I managed to pick up a nasty case of flu.  With the week before the convention seeing attendees dropping like flies with covid, flu and other illnesses I was wondering if I was actually going to be able to go.  But by Friday my health had improved considerably, and with the NHS website saying that flu is infectious for 3-7 days after symptoms appear, I was confident that I wasn't going to inflict it on anyone else if I showed up.

Game 1: Apocalypse World

Things kicked off on Saturday morning with a game of Apocalypse World.  Given that it was the same GM as my first game of Apocalypse World, I was tempted to play Pity again, and when said GM also suggested it, my mind was made up.  I made one change, switching out the brainer ear plugs for a pain projector, as the ear plugs are a passive item and therefore a bit more boring than the more active ones, especially in a one shot.

The rest of the players consisted of two PBTA veterans and one guy playing for the very first time.  We soon established that the town of Stagnant Waters was being visited by a mobile fight club housed in a luxury yacht on wheels being towed by a big rig.  After that things got weirder.

The more I play Apocalypse World, the more I like the idea of playing in a campaign.  Preferably with at least some of the same people.

Game 2: They Came From Beyond The Grave

The prospect of playing the characters in a 1970s B-movie was too good to pass up.  The Haunting of Abbeyham Priory is a quickstart adventure for this system, with a delightful set of pre-gen characters, each with a character portrait showing them suitably dressed for the setting.  The five of us piled into the Austin Allegro, and in a cloud of cigarette smoke and patchouli, started our investigation into the haunted priory, where we encountered many strange and horrifying things, although perhaps nothing was more terrible than the 1970s instant coffee.

I'm not totally sold on the system, it being a little too much like Vampire for my liking (understandable since it's from Onyx Path).  It did have some great features though, and I particularly liked the rewrite system, where we had a pool of points we could spend for rerolls ("What? My character would never mess up such a simple task that badly!  We're rewriting that bit.") and a number of other special effects ("We're going to get to the secret lair via this tunnel that was built for the previous movie that used this set.")

All round a good laugh, and definitely something I'd play again at conventions.

Game 3: Kult

Game 3 should have been a game of Delta Green, but with the GM succumbing to illness shortly before the convention I stepped in with a replacement.  There were four players besides myself, and I had a bunch of four player Kult games prepped.  Although with one player making alternative plans, and another also falling ill, I ended up with only two players.

I went with Called to Account, as I had it prepped ready for another convention, and also I was fairly sure I could run it with only two people.  And it ended up being a very different experience to previous runs, not only because there were two characters absent, but also because of the way the players chose to portray the characters.  End result: no PVP, and an ending that wasn't exactly happy, but certainly worked out a lot better for the PCs than things normally do with this one.

Game 5: Liminal

Having survived contact with three different campaign groups, I decided it was about time Sins of the Father became a convention scenario.  Once again I'd lost a player due to illness, but found a replacement in one of the people who'd lost their GM for that slot.

Four members of the Northampton branch of P Division set out to solve a murder and prevent the river spirit from flooding the town.  I'd done one practice run online with these pre-gens and made some minor tweaks to backstories that seemed to make things a little smoother this time.  Each game is a learning experience, and this game will continue getting polished over the next few conventions.

Game 6: Liminal

It's October, so time to break out the Halloween specials.  For me, that means my adventure Mischief Night.  I used the same set of pre-gens as for the previous game, but with flu having prevented me from running an online playtest, I had no idea how it would go with these characters.  The answer turned out to be pretty damn funny, with the players finding some uniquely creative solutions to some of the problems placed in their way.

This scenario is a little less polished than the previous one, but based on this run I'm happy to keep pitching it at conventions.  And the pre-gens are working out well, with some very creative takes once they get into the hands of the players.

Reflections

My first in-person Furnace, although after Revelation and North Star there was no real question whether I was committed to the Garrison conventions.  I'm finding that I really value the Friday evening in the bar, as a time to catch up with people I might not otherwise see much during a packed schedule.  Well worth taking the time off work to allow me to get there early.

Covid and everything else permitting, I hope to get to all four Garrison conventions next year.