Much of my spare time is spent Roleplaying and this page talks about my gaming activities: the games and systems that I play, the adventures that I run at gaming conventions and the materials I've produced for those games.
In Preston, I'm involved with the Dream Pedlar live action group, as well as playing in a number of round-the-table games.
I have also been involved with the DreamSmiths, a group of gamers from the Roleplaying Games forum on Compuserve who run games at Conventions such as Origins and GenCon. Following recent changes on Compuserve that have upset a lot of the gamers there, a number of former members of the roleplaying forum have now set up Dreamlyrics, a service run by gamers for gamers. The web pages are still being set up, but I shall be running play-by-message games there once it is online (due 11th May 2000).
In addition to running and playing games, I've also produced some gaming material such as worldbooks for existing game systems and even my own system.
I've been gaming now for a long time, since before the original D&D was published in this country, and have played a lot of different genres and systems. These are some of the games that are my current favourites and that I play on a regular basis:
Note that most of these links are intended to be viewed using a frames-compliant browser.
Call of Cthulhu is a game published by Chaosium Inc. based on the Cthulhu mythos novels of H.P. Lovecraft.
Faced with diabolical cultists and the most horrific monsters of nightmare, it's a game where characters struggle just to remain sane.
Call of Cthulhu is usually set in one of three periods: the late 19th century, the 1920's or modern day. I prefer the more historic settings, and the game I'm currently playing in is set in the modern day; but the Delta Green supplement introduces a degree of government conspiracy to the modern game that makes it a lot more intriguing.
Set in a parallel world to our own, in the Victorian era, Castle Falkenstein blends swashbuckling adventure with sorcery and faerie creatures to create a unique gaming world. It's also one of my favourites. The system is published by R. Talsorian Games.
Dream Pedlar runs a live-action Falkenstein game three or four times a year where I play Sir Sebastian Thomas, an English gentleman.
Watch out for "Death in Zanzibar", a three-round scenario set in East Africka that I shall be running under the RPGA banner at GenCon UK this summer.
Perhaps my enjoyment of these games stems from my liking for Hong Kong action movies. It's a mixture of martial arts mayhem and sorcery, where the more dramatic and cinematic you are in playing, the more likely you are to succeed.
I only get a chance to play Feng Shui at gaming conventions, but my favourite character is a chinese ghost based loosely on the Joi Wang character from the first 'Chinese Ghost Story' movie with a hint of Anita Mui from 'Rouge'.
In Nomine by Steve Jackson Games is a game where players get the opportunity to be angels or demons, saints or infernal servants in the great celestial struggle. Games can take place on earth, in the dreamlands or even heaven and hell themselves.
Naturally, being a good guy at heart, I play angelic roles.
I shall probably be running an In Nomine scenario at GenCon UK this August.
A dark game where characters struggle more with their own inner emotions than against any tangible, external foe, Kult is a game where the characters are slowly awaken to the realisation that there is much more to the world than what can be discerned through the five senses.
I shall be running a Kult scenario at GenCon UK this August.
Millenium's End is a Role Playing Game, published by Chameleon Eclectic Entertainments Inc. portraying the world of 1999 just a few shades darker than it really is for most of us, where players run characters in technothriller-like adventures.
I'm neither playing in, nor running any round-the-table Millennium's End games at the moment, though I shall be helping run the tournament at GenCon UK, which includes one of my own scenarios - IMA-2000.
Several of the assignments I have written have now been posted to the Internet; and I have been also working, along with Roger Stenning, on a London Sourcebook for the game which has been made available on the WWW.
Darker even than Kult, Unknown Armies is all about obsession and magick in a surreal post-modern setting.
I shall be running an Unknown Armies scenario at GenCon UK this August.
As always, I'll be attending a number of roleplaying conventions over the coming year, and running games at some of those events.
Over the Summer, expect to see me at StabCon in Manchester over the weekend of 6th-8th July; RococoCon in Cambridge between the 20th and 22nd July; and (of course) GenCon UK - this year at Olympia from the 30th August to the 2nd September.
And sign up for any of my games that you find interesting.
This year I'll be running new scenarios for the following games :-
Castle Falkenstein
Death in Zanzibar
After a difficult adventure in Hong Kong, where they were fortunate to avert a war between Great Britain and China, the characters are looking forward to a leisurely return to New Europa on board the tea clipper the Ariel. But a lot can happen in three months at sea, especially as they sail the shores of Africka, the Dark Continent; and it isn't long before they're up to their necks in colonists and cannibals, juju men and missionaries, and a Prussian agent with dreams of imperialism.
Dying Earth
I don't yet have a title or description for this game, check back for more details later in the Summer.
In Nomine
The Agony and the Ecstasy
Preventing a discordant angel from falling is no easy task, especially when the angel in question has disappeared from the eyes of Heaven into a city ruled by Hell.
Kult
Suzanne
Senior Prom night at St. Francis Xavier High School in Montreal is normally considered a rite of passage: those soon to graduate are no longer students, but young adults. For any who can avoid the watchful eyes of the teachers, it's also an opportunity for celebration, drunkenness and debauchery. But for the Class of 2000, one small group of students find themselves thrown into a world that is darker and more dangerous than they could ever have believed possible.
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| Warning: This scenario deals with mature themes and contains graphic violence, and material of an explicit sexual nature. It may not be appropriate for certain gamers, especially younger players. |
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| Warning: This scenario deals with mature themes and contains graphic violence, and material of an explicit sexual nature. It may not be appropriate for certain gamers, especially younger players. |
Like many gamers, I've developed a few of my own systems or supplements over the years:
Chris Blankley wrote an original supplement to the World of Darkness which brought the struggle between God and the Devil into the world. Though the idea fitted well with the gothic horror feel of the game, the mechanics were very different to the core White Wolf system.
Angel/Demon: The Rapture is the 2nd Edition of that original supplement, with mechanics that complement the other WoD systems; and is still a work in progress even though I've been working on it for some years now.
Though not yet ready for publishing here on the web, I have posted a short piece of fictional prose as a teaser.
GURPS: Julian May is a rewrite of the GURPS Psionics rules that better fits the metapsychics of Julian May's excellent Saga of the Exiles and Galactic Milieu books. I might get round to posting it here on the web at some point if I can be sure I won't be sued.
Last, but by no means least, I've posted one of my own homebrew systems here.
'Mean Streets and Mean Villains' is designed to emulate the glamourous, high-fashion police and detective series of the '70s.
It's posted here in three different formats: