Tabletop Scotland 2025

We're back from almost a week away north of the border, visiting friends and running a small stall at Tabletop Scotland.

Debs had her stall selling her cool gothy wares from her Misery Makes business and I was helping there, and we kept Stoo and Rhi company on the We_Evolve stand next to us. We had a similar stall last year, and it was good fun, but not exactly a huge money-earner – we kinda went thinking it'll be good to have a look around the convention, and spend some time with Stoo and Rhi, taking in the sights in Scotland, and petting their cats. 

The convention itself was good! Quiet still, especially on the Friday, and a 10th of the size of UK Games Expo, but we met some cool people, saw some cool games, and I bought the prettiest dice I had ever seen.

I mean, look at them. I saw them last year at the Trayed and Tested stand, and I pondered getting them then, and I took too darn long. By the time I decided to get them, they were gone... Luckily, this year, they had another set and I wasn't going to wait this time. Look! Look how gorgeous they are... 

Overall, the convention was better than last year, but there was something different this time. Last year I'd just read through Mothership and saw all the cool zines and came away from it filled with ideas and plans, eager to do cool stuff. This year, I was just exhausted, and came away with a great head-cold. Joy!

Unlike last year, we were kindly invited to stay a couple of extra days by Stoo and Rhi to take in the sights of Scotland. We had a quick wander around Glasgow (really cool bronze map of the city)...

... and Rhi drove us around some of the nearby Lochs...

Awesome. 

I'd like to thank everyone who came and visited the stand at Tabletop Scotland, and offer my heartfelt thanks to Stoo and Rhi for putting up with us / putting us up, and I'm so sorry that you felt you had to entertain me with a rewatch of The X-Files while we were there. I throughly enjoyed it, and hope you weren't too bored (you've up to a cracking episode next if you decide to keep going, Beyond the Sea). 

Now, I'm going to continue taking the meds to fight off the con-crud, and recover from the 8hr train journeys (each way). 

#RPGaDAY2024 - DAY TWENTY-FIVE: Dice, Dice Baby

 

Day Twenty-Five of #RPGaDAY2024 is all about desirable dice. I love dice. I have far too many dice. I went to a games convention yesterday and saw some of the most beautiful dice I have ever seen - a deepest blue that was like gazing into the very heavens themself, with accents of the most remarkable gold. They weren't cheap, but they were amazing.

However, the problem is, I'm old, and lazy, and I'd just settle for some nice coloured dice with the most incredibly clear numbers on them so I don't have to pick them up and squint at them to see the result. 

#RPGaDAY2023 - DAY NINE: Favourite DICE

 'This is me on Day Nine, baby. This is me on Day Nine.' 

(Obscure Barenaked Ladies reference there - went to a really good gig by them my first year at Uni, must have been about 30 people in the audience in a tiny club, a far cry from their stadium filling gigs overseas)

On Day Nine of #RPGaDAY2023 it's a look at your favourite dice. I don't think things have changed much since the original answer of that ancient d20 I first bought when I started gaming back in 1983ish. 

It's very old, very used, the corners are all worn, the ink in the numbers has long faded, but it is certainly one with some significance for me, and one I'd hate to lose. 

For current dice I don't think I have a favourite set. I've got to the age where I look at those lovely expensive and shiny dice with all the beautiful colours and patterns, and realise that (a) I can't afford them, and (b) I can't read the numbers easily from a distance. I keep thinking I should just get more simple and basic black and white dice so I can chuck them into the dice tray and easily see whether I've succeeded or not. 

#RPGaDAY 2019 - DAY 6: ANCIENT

A particularly ANCIENT Morbius HeroClix figure,
with awesome custom Autocratik dice by www.chimericdesigns.co.uk 

Day Six of #RPGaDAY for 2019 is ANCIENT. How to interpret that one? I thought I'd look at the oldest thing I have when it comes to gaming. Before I bought my first RPG (Star Frontiers), or bought by first RPG rulebook (AD&D Players Handbook), I did what every budding gamer does when they first get into RPGs - I got my own dice.

Back in those days, getting gaming supplies was something you had to be indoctrinated into. It wasn't just available everywhere, or in big book stores like it is now. Like The Matrix, you had to see it for yourself. I was taken to Hull, the nearest big city and the only place nearby that really had gaming supplies. It was an hour on the bus, and strangely we got off before we got to the city centre. Half way up George St was an odd framing shop called Kingston Galleries. From the front it was just that - an art shop. Not one of these art supplies and paint shops - no. It sold art and frames. You went up a small set of steps to the front of the shop (as it was above street level), but instead of going into the shop itself, you continued up more stairs to the vast, open room above. There was a single counter, with a till on it. A few spinners were dotted around the room, but the main end wall was tiered shelving for roleplaying games. It was from here that I would buy most of my games until I moved away from my home.

And it was here that I must have bought my first set of dice.

The one that I still have, and was probably the most used (thanks to years of playing AD&D). I don't remember buying it from Kingston Galleries - you never know, it may have been donated to me by another player as it's a funny colour (I mean, who really wants a flesh-tone die?). Or it may have been the only D20 they had. Anyway, it's the first die I remember owning, and I still have it. I even keep it in a dice box like a little shrine because I'm a little sad like that...

Yes, it's the most ANCIENT thing I have when it comes to gaming...

#RPGaDAY2018 - DAY 21: Which dice mechanic appeals to you?

Day twenty-one of #RPGaDAY2018 is all about dice, dice baby! A question that is a remix of an ancient question from the very first year of #RPGaDAY, back on the 9th August 2014 we asked about your favourite dice. This time, that question has been remixed by M L Straus who hosts a Youtube channel called The OG GM's Adventures.

I fired my usual interview questions over to him and he answered with a video! Fantastic!

Thank you for the remix!

As I mentioned, the question that once was "Favourite Dice" has now become today's question, Which Dice Mechanic Appeals to You?

Cool. Thank you! Don't forget to check out the OG GM's Adventures Youtube channel and click subscribe.

Photo's quite old now, it's very full now...

That's actually pretty tricky. I can't think of any single mechanic that appeals - probably something simple. The simpler the better in my opinion.

That said, I'd never really considered probability curves until I started designing the Vortex System for Doctor Who. It's a weird one, as I was a massive Unisystem fan (and still am) but the range of the roll on a single D10 is the full 1-10, with the probability being equal for each result.

When working on Doctor Who I kinda wanted success to be a little easier, so I had to look at what the average roll would be - using a single die doesn't really give you an average roll does it? I dunno. However, if you take two dice, you immediately get that lovely bell-curve of probability for the result. Nice! It meant things were certainly more predictable for working out the successes and difficulty levels. I'm not saying I got them right, but hey... they seemed to work and people liked it.

Tomorrow's question is about non-dice mechanics, so I'm going to continue this there as WILD doesn't use dice (which is a little frustrating as I had the perfect system name for it). So how do you get a probability curve on a card turn? More tomorrow...

Until then - Stay multi-classy!

#RPGaDAY 2016 - Day 1: How do you roll?

I know I said I was too busy for #RPGaDAY this year, and I am really, but I'm hoping I can squeeze in some blog posts for it - they are far less time consuming than the videos, and, let's face it, this way you don't have to look at my gormless face every day this month.

So, Day 1 of #RPGaDAY this year poses the following question...

Dice, Diceless, Dice App, how do you prefer to "roll"?

Basically, I've always been a dice person. I've never tried diceless, but would like to, but I find the randomness of some encounters and conflicts actually adds to the drama and action.

I've also tried the dice app route, but that was purely for FFG's Star Wars RPG. It's okay, but sometimes it's just easier to pick up the dice and roll.

I like what they were trying to do with the FFG Star Wars game - the advantages and threats, triumphs and despair, but all too often do we end up with rolls that are "I failed, but I got three advantages", giving the character a chance to regain stress or strain or whatever, or leaving the GM with a struggle to think of what can be gained during their massive failure. It puts a lot of pressure on the GM.

For WILD, I started looking into dice with simple "success or fail" pips on them, then scrapped the dice altogether to go purely card orientated, using the same Tarot decks that were used for character creation to resolve tasks. A simple "value of the card" with a bonus if it's the right suit or court card that relates to the attribute or skill being used.

Major Arcana cards worked just the same, but some divinatory meaning from the card should be incorporated into the result. That spices things up a bit!!

The WILD Tarot deck prototypes. (c) 2014 David F. Chapman

Don't worry, I'll get back to WILD soon. Meanwhile, I'd best get back to my current assignment...

Until next time, stay multiclassy!

#RPGaDAY - Day 9: Favourite Die / Dice Set

Day 9 of #RPGaDAY is "Favourite Die / Dice Set". I love dice. I don't know why, they're just something I can't stop loving. There have been times designing WILD that I've thought about ditching dice altogether and just using the Tarot cards, but I find there's something super fast about the way dice work and their mechanic. I may change my mind...

Anyway, onto my favourite die...

I have a lot of dice. The wife and I have accumulated a lot over the years, so we've taken to storing them in a dispenser that once resided in our old Ottakar's bookstore.

If you want to take a look at the die in the video, I do keep it on a little stand in an old dice box, like a treasured relic from the past...

Diceni

Sunday 7th April saw a new event in Norwich aimed mostly at gamers in the region - Diceni.

Just a handful of the many gaming tables at Diceni 2013 in Norwich

Hosted at The Forum in Norwich, the event has been in planning for months with the sole purpose of spreading the word of gaming and hoping to recruit some new players to the hobbies.

From what I could see, the only downside to the event was that it took place while I was at work! Damn-it! However, there was a brief opportunity to have a look around just as the event was starting, and even just twenty minutes after opening the event was already humming with activity, gaming and excitement.

Sentinel head! And more courtesy of the Artyfakes stand!

I managed to get a few photos taken before I had to head off to work, which I've posted here, but on the whole it was an excellent first convention. Not only were there plenty of stands for traders, and tables for gaming, there were cosplayers, tanks, a Dalek and lots of other activities going on.

Lots of cool stuff from Warlord Games too!

Just have to say it's fantastic to get some gaming stuff like this going on in Norwich, and I really hope that next year Diceni returns. My only suggestions for building upon the convention would be (a) more roleplaying (but, as an RPG designer, I guess I'm a little biased), and (b) maybe aim for the Saturday a week earlier in the year... you never know, that may collide with the second International TableTop Day and Diceni would be able to tie in!

Above all, I'd just like to offer my congratulations to the team behind Diceni. A fantastic event, that should hopefully grow and grow. May there be many, many more.

Check out Diceni on Facebook here, or on their homepage, to see more pics of the event and hear about future conventions.

Dicing with Distraction

Yes, I confess, I failed to do a blog post last week. AND, I've been failing to do the promised "Daily Sketch" posts... in fact, I've been failing to do the sketches themselves. But there's a good reason for most of this.

The lack of Blog Post last week was mostly the day-job getting in the way. Boss visits, that sort of thing. The usual that goes on with the mundanity of the day-job.

On top of that, I've been reading through the final layout proof of the 4th Corebook for Conspiracy X 2.0 - the Conspiracies Sourcebook. It's a huge tome, filled with a LOT of information, and a lot of it is in print for the very first time, so it's taking a while to read through. I'm determined to have it finished this week though, one way or another.

The Conspiracies Sourcebook presents for the first time, a lot of new background and detail about Area 51, reveals the origins of Aegis and the NDD, and has a lot of cool stuff that takes the game in new directions, as well as building the setting up for the inevitable alien invasion that'll feature in Conspiracy X's sister game, Extinction.

In addition to this, I've been working my way through the original files for Extinction, trying to work out what's needed to bash it into shape.

When I haven't been working on that, I've been looking into game systems and planning for other possible games, as well as still working on WILD, so I haven't been completely resting on my laurels.

Saying that though, it is January. The weather has been miserable. I don't mean the snow, I like snow. I mean the ice and sludge and cold that comes afterwards. The ice has made the daily trek to the day-job hell on earth, and I've left the iPad at home for fear of slipping on the untreated pavements and landing on it. Hence the lack of "Daily Sketches". None of those lunchbreak iPad doodles that I promised...

And January is naturally depressing. Everyone's broke after the festival of excess. If you had any time off over the festive season, you've been returned to the horrors of mundanity (luckily, being in crappy ol' retail means I don't have any time off over Christmas, so it's not so much of a shock being at work in January). And the bills on the credit cards are starting to come in... I find myself staring at the nonsense of Facebook, waiting for something interesting to happen rather than actually motivate myself.

Which is stupid really. WILD is such a personal project, and I should be really enthused. The other stuff I'm working on is really cool. I dunno. Maybe it's just real life whispering in my ears while I sleep, telling me how it's all going to go wrong, how I should remember how horrible last year was, and how I really shouldn't bother trying.

Well, negativity. To paraphrase George RR Martin's "A Game of Thrones" - There is only one thing we say to negativity - "not today".

The new use for an old Gem Dispenser - DICE!

While I've been trying to motivate myself, the lovely wife had an incredibly geeky idea. A "gem dispenser" was being thrown out by a shop, and she jumped a the chance to bring it home. Initially, she wondered what to do with it, and then we both came to the same conclusion. DICE.

Over the years we've accumulated a lot of dice, and we have our favourites that we keep handy... but what of all the other ones? The slightly older ones? The D20's that we don't use as we usually play Unisystem, WoD or ATS? Well, they seem to look rather cool in the dispenser, and if anyone needs any dice when they come around to play, it'll be just £1 for a random selection! Just need more dice now to fill it!

While looking through my old dice to fill the dispenser, I found a real relic. My first ever D20. An old fleshy-brown, plain effort with the numbers highlighted with a wax crayon. The corners were heavily worn and a bit peely, but there was something about it that brought back hundreds of memories. Of sitting around a table at Pete's, playing AD&D, as that 9th level Paladin who never seemed to advance, armed with my +5 Holy Avenger, staggering around in full plate armour. Ah, those were the days.

My first D20, preserved in its own
little display case.
(Yes, those are signed Gillian Anderson photos)

Wifey decided that such a relic from my past should have pride of place. It shouldn't be shoved into the dispenser along with the other dice, it should be displayed. So, with one of the empty dice boxes and a straw, the old D20 now has pride of place on the new bookshelves, strangely in front of my leather-bound D&D 3.5 Rulebooks that I've never played (and no, I still haven't tried 4th Ed yet... I may just wait until 5th).

So, enough distractions. I've taken a couple of days away from the day-job this week to catch up. I'll finish the ConX proofing, see what I can do to Extinction, do a little WILD, and other gaming stuff, draw something hopefully, and get the year going, finally.

And, I'll try not to miss another blog post!

Until next time, stay multi-classy!

The Gift of the Gaming

It's been a little while again since my last post, but it's been a busy few weeks. This last week saw not only my birthday, but also my wife's birthday and our wedding anniversary. Gifts were given, and my wife being the complete star that she is, knew exactly the sort of thing I like... GAMES!

We took a trip into London, and visited three suppliers of RPGs in one day! Besides the game section of Forbidden Planet, we checked out a couple of the biggest FLGSs in the capital. First on the agenda was Leisure Games. Resisting the urge to purchase the rather epic Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, I gained the rather cool Cold City RPG.

Haven't had chance to read it yet, but I've heard great things about both Cold City and Hot War. Though typically, I didn't realise it was a partner publication with Cubicle 7 until after I left the store. Looking forward to reading it!

While at Leisure Games, the wife managed to find a very cool set of blank dice. Chessex make this rather cool little set which is essential to the design work I've been pondering for WILD.


I'd been thinking about incorporating some form of "Wild Die" to add a bit of a "critical" element to the dice rolls in the game. I was initially thinking of something odd, so I ordered some of the more bizarre dice that don't usually get used in RPGs (D14's, D16's, D24's), and even looked into getting some custom made irregular dice (snub cubes, that sort of thing), but cost is always an element. So I started thinking about using D12's, with 2 or 3 sides coloured differently. May not even make it into the game, but it's something I'm playing with at the moment.

Next stop was the very cool store Orc's Nest, another FLGS, only with two floors of goodies squirreled away in there. First time I'd ever been in there, and they really do have a lot of cool stuff.

On top of Forbidden Planet, it was good to see all three of the big RPG suppliers in London all stocking the Doctor Who RPG, and it was even cooler to see that Orc's Nest had Conspiracy X 2.0.


In addition to Cold City, the wife bought me the excellent Mouse Guard RPG. We've been fans of Mouse Guard for a while, but I'd never checked out the RPG before. Based on The Burning Wheel RPG, there are some really nice elements to the game play in there - seasonal and environmental factors, the Nature of a Mouse and how "mousey" or "human" you are, and the use of Traits. Really good read. And the added bonus is that it was signed by the creator of Mouse Guard himself! Bonus!! And such a nice little hardback format too - square and compact. The sort of proportions I was thinking for WILD...

Final cool purchase of the week was a complete surprise. The eagerly awaited Marvel Heroic Roleplaying core rulebook. I'd bought the PDF the moment it came out, but I knew there was going to be a delay getting the "in print" version over here in the UK due to licensing, but it appeared! Excellent! Possibly would have preferred there to be a hardcover, but that's just me. My computer is so old it struggled a bit with the PDF so now I can really explore its intricacies and see what all the discussion has been about.

That's given me plenty to read for the time being - I think a hardcopy of Leverage RPG is going to be the next purchase, as the PDF I bought is so slow on the ancient computer, but in the meantime there was a particularly excellent delivery from Eden Studios this week - the Kickstarter copies of Conspiracy X 2.0: The Extraterrestrials Sourcebook arrived, along with my author copies, and the T-shirts.

For those of you who didn't Kickstart Conspiracy X, the Extraterrestrials Sourcebook is hitting distributors this week in the US and Europe, so please badger your local FLGS to get it in. And reassure them that the Conspiracy X 2.0 Core Rulebook is still in print to complement it. *hint, hint*