Books & Stuff (NS, No 8) - Reading in Nov 2020

Finished Reading

Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

A very good book: a beautiful book.  A book about isolation and being at peace with that: it’s perhaps fitting that I read it on the eve of 2nd Lockdown.  I liked it.  

A lot of fans of Jonthan Strange and Mr Norrell – who've been looking forward to this book for years - will be disappointed that it’s not set in their 'verse.  I think, from the hints about the subject matter that have emerged from time-to-time, that there was some expectation that it would be set on Strange’s Faerie Roads.  That's certainly what I expected.  It's refreshing to get something different.  If anything, it reminds me of books by David Mitchell: and that’s not a bad thing. 

I’d deliberately avoided reading any reviews or anything that might have given a synopsis; and I’m glad.  Not that I like to read reviews anyway (at least for fiction).  I’m not terribly interested in what other people think, preferring to form my own opinion on something as subjective as fiction.  Professional reviews are bad enough, but Goodreads is the worse.  I use it as a useful tool, but the reviews!  When they’re not just gushing fans, they’re people churning out half-remembered and never-fully-understood concepts from High School: talk of ‘poor characterisation’ and ‘crass diction’, etc. 

HP Lovecraft, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

A young scholar becomes obsessed with an ancestor who practiced the Dark Arts.  A newly-discovered portrait shows an uncanny likeness between the two.  What could possibly go wrong?

Despite everything about Lovecraft, it must be admitted that he writes well.  Although the reader has a pretty good idea of what's going on from the very beginning, tension is held as the protagonist gradually uncovers the dreadful truth.

Simon Harris, The Other Norfolk Admirals: Myngs, Narbrough and Shovell

It took me a while to get into this (a couple of months on these round-ups!), but having done so, it was very interesting.  

It could have done with a stronger editorial hand, which surprised me as it was published by the excellent Helion & Co.  But though it's a strong piece, it doesn't pretend to be an academic work and, as a labour of love by an enthusiast a lot can be fogiven.

Bayt al Azif: A Magazine for Cthulhu Mythos Roleplaying Games, Issue 2 (Aug 2019)

Another thing (along with the Norfolk Admirals) which has been languishing by my bedside for months.  I decided to finish it off on finding out that Issue 3 is now out (in pdf  at least).  

I keep half-promising to do proper reviews of these: for now, I'll just say that if anyone is interested in Mythos Roleplaying they are must-reads.

Quintin Barry, From Solebay to the Texel: The Third Anglo-Dutch War, 1672-1674

A very good summary of the naval side of the Anglo-Dutch Wars - despite the title, almost the first half of the (short) book deals with the first two (which is fair enough, they can't be taken in isolation).

Purely narrative: don't come to it expecting any analysis.

Currently Reading

Fritz Leiber, Swords in the Mist

A collection of some of the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories, which are quickly becoming favorites of mine.

Gaming in Nov 2020

 

• 12 Nov - Blackmoor (OSE) - on-line
• 19 Nov - Blackmoor (OSE) - on-line
• 21 Nov - Wasters (OSE) - on-line
• 25 Nov - Blackmoor (OSE) - on-line

Blackmore (OSE)

• 12 Nov

Art by W W Denslow

Our current three-session delve into the Under-Booh concluded.  We retreated safely after completing our mission for the Grand Wizard of Booh and got a little more entangled in Halfling politics before reporting to the G-Wiz himself, who decided that there were bigger fish to fry.

My Cleric of 'Shroom levelled-up to Lvl 3.

• 19 Nov

Art by Vlad Voronchiukov

Following the events of the last session, the Grand Wizard wanted us to go to Vestfold to garner some intelligence.  As it happened he had a caravan (of giant snails) going in that direction which required guarding...  

We were ambushed by bandits (one of our long-standing PCs being killed) and encountered sprites in the Greenwood.

• 25 Nov

The conclusion of our caravan-guard mission.  We wrangled the Snails through forest, over river and across swamp.  On the way we met some very strange folk, a trio of Hags, and Giant Leeches.  All nasty stuff, leading to two character deaths.

Our regular GM is standing back for a little while as he's changing jobs (a couple of hundred miles apart), so to ensure continuity of the game, we've decided to rotate the GM-ing.  From next week it'll be my turn...

Wasters (OSE)

• 21 Nov - written-up here.

Artist unkown to me

A new game for me, though with some of the guys I've been playing with from the Discord.  Basically, a play test of a Cyberpunk RPG that being developed for B/X systems (in this case OSE) rules.  I talked about the set-up here.

In this session at least, there wasn’t a lot of ‘cyber’ and it was more of a post-apoc scavenging set-up.  That suits me fine.  Anyway, we went out into the ‘Wastes’ with a seek-and-return mission.  In effect a Hex-Crawl, in which as we went on, we generated a map (and thus set the scene for future sessions).  We had several encounters or near encounters with inhabitants – animals, muggers, gang-member and cops.  One player lost four characters! 

ALEC in Lockdown

As some of you know, I am supporting Movember, the annual effort to raise funds and awareness for men's health issues.  The focus is on prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health issues.

It's the latter which I've had issues with, and is the the reason I support Movember - particularly this year, when we're all feeling issues of isolation.

Movember have shared some notes on mental health and suicide prevention here.  What I'd like to flag is ALEC.

ALEC is a mnemonic which provides a model for 'talking to your mates about mental health'.  It's a handly primer for raising this difficult issue with anyone you might be concerned with

A - Ask.  Ask how they are feeling.  "You don't seem yourself lately - are you OK?"  Be prepared for the answer "I'm fine" and to bring up the reason you ask.  If you've noticed something in particular (they've been withdrawn, haven't been as active on social media, etc) it's worth mentioning.  

L - Listen.  Having asked the question, give the person the chance to answer and pay attention to the reply.  Odds are that you're not going to solve the problems that they raise, but it will help them to share them with someone else.  Ask follow-up questions that might help the person to focus on what's at the root of the issue.  "That's can't be easy.  How long have you felt that way?"

E - Encourage.   Encourage action.  Help them focus on things that might help.  Have they felt like this in the past?  If so, was there anything that helped then?  It might help to get back into a routine despite lockdown - patterns of sleep are particularly important.  Are there other people that they trust and who they can talk to?  Is it time to talk to a doctor?

C - Check-In.  Having had the initial conversation, keep in touch and follow-up with prompts if necessary.

And before anyone asks, "I'm fine".  I've found winter lockdown more difficult than the one earlier in the year (which, I must admit to quite enjoying), but my mental state is OK.  

I'm getting out of the house most days and am in contact with people through social media.  As those who follow the blog know, I'm getting quite a lot of on-line RPG gaming done.  Like a lot of gamers, I've really discovered the benefits of Discord, Zoom, et al this year.  I'm getting more oportunities for gaming now than ever before.  And as we all know, gaming is good for mental health.  Of course, I miss sitting down at a table and playing face-to-face, but I've made contact with a lot of new people and do really enjoy the sessions I take part in.

Thank you for reading this.  If anyone wants to contribute to my Movember fundraiser, you can do so here.

 

Wasters: No 1 An Introduction

 

This weekend I played in a new game and, for me, a new gaming genre: cyberpunk.  I've written-up that session here.

This was ‘Wasters’.  In effect, I’m taking part in the playtesting of a new system by Joseph Norris of Adversity Games adapting B/X rules (in our case, OSE) to a cyberpunk setting.  The emphasis is on the exploration vibe of Old-School games. 

After just one session’s play it would be silly and unfair to make much comment on the system or game-play.  I may do a review later, but for now will limit myself to a basic introduction to the setting and an after-action report. 

[Acknowledgement: much of this is copied from v0.1 of Wasters, but in paraphrasing, I may have added my own flavour.] 

The Setting 

We are in a dystopian future.  Life is governed by controlling authorities, ruthless corporations, organised crime and street gangs.  Day-to-day survival is the priority for most. Many do this by being part of the system, and become one of the abusers and exploiters out of desperation.   You are not one of these. 

The wealthy have withdrawn into their own enclaves, leaving the majority of society living in the Slums.  Here, inhabitants find themselves the target of thieves and gangs demanding protection money – not to mention the authorities that will suddenly take an interest if you have anything they can squeeze you for.  But there is some order at least: in the Slums you have a reasonable expectation of not being shot unless you provoke someone, enter gang turf without permission, bother the police, or lack the wits to get out of the way when raiders go on a rampage.    

Outside the Slums are the Wastes – abandoned by any form of order or protection from economic collapse, disaster, or war.  But untold wealth of a previous age lies abandoned in these shattered ruins.  There are also wild animals, malfunctioning drones and gangs too unruly even for the Slums.  

You were once a Slum-dweller, but through ideology, misfortune, carelessness or disillusionment you have left that behind.   Now you use your skills to trawl through ruins, collapsed corporate complexes, buried nuclear bunkers and forgotten headquarters of flavour-of-the-month gangs for long-lost valuables. 

Character Types

Those in the slums call you Wasters. But not to your face, because they’re scared of you.  

At this stage in the playtest process, character types are limited to four analogues of B/X Classes; - 

• Analyst – Users of tech (analogue of Magic User).  They use their devices and skills to support the crew from a safe distance.  As they advance in level, they can build and use an increasing number of more powerful functions. 
• Infiltrator – A sneak, spy and sniper (analogue of Thief). 
• Ronin – Dispossessed soldiers, enforcers or hitmen (analogue of Fighter) 
• Sentinel – Wasters who join the front of combat to protect their crew, carrying a jammer to disrupt drones (analogue of Cleric).  As they advance, they develop support functions. 

Coming Soon...

My first mission in the Wastes.

More on 'Found Maps'

Earlier in the week, I posted about me using the results of a solo Scrabble-like game to create dungeon maps for RPGs.  This has prompted a couple of people to contact me.

First, I am told that 'Found Maps' are a thing.  I thought it probably was, given the human proclivity for seeing patterns in random things.

Secondly, I want to flag that Goblin's Henchman has come up with at least two methods of creating random maps: -

• a game of Battleships as a template for a grid-crawl,
• the faces of a Rubik's Cube (an entry for the 2020 One Page Dungeon Contest).

If you're unfamiliar with Goblin's Henchman, he's an innovator and inventor of several random engines (most notably the Hex Flower) for creating not only maps, but also for stats and replacing dice generally.  Most of his creations can be found either free on his blog or as pay-what-you-want on his DriveThru RPG page.  As is the case with other pwyw products, I would urge that you pay for them: even a few pence shows respect to the creators and improves their standing with the DriveThru algorithms (in the immortal words of Harlan Ellison, "Pay the writer!").

Another fairly well-known method is the use of drop-dice.

But with all due respect to Mr Henchman and others, I'm not really talking about using random engines, but rather suddenly seeing a dungeon (or other) map in pre-existing things.  For example, as a child, I used to lie in bed looking at the cracks in the ceiling, seeing them as rivers on a plain.

Artist unkown to me

Which, of course, brings me to Robert Louis Stevenson, that great proponent of imagination in play and other aspects of life: -

When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay
To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,

The pleasant land of counterpane.

I would be interested in hearing of any examples of the use of 'found' (rather than generated) maps.

Multi-Tasking

I'm a fidgeter.  In particular I can't sit still and watch TV: I need to do something with my hands.

So normally the old Bananagrams come out and I play with them while half-watching the programme.  Normally I end up with something like this.

This evening, while not paying proper attention to the 'Great British Bake-Off', something occured to me that is so obvious that I'm sure a lot of people do it.  Namely, that I could use the grid of as a random dungeon generator.

Squinting at them gave me this.  It helps that I tend mainly to use four or five letter words.

OK.  So 'Bake-Off' is an hour long, so I ended up with another grid.

Which, of course, could be added to the model...

Tidy it up and put some doors in, and you get something passable.

Of course, the ecology is all wrong and it makes no sense.  But when do random dungeons ever?  

Given that I play two of three sessions of the word game a night, by the end of the month I'll end up with something rivalling Barrowmaze!

Movember

Movember is a fundraising campaign focussing on men's health (mental health, prostate cancer and testicular cancer).  Each November people sign up to raise funds by growing facial hair, doing a spot of topiary or more traditional methods.  It's a great cause and - let's face it - this November is going to be harder on our mental health than usually.  That's why I'm supporting it.

You can donate on my findraising page here.  You don't need a Mo to help!

I was going less for the dodgy '80s landlord look and more for Sean Connery.

Books & Stuff (NS, No 7) - Reading in Oct 2020

This month three books, all of which appeared last month or earlier.

Finished

Max Brooks, The Zombie Survival Guide

A fun book with surprisingly practical advice for coping with Zombie outbreaks.  It's 2020, so who knows?

James Ellroy, Perfidia

As I said last month, this is a monster of a book (and not just because it's 700+ pages) - there's a lot going on (and not a lot of it is nice).  

Ellroy's writing is dark, involved and twisted.   But it's adictive and I've already bought the seond book in this trilogy.

Currently Reading

Simon Harris, The Other Norfolk Admirals: Myngs, Narbrough and Shovell

After a long time only nominally on my ' currently reading' list, I finally got into this.

Quite interesting, not only for the Dutch Wars, but for Carribean escapades.

Gaming in October 2020

 

• 4 Oct - Blackmoor (OSE) - on-line
• 7 Oct - Blackmoor (OSE) - on-line
• 10 Oct - Boardgames - face-to-face
• 14 Oct - Blackmoor (OSE) - on-line
• 18 Oct - Without Warning (Call of Cthulhu) - on-line
• 21 Oct - Blackmoor (OSE) - on-line
• 25 Oct - Sunday in the Shire (Under Hill, By Water) - on-line
• 28 Oct - Blackmore (OSE) - on-line

Blackmore (OSE)

• 4 Oct

Back to the Abbey of Fitz.  We acquired war-dogs from passing trader and went back to clear out the ruins of the Abbey.  We found a large grizzly bear and the matriarch of the clan of Reavers we thought we'd cleared out.  Not all the dogs (or my PC) made it out, but we did rescue a mutilated unicorn.

• 7 Oct

There were spiders

In the Under-Booh.   Pluteus my Cleric gained an acolyte (Myxomycetes) and after much discussion we decided to go on a boggart hunt.

• 14 Oct

We continued our mission for the Grand Wizard of Booh to clear out the nest of Boggarts.  We were succesful in that, but unfortunately their hostages and one of our retainers died in the process (the last surviving hostage - and more importantly, "witness" - at the hands of our thief).  The retainer was the pretty-boy Klaus.

• 21 Oct

More exploration of the Under-Booh on behalf of the Grand Wizard.  In this one we finally took him up on his mission to destroy 'Outsider' eggs (after all, he had given us a Wand of Fire Balls to do this).  First though, we went back to the Shroom Shrine to collect some more mushrooms - Myomycetes, our Acolyte of Shroom, being transformed into a giant mushroom during one of the rituals.  

Sadly, we'd left the mission so long (weeks since we accepted it), that the eggs had hatched and wiped out the gang of Teddy Boy Halflings.  We battled with Facehuggers, but still haven't met Mother.  The session ended on a cliff-hanger, Holmund sending a Fire Ball into a pool filled with eggs.

• 28 Oct

A continuation of the last session.  We defeated the Outsiders but have been cut off from out usual exits.  Going around the long way, we ran into some (well-signposted) patches of Blackdamp - fatally.  The Zombie Cat remains a mystery.

Jason Connelly taks about the 21 and 28 Oct sessions on an episode of his podcast.

Under Hill, By Water

• 25 Oct

It's always fun to try something new, and this is one that I've been looking forward to since it came out.  I've written about it here.  Basically a pie-quest.

Board Games

• 10 Oct

The Home Group (or the majority of us anyway), met up at The Games Table for a evening of board games.  We played Scrawl (much better when you actually understand how to play), 7 Wonders and a opening couple of rounds of Pandemic to introduce some of us (including me) to the rules.  

Board games played in October: - 3

New games tried - 1

'Without Warning' (Call of Cthuhlu)

• 18 Oct 

This was an on-line session run as part of Miskatonic Repository Convention 2020.  It was the first play-test of a new scenario from Bill Adcock.  A routine flight to resupply an Early Warning Post in the romote Arctic leads to more than was expected...

Obviously influenced by 'The Thing from Another World' (but not slavishly so), this was great fun.

Sundays in the Shire #1: First Thoughts

Last month Josh McCrowell published 'Under Hill, By Water' an RPG that had been gestating for a a couple of years on his blog Rise Up Comus (which I would highly recomend for a variety of good stuff).  It's a game about being a Hobbit* living a quiet, pastoral life: "Adventure! No, thank you!". 

*I use the term advisedly - 'Under Hill...' doesn't use that word of course.  'Hobbits' are the IP of the Tolkein Estate.  Still it is clear that McCrowell is talking about, and in homage to, Tolkien's creation.  These aren't the 'Halflings' that have grown out RPG culture: McCrowell explicited says "a lot of fat from dragons and/or dungeons has been trimmed off".  

As an aside to this footnote, I would point to McCrowell's excellent blog post in which he considers how one would RPG The Hobbit if the Middle-Earth IP had solely consided of that book.  It gives a nice feel of his style.

How JRRT saw his Hobbit

As the description says, "this is an OSR(ish) game that’s about living in the cozy under-hill homes of the halflings" going back to 'the source material of Tolkien and the eclectic, rustic, anachronistic little British gentry that were the center of his stories".  The adventure promised is on the level of delaing with awkward aunts and ornery goats, rather than defeating dragons.

Well, for a Hobbit-botherer like me, this sounds like fun, and luckily I know a few like-minded people.  Accordingly, last week we sat down for the first of what I hope will be many Sundays in the Shire.

The Village Map

The first step in playing is to create a Hobbit village and populate it with both PCs and NPCs.  The books suggests that this is done with all players together, in order to build relationships and family ties in at this early stage - in effect to have a Session Zero.  We didn't quite do that.  Dave and his co-GM Scarlett (aged 6) created the village beforehand.  Fortunately, Dave recorded the process and has put it up as the first episode of his new podcast My Kids Will Kill You.  You can listened to this 40min process here, which I'd advise as it gives an excellent overview.*

*And if like me, you like to shout at your podcasts, rest assured that Prof Aldridge does now know that peat-cutters cut peat (and why).

Character Sheet

Although there are some basic attributes, character-generation - like village-creation- is mainly based on a series of random tables.  Perhaps most important of these for a Hobbit is the family name, which potentially makes PCs and/or NPCs relatives (though it didn't in our case) and reference to an Ancestral Home.  Each PC begins play with a dream (the fulfilment of which is a means of acquiring XP).

In order to give a taste, here are our three PC's:-

Dolfin Tukkish

• Occupation: Cook.  
• Dream: To meet an elf and learn to sing one of their songs.
• Personal complication: A great-uncle had died (but has left him a bottle of particularly nice vintage of wine in his will).  We added that the will was being contested.
• Attributes: Dolfin rolled highly in CHA - he was 'Comely'.

Harvey Tunneler

• Occupation: Antiquarian.
• Dream: To steal his rival's apple-pie recipe.
• Personal complication: One of his more unpleasant relatives is visiting.
• Attributes:  Harvey rolled particularly badly in CHA: this meant that he had a Bad Reputation.  The player decided that he had used his knack once too often in stealing pies (this is before he rolled the Dream, which proved to be a nice tie-in).  He also rolled badly in INT, leaving him illiterate (an interesting complication for an Antiquarian!).
• In addition, Harvey was of a 'Stock' of Hobbit that has a 'knack' - in his case the ability to manipulate something that he can see as if he had his hand on it.

Jemmy Gaggler

• Occupation: Chandler.
• Dream: To publish his family's geneology.
• Personal complication: His parents are complaining that he's not living up to his full potential and wondering why he never visits (which we made into a prompt for his Dream - to show them that he did consider Family important).
• Attributes: With a high roll in WIS, Jemmy was a 'Greensinger' and able to use more skill points in Wrangling/Woodcraft.

As can be seen, the process of character-generation provided a lot of back-story and some good plot-hooks.  In addition, for each season a Current Event, a Worrisome Thing and a Village Event are rolled.  We ended up with late, heavy snows; the fact that an elderly aunt in a neighbouring village isn't answering her letters (this Thing was allocated to Jemmy's character); and that a petition against wearing large hats to public events was going around.

There are mechanisms for skill checks, combat, and particlurly Hobbit-like activities such as Feasting (restores HP), Singing (gives inspiration) and Party-Giving (increases prestige).  I won't discuss them now as, frankly, we hardly used any in this first session.

So how did the play go?

It was fun!  Gentle fun.

We quickly established that our activities needed to revolve around meals.  Luckily there was several inns in the village and our cook friend was renowned for making the best muffins in the South March.  The only drawback was that pesky pie recipe!

And, although we did make some progress on the other Dreams, I think it's fair to say that the Pie-Quest took centre stage.  Harvey's rival turned out to be a wretched fellow called Tylo Splistening.  Activities including souring his courtship with the fearsome Walda*, who was behind the hat petition**; interaction with the local fencibles***; and orgainising a violent snowball fight between rival fraternal societies; the last as a diversion for a spot of light breaking-and-entering.

*Walda is the subject of the romantic interest of a surprising number of NPCs.  It is yet to be established why.  She may prove to be an heiress.

**Jemmy took against the petition as likely to upset his many elderly female reatives.  Jemmy is the PC I played.  Although Lobelia Sackville-Baggins is in the mix, my concept of his aunts owes a lot to P G Wodehouse.

***Who, quite properly, wear very fancy large hats.

Getting My Geek In (Again)

Another week, another haul from Charity Shops...

Obviously I'm getting ready for Second Lockdown (though I've still go four seasons of 'Buffy' to watch first: 'Firefly' went by far too quickly).  Being the age that I am, I'm most excited to watch the 'Blake's 7' (if somewhat aprehensive about how bad it might turn out to be...).

Miskatonic Repository Con 2020

Miskatonic Repository Convention was a two-day virtual convention that took place on 17 and 18 October, celebrating the Miskatonic Repository, the online collection of user-made content for Call of Cthulhu supported by Chaosium, the CoC publishers.  Details of the MR and several hundred products (mainly scenarios) can be found on the DriveThruRPG here.

As can be seen from the programme, there was a lot going on - much of it at UK-friendly times - but  unfortunately I've recently been working on Saturdays, so was only able to take part in the Suday sessions.  I was able to listen to the two panels, one on writing for the MR and the other on publishing on the MR (though, feel reassured that I have no aspirations to do so!).

But my main reason for 'attending' was to play!  The game I plumped for was 'Without Warning', written by Bill Adcock.  It was sold as follows:

• Summary: 

1950s - A routine flight to an isolated Air Force radar station proves less than routine.

• Description:

1958 - The DEW Line of radar stations across Alaska and Northern Canada provide early warning in case of Soviet bombers coming over the Pole.  One of these stations has reported an injured technician and requested a routine supply flight be moved up to bring the injured man home and deliver his replacement.  That's where things begin to go awry. 

I won't go into details, as it was by way of a play-test for a scenario Bill will be publishing in the future.  Let just say that it was heavily influenced by a certain classic movie (but without the intellectual carrot!).  A great evening's entertainment.

Bill's other scenarios can be found on DriveThruRPG here.

Getting My Geek In

Last Friday was one of my few days off from managing the charity shop (we've been very short-staffed since Lockdown was lifted).  So what did I do?  I went into a couple of charity shops at the other end of the city.

And look what I got...

Ross S Kraemer; William Cassidy; Susan L Schwartz, Religions of Star Trek, Westview Press (2003).

H P Lovecraft, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Creation Oneiros (2008).

Because my reading hasn't been sufficiently niche lately!

The Games Table, Norwich

In this blog entry I'm going to shamelessly plug The Games Table in Norwich and take a look at it's new venue in the centre of the city.  Some of the photos and the video are nicked from their Facebook page.  I have no connection with the shop other than being a very happy customer and Kickstarter backer.

Background

Those of you who have have been reading this blog over several years (and surprisingly there are some!) will know that I've developed from someone who thought about gaming into someone who actually gets quite a few games in.  There are two factors in this.  Most recently, due to the COVID pandemic there has been a lot more on-line RPG sessions (and my monthly games summaries show I've been playing a lot!).  But before that came The Games Table.  It was The Games Table that got me back sitting down at a table and playing.

The Games Table opened in (July? August?) 2018 in Anglia Square, Norwich.  From the start it aimed to build a welcoming venue (dare I say, a 'safe environment') where people would come and play table-top games (or even buy a few).  Because of the hard work of Keiran, the proprietor, it took off really well and quite a solid community of gamers has built up.

The old shop

A New Location

Earlier this year, Keiran acquired new premises, twice the size of the old shop and right in the centre of the city.  He ran a successful Kickstarter to raise funds to refurbish and expand the facilities on offer.  It was all very exciting.

Quoting from the Kickstarter pages, here's what was promised.

• Create an amazing space for tabletop gamers.
• Expand our board games library, sorting it into categories that make sense.
• Offer mouth-watering hot food from some of the best local restaurants. 
• Serve the tastiest hot drinks provided by businesses run by military veterans.
• Host other independents, allowing them to showcase (and sell) their products.
• Maintain our unblemished reputation for providing a welcoming space.
• Keep our focus on community-building activities.
• Create expertly painted scenery setups for a variety of miniature games.
• Events, events, events and more events! Constant events. 

That was in March.  Then Lockdown happened.  Keiran was left with two venues, one of which needed a huge amount of work, and an almost complete cut in income.  

Other people would have given up or seriously cut-back on the plans.   Kieran persevered.

He's delivered on what he promised in the Kickstarter (except for the sofas and lounging area, which have temporarily fallen foul of social distancing), and he's coped with the changing regulations.

The new venue opened on 16 September.  Because of work commitments, I've been unable to visit until today.  All I can say is that it looks fantastic!

The Games Library

As of this afternoon (2 Oct 2020), there are 297 board games in the library.  Currently, of course, after play they are removed from the shelves, cleaned and quarantined.

The Games Tables

These are photos of the larger tables (there are several smaller ones for more intimate games).  Future developments will include an upstairs area.

There are perspex screens everywhere - I don't think they came out in the pictures.

This was set up for Painting Night

There are a lot of Warhammer players 
- and a lot of scenery for them to use.

Stuff to Buy

There's that as well!

Photos With People in Them

There was no-one in when I visited on a wet Friday afternoon (though I was glad to see that some passing trade was interested).  Here are some suitabliliy populated photos nicked from The Games Table Facebook page.

And Finally...

Keiran takes COVID regulations seriously.