Recovering after UK Games Expo

It has taken a week for me to get around to writing something about the hectic (and warm) experience that was UK Games Expo 2025. Was it good? Yeah, I think so... 

Just a fraction of the convention. It was huge.

Getting there was pretty easy, thanks to the way the NEC in Birmingham is connected to the train station (which is brilliant), and the lovely people at the NEC even had places to look after our luggage while we walked around that first day before we checked into the hotel. 

The only problem was, it was WARM. So darn warm. The queues just for the water refill stations were epic. The food and drink places were overwhelmed. Even the Londis in the NEC were struggling to refill the fridges fast enough. But, we arrived, had a very brief look around before deciding it was too warm, and went off for a tea and some fresh air. Then it was back in to meet up with Eleanor from the UK Tabletop Industry Network and the legend that is Joe LeFavi from Genuine Entertainment. Great to catch up with you both!!

The hotel (the Holiday Inn at the Airport) was really nice, and even had a free shuttle bus that connected with the NEC/station. Excellent! Good air conditioning, huge breakfast, and we were back for day two...

Debs' first encounter of Saturday was with some Ghostbusters and someone from Star Fleet.

Day Two was slightly better as the air conditioning in the halls seemed to be better. We met up with Stoo Goff (publisher and creator of Aegean, and publisher of WILD... you may have heard about him on this blog before) and then it was back to wandering the halls. Debs had a great chat on Friday with the lovely folk at Monte Cook Games and really loved the weird hand thing that was in the original Invisible Sun Black Cube, and talked to them about maybe having a demo of the game while we were there. However, the halls were so big, and all blurred into one, we struggled to find their stand again (until Sunday). How is that even possible? Their stand was pretty big! 

The Hand from Invisible Sun

    Anyway, we wandered the halls some more, remembered to stop for cups of tea more often this time, and remembered to keep taking it easy. We caught up with Gareth Sleightholme, the artist who did the amazing tarot deck art for WILD, as well as some of the most striking and arresting art for the upcoming second edition of The Laundry Roleplaying Game, based on Charles Stross' The Laundry Files.

Was a long and exhausting day, topped off with a trip to the bar at the Hilton for the obligatory 'industry mixer' hosted by the lovely folk over at Rowan, Rook and Decard. It was busy, and the queue for the bar was huge, but lots of people were having a blast and chatting, and I got to catch up properly with Gareth and Stoo, and I think Debs enjoyed it all too. 

Sunday was (thankfully) a little cooler again, and we went in with a battle plan. However, we were all tired, and worn out by the whole experience, and by the time it got to around 1pm we'd had enough and started the long (very long) train journeys home. Debs bought some cool vegetation from Gamers Grass, and discovered a couple of cool games that she's going to keep an eye out for when they hit Kickstarter. But thankfully, we made it home and passed out... just in time for me to go back to work the following day. 

What was the final verdict of the convention? 

That's a really tricky question. When we went to Tabletop Scotland last year, it was a lot quieter as you'd expect, but we saw some really cool games and I sat there inspired. My mind was filled with ideas, I flicked through Mothership and was a bit stunned by all of the information. I just couldn't wait to get back home and start doing something. To create. Draw, write. Anything. 

Whereas UK Games Expo was massive. Huge. So busy, I hardly saw anyone I'd promised I'd try to catch up with - either I just didn't see them, or they were just too busy and I didn't want to interrupt. There was so much to see, so many cool games, so many books, I kinda just left the convention thinking 'why am I bothering?' There are so many RPGs out there, no one's going to notice anything I do. And the social mixer on Saturday night was filled with so many new and talented creators that I didn't recognise, I just felt that I'd had my time making RPGs and maybe I should just 'diminish, and go into the West...' 

But I won't. I'm going to keep at it. But it has left me a little unmotivated. Completely the opposite of what I wanted to get out of the convention. 

Still. It was great to catch up with Stoo and I haven't had a chance to really chat to Gareth in years.

Me and Gareth, and a big dice.

Will we do it again? Definitely. But maybe not all three days. I don't think my bank account can take it!

Roll on Tabletop Scotland!! 

UK Games Expo on the horizon

 

At the end of the week it'll be the UK's largest gaming convention, UK Games Expo.

I've been a few times in the past, and have always been completely overwhelmed by the size of the convention, but this is the first time I've gone for longer than a single afternoon. Usually that's enough for me, it can be exhausting and so much happening, but this time I'm going to brave it a bit longer – mostly due to having the support and backup of my lovely wife this time. 

What do I hope to get out of the convention? 

Not sure. I know lots of people going and that's the real reason for it – meeting up with loads of cool gamers and developers. There are a few people going I haven't seen for many years, and some I've never met in person (only over the internet) and it's going to be great to catch up and chat. 

I also want to check out those cool minis at Crooked Dice – surely they have to have made a Mulder and Scully set by now? 

And, Darrington Press... I'm not much of a fantasy gamer, but Daggerheart is looking more and more tempting...  

I've printed out maps of the halls, marked on stalls I definitely need to visit. There are so many people I need to say hello to! It should be good!! Exhausting, but good!

If you're going and see me wandering the halls, looking as bewildered as I always do at these things, say 'hi!'.

[I may try to record a video or something while I'm there. I was going to do another "what's in the box?" video today but the footage was awful. I'll need to try again...]

My Taste In Music Is Your Face

This is going to be something a little different for me. This blog is usually where I get all nostalgic or talk about tabletop roleplaying games, or movies, or my obsession with The X-Files, or something like that. I don't often venture into the realms of music, despite it being quite a major part of my life.

Bear with me though, there are some strange narrative elements coming up that you may not be aware of, so stick with it. You may like it! If not, things will return to gaming next post, I promise.

Photo of the stage on the Clancy tour, showing the city of Dema. 

Over the last couple of years my wife has become completely and utterly obsessed with the band Twenty One Pilots. The wonders of Kerrang! TV (oh, how I miss that) showed the video for Holding On To You, and it seems to have latched itself into her subconscious, because when the video for Stressed Out hit circulation, we recognised the band and (intrigued) started watching the videos and checking out the rest of their music. 

The Music Is The Story, the Story is the Music

Who knew it was going to be such a rabbit hole! Listening to the songs, certain phrases would occur over and over, mentioning Bishops, Dema, Banditos, and something called Vialism. With a bit of research, Debs opened a whole can of worms and told me to look into it too... It seems that for the last ten years (to the day actually, as the album that really started this narrative, Blurryface, is ten years old today as I type this) they have been telling an epic story. 

Dema is a city on the continent known as Trench. Within the city are nine Bishops who control each of the nine districts, leading a religion known as Vialism. There is a resistance group, cute alien things called Neds, and major characters Clancy (Tyler Joseph in the band) and the Torchbearer (Josh Dun in the band). 

As you watch the music videos, some of them are 'Lore' videos, telling the story of Clancy's escape from Dema, being dragged back by Nico (one of the Bishops), being forced to perform as propaganda, escaping again, gaining the psychic ability to reanimate the dead like the Bishops, and returning to Dema to take down the Bishops. It's all pretty epic.

Letters from the Bishops, and a map of Trench and Dema

However, it's not just the music videos and some of the lyrics that build this Lore and the story. Some of the merchandise includes clues and codes, the latest album ("Clancy") had a digital version with a booklet full of clues and puzzles. 

As you can imagine, we were intrigued and fascinated. Delving even deeper and listening closely to the lyrics, you can tell that not only is this clever and detailed world building, but it also has a deeper meaning about mental health, and personal struggles. Probably why it resonates with so many fans.

The Few, The Proud, And The Emotional

I'd foolishly bought tickets for the concert over a year ago, initially thinking it was for last May until I tried to book the time off from work... d'oh. And then, they announced they were bringing their touring exhibition with them. Props and artefacts from their history – stage costumes, props from music videos, original notes of the lyrics. All broken down by album or tour. Debs' eyes lit up at the opportunity, so we had to go to that as well...

Debs posing in front of the "Blurryface 10th Anniversary" posters that lined the approach

We arrived good and early at the O2 in London, what was once 'the Millennium Dome'. We'd only been here once before when the Game of Thrones exhibition was here, and strangely enough the Fan Premier Exhibition (FPE) was in the same upper bar area of the arena. 

There was a big queue (which surprised me) for the exhibition, but the staff were all brilliant and explained everything to us. We got our "Ned's" bags of goodies and wristbands, and went in...

Tyler's handwritten lyrics for one of my favourite tracks
"At the Risk of Feeling Dumb"

The queues working their way around the exhibition. Bishop robes (red) in the next bit!

Bishop robes for eight of the nine Bishops (the robes of the ninth were on the floor...)

Debs and Me on the "Stressed Out" trikes. 

More cabinets of clippings, drumheads, outfits, and more

There was a heck of a lot to see, and there are another 150+ photos on my phone of the exhibition alone! At the end of the exhibition, there was an area with a bar, and loads of cushions on the floor so you could sit and chill. There was also a stamping station, where you could stamp designs onto the yellow bandana that came in your "Ned's" bag of stuff. There was also a place to add yellow and red tape to your outfit, add a message to the band on a flag, and (of course) the continuing lore...

We went on the second to last night of the tour, so set up in the last area was a Bandito tent with another letter fragment. There have been letter fragments at each concert venue, with morse codes and clues to build upon the story. 

The Bandito tent with the letter fragment pinned to the front

The following night, the tent was gone, with another clue. The flags were burned, or covered in black... 

See what I mean about the cool lore stuff?

We hung around for a bit, Debs decorated her bandana, and I chatted to a few of the older fans who were there – I honestly thought I was going to be the oldest person in the whole building, but it just goes to prove that their music seems to appeal to all ages. 

Eventually we headed out, and got a well needed cuppa before starting to queue to get into the gig itself.

Welcome Back To Trench

The gig itself was amazing. The venue was smaller than I thought it was going to be (I honestly thought it was going to be so large you wouldn't see anything) and we were lucky enough to be front row of the seated section to one side, right next to one of the "B-Stages".

Josh Dun, right up close!! 

There were a couple of really clever bits that stood out among the rest of the awesome. There was a moment where Tyler (wearing a balaclava) looks close into the camera that's on the stage so that the screens at the side affirm that it's him. He jumps into a trapdoor behind the middle riser on the stage, then appears in the crowd at the top of one of the balconies. You think, "ah, it's a body double" and then he takes the balaclava off, and it's him! I know there was some clever switcheroo deception going on, but it was awesome. 

The other really dramatic bit was when Josh appears in the crowd at the back of the auditorium, carrying the flaming torch - he is the Torchbearer. He walks through the crowd to the podium where Tyler is, and hands him his Clancy jacket. They head to the stage, and the stage looks like the city of Dema (see the pic at the top of this blog). It's so flippin' epic. 

(Of course, in a change to the plot, the final night - the one after we were there – Tyler doesn't take the jacket... and the crowd goes nuts). 

And then the city starts burning! 

Told you it was flippin' epic!!

Tyler, right up close!!

In the end, the concert finished with the traditional last song - "Trees". They set up small plinths in the middle of the crowd so they could both drum the final moments, while red confetti exploded from the roof onto the audience. (Of course, this night, the drums were chained down as it was the gig after the one in Manchester where a "fan" walked out of the venue with one of the drums. It made it into the music press, and the fans rallied to track the drum down. I don't know the details, but the tour team posted a video of them getting the drum back...)

And then, we headed home. 

In Time I Will Leave The City

That kinda wraps it up. Except... the tour ended and the social media continued. Cryptic letters were spelling something out, and a closing eye graphic and dimming the opacity of their website. There are theories that the whole of the concert is told as a recap, a flashback, in the moment Clancy closes his eyes while Blurryface grabs him by the throat (see the Paladin Strait video below). That rallying of "why you fight" just before you take action... 

It all built up to today's announcement that there's a new album coming in September which may finish the storyline. Debs is already overexcited at the prospect of new songs so soon after the tour. 

Overall, it was awesome. And I worry that all of that showmanship, storylines, and mystery has spoiled it for everyone else I wanted to see live. We'll see... next month it's Nine Inch Nails!

Sidequest: Every TTRPG played 21-30

Continuing my previous posts listing every tabletop RPG I've ever played, we're starting to get into the Nineties! Of course, just a handful of Eighties RPGs to get through, but we're getting there. 

If you want to catch up with the list in (sorta) chronological order, check out the previous parts here:

Part 1 - 1-10

Part 2 - 11-20

And now, without further ado, let's get on with it. 

#21 - The Price of Freedom

Cover of West End Games' The Price of Freedom

The Eighties were certainly a strange time when it came to the political climate (not that it's any more stable now). In the Eighties, the threat of war influenced movies, TV series, and games. Heavily influenced by Red Dawn, West End Games' TTRPG The Price of Freedom was all about guerrilla warfare in an occupied America. It was very tactical, and came with hex maps and counters for units. It was a bit bleak, and my players didn't really want to play in that setting, so I ended up converting it to play "V", the TV series of alien invasion with a deep message mirroring the horrors of WWII. 

Instead of fighting humans, the resistance was fighting alien Visitors. The hamsters and mice needed saving!

#22 - Robotech

Palladium Games' Robotech RPG

A bit of a strange one and a bit left-field, but for some reason I wanted to play with big robots, and spotted the Robotech RPG on the shelves at our local store. I bought it, read it, was thoroughly confused (it felt a bit like D&D) and we created some characters, but that may have been as far as it went. I'd never seen Robotech, so the concept of the aliens being flippin' giants didn't even occur to me (it wasn't that clear in the book I don't think, or I was just stupid). This may have been my only exposure to the Palladium system. I think someone else in the group had the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles RPG, but I never played it. 

#23 - Star Wars (West End Games)

Star Wars RPG (West End Games)

Look at it. It's beautiful. One of my favourite games of all time, up there with Ghostbusters, is the original Star Wars RPG by West End Games. I mean, I was a fan of WEG having played Ghostbusters, Paranoia, and The Price of Freedom, but when they announced they had the license for my favourite films that was me sold. 

The Star Wars RPG is just awesome. I know it has its foibles and there were times where we were rolling so many D6s that you could hardly see the table, but it was glorious. It really captured the action and feel of Star Wars. It was the last RPG I bought and ran in what I call my "Golden Age", and we played a heck of a lot of it. Probably so much my players were sick of it, but I loved it, and I loved Star Wars. Still do (with both). 

After that, things wound down for a bit. I went to college, a lot of the players went off to university, and gaming in general faded into the background for two or three years. 

#24 - Vampire: The Masquerade

Vampire: The Masquerade (1st Edition)

There is going to be a bit of a recurring theme here for a while, sorry. I went to the University of the Arts to do a degree (so I could do comics and graphic novels - see, that constant bouncing between comics and RPGs at it again). I'd gone away to Uni, met loads of new people, and immediately stumbled across a gaming group playing Vampire: The Masquerade. I'd never even heard of it, but was immediately hooked. This was back when we had student grants to help pay for our education, before it became 'loans', and I was terrible. I blew a chunk of my grant on buying a heap of Vampire books. This was going to be my next big thing. I ran a game for my old group, started another group locally with people from the comic shop, and set both games in the same city, at the same time, crossing over events and characters. 

Vampire got me back into gaming in a big way, and introduced me to my future wife. We joined the Camarilla, went to a couple of big Camarilla meetings. Heck, Debs was head of Clan Toreador for a while, while I was the second in command in Clan Tremere. 

#25 - Werewolf: The Apocalypse

Werewolf: The Apocalypse (1st Edition)

I told you there was going to be recurring theme... Of course, Vampire wasn't going to be enough, and when Werewolf: The Apocalypse came out, I was just as intrigued, aiming to add werewolves into our current Vampire game. As a bit of an aside, I ran a Werewolf story with my local group set in the same city as the Vampire game – their actions directly impacting upon the Vampire chronicle as a whole. It was fun! I think we did a couple of adventures like that... but then, something else came along.

#26 - Mage: The Ascension

Mage: The Ascension (1st Edition)

Oh yes, now we're talking. Vampire was cool, and goth, and moody. Werewolf was angry, and nature, and anti-corporation. Mage: The Ascension was just nuts. And we loved it. I ran a Mage game for our local group (who we still play with today) and it was amazing. Debs created a character that inspired so many works of fiction. The setting, the characters, the themes we tackled in those games were beyond anything we could hope to replicate. It was Quintessence in a bottle, rather than lightning. When the Paradox Backlashes hit, things went really weird, and yet we kept it all in the same city and story as the old Vampire game. Truly epic. Until one of the characters died...

#27 - Wraith: The Oblivion

The incredibly hard to read and over-the-top cover for Wraith: The Oblivion

So, one of the characters died in our Mage: The Ascension game, but no one wanted to see the end of that character. Luckily, White Wolf had just brought out the next in the line of World of Darkness games, with Wraith: The Oblivion. Therefore, the character remained in the Chantry, and joined in with the adventures, only as a ghost! We never played a dedicated game of Wraith, at least, not to my recollection. But we explored many of the themes and adventure ideas in the Wraith setting in our main WoD campaign. 

It was about this time I considered going back into writing roleplaying games again. 

However, things happened, I got grumpy, over-reacted, and turned my back on World of Darkness. I wanted to keep running the game we had going in Mage, keeping with weird magic and ghosts and supernatural stuff. That's when I turned to the next game in the list...

#28 - KULT

KULT (1st Edition)

The replacement for World of Darkness was an easy conversion over to the grim and terrifying world of Kult. Sure, the magic wasn't as easy to cast, but it made the game more creepy and somewhat sinister. The Mage character's Chantry was a pocket in the Metropolis, and things took a decidedly darker turn. There were still vampires and evil creatures, but the influences of Hellraiser were definitely there. Possibly the tensest games I've ever run, and some of the scariest stuff we've played, but it was cool and very 90s goth.

And that 2nd edition with the cool typography (rumoured to be done in MSWord)... oh, Lordy. That's so good. 

Maybe a little too dark, though, which lead to converting our existing game once again to yet another system...

#29 - CJ Carella's WitchCraft

CJ Carella's WitchCraft

More closely in line with the themes and tone of our old World of Darkness game, we switched over to CJ Carella's WitchCraft. I was initially drawn to the cover design, and that the game was a smaller digest format rather than the usual sized gamebook. It was smaller, easier to carry, had some great art, and the system felt very like the old World of Darkness. Of course, this introduced me to Eden Studios...

#30 - All Flesh Must Be Eaten

All Flesh Must Be Eaten (1st Edition)

We'd relocated to the other side of the country, and the gaming had come to a halt again. But there was a little gaming store on my way into work. In there, I spotted another one of Eden's smaller digest RPGs, the legendary All Flesh Must Be Eaten, a game of zombie survival horror. I didn't actually get to play it until many years later, after we'd moved back to where we were before, and I started hosting an RPG bookclub at the bookstore I was working at. Instead of reading a book and talking about it once a month, we'd pick a game, and run a short one-shot once a month. The members of the group could then buy it at a small discount if they liked it. 

I ended up running a quick one-shot of All Flesh Must Be Eaten, set on one of my sixth-form school trips. It was suitably over-the-top and complete carnage, but great fun. 

--

That's it for the latest section. Possibly only a couple more of these to go, I find I'm buying games and reading them more than I get chance to play them these days. You may be surprised at the omissions when it comes to what I haven't played!! 

Until next time, stay multi-classy!

Passion! (Turn to the Left)

 

The man, the myth, the legend that is, David Bowie

[No, that wasn't a typo. I'm paraphrasing one of the Bowie's song titles.]

I watch a lot of Youtube. I don't know if it's because I've a terribly short attention-span at the moment, but I do enjoy watching those talented crafters like Studson, Nerdforge, Bill Making Stuff and Dan Does. My wife watches all the videos about painting and art, and frequently I get videos appear in my recommendations about creativity. Inevitable I guess. 

One appeared on my feed recently by someone called Creative Codex, and it was about pursuing ambitious projects. The thumbnail used an image of that great combo of Davids - David Bowie and David Lynch. Of course, I had to watch...

The end of the video features of a clip of David Bowie's interview in 1997 about creativity. It focuses on a quote which I'm sure you've heard many times before - 

"If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth, and when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting."

- David Bowie

And there was also the rest the video, where it discusses ambitious projects and some creators immersing themselves in a passion project that takes years to complete. It really got me thinking about these passion projects (hence the name of the post) and those times when I got completely and utterly absorbed in a project. When you'd need to keep a notebook close to the bed for those thoughts that surface just as you're falling asleep, or in your pocket for long journeys and your mind wanders and reveals a solution to one of your creative roadblocks. 

It got me thinking of times when I was completely immersed in a project that it completely took over everything I was doing. 

Drowning in Darkness

Cover for second printing
of Drowning in Darkness

Many years ago, we're talking mid-late 80's here, I wanted to write and draw comics. A friend of mine, Pete, decided to start publishing comics under the "Swampland" name, and my first comic, Drowning in Darkness completely consumed my life. It was a small, 32-page A4, comic. Sold a few copies. One comic review magazine called me the "Goth Hergé" which I was really chuffed with. It was a pretty basic story of an ex-government agent turned vigilante taking on vampires. Madness, I know, but I enjoyed it.

Pete wrote a massive sequel called Mirrors of Darkness that I started drawing and inking, but it kinda fizzled out about page 80-something. I also did the usual thing that creatives do, which was to go back and start re-making Drowning in Darkness with new art and an extended storyline. Never finished that one... I still have it all somewhere, though it's probably an embarrassing read. 

Ghostbusters: 'Spooky Science' and 'Back to Transylvania'

Very old illustration I did of me 
typing Ghostbusters adventures.

My two great passions in the late 80s were comics and roleplaying games, and after discovering the Ghostbusters Roleplaying Game by West End Games, I really wanted to write RPGs. More than that, I really wanted to write for the Ghostbusters RPG. This is back before the internet, so this involved writing a letter to West End Games (including 'international reply coupons' to cover return postage from the States to the UK), and waiting months. 

First it was a letter to see if they'd look at some stuff, and get the Release Form which allowed them to look at it without any legal problems (in case they were working on something similar already), and their writers guidelines. Then, days upon days sat over an electric typewriter drafting an adventure for Ghostbusters. 

They weren't great, and their movie-parody style was a little too close to some other major franchises, but the encouraging letter I got back from West End Games gave me the drive to keep going. I spent every spare moment writing those adventures, even doing stupid illustrations for them that they'd never be able to use. 

Missing

Covers for Issues 1, 4, and 2 of Missing

After going off to art school (sorry, University), my desire to write and draw comics was bubbling to the surface. Inspired by Twin Peaks, I became totally immersed in the world of Missing. Planned as a multi arc story over around 90 issues, it featured a wide cast of weird characters thrown together at a hotel on the border between Scotland and England, after England had become a US State, and after global warming had raised the water levels. 

There were multiple plots crossing over, featuring the kidnapping of the President's daughter, a bunch of 'Neuromatics' - surfing highwaymen who were holding up traffic heading for the border. There was murder, betrayal, intrigue, scandal, and more. It was even funded by the Prince's Youth Business Trust. My mind was filled with plot lines, characters, and plans for the future... but after I lost distribution after four issues due to low orders, I shelved the whole thing and haven't gone back to it. I have one complete set, but looking at it now I feel myself cringe a bit. Definitely a product of its time.  

Conspiracy X 2.0

Promotional image for Conspiracy X 2.0

After Missing went... well... missing... I was at a bit of a loss. I started thinking about my next big comic venture which was a post-apocalyptic comic of religion and divine-like alien beings influencing a strange cathedral... but it never went anywhere. I just kept reworking it over and over again. 

However, I'd continued roleplaying, and got talking to the lovely folk at Eden Studios (initially about a potential Conspiracy X comic) after a friend of mine told me I needed to read the Conspiracy X RPG, knowing I was a massive fan of The X-Files. I ended up helping with a number of their games like Terra Primate, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Conspiracy X was amazing, but it frustrated me that it wasn't the same game system as the other games produced by Eden that I'd worked on. 

I put together a pitch and met with George while he was in the UK at one of the last UK GenCon conventions to convince him to let me convert Conspiracy X to a new edition using Unisystem. 

The week after I signed the contract for four books which would adapt and convert most of the existing content into new concise volumes, my father died. I did the slightly unhealthy thing where I squirrelled myself away into our tiny office room, and buried myself deep in the world of Conspiracy X. I contacted American government agencies to ensure everything was up to date after the restructuring with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Pulling in previously unpublished material, I was left to just get on with it and piece together a brand new edition of the game. With the amazing editorial skills of Alex Jurkat, the core rulebook finally came out... and many years later, the remaining three books were released after successful Kickstarter campaigns. 

I may have gone a bit deep on that one, but not only did it produce a game I still love, but it helped during a particularly tough time. Unfortunately, one of the stretch goals for the fourth book (the Conspiracies Sourcebook) was to ensure development of the 'sequel' game called Extinction. Set after the Saurian aliens had returned to Earth and decimated the population, it was announced just as I'd lost my mother - rather depressing bookends for my Conspiracy X career - and I just wasn't in the headspace to work on a title that involved so much death and destruction. I'd hoped that someone would take over on Extinction, but I think the Conspiracies Sourcebook was the final Eden Studios release for the time being. 

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space

Cover of the first edition of Doctor Who:
Adventures in Time and Space RPG

After Conspiracy X 2.0 was handed in (before the Kickstarters for the remaining books), I started talking to Chris Birch, Angus Abranson, and Dominic McDowall about how a good license could bring in a new generation of gamers. One thing lead to another, and we were pitching to the BBC for Doctor Who. Thanks to my day-job working in a bookstore with a Dalek, I'd been excited to see the series return in 2005, and by that two-part finale I knew that a Doctor Who RPG would be amazing. 

Once we had the license secured, I was in the strange position where I was kinda left to it. I recruited a few other writers I knew to help with adventures and some of the sections, but once again I immersed myself in the world(s) and trying to get the game to echo the feel of the series as much as possible. It was kinda weird... a few rounds of massive playtests, feedback incorporated, and then the text went off to Dom and Angus... and then it miraculously appeared in my inbox. A cool boxed set, multiple books, dice, cards. It felt amazing to see something go from pitch to product and hit the shelves. 

WILD: Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming

Cover for WILD

With Doctor Who handed in, I worked on a few of the supplements before it became too big a beast (and an award winning beast at that) and Cubicle 7 grew to accommodate it. I was still working in my little retail job, but came out of the cinema after seeing Inception that opening weekend and my mind was buzzing with ideas. It was like someone had hooked up my brain to a Christopher Nolan's creative drive, and I just had to do something. And thus, WILD was born - Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming, an RPG of dreamshare technology. That was 2010. Ten years later, Stoo told me to stop messing about and to actually get something finished for WILD, so that he could run a Kickstarter for it. 

Stoo was a legend, sorting the printing, commissioning the awesome cover art (above) by Qissus, and the Tarot art by Gareth Sleightholme who I've known longer than I'd like to admit to. Stoo ran the Kickstarter, fulfilled the shipments - let's face it, without Stoo chivvying me and getting the publishing side organised, WILD would never exist. 

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You know what all of these projects had in common (besides me), was that they were a cool challenge, and maybe a little over my head. But I had the love for the story or property that I wanted to see it through. 

At the moment, I'm just feeling burned out and unmotivated. I want to feel that drive, that passion (beep beep), that desire to completely immerse myself in something that it infiltrates my idle mind, sparking ideas. I miss that. Right now, my mind is like it's tuned to a dead channel and the white noise is drowning everything else out. 

Soon, though... soon. 

I'll finish with another of Bowie's quotes from that interview:

"Never play to the gallery… Always remember that the reason that you initially started working is that there was something inside yourself that you felt that if you could manifest in some way, you would understand more about yourself and how you coexist with the rest of society. I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations — they generally produce their worst work when they do that."

- David Bowie

Sidequest: Every TTRPG played 11-20

Well, it's been one of those months again. In such a funk, and kinda down, that I can't really think of anything exciting to add to my blog. It's a good job I've got these ridiculous posts listing things to keep me moderately occupied, rather than just staring into the void. 

So, to continue from the previous post, Kieron Gillen inspired me to list every tabletop roleplaying game I've played. I did the first ten in sort-of chronological order starting with those first games I ever played. Lets see how bad my memory is as continuing the list from 11-20...

#11 - The Adventures of Indiana Jones RPG

Cover of TSR's Adventures of Indiana Jones game

I know, the much maligned Adventures of Indiana Jones RPG from TSR. I freakin' loved this game. Not as free and easy as you may think, involving lots of tables and weird slide-rule thingy, along with lots of cool cardstock miniatures and 3D models. I bought everything you could get for Indiana Jones, and I loved it. I even made a video about it last year. 

Loved it. Wish there was a new version so we can explore, adventure, and punch more Nazis. 

#12 - Warhammer Fantasy (1st Edition)

Cover of the old white box Warhammer RPG

Another game bought by one of our regular players wanting to run something different to AD&D. We should have realised it was going to be very different by the name - Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy Role-Playing Game. It really was quick, brutal, and our characters died very, very quickly. I don't think we got many games in, but after the GM moved to the other side of the world, that boxed set now sits on my shelves.

#13 - Golden Heroes

Cover of the Golden Heroes RPG

Next on the list is possibly our first foray into superhero gaming. We didn't do an awful lot of supers stuff, and when we played Golden Heroes it was just after I'd read Watchmen so we played with powerless vigilante characters rather than having proper 'super powers'. It was pretty cool, but the superhero Odyssey game we played later was better - not because of the game, Golden Heroes is still great, but just because someone else was GMing rather than me and they did a better job. I'm sure it'll come up in a later post...

#14 - Paranoia

Cover of the West End Games Paranoia RPG, 
published as a hardcover in the UK by Games Workshop!

Next is something a little different. Wasn't sure what I was getting into when I started running Paranoia, but it was madness and we loved it. Played all the weird adventures from the time, like HIL-Sector Blues, and Clones in Space. Heck, I even bought those Citadel miniatures and did an awful job of painting them.

#15 - Twilight: 2000

Cover of the original edition of Twilight: 2000

It was the Eighties, and (as you'll see by another later entry) things were a bit tense when it came to international relations. Good thing we sorted that out after all these years! (sarcasm) But, yes, we had a go at Twilight:2000. I don't remember much of it, just creating some characters and wandering around the roads near Krakow. I don't think we played very much of it. 

#16 - Doctor Who The Roleplaying Game (FASA)

Cover of the FASA 2nd edition of the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game

Much like the old FASA Star Trek, we also played the FASA edition of the Doctor Who RPG. We were lucky to have a GM who was not only our Call of Cthulhu keeper, but also a massive Doctor Who fan who knew his stuff. Being a fan of the creepy Hinchcliffe and Holmes era of Tom Baker's run, he ensured the game played like a spooky Cthulhu adventure, with our resident Time Lord, the Collector, strangely absent most of the time (the player hardly ever turned up). 

#17 - Judge Dredd the Roleplaying Game (GW)

Cover of the original Dredd RPG

As mentioned in an earlier post, I'd been reading 2000AD since issue #2, the first appearance of Judge Dredd, and most of us in the gaming group read it to some extent. It was inevitable that we'd play the Dredd RPG. We played a handful of games, engaged in a Block War or two. I'd love to see a new edition soon - I must admit, I'd love to see a TV series done like The Rookie but only with MegaCity Judges...

#18 - Odyssey

Image from the movie ALIENS

Okay, home-brew time. This wasn't just your average home-brew, this was Pete's most epic RPG, taking up a chunky ring-binder of rules. Taking elements from RuneQuest and turning the volume up, Odyssey was Pete's generic RPG to work in any time and any genre. I remember he said "I've a murder mystery RPG to test" and we all joined in on this simple game of regular people who had won a prize to go on a cruise. We thought it was going to be a murder mystery, and then *RUG PULL* the ship sank and we were washed up on a desert island, with superpowers. Inspired by the old Elementals comic, we played the heck out of that. 

However, Odyssey really came into its own when we started using the system to play Colonial Marines in the ALIEN universe. The encumbrance system was genius, and I remember this frantic run for the drop ship and shedding my smart gun to speed up so we could escape the nuclear blast of the terraforming plant exploding. He also ran a brilliant game where one of the players was a villain, working to sabotage the plans for his own benefit. Lots of note passing to the GM, and it was only when combat started and the dice rolls started matching up did they realise who was shooting at them. Decades before Free League's game of marines and hidden agendas, Pete was doing it in the 80s. Brilliant stuff.

#19 - Ghostbusters

Cover of the legendary Ghostbusters RPG by West End Games

Here we come to one of my favourite games of all time - West End Games' Ghostbusters Roleplaying Game. You wouldn't believe how much I love this game. I've written at length about how reading this game made me want to be a game writer and designer. It's just a joy to read, brilliantly simple, and based on one of my favourite movies and franchises. How could I not love it? We played so much of this, so much that the Ghost on my Ghost-Die started to wear off. 

Again, I'd love to see a new Ghostbusters RPG - especially as the D6 system that powers it has returned recently in the Carbon Grey and Planet of the Apes RPGs. If anyone at Ghostcorps is listening, you know who to call. 

Here's a link to another video I made!! 

#20 - James Bond 007 Roleplaying Game

The Victory Games RPG of James Bond 007

Finally for this batch, here's another one of my favourite RPGs of all time. Victory Games' official James Bond 007 RPG. Amazing game, with some brilliant and revolutionary mechanics, and some of the most amazing presentation (especially for the adventures). Absolutely love this game. 

I'm going to sound like a stuck record, but again I'd love to see a new version of a Bond RPG (who knows, it may happen now the Amazon deal has happened - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they honour such a legacy). And, again, here's a video I recorded if you want to check out what the game looks like. 

We played a heck of a lot of this too, and I ran a couple of the adventures multiple times for different groups, each with very different outcomes. Awesome.

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That's it for this batch. We're getting close to the 'break' I had from gaming, and I'm keeping track of games I've bought and not yet played, just in case I wanted to do a Sidequest of the Sidequest!! 

Until next time, stay multi-classy. 

Sidequest: Every TTRPG Played #1-10

Over where the sky is blue (that's Bluesky just in case you haven't been on there), much respected and loved comics creator and TTRPG writer, Kieron Gillen, posted to say that he was trying to make a list of every TTRPG he's ever played. 

Alt Text - Trying to make a list of every TTRPG I've ever played, which presently includes such classics such as 'the very complicated home-brew game made by my friend James when I lived in America' and 'The one where you're all sad people at the end of the world with a name that sounds ominous'. 

I'm really hoping that his results appear on his relatively recent blog-site that he launched https://oldmenrunningtheworld.com/ . However, it did inspire me to think... 'Can I remember every TTRPG I've played?'...

Challenge Accepted!!

I know I've been doing my "My Nerdy Life in 100 Geeky Objects" series, and there's bound to be a little crossover, but I thought I'd try and do this as well, just to keep my brain busy and so I don't spiral into the mire. Do forgive my indulgences. I'm not going to drag this out into another 100 posts... I promise.

Let's take it a chunk at a time, starting from the very beginning. The order may be a little off, but hey, it is 40+ years ago...

#1 - Traveller

The first three "Little Black Books" for the original Traveller RPG

The first tabletop roleplaying game I ever played was Traveller. I had no idea what I was doing, but I generated a character that sunny Saturday afternoon in what must have been 1983(?) up at JR's place. I remember thinking how old my character was by the time I left military service. I didn't do much, just sat in the background and took in the experience, but I was already hooked by the end of the first game. 

#2 - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook (2nd Cover)

Had to be there, didn't it? Usually everyone's first game, I leapt straight into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. None of this Basic or Expert stuff, I was thrown into the deep end of AD&D. Admittedly, I didn't even roll a character to begin with. My first character was a Paladin called Ivanhoe that was already at 8th or maybe 9th level. One of the players in the group was bored of playing the goody-two-shoes, and it was just the sort of character I liked playing. I gave him a last name after a few years, Navarre, from watching Ladyhawke, because, let's face it, Rutger Hauer was the coolest thing around. Played him for years, never got higher than 9th level, but always liked playing Paladins ever since.

#3 - Runequest

Cover of Runequest 2nd Edition

That same gaming group seemed to alternate between AD&D and Runequest most of the time, so it was inevitable that Runequest would turn up on this list, and very early. I really liked the way that individual locations had their own armour ratings, but I remember the GM had bought the Big Rubble setting and we kept heading into the Rubble to seek our fortunes, getting a fraction of the way in, and getting our arses kicked so badly we retreated back to the inn and healed up before doing it all again. 

#4 - Star Frontiers

Front cover of the original Star Frontiers "Expanded" Rulebook

Everyone was running RPGs and I really wanted to get in on the GameMastering action, and I preferred SF to fantasy. Traveller was cool, but it just wasn't saying "Star Wars" to be enough. A trip to the local (if you can all it that) game store and that cover for Star Frontiers literally screamed "Look!! I'm like Star Wars, look at me!!" and I had to get it. Absolutely loved that game. Played so much of it, you wouldn't believe. All the way through to the Zebulon's Guide update and beyond. I'd love to see a proper revival, not the nonsense that's happened recently. 

#5 - Gamma World

Much like my desire to GM something, I remember Coop wanted to GM in our group, and his game of choice to start was TSR's other SF RPG, Gamma World. The weird, post-apocalyptic RPG of an irradiated future. I don't remember playing too much of it, but it was pretty cool. Spent most of my time worrying I was going to grow an extra arm or something from the radiation...

#6 - Call of Cthulhu

Cover of 1st Edition Call of Cthulhu

Of course, the other big classic from the early days of gaming had to be Call of Cthulhu. I hadn't read any Lovecraft, so I had no idea what was going on, but I loved seeing those weird silhouettes and wandering around in the 1920s. I ended up buying my own copy (the Games Workshop hardcover version, rather than the boxed first edition) and we played a heck of a lot of that too. Most of my characters went mad, except for the one that died when another character threw a bottle at me to get me out of their tent. 

#7 - FASA Star Trek

Cover of FASA's Star Trek Roleplaying Game

Our "Keeper" for Call of Cthulhu ran a couple of other games for us as well. One is FASA's Star Trek RPG. I used to watch classic Trek on TV as a kid, and a lot of it went way over my head. It wasn't until much later that I really *got* Star Trek and really loved it (but that's one for another story). I don't remember playing too much of it, but it was cool. I remember us playing the Star Trek III Starship Combat game more...

#8 - Space Opera

Cover of the Space Opera RPG

What the hell even is the Space Opera RPG? I have a dim recollection of this, and remember it being so darn complicated that we spent two evenings just creating characters... and then never actually got around to playing it. Does this one still count? I've cut many a game from this list that I've read but never played, but does character creation count? I think so... maybe?

#9 - Stormbringer

Cover for Chaosium's Stormbringer RPG

Another one of those "one of the players wanted to have a go at GMing" games was Chaosium's Stormbringer. I remember it being very similar to Runequest, so the learning curve was really easy as we'd been playing that for ages. The tricky thing for me was I was completely unfamiliar with Michael Moorcock's Elric stories, so I was mostly confused by what was going on. Still, the art was cool. 

#10 - Middle Earth Roleplaying (MERP)

The cover I remember the most of the old 
MERP game, with the Balrog looking like
Lobo in the background.

Finally, for this first selection of every game I've played, we'll stop at number 10 with MERP, or Middle Earth Roleplaying Game. And I think this was another of the players wanting to GM something. Again (please forgive me, I was young, and not much of a fantasy reader) I was not very familiar with Tolkien. I mean, everyone else in the gaming group had read The Lord of the Rings, but I'd just watched the 70's animated movie. I tried, and I just didn't have the attention-span until much, much later (thanks to Babylon 5 - see, I told you I was a SF nerd). We did play a lot of this as well though, and I have fond memories of the critical tables. 

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So, that's the first 10 TTRPGs I remember playing. I'm sure I'll go back to this list soon, and try to do the next little batch. When I wrote them down, I did manage to get to 100, but that included RPGs I'd bought and read but hadn't actually played. I may cut those ones from the list, or have a sublist - a side-sidequest. 

Until next time, stay multi-classy!