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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 5h

I was joking.

I’ll bring my own -sanitised - dice. I’m even going to be mocking up a Daggerheart set. (Not buying offical.)

Seriously - don’t want to patronise - I got some plastic sleeves that have been working for me at cons for pregen sheets. Got loads of spares if you want me to bring some.

Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 7h

It’s me and most of the people I know.

Peter @spezbaby.bsky.social · 8h

Hey @thebitterguy.bsky.social

Dis you?

The Onion @theonion.com · 11h

Area Man Has Far Greater Knowledge Of Marvel Universe Than Own Family Tree https://theonion.com/area-man-has-far-greater-knowledge-of-marvel-universe-t-1819571080/

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 7h

Aaww!

Now I’ve got to bring a BAG!

I was thinking, what with playing all weekend for once, I could get away with just stuffing a change of pants and socks in my pocket instead of all the usual gaming paraphernalia I have to bring as a Referee.

a drawing of a suitcase with the word linda on the bottom right

Alt: a drawing of a suitcase with the word linda on the bottom right

media.tenor.com

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 9h

FOUR pages!

(I may have to bring a highlighter pen*).

* Unless All Rolled Up are there and stock them.

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Reposted by Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE

💀 Rue Morgue 💀🗡️❤️‍🔥🔜 Conference on BIPOC Game Studies 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 @ilananight.bsky.social · 9h

TTRPGs for Trans Rights has raised over $1mil for trans charities across the United States.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 22h

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 9h

I don’t disagree.

(Are you talking about me? Or about yourself? Or - as so often - in recognition of a fellow soul?)

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 12h

You don’t stop playing because you get old.

You get old because you stop playing.

Corey Mac @cmac3500.bsky.social · 14h

I grew up playing "make believe" with my friends. Someone, somewhere said adults should grow out of that. I think they're wrong. Adult life is filled with enough "reality" that playing "make believe" again is very refreshing.

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 12h

a man with glasses and the words people have had enough of experts behind him

Alt: a man with glasses and the words people have had enough of experts behind him

media.tenor.com

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 12h

That’s the one! THE funniest example of roleplaying:

I paraphrase.

The characters bump into some Elves in the wood.

PCs: Hello, what are you all doing here?
Elves: We’re looking for our missing prince.
PCs: (Hiding severed head behind their backs) Nope. We haven’t seen him.

Flintlock but scary or something dunno not feeling it this year @flintlock.bsky.social · 13h

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Reposted by Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE

theodopolus.bsky.social @theodopolus.bsky.social · 14h

Got a proper URL now www.constantinople.uk
My illustrator is working on the cover, many thanks for the advice!

A Byzantine Monster Hunting TTRPG

A tabletop roleplaying game of outcasts from society forced to hunt monsters for a living in 6th century Constantinople, jewel of the eastern Roman empire.

www.constantinople.uk

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 15h

TABLETOP RolePlaying games, not LARPs.

I’m not a complete imbecile.

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Reposted by Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE

Moose Allain @mooseallain.bsky.social · 16h

The sort of cartoon you'd expect to see from me

www.worldofmoose.com/products/con...

Cartoon showing a man reading from a dictionary to another. He says "So, it turns out confirmation bias means exactly what I expected it to mean|"

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 16h

Why not? There’s a lot of public chess in parks in the world according to US et al films. Why not public TTRPGs?

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 16h

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….offer to run them - or similar - at FLGS if it’ll get me out of the house and maybe help them shift stock? Or would I be a fraud?

10/fin

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 16h

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B) as noted above the games I’d demo aren’t ones the shop has on sale.

Solution: offer to run games they DO sell. I’ve played both Dragonbane and Daggerheart at cons - deliberately - and downloaded their starter sets. That and disk world.

None of them “call” to me. But could I/should I…

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 16h

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Of stores that kindly took my cards and contacted them afterwards to thank them and offer to come in to their stores to demo games but I didn’t.

Now I’m retired I’d live to travel across the country demoing TTRPGs. Two things stop me.

A) I’m worried about my public persona. I’m not charming.

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 16h

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…FLGS across the UK for FreeRPDday. But the cards with QR code I sent them linked to a free product on Drivethru not anything on sale in their shops. this doesn’t help them. FreeRPGday giveaways should be things like expansions for games FLGS sell. Right?

I could/should have created a list

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 16h

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….games they’re familiar with. Otherwise I have to offer a scenario that’s interesting eg my recent Alien: Earth one or rely on return customers who know me.

B) Demonstrations: I really should show new players games they’re likely to encounter or buy. I recently made contact with DOZENS of

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 16h

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But for my comfort I tend to offer systems I’ve written or are easy for me. The Code of the Spacelanes or The Black Hack rather than Mothership or modern D&D.

But this is a problem in two ways:

A) at cons people they may not attract players . People want the big games, the new games or…

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 16h

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So one off game with relative strangers suits me. I can think of two situations where these occur. Conventions or demonstration games.

I also prefer Refereeing to playing. My wife theorises its a control things. I maintain it’s about being able to see and enjoy all the moving parts.

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 16h

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I am old enough now to know what I want from life. I can’t handle long term or deep emotional relationships. TTRPGs give me the feeling of friendship in short manageable doses. Faux friendships.

But a king running group at home or in a club is no longer for me.

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 17h

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…will be written slowly on my phone as I travel or sit in a waiting room. So it may take some time to finish off.

Expect long pauses.

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 17h

#TTRPGTHOUGHTS

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Should I offer to Referee TTRPGs that I haven’t written, don’t regularly play and am not an expert in in public spaces?

Note - that double “in” is grammatically correct IMHO.

I’m about to go out (more dental work -stay off the biscuits, kids!) so this thread…

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 1d

Sorry for not being explicit with my irony. Maybe I should have used some of those new-fangled emoji thingies?

The idea of you sitting at the top of the Garrison stairs, the line trails down & outside, taking wads of notes from all the Furnace attendees & guarding the cash-box all weekend. 🤣

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Simon Burley 🔜 FURNACE @squadronuk.bsky.social · 1d

And bags.

He also does bags.

(You COULD also have a locked cash box on the door & take money from people like they did a Concrete Cow last weekend. Does anybody want a return to that? [They did also have a PayPal option at the door.])

(Thanks again to you & all con organisers, for what you do.)

Graham Spearing 🔜 Furnace XX @firstage.bsky.social · 1d

It's interesting having to swim against the PayPal-Thiel tide. There is a reason that service is popular and, apparently, ubiquitous. Having historically offered a PayPal route (for convention payments), it is very hard to disengage. Direct bank transfers are too dfficult for many or unwelcome.

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