Week 5: Red Shell, Green Shell, Blue Shell (Argh!)

Timetable

Monday 19:00 - Magic the Gathering in the Peter Lee Dining Room, Wentworth
Monday 20:00 - Boardgames in James SCR
Wednesday 16:00 - Yu-Gi-Oh in W/301
Wednesday 19:00 - Impact in D/L/002, D/L/003 + D/L/007
Thursday 20:00 - Social in Derwent Bar
Saturday 12:00 - Mordheim in G/001 + G/002
Saturday 17:00 - Isles of Darkness in W/301, W/304 + W/307
Sunday 12:30 - Impact in D/L/037

Notices

Mordheim: Border Town Burning is holding its second session this Saturday in G/001 and G/002.  Don't worry if you didn't make it to the first session, or have never played Mordheim before, as we have plenty of models you can borrow if you want to start.  Again, I'll be there from around midday to help with warband creation and setting stuff up.  If people could gather for one o'clock, hopefully we can get the first round of games started soon after.  For more information, find me at Social on Thursday.

Following the last games, some people took to the forums and wrote reports of how their warbands fared.  That's awesome and I can only encourage more of it.  If I remember my camera we could even have some photos to accompany these.  I'd like to keep a central record of campaign point progress, but not everybody updated the list on the whiteboard after the second game.  I can get updated numbers if you're there on Saturday but if you won't be, please could you let me know your warband's progress so far.
-David


The first term Tabletop Roleplay Day will be happening Saturday Week 6; 8th November in G/001, G/002, G/010 and G/013 from 13:00
This is primarily an opportunity for people interested in Tabletop Roleplay to have a chance to give it a go with one-off games designed as an introduction to the hobby.  And of course those with more experience are more than welcome to join in the fun!
If you are interested in running a game, then please email a blurb for your game or post it on the forums!  (Due to time restrictions we advise pre-gened characters or ones very quick to make.)

Vague Structure of the day:
Assemble at 13:00 in G/001, first set of games run. until around 6ish
Pizza and other food after the first lot of games.
Then a second set in the evening if people are happy to keep going!
-Tom


The Isles of Darkness game will be held in the top floor Wentworth rooms on 1st November.  This countrywide system will be starting a new chronicle in January, so if you're interested, please get in touch with storytellers Hannah and Joel.


Monday, November 3, there will be a LGBTQ-SF&F meet-up/hangout/get-to-know-ya thing. We're aiming for seven or so at Weatherspoons/Postern Gate. While we do acknowledge that our allies are wonderful people, we'd like this to be a safe place for LGBTQ SF&Fers who might not be out (or want to be out) to the rest of the society. Jai will be "hosting", so if you're not sure who else will be there, look for a person with a floof of bright blonde hair on top.
Again: 7pm Weatherspoon/Postern Gate, Monday, Nov. 3
-Jai


New to LARP, and looking for kit?  Kate will be leading a charity shop run on Saturday of Week 6.


If you're interested in getting some custom made miniatures for tabletop or wargaming purposes then Liam is offering to do them for little more than the cost of parts. Seek him out at social or drop us an email if you're interested!


If you want help running an event, a room booking or something putting into the weekly emails, please get in touch.

Thomas Irving
SF&F Secretary

Week 4: Ready and raring to go

Timetable

Monday 19:00 - Magic the Gathering in the Peter Lee Dining Room, Wentworth
Monday 20:00 - Boardgames in James SCR
Wednesday 16:00 - Yu-Gi-Oh in W/301
Wednesday 19:00 - Impact in D/L/002, D/L/003 + D/L/007
Thursday 20:00 - Social in Derwent Bar
Saturday 12:00 - Multiverse in W/304, W/306 + W/307
Sunday 12:30 - Impact in D/L/037

Notices

Boardgames is in JAMES College tonight, not Wentworth.  The SCR is near the Hall, up the stairs next to the JCR.

Multiverse is kicking off this week.  If you feel yourself undergoing any strange changes reminiscent of your favourite fictional character, please contact Jon 5 or find him at social.

New to LARP, and looking for kit?  Kate will be leading a charity shop run on Saturday of Week 6.

Jake is now running weekly Yu-Gi-Oh sessions on Wednesday afternoons.

The next Isles of Darkness game will be held in the top floor Wentworth rooms on 1st November.  This countrywide system will be starting a new chronicle in January, so if you're interested, please get in touch with storytellers Hannah and Joel.

Have you not paid membership yet, or have paid but not received a membership card?  Please let the Secretary know, so we know how many more cards we need to make.  Remember, you can pay online.  Membership is only £4 for the year, and gets you 10% off RPG books at Travelling Man.

Max is offering to DM some tabletop if anyone is interested, either D&D 5th (Lost Mine of Phandelver followed by Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamet, which would take players from levels 1-15) or something from FATE (less combat focused), Anima: Beyond Fantasy (anime flavoured) or  Warhammer Fantasy RPG.

If any of this sounds interesting, please contact him on the forums, at social or by email.  These games would run Monday, Friday or Sunday evening.


If you want help running an event, a room booking or something putting into the weekly emails, please get in touch.

Thomas Irving
SF&F Secretary

Mordheim start

The Mordheim Border Town Burning campaign kicked off this weekend, and following the first two games the Reiklander Mercenaries aiding the Celestial Protectorate have fared well while the bestial Scions of Chaos have faltered - Big Gruff, the aspiring champion of Nurgle, died in his first game!  The sneaky rats of Clan Skryre are working on some kind of insane and no doubt dangerous secret plan, and Badruk the Orc warboss is building strength for a mighty Waaagh!  Chaos Dwarf slavers have been sighted in the area, while two opposing groups from the Church of Sigmar have begun to make their presence felt, the Witch Hunters aiming to purge the borderlands of all abominations while the Sisters of Sigmar aid the Celestial Protectorate of Cathay in containing the Chaos threat.

If you'd like to lead a warband into this situation to shake things up a bit or seek fame and fortune amid the chaos, the next games will be taking place on Saturday of Week 5 (1st November).  For more information you can send me an email, check out the forums or find me at a social.

Dave
Wargaming Rep

You should totally join the society forums

Heyo! I’m Wings, your friendly neighbourhood forum admin. The forums have been operating in their current form since early 2012 and are a hub for organisation, discussion, and random links to things we find cool.

The moderators (Sam and Kerry) and I are volunteers rather than elected positions, with oversight from the Webmaster (who is elected). We run the forums on the basis that it’s a place for our friends to socialise and we want them to feel welcome and safe. We have a list of forum rules and general posting guidelines to help with this, as well as a statement of what you can expect from us in return. There’s also a handy ‘report’ button if there’s a particular post or thread that you want us to do something about. We do appreciate feedback on how we run things, so if you want to discuss stuff with us face-to-face then I’m generally at LARP and occasional socials.

So, serious stuff out of the way… discussion tends to be a bit chaotic, with regular side-tangents and jokes. It’s a great place to organise general hanging out, tabletop games, weapons practise, or other things which involve people. You can also find links to shiny things like Assassins Creed with Kittens or Alan Rickman flipping a table. Come, join us. We have cake.

http://z13.invisionfree.com/YorkSFandF/

Wargaming: post-convention update

Hi guys,


First off, thanks to all those who came to convention and played games or expressed interest in wargaming.  I gathered that we've got a fair few Warhammer 40k players.  I know a couple of people were suggesting they'd make use of the SF&F forum to try and organise games, and if there's a time that suits enough people, possibly have a regular gaming evening.  I hope that we can get things rolling in the coming weeks.

Second, I'm going to be starting my Mordheim campaign, using the Border Town Burning setting, on Saturday the 18th.  We'll be in rooms G/001 and G/002.  I'm going to be there from around midday, and will be available to help with warband creation, rules questions and so on in between last minute organisational faff and realising I've not printed enough stuff out.  If things go smoothly, I'm hoping for games to kick off around 2pm, so if you're comfortable you know what you're doing, that'll be the time to aim for.  Rooms are booked till midnight, but we'll probably have finished before then.  Probably...

I was planning on being at Thursday's social, but due to work I won't be available to make it this week.  I should be contactable by email if you've got any questions about the campaign.  Alternatively, post on the forum, as I check there fairly regularly.  If you're intending to play, it'd be great if you could let me know which faction and objective you're going with before Saturday, and again if you'll want to borrow models to use on the day as there is a limit to the amount of stuff I can carry!

All the rule books and stuff you'll need are available from the Mordheim Resources post on the forums.  Having a copy of the rules relevant to your warband to hand, either electronic or print, is useful, especially early on when you're not sure how everything works.  Something to be aware of, is that based on previous games, we've tweaked a few of the rules.  More information on that will be appearing on the forum sometime over the next few days.  Be aware that if you search for 'Mordheim Rulebook' using Google, you'll get results including 'Mordheim - DeDS' and 'Coreheim'.  These aren't the official rulebooks, so please don't use them.

I'll stop typing now.  Keep an eye on the SF&F forums; I'll be posting more stuff there.

Cheers, Dave
(Abnormal Member for Wargaming)

Week 3: A tired people emerge into the light of day

Hope you're all recovering from convention. Got all the normal stuff happening this week, as well as the start of Mordheim and the first Changeling of term.

Timetable

Monday 19:00 - Magic the Gathering in the Peter Lee Dining Room, Wentworth
Monday 20:00 - Boardgames in Wentworth W/035E + W/035F
Wednesday 19:00 - Impact in D/L/002, D/L/003 + D/L/007
Thursday 20:00 - Social in Derwent Bar
Saturday 12:00 - Mordheim in G/001 + G/002
Saturday 19:00 - Changeling in W/301, W/304, W/306 + W/307
Sunday 12:30 - Impact in D/L/037

Notices

Boardgames is in Wentworth College tonight, not James.

Remember to join the society forums.

Don't know where to go for Wednesday Impact? Jai will be leaving the campus Nisa for Derwent at 18:15-18:30, so find them there if you need a guide.

New to LARP, and looking for kit?  Kate will be leading a charity shop run on Saturday of Week 6.

Have you not paid membership yet, or have paid but not received a membership card?  Please let the Secretary know, so we know how many more cards we need to make.  Remember, you can pay online.  Membership is only £4 for the year, and gets you 10% off RPG books at Travelling Man.

Mordheim is starting this week.

If you have any questions, or want a room booking, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Thomas Irving
SF&F Secretary

Impact LARP Introductory Session

Convention, Sunday 12th October 2014

Impact is the new Sunday and Wednesday campus contact Live-Roleplaying system beginning this term. An introductory session designed to show new players how the game works and get them set up with characters and costume will be running on Sunday the 12th of October - that's the Sunday of the Convention. Come along if you are interested in finding out what this LARP thing is all about!

Impact is the story of humanity's last city, struggling to make its way in a strange new world inhabited by alien creatures. You can take up the role of one of these last humans, or one of their newly-found allies, as they venture forth into the unknown to beat back the tide of savage wildlife and defend their fledgeling confederation against the invading legions of a hostile kingdom bent on their subjugation!

Week 2: New Freshers, Old Faces

Timetable

Monday 19:00 - Magic the Gathering in the Peter Lee Dining Room, Wentworth
Monday 20:00 - Boardgames in G/002 (also in James SCR, G/001 and G/010)
Wednesday 18:00 - Impact in D/L/002, D/L/003 and D/L/007
Thursday 20:00 - Social in Derwent Bar
Friday 19:00 - Sunday 24:00 - Convention in James College (G/001, G/002, G/010, G/013) and spill-over into Wentworth (W/035E, W/035F, W/301, W/304, W/306, W/307)

Convention

All weekend, there'll be boardgames, DVDs etc around for people to drop in , play and get to know each other.  We'll also be handing out membership cards (which give 10% off game books at Traveling Man), and have goody bags for new members.

A lot of different games and introductory events will be running throughout the weekend, with exact times and sign-up for space limited games in G/001. These will include:

Friday

• Introduction to Mordheim (Dave)
• Baron Munchausen (8pm - Luke & Toph)

Saturday

• Introduction to Mordheim/Wargaming (Dave)
• Introduction to Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition (midday - Thomas)
• Introductory to Changeling LRP (7pm - Ayesha)
• Gloom (early afternoon - Jai)
• Ghostbusters Tabletop (Hannah)

Sunday

• Introduction to LARP: The Rise and Fall of Impact (9am)

At some point:

• Introduction to Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition (Paul)

More details below:

Baron Munchausen (Friday 8:00 p.m. - Midnight)

You take the place of a Great British Aristocrat, with many a tall tale to tell. Naturally you cannot necessarily remember all the tales you've told, so one of your peers will give you a little prompting. After your tale, you request a tale from another chap, and so the hours are wiled away.  Baron Munchausen is a party game, and we'll be using a system of drop-in-drop-out whenever you want with no pressure to tell a story. So if you want to meet and get to know people then this'll be there. If you are waiting for something else to start, drop in and share a story with us. If you're unsure about this roleplaying malarky, then this can let you dip your toes in the water. This will be being run by Luke and Toph, so just ask after one of us at social if you want to learn more.

Introduction to Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition (Saturday, Midday)

Dungeons and Dragons is probably the most famous tabletop RPG, and a good introduction to 'dice and minis' RPGs in general.  You'll play a group of adventurers, dispatched to discover the fate of a towns missing ships.  No experience necessary, so if you want to find out what tabletop gaming is like, look for me (Thomas) at Social or Convention.


If you have any questions, or if you are running an event and want a room booked, or it publishing in this email, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Thomas Irving
SF&F Secretary

Wargaming campaign for the new term

Dave, our Abnormal member for Wargaming introduces a new game he will be running starting this term.

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Mordheim: Border Town Burning

Mordheim is a skirmish wargame set in the Warhammer: Fantasy Battles world.  Small bands of warriors fight each other in the pursuit of fame, glory and power.

I'll be bringing some stuff to the convention to run some intro games on Friday evening, and again on Saturday if people are interested. Starting this term, I'm planning to run a Mordheim campaign using the Border Town Burning community-written expansion. I'm looking at starting this on Saturday of Week 3, and then running games every two weeks until we have a winner/get bored. The book can be found at that link, and also through the Mordheim Resources post on the forum.

What's it about?

Travelling the Silk Road to Cathay is a dangerous business for merchants of the Old World. Far more so when the trails take you dangerously close to the Chaos Wastes, where the champions of the dark gods are battling for the ownership of four powerful artefacts that will allow them ascension to daemonhood. Struggling to bring peace to the borderlands, the forces of order also seek these artefacts so they can seal them safely away from the hands of marauder chieftains. Add to this mix scheming villains wanting to take this power for themselves, and mysterious factions intent on ruining everyone's plans to further their own goals, and it's a surprise any caravans makes it there and back at all!

The campaign takes the game away from the city of Mordheim, and so has all new scenarios (including a tavern brawl!), random encounter tables, exploration tables, etc. It also introduces Objectives, which are a series of goals you work towards through the games, and get bonuses for achieving them. This aims to add a narrative element to why all these fights are happening - you could be one of the merchants trying to make a profit, a Chaos champion intent on daemonhood, or an Orc warboss looking to become the meanest git in the land, and so on. Once a warband has achieved all its objectives, it wins the campaign.

If you're interested in playing, head over to the SF&F forum where there's more information about what's going down in the Cathayan borderlands.  I'll also be around at Thursday's social for a while if you want to chat about the game.

Other wargames

We've got several society members who play Warhammer 40,000, including some new starters and people like myself who are picking up 7th edition after not playing for a while.  If you'd like to organise a game and want a room booking, let us know.  If you'd like to learn how to play, we can organise an introductory game.

Organising wargaming activities is something that SF&F hasn't done for a while.  As such, we don't have a great range of up-to-date rulebooks or miniatures.  If there's a game you want to play and you have the stuff needed to play it, but you're lacking an opponent, you can advertise on the forums or Society newsletter email.  If you'd like to book a room to play in, or organise an event, let us know and we'll do what we can to help.


Dave
Abnormal Member for Wargames

Welcome to new Freshers!

Hi there! We're the Science Fiction and Fantasy Society, and given that you're looking at our blog, we think you might be interested in the fun stuff that we do! Drop us an email if you want to be added to our mailing list.

Tomorrow you can find us at Freshers Fair in James Dining Hall on stall 24. We will be between HAZsoc and QIsoc. If you can't make Fresher's Fair, then don't worry! You can join us online too!

Next week, come along to our board games night on Monday at 20:00 in rooms G/001+2 (James College).

And of course, every Thursday there will be our weekly social in Derwent Bar at 20:00.

Looking further afield, the weekend of week 2 will be our first convention of the year, including on Sunday an Introduction to LARP / Newbie Adventure for anyone interested in trying out Live Action Roleplaying. From Friday to Sunday we'll be in James College, G/001+2 and many other rooms. Watch this blog, or join our mailing list for updates on what will be happening.