I’ve just returned from Furnace, one of the UK’s longest-running and most cherished conventions. Every year, around 70 punters (small cons give the best games, you know) descend on the Garrison Hotel in Sheffield and play for 5 slots. That’s pretty much all they do, too – there’s no seminars, no trade hall (stalls from Patriot Games and All Rolled Up are open throughout however), and no other activities – it really is All About The Games.

And I had one of my most consistently excellent gaming experiences at a convention. Five games that all really sang in their own way – I’m going to tell you about them, and try to identify the one thing that brought the magic. For all of these, I’ve not identified the GMs, although I’d recommend all of them if you get to sign up to one of their games.

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Fate Accelerated Arrowsmith: Why Have We Forgotten Fate?

Slot one was a session of Fate Accelerated set in the world of the Arrowsmith graphic novels – as young recruits, we were sent on a Weird War mission to recon a village behind enemy lines (and inevitably stop the ritual being performed there). 

I’ve not played Fate for ages, and I realise I’ve missed it. Our characters’ Aspects fleshed out a relatively simple scenario structure (which included a training mission-style montage at the start) to make it personal to the PCs we played. The training mission bit had us compete in pairs against each other in challenges – one dice roll was all it took – but this laid the foundations for the in-character banter during the mission.

Another hit came from the players – along with the GM, who was a Fate regular, several of us had played the game many times before – and I think that showed. We were leaning into Aspects and compels, and setting up situations to trigger stunts, like it was ten years ago and Fate was everywhere. So, yeah – Fate for pulpy action works amazingly well – would be great to see it back on the convention scene!

Age of Arthur 2e: Alt-History, But Let Us Break It

After lunch, I had another Fate-derived game. One of my gaming claims to fame is selling Ken Hite a copy of Age of Arthur on the Liminal stall at Dragonmeet, and it was great to revisit AoA’s celtic fantasy, in a “playtest” of a scenario for the forthcoming 2nd edition. This stood out for the richness of the setting and setup – how the GM remembered all the names I’ve no idea – with multiple maps on the table, and a mystery to solve of some missing children.

For all this, we had – or crucially, it felt like we had – agency to pursue our leads, and resolve the problem, however we wanted. While there was a rich setting and clearly more to it than we encountered, we were able to pick our own route through the scenario. This is one of the hardest things to get right in one-shot play, and our GM did brilliantly. 

I got to play the bard (in a one-shot, if there’s a bard, I will always play the bard) and defeat a giant through the power of satire. It was all very mythical and fantastical, but felt very real – I think verisimilitude is the word, isn’t it. So, sometimes – if you can – having a richly detailed setting, even if you don’t throw much of it at the players – can lead to great things.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar: My Go-To Fantasy One-Shot

I was GMing in the evening, and running Masks of Lankhmar – read about my prep here. DCC is fast becoming my ideal fantasy one-shot, and Lankhmar offers something different in its presentation and structure. Because the adventures, including this one, are centred around heists, there’s often breaks and interstitial sections between dungeoneering sessions – and indeed many of the dungeons are houses and temples in the teeming city.

DCC looks and smells like OSR, but it really doesn’t play like it – the features of the system encourage properly creative play, and the modules for it often have neat multiple-solution ways to solve problems. Lankhmar may well 

be a go-to now for me at conventions (although I’d like to get more Weird Frontiers out there, too – check out our actual play here).

13th Age 2e: Sometimes You Should Just Play

I run quite a lot of 13th Age – and this session, it was great to just play. I quite rarely get to see the rules from the other side, so it was refreshing to play through this one-shot, well adapted from a 1st ed AD&D module. I’m a great believer in 13th Age’s structured approach to encounters and problem solving, and skill challenges as a resolution mechanic, and it was a relief that I enjoy them as a player as well. I walked out of the session with renewed enthusiasm for 13th Age, and especially 2nd edition, even if I will have to start making pregens again.

So, sometimes – you need to play. A particular treat was having my fellow Unconventional GM playing as well – although we go to lots of the same conventions, we’re rarely sat at the same table as players, so we should do that more often too.

Mouse Guard: The Best Game Ever Made?

For the final slot, I revisited the game I used to always run at conventions, in the slot I used to always run it in. For many years, I was “the Mouse Guard guy” and I’d wrangle players through the structured conflict resolution of the system. On a return to it, it still delivers. I fleshed out the introductory adventure to include a follow-up defeating spies, and our mice just about managed to get a -somewhat- happy ending, despite completely bombing on the first challenge.

It made me realise that we shouldn’t write off the games we used to love years ago – and that might be a theme for all of these games. Ten years ago, I could have ended up with a very similar games roster when I went to Furnace, and while my tastes and play styles have evolved, these games still deliver. And Furnace is the place to go if you want some of the best games in the UK, and moreso, the multiverse – if you can’t wait a year, check out its sister conventions at the Garricon Hub.