Fan Boy 3 Open and Still Ace

Over the years I’ve seen the term “Fine Local Gaming Store” (or FLGs) thrown around to describe many a games store, but Manchester’s Fan Boy 3 with its perfect storm of gaming space and well-stocked selection of games truly deserves the title. And they have been our generous hosts over the last year and a bit, before lockdown.

I’m happy to say back in July they opened the shop. I made a visit recently with Henry, my 10-year-old son. It was quieter than usual, but then again it was during Wednesday afternoon. Henry and I were able to look around the shop, which is all set up with the required safety standards. The two-metre distancing squares and the one-way system makes the shop floor look like a game board. There is handwash and a perspex screen by the till. It’s all very unobtrusive, and my greatest fear that the familiar fun place, I go to grab my gaming supplies would be significantly dulled by anti-Convid 19 measures were utterly unfounded.

Talking of gaming supplies me, and Henry filled my man-bag with stuff; A Pokemon box set for Henry, a beautiful gleaming copy of Theros the new D&D book, and the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit (the starter set for the full game which comes out soonish).

I even had a natter with Phil, who was on duty that day in the shop, which was good. Cut short by our H pulling on my sleeve keen to join the rest of the family at the Manchester Cat Cafe (which I wholeheartedly recommend if you like fluffy cats).  I left not sure when I’ll be back again since I’m pretty much housebound here in Oldham since I work from home, but more than glad I had visited.

Another thing Fanboy 3 have done during lockdown is update their website,  so it’s even more clear about what’s going on at the shop. Also if like me you can’t make it into the shop, there’s now a web store.

Fan Boy 3 home page
Fan Boy 3 home page – click for larger image

Under Snowhill

System: 13th Age
GM: Newt

Snowhill Manor in the Shirewolds, the hillside home of Sir Albus the Collector, is under attack by an organised force of goblins. The Council of Summerset sends a group of adventurers who just happen to be nearby, on their way home to nearby Borton on the Water, to relieve their ally. The weather takes an unexpected turn for the worse, and the party take refugee in a roadside Tavern, where things take a devilish twist.

An adventure for 13th Age set in a Mythic version of the Cotswolds. High on action, fantasy, mystery and excitement. 13th Age is a straightforward narrative version of D&D written by two of the designers of D&D’s 3rd Edition (Jonathan Tweet) and 4th Edition (Rob Heisonloo). Characters will be 1st Level, and the adventure will be suitable for players who have not played 13th Age before.

The Grief of the Blood Countess

GM: Steven Blyth
Game: Mork Borg

You’re beginning to wonder if this was a good idea. A handsome payment to simply rob a funeral procession? What could be easier?

Until you discovered that your employer was Glax, the infamous blind traitor. And that the funeral procession was that of the sister of the blood countess, Anthelia, on its way back home across the bleak wastes of Kergus to the Glass City. All Glax wants is the sarcophagus. Just a dead body. Harmless. Isn’t it?

Mork Borg is a rules-light game of dark fantasy, set in a doomed world ruled by mad kings and tyrannical cultists.

Games Sign Up for GPMO July 11 Games Allocation

Games sign up is now closed, and here it the player allocation.

Blood on the Brown Cordry – Liminal with Roderick Hamilton

  • Udo Kaiser
  • Doerte Boehle
  • John Smithe
  • Charles Bancroft

Darkpool Rock – Best Left Buried with Blythy

  • Evil Gaz
  • Tom Gaffey
  • Newt

The Birds – Tales from the Loop with Guy Milner

  • Michael Watson
  • Andrew Jones
  • Pookie
  • Tim Gray

The Tyrant of Gadir – Barbarians of Lemuria with Paul Mitchener

  • Mark Willoughby
  • Neil Benson
  • Marc
  • Andrew Cowie

Second Wave of Games for Go Play Manchester Online July 11

Three more games have been added to what is the biggest line up of games for an Online Go Play Manchester so far:

Behold!

Registration for Saturday 11 July is well underway, with spaces filling up fast.

As well as the games above, there was the first wave of games.

 

On a Bank by Moonlight

System: The Fall of Delta Green (Gumshoe)
GM: Chris Hart
It might be the Summer of Love, but Delta Green agents must face unimaginable horror…
Agents are sent upstate New York to a small town of Milltown where two members of the same hippie commune have died on one night, one shot in self-defence by the police, the other in a car accident. Recovered from the scene was an idol similar to those found on previous Delta Green missions. How did they come to die? What were they doing with the idol? Does it have anything to do with the commune?
Come and join the stakeout.
Based on the 2018 Quickstart by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
Please note this game is a morning game (10.00 – 13.00)

Blood on Brown Corduroy

System: Liminal 
GM: Roderick Hamilton

It’s 1974. Bagpuss is on the telly, John Pertwee’s still The Doctor, and the Three Day Week has just kicked in – but you’ve got your own problems. You’re someone who has been touched by the strange in some way, drawn onto the precipice of the Hidden World, and thought your future was out there in the wider world – but the funeral of an important figure from your childhood has drawn you back to South Manchester and reunited you with your old schoolmates. Something seems off about it all though – Maybe the Hidden World was here, back home, all along? It’s up to you and your chums to find out. And you’ve got to do it all while wearing a shirt with massive lapels.

Blood on Brown Corduroy is a mystery scenario using the acclaimed Liminal game system. It will be run over Roll20, with Discord as preferred voice/video communication channel (although the latter is up for negotiation). Some action and light horror expected, no Player V Player or adult content.

The Birds

System: Tales from the Loop
GM: Guy Milner

You are kids, ages between 10 and 15. It is sometime in the 1980s. You live in the Mälaren Islands, a suburb on the coast not far from Stockholm, Sweden. Nothing ever happens here. Work hard at school, and you might get a job at the Facility for Research in High Energy Physics (“The Loop”) and have a comfortable life doing what your parents do. Except for that one day, in the long, hot summer of 1984, you hear the pigeons near the kiosk talk.

We’ll be using Roll20 and Google Meet with video.