I’ve always had my reserves in regards to pen and paper roleplaying because of something that happened to me in the winter of 2009. I was working in the dismal council tax office of my local government at the time, surrounded by people that spent money voting on Big Brother and counting down the days to an all-inclusive binge in Shagaluf, or so I thought…
“Human sacrifice, dwarves and elves living together, mass hysteria”
Once more the hour had come upon us for that finest of recent traditions,the Corehammer Christmas social. Typically plans were made, promises of attendance sworn in blood and games organised. In previous years we have held court at Warhammer World, Foundry and the Element Gaming Centre in Stockport. But I like to mix it up and visit new places so this year we gathered at Mantic HQ. Tucked away on the edge of a residential estate in Bullwell, Nottingham, it took Ager and I a few goes to try and find the place. After successfully navigating a gaggle of nightmarish traffic calming bollard children, we arrived. We were greeted by our host for the day Mantic’s very own perennially enthusiastic Scotsman, Andy Meechan, and ushered inside.
A couple of years ago I agreed to run an RPG for some members of the Corehammer crew. Most were first time role-players with a couple of more experienced heads in the mix. After careful thought and consideration I decided to go with what I knew best, Shadowrun 2nd Edition. For those who don’t know, Shadowrun is set in the near future dystopia of 2075. A calamitous shift in the world which has seen people evolve/devolve into mythical races, magic to resurface and dragons to take to the skies and the board rooms of mega corporations! Think Bladerunner meets Lord of the Rings!
After a quick snoop around I found a great simple starting adventure that was released as part of the 4th Edition quick play rules (available for free HERE) With some tweaking it was easily adjusted to 2nd Edition rules…… Continue reading
Hello darling, it’s been a while hasn’t it? You look nice though. New hair and…have you been working out? Thought so. Look, I know what you’re thinking, here he is cap in hand, crawling back to us from his latest failure. A man who thought himself bigger, better, brighter than the humble blog that spawned him. I know how you people think. You can smell the guilt oscillating off me in great stinking waves. So here’s my confession. Continue reading
Yo, just a quick update for any regular readers who may recall my ‘Plans For 2016’ post. Obviously that went out the window as I haven’t brought anything new to the table since July. Life got busy, sorry mate. I’ve not forgotten about you though, so here’s what’s shaking. Things are moving forward slowly. Chris Mcgreevy is still working behind the scenes on the site rebuild. Hopefully we’ll be able to shift over to the new format by early Summer.And whilst I have not been active with the blog over the past six months, we have been busy on some affiliated projects
Despite it’s ‘rugged’ audio qualities our podcast Dungeonpunx has been racking up a ton of listens. Thanks for all the support, we all really appreciate that. We try to keep it light and a fun listening experience. I know sometimes it can get kinda rowdy with six five clowns bawling at each other trying to get the next rip in. I try to keep them boys under control but it’s like herding cats man, trust.
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Painted up for me courtesy of Chris Mcgreevy. A GW oldhammer Red Redemption cultist, a Wyvern from Reaper Miniatures and a Barrow Warden from Reaper’s budget Bones line.
Over the past couple of years we’ve developed a bit of a Corehammer tradition that we like to call The Oath Of Moment. At the dawn of each new year we take stock of our respective piles of shame. With sober and unclouded eyes the participants in this cleansing ritual swear a solemn vow to make a significant dent in reducing said pile. More often than not these well intentioned boasts of change and progress fall to the wayside by March but for some amongst our number these Oath’s have motivated some serious hobby development. Continue reading
After much procrastination we have finally got our finger out and recorded the debut episode of the Corehammer podcast, which I have dubbed Dungeonpunx. I had been wanting to try my hand at podcasting for a while but the opportunity to get the rest of the OG Corehammer mournival around the table on the regular was proving to be an impossible feat. Despite my best efforts, conflicting schedules, geographical hinderance and a generous serving of good old fashioned apathy amongst our ranks put the clappers on my plan for full media dominance. I sulkily resigned my podasting ambitions to the steadily increasing mountain of ‘that could have been cool’ ideas.
Regular readers may recall my crisis of faith a few months back HERE Increasing pressures from work and university as well as recently volunteering a couple of Saturdays a month to work with autistic kids have led to a gradual withdrawal from regular posting and editing here, as well as a re-evaluation of what I really want out of the hobby. And whilst my 13th Company have not graced a battlefield since last years Corehammer Christmas party, I HAVE been playing D&D 5th Edition on the regular for just over a year and absolutely loving it.
A change in personal responsibilities meant that I recently had to take a hiatus from my usual Wednesday night D&D sessions. In anticipation of this I set up a regular Sunday afternoon session with a group of close friends that were keen to give D&D a try but had very little experience of actual RPG’s. Being the only member of the group familiar with 5th Ed D&D I grudgingly found myself sitting in the DM’s chair and after a few clumsy sessions we have found our feet and really got stuck into it. The natural rapport that already existed between Boardy, Max, Ager, Tom, Connor and I translated well into creating a comfortable and entertaining gaming dynamic. It soon occurred to me that this gang of cocky dungeoneers could perhaps serve a dual purpose and so I revived the idea of starting a podcast with the rest of the crew as my conspirators & co-hosts and lo, Dungeonpunx was born.
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