With Wanderhome very much on the horizon I will be continuing my trend of naming my RPG characters after nouns beginning with H (I have in fact played a character called Horizon). Do you have any patterns/traditions when it comes to naming your characters in games?
❗ Announcements ❗
📆 Changes to the term's timetable due to strikes
The UCU has announced 17 days of strike action across February and March and in order to not cross the picket lines on any strike days we've changed up our timetable a fair bit in order to try and keep as many of our weekly events running as possible.
We've decided to run an event on Friday from 5-10pm for any weeks that are affected by strikes, starting this week (i.e. week commencing Jan 30th). This Friday session will be a chance to do any of the strike-affected events from throughout the week, so this could include Wargames, Draft, Board Games, or CCGs, depending on the week.
This week there's a strike happening on Wednesday 1st February so Board Games will not be running on Wednesday but will be running on Friday 3rd, 5-10pm in B2.02.
I know that there's a lot to remember logistically at the moment so I'll do my best to let you all know the changes each week in the newsletter!
🦔 Big RPG this weekend!!!
Thank you to everyone who has signed up to play Wanderhome thus far! The game is this weekend, Sunday 5th February between 2pm-6pm so please sign up here to secure your place!
All are welcome, whether you're a grizzled RPGs veteran or whether this is your first foray into tabletop gaming. It's going to be an awesome afternoon of storytelling and adventure so please sign up if that sounds like something you'd be after!
The form is very brief, just asking for your name and whether you consider yourself an experienced player of Wanderhome so you'll be all sorted with just a handful of clicks! I'm already signed up and excited to see you all there!
- 📆 Sunday 5th February (Week 4)
- 🕙 2pm-6pm
- 🗺 LIB2
Also do note that LARP is happening from 10am-2pm with this happening directly after so you can absolutely come to both events (as I know multiple people who are!)
🗳 AGM update
- 📆 Friday 24th February (Week 7)
- 🕙 7-9pm
- 🗺 B2.02
Following the announcement of strike days for the uni, we’ve taken the decision to move our AGM to Friday 24th February. It will still be in the same place and at the same time of day - B2.02, at 7-9pm.
This means that related deadlines are moving - the most important of these is that if you want to vote at our AGM you will now need to have membership by 12pm Saturday 11th February and any constitution-changing motions must be put forward by 12pm Thursday 16th February.
(I've also done my best to go back into the previous newsletters and update the dates there to reflect these changes but I haven't changed the previous calendar images so sorry for any incongruence there).
‼️ Spotlight on...
BOARD GAMES REP
Hi there! It’s Alvis, here to tell you about being the Board Games Rep. Your primary responsibility in this position will be to run the weekly board games session, generally 2-10pm on Wednesdays, including setting up and packing down the room (with the help of anyone who might be around and willing, of course). You would be expected to try and make sure people aren’t left hanging around without a game for too long, to help teach games and/or find teachers for games, and generally helping the community with matters relating to board games.
You would also be expected to run Board Games Weekends, with help from the other exec, and to help out with any other board games related events such as during Tabletop Weekend and other smaller events we use to advertise ourselves.
Finally, you would be in charge of making new board games purchases, taking into account suggestions from members as well as our budget, to take part in exec meetings, and to help out in other exec-related miscellaneous matters.
If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me on Discord (
Alvis1218#6447) or come and find me during board games!
DRAFT REP
I’m Tobias and I’m the Magic: the Gathering Draft rep. My role is to run our weekly draft event. For those that don’t already know how the draft works, the format is as follows:
‘How to draft: First, players sit around a table in a semi-circle. Each player then opens a booster pack and picks a single card without showing the other players. Each player then passes the remaining cards to the left, and continues drafting from the new cards they get from the player on their right. This continues until all of the cards in those packs have been distributed (drafted). Then each player opens a second pack, but this time, pass the pack to the right. After all those cards are drafted, you do the same with the third pack, passing to the left again. At the end, each player will have about 45 cards (along with any number of basic lands) which they can use to build a 40 card deck.’ – Wizards of the Coast, Formats Hub
Following the deck building portion, we usually play three rounds and score up to announce the winners. My job is to make sure it all goes smoothly and that everyone is having a great time, and its also a great excuse for me to play every week and see both the regulars and new faces!
Behind the scenes, I manage the buying of product via feedback from our players as to what they are most excited to play whilst also keeping an eye open for good deals on booster boxes for even better drafts.
If you’d like to know more about the role or if you’re interested in getting involved and playing some Magic then feel free to send me a message (
Tumbi#5548), and hopefully I’ll see you all at our events soon.
WARGAMES REP
Hi, it's Adam here to tell you about the role of Wargames Rep. Your main job in this position is to run our weekly Wargames sessions on Mondays, which includes unpacking equipment, organising games between players and helping newer members of the community with whatever they need (intro games, building/painting advice, purchases suggestions etc.).
You'll also be in charge of organising Wargaming events during our society-wide events throughout the year, such as tabletop weekend. This could include tournaments, terrain-making days or painting events - you have room to be creative and run events that you are passionate about!
Lastly, it is also your responsibility to manage the Wargames budget, spending it on products that you think will benefit the society. If you have any questions about the role, please do send me a message on discord (
Adam*The*Boss#6613), or come to see me during Wargames!
❔ What's happening this week? ❔
- Monday 5-10pm: In Person Wargames - B2.01 and B2.02
- Tuesday 6-10pm: In Person Draft - B2.02 - Standard set - £7-10 (depending on set chosen) - you must sign up here to take part
- Thursday 5-10pm: In Person CCGs - B2.02
- Friday 5-10pm: In Person Board Games - B2.02
- Sunday 12-5pm: LARP - B2.02
Remember, you can always find an up-to-date timetable of what's going on on our website's Schedule page, and you can see special events (including RPGs) and sign up to them via our Events page.
💭 What happened last week? 💭
Adam described this as "recreating space hulk." I don't know what that means but my brain did mush those words together into "spulk" so now you get to experience that as well.
Last week in LARP:
The last time anyone in the party visited Axia, it was as part of a pirate raid that brought the city to its knees. Now, this week's party made their way to the city in order to retrieve a mysterious item, whilst trying and failing to keep on the right side of the criminal organisation that runs the Sapphire Port. After engaging in some innovative religious discussion, politely having tea with the ghost of a lord who wouldn't stop portenting about his murder, and preventing an imp from levelling an entire building with several barrels of gunpower, the party barely escaped with their lives and the knowledge that Captain Bloodshark has a lot to answer for.
Extra Bonus End Bit
This week I offer you a roll table of farcical festivals, inspired by an activity I did in class this week because I somehow got to play dnd in my actual seminar?? University is wild, y'all.
(Once again this will have a part two next week because a) I have more ideas and b) a lot of these entries are quite long)
- When the void screams we scream louder - sometimes a large rip in spacetime opens up near your town and sometimes that void gets a little antsy and starts screaming when it feels like it isn't getting enough attention/secrets/wins from its favourite sports team. The obvious solution here is once every 6 months, to gather the whole town together and scream loudly in unison to assert dominance and also to get some frustration out. State of the art ear defenders are provided.
- Festival of the restless shards - You know the parts of you that don't make it, the parts that fall away as you shed old skin for new, or the parts that others tore from you, or that you cremated in secret, when you needed the warmth to survive? This festival remembers these shards of you, knowing that they linger, knowing the challenge it is to concentrate when a thousand pinpricks of who you used to be/could have been shudder through your brain each night. You break colourful glass into shards and melt them into new stained-glass windows.
- Word's harvest - Everyone knows that words grow underground, incubated by the warm soil and enriched by the restless footfalls above them. Sometimes, after so much has happened, after the inexplicable or the unanticipated, our word-stocks run dry and so the Word's Harvest is celebrated. It is an understated sort of celebration, the type that occurs middle of the woods with the backdrop of a list morning mist and the to the soundtrack of eager hands meeting soft earth. Energy picks up in the latter half of the day when the fruits of everyone's labour are bundled back to town and the evening becomes an explosion of sounds and smells and tastes as a feast, both verbal and visceral, is prepared, to be enjoyed alongside new poems and orations and debates and stories, as we can suddenly describe new things again.
- Crepe-usculam - this is a tiny festival celebrated any time you prepare and eat a pancake at dusk.
Wash your hands, stay safe, and come play some games with us 💚
Lils (he/they, Communications and Operations, walking infinite distances)
@ArtemisForest#9741 on Discord
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