Rosewar

Rosewar has finally been wound up! It ran from June 1997 and the last published results went out September 16^th 2004, that's 27 turns in a little over seven years covering almost a year and half of game time. But regretfully, with a second child on the way and numerous other commitments, I just couldn't find the time to process orders.

You can still read up on the Government of 15^th Century England, the Knights of the Garter, the state of Europe in 1460 and other Rosewar material in the background and mechanics pages – see the navigation bar above.

I also know that some players wanted to know what really happened in some of the most notable events of the game: the Battle of Windsor and the arrest of the Earl of Oxford, also at Windsor, will be forthcoming shortly, along with other little gems when I have the time. Check the final league tables to see how things stood at the end.

I'd like to thank all of the players for their effort and imagination. The game really couldn't have been as rich as it was without each and every one of you, both past and present. Many of you I now count as lifelong friends and I hope all of you will keep in touch.

So what am I doing with all this free time? Having thought about it for a good few years, I've decided to get back in to an old hobby from University – 15mm figure wargaming. (See some fantasy army lists and old battle reports for Tolkien.)

I've bought a second-hand Sassanid Persian army and am currently painting up a 16^th Century Ottoman army but my pride and joy is a Teutonic Knights army (why the Teutonic Knights?) loosely modelled on that which beat the Russians at Lake Smolina 1502. Once the Ottomans are completed to my satisfaction, I've some late 16^th Century Poles to paint up. Here are my battle reports.

I use George Gush's Renaissance rules (not, not, not DBR/DBM/DBA); if you'd like a battle and live within marching distance of Stoke on Trent, drop me a line. I am no purist and I reckon Gush's rules can cope with anything post-Roman.

I'm still role-playing: The Doom that Came to Amber is on temporary hiatus while several players (and the GM) are coping with new babies. But hopefully soon we will see the House of Amber manoeuvring to decide which of the new Pattern realms: Absinthe, Angtharrod, Argent, Iconia, Kretas, Mahartha, The Weald and the New Amber, survives.

I may be running a one-off Amber adventure at Stabcon this summer.

My modern-day Cthulhu campaign is run, like Amber, roughly quarterly. MI13 has successfully locked The Raggedy Man back up in Silbury Hill: the next episode is uncertain due to imminent childbirth but will involve blood sacrifice in a school in Penrith.

Regretfully, with Steve Mills' return to New Zealand his Ars Magica campaign, Murder of Crows, is no more (I miss Havelock) but Louise Dennis is running a Middle-Earth/Warhammer crossover in which I play Ragnor, a young Gondorian noble caught in the middle of the internecine strife of the 1440s. See here for the background and this is the campaign diary.

My Traveller 2300 game, Ghosts of Eden, reached a satisfactory completion of the first story-arc, the Voyage of the Joyous Venture, and the next chapter follows the ex-crew of the Joyous Venture after they've joined Trilon's Psi-Corps.

Finally, my old Runequest game is still running in Liverpool with others taking turns in the GM's seat. Occasionally I get to run my own characters, which is refreshing. My favourite is Dominic Newman, a world-weary Thanatari scrivener in the bureaucracy of the Duke of Moonguard.

Where can you find other stuff like this? Ah! You mean you want my links.

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