From gremlins and fairies that interfere with your code or tangle your headphone cables, to modern evolutions of bookworms that feed upon twitter streams and SMS messages, they embody their slogan “Modern Folklore for Modern Folk”.

Created from a range of up-cycled electronic components, wire, plastics and glass, their creations reflect a very modern take on the stories of the malevolent spirits that plague mankind. Their range of items includes captured fairies in jars, mini bookworm sculptures and representations of cravings along with a selection of occult inspired jewellery designed to ward off these modern magical menaces.

Feel free to come over to the stall and find out more about the technothaumaturgical world that we inhabit or to buy one of our captured specimens. Or you can visit their website for more product images here.

Andy Hepworth is an industry art veteran of many products including; Changeling, Exalted, World of Darkness, Legend of The Five Rings, AEG’s Nightfall, and Cubicle Seven’s Victoriana and Laundry lines. Currently freelance on The Story Mechanics’ 39 Steps he still loves the opportunity to illustrate for the tabletop game industry whenever he can. He grew up with this stuff. It shows?

Images are copyright AEG (the girl hunter from Nightfall) and Andy Hepworth (The Dragon)

We have two “Griffies” to award and we need your help for nominations and voting.

Categories:

There will be an award for Best Roleplaying Product (Conpulsion 2012) and Best Boardgaming Product (Conpulsion 2012)

Nominations:

We invite nominations from the general public, starting now. Products that are eligible must have been released at Conpulsion last year (25-27 March 2011) up to Conpulsion this year (6-8 April 2012). E-mail your nominated product(s) to conpulsion_at_gmail.com with the subject line The Griffies and either (Roleplaying) or (Boardgaming) as appropriate, along with a description (up to 100 words long, no more, please). Nominations will close on Wednesday 21 March.

The RPG, Board Game and Conpulsion Coordinators will then decide a short list (of up to 5 products in each category) for the final vote from all the nominations we receive. The finalists will be announced on this website prior to the convention along with descriptions of each product.

Voting:

At Conpulsion Apocalypse we invite attendees to vote in the ballot for Best Roleplaying Product (Conpulsion 2012) and Best Boardgaming Product (Conpulsion 2012). To vote you will get your ticket stamped at Event HQ (the info/game sign up area) in return for a ballot paper. Vote for only one product in each category, putting your vote in the box provided. Voting will close at 6pm on the Sunday evening. We will then tally the votes and announce the winners at the closing ceremony.

The Winners will receive a certificate and be announced on this website.

Avenger Enterprises is owned jointly by Martin J Dougherty and William Anderson, and serves as an umbrella for a variety of activities ranging from freelancing to martial arts and fighting with swords. The company is best known in the games industry as a publisher of materials for the Traveller RPG and for creating the ’1248′ and ‘Far Avalon’ game settings. Avenger also publishes fiction and sources freelancers for other publishers’ products. Outside the games industry, Avenger’s personnel are involved in mainstream publishing and television as well as a number of other industries.

Martin J Dougherty is the founder and therefore the party responsible for everything Avenger Enterprises has done since then. He has been a professional writer since the 1990s and did it for fun before that.

Martin has written for TV and other media as well as producing innumerable books about weapons and ways to hurt people with and without weapons. His published works include novels, strategic reports for the defence industry and technical materials.

Martin has also been known to create a game or two, and is best-known for his work on the Traveller RPG. Creator of the ‘1248’ setting for Traveller, his current projects include the QADVentures line and the Far Avalon game setting.

Nate Zettle is actually better at fighting than Martin, but Martin chose the photos….

Nate is an expert modeller and terrain-builder who has contributed to several Avenger Enterprises projects including Far Avalon, Inifinity Lost and the QAD series.

Nate is Avenger Enterprises’ quality-control consultant, which is a polite way of saying he tries to make sure our products don’t suck. He is also responsible for making sure Martin doesn’t fall over anything on the way back to the hotel.

Mike Egan recently joined the Avenger Enterprises team but is already beginning to suspect that it wasn’t a wise choice.

Mike is … somehow… involved in the development of the QADVentures product line and other Avenger projects. Mike’s main field is character development and characterisation; his secondary role is preventing other members of the team from killing one another.

He is quite tall and drinks Red Stripe in his time off.

Jon’s career has spanned art direction, set building, props making, graphic design, story boarding, historical illustration, card game art, board game art, computer games cut scene art, educational illustration and roleplaying game art.

Thus far Jon has made over 200 pieces of collectable card games art , art directed a dozen or so books, solo illustrated 15 books with 30 plus illustrations each for Warhammer Historical, has provided cover art for some 30 gaming books as well as numerous pieces of packaging art, made illustrations for the biggest roleplaying game in the world – Dungeons and Dragons, as well as for some of the smallest. At one point he was a story boarder for the children’s animated show Bob the Builder.

In 2009 David and Charles/Impact Books published Fantasy Art for Beginners written by Jon, which is available in all good bookshops.

Always found gaming or engaging with others at the convention we’re delighted to be letting him in again this year.

A full contact LARP with a strong element of Politics and investigation.

For forum chat and further information and questions go to: http://www.norestforthewicked.org.uk/

(Find out what happens at Conpulsion 2012!)

It is little over an hour before Mr Slayer is due to make his Progress Day speech as you play one of five departmental heads rushed to an unprecedented crisis control meeting:

- Dr Ernest Strand, Head of Biogenetics (Karma)
- Commander Cradle, Head of the Shivers
- Ms S Littlejohn, Head of Presss & Publicity (3ird Eye)
- Mr Alexander Xavis, Head of Cloak Division
- Preceptor Teeth, Head of Ebb (Dark Lament)

As events unfold in real time there is only one question left to ask:

Is SLA Industries too big to fall?

Although we haven’t started scheduling our RPGs as yet I just had to let you all know about this one. It’s being written and run by regular Conpulsion GM Keith Fyans & Alex McGivern and without giving too much a way a lot of work is going into it and it really does look like something special.

Oh, and I’m also told that the first person to pre-reg with a promise of coming in costume gets to play Preceptor Teeth.

Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack is the fast-paced game of battling microscale Lego™ mecha.

Malcolm Craig and Joe Murphy will be offering MFZ: RA game on both days of Conpulsion 2012. Come along, pick a side and watch the bricks fly!

There will be prizes on offer, and not just for the winner(s)! The top prize will be a custom Lego™ mecha awarded to the player who best exhibits the spirit of fair play.

Under-16s are especially welcome to play, but we must ask that under-10s play on a team with a parent or guardian. This event is an ideal opportunity for parents and children to team up for a fun gaming experience.

In the run-up to the convention there will be further information available on the setting, factions, and other good stuff.

Times: Saturday (10am-1pm and 3pm-6pm in the Dining Room), Sunday (3pm-6pm in the Dining Room)

One Ring to rule them all.

Francesco Nepitello is the main designer for The One Ring: Adventures beyond the Edge of the Wild, the latest role-playing game based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. He lives and works in Venice, Italy. Francesco started making games in the late eighties, with fellow designer Marco Maggi.

Together, they have designed card games, board games and role-playing games. In time, they have discovered that what they do best is working on established and involving properties or historical subjects, as they love to craft game mechanics that reproduce the mood of their source material, be it a book, a comic book, a movie or time period. To this day, they have developed games for properties like The Lord of the Rings, Conan the Barbarian, Star Wars and Marvel Comics.

But as their upcoming tiddlywink game MicroMonsters testifies, they like a change of pace once in a while.

ACTIVITIES AT THE CON
You can see Francesco at The One Ring talk (Sat: 1:30-2:30 pm in the Middle Reading Room), at The Writers talk (Sat: 5-6pm Middle Reading Room), and at The Apocalypses talk (Sun: 1:30-2:30 pm in the Middle Reading Room). He will also be in the Debating Hall at the Guest Table, and we hope he will run a game of The One Ring at the convention too. Details to follow.

Om nom nom...

Check out their website – http://www.unionofgenius.com/

And they also have a blog, where they post tantalising soup-related goodness – http://unionofgenius.blogspot.com/

40K Action

At Conpulsion 2012, CotW will be running games all weekend. Join Chaos of the Warp on Facebook if you want to ensure a space. There will be a few tables set up for pickup games, but it’s best to try to confirm in advance to avoid disappointment.

The group will also be running game demos, so that those unfamiliar with the game mechanics can get the idea, and also meet friendly players who can assist them in their future gaming career. Group members will also be taking bookings for future CotW events, so that if players like what they see they can get involved in future events and happenings…
If that were not busy enough, Geoff & the boys will be recording throughout the weekend for their new Podcast launching in April- so even if you are not into 40K, but have a product or service which could contribute to the hobby, please feel free to come and speak to the boys about introducing yourselves and advertising in this forum.

Chaos of the Warp is a new enterprise in Scottish gaming, but its members are excited, enthusiastic and keen to contribute to the gaming community, not tread on any toes! Join the Chaos – meet us at Conpulsion 2012 or Join us on Facebook (search for ‘Chaos of the Warp’) or email me (Geoff Nicholson) at g_nicholson@live.co.uk or chaosofthewarp@hotmail.co.uk.

But cracks are beginning to appear.  Feuds between Primarachs are spreading to their legions; some of the Primarchs have approached their father to have the actions and opinions of their brothers condemned; entrenched positions on a number of subjects divide the nascent Empire.

The Emperor is aware of this.  In an attempt to repair relations he has summoned all of his sons to the planet of Nikea, specially prepared for a Council, there to discuss their differences and find a way ahead.  But there are other forces at work: can this meeting come to a peaceful conclusion?

Setting:            Warhammer 40,000, pre-Heresy, alternate history

Players:           Up to 18 (Each PC is a Primarch)

Style:               Political

System:           Minimal

Time:             10am, Saturday

Location:             The Underground

GM:               Roderick Easton

Notes:             The character backgrounds and personalities will be mostly based on the canon material, but which Primarchs have already been touched by Chaos will be determined randomly and secretly at the start of the game, allowing the players to find their own outcomes.

Pre-booking:   After buying a ticket, you can pre-book a space for this and pick your character from those still available.  See below for the current list.  Please list your top 3, in case of clashes, and e-mail to tonbo_karasu@yahoo.com

•  Alpharius
• Angron
• Corax
• Ferrus Manus
• Fulgrim
• Horus
• Jaghatai Khan
• Konrad Curze
• Leman Russ
• Lion El’Jonson
• Lorgar
• Magnus the Red
• Mortarion
• Perturabo
• Roboute Guilliman
• Rogal Dorn
• Sanguinius
• Vulkan

Roleplaying trend-setting for 2012

To buy tickets, click the buttons, and then check out using the shopping cart that will appear below. This will take you to Paypal.

Please note: The only way to get a T-Shirt for Conpulsion Apocalypse (2012) is through the pre-registering process. There will not be T-Shirts available on the day.

Weekend Ticket. £10.

Children’s Ticket. £5.

All t-shirts are ‘unisex’ (ie men’s) sizes (as per chart below).

T-shirt size Small. £5.

T-shirt size Medium. £5.

T-shirt size Large. £5.

T-shirt size XL. £5.

T-shirt size XXL. £5.

All ordered t-shirts will be available for collection at Conpulsion. If you need them shipped or odd sizes or something, please
Email us.

The charity do invaluable work in the Edinburgh area adapting donated computers for disabled people and will also be attending the convention to take part in the activities.

CONPULSION APOCALYPSE has some apocalyptically awesome guests lined up. We’ll be profiling them here on the website.

First up: Stuart Boon, author of the eldritchly successful and critically acclaimed Shadows Over Scotland.

Bio: Stuart Boon is the author of ‘Cthulhu Britannica: Shadows Over Scotland‘, a sourcebook for Scotland and Scottish adventures for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game published by Cubicle 7. An avid film and music fan, and active role-player, Stuart spends entirely too much time indoors. He is currently working on a number of projects involving the Cthulhu Mythos whilst trying to retain what is left of his sanity.

Links:
Cthulhu Britannica: Shadows Over Scotland (Cubicle 7); Shadows Over Scotland (Facebook); Author Page (Facebook); Writing Blog

Cover of Shadows Over Scotland by Jon Hodgson. Portrait of Stuart Boon, done by Graeme Neil Reid in the style of the portraits in the book.

Download the Convention flyer [526 kB] and look out for the print copy!

Phil & Gregor are looking to build on this year’s con for 2012. So things that went well in 2011 can expect no major changes. But look for improvements to things that didn’t do so well in 2011.

If you’re interested in helping out with Conpulsion 2012, and think you can improve the con, then we want to hear from you. More details to follow on how you can do that.

We’re especially interested in hearing how we can improve wargaming, LARPing, CCGs and board games. We’re seeking enthusiastic people with strong ideas who will focus on bringing players to the con in these areas. We’re also interested in working with all students associations and gaming groups in Scotland.

Our aim is for Conpulsion to be a destination for gamers of all interests. We want to broaden the convention’s appeal and provide as awesome a weekend of gaming in Edinburgh as we can. We can only do that with your help and goodwill.

More to follow!