Guests

Famous people!

Banquo 2012

Paul Bourne is the 2012 winner of the Banquo Award for the Spirit of Scottish Gaming.Paul Bourne is the first "art" winner of the Banquo award. Selfless, modest and hugely talented Paul has consistently produced stunning work (for 10 years and always ahead of the curve) on RPGs with rendered computer art, typography, design, form and layout.His major award-winning works are a|state (2003), Cold City (2006), 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars and Hot War (both 2008), and The One Ring (2011). One senior professional described him as follows "I have never worked with anyone so capable, stoic, loyal and able, EVER." Paul's "can-do" attitude (often on limited time and budget) really deserves to be rewarded, and so we do.He powerfully and gloriously brings forth the vision of writers to the printed page and the minds of gamers (particularly Greg Porter for EABA, Malcolm Craig for a|state and Cold City/Hot War, Sarah Newton with Mindjammer and for The One Ring). A resident of Falkirk Paul shines brightly on the world stage. His humble demeanour belies the great warmth, respect and affection in which he is held by artists, publishers and gamers. Paul, well done. We salute you.The video of the Banquo Award ceremony (Courtesy of Nearly Enough Dice) can be found here. Banquo Award 2012

Guest: Dominic McDowall-Thomas

Dominic McDowall-Thomas is CEO of Cubicle 7 Entertainment, publisher of many award-winning roleplaying games including The One Ring and Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space. He has directed the creative teams at Cubicle 7 since the company was formed in 2006. In addition, his ‘hands-on’ credits include The One Ring (writing, editing, line development), Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space (editing, graphic design, line development), The Laundry (editing, graphic design, line development – 2011 Winner of Silver ENnie Award for Best New Game) and Victoriana (editing – 2010 Winner of Silver ENnie Award for Best Writing).Dominic will be in the talks on The One Ring (Sat 1:30-2:30, Middle Reading Room), Publishers (Sat 5-6pm, Middle Reading Room), Shadows over Scotland (Sun 12-1pm, Middle Reading Room) and on the Cubicle 7 stand in the Debating Hall.

Three for Three – Art Talks

Simply click on the image to see the full PDFJonanddavearttalk

Guest: Scott Neil

Scott Neil's first foray into fantasy illustration came with the new edition of Dragon Warriors released by Magnum Opus Press. Scott's work featured regularly in the subsequent DW scenarios.As well as producing cover work for independent publishers Scott has produced a large body of historical illustrations for the heritage and museum sector.Having joined the stable of artists producing work for Cubicle 7 Scott has been drawing everything from ghouls to goblins and psychics to pirates. 

Guests: Dark Harvest

The Game is open for pre registration (see here)

A 2-5 player card game set in the world of DARK HARVEST.

You have been charged by Baron Victor von Frankenstein to create two of the finest bodies the world has ever seen. They will be shown off at a state ball for the admiration of all. But you are not alone. Others will be in hot competition for Frankenstein’s attention.Using the body parts available, designer surgeons, secret plasmas, theft, skullduggery and general nastiness you will strive to create the finest of surgical wonders.Designer (and long-time friend of the event) Andrew Harman is offering Conpulsion delegates the first chance to see the new, all-but-complete card art, as well as to playtest FRANKENSTEIN’S BODIES. Everyone who plays the game at Conpulsion will have the opportunity to chat about the experience with the designer, to offer their considered opinion, and will receive a playtester credit in the finished product. Oh, and hopefully have some fun. So, book your place now at the Conpulsion demo table.Dark Harvest is in the Dining Room Sat (11-12, 12-1) and Sunday (4-5), and we're doing a Dark Harvest "round table" discussion on Sun at 3-4. 

Guest: Newt Newport and D101 Games

In 2008 while faffing about creating an Imaginary Games company to produce a game based on Monkey: The Journey to the West, a 20 page RPG.net thread over the then woeful state of Gloranthan publications, inspired me to put my money where my heart was and leap head first into the world of roleplaying games fanzines.  Three months later the first issue of Hearts in Glorantha was released to much appreciation, and building on this came OpenQuest, a tribute game to old RuneQuest, its supplement the Savage North and then Monkey itself.I'm the self-styled Benevolent Dicator of D101 Games, regularly pulling rabbits out of hats and producing new games and supplements in both the Storytelling and Traditional mode. Written both by myself and a gang of other authors. Its a tread mill of fun that beats the crap out losing myself in the World of Warcrack and that's seen 19 books in four years.  I once had an entire convention, independently tell me that you couldn't make any money out of RPGs. It made me smile wryly, since D101 does make money SO EVERYONE INVOLVED GETS PAID and much greater spiritual goals are achived on a regular basis.I recently released Crypts and Things, a none too subtle mix of Swords and Sorcery D&D with the DM's advice written while channelling Clark Ashton-Smith and I'm currently writing Project Darklight a Cyberpunk game, which mixes up with an explosive cocktail of Ufology and scathing commentary on the current state of information technology.Mr Newport can be found around the convention and running The Magical Painter and Operation Wolverine games.

Guests: Malifaux

No Pre-Registration availableAre you willing to risk your soul for a chance at great wealth and power?Based in an alternate Earth, Malifaux uses gothic, steampunk, Victorian horror with a dose of the wild west to inject fun and depth into the magical lawlessness of a world rife with monsters, necropunks, man-machine hybrids, gunslingers, and power-hungry politicos. Actively using character-driven stories to define the world of Malifaux, seek your fortune in this fast-paced and brutal 32mm tabletop miniature skirmish game. Assemble your crew and stake your claim!Interested? come along and get a demo game with one of the 4 crews that will be present on the day:Sonnia Criid, head of the Guild's Witchhunter division, Rasputina, the outlaw witch of the Cult of December, Nicodem, the gentleman necromancer, Lilith, queen of the malevolent Neverborn.Times: Malifaux will be available for demo games on Saturday from 10am until 5pm in the Dining Room.

Guest: Andy Law

Currently working on a variety of indie projects and the record-breaking Kickstarter, Far West, Andy freelances as a game designer, artist, and map maker. He has won several awards for these efforts, including Gold ENnies for writing and cartography. His work has appeared in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Song of Ice and Fire RPG, Dragon Warriors, 40KRP: Dark Heresy, Freeport, and many other games and settings, and he is now turning his eye to self-publishing.An unrepentant gamer, he has staged LARPs, owned a wargames shop, organised gaming conventions, managed Games Workshops, run gaming clubs, and generally geeked his way through all aspects of his life, and even met his wife at a LARP.A long-term resident ofEdinburgh, Andy lives with his gaming wife and two gaming daughters inLeith. He can be found on G+ sharing his pictures and photographs, chatting about life, and posting a speedy mapping wonder every Friday for #FridayFiveMinuteMaps.

 

Guest: Loren Wiseman

We're delighted that Loren Wiseman is winging his way across the Atlantic to join us.During college, Loren frequented the university games club, whose members would form Game Designers' Workshop, Inc. (better known as GDW) and his first wargame, Eagles, was published in 1974.As a partner at GDW, his primary responsibilities were game development - editing and revising game manuscripts and preparing them for publication but during this period he designed the wargame Pharsalus, the Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Adventure for Twilight: 2000 Going Home.When GDW closed in 1995, Wiseman was unemployed for a short time and then worked a succession of part-time jobs. When Steve Jackson offered Loren the position of art director and Traveller line editor accepted immediately, and have been there ever since (although I am no longer art director).He works at Steve Jackson Games as the GURPS® Traveller® line manager and editor of the online Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society.Loren is a historian by training and a miniatures player for relaxation. Some of his GDW books are still available through Amazon and Steve Jackson Games products through their own website.

Avenger Enterprises: Schedule at Conpulsion and even more…

Avenger Enterprises made its name publishing supplements for the Traveller RPG, and continues to produce Traveller-compatible materials such as Far Avalon and the current Starships books. Avenger’s current non-Traveller projects include the ‘QADVentures’ (Quick-and-Dirty Adventures) series.Avenger is more than a games company, however. It serves as an umbrella organization for a variety of activities ranging from sourcing freelancers for third parties to fighting with swords.Avenger’s staff and associates have worked on a variety of projects ranging from TV programmes to conferencing as well as the mainstream publishing industry. Our people have written, edited or contributed to a vast number of books and game products. We make things, write books and generally get things done.We also destroy stuff. Many of Avenger’s staff are experienced martial artists, fencers and the like, and are extremely active in the martial arts/self-defence sector.At Conpulsion 2012 our schedule looks like this: SATURDAY 5-6PM, SNOOKER ROOM:TerrainBuildingWorkshopNate will be demonstrating techniques for quickly and cheaply producing terrain for gaming. Nate’s workshop will be of interest to anyone who uses miniatures for wargaming or roleplaying, or who just likes to make stuff. SUNDAY 1:30-2:30, UNDERGROUND: Fightin’The Avengers will be demonstrating real-world armed and unarmed combat techniques for your amusement and edification. Anyone who wants to portray personal combat realistically in fiction or gaming will find this seminar (or whatever you want to call it) highly informative and probably somewhat alarming. SUNDAY 3:30-4:30, MIDDLEREADINGROOM: Writing for PublicationMartin has written games, fiction, non-fiction, web copy, technical manuals and the occasional coherent sentence. He has also been both a commissioning editor and a copy editor. In this seminar he will reveal what (little) he knows about how to write and get your work published. SUNDAY 5:00-6:00 MIDDLE READING ROOM: Character Design and DevelopmentMike will be hosting a seminar on creating characters that make some kind of sense, and exploring character development from both a storytelling and game-mechanics point of view. THROUGHOUT THE CON, ALL OVER THE PLACE: The Avenger Enterprises ExperienceWe’ll be there. Doing stuff. With shirts that say Avenger Enterprises on them. What’s not to like? 

Guest: Andy Hepworth

Guests: Avenger Enterprises

 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.

Guests: Dave Allsop

Dave Allsop is well known to the global gaming community as one of the originators of SLA Industries, and a prolific self employed Artist. He has produced art Dungeons and Dragons, Magic the Gathering, Pathfinder, Book Of Unremitting Horror, World of Warcraft TCG and others. Dave also writes articles for Imagine FX Magazine.He is quite tall and drinks Red Stripe in his time off.

Guest: Jon Hodgson

For the last 18 months Jon Hodgson has been hard at work creating art for the forthcoming “The One Ring” roleplaying game, a new Lord of the Rings RPG from Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd; where he is also currently the art director.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.  

Guest: Phil Masters

Phil Masters has been showing up on the UK RPG scene since he had his first article in White Dwarf back in 1980. In recent years, he's most often worked on GURPS books for Steven Jackson Games (although he still does some writing for other companies); he's recently finished work on the second edition of the Discworld Roleplaying Game, and he is the line editor for the Transhuman Space setting. He's also a regular feature at British conventions, including Conpulsion.Always found gaming or engaging with others at the convention we're delighted to be letting him in again this year.

Guest: Francesco Nepitello

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.

ConGuest: Stuart Boon

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 BlogCover 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.