Tag Archives: Grand Tribunal

How I came to organise a Convention (and why you probably should too!).

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Chris Jensen Romer

Firstly, and foremost. It is all Kevin’s fault. I never set out to organise anything – organisation and me are distant acquaintances, at the best. I rarely know what day it is; I sometimes struggle to recall the year. I … Continue reading →

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Ars Magica the Computer Game: Interview with the Black Chicken Kickstarter Team

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Chris Jensen Romer

First up, do me a favour. If you don’t know or care about Ars Magica, but you enjoy strategy games, or fantasy games, or history games, go to this Kickstarter and think about pledging $20. If it funds, you get … Continue reading →

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The Battle of Fornham 1173: re-fought with Ars Magica!

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Chris Jensen Romer

I have written a lot on games recently and not much else, but back to the normal soon. Despite the title this post is as much about real English history as my game, and therefore possibly worth reading — you can skip the sections with green headings and read the ones with dark blue heading to find the fact rather than the game stuff! I have just finished hosting Grand Tribunal 2012 the Ars Magica roleplaying game convention, and so am still full of enthusiasm for my gaming exploits. This year saw a rather unusual one — trying to recreate a rather important if obscure event in English history (a battle at Fornham, just outside Bury St Edmunds in 1173) with a combination wargame/freeform/rpg game set in the world of Ars Magica, using the 5th edition rules.

However, let’s start with the real world history… Continue reading →

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Report from Grand Tribunal UK 2012

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Chris Jensen Romer

Grand Tribunal is the Ars Magica and Atlas Games convention held annually in the UK and USA. This year the Sixth Grand Tribunal (UK) took place on the weekend 17th-19th August, and featured 37 delegates and 3 authors from the line, but … Continue reading →

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Report from the Grand Tribunal of Stonehenge: Ars Magica UK convention 2010

Posted on August 25, 2010 by Chris Jensen Romer

For anyone reading this who does not really know me well, Ars Magica is a roleplaying game set in 13th century Europe, as it was believed to be. Dragons live in the mountains, wizards study in lonely towers, and faeries haunt the forests. It’s not a computer game — it is a game played like Dungeons & Dragons by people with pencils, paper and funny shaped dice. This was the fourth annual Ars Magica convention here in the UK; I ran the first two, Neil and Sheila ran last years in Cambridge and will host the event in 2011, and there have been three now in the US as well, held the same weekend. This was the largest so far: a total of 37 people being at at least some of the event, though not all were gamers, some were guests of friends dropping in to say hi! Continue reading →

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A Hotel Oddity

Posted on June 11, 2010 by Chris Jensen Romer

OK, so not much going on here. I’m busy organising hotels for the Grand Tribunal rpg convention — and I have noticed a rather curious fact, something that maybe some of my friends from the hospitality industry can comment upon – in the process. I was thinking of trying to organise a block booking for the convention delegates – we could book quite a lot of rooms in theory. I checked the hotel prices online from their websites (not third party bargain sites) and established prices. Then I called round, cited the number of rooms i was interested in, and found — the prices cited with the group booking were higher than the rates currently on offer. The discount appears to be applied to the standard rate — whereas by booking a couple of month early, one gets a cheaper rate. So by booking using a group discount option, it would actually cost me more per night per room than if the guest just book individually online now. Curious, and a fact well worth considering if you should ever have reason to want to book a lot of hotel rooms for any reason. Continue reading →

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Grand Tribunal 2009: Medieval magicians gather in Cambridge! 31st July-2 August 2009

Posted on March 19, 2009 by Chris Jensen Romer

Among other things Constitution is the 2009 British Roleplaying Society convention, Unicon 23, Harmuni 4 and the 2009 Ars Magica Grand Tribunal, bringing you roleplaying, science fiction and fantasy, and filk!” Continue reading →

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Great News – and a missed opportunity.

Posted on March 4, 2009 by Chris Jensen Romer

My friends Andrew and Mel are having twins! Many many congratulations! I have always been fond of twins (Martin Peters and Hugh will get the joke at least…) Excellent, wonderful news, though I was dreadfully troubled, nay mortified, by the … Continue reading →

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