Quite out of the blue, Fernando Salvaterra sent me a colour version of the Fellmyr “poetic” map which I have used to give players a rough sense of this sandbox fantasy world. Coming a year after the original version was first launched into play, this was a moment which brought me back to Fellmyr with a fresh perspective.

Weirdly, having been a pretty solid game world for more than a year, the last active group decided to lay down their characters and take a break from fantasy (turning instead to Cthulhu) at just the same weekend Fernando sent me the colour image. With some sadness, I had resigned myself to not getting back to Fellmyr in the foreseeable.

But this weekend, following a passing mention about sandboxes on the RPR Discord, I decided to mention that I am quite happy to play some Fellmyr if anyone is ever interested. Within minutes, a small cadre of players stepped forward to accept the offer and we are already seeing about recovering the original online group’s characters.

With Fellmyr comes a return to GURPS and I found myself strongly inspired to revisit that favourite system over the coming days. There are some aspects of Fellmyr that, in hindsight, I wish I had done differently – not least, distancing the world from the default D&D tropes that run through the whole. But, all in all, it’s a world that players enjoy.

The main idea that I am holding on to is the gratitude I feel towards everyone involved – not least Fernando for creating that fabulous map. As with all RPG experiences, they become what they are through the collective efforts of all and with this world the players have made all the difference. Students, online, and offline gamers all had an input.

I don’t know where the game will take me next but I am truly curious to find out.

Game on!