Greetings Grand Adventurers,

We at GEAS hope that your semester has been prosperous and merry, and also that your games have either kept burning or ignited your passion for roleplaying. To bring lectures to a close we shall be going to a pub and engaging in the rules-lite game of getting drunk! The social will be taking place at 7pm on Friday the 29th of November in Sofi’s Southside 42-44 Buccleuch St, EH8 9LP. For those who wish to be reminded of the event via the friendly not evil company facebook can find the event via this link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1214375625430300/We do hope that you can make it! Also, a reminder that this Saturday we will be having another workshop in the Balcony Room on game safety. As it’s a Saturday night there could be room for some light merriment post-workshop.

Godspeed,
Jason Ebblewhite
Socials Coordinator 2019/20

P.S. As an aside, we have been asked that if anyone has any unwanted lego could they please get in touch with Aidan (at hurstaidan) – It’s not for him, as far as I can tell, a kid’s club in the local library are seeking donations for their lego horde. Thanks !

Greetings, Grand Adventurers!

In this email: 1) Notice of EGM on 24 Nov., 2) Playtest event for Medieval Call of Cthulhu, 3) Upcoming GM Workshop, 4) Mental Health and Wellbeing Week

1) EGM on Sunday 24 Nov. 2019, 5 pm at the Debating Hall.

We will be holding an EGM in two weeks’ time (Sunday 24 Nov.) in between games at 5 pm in the Debating Hall. Please consider this as two weeks’ notice of the General Meeting as per our Constitution.

We encourage all of our members who are able to make it to come along. If you can’t make it, you may also vote by proxy, in which case please do get in touch with the Committee by email. We need as many of our members, especially student members, there as possible for the meeting to be quorate.

We will be voting on important amendments to the Society Constitution, adopting an anti-harassment policy and complaints procedures, and a change to when we will be electing the Conpulsion Liaison for the following year.

The following documents are drafts of the motions being proposed for the EGM, as well as the draft policies that we mentioned above. Links to the documents are as follows:

List of motions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P1hALFDXMbWvpBSFgfrYm9OpJk1QDnvW0PsQ79mNAyI/edit?usp=sharing

Draft Anti-Harassment Policy and Complaints Procedure: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lLOH6TWGp1rBualvGfmjWFbPEp-BJk1BcsGKdHXfc3w/edit?usp=sharing

Please note that these documents are currently provisional drafts, and we are due to consult the EUSA Activities’ Office on Tuesday, 12 Nov., for advice on the precise wording. We will be incorporating any updates in the documents that we linked to above and we will present the final versions at the EGM to be voted on.

2) Medieval Call of Cthulhu Scenario Playtest: Tuesday, 19 Nov. 7 pm.

We are collaborating with the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology to develop an expansion for Call of Cthulhu set in the Crusader States. For this project, we are running a one-shot event to playtest a Medieval Call of Cthulhu scenario for participants to get a feel for the system and setting.

This will take place on Tuesday, 19 November, in the Teviot Dining Room from 7 pm.

If you would like to GM at this event, please get in touch with us.

If you would like to sign up as a player, please feel free to register using this Doodle poll:
https://www.doodle.com/poll/7bagq6k488k4i5uy

3) GM Workshop : Saturday the 23rd of November 6pm in the Balcony Room

This month’s GM workshop will be covering the topic of game safety.
In essence : how to run a game in a way that is safe for the wellbeing of those at the table and how to navigate situations where perhaps something has gone wrong in game.
This workshop will focus on various safety tools, how they are used and our speakers experience in making games a safe space for gamers to play in.

If you would like to come along just pop along to the event, there is no need to sign up.
This will be taking place from 6pm in the balcony room at Teviot.

Hope to see you all there!

4) Mental Health and Wellbeing Week 11-15 November

Also, as many of you may have seen, the forthcoming week is mental health and wellbeing week at the University. Vivek, our Equality and Wellbeing Officer, has a quick message for everyone: It is normal for people to face challenges to their mental health for a multitude of reasons, and as the adage goes it’s okay to not be okay. Here at Geas, we recognise that for a lot of our members, our society, the friendships we make here, and the games we play together are important to their happiness and wellbeing. We on the Committee want to make this as friendly and welcoming a space as possible. If there is anything in the Society that you feel affects your wellbeing, please feel free to get in touch with Vivek at geas.welfare and he will help you find the support you need.

Vivek also wanted to pass on the following resource to our members: Dr Megan Connell, a psychologist and DM, has a YouTube channel on the topic of mental health and gaming. This is not a substitute to mental health support like counselling, medication or other therapies, and the point of this is not for each of us to take the role of a therapist. Rather, the purpose of these videos is to provide information so we can be more accommodating at the table. It makes a huge difference when friends look out for each other, and some of the most profound advice for all adventurers is from the Legend of Zelda franchise, ‘It’s dangerous to go alone.’ So here, take this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKZ5Ymwa8Wg&list=PL2IRUzcSUyX0yCWc4P2nyOvgvdwFPl8HM

For the Greater Glory of Geas,
The Geas Committee

Greetings Grand Adventurers!

I have some dates to remind you of, and a couple of exciting announcements!

To start off, we’ve reached repitch times! This is a chance for GMs to pitch six week campaigns to run from next week until Christmas. GMs can continue their games, or pitch new ones, and players can choose to move to new games if they want. Repitches will be taking place on the 6th of November at 18:00, and the 10th of November at 13:00 and at 18:00. All repitches will be taking place in the Debating Hall in Teviot.

We will be holding an EGM the 24th of November to discuss potential changes to the constitution. We encourage all our members to come along, as EGMs are a good opportunity to raise any concerns you have with any part of the society, and to ensure you have a say in how the society is run. The EGM will occur at 5pm in the Debating Hall in Teviot, and we aim to wrap it up in time for evening games.

I also want to remind you that you can still sign up for student nationals! The deadline date has been extended to the 17th of November, so if you want to come along and represent GEAS in what will be a fun weekend of roleplaying in Sheffield, please email us with your three top choices for games (we’ve attached the list to this email) by the 17th.

And finally, an exciting discount announcement! You can now get 10% off all items from Traveller’s Path! Traveller’s Path sell high quality battle mats in a range of sizes, markers and erasers for said mats, AND DICE!! You can order their products from https://travellerspath.com/ – just type in the GEAS motto with no caps or spaces (this can be found in the bottom right corner of your membership card) and you’ll receive 10% off your entire order!

For glory and GEAS!

Emily Booth

President 2019-20