History Of The Circle

“We Began as The Circle of Five”

“Then we Became The Circle of Light”

“Now we are simply, THE CIRCLE”

In association with Stronghold Games UK & The Earthdawn Guild

HOW THE CIRCLE BEGAN

I could only say The Circle started by sheer chance. That it was like some unseen and magical force that called a group of strangers together for a reason, almost like the game had called to us.

You see many years ago now before the horrific Scourge one of our friends walked into a local gaming shop, and as he approached the counter he noticed a display which said “This Weeks New Releases” and on that shelf was a copy of Earthdawn 1st edition, and honestly our friend thought the artwork on the book looked cool and by 100% impulse he bought a copy.

Maybe a few days later he posted online and also placed a message on our gaming stores notice board asking if anyone had heard of Earthdawn, or if anyone wanted to figure out how to play? Well obviously none of us knew anything about Earthdawn because it has just been released in the UK that week, however a few brave souls answered the call, you know a few brave souls dared step into the unknown, and it was those players who became the founding members of The Circle.

In fact to our knowledge we were perhaps the FIRST UK GROUP to ever play Earthdawn, and one of the first in Europe, and honestly friends what began as a random meeting, what began as group of total strangers turned into something amazing. I can still remember it like it was yesterday, we had all met in a tiny little student flat and were a bunch of total strangers armed with a few players guides as we slowly began to explore this world they called Barsaive.

The Circle had began and not long after we changed locations and Stephen one of The Circles games masters and founding members ended up running an exciting, action packed and truly atmospheric campaign in the savage lands of Earthdawn. Its fair to say after that point we had fallen in love with the game, with its mechanics and world history, meaning The Circle has been here since day one, and still are all these years later.

THE CIRCLE OF FIVE

Once we had figured out the basics of Earthdawn and found it to be an amazing game with a wonderful and dark world history, we began our first ever group which became known as The Circle of Five and was made up of 5 new friends exploring the lands of Earthdawn together.

The Circle Of Five Consisted Off

Elf Nethermancer
Windling Thief
Elf Thief
T’Skrang Sword Master
Dwarf Weapon Smith

For over 2.5 years The Circle of Five explored the lands of Barsaive, our journey took us everywhere from the forests Cara Fard to the deadly ruins of Parlainth, but even then we had only covered a fraction of what was possible in the fantastic world of Earthdawn.

I think looking back now its fair to say that everyone in The Circle of Five made memories that would last a lifetime, not only making new friends that would stand the test of time, but also finding a game that we fell in love with, and that has been our favourite game ever since.

Slowly the campaign came to its conclusion and “Life” got in the way seeing people move away for jobs and to begin new adventures. In fact for an entire decade Earthdawn became like a lost legend in our hearts as our lives had simply became to busy, however it was at that point that we heard the call, at that point where we noticed a glimmer of light.

THE QUIET YEARS

The entire decade had passed slowly seeing The Circle losing contact until the point I just couldn’t take it anymore, as for years it had been a yearning inside me. In fact I wanted to see the great Serpent River again, wanted to climb high into the mountains of Throal, wanted to be running through the streets of Travar again as we desperately raced against time to save the world.

Funny really it was a single book that made me hear the call, as one day I was tidying at home and for old times sake I pulled a book off the shelf, you know a book that hadn’t even seen daylight properly in years, and reading the cover which said “The Adepts Way” made me smile, as really I wanted to be an adept again, wanted once again to walk the adepts way.

With that in mind I tracked down Stephen another of The Circles founding members that I’d not seen in many years, in fact for some time Stephen had been travelling the world, studying, and been a dedicated working professional. However I can still remember how the phone call went, as honestly out of the blue I called Stephen after not speaking to him for many years and simply said:

“Hey dude, I’m not sure if you are interested, but do you want to play Earthdawn again with me as games master?”

Well its something I have come to admire about Stephen, as basically if he makes his mind up about something then its “All or Nothing” meaning he makes an extremely dedicated player or games master, and honestly Stephen tuck a few moments to think about things, and then said:

“You know what, I haven’t played Earthdawn in over a decade, but yeah mate, COUNT ME IN!!!!”

I honestly admired his bravery and quick thinking and think deep down he had also spent many years constantly hearing the faint call of Earthdawn in his heart, and that like me Stephen once again wanted to walk the adepts way, and with that in mind we began to gear up.

THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT

From there we became The Circle of Light and stepped into the darkness together to once again explore the wonderful and deadly lands of Earthdawn. In fact at the time we actually became Obsidian Portals* fasting growing campaign seeing us receive messages from all over the world.

* Obsidian Portal Login required to view the campaign logs
DISCLAIMER: HTML has since become superseded, so design isn’t as good as it used to be.

The Circle Of Light Consisted Off

Playing for over two years we became one of Europe’s and the UK’s most popular groups, not to mention having hours of game play in the Earthdawn world.

Mainly games mastered by Ray the campaign was dark, fun and dangerous setting where we learnt an awful lot as a group, and even about ourselves as people. In fact one thing became true about The Circle, and that’s when all else fails, even when heavily outnumbered, we run into the darkness together as a team, which has always been the way of The Circle.

I guess it became our motto, as when all hope fails, when we are totally surrounded by darkness, we form a circle, we form a Circle of the Light.

THE RISE TO POWER

From there we have played Earthdawn (on/off) ever since, in fact you could say over the last decade we have had a fantastic rise to power and have continued following Earthdawn all the way, seeing us hit various milestones and achievements, for example:

Stronghold Games UK: In 2016 Ray one of the founding members of The Circle actually opened Stronghold Games in the UK which has quickly become one of the most popular gaming stores in the North East of England.

This store stocks a variety of card games / role playing games / war games / paints / brushes / dice / hobby supplies and works closely with major gaming companies and distributors around the world, which in effect gives The Circle official backing and support from a British run gaming store.

The Earthdawn Guild: I believe around 2018 Ray was then asked to take over command of the Earthdawn Guild on Facebook as sadly the current leadership had become to busy.

Now at the time the Earthdawn Guild only had about 400 members, however after a little effort the Earthdawn Guild between its Facebook group & page now has nearly 10,000 people following which is growing on a weekly basis. In fact the Earthdawn Guild now has a lot more facilities and has been given a great and dedicated admin team, some of which have now joined The Circle.

What Does This Mean? In effect it means THE CIRCLE has good long standing ties with the Earthdawn community and is a well known and long standing group. In fact part of The Circles goal is not only to help FASA and The Earthdawn Guild, but to grow the entire game in Europe.

This means THE CIRCLE has games store backing and access to products / trade discounts / prizes / advertising / and much more.

THE CIRCLE

Its fair to say that we have been playing so long, and loved Earthdawn for so long that we have now simply become “THE CIRCLE” one of Europe’s legendary Earthdawn groups, and probably one of the first groups in the UK to ever play Earthdawn.

From this day forth we shall simply be known as “THE CIRCLE” who are a dedicated Earthdawn group, and please believe me friends we have some big things ahead.

Firstly The Circle already has its own dedicated Discord server and is having a group website built as we speak, but also after recent talks we have actually decided The Circle will now be opened up to English speaking players within ALL OF EUROPE.

This will not only add fun and diversity to the community, but allow people to make new friends from all around Europe which will help build some great role playing groups, and in the right circumstances some friendships might last a lifetime so we spend years exploring the world of Earthdawn together as a team.

Now as it stands The Circle are looking for a very small number of dedicated players who would like to play Earthdawn online and as part of a dedicated guild. This application process may contain interviews and trail periods as we are looking for really dedicated players who not only want to join The Circle, but actually want to help us and really become part of the team.

We in effect are looking to make a small enthusatice and dedicated group of Earthdawn players who get on well together and share similar desires and mind sets about role playing, and then to create a facility where we can all play Earthdawn in a fun but organised fashion, all in a safe members only group.

Now whilst we can very easily fill The Circle up with British people we think opening things up to Europe would be the much nicer and friendlier option, as after all there are people in certain isolated areas of Europe that would never get the chance to play Earthdawn, and in that case if their English is good, and their personality fits within The Circle, then we would like to give them that chance.

The Circles main goal is to build a very small and private guild of people to play Earthdawn with, to build a dedicated team of fun people and become some of the best players in Europe.

We are in effect asking to build a new group of friends, a new group of dedicated people who want to explore the lands of Earthdawn, and that want to become part of The Circle.

However if you are accepted into The Circle then there will be a trail period of several months, and during that time if you get along with the group / if your personality or humour fit the group / if you are a nice and opened minded player who is dedicated and puts in some effort, then potentially you will be invited to join The Circle on permanent basis, and to join the legendary Earthdawn team.

From there you will not only be a member of the team meaning you get access to various facilities / players / games masters / but also into members only areas. That in effect you will join the private gaming circle and from there will become a dam good Earthdawn player with friends at your side, friends that over the years you can get to know, adventure with, and maybe even meet in real life.

THE CIRCLE PATH

There are some of the core beliefs within The Circle:

1: We Run into Darkness Together: That we are here to build a team, to build a fun, nice, exciting team to explore the lands of Earthdawn together. That team work will be required as we not only want to build a strong team, but everyone’s ability as role players as well.

2: The Rule of Five: The original circle had five players, and The Circle of Light also had five players, (One PC was played by the GM) and due to this we have decided that each group we run must have at least 5 players, which can either be 4 player characters and 1 GM run character, or just 5 player characters without the need for the Games Master to run a character.

3: The Circle: The Circle is in effect our guild name, however each time we run a new group or new campaign then that group will pick a different “Circle Name” for example the last major campaign we played was The Circle of Light, meaning other groups could be called:

The Circle of Pain / The Circle of Love / The Circle of Hope / The Circle of Horror / The Circle of Courage / The Circle of Devastation, or whatever circle name they pick.

THE CIRCLE’S FUTURE

In the future we are not only hoping to add a lot more facilities to The Circle, however the long term goal is that we actually have 2 or 3 groups running at once with different games masters and players. This means each week people can visit our website and read dedicated Earthdawn logs from several different groups within The Circle.

We will also be looking for other very dedicated and English speaking Games Masters in Europe who would like to run groups online, to further extend the groups games mastering abilities. This is some respects could give Games Masters a chance to run a game, but play in another group as well, meaning at times some Games Masters can just play for a change which would be nice.

THE CIRCLE OVERALL

Well please believe me friends we are not an Earthdawn group, we are not just a group, in fact we are an ADEPT GROUP, and are some of Europe’s longest standing Earthdawn players. In fact we are games shop owners / working professionals / Earthdawn Guild admins / and Role Players and Games Masters with decades worth of experience.

I’m one of your Games Masters and for now, welcome to THE CIRCLE.

Authored By Ray: The Games Master