Concrete Cow 13.5 games

The following games wwere be offered at the Concrete Cow 13⅓ convention on 14 September 2013. If you have something you'd like to offer, please email concrete-cow-owner@yahoogroups.com. See the Concrete Cow 13 games page for what was on offer last time.

Game Slots

To keep some sense of organisation about the day (ha!), this is the approximate timetable for the day.

Doors open	9.00am
Morning games	10.00am - 1.30pm
Afternoon games	2.30pm - 6.30pm
Evening games	7.30pm - 11.00pm
Close	11.00pm

Allocating games to players is by sign-up sheets on the day, on a first-come-first-served basis. You can download blank sign-up sheets as sign-up sheet (MS Word) or sign-up sheet (PDF). (If you're offering a game, please note that you're still responsible for writing your own sign-up sheet; we don't create them for you.)

Note that, depending on circumstances, not all of these games may run on the day.

Send us your game blurbs at concrete-cow-owner@yahoogroups.com and we'll put them here!

(Please add games in alphabetical order)

Aardvark

A crowd sourcing game-type thing: if you're too tired to play a proper game at the end of the con, sit with us while we make one up and play it at the table! We'll collectively create the setting, style, theme, tone and mechanics as we shoot the breeze, so expect something fairly Gonzo. Don't worry, if it really looks like crashing and burning, then I'll pull a game out of my pocket, probably the marvellous 'Thank You Mullen' created in the crowd sourcing game-type thing which took place in the final slot of Indiecon '12.

GM: James Mullen

Players: 3-5

Slot: Evening

Barbarians of Lemuria (Dicey Tales pulp variant) / Achtung Cthulhu! mash up thing

Ghosts of Greenland

March 1939. Following the discovery of an intact Viking longship off the western coast of Greenland, all members of a Danish-led expedition disappear. In the weeks following rumours of Viking ghosts attacking Inuit settlements reach the mainland. The player characters are dispatched to investigate on behalf of the Danish benefactor.

(Based on the included adventure in Dicey Tales #2)

GM: Phil Garrad

Players: 3-5

Slot: Morning

Blood & Water

Heavily drawing it's inspiration from the TV series Being Human, this game is about a small group of outcasts and monsters who find solace and acceptance with each other, but how far can their bonds of friendship be tested before they break? The mechanics push strong friendships into a central role, by assuming that as the default state for all the PCs; drawing on these friendships makes you more likely to succeed at actions, but can put your friends at risk. You can reduce the risk to yourself by breaking your friendship with the one who is endangering you, but this makes you less likely to succeed at your own tasks.

GM: James Mullen

Players: 2-4

Slot': Afternoon

Call of Cthulhu, 7th Edition

Moonchild

It's been over 20 years since you went to the university occult society, but you've kept in touch with some of the other members -- old friendships never really die. Now you've decided to have a reunion to find out what's been happening in each other's lives and talk about the passions you once shared.

Not all the news is good, though. There are some disturbing secrets that are about to come to life. What should be a happy bout of nostalgia now risks spiralling into madness, betrayal and death.

GM: Paul Fricker

Players: 4-6

The Space Between

The Church of Sunyata has grown to a position of power in Hollywood. Its members include stars, producers, movers and shakers, and its Celebrity Retreat in the Hollywood Hills is home to the most important parties in town.

Still, the Church is having trouble shaking off its image as a cult. Their latest project -- a self-financed blockbuster inspired by Church teachings -- will help open the eyes of the public. The production is in trouble, though -- the leading lady has gone missing, the police are sniffing around and everyone on set is growing more nervous and secretive.

The future of the project is in the hands of a few dedicated church members. Will they be able to ensure that the Church's vision is shared with the world?

GM: Paul Fricker

Players: 4-6

Dead of Night

Twilight of the Gods

Life is quiet in the Shade Orchard Care Home. The residents spend their days watching television, doing arts and crafts, playing bingo and dreaming of the days when they ruled the world and played with mortals like so many toys.

Those dreams are just dreams, though. Why would anyone ever have worshipped an old relic like you? You have no power, no strength and just the barest memory of who you used to be in the age of Myth.

If that were to change, though…? What if you could make the mortals remember what it was like to have gods walk amongst them? What if you once more had the power to reshape the world? A happy thought for sure, but it's almost time for tea. You don't want to miss out on semolina tonight.

This scenario uses a modified version of the Dead of Night rules, tailored for urban fantasy.

GM: Scott Dorward

Players: 5

Slot: Afternoon

Disco World

A playtest.

GM: Graham Walmsley

Slot: Evening

Dogs in the Vineyard

Town details TBA, but a game of tough moral choices in a Wild West that never was.

GM: Mik Reed

Dust Devils

Redemption

Two weeks ago, William Benton visited Anna Mercer. She laughed at his small pecker, he slashed her face. Joseph paid Mary Knox for her loss of earnings as Anna can't work no more. William is now paying him back. He’s just arrived in town with the latest installment: a lot, from selling stolen cattle. But Anna and her friends have scraped together a reward for William's death, and Charles Sanford has arrived in town to do the deed.

GM: Neil Smith

Players: 2-4

Slot: Evening

Epoch

EPOCH is a roleplaying game of character-driven survival horror. The goal is to deliver a tense and scary experience in a single game session.

GM: Phil Garrad

Slot: Afternoon

Fate Accelerated

Legend of the Five Rings – The Lion and Crane

The Matsu are intent on reclaiming their ancestral family castle of Toshi Ranbo from the Doji family. There has been much debate in the Imperial Court but it seems war is unavoidable. Old grudges are hard to ignore and the Matsu are tired of living with this embarrassment. In a last ditch effort to stop the onslaught, the Emerald Champion dispatches his magistrates in the hope they can prevent the war or at the very least ensure that all conflict is resolved in an honourable way and that the interests of the Empire remain of paramount importance.

GM: Pete "SexyLemur" Atkinson

Players: 5

Tags: Samurai, Duelling, Honour, Scheming, Deceit.

First Issue!

A rules light story game set in the Golden Age of Superheroes, in which you get to play one of the pre-generated characters such as The Seraph, Angelic Defender of the Downtrodden, or Dynama, unstoppable woman of energy. A simple coin-tossing/token system supports play, which is driven by the GM setting the scenes, the players filling in details and then the GM pushing the scene into motion.

GM: James Mullen

Players: 3-5

Slot: Morning.

Golden Sky Stories

Golden Sky Stories is a heartwarming, non-violent role-playing game from Japan. In this game, players take on the role of henge (pronounced hen-gay), animals that have just a little bit of magical power, including the ability to temporarily take on human form. You can be a fox, raccoon dog, cat, dog, rabbit, or bird, and each kind has their own special magical powers. Players will then attempt to solve problems around a small enchanted town with ingenuity, co-operation and friendship.

This is an endearing game, only recently released in English to KS backers.

Session the First

GM: Epistolary Richard

Players: 2-4

Slot: Afternoon

Session the Second

GM: Graham Walmsley

Players: 2-4

Slot: Morning or Afternoon

GURPS Madness Dossier

Subduction Zone SANGUSH

“If that there King was to wake,” added Tweedledum, “you’d go out – bang! – just like a candle!”

For fifteen centuries, the Red King has slept. Slowly, though, his servants are shaking themselves out of the rubble of superseded history and trying to wake him up. And for over a century, the archaeologists, neurolinguists, and commandos of Project SANDMAN have fought them. Because every day the Red King sleeps is a day that history remains familiar, that human beings remain free, that the Madness Dossier remains closed.

You are a Sandman. The ancient rulers built the human mind to serve them, but you hack their source code and fight fire with fire ... with the minds of the innocent as your burning ground. The war against the Sleeping King will cost you your morals, your sanity, one day probably your life. The alternative is so much worse.

Now, alarm bells are sounding in Granite Peak and Cambridge. Your team has been activated. It looks like a routine sanity check assignment up in the north of England, but no Sandman mission can ever be entirely routine. You have a feeling that the dry winds of ancient Sumer may be blowing once again. Don't fail.

GM: Phil Masters

Players: 5

Slot: Afternoon

Hot War

Death to El Jefe!

Revolution has come to the Caribbean island of Corto Maltese, again. The forces of the hated despot known as El Jefe -- a former revolutionary himself -- are on the run. This time things will be different. This time the people will be free.

Amidst the chaos, four men are thrown together by circumstance. Each is very different, but tied together in a way none of them could ever have imagined. The turmoil of the revolution presents a opportunity for each to shape events in his own image, but whose image will prove the strongest?

This scenario uses a modified version of the Hot War mechanics and a different setting.

GM: Scott Dorward

Players: 4

Slot: Morning

Intrepid!

A GM-less adventure with map making and world building… create an interesting world as you play.

A character-driven world drawn straight from the imagination of the players with pirates elves goblins love gods of death the first cool thing that jumps into your mind.

Amazing stories guaranteed!

Session the first

Un-GM: John

Slot: Morning

Tags: GM-less, fantasy, narrative, mapping

Session the second

Un-GM: Pete

Slot: Afternoon

Tags: GM-less, fantasy, narrative, mapping

Jaws of the Six Serpents

The Demon Spires of Sil-Aluman

Those who dwell in Sil-Aluman call it the City of Night. Its twisted stone spires reach up to the heavens themselves, leaving the streets below in shadow. Legend holds that the city was built by demons, and that some live on as the gargoyles that leer from the walls. The city is ruled by ancient sorcerers, called The Seven, and acts which would be punished with burning or hanging in less degenerate lands are commonplace here.

For all its evils, the City of Night lives in balance with the demonic realms, drawing on their powers, but containing them. Now, something has changed. There are stories of demons stalking the night. The black spires are crumbling. The Seven themselves are in mortal danger. You may flee, but if infernal forces take Sil-Aluman, will anywhere ever be safe again?

GM: Scott Dorward

Players: 5

Slot: Evening

Lapins and Lairs

GM: Graham Walmsley

Slot: Daytime

The Marquis of Ferrara

You play a scheming signore at the Court of Niccolo d'Este, Marchese de Ferrara in the late 15c, who at the start of game has just been assassinated. You will have to negotiate the labyrinthine politics of this Renaissance city in order to ensure that your signore's interests are served. Treat with everyone but trust no-one, because whatever they might profess about their love of the city and their desire to serve it, ultimately everyone is out for themselves.

The Marquis of Ferrara is a game in progress by Richard Lacey, one of the co-authors of Witch: the Road to Lindisfarne.

Un-GM: Leo

Additional Players: 3-5

Slot: Afternoon

My Life With Master

Rock God

Rock God is unhappy; Rock God is confused; Rock God is angry.

You play a member of the entourage of a faded former rock 'n' roll superstar, who, as his ego has spun out of control, has lost the respect of his friends and former band members, audiences, the music press, basically everyone in fact apart from you, his psychologically damaged but fiercely loyal team.

Why do you stay with this madman? You don't know, but somehow you do, carrying out his increasingly deranged orders even though in doing so you descend ever deeper into a pit of weariness and self-loathing, until one day, one of you has the courage to take the raging bull by the horns and...

Ah but let's just see what happens shall we?

GM: Leo

Players: 3-5

Slot: Morning

Age: 18+

Numenera

Some strange malady has befallen the Aldeia of Redstone. The Aeon Priests need supplies to free the people from what is afflicting them. All you have to do is deliver the medicine you have been given, and all will be well, how hard can that be?

Numenera is a science fantasy roleplaying game set in the far distant future. Humanity lives amid the remnants of eight great civilisations that have risen and fallen on Earth. These are the people of the Ninth World. This new world is filled with remnants of all former worlds: bits of nanotechnology, the dataweb threaded amongst still-orbiting satellites, bio-engineered creatures, and myriad strange and wondrous devices. These remnants have become known as the Numenera.

Player characters explore this world of mystery and danger to find these leftover artefacts of the past, not to dwell upon the old ways, but to help forge their new destinies, utilising the so-called "magic" of the past to create a promising future.

I am looking for 3-4 players for this session guys. Either a morning or afternoon slot, of both if you like. Let me know.

GM: Conrad Murkitt

Players: 3-4

Slot: Morning or Afternoon

The Rats of Farringdon

A preview/playtest of a FATE-based game which I'll be self-publishing ... some time.

You're one of the Small Folk, modern descendants of the fairy kin and elves and such, hiding in the walls of human civilisation. As such, you normally regard rats as a manageable sort of problem. But now, there's a bunch under the City of London that seem to have turned quite nasty. You are troubleshooters for the Petty Court of London and Westminster, and you're being sent to sort things out. And don't worry about those poseurs from the Council of the Barbican; they don't seem to have a clue about this.

Un-GM: Phil Masters

Slot: Morning

Players: 4

Ribbon Drive

Tags: Story telling, GMless, no conflict resolution, small scale stories about normal people, may contain adult themes, needs full player buy in.

NB: As Mik's run Ribbon Drive many times in the past, he'll only offer this on the day if there's interest. Please let us know if you're interested in playing this game.

Ribbon Drive excels at tight, gritty, testing social interaction between the characters in play. It is about creating a road trip where all of the meat is in the interaction between the characters and not so much about the outside world. This will not be an action adventure chase movie. The game is GMless with full shared narration and needs involved players who want to really explore the relationships between the characters in the car, during the game players will explore the possible future dreams of their characters and decide if they will ever be resolved.

The game is based around the mix tapes/CD's/playlists that you build for long road trips. Feel free to bring your own CD if you've made one (must be a normal CD I'm afraid, I won't have the technology to play playlists on MP3 players or MP3 CD's) but don't feel you have to, I will have plenty of premixed CDs with me.

If you want to make a CD, the suggested mix CD length is 40-80 minutes (i.e. at least 40 minutes and as much as you can fit on a 'normal' CD rather than an MP3 filled one.) From experience that's going to be between 16 and 21 songs. The CD should run with some sort of theme. i.e. Happy Relationships, Suicidal Tendencies, Coming Home, or whatever you fancy rather than just 'here's 20 songs that I like'. The latter could work, but it may make the game run more eclectically than it's intended to. You need to come prepared with a print out of the lyrics for the first two tracks on your CD. That's all the prep you need.

The game will probably fill the whole slot.

Un-GM: Mik Reed

Additional Players: 2-3

Screenplay

The ship's scanners show signs of an unidentified alien life-form, and the monitor shows the vital-signs of the crew cutting out, one by one.

Screenplay is the app-driven, GM-less storygame in which we write a movie. With mechanics based on the Screenwriting theory which was used to create films from Indiana Jones to Shawshank Redemption - it's easy, it's fun, and it's designed ground-up to be perfect for new players.

un-GM: Ed Croft

Players: 2-5

Slot: Morning or Afternoon

Squadron UK

• British Superhero Role-playing
• Silver Age Superheroes
• Contemporary British Setting
• Brand new but classic-type game system

Classic Squadron UK

"I'm not going to tie myself to an exact scenario. I've got loads to choose from depending upon whether I get new players or a mix. Generally people get to make their own Heroes as part of each session because the character generation is so much bloody fun (though I do say so myself)."

GM: Simon Burley

Finest Hour

The birth of Squadron UK in the dark days of WWII.

GM: Simon Burley

Torchbearer

Black Deeds in Blackmoor

Adventurer is a dirty word. You’re a scoundrel, a villain, a wastrel, a vagabond, a criminal, a sword-for-hire, a cutthroat.

Torchbearer is a dungeon crawl role-playing game and love letter to Basic D&D. In it, you take on the role of an adventurer seeking his or her fortune. To earn that fortune, you must explore forlorn ruins, brave terrible monsters and retrieve forgotten treasures.

GM: Indie Pete

Players: 3-4

tremulus

(Lovecraftian storytelling using the Apocalypse World system)

Ebon Eaves: A Creepy Little Town to Call Your Own

You have been lured to the town of Ebon Eaves. Fragments of fact and fancy have painted a picture of the old town in your mind's eye.

What you think to be real about the town and its people:

• Are the locals friendly?
• Do they exhibit strange behavior?
• Is it an old community?
• Does the town have a tragic past?
• Are there any secret societies?
• Are the landmark buildings in disrepair?
• Is the economy in decline?

You must answer yes to three and only three.

What weirdness you've heard about the town:

• Have strange lights been seen in the area?
• Is there a history of ghost sightings?
• Has an incident of mass murder ever occurred here?
• Have there ever been reports of flying creatures?
• Have there ever been rumours of dark rituals?
• Is there a history of madness amongst the townsfolk?
• Are there any old ruins or buildings in or about the town?

You must answer yes to three and only three.

GM: Phil Garrad

Slot: Evening