Concrete Cow games 2020
The games below will be offered at Concrete Cow 20 on 14 March 2020. If you have something you'd like to offer, please drop us a line via email or any of the other places where we publicise Concrete Cow. See the Concrete Cow 19.5 Games page for what was on offer last time.
Game Slots
To keep some sense of organisation, this is the approximate timetable for the day.
| Doors open | 9.00am | |
| Morning game sign up | 9.40am | (ABCDEFGHIJ) |
| Morning games | 10.00am – 1.30pm | |
| Afternoon game sign up | 2.10pm | (JIHGFEDCBA) |
| Afternoon games | 2.30pm – 6.30pm | |
| Raffle draw | 6.30pm | |
| Evening game sign up | 7.10pm | (EFDGCHBIAJ) |
| Evening games | 7.30pm – 11.00pm | |
| Close | 11.00pm |
Sign-ups will be on the day only. You may want to learn more about our signup system.
Offering games
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.)
Send us your game blurbs via email or any of the other places where we publicise Concrete Cow and we'll put them here!
Note for GMs
If your game has pre-generated characters, please take a look at their demographics. If the pre-gens are mostly straight white men, ask yourself why. If that's what's required by the scenario, fine. If not, please include more diversity in the characters.
If you game involves content that some people might find upsetting, please note that in the game blurb.
If you don't want someone at your table, you have every right to ask them to leave, at any time. You don't have to provide a reason, but please try to remain civil. Ask an organiser to step in if it's needed.
During a game, if you notice that one person's behaviour is making someone else uncomfortable, please don't ignore it. Do something about it. Take note of the harassment policy.
The GenCon Games on Demand advice and parts of How to Run Safer, Accessible, and Inclusive Game Conventions go into much more detail, even if it is rather US-centric.
The Games
Note that, depending on circumstances, not all of these games may run on the day.
Morning
Call of Cthulhu: Varsity
The year is 1945. You are a soldier in a glider bound for Germany. They want you to secure a bridge from behind enemy lines. That anti aircraft fire sounds awfully close don't you think?
No knowledge of the game or setting is required. Player characters will be provided.
- GM: Paul Fricker
- Players: 6
Code of the Spacelanes: Manta Prowl Tank Down - an adventure in the World of Judge Dredd
Three months ago Judge Burke and Judge Hair headed out into the Cursed Earth to track down the evil Malignant Seven. Now Judge Hair has called for retrieval of the survivors. A Manta Prowl Tank was duly dispatched. However, on the way back an engine fault has cashed it to crash, killing some of its crew and some of the prisoners are loose. Malfunction or Sabotage?
An Agatha Christie style murder mystery with a downed Prowl Tank in The Cursed Earth instead of a Mansion and a variety of perps and Judges as the suspects.
Can you make it back to Mega City One alive and with perps still under arrest?
".... as violent and gonzo as you'd expect." Player review from Spaghetti ConJunction 4a.
The Code of the Spacelanes is 2d6, trindie, easy to learn, lots of opportunity for player agency, magic happens every time you roll a double.
- GM: Simon Burley
- Players: 2-6
Dead of Night: Normal for Norfolk
A group of students on a summer road trip deep in to scenic Norfolk soon discover that the road signs were removed in case of an invasion in World War 2, but were never put back up again! Lost with no sat nav or phone signal (if you've been to Norfolk you'll know that's the truth) finally with your vehicle spluttering on the last of its fuel you pull in to a small ramshackle road side service station. This situation is surely nothing to worry about, after all you're only in Norfolk, a gentle county famous for sandy beaches and lavender.....whats the worst that could happen?
Dead of Night places the players in the middle of a horror movie, players will be rewarded for embracing horror movie tropes and cliches.
This movie may contain scenes of horror, maybe some violence and possible gore, if it were a 1970s movie we'd hoping for an X certificate.
- GM: Graham Sargeant
- Players: 3-6
Delta Green: Who or What is Zozo?
The adventure will be a set in the remote Yukon where an elderly member of Delta green has received an inheritance from an estranged uncle consisting of a mining claim at a creek in the Yukon, a cryptic note about a treasure hidden there and to listen to Zo Zo which will explain his death.
You know he got very rich, very suddenly, dredging in the creek for gold.
But where did the gold go - is that the treasure?
Who/what is Zo Zo?
Still you think about retirement in florida and having a tidy some . A nice haul of Gold could make this retirement very comfortable.
So with thoughts of finding gold you hire some help , take out loans for the equipment you need, and head out to the creek. 'in the middle of nowhere' with your team.
However each morning you have been waking drained of energy and with a terrible sense of foreboding that the answer to your uncles death lies ahead of you at the claim.
The last time your senses had that foreboding was on mission as a Delta Green agent.
- GM: Andrew Burbridge
- Players: 5
Elephant & Macaw Banner (EAMB): The Maiden & The Madonna
Maria Elisabeth de Silva claims she saw the Living Madonna in the jungles outside of De Noche and retreated into the wooded depths to worship her. That was ten days ago.
Maria’s sister and her husband asked you to risk the dangers of the Jungle to rescue her. That was five days ago.
A sudden and heavy storm washed your supplies away, and with it, the easy trail back to the Village. That was two days ago.
Your native guide died suddenly, and as best as you can tell violently in his sleep. That was twenty minutes ago.
Elephant & Macaw Banner is a rules lite game designed for telling traditional adventure stories in Colonial Brazil based on the novels of the same name. Originally published in Brazilian Portuguese, it has been Kickstarted and brought to an English Speaking audience.
The Game is beginner friendly and no prior knowledge or experience is required.
- GM: Stuart Chaplin
- Players: 4
Romance of the Perilous Land: The Cup Overflows
The Fisher King, ally of Arthur of Camelot, is gravely wounded; struck by Mordred’s spear, tainted by the foul magic of Morgan Le Fay, his wound festers and will not heal. His kingdom of Corbenic ails, the land corrupted, as his strength fails so does the natural world and Camelot can ill afford to lose any allies, especially one such as the Fisher King! The Round Table has been summoned, the Order of the Fisher King have ridden forth and brave volunteers are quested with seeking a cure for the King of Corbenic.
In the village of Taerfillen rumours abound of miraculous healing; broken bones knitting, fevers fading and sickness waning. What or who can be the source of this wonder? You are a band of heroes tasked with investigating these rumours and, if proving to be true, retrieving whoever or whatever is the cause and returning them to Camelot.
- GM: Stuart McQueen
- Players: 2-6
Zombie World: Marching Right Through Edens Gates
These are the days in which we all are tested brothers and sisters!We have been given the task of seeing out the world in its end times. The horde of evil is at our gates but our fences and our faith are strong! We have taken into our fold some of the unbelievers, but better a kindly stranger than the demons who flow like a vengeful wave of Gods wrath over the lands outside. We welcome them knowing they too will see the light! We will give them salvation in the face of such evidence of His plan. Let us march together, as is ordained! Into Edens Gates!
Set after the Zombie Apocalypse, you are members of or refugees allowed into a survivalist religious compound lead by a charismatic leader. Characters are generated via random card draws and death is is cheap and easy in a savage world.
- GM: Robin Poole
- Players: 5
Afternoon
Code of the Spacelanes: Legacy of the Timeless Children
I don't know about you, but I've been enjoying the current series of Dr Who. As of writing we don't know what's going to happen in the series finale or who's going to make it out alive or still travelling in Time and Space. But whoever it is, and whatever happens, I'm going to be running a sequel.
Every character left standing will be available to play (except The Master). I can't say who yet, but I'm guessing at least one Doctor and Captain Jack Harkness will be in the mix.
Time to make (or break) history!
The Code of the Spacelanes is 2d6, trindie, easy to learn, lots of opportunity for player agency, magic happens every time you roll a double.
- GM: Simon Burley
- Players: 2-6
Delta Green: Who or What is Zozo?
The adventure will be a set in the remote Yukon where an elderly member of Delta green has received an inheritance from an estranged uncle consisting of a mining claim at a creek in the Yukon, a cryptic note about a treasure hidden there and to listen to Zo Zo which will explain his death.
You know he got very rich, very suddenly, dredging in the creek for gold.
But where did the gold go - is that the treasure?
Who/what is Zo Zo?
Still you think about retirement in florida and having a tidy some . A nice haul of Gold could make this retirement very comfortable.
So with thoughts of finding gold you hire some help , take out loans for the equipment you need, and head out to the creek. 'in the middle of nowhere' with your team.
However each morning you have been waking drained of energy and with a terrible sense of foreboding that the answer to your uncles death lies ahead of you at the claim.
The last time your senses had that foreboding was on mission as a Delta Green agent.
- GM: Andrew Burbridge
- 'Players: 5
Discworld: Dragon Fanciers of Quirm
Trading Gate Watch House Patrol no.1 get given a lot of special cases in exchange for a couple of extra dollars a month. Well, it’s nice to be well regarded by Commander Vimes, and less boring than most police work. But this latest case looks set to be a bit tricky. It’s a crime that nobody has reported, and you’re definitely not investigating it as a personal favour for the Commander, or Lady Sybil. On top of which, the stolen property – if there is any – is violently dangerous, sometimes explosive, and possibly inbred. The same may go for its owner.
On the other hand, you have a free hand to investigate this however you like. Just so long as you don’t break regulations, annoy the Commander, embarrass his wife, burn down the city, or fail to find out what’s going on and make someone stop it. Who knows, you might even be able to put in for some overtime.
- GM: Phil Masters
- Players: 5
Impulse Drive: A Touch of Spice
Word is that in the Spice mines on Teth they found the purest chunk of spice ever discovered. A chunk the size of a Hutts head, A chunk with the purity make every drek-head on Coruscant happy for a year. Still only damn fools would try to steal from the Black Sun syndicate, right? Well your captain happens to be good friends with the second favourite courtesan to Moff Sarn Shild, and she says the Imperial Navy are planning an assault on stronghold of Ziro the Hutt where this chunk happens to be located. This is how you make your own luck right? A little investigation, infiltration, ex-filtration and avoiding a heavy barrage of ion cannons and you can fly away rich! Nothing could be simpler.
A Star Wars universe adventure run using Impulse drive.
- GM: Robin Poole
- Players: 4
Liminal: The Fang Gang
A chance encounter with the supernatural has lead to your recruitment into P-Division, the officially non-existent branch of the British police service that investigates paranormal crimes, as a member of the UK's only specialist vampire forensics team.
Next door to Euston Station, 40,000 bodies are being exhumed to make way for the expanded HS2 terminal. The Metropolitan Police's branch of P-division are overseeing the dig and have requested the vampire forensics team be on hand, just in case any of those bodies turn out to be vampires. It's 6am on a bright May morning, and your skills are about to be put to use.
- GM: Sue Savage
- Players: 3-4
Stormbringer/Stormhack: A Heart of Dust, a Hand of Death (redux)
This is part of the classic Madcap Laughs adventure sequence for Stormbringer, from White Dwarf issues 95-98, updated for more streamlined play.
"The children of Darsu Dhberac, agent of Chaos, have been abducted. Mad with grief and powerless to act, his every move watched by his enemies, Dhberac has entrusted their safe return to you, promising a handsome reward which will be doubled if you can retrieve the family heirloom his daughter wears around her neck. But to do so you must traverse the Weeping Waste and find the Castle of the Scarlet Shoal, where his old enemy lies in wait..."
- GM: Ralph Lovegrove
- Players: 6
Evening
Alien: Hope's Last Day
Hadley’s Hope, a colony on LV-426 jointly funded by Weyland-Yutani and the United Americas, has a 'them and us' feel to it, with any visiting corporate folk looking down their noses at the colony’s labourers. But with hazy rumours of a crisis emerging on the base, what will the maintenance team find when they return from their run to Processor 9? And will they make it off of LV-426 alive?
- GM: John Kingsnorth
- Players: 3-5 (18+)
Dungeon World: It’s All Gone Pear Shaped!!!!
The end is nigh; the heroes have failed! The walls have broken and the city of Ammore has fallen to the rampaging hordes! As a mercenary band you were hired to defend the city…but that’s in the past! You have to get out to fight another day, salvaging what you can, rescuing anyone else along the way! Where do you go? What do you loot…reclaim(?) Who do you save? How do you escape? A fast paced, largely improvised, Dungeon World game of heroism, (maybe), buffoonery, (possibly), and self-preservation (definitely)! System: Dungeon World
- GM: Stuart McQueen
- Players: 2 - 6
Unspecified
Board & Card Games...
...will be available should anyone be without a game