Games Played in 2012

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Block 5: 27th November 2012 to 29th January 2013.

The Skinsaw Murders

Someone - or some thing - is killing and eating the good farmers of Sandpoint. Who is behind it ? And why are they carving a seven pointed star into the chests of their victims ?

Tales of the Gold Simioid

Falamalo is a small, tropical, out-of-the-way world deep in the Frontier Zone. Tales of the Gold Simioid follows the adventures of the crew of the Plot Device, a tramp fast courier. What should be routine jobs transporting passengers and/or cargo always end up with the crew battling and defeating assorted bad guys. Helping out the crew are Bon Chance Louie, a bar owner and also Falamalo's magistrate and medical officer. Spies for both the Devalkamanchan Republic and the Union of the Saldralla are keeping an eye on goings-on in the run-up to a war that may come at any time. The nearby Koji Dragon Empire (a few worlds ruled by a beautiful megalomaniac) keep meddling in everyone's affairs.

This will be a fast-paced action game with lots of heroics and high jinks. Think "Indiana Jones does Traveller" and you won't be too far off. There will be a vague plot of the week, probably based on which episode of Tales of the Gold Monkey I've just watched.

Same page description
  • Who prepares the story? A combination of The GM prepares the overall shape of the story, linear or branching. Players run their characters through these events. The GM gives hints to provide direction. and
    No-one plans anything. PCs and NPCs just do what seems right at that moment. This might or might not lead to a good story.
  • What can players contribute to the story/setting? Their character's thoughts, actions, and backstory, plus occasional story bits when they spend a resource (such as whimsy cards or hero points) or make certain kinds of rolls, subject to GM's approval.
  • The rules (including agreed house rules) will be: followed, come what may.
  • Player characters are: expected to work together. Major conflicts might erupt but you'll patch them up given some time.
  • How brutal is the game? Don't hurt my character without warning. Tell me what the consequences of failure could be and let me back out if I don't like it.
  • Doing the smartest thing for your character's survival: sometimes isn't as important as other choices.
  • After many sessions of play, during one session, a player decides to have her character side with an enemy. This is: a meaningful moment, powerful and an example of excellent play.


Horror on the Orient Express

The Same Man Killed, Three Times in One Night! A puzzling headline begins a front-page article found in the Times of London.

Three different men, yet with identical identification, were found dead in the same room of the Chelsea Arms. All were dispatched in a similar manner - stabbed through the heart.

The home of a valued friend burns to the ground, severely burning him in the process.

An odd summons, a surreptitious meeting, and a thousand-mile journey begins on the legendary rail service carrying the investigators to the Gateway of the Orient.

From London and Paris, to Milan and Sofia, and on to Istandul, facing danger and intrigue each step of the way.

Who knows what you'll meet at the end of the line ?

  • System: Call of Cthulhu (1920s-30s) 7th edition
  • Number of players: 3+
  • Proposed by: Matt Nott

S.I.U (Supernatural Investigations Unit)

Vampires. Werewolves. Ancient Nazi Ghosts. If a career in hunting these sounds interesting, then S.I.U wants you to join their ranks to investigate and purge the supernatural menaces that plague humanity... and hopefully please the brass in Washington (who claim you don't exist) in the process.

These brave people put their lives on the line each day to make sure there's a tomorrow for the world.

This is an investigative game set in the World of Darkness, using the Storyteller system.

  • System: Storyteller
  • Number of players: 4 - 5
  • Proposed by: Mark Horne

Block 4: 11th September 2012 to 30th October 2012.

ALIENS - Colonial Marines

Description

Weyland-Utani == Mission Brief

Security: Classified Blue

Rescue Operation: Nostromo

  • Contact lost with deep space towing ship Nostromo
  • Ship was hauling large quantities of valuable minerals plus a refining facility
  • Likely attacked in deep space by corporate adversaries for cargo
  • Last known position and trajectory traced

Mission Parameters

  • Search & Rescue
  • Retrieve cargo & survivors
  • Eliminate any threat
  • Maintain security of corporate assets

Additional

  • USCM Contacted for assistance in anti-piracy operation
  • USCM operatives are not privy to Weyland-Utani corporate documents
  • Maintain security of corporate assets

Brief Ends

Setting

The year is 2122. The Nostromo, a hauling ship towing a refinery and its mineral contents, is a month late. Still limited to sub-light speeds, the Nostromo's voyage of 10 months has passed by with no contact or signal. The vessel, its crew and cargo are all MIA.

Not happy losing such a valuable cargo, Weyland-Utani, one of the largest corporate entities in the galaxy, have organised a search and rescue party, enlisting the aid of the USCM. Weyland-Utani have deep pockets, and deeper connections. Specialists at keeping the colonies safe and secure, the USCM have the skills, the weapons and the combat expertise to challenge any opposition. Being rounded into a corporate mission is unusual, they have private security firms for that, but when your superior says jump, you jump.

Players

You will only be able to create human characters (no Alien/Human hybrids or Predators!), however one lucky player will be allowed to by a synthetic.

As you are working for the Weyland-Utani Corporation, you will be able to choose whether you are a corporate drone, a hardened USCM marine or an independent contractor.

Depending on numbers, there may be a 'core' set of skills that will be needed on at least one character in the squad. These will be granted in addition to your normal choices in the event of low-player numbers.

Game System Modifications

The game will use a modified version of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Role-Playing Game D6 system.

The essence of the system focuses more on player skills and specialities, allowing players to tailor a very specific set of skills to suit their desires. Perhaps you want a marine with loads of gun skills and a few tech skills on the side, or perhaps some knowledge of xenobiology. You can do it.

The main changes to the game system are in the skills, as obviously you won't be needing things like shields, replicators or warp drive skills. I am replacing them with more themed skills, such as using Power-Loaders and SMART Guns.

Overview
  • System: Star Trek TNG D6 System (Modified)
  • Number of players: 3 to 6
  • Proposed by: Anthony Edmonds

Doctor Who: The Demise of Forever

Dwaitas11c.jpg

All of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will. Anywhere you want, any time you want. One condition: it has to be amazing.

Current scientific theories regarding the heat death of the universe posit that the beginning of the 'dark era' of the universe, where entropy has effectively ended and (as one notable physicist put it) "Nothing happens and it keeps on not happening forever", should occur around 10100 years from now.

Of course, modern scientists don't have the knowledge of temporal physics that the time lords of Gallifrey possessed. If they did they would be absolutely terrified right now.

It is Friday, September 13th 2013, and time itself is dying. Clocks are going wild, steam trains are pulling into London's mainline stations, tea clippers are turning up at the West India Docks, doodlebugs are hitting the East End, and airliners from the 1950s are attempting to land at Croydon Airport.

People are vanishing, never to have been born, as the world fills with Meanwhiles and Neverweres. Time is unravelling in London, past and present colliding to cause chaos.

As time and space burns, and all of Creation is slowly reduced to ash as the fabric of space/time collapses, a small group of strangers awaken in the middle of the night with no memories of who they are ... and standing around a strange black monolith in Trafalgar Square.

A monolith that seems to sing with power and that, for no apparent reason, seems comfortingly familiar ...

Who or what could be causing this nightmare? It's up to a small bunch of Londoners to cross time and space to prevent the unexpectedly early end of the Universe.

Hot War

London. Winter. 1963.

It is a year since the Cold War went hot.

And this was not just a nuclear war.

Far more sinister, darker weapons were deployed from the shadows.

Survival and re-building are all that matter now. But human nature and tragic circumstances mean that everyone has their own ambitions.

...a Government desperate to hold on to what remains of the country.

...military forces who wish to expand their power and influence.

...frightened and brutalised refugees who simply want a place to call home.

Into this maelstrom steps the Special Situations Group, a motley band of men and women tasked with the jobs too dirty or dangerous for anyone else.

This is Hot War: A game of friends, enemies, secrets and consequences in the aftermath.

The first session of this game will be used for World Burning: all participants will agree on themes & tones for the game, suggest antagonists and supporting characters, write some snippets of history from their characters' personal war experiences and establish relationships with the other characters. Using this source material as a series bible, I'll attempt to weave together an over-arcing storyline that pushes the PCs buttons and creates a cohesive narrative for their personal dramas to take place in.

This game will also, in some sense, be a sequel to the Cold City game run by Scott Dorward last year: this may mean some of the same PCs are played, that NPCs from that game recur in this one or that themes and conseqeunces from that game are picked up in this one. All such decisions on content will be made by the players in the initial session, so don't feel barred from this game if you didn't take part in the prior one.

  • System: Hot War
  • Number of players: up to 5
  • Proposed by: James Mullen

Tatters of the King

The investigators start off in London 1928 and things develop from there. On the pulp to grit scale this would be towards the latter.

(This long block is likely to be the conclusion to this campaign)


Block 3: 26th June 2012 to 14th August 2012.

Monsterhearts

Monsterhearts is the RPG of teenage monsters and their messy romantic relationships. Its influences run from Buffy to Being Human, although this game will lean more to the latter.

The mechanics are a variant of Apocalypse World, which means that action is fast and brutal, characters always have cool Moves to try, and having sex with another character will give you mechanical benefits.

We'll work out the details of the setting in the first session. This is all going to be very proactive, character-driven stuff, so don't expect a plot.

  • System: Monsterhearts (an Apocalypse World variant)
  • Number of players: 3 to 5
  • Proposed by: Scott Dorward

Tatters of the King

The investigators start off in London 1928 and things develop from there. On the pulp to grit scale this would be towards the latter.

Burnt Offerings

BurntOfferingsLogo.jpg

The orphans have returned to their home to find it is once more in danger - a disaster only they can prevent ;

  • Why have they been targeted ?
  • Who is behind it all ?
  • What is the secret of the Seven-Pointed star ?

and above all, can they save Sandpoint - or will evil have its.... Burnt Offerings ?

Continuation/concluding the previous block.

  • proposed by Andy Nicholson.

Star Wars: Legacy

Episode 5.3 – The Return of the Sith

It is a dark time in the galaxy, even with the death of their leader Darth Krayt [[1]], the One Sith grow stronger and more violent under the rule of Darth Wyyrlok. Meanwhile, in the Outer Rim another Sith Faction is forming, The True Sith, led by Darth Dukkha who aims to re-form the Sith Triumverate which last terrified the galaxy over four thousand years ago. Dukkha has already demonstrated his callousness by unleashing Sith Creatures on the planet Manda'yaim [[2]], decimating its people. With planetary leaders wondering who will be next, an uneasy alliance has formed, led by Vedda the Hutt. Various representatives have been summoned to this meeting on Tatooine, including some of our heroes.

Full details of Episodes One to Five can be found here: Star Wars: Legacy.

  • System: Fuzion
  • Number of players: Maximum of 6
  • Proposed by: James Hollywood


Block 2: 10th April 2012 to 29th May 2012.

Burnt Offerings

BurntOfferingsLogo.jpg

A Pathfinder game for characters level 1-3.

Burn the skin and mash the head,goblins here and you be dead!

Goblins chew and goblins bite , goblins cut and goblins fight.

Stab the dog and cut the horse - goblins eat and take by force!

Goblins race and goblins jump, goblins slash and goblins bump.

Burn the skin and mash the head, goblins here and you be dead!

Chase the baby, catch the pup, bonk the head to shut it up.

Bones be cracked, flesh be stewed - WE BE GOBLINS, YOU BE FOOD!

The Pathfinder scenario that reinvented the Goblin (with a little help from Joe Dante).

When Goblins raid the peaceful village of Sandpoint, is it just the typical mayhem brought by the evil little things, or is it the foreshadowing of something far, far worse waking up...?

Expected to last either 1 or 2 blocks (no longer !) .

Players will get the chance to add to the campaign world, which I hope/intend to reuse for other games in later blocks. As before, players will get a handout book at the start of the game, and a CD with the audio recordings on at the end.

for a little more info, go to Burnt Offerings or here

Faded Glamour

Once Upon A Time...

...when your heart was full of joy and the path before you was paved with gold, you knew no fear and no sadness. You were a citizen of the Shining Realm, that perfect land that mortals can only dream about, where the rain is like a lover’s kiss and the sunshine a mother’s hug. Magic was yours to wield, ensuring you a long and happy life filled with wonder and romance.

Put all that behind you and try to forget the privilege that was yours: the memories will only torment you and drive you deeper into your sickness. This is the life you chose, forsaking your glamour in order to live as a human being in this squalid city of empty promises and unfulfilled desires. Like the other exiles here, you can try to bring a little of the Shining Realm to the tawdry streets of Los Angeles, and maybe it will even stave off the cancer in your soul.

Is it worth giving up immortality to bring a little happiness into these tiny lives? Probably not.

Do you have a choice? No.

A game of exiled Faeries in 1930s Los Angeles, the game uses the emotional states of the charters to determine what happens: each emotion gives you three actions you can take, but taking one of them can change your emotional state and therefore the options open to you. There are no random elements, all conflicts are resolved by the players bargaining over the outcome.

STAR TREK : Strange New Worlds - Season 3

St snw s3.png

STAR TREK : Strange New Worlds is an episodic slightly quirky drama - with the odd extra bit of lunacy and insanity usually expertly provided by the Player Characters.

Roll credits ...

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starfleet Runabout Wyvern. Its ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations ... to boldly avoid exploding while boldly going where no one has boldly gone before!

The continuing story of the crew of the USS Wyvern, a group of misfits, ne'er-do-wells, screw-ups and no-hopers that are nonetheless the most unlikely bunch of galaxy-saving heroes known to Starfleet. Are the Drakaerans still 'Not Evil'? Is a certain mentally-disturbed Vulcan still wearing hot pants? Has Lieutenant Commander Morbrok Brok managed to get the Wyvern to travel faster than warp five without exploding? Two years after the events of season two some of these questions, or possibly some brand new ones, may well be answered. Or not.

If you're lucky glory (and maybe even a promotion) awaits! Of course, if you're unlucky, you may get shot with a phaser, poisoned, exploded, imploded, mind-controlled, vapourized, exiled through time, or transported out into space without a spacesuit. But hey, if you didn't want an exciting life you shouldn't have joined Starfleet!

Tatters of the King

The investigators start off in London 1928 and things develop from there. On the pulp to grit scale this would be towards the latter.

The Grey Wardens

"Join us, brothers and sisters. Join us in the shadows where we stand vigilant. Join us as we carry the duty that can not be forsworn. And should you perish, know that your sacrifice will not be forgotten. And that one day we shall join you." - the joining ritual

It has been three years since the Warden Commander killed the Archdemon and drove out the darkspawn, but yet the wardens in Ferelden number too few especially since there has been number of darkspawn resurgences. So now you have Been chosen as the new generation of Fereldens wardens to hopefully solve this problem before Thedas has another blight on its hands.

  • System: The Age system (dragon age)
  • No of players: 3-6
  • GM: Mark Horne


Block 1: 24th January 2012 to 13th March 2012.

Nero

(Smallville does HBO's Rome)

AD 65. The mad emperor Nero holds Rome in the grip of terror and debauchery. Rome burnt while he fiddled. People are elevated to the highest positions on his whim, to be cast down just as quickly (and violently). His displays in the arena, the theatre, and the more depraved ones in the Palace have made him a laughing stock with both the patrician and plebian classes.

The Palace and Senate are full of rumour and conspiracy. Nero has already murdered most of his family, including quite a few wives and mistresses, to eliminate rivals. Factions vie for his favour, or seek to deflect his anger, all the while settling rivalries between themselves. Generals demobilised from the recent Parthian war are looking for something to do with their now-redundant legions.

After the fire, he's planning a huge rebuilding project that will reshape Rome in his image. It might be popular with the plebs, but it will bankrupt the Eternal City.

And Senator Piso would like to have a chat...

For tone, I'm after something like HBO's Rome series, with lots of sex to go with the violence, and the fate of empires dependent on the personal relationships of a small number of people. It's also going to be a purely 'mundane' game, with no superpowers, magic, or similar. See the Nero page for more information.

The Prophecy of Endless Night

Orcs have raided the village of Skeltha, just three days ride to the North. The meagre crops were burnt, the cattle slaughtered, the buildings razed to the ground and the men and women massacred. The children ... are missing. Why is the jarl, Edric, so reluctant to send men to investigate? What possible use are children to an Orc raiding party? Who is the Albino Mage? What is the prophecy of Endless Night, and why is it death to speak it?

Set on Eltnjevat, a vast and largely unexplored island of snow and ice and volcanic fire created in the last great Dragon War, this is a classic tale of dark magic, fell creatures, and ancient evil of the vilest kind.

Final Flight/Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37

I'm offering two Cthulhu adventures not connected in any way Just they are longer than one or two night adventures.

So play Final flight frst then Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37

Final Flight

Welcome aboard Pan Caribbean Airways Flight 101.

A routine flight...

Thirty seconds of terror!

Now the passengers and crew of Flight 101 are on their own, trapped in the green hell of the jungles of South America. Was their Crash just an unfortunate accident? Are they truly alone in the jungle? There are worse things that the forces of the Cthulhu Mythos. Like a titanic green beast, the merciless, unforgiving rainforest harbors parasites, diseases, poisons and thousands of terrifying animals looking to make a meal of the weak and the lost. The passengers will have to work quickly and decisively if they have any hope that this will not be their FINAL FLIGHT!

Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37

Life for the average soldier in the Red Army is never easy, but it is a better life than for most Russians in the late-winter of 1933. You have a bed, steady rations, and place of security in a dangerous time There are duties to perform, yes, and sometimes they are hazardous. They are the price you pay for what you have But now there are new orders — to repair the telegraph lines at a distant outpost. It seems like a simple task, but you have doubts. Why not wait until the roads have cleared? Why send the Army to do what prisoners should do, even if at gunpoint? Why haven’t our comrades at the station repaired the line themselves? Why are the Telegraph Agency men wearing pistols?

There are horrors enough in the Worker’s Paradise. The new collective farms have failed to provide as was promised, and famine stalks the land. A knock at the door might mean death in the gulag. In distant Moscow there are rumors of a coming purge of enemies, both real and imagined.

And yet . . . there are worse things to be found at Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37.

  • System: Cthulhu
  • Proposed by: Matt Nott
  • Players: 3-6

This Is Not My War - Amber DRPG

You often wonder what it would be like to wake up with super-human powers; what it would be like to become as powerful as the people on TV and in Films. You then wonder about the saying 'Be Careful What You Wish For', and how ironic the entire situation is. Over the last few months you have been plagued by dreams, a strange eerie voice calling to you, asking you to come, summoning you... and that was only the start of it.

The players are drawn into a struggle between two ultimate powers of a universe where Earth is just a sidenote. They find themselves in possession of a strange new power- or perhaps something they have had all along? Regardless, they are quickly swept into a conflict that could mean the end of the universe as they don't know it. Can you fight? Will you fight? It wasn't your war, but it is now.

Using the Amber DRPG system, players will be able to harness powers both physical, magical and psychic in nature. The campaign has been designed for people who have no knowledge of the Amber characters, system, or universe.

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