Games played in 2019

Block 4: 22 October – 10 December 2019

Horror on the Orient Express

Continued from the previous block.

MAN DIES THREE TIMES IN ONE NIGHT!

A puzzling headline begins a front-page article found in the Times of London. Three men, all identical in identification, were found dead in the same room of the Chelsea Arms Hotel. All were dispatched in a similar manner stabbed through the heart.

Then the home of a valued friend burns to the ground, severely injuring 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 Constantinople, the Gateway of the Orient.

Horror on the Orient Express is one of the legendary Call of Cthulhu campaigns. It contains up to nineteen adventures spanning several eras. The majority of the story takes place in the 1920s, with a number of optional scenarios occurring in different eras. The main campaign sees the investigators journey to Paris and thence to the ancient city of Constantinople. With luck, they also return home.

This adventure ran at the club some years ago, and took around 18 months to complete (without many of the optional modules). I don't expect players to have to commit to the whole campaign - as the story follows the rail route across Europe a player who misses part of the story can easily rejoin - if they don't mind missing out on the plot, of course!

Game details

• Rules System: Call of Cthulhu 7th
• Players: 4–6
• GM: Amy Hewitt

The Continuing Adventures of Milo Tealeaf and the Sunshine Experience

Continued from the previous block.

Since leaving your home village of Shambles, you’ve had quite the time of it. Giant Rats! Dryads! Skeletons! GERBLINS! You’ve seen a lot. You could say that you’re... very experienced. You’ve even snagged intern positions with the Adventurers’ Guild. Everything’s going so well!

Now, though, while trapped in the house of a long-dead mad mage trying to solve his stupid-ass skull puzzle, your AG tablet didn’t have any signal, and it turns out you’ve missed an urgent call to aid the town of Cartrest when it was under attack by the very goblin hoarde you’ve been trying to track across the Deep Dark Wood. Dagnabit!

Can you still prove to the Adventurers’ Guild that you deserve full membership and all the boons it offers? Can you do so whilst avoiding the interminably irritating paladin, Artemius, and his gang of asshats? Find out next Long Block, in the Continuing Adventures of Milo Tealeaf and the Sunshine Experience!

Game details

• System: D&D 5e (Level 4)
• Setting: Homebrew
• Players: 4-6 [Priority to Returning Players]
• GM: Jess E

Red Sky Charters

Harmony. A Native town of 4000 in the tropical island paradise of the Zion Islands, on the alien waterworld of Poseidon. The discovery of nearby deposits of Long John, the raw ingredient of immortality treatment, has brought 90,000 newcomers in the past three years. It's a fast-moving, free-wheeling kind of place, with Natives, prospectors, the GEO Earth government, Hanover Industries Incorporate State, and the local New Gaia Collective all looking to keep control of things.

In the middle of this is Red Sky Charters, a small family business with a bar and a long-range hydrofoil, doing all sorts of odd jobs for people around Harmony. You do what you must to keep body and soul together, without doing anything that will haunt you when you look in the mirror.

You recently somehow acquired a case full of Long John, worth millions. All you need to do now is sell it, without getting robbed or killed in the process.

Same page description

• Who prepares the story? 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; everything else is owned by the GM.
• The 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? Tell me what the consequences of failure could be before I do something. But sometimes, there are no good choices.
• 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: where the character becomes an NPC, right away or fairly soon.

Game details

• Proposed by: Neil Smith
• System: Blue Planet Recontact (v3)
• Players: 4–6

Princes of the Apocalypse

Continued from the previous block.

Called by the Elder Elemental Eye to serve, four corrupt prophets have risen from the depths of anonymity to claim mighty weapons with direct links to the power of the elemental princes. Each of these prophets has assembled a cadre of cultists and creatures to serve them in the construction of four elemental temples of lethal design. It is up to adventurers from heroic factions such as the Emerald Enclave and the Order of the Gauntlet to discover where the true power of each prophet lay, and dismantle it before it comes boiling up to obliterate the Realms.

Game details

• Proposed by: Kieran Magill
• System: D&D 5ed
• Players: 4–6

The New World

You are convicts, found guilty of some slight or another against the Empire of Valasta. Fortunately for you your crimes were too petty to earn you a trip to the gallows. The authorities feel that you can still contribute to society, albeit from a great distance.

You are sentenced to transportation to the New World, and will be conveyed from this place to the plaza of the Star Gate, and thence to the penal colony of Fort Forell. There you shall be assigned such tasks as best suit your skills, and make new lives for yourselves as pioneers upon that mysterious Other Sphere.

This will be a kind of pulpy, steampunk D&D game, where the players are prisoners, on their way to a new life in a new world.

Game Details

• GM: Alex Barrett
• System: Dungeons and Dragons 5e (level 6)
• Players: 3-6

Rumble in the Jungle

You are a crew of explorers and artefact hunters in the Third Horizon, so when a renowned dealer of antiquities contacts you on Coriolis to help him acquire an ancient idol that was found in Portal Builder ruins in the verdant jungles of Kua, your interest is piqued. It sounds like an easy job, but then so did the rescue mission on the Ghazali.

The first chapter of this story is written, but where you take it is up to you - a Coriolis-based sandbox story, it loosely continues from the previous long block (returners get priority). I intend to try out a ground-based mission, but I am sure there will be a chance to take to the stars and show off your Exo-Skills!

Game Details

• GM: Frank G
• System: Coriolis
• Players: 3–5

Cthulu Gaslight Compendium

A collection of up to 4 new scenarios to play over the 8 weeks. Setting 1890s UK. More details to come on Voting Night.

Game Details

• GM: Paul Fricker
• System: Call of Cthulhu
• Players: up to 6

The Tarsius Problem

An unlikely group of adventurers must seek to return home after being ripped away from their day-to-day lives by a mysterious magical artifact. However, not everything appears to be as it seems in this far away land, can the party trust the outwardly friendly citizens of Tarsius... or even each other.

The first session will be heavily focused around character creation and introductions. If you can't make the first session of the long block please don't apply as this will impact campaign mechanics.

Game Details

• GM: George B
• System: Standard D&D 5E Campaign with some home-brew content thrown in
• Players: 5-6

Block 3: 6 August – 24 September 2019

Horror on the Orient Express

Continued from the previous block.

MAN DIES THREE TIMES IN ONE NIGHT!

A puzzling headline begins a front-page article found in the Times of London. Three men, all identical in identification, were found dead in the same room of the Chelsea Arms Hotel. All were dispatched in a similar manner stabbed through the heart.

Then the home of a valued friend burns to the ground, severely injuring 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 Constantinople, the Gateway of the Orient.

Horror on the Orient Express is one of the legendary Call of Cthulhu campaigns. It contains up to nineteen adventures spanning several eras. The majority of the story takes place in the 1920s, with a number of optional scenarios occurring in different eras. The main campaign sees the investigators journey to Paris and thence to the ancient city of Constantinople. With luck, they also return home.

This adventure ran at the club some years ago, and took around 18 months to complete (without many of the optional modules). I don't expect players to have to commit to the whole campaign - as the story follows the rail route across Europe a player who misses part of the story can easily rejoin - if they don't mind missing out on the plot, of course!

Game details

• Rules System: Call of Cthulhu 7th
• Players: 4–6
• GM: Amy Hewitt

The Edge of the Map

Continued from the previous block.

In a world of myth and magic, there might actually be dragons… We are pioneers, heading into unexplored territory in search of a new life. For one reason or another we have chosen to leave civilisation behind and venture into the wilds. No one knows what lies beyond the Barrier Peaks, and few explorers have ventured there and returned. But war, plague or another calamity has meant that the settled lands that were once our home are no longer as appealing. We’re sure we can make a bright future for ourselves in the Wilderlands, even if we have to fight to do so.

How it will work

This will be a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign with a difference. The position of DM will rotate among the players as the campaign progresses, with each participant writing an “episode” before handing the reins to the next player. I will fill the role of “showrunner”. I will run the first episode, and liase with the rest of our “writers room” about their ideas. I will work to schedule the episodes in a sensible order, giving everyone sufficient time to plan their games. I will also have an episode up my sleeve in case we need to fill a gap at short notice. These episodes will probably last two weeks, so that we have time to explore that story before moving on to the next. We’ll gradually fill in a map as we go, so no one will have an overall idea of where we are going until we discover it! By the end of the campaign we should have created a new, shared world, which any of us can use for other games going forwards. My hope is that this will give some players who don’t generally DM a quick and easy way to try it out, and hopefully get hooked! Not everyone in the group will need to DM, but hopefully most will consider giving it a try. Ideally we need three or four GMs to get this to work. If it proves successful we may run into the short block, or pitch a second long block, to ensure that everyone who wants to gets a turn in the DM’s chair.

Schedule

• Session 1: Character Creation, and concept meeting. We will build our characters, and work together to figure out the basic parameters of the world and setting. I will discuss ideas with those planning to DM, and we shall set up an approximate schedule for when each DM is to take over.
• Session 2: The Edge of the Map, I will run the introductory adventure, as our characters set off into the wilderness
• Session 3: DM 2 takes over…
• Session 4: DM 2 wraps up their episode and hands over to the next DM…
• Session 5: DM 3 takes over…
• Session 6: DM 3 wraps up their episode and hands over to the next DM…
• Session 7: DM 4 takes over…
• Session 8: DM 4 wraps up their episode and hands over to the next DM…

Game Details

• GM: Alex Barrett, John Holton, Cameron Parmar, et al.
• Players: 3-4 additional players and the advertised GMs.
• System: Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition.

The Darkening of Mirkwood

Continued from the previous block.

The Necromancer may have been cast out of Dol Guldur, but a lingering darkness remains over Mirkwood, a shadow that will grow ever longer as the years draw on – unless a fellowship of heroes step forward and hold back the gloom.

This is a Middle Earth / Lord of the Rings campaign that tells the story of the growing power of the Necromancer (Sauron) in the years between the events in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The PCs will be people with a stake in Mirkwood, perhaps Free Folk in and around the forest. They will have homes and families to defend and draw strength from. They will be heroes, struggling against the forces of Darkness as they grow and strengthen.

The One Ring is a system designed to emulate the feel of the Lord of the Rings books, with heroes performing great deeds despite the corrupting influence of the Shadow. As with Lord of the Rings, the landscape is a key part and journeys through the wilderness are a big part of play.

This could easily become a multi-block campaign if people want it.

Note that I'm not a Middle Earth expert, so there will be plenty of scope for this game to diverge from "canon".

Same page description

• Who prepares the story? The GM prepares the overall shape of the story, linear or branching. Players run their characters through these events.
• What can players contribute to the story/setting? Their character's thoughts, actions, and backstory, plus occasional story bits when they make certain kinds of rolls, subject to GM's approval.
• The 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? Tell me what the consequences of failure could be before I do something. But sometimes, there are no good choices.
• 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: where the character becomes an NPC, right away or fairly soon.

Game details

• Proposed by: Neil Smith
• System: The One Ring
• Players: 4–6

Princes of the Apocalypse

Continued from the previous block.

Details to follow.

Game details

• Proposed by: Kieran Magill
• System: D&D 5ed
• Players: 4–6

The Last Voyage of the Ghazali

Echoes from the past, voices speaking about the important task ahead. Captain Ia Kaschares: “The Tsurabi colony has sent us a distress call and we are part of the response team. What we can expect to find after the jump to Taoan is not clear. You’ve all heard the message. We are being escorted by a Legion destroyer, the Zafirah, and we make the final jump immediately after her.”

The urgency of the present: Flashing red and white lights, blaring alarms, a heavy head, unresponsive limbs. You must have come out of stasis too soon. No orders, no updates – just the cold floor beneath your feet and a body reluctant to move. Your fingers remember the code to your footlocker, and you clumsily put on your gear. You ask for more light, your voice hoarse. Nothing happens. You call out to the central computer but get no answer. You look at the spiral staircase climbing upward into the dark. Flashing white pulses in the red light strips along the floor.

Emergency lighting.

Emergency.

System details

A MYZ Engine (D6) game like Tales from the Loop, Coriolis pitches itself as Arabian Nights in Space and goes for a Firefly vibe. Its cultural background is amazingly detailed, with religious and corporate factions, alien technology and emerging mystical powers.

If you want to find out more about the system / setting, have a look at the first two videos on this playlist.

Same page description

• Who prepares the story? The story is based on the published scenario by the same name
• What can players contribute to the story/setting? Character creation is a joint effort, i.e. the crew of a ship gets created together and you can basically pick as a group what you want to play. Traders, Space Jockeys, Spies, Mercenaries ... the Horizon is your oyster. You also get to design your ship!
• The rules will be: followed, as far as I can remember them... first time running this.
• Player characters are: expected to work together. You may have different individual agendas, but you are one crew and you need to work together to survive...
• How brutal is the game? Combat is quite deadly and characters can go splat quickly, but we will find a way to keep the player going.
• Doing the smartest thing for your character's survival: will feature as necessity

Game details

• Proposed by: Frank G
• System: Coriolis
• Players: 3–6

Five Go On An Adventure

The villagers of Shambles are sick of your shit. You and your friends grew up in this cosy countryside village, where very little that's interesting or exciting ever goes on. It's a slow, comfortable sort of a place, but the five of you have always wanted... more. Always wanted to be just like the cool adventurers that sometimes travel through the village. They're awesome heroes, living their best lives!

You've been practising investigating, had a go at some daring rescues... ok, sure, it turned out they didn't need rescuing, but it's still all good practice! Yes, there was The Incident with the barn, but it's all in the name of heroics...

The other villagers are somewhat... unappreciative of your efforts. Something about you causing infinitely more trouble than you're worth. They want you and your friends and that bloody dog gone, and they want you gone yesterday.

So it looks like the five of you are hitting the open road, armed with nought but basic weapons and some big hero dreams.

It's time to meet your DESTINY! What could possibly go wrong?

This is a lighthearted adventure romp set in a homebrew world, running on 5e. Emphasis on silliness, fun and team bonding. Should be a super fun introduction for beginners, or a nice relaxing jolly for more experienced players. The game embodiment of chaotic good. Heroes wanted, apply within!

Same page description

• Who prepares the story? Me, the DM. Hello! The adventure is inspired by an assortment of published modules, adapted and set in a homebrew world.
• What can players contribute to the story/setting? This adventure will be character-focused - your choices and group dynamics are what will make it awesome!
• The rules will be: largely followed by me, but narrative and drama are more important than rigid rule following. By the players, probably... bent almost to breaking point.
• Player characters are: 100% on the same team. You are best friends since childhood, and there needs to be camaraderie.
• How brutal is the game? If you're super stupid, you will die. To avoid being handed a new character sheet mid-game, work as a team!
• Doing the smartest thing for your character's survival: is somewhat important, but a degree of reckless bravery, especially to protect your friends, is to be rewarded.

Game details

• Proposed by: Jess
• System: D&D 5ed (homebrew setting)
• Players: 5

Zug Zug

The game is set in the World of Warcraft where players will be exploring the continent of Kalimdor or The Eastern Kingdoms depending on who the players wish to pledge their allegiance to.

The game rules are based on DnD 5e but uses custom classes and races to match the setting.

If you don't know anything about Warcraft setting then don't worry it will just be a normal fantasy exploring game with investigation, combat and role play.

Game details

• Proposed by: Andrew T
• Players : 3–6
• System : D&D 5e ish

Block 2: 21 May – 9 July 2019

Horror on the Orient Express

Continued from the previous block.

MAN DIES THREE TIMES IN ONE NIGHT!

A puzzling headline begins a front-page article found in the Times of London. Three men, all identical in identification, were found dead in the same room of the Chelsea Arms Hotel. All were dispatched in a similar manner stabbed through the heart.

Then the home of a valued friend burns to the ground, severely injuring 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 Constantinople, the Gateway of the Orient.

Horror on the Orient Express is one of the legendary Call of Cthulhu campaigns. It contains up to nineteen adventures spanning several eras. The majority of the story takes place in the 1920s, with a number of optional scenarios occurring in different eras. The main campaign sees the investigators journey to Paris and thence to the ancient city of Constantinople. With luck, they also return home.

This adventure ran at the club some years ago, and took around 18 months to complete (without many of the optional modules). I don't expect players to have to commit to the whole campaign - as the story follows the rail route across Europe a player who misses part of the story can easily rejoin - if they don't mind missing out on the plot, of course!

Game details

• Rules System: Call of Cthulhu 7th
• Players: 4–6
• GM: Amy Hewitt

Grey Areas

Your team have been watching adverts on television for a weekly science 'believe it or not' program announcing that they are going to prove, over two episodes, that aliens exist. As you watch the first episode which starts of with the usual believer interviews, and then a scene in a laboratory with a respected doctor flanked by a professor of anthropology and a famous UFO debunk-er. Behind them is a large canister that contains a humanoid. Your team know the truth - The body is of a genuine GREY !

...and in our next episode we will be performing an autopsy on this alien body found in UFO wreckage during an incident 2 weeks ago in Canada. - CUE credits

The team need to confirm if it is a real Alien and if so cover up the whole situation. The public should not have proof of the existence of Aliens , the team must remove all traces.

You have to do this before the next episode due to air in a week.

The more in the team the easier it will be to investigate, remove the evidence / trace of existence. The team need to also establish a base of operations and requisition the equipment to investigate and then deal with it Delta Green style ( AKA deep ones event in Innsmouth)

Game details

• System: Delta Green
• Players: 3–6
• GM: Andrew B

A sample of story games

Want something a little different? A selection of games with more experimental rules systems and a great deal of player input. This is a chance to experience gaming with a heavy emphasis on the role play aspect, where both the rules and the GM role take more of a back seat. Every game week we will try a new single shot game, all of which are pretty much designed for one shot play and let the players take equal say over the story and how it works. Some are more improvisational than others and closer to chamber LARP - but they are all great fun.

Some examples of games I will be running :

Juggernaut - It is July third, 1950, you have invented a computer that can see the future. JUGGERNAUT is a live-action game about free will that plays like a creepy Twilight Zone episode and requires almost no prep. Replay value is high and it is always weird and intense To play.

Our Last Best Hope - During the game, you and your friends will play through a classic disaster movie, like Sunshine, Deep Impact, The Core, or Armageddon, where your characters are the stars. Each game is unique, as your group confronts a new Crisis with a new set of characters and a new plan to save the Earth.

Ten Candles - Ten Candles is a zero-prep tabletop storytelling game designed for one-shot 2-4 hour sessions of tragic horror. It is played by the light of ten tea light candles which provide atmosphere, act as a countdown timer for the game, it is a game about what happens in the dark, and about those who try to survive within it. It is a game about being pushed to the brink of madness and despair, searching for hope in a hopeless world, and trying to do something meaningful with your final few hours left.

A penny for my thoughts - a storytelling game involving amnesiac characters who ask leading questions of each other to find out their histories.

Lovecraftesque - A GMless storytelling game of brooding cosmic horror. You tell the story of a lone Witness at the mercy of strange and terrifying events. The game helps you create a slow-building mystery, culminating in a climactic scene of horror.

Fiasco - A game of powerful ambition and poor impulse control" and "inspired by cinematic tales of small time capers gone disastrously wrong—films like Blood Simple, Fargo, The Way of the Gun, Burn After Reading, and A Simple Plan.

Game Details

• System: Various Artists
• Players: 3-4
• GM: Robin Poole

The Edge of the Map

In a world of myth and magic, there might actually be dragons… We are pioneers, heading into unexplored territory in search of a new life. For one reason or another we have chosen to leave civilisation behind and venture into the wilds. No one knows what lies beyond the Barrier Peaks, and few explorers have ventured there and returned. But war, plague or another calamity has meant that the settled lands that were once our home are no longer as appealing. We’re sure we can make a bright future for ourselves in the Wilderlands, even if we have to fight to do so.

How it will work

This will be a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign with a difference. The position of DM will rotate among the players as the campaign progresses, with each participant writing an “episode” before handing the reins to the next player. I will fill the role of “showrunner”. I will run the first episode, and liase with the rest of our “writers room” about their ideas. I will work to schedule the episodes in a sensible order, giving everyone sufficient time to plan their games. I will also have an episode up my sleeve in case we need to fill a gap at short notice. These episodes will probably last two weeks, so that we have time to explore that story before moving on to the next. We’ll gradually fill in a map as we go, so no one will have an overall idea of where we are going until we discover it! By the end of the campaign we should have created a new, shared world, which any of us can use for other games going forwards. My hope is that this will give some players who don’t generally DM a quick and easy way to try it out, and hopefully get hooked! Not everyone in the group will need to DM, but hopefully most will consider giving it a try. Ideally we need three or four GMs to get this to work. If it proves successful we may run into the short block, or pitch a second long block, to ensure that everyone who wants to gets a turn in the DM’s chair.

Schedule

• Session 1: Character Creation, and concept meeting. We will build our characters, and work together to figure out the basic parameters of the world and setting. I will discuss ideas with those planning to DM, and we shall set up an approximate schedule for when each DM is to take over.
• Session 2: The Edge of the Map, I will run the introductory adventure, as our characters set off into the wilderness
• Session 3: DM 2 takes over…
• Session 4: DM 2 wraps up their episode and hands over to the next DM…
• Session 5: DM 3 takes over…
• Session 6: DM 3 wraps up their episode and hands over to the next DM…
• Session 7: DM 4 takes over…
• Session 8: DM 4 wraps up their episode and hands over to the next DM…

Game Details

• GM: Alex Barrett, John Holton, Cameron Parmar, et al.
• Players: 3-4 additional players and the advertised GMs.
• System: Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition.

The Long Road to Heaven

When the gods get together it’s a party, or a war. . . Sometimes it’s both.

Well that makes you the luckiest bunch of half mortal heroes on the planet right now cos you get front row seats to the next big meeting of the Pantheons. The gods are in summit and you have been told to provide security, stop the mortals finding out what’s going on, cater to the needs of your Pantheon’s representative, oh and take care of any monsters that come knocking. And you get to handle all of this in sunny Las Vegas, city of sin, fun and anything goes so don’t worry about being too discreet, no one's going to care anyway.

Game details

• Proposed by: Jon Carter
• System: Scion 2nd Edition
• Players: 4–6

The Darkening of Mirkwood

The Necromancer may have been cast out of Dol Guldur, but a lingering darkness remains over Mirkwood, a shadow that will grow ever longer as the years draw on – unless a fellowship of heroes step forward and hold back the gloom.

This is a Middle Earth / Lord of the Rings campaign that tells the story of the growing power of the Necromancer (Sauron) in the years between the events in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The PCs will be people with a stake in Mirkwood, perhaps Free Folk in and around the forest. They will have homes and families to defend and draw strength from. They will be heroes, struggling against the forces of Darkness as they grow and strengthen.

The One Ring is a system designed to emulate the feel of the Lord of the Rings books, with heroes performing great deeds despite the corrupting influence of the Shadow. As with Lord of the Rings, the landscape is a key part and journeys through the wilderness are a big part of play.

This could easily become a multi-block campaign if people want it.

Note that I'm not a Middle Earth expert, so there will be plenty of scope for this game to diverge from "canon".

Same page description

• Who prepares the story? The GM prepares the overall shape of the story, linear or branching. Players run their characters through these events.
• What can players contribute to the story/setting? Their character's thoughts, actions, and backstory, plus occasional story bits when they make certain kinds of rolls, subject to GM's approval.
• The 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? Tell me what the consequences of failure could be before I do something. But sometimes, there are no good choices.
• 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: where the character becomes an NPC, right away or fairly soon.

Game details

• Proposed by: Neil Smith
• System: The One Ring
• Players: 4–6

Princes of the Apocalypse

Details to follow.

Game details

• Proposed by: Kieran Magill
• System: D&D 5ed
• Players: 4–6

Block 1: 5 March 2019 – 23 April 2019

Horror on the Orient Express

Continued from the previous block.

MAN DIES THREE TIMES IN ONE NIGHT!

A puzzling headline begins a front-page article found in the Times of London. Three men, all identical in identification, were found dead in the same room of the Chelsea Arms Hotel. All were dispatched in a similar manner stabbed through the heart.

Then the home of a valued friend burns to the ground, severely injuring 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 Constantinople, the Gateway of the Orient.

Horror on the Orient Express is one of the legendary Call of Cthulhu campaigns. It contains up to nineteen adventures spanning several eras. The majority of the story takes place in the 1920s, with a number of optional scenarios occurring in different eras. The main campaign sees the investigators journey to Paris and thence to the ancient city of Constantinople. With luck, they also return home.

This adventure ran at the club some years ago, and took around 18 months to complete (without many of the optional modules). I don't expect players to have to commit to the whole campaign - as the story follows the rail route across Europe a player who misses part of the story can easily rejoin - if they don't mind missing out on the plot, of course!

Game details

• Rules System: Call of Cthulhu 7th
• Players: 4–6
• GM: Amy Hewitt

Hoard of the Dragon Queen

Continued from the previous block.

It started off in the town Greenest and it is under attack by mercenaries, kobalds and a dragon, they're murdering and robbing the townspeople, usual bad guy stuff.

The adventure has started but it's still in chapter 1.

We have a laugh and don't take it to seriously to be warned. The group also likes combat so I try and focus on that whilst still progressing with the story.

Spoilers ahead: Dragons will be featured and the main big bad group is the cult of the dragon which you will be following across the sword Coast trying to prevent an ancient ritual

Game Details

• System: Dungeons and Dragons 5e
• Players: 3–5
• GM: Ryan Blake-Morris

Shadow of Caerigan

You are a bunch of friends (who get along) going on holiday for two weeks to the north-Welsh town of Caerigan, near mythical Anglesey and historical Conwy. You expect a nice, relaxing holiday lazing on a beach in the July sun (it does get sunny there, I promise) or perhaps going around a castle or neolithic burial mound whilst spending some quality time with each other.

What could possibly go wrong?

This is set in the real world with real world danger and ramifications and you are playing relatively normal humans who do not have the ability to dodge bullets or stab people a thousand times a minute. The exception to this is that low-level psychic powers exist, which the player may choose to purchase. Psionics/Magic is viewed the same way as in the real world – pseudo-science at best, quackery or lying at worst.

This is very sandboxy so be aware if you like plots with a linear feel (I have plot beats, but how you go about things can be quite nebulous) as in theory you could just have a nice Welsh holiday with no weirdness whatsoever if you just decide to sit around – basically, as you explore the story should unfold. How, when and in what order you explore may change the plot. The main focus of the game is roleplay/story rather than combat.

Same page description

• Who prepares the story? I provide the set up and the plot beats but the characters should have a large impact on the plot.
• What can players contribute to the story/setting? Their character's thoughts, actions, and backstory; everything else is owned by the GM.
• The rules will be: Mostly followed, though ignored when they conflict with what "should" happen, based either on realism, the setting, or the genre (or if I’ve messed up, as I’ve made most of the rules.)
• Player characters are: expected to work together as you’re good friends, but I don’t disallow interparty strife so long as it makes sense IC.
• How brutal is the game? If you do dumb things, you character will die quickly (or get arrested).
• 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 perfectly valid choice.
• Do you play to win? Good play isn't a win/lose kind of thing.
• How much comedy/wacky/silliness should there be? Some. When comedy emerges from situations in play that's great, but let's not turn our epic fantasy into an episode of Xena.

Game Details

• Trigger Warnings, in case anyone needs them: violence towards pregnant women, threat and violence in general, adult (not sex!) themes.
• Genre: Fantasy/Supernatural (with possibly a little horror).
• System: Homebrewed/Modified version of Advanced Fighting Fantasy, so relatively rules-light and simple with 2D6. Things have been play-tested only once, so please bear with me if it’s a bit rusty.
• Players: 3-5
• GM: Maz Moran

I also record my games on a Dictaphone – if you’d like a copy, just ask. Also, please forgive my pronunciation of Welsh words.

Justice for Froz!

The Empire is in flames.

After the Empire's defeat at the BATTLE OF YAVIN, the idyllic world of FROZ rose up and declared for the Rebel Alliance. Grand Moff DARGON made an example of the planet, annihilating all life with an orbital bombardment. But this only pushed the other worlds of the CORELLIA sector towards the Rebel Alliance. Skirmishes, smuggling, and piracy are now rife across the sector.

Meanwhile, the few Frozians who escaped the genocide have only a limited life-span off the planet. They desperately search for the ZUDVIR, an unknown substance on Froz that supported their lives.

A small group of smugglers have received a lead on the identity and location of zudvir. Can they find it before anyone else? How much can they sell it for? And why did a Corellian agent murder the Nosaurian who sold the data to the smugglers?

More detail about the game is on the Justice for Froz! page.

Same page description

• Who prepares the story? The GM prepares the overall shape of the story, linear or branching. Players run their characters through these events. Within that structure, 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 make certain kinds of rolls, subject to GM's approval.
• The rules will be: followed, come what may.
• Player characters are: expected to work together. Conflicts between them are mostly for show.
• How brutal is the game? Tell me what the consequences of failure could be before I do something. But sometimes, there are no good choices
• 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: where the character becomes an NPC, right away or fairly soon.

Game Details

• System: Star Wars: Edge of the Empire (the FFG funky dice system)
• Players: 3-5
• GM: Neil Smith

Witchfinders

"In this the Guild’s Year 691 (being 1432 of the Auld Imperial Calendar) thou art Commanded and Required to take up thy arms in the name of his Grace Gwenellus Ambrosius Vigilus Grand Duke of Paladyn, Lord of the Southern Marches and prefect to the Crown of the Holy Avrian Empire. Thou art to go hither and thither across these Wilderlands, and exercise thy duties in the commission of Witch-Finders. Thou art to dispel such spectres and ghouls as might be found there, and determine in cases of Sorcerous Malfeasance whether arcane powers are being exercised in contravention to the Edicts of the Magician’s Guilds. Thou art to deal most harshly with Necromancers, Demonologists, and those practicing the magicks of the Dark Tyrants of yore. To this end thou art issued the right to carry arms, cast spells, and pass without let or hindrance through all the lands of Our vassals. Signed Sir Roderick Gothelle Witchfinder General under the seal of the Avrian Empire."

The lands of Dormaernia are a dangerous place, a thin band of craggy hills and valleys between the civilised lands of the north, and the icy wilderness of the southern wastes. In these rugged lands, and these desperate times, superstition is rampant, and many still practice the “Old Ways” of Dark Magic. You have been sent into the dales to investigate the disappearance of a sheriff of the crown. But what has befallen him out on the frontier, and does it really require the attention of a witchfinder?

Game Details

• System: Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition
• Players: 2d4 (2-8)
• GM: Alex Barrett
• Length: 6 Weeks (from week 3 onwards)