Johnathan Ellis

I'm me, get over it or get out my way.

November 17th 2009 to January 12th 2010

A Murder of Angels (Spite: The Second Book of Pandemonium)

Yesterday, seventeen people sat in a loose circle in the middle of a park, held hands in prayer, then doused themselves with petrol and burned as one. Witnesses reported that none of them screamed, but that it sounded like they were trying to sing a hymn as the oxygen was sucked from their lungs. When the fire was eventually doused, the flesh and bones of their hands were fused together, and cutting tools had to be employed to separate the corpses for transport.

Today, a young nursing assistant poisoned the milk on the paediatric ward of the local hospital. Swift action meant that only three of the children died. The nurse told police that it was an act of mercy, and she only wanted to spare the children what was coming. She tore her own throat out with a shard of a coffee cup before police could get a full statement. She was still smiling.

The murder and suicide rates in town are rising on a daily basis, and everyone can hear the whispers inside their heads at night. Something is coming. Something big.

You know that the forces of heaven walk the earth, bringing judgement against those they see as sinners. They tried to judge you once, but you survived. Now you're part of the fight back, armed with guns, bombs, foul black sorcery and a complete lack of decorum. The fight is escalating, though, and you may be standing in the next Sodom or Gomorrah. Time to raise your game.

Proposed by Scott Dorward

February 9th 2010 to March 30th 2010

F**KED UP
It is a horrific time in human history, but then again, there are always horrific times in human history. Mankind has brought technology to a point beyond his morality. Those who have money and power use it for nothing more than gaining more money and power…that, and to satisfy their every perverse desire. People who have been toying with magic have brought things into this world that were never meant to be a part of it… monsters and demons of all sorts, who are higher on the food chain that humanity is. Attracted by the strife and terror racing through mankind, aliens from far away worlds have descended to the Earth to take what they need from us, heedless of whether or not we need it more than they do. And the average person on the street has NO idea that the wars and disasters that they see on the news are the results of a war for the future of all mankind. The evil corporations and mad scientists want money and power. The demons and monsters want terror and strife. The aliens want domination and conquest. The average citizen in this world has no idea about the above and has no difficulty walking down the street to the ATM, taking out twenty dollars, going to a burger joint, ordering a cheeseburger, sitting down and having lunch. However when you walk down the street, you feel eyes watching you from every window and traffic-camera. Taking twenty dollars out of the ATM alerts the world financial organizations of your location. Going to a burger joint, you may find that the meat is being treated with mind-control chemicals or might even contain human flesh. Sitting down and having lunch is an invitation for ninjas and robots to flood the restaurant and start a running gun battle. Humanity, you see, has become cattle. Demons from the underworld and aliens from beyond the stars have discovered that humans, and their terror, tastes good. Overpopulation has created a massive supply of Mankind: the other other white meat.

The players can be anything from magic. psionic, superpowered, Martial Artists, cybernetic and/or normal but all have one thing in common, one or more of their loved ones has gone missing. They've all turned up at a support meeting and it all breaks down from there.

The games uses the Hot Chicks Inverted D20 system, and should be lots of fun with lashings of ultra-violence. For film references think The Matrix/They Live and Blade Runner. For comic fans think Judge Dredd, Sinister Dexter, Secret Six and Nextwave.

Proposed by James Hollywood

April 27th 2010 to November 16th 2010

Star Wars: Legacy Episode Two To Four

The story is set 125 years after Return of the Jedi. The Galactic Alliance (formerly known as the Rebellion) and the Jedi Order form an alliance with a race of aliens known as Yuuzhan Vong and the Sith sabotage it. After three years of fighting, the Alliance is defeated at Coruscant and its remaining territories are absorbed by the Empire which becomes the new galactic government. The Jedi Order is nearly destroyed during a massacre led by the Sith at the Jedi Temple at Ossus. The new Sith Order turns against Emperor Roan Fel and his Imperial Knights. Darth Krayt usurps the Imperial throne, though some parts of the Empire remain loyal to Fel.

In Episode One: The Quest for Hope, three Force Adepts thwarted Darth Krayt’s genocide of Endor, tried to crash a Star Destroyer into Coruscant, resisted the Dark Side, prevented the Sith getting their hands on the Kaiburr Crystal and removed Darth Talon from the field of play.

What will happen in Episode two? All we know at the moment is that it is six months after Episode One and Darth Krayt’s rage at the loss of one of his Council shows no signs of abating. The PCs start as prisoners of the Sith, onboard a Star Destroyer heading for Corusant, upon arrival they will be tortured for information before being tried and executed for their crimes.

For 3-6 players using the SAGA version of the Star Wars Role-Playing game. Full details of Episode One can be found here: Star Wars: Legacy. The game is suitable for new and old players but they will need to work out the character’s background and a bit of their family history to get the most out of the game.

Proposed by James Hollywood

December 14th 2010 to February 15th 2011

The Night Visitors
Something is happening on your street, after your mum & dad tuck you in for the night; bins are being knocked over as strange gales blow up from nowhere; you hear eerie chittering noises drifting over the fields from the woods; and now your little sister says she saw a monster peeking in through her window. Your parents aren't taking it seriously, so its down to you and your mates to investigate the weirdness.

None of you are prepared for what you will discover, but it may be down to all of you to decide whether our world lives or dies...

This is a game for Little Fears: Nightmare Edition in which the PCs are all children aged 8 to 12 who are friends and family that live in one particular neighbourhood. There is an over-arcing plot that will be bled into the game session by session, starting from investigating the strange but simple things that happen on your street after dark and scaling up as more is revealed, until the fate of every life on Earth lies in your hands...
The design of the game is that I provide the background for the plot,so I know what has taken place, why it has happened and who is behind it, but it is up to the players, through their characters, to decide how they respond to the plot and thus determine how it all ends.
Proposed by James Mullen

March 15th 2011 to May 3rd 2011

Star Wars: Legacy
Episode Five Long ago in a galaxy far, far away…

The story is set 130 years after Return of the Jedi. The Galactic Alliance (formerly known as the Rebellion) and the Jedi Order form an alliance with a race of aliens known as Yuuzhan Vong and the Sith sabotage it. After three years of fighting, the Alliance is defeated at Coruscant and its remaining territories are absorbed by the Empire which becomes the new galactic government. The Jedi Order is nearly destroyed during a massacre led by the Sith at the Jedi Temple at Ossus. The new Sith Order turns against Emperor Roan Fel and his Imperial Knights. Darth Krayt usurps the Imperial throne, though some parts of the Empire remain loyal to Fel.

Episode Five Part Two - The Seige of Manda'yaim

In the last episode the players learned of a new Sith Lord called Darth Dukkha and that he has plans for Manda’yaim, the world of the Mandalores. A world that has cut itself off from the rest of the universe for ten years. Knowing that both the Empire and the Galactic Alliance have been compromised by Dukkha’s forces our heroes have to save the Mandalorians while coping with all the issues they have with each other. For 3-6 players using the SAGA version of the Star Wars Role-Playing game. Full details of Episodes One to Five can be found here: Star Wars: Legacy. This is an ideal jumping on point for anyone interested in joining the game.

Proposed by James Hollywood

May 31st 2011 to July 19th 2011

Smallville : Littleton
Being the adventures of a small and previously unremarkable group of people, living in a small and unremarkable English Town, who find their lives in turmoil as they are unexpectedly engaged in an epic battle of good and evil. Strange powers, dark secrets best left undiscovered, love and lust, hate and fury, foul lies and terrible truths ... and a Garden Centre. Think of it as the "Midsomer Murders" edition of Smallville ...

System: Smallville
Players: James Mullen, Neil Smith, Scott Dorward, Johnathan Ellis, Scott Pugliese
Proposed by Martin Goodson

16th August 2011 to 4th October 2011

Clone Wars: 501st

"It's been said that the 501st got the best of the war. We also got the worst." ―Opening entry from the Journal of the 501st

The 501st Legion, will later become known as "Vader's Fist". History records them as an elite unit of clone troopers commissioned by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine during the Clone Wars that later became a stormtrooper unit.

But first they were just a bunch of clones, trying to survive. Welcome to your first day in hell, if you survive, you might just become the stuff legends are written about.

Proposed by James Hollywood Maximum of 6 players. Using the Star Wars Saga rules.

1st November 2011 to 20th December 2011

Airship Pirates: Ten of the Crew had the Murder Mark

With a crew of drunken pilots, We're the only airship pirates, We're full of hot air and we're starting to rise, We're the terror of the skies but a danger to ourselves.

-- Abney Park's Airship Pirates.

The year is 2150, and since the chronal Apocalypse of 1906 nothing is what it might have been. The world is a wilderness, full of man-eating lions, sabre-toothed monstrosities and far, far, worse. In grim, overcrowded, walled cities the Neovictorians dwell as clockwork police and fear of the Change Cage keep the lower-classes subjugated. Outside, in the wilderness, the Neobedouin struggle to eke out a nomadic existence in their vast caravans, and even the floating cities of the Skyfolk are not without danger. Nowhere, it seems, is safe in this perilous world.

Especially if you're one of those rare few whose lives seem nothing but a series of risky and dangerous enterprises, an airship pirate.

With a crew by your side and the deck of an airship under your feet, your trusty steam-powered pistol in your belt and a swig of rum in your belly, adventure awaits you as you take to the dangerous skies of a Steampunk future!

The scenario I'm currently planning on offering is loosely based on Abney Park's The Derelict, itself based on the classic poem, but that may be subject to change depending on just what sort of piratical knaves the game ends up with. Suffice to say, if you can yell 'Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!' at 20,000 feet you'll probably do fine.

System: Abney Park's Airship Pirates (published by Cubicle 7) Proposed by: Martin Goodson Players: 3-6.

24th January 2012 to 13th March 2012

Did not take part in any games.

10th April 2012 to 29th May 2012

STAR TREK : Strange New Worlds - Season 3


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!

System: STAR TREK : The Next Generation / Deep Space Nine RPG (Last Unicorn Games)
Proposed by: Martin Goodson
Players: 3-5. New players, as well as veterans of previous episodes, are more than welcome