GM: Aaron Billingham
Title: Dishonored: Another Fine Mess
System: 2d20
Description: You are a young street crew, keen to prove your worth to one of Dunwall’s gangs. One night, one of you got carried away in a game of Liar’s Brag with a group of Serkonan sailors, claiming your crew has climbed the Colville family tower. That then proven to be a lie, all your reputations hang in the balance until you actually make the climb. Sure, not even the City Watch dare enter the tower’s grounds, and sure, halfway up things seem a little odd, but honour demands.
This game is based on the computer game series but you don’t need to know it to play. For those who don’t know it, Dishonored has a gaslamp or dark-magic steampunk background where players start out from lowly beginnings to claw their way to greatness. For those that do know, I’ll be playing during the rat plague.
There will be rats.
Genre: Dark-magic steampunk
Age: Teen (ages 12+)
Tags: Newbie Friendly
Content warnings: Ritual magic, plague, rats
GM: Adam Prior
Title: Dr Who / Companion Zoo
System: Doctors and Daleks
Description: You’ve been traveling with the Doctor for a while so you’re used to weird things but this takes the cake. You’ve awoken in a room full of cages each containing various different people and things, even some alternative versions of yourself there must be hundreds of them! They all say they’re companions of the Doctor too! You guess you should work together to find a way to get out of here and find out who’s behind all this.
Escaping from the Companion Zoo with require all of you physical, mental and Social skills, but don’t worry you will have lots of friends to help you.
Doctors and Daleks is a system combining Dr Who and the D&D 5th ed rule set. Due to time constraints a cut down version of the ruleset will be used so don’t worry if you don’t have any experience.
Genre: Sci-Fi / Fantasy. Doctor Who. Escape rooms
Age: Teen (ages 12+)
Tags: NA
Content warnings: Imprisonment
GM: Alan Jackson
Title: Dropzone
System: Homebrew
Description: Join the marines! See the galaxy!
Colony planet LV-426 has stopped responding. Your mission is to go there and save the civilians
—
Join the marines they said, see the galaxy they said. One muddy, raining colony at a time. At least you get to play the hero sometimes.
Yet another grim colony planet has stopped responding. If they haven’t just bent the antenna it’ll be pirates like usual right? There’s no such thing as aliens is there? There’s been all sorts of stories, but command said it’s just locker room exaggeration. They don’t usually send a corpo along with us grunts though.
Sci-fi Action adventure horror, with lots of guns. Super light home brew system. Heavily inspired by the movie Aliens
Genre: Action sci-fi horror
Age: Teen (ages 12+)
Tags: Rules Lite, GM’s Own System
Content warnings: Action movie violence, betrayal
GM: Alexa MacBett
Title: The Curse
System: TRACK DOGS
Description: TRACK DOGS is a Powered By The Apocalypse game about train pirates and other railway-rethemed hallmarks of the golden age of sail in an arboreal post apocalypse. It takes inspiration from Mortal Engines, Sunless Sea and other science fantasy sources. Players assume one of nine archetypal playbooks and embark on adventures over the top of (and into the depths of) the “Seven Cedars”; the enormous expanse of old-growth forest that now covers the planet earth.
In “The Curse”, players’ crew each are marked with the forehead-sigil of the eight-pointed sun, the mark of Skylum the sun goddess’ curse. Redemption is possible only by begging forgiveness at the Temple of the East in the city of Solar Plexus, but travel there is increasingly dangerous as the mysterious Monks Of The Sun have unlocked a power they struggle to control. Can the crew’s train get through and avert their doom?
Genre: Weird Science Fantasy
Age: Teen (ages 12+)
Tags: Newbie Friendly, GM’s Own System
Content warnings: Potential religious persecution
GM: Ben Newbon
Title: Treetop Traipse
System: Overgrown
Description: Overgrown is a naturepunk single d20 system that is so simple, everything you need to know to play fits on the back of the character sheet! Your creatures are made up of various animal parts smooshed together and each crit adds a new one, meaning at the end of a session you could have a very different character!
Treetop Traipse is an example scenario taken from the book, which is written and designed by this GM and currently available at bennewbon.itch.io.
In this session players will start by quickly creating their creatures and defining their home community before setting out to find out what’s happened to their nearby neighbours.
Genre: Naturepunk
Age: Teen (ages 12+)
Tags: Rules Lite, Newbie Friendly, GM’s Own System
Content warnings: Harm to animals (PCs and NPCs are all animals) – specific animal phobias will be excluded as per lines & veils safety tools
GM: Emu
Title: Consumption of Power
System: Heart: The City Beneath
Description: The Heart exists beneath the city, a break in reality, the deeper you the stranger it gets.
You are delvers, people dangerous enough to hopefully survive the Heart. You are delvers people desperate enough to enter the Heart.
Your group are try to deliver a package to the Maw a location deep within the Heart. Can you survive the journey there and back?
Genre: dungeon delving horror
Age: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Tags: NA
Content warnings: Insects(Bees), Violence, Eldritch Monstrosities, Body Horror, Gore, Harm/Endangerment to animals, Mental Harm
GM: Greig Watson
Title: The Thief King’s Prize
System: Runesword RPG
Description: Many years ago the legendary Thief King Berek united the rogues of Lakeholm under his rule, forging a great golden chain as a symbol of status. It was buried with him in a secret tomb after his death, waiting for a worthy successor.
Present-day gang boss Ulmar Ironheart has designs on becoming the new Thief King and has obtained the location of Berek’s tomb. All he needs is some adventurers to retrieve the golden chain for him and his rule of Lakeholm’s criminal underworld will be assured. And Ulmar Ironheart doesn’t take no for an answer when he makes a request…
Runesword RPG is a fast-paced sword & sorcery game taking its inspiration from classic pulp fantasy stories. This adventure in particular evokes Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser in a tale of greedy rogues, cunning traps and ancient treasure.
Genre: Sword & sorcery fantasy
Age: Teen (ages 12+)
Tags: NA
Content warnings: Generic fantasy violence (nothing graphic)
GM: Iain Lewis
Title: Isla Mumblar
System: Dungeons & Dragons 5e
Description: The party have all been invited by a mysterious benefactor, to a tropical paradise. He has something in the works, and needs help assessing defenses, and looking for early reviews. The tale takes a twist, the party get lost, and there may be something awaiting them in the wild jungles of Isla Mumblar.
Genre: Sci fi, fantasy. (Loosely jurassic park themed)
Age: Teen (ages 12+)
Tags: Rules Lite, Newbie Friendly
Content warnings: None in particular, open to anyone really. Willing to have pregame discussions on limits players may have.
GM: Lewis Gillingwater
Title: Spire – Life and Soul
System: Spire: The City Must Fall
Description: Spire is an RPG using the Resistance System which sees you carry out clandestine operations for a semi-religious paramilitary cell to overthrow your high elf masters and retake the mile-high city for the Drow. At a secret meeting or in a dead-drop message, you receive the following instructions:
“Infiltrate the birthday celebration of Mr Winters, a prominent Red Row gun-runner and gangster, and kill him. He’s been secretly selling weapons cheap to the Paladins and the City Guard, and the Ministry can’t keep up with the arms race. Don’t make it look like an accident: send a message to anyone who’d side with our oppressors.”
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Intrigue, Revolution
Age: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Tags: NA
Content warnings: Violence, Classism, Colonialism, Drugs
GM: Lucy Winters
Title: The Montonet Conspiracy
System: Dungeons & Dragons 5e
Description: “The Montonet Conspiracy” is a short 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons gothic horror adventure for 3 or 4 (pre-generated) level 5 characters. Each has former ties to the Montonet family, a local duchy, and has been uncharacteristically invited to a reunion party by the duchess. There, they’re drawn into the mystery of why the family fell silent, and forced to decide how much they’re willing to do for their former relations. Expect vampires, werewolves, dark magic, murder-mystery, and *so* much blood.
Genre: Gothic horror
Age: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Tags: Newbie Friendly
Content warnings: Fantasy violence, gothic horror themes
GM: Malcolm Craig
Title: Shipwreck!
System: Shipwreck!
Description: Shipwreck! is a game in development that focuses on the stories of people cast upon a deadly shore after the wreck of their vessel. It is GM-less and collaborative in nature. The game itself is far from finished, and this is a very much a playtest session, so your feedback on how it works will be gratefully received.
Genre: Historical
Age: Teen (ages 12+)
Tags: Newbie Friendly
Content warnings: Isolation, death, violence
GM: Mark Palmer
Title: Riddermound
System: Dragonbane
Description: Seeking glory and riches, whispers of an ancient and valuable crown have drawn you into the realm of Misty Vale. This crown is said to lie in the heart of a burial mound called Riddermound, in the depths of Misty Vale’s forests. Rumored to be haunted by the undead, and a place from which few return, will your vigilance bring you the riches you seek, or will you remain there with the rest of the moldering dead?
Genre: Fantasy
Age: Child Friendly
Tags: NA
Content warnings: None
GM: Martin Pickett
Title: The Victoriana Airship Heist
System: The Great Martian Tripod Race
Description: Over the past week there have been rumours spreading through the Victoriana underworld of an audacious heist in the planning. A heist that will culminate in the theft of an airship as a getaway vehicle! Victoriana’s pre-eminent (and only) consulting detective, Miss Margaret Walcott, has been on the trail of the thieves and has dispatched her trusted associates known as The Landing Site Unmentionables (the player characters) to catch them.
A game of Steampunk adventure, set on the Victorian colony of Mars.
Genre: Steampunk
Age: Child Friendly
Tags: Rules Lite, Newbie Friendly, GM’s Own System
Content warnings: Colonialism/Imperialism
GM: Matthew Barrowcliffe
Title: The Boneyard
System: Reduced D&D
Description: So a group of heroes have decided to sneak into The Necromancer’s lair. Most of his defences are only triggered by high level heroes. A few low level characters can sneak in with a scroll of teleport circle, set it up in his lair, and then the high level heroes, lead by the Great Paladin Maximus, can teleport in and kill The Necromancer. Ending his rule and bringing in the rightful reign of Princess Galadrial Fairchild! How could this go wrong.
Genre: Light Hearted Fantasy. See Content Warnings.
Age: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Tags: Rules Lite
Content warnings: Skeletons Corpses Socialism
GM: Michael Paul O’Sullivan
Title: The Castle of the Robber Knight
System: Dragonbane
Description: A grassy hill towers before you. On its crest rests a ruined fortress – the Castle of the Robber Knight. Long ago, a wicked robber knight named Rothgar Wolfsbane plagued this area, pillaging and plundering wherever he could.
He fought against everyone – humans, dwarves, and elves – but it was the orcs who marched on Wolfsbane’s castle and stormed it. Many lives were lost that day, but in the end Wolfsbane fell and his castle was ravaged by flames. Brave fortune hunters have felt compelled to explore the robber knight’s castle in search of ancient treasures, but none have ever returned. Will you be the first?
Genre: Classic Fantasy
Age: Teen (ages 12+)
Tags: Rules Lite, Newbie Friendly
Content warnings: Some fantasy violence
GM: Morgan Edmonds
Title: Down, down to Goblin Town!
System: One Ring
Description: Journey deep below the Misty Mountains, to the edges of Moria and reclaim stolen goods from the goblin’s of Goblin Town. This adventure will lead players on a quest in the dark, revisiting dark tunnels trod by Thorin and Company on their quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain.
Genre: Tolkien Fantasy
Age: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Tags: Newbie Friendly, Prior setting / system knowledge useful
Content warnings: Kidnappings, implied slavery, cannibalism
GM: Robbi Graves
Title: The Night Flight
System: Shiver RPG
Description: It’s 1928 and you are part of the crew of a cargo plane making a non-stop flight from the East Coast of Russia to Seattle, Washington, USA. Your cargo: wooden crates containing new finds from archaeological digs around the Russian Steppes. For at least 18 hours the plane will be flying over the freezing North Pacific Ocean, through a long polar night, with no place to land safely and no possibility of getting help in the event of an emergency. And that’s when strange things start happening.
Has someone stowed away on the plane? Or was there something in one of those crates that shouldn’t have been disturbed? And can you really trust your fellow crewmembers? More importantly, will you make it to Seattle alive, or perish in the depths of the unforgiving ocean?
Genre: Claustrophobic survival horror
Age: Teen (ages 12+)
Tags: Newbie Friendly
Content warnings: Threat of death; blood and gore; isolation; paranoia
GM: Sunny Harrison
Title: The Crimson Countess
System: Bloodheist
Description: Dracula won, and the Undying Empire he built is ruled by immortal, squabbling vampire clans. You will play as a gang of criminals, hired by a powerful vampire to steal a valuable object from a rival. Human or undead, your characters are outsiders, unaffiliated with any one Great House, hired for the jobs that can’t be traced back to your employer.
Use your wits, tools, and perhaps an occult ritual or two to even the (frankly horrifying) odds and you might just escape with your lives. Fail, and an Awful Fate or even a Grand Doom might befall you.
Bloodheist is a rules-light D6-based system with an emphasis on creative problem-solving, daring, and responding to the unexpected. The aristocratic vampires who rule the Undying Empire with fangs of iron are Very Hard To Kill, but you just might be smarter than them, so if you are brave, fearless, and perhaps a little bit lucky, the prize could be yours.
Genre: Macabre-Comic Gothic Horror
Age: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Tags: Rules Lite, Newbie Friendly
Content warnings: Some mild body horror and gothic horror themes. Violence and crime.
GM: Valdas
Title: The Performance
System: Call of Cthulhu 7e
Description: There is Nothing, only the infinite expanse of space. You’re very comfortable here, yet it’s hard to know where your body ends and space begins. Time has little meaning here though it feels like you’ve never existed anywhere else but here.
A light in the distance. Oh, the blinding light! Your senses tingle as you feel a sharp pain separate your body from the abyss.
The moment is gone and you awake in an unfamiliar place. You’re on stage in a dimly lit, empty theatre. But who are you? Perhaps the other around you can tell you more, but what if they don’t know anything either?
Welcome to the Performance!
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery. Inpired by Oxventures – DnD, but everyone has amnesia
Age: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Tags: NA
Content warnings: General Horror, Body Horror, Amnesia, Death, Violence