Game: A Night in Drapers’ Ward
System: Dishonored
GM: Aaron Billingham
Age Rating: Neutral (ages 12+)
Maximum Players: 5
Short Description: Deliver a tribute to the Dead Eels Gang… and survive to tell the tale
Long Description: As Edgar Wakefield extends the territory of the Dead Eels Gang further inland, smaller street crews must bend the knee or fight for every alley. Your job on this dark night, as Scraps of the Cutters Gang, is to deliver the Cutters’ tribute to the Dead Eels, your boss having thought better of fighting the Eels’ many gaff hooks. So now, as the foghorn sounds from Kingsparrow Island, you find yourself walking cautiously towards the Wrenhaven River, nervously spying increasing numbers of gap-toothed grins and glinting hooks in the shadowed alleyways.
Trigger Warnings: Plague, rats, gangs, combat/violence
Game: An Enquiry Into The Wealth Of Matrons
System: Manifold
GM: Martin Pickett
Age Rating: Neutral (ages 12+)
Maximum Players: 6
Short Description: A consulting detective has hired you to rescue a pair of young lovers from possible doom. A Steampunk adventure on Victorian Mars.
Long Description: Horace Gladstone is the heir to significant fortune, engaged to be married to the lovely Fiona Tavistock. But Fiona’s mother Diana is a founder member of the notorious Last Wives Club, a group of rich widows who have each lost more husbands than etiquette would deem seemly. Their activities have aroused the suspicions of Mars’ pre-eminent (and only) consulting detective, Miss Margaret Walcott.
Desperate to stop the tragedy she sees coming, Margaret Walcott contacted Horace and warn him. But now Fiona and Horace have suddenly been whisked away to a “pre-wedding shooting party” by the ladies of the Club, and Margaret Walcott is sending her trusted associates, “The Landing Site Unmentionables”, to try and rescue the situation.
A game of Scientific Romance and Steampunk adventure, set on the Victorian colony of Mars.
Trigger Warnings: None
Game: BEMs & BFGs
System: Offworlders (light SF PbtA)
GM: Brian Ashford
Age Rating: Child Friendly
Maximum Players: 5
Short Description: You and your team have tracked down some criminal weapons dealers to a hostile post-civilisation rim world. Find the targets, capture them. Find your shuttle, fix it. Investigate the missile tower, shut it down. Stay away from the radiation zone, the big… moving… radiation zone.
Long Description: You and your team have tracked down some criminal weapons dealers to a hostile post-civilisation rim world. Unfortunately as soon as your robo-shuttle dropped you off, it was blown out of the sky by a military grade planetary defence system. Oh and there are a lot of life signs in these ruins.
No problem.
Find the targets, capture them. Find your shuttle, fix it. Investigate the missile tower, shut it down. Stay away from the radiation zone, the big… moving… radiation zone.
Don’t get eaten. No Problem.
Trigger Warnings: Combat with giant insects, death from same
Game: Dance of Dreams
System: Vaesen
GM: Paul
Age Rating: Neutral (ages 12+)
Maximum Players: 4
Short Description: An intriguing invitation to view a puppet show brings the members of the newly reformed Society to a remote crossroads on a stormy November’s night. What secrets lie beyond the door of the Witch Cat Inn, and how is this dilapidated old inn connected to your past!
Welcome to the Mythic North – northern Europe of the nineteenth century, but not as we know it today. A land where the myths are real. A cold reach covered by vast forests, its few cities lonely beacons of industry and enlightenment – a new civilisation dawning. But in the countryside, the old ways still hold sway. There, people know what lurks in the dark.
Long Description: In dark forests, beyond the mountains, by black lakes in hidden groves. At your doorstep. In the shadows, something stirs. Strange beings. Twisted creatures, lurking at the edge of vision. Watching. Waiting. Unseen by most, but not by you. You see them for what they really are.
Vaesen.
Welcome to the Mythic North – northern Europe of the nineteenth century, but not as we know it today. A land where the myths are real. A cold reach covered by vast forests, its few cities lonely beacons of industry and enlightenment – a new civilization dawning. But in the countryside, the old ways still hold sway. There, people know what lurks in the dark.
They know to fear it.
Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying is based on the work of Swedish illustrator and author Johan Egerkrans, Vaesen presents a dark Gothic setting steeped in Nordic folklore and old myths of Scandinavia. The game mechanics use an adapted version of the award-winning Year Zero Engine.
https://freeleaguepublishing.com/en/games/vaesen/
An intriguing invitation to view a puppet show brings the members of the newly reformed Society to a remote crossroads on a stormy November’s night. What secrets lie beyond the door of the Witch Cat Inn, and how is this dilapidated old inn connected to your past!
Dance of Dreams is an introductory mystery suitable for players new to Vaesen.
Trigger Warnings: Horror, ghosts, domestic violence.
Game: Dropzone
System: Homebrew
GM: Alan Jackson
Age Rating: Neutral (ages 12+)
Maximum Players: 6
Short Description: Join the marines they said. See the galaxy they said. There’s no alien life they said.
Colony planet LV426 has stopped responding, and it’s your job to find out why and save them.
A homage to the film Aliens. Action, horror mayhem with a light homebrew system.
Long Description: Join the marines they said. See the galaxy they said. There’s no alien life they said.
Colony planet LV426 has stopped responding, and it’s your job to find out why and save them.
A homage to the film Aliens. Action, horror mayhem with a light homebrew system.
Trigger Warnings: Movie violence, light treachery
Game: Flames of the Warp
System: Wrath and Glory
GM: Dan
Age Rating: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Maximum Players: 6
Short Description: Warhammer 40K
Long Description: A transport ship emerges from the warp, broadcasting a heresey era ident code, it has arrived in a sector of space close to the Ork territory, but it holds a dangerous secret and it can’t be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. You are a party of space marines from the Deathwatch sent to investigate
Trigger Warnings: Violence
Game: Lost and Forgotten
System: Pulp! (Card Based System)
GM: Matthew Barrowcliffe
Age Rating: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Maximum Players: 6
Short Description: While travelling back from their last mission on Mars the crew of the Rebel Ship Cerberus see a Lord of Earth cruiser passing in the distance. Curiously they follow their enemy into the asteroid belt to find out why they are so far from Earth.
Long Description: While travelling back from their last mission on Mars the crew of the Rebel Ship Cerberus see a Lord of Earth cruiser passing in the distance. Curiously they follow their enemy into the asteroid belt to find out why they are so far from Earth.
Trigger Warnings: Pulp Horror and Science gone wrong.
Game: Overeager and woefully misinformed
System: Fate-ish
GM: Matthew Hambley
Age Rating: Neutral (ages 12+)
Maximum Players: 6
Short Description: Strangehill secondary school is your average Edinburgh comprehensive, but with rather more creates of the night than you might expect.
Long Description: Not only must you contend with the normal travails of being a teenager but avoid ordinary people discovering the truth of your existence. A task made more challenging by a new threat sneaking in and out of the classrooms and roaming the corridors.
Trigger Warnings: High school. Monsters.
Game: Raiders Of The Lost Crypt
System: Runesword RPG
GM: Greig Watson
Age Rating: Neutral (ages 12+)
Maximum Players: 5
Short Description: A tip-off from a local thief sends the party of adventurers into the tunnels below the city of Valperza. Apparently a lost crypt from the time of the ancient First Empire has been discovered. Danger and treasure await for those brave enough to enter!
Long Description: The glittering trade city of Valperza has a distinctly seedy underbelly. Away from the opulent palaces and guild halls of the ruling nobility, thieves, smugglers and gangs lurk in the dingy alleys and disreputable taverns. All of these scoundrels dream of making it rich one day.
For one group of adventurers that day may have arrived. A tip-off from a local thief sends the party into the tunnels below the city. Apparently a lost crypt from the time of the ancient First Empire has been discovered. Danger and treasure await for those brave enough to enter!
This short adventure scenario introduces players to Runesword RPG, an indie fantasy game produced in Edinburgh by designer Greig Watson. Inspired by classic fantasy tales, the game evokes the spirit of Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser, Michael Moorcock’s Elric, and Robert E Howard’s Conan. Rules light, fast-paced, and easy to learn, Runesword RPG pitches players straight into a gritty world of swords & sorcery!
Defiantly old-school in tone, this game is suitable for veteran and newbie roleplayers alike.
Trigger Warnings: Possible violence against monstrous animals.
Game: The Big Steal
System: Stealing Stories for the Devil
GM: Simon Proctor
Age Rating: Neutral (ages 12+)
Maximum Players: 5
Short Description: Some people tell lies to others, you tell Lies to reality. It’s a useful skill you’re going to need to pull of your heist.
Long Description: A Zero Prep game about heists where your characters can lie to reality. No knowledge required, we’ll make it up as we go along.
Trigger Warnings: None.
Game: The Black Lotus
System: Avatar: Legends
GM: Pooka
Age Rating: Neutral (ages 12+)
Maximum Players: 4
Short Description: Welcome to the crew of The Black Lotus! Yes, she’s the fastest ship on the seas, able to outmaneuver and run rings around a Fire Nation Ironclad any day of the week. But this time, General Xian is in hot pursuit – can our heroes escape his clutches?
Long Description: In the latter half of the 100 Year War, a group of elite sailors, pirates, and privateers was assembled. Their job was to smuggle goods and people to and from the Fire Nation, and to frustrate and engage the Fire Nation Navy at every opportunity. The ship that bore these legendary ruffians-turned-heroes was known as The Black Lotus, a unique design that was the fastest and most agile ship on the seas by a wide margin. Over time, and after repeated failures at affecting their capture, Admiral Xian took matters into his own hands. Will Xian triumph, the legends of The Black Lotus merely be a cautionary tale, or will your crew spark hope around the four kingdoms?
Trigger Warnings: Cartoon Violence
Game: The Black Sphere
System: Godlike
GM: Cameron Hall
Age Rating: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Maximum Players: 5
Short Description: It’s 1943 and WW2 rages on despite the deployment of ‘Talents’ on both sides. As part of the TOG(Talent Operation Group) commando unit you are tasked with going deep behind enemy lines and using all your skills to survive and bring back information on: The Black Sphere.
A dark super-powered game of WW2 combat and survival. Talents, technology and horror.
Long Description: The Black Sphere is a scenario for Godlike RPG – Superhero roleplaying in a world on fire 1936-1946. Utilizing a one-roll mechanic this evocative and gritty system allows for heroic but lethal combat set during WW2, along with mature storytelling. The Black Sphere will allow players to go beyond the normal theatre of war and seek out an deadly enigma hidden behind allied lines.
A small platoon of commandos must sneak into a remote facility and uncover the truth whilst maintaining secrecy and surviving long enough to get home with the vital information. A scenario for 4-5 players with mature content.
Trigger Warnings: Horror elements, realistic depiction of warfare, existential threat, injury detail
Game: The Dead Have Claws
System: The Dead Have Claws
GM: Phil Edwards
Age Rating: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Maximum Players: 5
Short Description: It’s Hallowe’en, 1980 in a small West Coast US town. The locals are getting ready for another night of festivities and horror. Little do they know tonight will be like no other. Those mutated monster costumes are not costumes, and they are not looking for candy!
Long Description: It’s Hallowe’en, 1980 in a small West Coast US town. The locals are getting ready for another night of festivities and horror. Little do they know tonight will be like no other. Those mutated monster costumes are not costumes, and they are not looking for candy!
This game is using the The Came From Beyond The Grave rules, and will be action horror, similar to 80s schlock horror movies. Game may involve slasher horror-type violence, this can be discussed before starting.
Trigger Warnings: Violence, horror, potential gore
Game: Zeus
System: I Love the Corps
GM: Chris Dean
Age Rating: Adult Only (ages 16+)
Maximum Players: 6
Short Description: A top secret Corps-funded science lab has not sent its weekly transmission. You are part of a (highly expendable) Rapid Response squad sent to see what fate has befallen the lab, and if it’s bad, get out with whatever classified intel you can recover.
Long Description: Zeus is a planet shrouded in electrical storms; this phenomena is perfect for shrouding activities on the surface, and disables any vessel flying through the atmosphere without sufficient shielding. Zeus is home to nothing but jagged rock, and a single top secret Corps-funded science base. Every week, a shielded ship leaves the planet to transmit an encoded data packet to Corps Command, and then returns to the planet. This week’s transmission has not arrived.
You are part of a United Colonial Marine Corps Rapid Response squad; like all such squads, you are largely made up of marines who are not deemed “suitable” for operating in larger outfits. You’re used to knowing very little, and you’re surprised every time you survive a mission.
You’ve got to head into the science base on Zeus and determine if anything has befallen the facility. If you can help fix the problem, do so. Otherwise, if the base has been compromised, you are ordered to recover the classified intel the base possesses, and get out of there. And no, you have no idea what the facility actually does.
I LOVE THE CORPS is a published tabletop role-playing game of military action, horror and military sci-fi.
The game uses a straight forward 1d6 + score and situational modifiers mechanic. However, passive abilities (score, +3 for narrative scenes, +1 action) allow you to do plenty of cinematic things without rolling the die; you’re trained marines afterall. One ability total covers a range of connected actions. In a narrative scene, you have three beats, and in each beat you get one active (dice roll) and one passive ability. The position you are in at the end of the scene’s final beat dictates the nature of the next scene, or whether it becomes an action scene. Do you love the Corps, marine? Only one way to find out.
Trigger Warnings: This is very difficult to say in this particular scenario, as the horror that features is very much down to what the players and their characters decide to be paranoid about, rather than a fixed theme. I will do my best to talk to players at the start of the game, to ensure we can avoid any triggers for players; this is a particularly psychological scenario, though heavy gore can feature, depending on approach.