Concrete Cow 12 games

The following games will be offered at the Concrete Cow 12 convention on 10 March 2012. If you have something you'd like to offer, please email concrete-cow-owner@yahoogroups.com. See the Concrete Cow 11.5 games page for what was on offer last time.

The Bit.ly link for this page is http://bit.ly/eiw4wQ.

Game Slots

To keep some sense of organisation about the day (ha!), this is the approximate timetable for the day.

Doors open	9.00am
Morning games	10.00am - 1.30pm
Afternoon games	2.30pm - 6.30pm
Evening games	7.30pm - 11.00pm
Close	11.00pm

At previous Concrete Cows, the morning slot often has an excess of games, the afternoon slot is OK, and the evening slot has very few. You may want to bear that in mind when you're deciding when to offer your game.

Allocating games to players is by sign-up sheets on the day, on a first-come-first-served basis. You can download blank sign-up sheets as sign-up sheet (MS Word) or sign-up sheet (PDF).

Note that, depending on circumstances, not all of these games may run on the day.

Send us your game blurbs at concrete-cow-owner@yahoogroups.com and we'll put them here!

(Please add games in alphabetical order)

Albion

Mystery and Rumour

Five adventurers have been asked to assist the Druid Order in an investigation. Thier directions are to The Plough where they are to meet the Druid Merwin. The order has offered pay and friendship. While the task is an investigation they did say be prepared for trouble.

GM: Mark Steadman

Number of players: Up to 6

Call of Cthulhu

Amidst the Ancient Trees

The daughter of a local industrialist has been kidnapped. The ransom payoff went horribly wrong, ending in a gunfight on the edge of the Green Mountain National Forest. The kidnappers have escaped the scene with the ransom money and fled back into the forest. The Investigators must rescue the girl, hunt the criminals down and bring them to justice. However, there’s more to be discovered in the forest than anyone ever guessed...

A scenario for 4 Investigators in 1920s Vermont.

GM: Matt Sanderson

Number of players: 4 (adults only)

Dead Letters

Players take the role of investigators hired by the Miskatonic University. Until recently, Professor Lieter was working on some papers for the University. Following Lieter's recent death the papers are missing and the University greatly desires their safe return.

Set in 1920s era Arkham.

GM: Paul Fricker

A Death in Winter

The funeral of an old friend is never pleasant…especially when he is dead by his own hand. You have drifted apart since the war, but his death has brought you all to the remote Wiltshire village where he spent his last months. But now, can you solve the mystery of his death, or will something worse happen?

An investigative Call of Cthulhu scenario set in 1920s England.

GM: Neil Grant

Cthulhu Dark

The Space Between

The Church of Sunyata has grown to a position of power in Hollywood. Its members include stars, producers, movers and shakers, and its celebrity centre in the Hollywood Hills is home to the most important party in town.

Still, the church is having trouble shaking off its image as a cult. Their latest project -- a self-financed blockbuster based on church teachings -- will help open the eyes of the public. The production is in trouble, though -- the leading lady has gone missing, the police are sniffing around and everyone on set is growing more nervous and secretive.

The future of the project is in the hands of a few dedicated church members. Will they be able to ensure that their vision is shared with the world?

GM: Scott Dorward

Number of players: 4 (adults only)

Slot: Morning

Dead of Night

Future Generation

London, 1979.

You know you're different. People have always treated you like some kind of freak, avoiding you or reacting like you're something they stepped in. You're not the only one though: there are other kids you went to school with who are just like you, and you can sort of stand each other. Some of them may even be friends.

Now you've left school, the world hasn't become any easier to deal with. You seem to be changing -- oozing pus, hearing voices -- but some of the changes have potential. You can do things to yourself and other people -- strange, disgusting things. Maybe that's why you think there are black vans following you.

It's the first time you've felt like you have control over something. What will you do with this power? Will you help your friends, the strangers who hate you, or just yourself?

Maybe you could think it through if only you could stop the children whispering in your head...

This is a playtest of a genre hack for for low-powered superheroes.

GM: Scott Dorward

Number of players: 5 (adults only)

Slot: Evening

The Final Voyage of The Selene

A guided-narrative freeform telling the story of a disaster in space, but the story begins with the The Selene leaving the frontier of explored space, heading for Earth, and the disaster doesn't happen until almost the end of the game.

UnGM: James Mullen

Number of Players: 4 or 5

Slot: #2, 10.00-1.30

Grim's Gangs

The game from Reaper's Revenge!

Gang warfare is brutal!

Although there may be a certain code of honour within the Gang, almost chivarlrous in some instances, this is seldom shared with rival gangs or members of the law enforcement agencies whose aims are not convivial with the Gang's agenda.

Wether the gang menmbers are bikers, mods, skins, chavs, skaters, punks, teds, or even older gang types (pirates, mobsters, cowboys), futuristic gangs (space raiders), or fantasy gangs (orcs, goblins or snails), a gang is still a gang. They have a hierarchy of their own: a leader, the senior officer, and the troops, much like any small military unit. All are capable of acting on their own, but are more effective as a unit.

Gim's gangs is a role-playing game for 4 - 8 players and a games master. you will need 3 Grim's D6s per player (or standard d6s if Grim's D6s are not avaliable), paper, pencil, and an eraser.

Grims gangs RPG is based around the more social, scavenger and territorial gangs, looking more for fun than violence or severe criminal acivity. That's not to say Grim's gangs wont have the odd run-in with the law, but that is up to the Players and the GM! Most run-ins with other gangs or the law will inevitably result in a little violence, bloodshed or even a court appearance. In extreme cases (with the run of the dice) even death may occur, but this should be rare for both sides.

The Grim's gang rules are designed to encourage fun roleplaying in a gang enviroment.

GM: Bob the Dice Man

Slot: Morning

Cigarillo Sam and the Hole in the Sky Gang

The Scenario is set in a futuristic Western galaxy, with Space Horses, Cowboys, Outlaws and Lawmen! The players will be playing the posse sent to catch Cigarillo Sam. This could be harder than they expected.

GM: John Ellis

slot Afternoon

GURPS 4th edition

Age of Aquarius

It's 1967 in London, and you've answered an advertisement for "healthy young people to assist with drug research". After all, the money's good, and they wouldn't be testing it on humans if it weren't pretty safe already... would they?

(No GURPS experience needed.)

GM: Roger Burton West

Number of Players: 5

Slot: 1 (probably)

Heaven & Earth

Justified Means

Small town people always pull together in times of trouble. The same is true in Potter's Lake. When out-of-towners gun down one of the Police Department's finest in a bust gone wrong, the Sheriff is out for blood. Unfortunately, for the mob on the run, the Sheriff is the least of their issues. Backed into a corner, the guests of a small boarding house are about to find themselves between a rock and a very hard place indeed.

A very player-driven scenario for 6 players.

GM: Matt Sanderson

Number of players: 6 (adults only)

Hot War

Hut 19

Massachusetts, 1934. Deep in the wilds of the Miskatonic Valley stands Camp Oakley, a top-secret and highly secure military site. The guards know that the prisoners they keep there are strange and reportedly dangerous, and contain them with guard towers, barbed wire and machine guns. At the same time, the prisoners are civilians, and many of them have no idea why they were snatched from their lives and locked up in this remote hellhole.

Only a handful of the staff know the secret behind the camp and its prisoners, and only the scientists know the plans they have for them. Those who are taken to Hut 19 in the dark of night either come back changed or never return at all.

Amongst the prisoners, a last ember of hope still burns. They whisper of revenge, of escape, of home -- of Innsmouth.

GM: Scott Dorward

Number of players: 4 (adults only)

Slot: Morning

In Camera

This is a game that's meant to capture the style & tone of films likes The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity and Apollo 18.

In the first two rounds of play, everyone creates cameras, using them to introduce locations or characters that will appear frequently in the story.

In subsequent rounds of play, each player can direct an event: during this, a deck of cards is used to pace the event, with red cards equating to light or positive situations and black cards equating to dark or negative ones. The director of the scene has a small hand of cards to hand out to the other players, facing their characters with an appropriate situation as he does so, but the director can make use of the cameras in the scene to 'edit' the footage with cuts, pans and zooms, changing the cards he has and therefore the situations.

There is a reciprocal process in action, in that players decide how their characters respond to the situation they are dealt and this decision feeds back into the cards that are available in later events, weighting them towards light or dark content.

UnGM: James Mullen

Number of Players: 3 or 4

Slot: #3, 7.30-11.00

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

The new hotness from MWP. A story-focussed superheroes RPG that doesn't spend too much effort trying to model the 'physics' of superpowers.

Breakout

A massive electric display erupts over The Raft, the ultra-high-security prison for supervillains in New York's East River. The power's out all over Manhattan. Supervillains are escaping! Can you stop them? Can you recapture the ones that get away? Who's behind the escape, and why are they doing it?

It's the introductory scenario for MHP in the back of the book, but it still looks like a fun romp with plenty of opportunity for grandstanding, scenery chewing, and clobbering bad guys.

GM: Neil Smith

Number of Players: 3 - 4

Slot: Afternoon

Microscope

Microscope is a world building game where you create a society then take a stretch of time and describe it using pivotal moments. It can be as broad as the rise and fall of a millennias old starfaring society or narrow as the short and bloody reign of a mad Goblin king. The genre is chosen at the start and you pick things to add in or exclude to make it slightly more interesting and drive you away from cliche.

There are no 'characters', you will pick up people at these great moments and most likely discard them for the next. Some may last but it's the sweeping theme you are working with.

Mock chronological order.

Defy time and space.

Build worlds and destroy them.

Very Indie/hippy, very little conflict resolution, strongly collaborative.

Un-GM: Nick Reynolds

Slot: Afternoon

Number of players: Nick plus three

Mirror of the Soul: Panthea

Set in an Fantasy-themed world with Magic and Antropomorphic races. The game-world is rich in politics and turmoil to suit all parties, with multiple factions and a deep and unique history that has evolved from direct player interaction.

The system moves away from the old "Golden Rule" of "If the ST doesn't like the rule, change it" to "If the player can blag it, then they can try it." This has produced some 'interesting' results like a sword being deflected by a smile... no, seriously... a smile.

The scenario starts with a simple job offer you can't refuse, but the unfolding of events depends greatly on player choice.

GM: Simon Cornwell

Number of Players: Up to 5

Slot: Morning and Afternoon

NB: Beta playtest of the rules set by the author

My Life with Master

A roleplaying game of villainy, self-loathing and unrequited love. A twisted outcast plots their revenge against the society that spurned them; with the help of their equally loathsome servants, they plan to show the world that they are not to be messed with. Their evil plan has been set in motion... by you! In this game, you play the mad master's minions, carrying out their diabolical orders, but at what point will you balk, throw off the shackles of oppression and stand up to the Master out of love for his victims?

GM: James Mullen

Number of Players: 3 or 4

Slot: #2, 2.30-6.30

Savage Worlds

The Captain's Treasure

Out of luck and on the run from the British fleet, you crew the pirate ship Hornswaggled.

Stuck in Charlottesville, Tobago, you stumble on an opportunity too good to miss.

Please note : We’ll all be talkin’ pirate like if yer get me drift

GM: Nick Leech

Number of Players: up to 6

Slot: 1, morning

The Mex Files

You are FBI Agents in 1960’s America sent to investigate the disappearance of James Taylor from the small town of Los Almos, New Mexico.

Please note:

• 1960's America was time of social change, the attitudes of the time are reflected in this game to give it an authentic feel. You will need to take a mature approach.
• Despite this being Savage worlds this is more of an investigative game rather than a shoot ‘em up.
• This has previously been run at Conception a couple of times.

GM: Nick Leech

Number of Players: up to 6

Slot: 2, afternoon

Orion's Hope

You are the crew of the TTS Orion making a routine delivery to Charleston Spaceport when you receive a distress signal.

Please note : this has been run previously at Conception.

GM: Nick Leech

Number of Players: up to 6

Slot: 3, evening

Star Trek (CODA Rules)

Long-Forgotten Sons

It is the year 2364, and the crew of the shuttlecraft Thombaugh are returning from an Academy Class Reunion when they find a rogue planet directly in their path.

Could the faint traces of a warp signature emanating from the surface indicate someone in trouble or the first, tentative steps of a newly warp-enabled species...?

GM: Chas Nevard

Number of Players: 4-6

Slot: #3, 19:30-23.00

Squadron UK (2nd Edition)

The Long Minute

British Superhero role-playing. A play-test of the new Squadron UK rules by the author of Britain's first Suphero RPG. You'll create your own unique Heroes who will be thrown head-first into a city-wide mystery. Action packed but needing as much brains as brawn to save the day.

GM: Simon Burley

Number of players: 3-5

Slots: (1) 10:00-1:30, (2) 2:30 - 6:30 (if any players want to "carry over" into the second slot - I do have alternative adventures.....)

Transhuman Space (Powered by GURPS)

Sulawesi Landslip

A preview of the upcoming Transhuman Space: Wings of the Rising Sun supplement ("Transhuman Space meets anime, with a touch of Supermarionation").

In the year 2100, the Nihon Kinkyu Kyushutsu Cho is an elite agency of the Japanese government. Its hypersonic dropships and armoured "Tenryu" cybershells can reach any point on Earth within minutes, carrying teams with just one mission: to rescue every possible victim of any disaster.

But your team has an additional task. You have to look good while you're doing your job. You've been selected as faces of the NKKC, so try to look the part, okay?

GM: Phil Masters

Number of Players: 5

Slot: 2 (probably)