Concrete Cow 08.5 games

The following games will be offered at the Concrete Cow 08½ convention on 27 September 2008. If you have something you'd like to offer, please email concrete-cow-owner@yahoogroups.com. See the Concrete Cow 08 games page for what was on offer last time.

Guest of Honour games

Wood will be will be running two games, previewing the Vampire: The Requiem clanbooks, and the supplements for Hunter: the Vigil. Both of them tell the same story, one from the viewpoint of some vampire hunters, and one from the viewpoint of the vampires.

Hunter: The Vigil

The Revenge of the Cainite Heresy.

Crazed fanatics come from nowhere, thrall to an ancient secret they don't even understand. They don't let the innocent get in the way of a millennia-old crusade. Can our heroes stop them before something awful happens? Or are the fanatics' targets even worse? And more importantly: Who is Cain?

GM: Wood Ingham

Vampire: The Requiem

The Reflection of Alison Gregory.

A dead woman's reflection walks away and wages a vendetta against her, and the entire society of the dead stands to lose. Can the characters find it before it delivers everything they have left straight into the hands of a cult of fanatical vampire hunters?

GM: Wood Ingham

Victoriana

If the scandal and rumour that followed them wasn't enough, fate seems to put the Havering family in the wrong place at the right time far too often. The theft of their luggage or a rather select game of cards in an unfashionable neighbourhood seems to lead them into clashes with villains, the cream of society and evil sorcerers. Life is never dull for the Haverings and their companions, but they had best take care, for with adventure there is always darkness and danger...

GM: Andy Peregrine

Other games

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

Call of Cthulhu

Grace Under Pressure

You are on the sea floor, 1500 feet below the surface. Around you there is only cold and dark—the sun's caressing rays bring nothing to this world. The pressure here is over six hundred pounds per square inch. This is a lethal place. There must be caution in every move you make, or the sea will claim your body and your soul. You and your companions are aboard the RSV Wallaby, a prototype research vessel of your own design. This is its maiden voyage; the attention of the world is upon you. You are not alone. And in the hours to come you will die. Unless you can master the fine art of Grace Under Pressure...

Keepers Paul Fricker and Robin Poole

Doctor Who

Various demos from Jan and Joe, Cubicle 7 Entertainment's official entertainment people.

A Day Like No Other

Six ordinary people, one very extraordinary day.

(Yes, that's all the blurb you get!)

Six Little Greyhounds

Trap 4 is a top security UNIT facility intended for the study and examination of alien artefacts. In the ordinary course of things duty at Trap 4 is a quiet and efficient hub of science. But since the arrival of the latest batch of Artefacts, there have been a number of unfortunate..... accidents. Can the men and women of UNIT Security Detachment 3 get to the root of the problem or will the dangers of Trap 4 get them first?

Dread: The First Book of Pandemonium

The Road to Hell

This used to be such a nice part of town. Then the gangs moved in, and chaos followed in their wake. Now someone seems to have declared war on them. Crime is down, the streets are becoming safer and everyone seems happier. It's a shame that there seems to be a demon behind it all. And if there's one thing you can't stand, it's a demon. If you and your cabal apply the right amount of sickening violence and gratuitous bloodshed, though, you should be able to set things right again. Or wrong. Who cares as long as you take that demon bastard down?

Proposed by Scott Dorward

Elfs

Don't fear the Reaper

Classic fantasy role-playing with a munchkin twist: you take on the roles of a bunch of elfs, who are locked in a perpetual adolescent obsession with food, sex & lavatorial functions! The resolution system makes success more likely when you are stabbing your buddy in the back or having something happen to your character other than that what they were trying to do!

• Duke Ferdinand is throwing a big party to celebrate his daughter's 18th birthday: in other words, theres a big house full of treasue and free food! Don't worry about getting caught, either: the Duke believes in 'community service', whatever that is...

Proposed by James Mullen

GURPS Mysteries/Spaceships

Sevenfold Light

Proposed by Roger Burton West

GURPS Thaumatology: The Age of Gold

Doc Mudra vs. The Aztec Horror

In the Age of Gold 1930s, magic has returned as a power in the world – but it’s still a mystery, and sometimes a terror. The amazing Doc Mudra has gathered his Uncanny Four from every part of the globe to solve mysteries and blast terrors back into the shadows with the dual lights of magic and reason. But when the Amazing Helix-Plane takes them down Mexico way, can even the Doc’s strength or the Uncanny Four’s skills prevail against ancient horrors?

Proposed by Phil Masters

Hollow Earth Expedition

To the Earth's Core

Professor Scrumtumbler, a brilliant and eccentric scientist, has built a drilling machine to carry him and a few select passengers to the Earth's core. Unfortunately, the Nazi would love to use this invention as a weapon. How far will the player characters go to keep it out of the Nazi hands.

GM Conrad Murkitt, 2-6 players.

Hot War

London. Winter. 1963. It is a year since the Cold War went hot. This was not just a nuclear war: far more sinister, darker weapons were deployed from the shadows. Survival and re-building are all that matter now. But human nature and tragic circumstances mean that everyone has their own ambitions: a government desperate to hold on to what remains of the country; military forces who wish to expand their power and influence; frightened and brutalised refugees who simply want a place to call home. Into this maelstrom steps the Special Situations Group, a motley band of men and women tasked with the jobs too dirty or dangerous for anyone else.

The New Covenant

A charismatic preacher has started attracting attention at Speakers' Corner. He offers a chance to reach out to the many loved ones lost in the war and speak to them again. His followers are growing and they would die for him. Is he everything that he seems, and, if so, what does that mean for the future of London?

Proposed by Scott Dorward

Primetime Adventures

You decide

Play the greatest TV show that never was! Starting with a group pitch session, we create a television show, along with its themes, characters, locations and conflicts. We then play through an episode of the show, bringing the characters and their world to life through shared narration. And, at the end you'll say, "Why is nothing on television that good?"

Proposed by Scott Dorward

Qin: Warring States

Possibly demos from Jan and Joe, Cubicle 7 Entertainment's official entertainment people. More details soon, but asking for a game of this will help make sure it happens!

Savage Worlds

Alas, Shane, Pinnacle Entertainment's official demo guy, can't make Concrete Cow, so there may not be any Savage Worlds on the day. Unless, of course, you want to make something happen!

SLA Industies

Possibly demos from Jan and Joe, Cubicle 7 Entertainment's official entertainment people. More details soon, but asking for a game of this will help make sure it happens!

Starblazer Adventures

Various demos from Jan and Joe, Cubicle 7 Entertainment's official entertainment people.

Deliverance

"Kneel before the Captain, you Mutineer Dogs!" Kane stared up in disbelief at the old man dressed in a crude facsimile of an ancient Starcaptain's uniform. The aftereffects of the stun gas left his thoughts scattered. Even so he could not miss the guards armed with obsolete but still deadly Blast Pikes that surrounded his outnumbered and disarmed crew. "So much for the wreck of the Deliverance being lifeless," he muttered.

A dozen worlds are in urgent need of the compound K-956, the only substance that will halt the civilisation-destroying mutations that are wrecking their eco-systems. But the formula of K-956 was lost in the Skrolk war. The only hope for its recovery lies in the centuries-old hulk of the seeder ship Bountiful Deliverance. An elite team of recovery experts has been dispatched to sift the secret from the wreck. Unfortunately the Deliverance is not as dead as she first appeared...

Suzerain

Setting: Untamed Empires - A fantasy world technologically advanced to roughly Napoleonic standards. The world stretches from the civilised courts and cities that are home to the oldest empires, over the unforgiving seas and many islands all the way to the wild frontiers.

In the Untamed Empires there is a 'rush' on, but it is not gold that has people scouring the seas for forgotten islands, coming up with ever more creative ways to plumb the ocean depths or striking out on the frontiers of the West. Oh no. It is another wonder material, one that goes by the name of Celestium. Scholars debate whether it is a synthesised material, a gift from the gods, naturally occurring or something else entirely. One thing for sure - a small amount can make a clever man a rich man and come what may it just plain makes things better. No one understands how, but a Celestium Rapier strikes faster and deeper than its ferrous counterpart. Celestium filters are the difference between life and death for anyone braving a mad tinkerer's submersible ship. There are a million more uses, and dozens more being discovered daily. Of course that all pales in comparison to the exquisite glories of anyone lucky enough to find an intact, never mind functioning, artefact of times past. And those are the things that interest the mighty and far reaching Varlinian Soke. Your team has been assembled to search out and retrieve such artefacts for the greater good of the Empire and you have caught the scent of something most promising. Most promising.

GM: Alan from Talisman Studios

Victoriana

Possibly demos from Jan and Joe, Cubicle 7 Entertainment's official entertainment people. More details soon, but asking for a game of this will help make sure it happens!

Indie Game demos

If you haven't already, now's your chance to have a quick try of some of those newfangled hippie indie games. I'll be offering 15-minute demos of a few games in the cracks between the main gaming sessions. If you like what you see, you should be able to pick up the book from those nice people at the Leisure Games stall.

I should be able to offer demos of:

• Cold City (The Allies 'co-operate' 1950 Berlin to clear up after the Nazi's twisted technology)
• Covenant (The Apocalypse your cult leader promised didn't happen. Now what?)
• Dogs in the Vineyard (almost-Mormon paladin gunslingers in a Wild West that never was)
• Don't Rest Your Head (surreal modern horror)
• Grey Ranks (child soldiers in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944)
• The Shadow of Yesterday (pulpy fantasy)
• Thou Art But A Warrior (Islamic warriors trying to prevent the Spanish Reconquista; a Polaris variant)

Offered by Neil Smith