Concrete Cow 11.5 games

The following games will be offered at the Concrete Cow 11½ convention on 17 September 2011. If you have something you'd like to offer, please email concrete-cow-owner@yahoogroups.com. See the Concrete Cow 11 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)

A Penny For My Thoughts

A group of patients undergo the revolutionary Mnemosyne™ treatment process attempting to remember the past's they have suppressed and the people they were. Perhaps the answers will bring relief or perhaps they will not like the people they turn out to be.

Dead simple rules. A collaborative storytelling game.

We can play the vanilla 'real world' version or the Lovcraftian version as the group decides.

GM: Nick Hollingsworth

Number Players: 3 or 4

Slot: tbd - probably evening

Ashen Stars

To celebrate the UK release of the dead-tree version of Ashen Stars, Leisure Games have teamed up with Pelgrane Press to run some demo games at Concrete Cow.

The details of exactly what's happening are unclear at the moment, but I'm sure things will be fine on the day. Neil Ford will be running scenarios from the first Ashen Stars scenario collection, Dead Rock Seven, written by Gareth Hanrahan. If you want to run a game of Ashen Stars, please let either me or Mike (at Leisure Games) know.

For those of you who don't know what Ashen Stars is, here's the blurb:

Ashen Stars is the newest full-length, stand-alone GUMSHOE product from RPG legend, Robin D. Laws.

They call you lasers. Sometimes you’re called scrubbers, regulators, or shinestars. To the lawless denizens of the Bleed, whether they be pirates, gangsters or tyrants, you’re known in less flattering terms. According to official Combine terminology, the members of your hard-bitten starship crew are known as Licensed Autonomous Zone Effectuators. You’re the seasoned freelancers local leaders call when a situation proves too tough, too baffling, or simply too weird to handle on their own. In the abandoned fringe of inhabited planets known as the Bleed, you’re as close to a higher authority as they come.

In this gritty space opera game, the PCs are Lasers, freelance troubleshooters and law enforcers operating in a remote sector called the Bleed. They’re needed in the wake of a massive retreat by the Combine, the utopian empire that colonized it. Amid the ashes of a devastating war, the lasers solve mysteries, fix thorny problems, and explore strange corners of space—all on a contract basis. They balance the immediate rewards of a quick buck against their need to maintain their reputation, so that they can continue to quickly secure lucrative contracts and pay the upkeep on their ship and their cyber- and viroware enhancements.

GM: Neil Ford Number of players: 6 Slot: Morning, Afternoon, and perhaps Evening

Cthulhu Dark

Ad Astra

London, 1887. Something is growing in the slums of Bethnal Green. Some might call it a new religion, others may see it as a political movement. Those in power see it as dangerous, but those caught up in it see it as salvation. And you? You are as close to the centre of it as it is possible to be. Will this be your destruction or will it take you to the stars themselves?

GM: Scott Dorward

Number of players: 4

Slot: Evening

Dead of Night

The Future Generation

Lewisham, 1979. The third year of Meadhall Secondary School are going through some changes. Puberty has brought some unexpected side-effects, and their bodies and minds are changing in ways that their biology teacher never mentioned, some for the better, some for the worse. The driven ones are finding new ways to use these abilities to try to get the things they've always wanted, no matter who gets hurt. Your world is becoming a very dangerous place, and that's without thinking about the black vans that seem to be following you, or those creepy little fuckers in the second year who don't seem to need to use words to speak to each other…

This uses a slightly modified version of Dead of Night, designed for player characters with unnatural abilities.

GM: Scott Dorward

Number of players: 5

Slot: Afternoon

Dungeon World

A hack of Apocalypse World for dungeon bashes.

Un-GM: Indie Pete

Dust Devils

Redemption

Two weeks ago, William Benton visited Anna Mercer. She laughed at his small pecker, he slashed her face. Joseph paid Mary Knox for her loss of earnings as Anna can’t work no more. William is now paying him back. He’s just arrived in town with the latest installment: a lot, from selling stolen cattle. But Anna and her friends have scraped together a reward for his death, and Charles Sanford has arrived in town to do the deed. The PCs are all intimately involved with one or more of these characters, and everyone has guns. What are the chances of death and mayhem?

GM: Neil Smith

Number of players: 4

Slot: Afternoon or evening

GURPS

On Queen Kelirehenna's Secret Service

Sto Lat is widely considered a rather dull place, but Queen Keli and her adviser, Igneous Cutwell, need people to keep it that way. That's your job. You're twenty miles from Ankh-Morpork, it's dark, and you can wear what you like - but should you or any of your team be killed or captured, Queen Keli may become quite annoyed.

And Mr Cutwell doesn't want that.

This game features material bound for the planned second edition of the Discworld Roleplaying Game. 5 players; no specific experience required.

GM: Phil Masters

Number of players: 5

Slot: Undetermined

Bughunt: Sawiris

The colony in the Sawiris system has fallen out of contact. Maybe they've just had some technical problems and you can relax for a few days while the Lieutenant fixes things. Or maybe not.

GM: Roger Burton West

Number of players: 5

Slot: Undetermined

Love in the Time of Seið

Love in the Time of Seið is a low-prep, quick playing story game. This game provides very strong situation and guidance. There are five tightly-interconnected characters, compelling locations and events, and everything you need to get to the good stuff immediately. In a Norse-themed fantasy kingdom on the brink of ruin, who will gain power and who will win love? What price will they pay, and what other plans does fate have in store?

Un-GM: Indie Pete

Players: 3-4

Slot: Morning

Tags: GM-less, structured freeform

Never to Die

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Another gig, another after party; you're all young, famous and rich, a chart topping boyband with a string of hits and a fanatical following of girls, young women and gay men. You're on fire and the papers love giving you coverage.

Tonight, it all ends, because candles that burn brighter also burn shorter... Tonight is the night that tragedy strikes and brings an end to all your dreams.

Never to Die is a game about a lad's night out in a typical British city; the player's take on the roles of the lads, who look for fun, test their courage and strengthen their bonds with their mates. The GM is the City and portrays everyone, everywhere & everything the lads encounter. It's like a chav dungeon crawl, but it ends in a tragedy when one of the lads goes too far and something happens that ends not only that night out but all their nights out together as lads.

Each lad is based on an archetype and they interact with each other by giving dice to or taking them from other lads when they roll to do something; this can cost a lad something or give them a bonus. The City has a limited amount of challenge to face the lads with it; when it runs out, the tragedy occurs and the game wraps up.

Warning: This game is rated '18' for strong language, violence, alcohol/drug references and sexual situations.

GM: James Mullen

Number of players: 4-6

Slot: Morning

Mansions of Madness

Struggles against the Cthulhu Mythos

Mansions of Madness is a multiplayer board game that pits a team of investigators against the evil lurking in a hidden house. Can you unravel the clues before all is lost ?

GM: Andrew Nicholson

Number of players: 2-4

Slot: Afternoon

Shadowrun (3ed)

Music in the Shadows

Details to follow!

GM: Mark "Mist77"

Number of players: 2-4

Slot: Afternoon, but finishing around 7.00pm.

A Taste for Murder

In an English country house, someone is about to commit a murder. Even they do not know what they are about to do.

A Taste For Murder is a roleplaying game for four to six players. As you go through the game, your relationships with the other characters get more and more screwed up. By the end of the first act, someone’s relationships will give them a motive for murder and their victim will then take on the role of Inspector Chapel for the second act, who solves the murder and brings the perpetrator to justice.

GM: James Mullen

Number of players: 4-6 (including me!)

Slot: Afternoon

Unknown Armies

Happy Families

A meeting has been arranged in a lonely, run-down motel off Route 89 in Arizona. It is not a meeting that should change the world. The outcome should affect few people other than those in attendance. It is only meant to be a simple exchange.

Nothing is ever that simple, though. Everyone lies. Everyone has their own agendas. Everyone has a secret. And sometimes not even the players know what the stakes are.

Please note that while this game uses the setting from Unknown Armies, the mechanics will be those from Hot War. Some knowledge of the UA setting would be beneficial, but is not essential.

GM: Scott Dorward

Number of players: 4

Slot: Morning

Until We Sink

All the characters are either natives or holiday guests on a tiny resort island in the Pacific Ocean. A couple of natives and some guests – and a fishing enthusiast, who is found dead just before the game starts – are the only people on the island. The climate is warm and pleasant, but a little humid. People keep talking of a coming storm. And the island is slowly but surely sinking into the ocean. Play consists of the characters just chatting about the island, the inclement weather, and various events on cards revealed during the game.

Un-GM: Indie Pete

Players: 3-4

Tags: chatting, sinking, dead-gulls-with-nails-through-their-heads, so-hippie-I-bet-even-neil-smith-has-not-played-it