Games we have played

These are games we have played previously at the club.

Block 1: 13 February 2024 – 2 April 2024

Odyssey of the Dragonlords (continued)

Dramatic Pitch – Thylea is a foreign land, set across a great expanse of ocean. Great Beasts wander her plains, and fey creatures haunt her woods. Centaur tribes war for control on the steppes, and reptilian savages battle across her islands. Settlers have struggled to survive on this land at the beginning, forever having to choose between appeasing the cruel Twin Titans or fighting a losing battle against the land’s natives. In time on Thylean shores arrived great champions of the old world, the Dragonlords! They heralded an upheaval and overthrew the Titans, and thus the Oath of Peace was forged and so followed 500 years of peace. The Oath of Peace is now coming undone and the Titans once again tighten their grip upon the mortals…

NOTE: The game will follow the pre-published modules with homebrew elements and stories mixed in. Playable classes and races from other D&D publications welcome!

Game details

• (continued; Returning Players have priority)
• System: D&D 5e
• Players: 4–6
• Location: In Person
• Level: Starting at 14

Journeys through The Radiant Citadel (continued)

Halcyon, the fractured Dawn Incarnate, has tasked our band of eclectic adventurers, known as Owl Patrol, with gathering the scattered crystals of it's being, and return them to their full form. Having removed Tirras Brokenhorn, a large player in the criminal underbelly of the Radiant Citadel, Owl patrol now look to help appoint a potentially better replacement in Madame Samira Arah. Samira is aware of the group's quest to reunite Halcyon and, as the leader of the Guild of Jewellers, has access to the piece of Halcyon they require. She is willing to give the Bastite piece over to Owl Patrol, if they help her become one of Zinda's ruling elite, the Kings of Coin.

This could be the game for you if you like: Glittering night markets, undersea cities, angel-ruled city states, and a rich tapestry of stories in never-before-seen lands.

Game details

• GM: John Holton
• System: 5e
• Players: 3-6 (with returning players having priority)
• Location: In person

Wicker Valley (continued)

Wicker Valley is a small rural town known for its festivals and charming B&B’s. On the outskirts of the Wicker Forest National Park, it sees a lot of hikers and nature enthusiasts year round. Of course, sometimes hikers don’t always make it out of that forest. Lately it seems nature has been a lot more dangerous.

Will you be a Hunter like the Winchester boys, a government agent like Mulder or Scully, or The Chosen One like Buffy. Because the monsters are real and someone needs to step up and protect the regular folks.

Game details

• System: Monster of the Week
• Players: 3-5
• GM: Heather
• Location: In Person

Urban Legends

Somewhere in London, there is a gate to the world of the fae, if you know the way to pass through it; as this is a potential security breach in the UK's borders, it is guarded day & night. As the whole thing is sodding useless and pointless, it is guarded by the dregs of the security service, the ones who can't be sacked outright but also aren't relied upon to do any real work.

Our tech doesn't work in the fae country and their magic doesn't work here, so the few sad exiles & immigrants from the Shining Realm who have settled in London are also the responsibility of those who guard the gate, as they pose almost no threat at all.

Then an impossible crime takes place in London and it looks like magic is involved; also there are whispers in the fae community of London of a secret cabal who have found a way to restore their magic. It's all dismissed as crap by the higher-ups at MI5, so the only ones with the time and interest to look into it are the operatives who no-one else listens to anyway.

Inspired by the Slow Horses TV series, this is a tale of down & out security agents taking up a mission that no-one else wants or believes in, while also navigating the tangled course of their own private lives

Game details

• System: Primetime Adventures (focus on character background & traits, episodic sessions that spotlight one particular PC at a time)
• Players: 4 or 5 (New players welcome)
• DM: James Mullen
• Location: National Film & Sci-Fi Museum
• Contents: Bad language, violence, sex & drug references, ethical questions

A Thousand Words

In the city of Everway, home to seventy gates to other worlds, a painting has been stolen from the home of a wealthy member of the Weaver family. No-one can remember what the painting looks like, but everyone who saw it knows what it made them remember.

In another world, in the realm of Black Base, a monastery attracts the spiritually lost, including a ghost. But the Duke of Black Base wants the monastery closed and everyone to leave.

Moving between worlds, the Order of the Silver Nail is on the trail of an absolver, a vampire that feeds on emotions.

Everway is a game based on images, symbols, and the logic of myths. Characters are powerful people, touched by magic, and have the ability to walk between worlds. Characters are defined by scores in four Elements (Air, Earth, Fire, and Water), their Powers, and, most importantly, their Virtue, Flaw, and Fate. We'll use tarot-like cards for resolution, interpreting the cards to guide our narration of what happens next.

This will be a character-led and character driven story. Each hero will have their own goals, their own struggles, and their own destiny. Each player will write a Kicker for their character, some recent event that's upturned their life and is compelling them into action. There's no "party" of player-heroes, but they'll all be tightly connected to the ongoing situation. As play progresses, the characters will intersect and interact.

You may want to look at the free Gateway book for a primer on the game and the setting.

Same page description

• Who prepares the story? No-one plans anything. PCs and NPCs just do what seems right at that moment. This might or might not lead to a good story.
• What can players contribute to the story/setting? Their character's thoughts, actions, and backstory, plus anything else that meets the group's approval and follows from their powers.
• The rules (including agreed house rules) will be: followed, come what may.
• Player characters are: pursuing their own agendas. They might work together, they might work against each other.
• How brutal is the game? What's at stake is clear in each conflict.
• Doing the smartest thing for your character's survival: sometimes isn't as important as other choices.
• After many sessions of play, during one session, a player decides to have her character side with an enemy. This is: a meaningful moment, powerful and an example of excellent play.

Game details

• GM: Neil Smith
• System: Everway
• Players: 3-5
• Location: in person, masks preferred
• Safety tools: X-card, Lines & Veils

Welcome to New Mossgrove

Evera Prime: A far flung outpost of humanity, where Mechs and futuristic tech once dominated society.

Now, the world is in ruins. The Machines violently turned against their creators. Though Humanity won, it was at a heavy price.

In the aftermath of the war, factions like the Archivists and Dreamers work together to rebuild Evera Prime. They reconnect communities through trade and mutual assistance, and scavenge the ruins of the old world in order to build a new future.

But dangers lurk everywhere. The spectre of the dark city casts a long and ominous shadow. Dormant Mechs are reactivating. There are even rumours that the corrupted AI, the Builder, continues to scheme and plot against humanity. Do you dare to dream?

Dreams and Machines Dreams and Machines is a recently arrived system from Modiphius. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where remains of old technology and big machines are to be found. Think "Horizon, Zero Dawn - the RPG, that didn't get the license". The players will play a group of explorers going out into the wild to try and find salvage or other valuable resources. The wilds are suitably dangerous...

I am entirely new to the system, but have run 2d20 games before. We will start with the starter set and then see where the story takes us. I do like to give space to character play and story telling over tactical battle map sessions.

Important note: there will be fewer sessions with no game on Feb 20th, Mar 5th and Mar 19th. If desired, we can move these sessions online, but that is subject to discussion.

Same page description

• Who prepares the story? The GM with plenty of sandboxy room for the players to take the story in new directions
• What can players contribute to the story/setting? Their character's thoughts, actions, and backstory, plus anything else that meets the group's approval and follows from their powers.
• The rules (including agreed house rules) will be: seen as guidelines and advice to help tell the story.
• Player characters are: pursuing their own agendas. They might work together, they might work against each other.
• How brutal is the game? It can be brutal and deadly, judging by other 2d20 games, but should be suitably heroic
• Doing the smartest thing for your character's survival: sometimes isn't as important as other choices.
• After many sessions of play, during one session, a player decides to have her character side with an enemy. This is: a meaningful moment, powerful and an example of excellent play.

Game details

• GM: Frank Graeff
• System: Dreams and Machines 2d20
• Players: 3-5
• Location: in person
• Safety tools: X-card, Lines & Veils

Horror on the Orient Express (continued)

MAN DIES THREE TIMES IN ONE NIGHT!

A puzzling headline begins a front-page article found in the Times of London. Three men, all identical in identification, were found dead in the same room of the Chelsea Arms Hotel. All were dispatched in a similar manner stabbed through the heart.

Then the home of a valued friend burns to the ground, severely injuring him in the process. An odd summons, a surreptitious meeting, and a thousand-mile journey begins on the legendary rail service carrying the investigators to Constantinople, the Gateway of the Orient.

Horror on the Orient Express is one of the legendary Call of Cthulhu campaigns. It contains up to nineteen adventures spanning several eras. The majority of the story takes place in the 1920s, with a number of optional scenarios occurring in different eras. The main campaign sees the investigators journey to Paris and thence to the ancient city of Constantinople. With luck, they also return home.

This adventure ran at the club some years ago, and took around 18 months to complete (without many of the optional modules). I don't expect players to have to commit to the whole campaign - as the story follows the rail route across Europe a player who misses part of the story can easily rejoin - if they don't mind missing out on the plot, of course!

Game details

• Rules System: Call of Cthulhu 7th
• Players: 4–6
• GM: Amy Hewitt