An online convention featuring the GUMSHOE system, trying to show case GUMSHOE 2e. My two favorite games were Fire From Heaven and The Collector (but only if you're ok with body horror). Of the two, I'd give The Collector the edge due to the ick factor.
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Sat Sept 19, 7-11am (4 hrs)
Fire From Heaven
System: Fall of Delta Green
GM: SamuraiHaiku (section9)
5 Players: Casper D (as Cpl Joe "Coyote" Wiley), GrayShire (Gemma as Bill Chance - CIA), Joe L (as Cpt Carter), Morgan Hua (as Buchanan - RAND/Linguist)
Operation HUCKLEBERRY: Locate and destroy an ancient temple in the "Riverless Land" of Vietnam. A previous team was assigned and failed. The few survivors reported the presence of a suspected sorcerer. It's up to you now. Recover traces of the first mission, eliminate the sorcerer, destroy the temple.
I play tested a scenario in the core book a long time ago, but it didn't have that much shooting in it. I also played in a convention scenario, but I think the GM didn't do Lethality properly, automatic weapons were weak sauce. We did this time and it worked very well. 1L weapons means roll 1d6 for damage, if you roll a 1, the target is dead; if you 2 or more, it's the die roll +5 damage. 2L weapons means roll 1d6 for damage, if you roll a 1 or 2, the target is dead; if you roll a 3 or more, it's the die roll +10 for damage which will probably kill whatever you're shooting at.
Excellent GM who was very good with succinct descriptions of Vietnam War era details. Good table of Players. Scenario was a lot of fun which tied in to our back stories.
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A previously failed OPERATION TOM SAWYER. Some survivors, some new meat for the grinder. Add time travel fluctuations, NVA, and Tcho-Tcho, stir in PCs.
We go in-country via helicopters. A long flight, outside of Vietnam and into Laos. When we land, we get incoming fire. Once safe, we follow our given path to the Riverless Land. On the way, we run into a Tcho-Tcho village. Find a survivor from the previous operation, but now a grandfather (after only 6 months). We recruit local guides.
At some point we get ambushed by the NVA Col Tran Fu we're supposed to kill (secondary objective). Him and other copies of him, old and young, attack us. We kill a number of him and drive the rest away.
On the way, we get flashes of the past and future. We get to standing stones, cross over, get more time flashes, then see the ziggurat with a blue flame on top. We make a plan, get to the top and kill the uber-NVA Col Fu. Things didn't go according to plan, shooting him just killed other versions of him, I dropped a C4 charge into the blue flame, the explosion got sucked into the past and blasted the TOM SAWYER team, Bill in a last ditch effort grabbed Fu and vanished. Coyote demolished the temple with explosives (our primary objective).
In the end, the Tcho-Tcho are waiting for us, the celestial meat. Fade to black. (In one of the flash forwards, my PC is helping them hunt down Coyote. Some of the flash forwards show that all the PCs survived.)
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Sat Sept 19, 12-4pm (4 hrs)
The Gadget
System: TimeWatch
GM: markk
5 Players: Theo R (as Kelfala a starship captain), Martin E (as Skegg a psychic dinosaur), Morgan Hua (as Vidvhansaka-5 a T-1000)
When TimeWatch agents are sent back to 1945 New Mexico contain a rogue woolly mammoth, a seemingly routine mission uncovers stakes far higher than any of them expected.
Safety Tools: Lines & Veils; X-Card
Content Warnings: None specified
I rarely get to play TimeWatch, so it was great to get a chance to play. It was only at the very end that I realized I had run this scenario before. But I still had fun. The other two players had never played TimeWatch before.
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Dressed up as a carnival barker, I waved at the mammoth and called it Dumbo. The other PCs drove our stolen car, and taunted the mammoth, so it'd follow us out of town. We tired it out, healed it, and led it back through the time rift it came from.
Once in town, we told the local paper to print up a full page ad, telling the locals to apply for damages and we'd make them whole as our circus had insurance. We'd make sure to fund the fake insurance later, so no one would be out of pocket.
We also noted another connected area with the same chrono-instability. A military base where the Trinity A-Bomb was tested. It and Don Hornig was missing. Chrono-tons pointed back to where the mammoth had come from.
We found a fortified base there running a time tunnel. We infiltrated and found Dr Elaine Bree running the base, selling various WMDs and forwarding them to a rich future guy who was a brain in a box. We convinced Dr Bree to help us; making a tape of herself telling her past self to help us. Instead of stealing the A-Bomb, we got her to steal a fake A-Bomb from our fake movie set (super preparedness). Then we snuck into the fake A-Bomb which was then sent to the rich guy.
Once in the future, we were going to ambush the rich guy and his body guard, but giant cockroaches from the future came to steal the A-Bomb (this was when I realized I had run this scenario before). We had a 3-way fight. In the end, we prevailed. Mind-wiped the brain, made him not want to collect WMDs. Took his WMDs. Shutdown the time tunnel. Done.
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Sat Sept 19, 5-9pm (4 hrs)
Hammer of the Gods
System: Trail of Cthulhu 2e
GM: Zack H
5 Players: Joe L (as Lenfield - archaeologist), Casper D (as Dashwood - PI), Jason (as Tobbet - parapsychologist), Thomas B (as Witzenger - scientist), Morgan Hua (as Morrow - journalist)
Stop the Nazis from reaching a primordial artifact in this Pulp scenario.
Safety Tools: X-Card; Lines & Veils
Content Warnings: None specified
PCs started off in Boston 1937.
We had a good GM and table. The scenario was a bit difficult for a 4 hr slot. We ended in a TPK at the very end. I enjoyed this. We had that one Player who never played ToC and thought this was CoC 2e. I don't think he ever really got it, even though we explained ToC to him.
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A professor's daughter asks us for help. He's gotten progressively paranoid. He's also gotten an invitation to a seminar in Germany, but doesn't intend to go. She also tells us she thinks someone has been following her.
We go to the professor's house, note a car staking his house out. We approach, but the car speeds off. We try to get inside, but he refuses to let us in. His daughter heads towards his house with groceries, but the car drives by and kidnaps her. Some PCs still try to get into the house; Others go after the kidnappers.
PCs follow the kidnappers to a pub, full of Nazis. My journalist and Tobbet try to get past the bouncer, but succeed in distracting them as Dashwood sneaks in the back and rescues her. While inside, Dashwood sneaks into the basement and finds travel plans to Iceland. PCs leave the pub.
Meanwhile, other PCs can't convince the professor to let them in. Cops arrive trying to arrest the PCs, PCs notice the cops have German names, the PCs flee. When they return, they find the front door blasted in, the house ransacked, and the professor dying in slow motion. Someone pulls the professor out of the slow-mo electrocution, I apply First Aid. It's enough for him to tell his daughter that he loved her and to give us a clue.
We race to Iceland, but the Nazis get to the artifact location first, but can't unlock the mystic door. They're doing a ritual with the wrong pitch. I wanted to just wait them out, but Lenfield convinced us to open the door. The doorway opens and the Nazis enter. We blow up the snow and bury the entrance. Something horribly goes wrong inside the location, eldritch things come out and kill us and the whole world. The End.
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Sun Sept 20, 7-11am (4 hrs)
The Collector
System: Fear Itself 2e
GM: Scott Carss
5 Players: Martin E (as Terrence Kennedy - retired cop), Gareth A (as Marcus Bradley - unemployed), Morgan Hua (as Megan Kwan - air traffic controller)
In the wrong place at the wrong time. The investigators must decipher the desires of an inhuman force if they want any hope of survival. In a race against time they must dig up secrets long hidden and decide what they're willing to do for freedom.
Safety Tools: X-Card; Lines & Veils discussion
Content Warnings: Body horror; gore; violence
Excellent GM, good table of Players. The details in the clue trails were pretty amazing. The scenario is from The Ocean Game, very creepy, highly recommended. Some extreme body horror that sqwicked me out, but in a good way. I watch a lot of horror movies and it takes a lot to make me squeamish. GM did this without pictures and without long graphic descriptions. As I said, Excellent!
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PCs and one NPC are on a train. Then a strange conductor shows up and demands a Tic-x from the NPC. NPC says she doesn't have anything more to give. PCs are frozen in time. PCs each experience a vision. The conductor reaches into her and pulls her lungs out, they dissolve into small pieces of meat and dust. The conductor asks us for tickets.
Each one of us fall into a fugue state and have visions. When we unfreeze, my PC keeps on hearing a boxing bell ring. One PC woke up with his face all battered. Another with the knuckles on his fists all damaged.
Police are called. Terrence goes through the dead girl's purse and finds her ID. There's no visible wound on her. CCTV doesn't show the conductor and only that the girl just slumped into her seat.
PCs gather at the train platform and talk about their odd experience and share contact info. Boxing seemed to be a common theme in our visions. When we didn't have a ticket, the conductor took an item from each of us.
We investigate the dead girls place, urban legends about the conductor who we now know is "The Collector," a dead boxer, stolen boxing gloves, old apprentices, mob connections, lawyers, dead thieves, other people with missing body parts, etc. All the clues were very detailed. We got all manner of specific information about boxing events which I didn't expect.
Meanwhile, The Collector shows up asking for Tickets, and taking our valued possessions or pieces of us. I lost all my toes from a foot. Terrence his mother (while he was hugging her, she turned into a swirl of shredded meat and dust, totally devastating). Marcus, his upper lip (this was totally horrible as we went to a bar and realized Marcus couldn't eat or drink, not even with a straw; we gave him a N95 mask to hide his deformity).
We stole boxing gloves (crashing a car into a bar and smashing a display case) and found they weren't what The Collector wanted (I lost an eye and Terrence lost his femur, punishment for offering the wrong item.) Soon, Marcus got a call from his sister complaining that their mother wasn't answering the door.
In the end, we chopped off the hands of a retired boxer, a murderer who had beaten someone to death. I in turn had beaten his head in with an iron concealed in a purse (I had a bout of madness).
The game ended with cops arriving at a retirement home, car crashed into the front, orderlies hurt and battered, and three blood splattered strangers gathered around a body. We're going for the insanity defense.
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Sun Sept 20, 12-4pm (4 hrs)
Kill the Dead
System: Night's Black Agents
GM: Zack H
5 Players: David J (as Nazar the Gorilla - wetworker), Kitty (as Dr Lena Meyhew), Morgan Hua (as Orizio Stolo - Vatican Banker)
You're professional assassins, specialising in an obscure but extremely profitable niche of that grisly business. You kill the targets who can't be killed, the one who shrug off sniper bullets and smile as they swallow poison. You're vampire slayers for hire - have stake, will travel.
And it's time to go to work.
Safety Tools: X-Card; Lines & Veils
Content Warnings: None specified
Good GM and good table of Players. Scenario was interesting with a new variant of Vampire. Zack ran Hammer of the Gods earlier, but this time, his pacing during the final fight was a bit lacking, somehow I felt the final fight ran at the pace of molasses. The clue gatherings scenes were all excellent.
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We're hired to kill a Vampire. Our contact seemed a bit sketchy, but I didn't care. We did research and surveillance. Found his hotel and bugged it. Found out the target was associated with bio-engineered plants. Previous attempts to kill him (sniper and grenade) didn't. He was also interested in an auction the next day.
Auction items of interest were books from an abandoned house. PCs got access to the books, but they didn't seem to be of note, though we weren't allowed to touch them. So, we visited the house, found strange plants downstairs (took samples of them and the dirt), checked out the burnt out upstairs and got attacked by an animated gargoyle (Golem? as the house was Jewish). We fled.
Outside was a gardener's truck with traces of the same plant, but no gardener. Most likely the body found in the burned out upstairs was his, though the body was attributed to the owner of the house.
After the auction, we follow the Vampire and his entourage to the house, he sends in a kill team, there's automatic gun fire, and remnants of the kill team flee.
With some science, we figured out an extract of the plant fed to a human reduces the toxicity, so a Vampire can safely feed. The human will die. We figure out the toxin mixed with cancerous cells (we picked blood cancer from a research lab) could be put into special bullets.
While on the way to the research lab, neo-Nazis skinheads chase us, we lose two of the cars, but windup in a shoot out with the last car. One of the skinheads was a Vampire. We finally knocked him down (0 HP) and I staked him. Dr Meyhew took blood samples, so we could test our toxin.
The process for making the mutagenic toxin take 24 hrs. We tested it out and it worked. We also learned that the plant-Vampires would regenerate even if 5% of their bodies remained.
Our plan, load our guns with the toxic bullets. Nazar would be in the church tower overlooking the Vampire's hotel. Dr Meyhew and I would be on the ground in a car as backup. Nazar was able to also plant a car bomb with a remote detonator.
As the Vampire is leaving with his entourage, Nazar shoots him in the head, but he doesn't go down. The Vampire and his bodyguard proceed to climb the church tower. Meyhew shoots the Vampire. I shoot the bodyguard, but he's wearing body armor and my shot doesn't go through. Meyhew gets gunned down (unconscious) by various guards. Nazar kills the Vampire who falls off the tower. I drive over a guard and stake the Vampire. Nazar kicks the bodyguard off the tower and he goes splat. I drive off and First Aid Meyhew. Nazar sets off the car bomb and meets us at the safehouse.
Mission accomplished.
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Sun Sept 20, 5-9pm (4 hrs)
Blue on Blue
System: Mutant City Blues 2e
GM: David Graham
5 Players: Zack H (as Liam Hawthorne - spatial/teleport), Jerod L (as Milo Ashton - tech/cognition), patrick j (as Travis Blake - superman), Morgan Hua (as Emily Clark - touch/phasing)
When the mutant detectives of the Heightened Crimes Investigation Unit respond to a demonstration gone awry, the investigation leads them to the death of the first mutant cop in the city's history. Can the detectives solve the mystery, or will they become a killer's next victims?
Safety Tools: X/N/O Card; Luxton Technique, including DM/whisper
Content Warnings: TV-14 equivalent; mentions of suicide
GM was a bit long winded taking a bit too much time explaining things; I asked some basic questions which took the GM several paragraphs to answer instead of a single sentence. A good table of Players and a good scenario from the core book. The game did feel very much like a police procedural.
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Game starts off with a protest in front of our precinct. A young woman, Angie, is advocating for mutant rights and claims that "the man" wants mutants dead. On her t-shirt is a picture of the first mutant police officer Adrian Markovie who had died of suicide, 9 years ago. She flies up and breaks off a flag pole, trying to rally the protesters. Travis gets some coffee and flies up to her and talks her down. She gets arrested. The riot is snipped in the bud.
PCs are told to investigate the protest and figure out who's behind it. PCs agree amongst themselves to investigate the suicide of Adrian, see if it was suicide or a cover up. Travis is sent to talk to Angie. He's able to talk to her a little before a high end lawyer shows up, to Angie's surprise.
I get all the case files for Adrian's suicide and it looks like a perfunctory job was done. So, I go with Liam to the Adrian's widow. Liam's spatial skills tells us Adrian didn't commit suicide, someone else was the trigger man. An unknown liquid was also found all over Adrian's clothing (possible laundry detergent [original cop report], webbing residue [our assessement]). I get out of the widow that Adrian had an affair with Sandra Pride, another mutant who he had met through a support group. The widow also gives us some boxes of Adrian's stuff. Inside were xerox copies of case files for a series of unsolved burglaries, "The Glitch Cases."
PCs hunt down leads and figure out that members of the support group was responsible for the "Glitch" burglaries. Because Adrian figured this out, he was murdered.
We went ahead and arrested them all for the burglaries. Charged them for the murder too. Adrian's name gets cleared (he was murdered trying to solve a series of crime vs suicide). The potential riot is defused. Adrian was killed by mutants, not cops.
We later learn that we did get the right suspects for the burglaries. The murder was only committed by one of them, but on the orders of their mastermind (who orders the sacrifice of the triggerman in order to avoid being fingered). But hey, we're only supposed to get the evidence and arrest them. It's up to the DA and jury to figure out if they're guilty or not.
Another free online convention. Monte Cook's Cypher system.
I'm sort of lukewarm on the Cypher system, but I wanted to play more of it with different GMs.
I played in Old Gods which was still the older Cypher system. Three games which were using the new Evolved Cypher system. Six-Gun Doomsday was based on the older Cypher system.
I was impressed by the variety of settings, each using Cypher. Definitely easier to use than GURPS. The new Evolved Edition did clean up a number of issues I had with the old Cypher system. Gone is the required order of Recoveries, you can use any Recovery in any order. Though a number of the experienced GMs said everybody house ruled this, now it's an official rule. Instead of the pools being your HPs, you have 3 new wound tracks; this worked a lot better, but did make the PCs fairly unkillable, or at least in the games I played in. With the original system of HPs equal to your pools, the death spiral was too steep. I did like the changes.
I felt Tier 2 PCs were much more powerful than Tier 1 (starting) PCs. Though powerful Cyphers in The Neon Saint Remembers and Gnash Their Terrible Teeth made the PCs distinctly more powerful. The most powerful PCs was in Neon Saints with lots of tech and heavy weaponry. It's Only Magic was the next with magic abilities. Then Puffypants Playhouse with all the gags we picked up (they didn't count as Cyphers for our carrying limit). Then Six-Gun Doomsday with our abilities and Cyphers. Finally, Old Gods as we were mostly normal people with a few Cyphers.
I look forward to the next Cypher convention as the variety of settings is amazing and the system plays better than before (but still not my favorite system due to the Task Difficulty 3x math for Target Numbers).
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Descendants of a town's founding families must perform a ritual to bind the Blackbrook beast, a creature their ancestors made a bargain with - and betrayed.
Physical or digital dice welcome
Beginner and Established Player Friendly
Overall, a good adventure. A good table of Players.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
PCs find themselves on the shore of the river without any memory of going there. Soon, the curse of the Blackbrook beast turns a small patch of our skin scaly. Only one PC made their save throw.
JC Harris stayed at the brook to make a cypher from the mud for some protection.
Lulie went home to pick up a charm that protected the wearer (member's of the original bloodlines) from mental attacks by the Blackbrook beast, made by Autumn Abernathy. I asked and found that all the PCs belong to the original bloodlines.
The rest of the PCs break into the library looking for Autumn Abernathy's effects and journals, but find only an unopened letter addressed to Granny Badstone, the journals are missing. Meanwhile, Lulie runs interference with the local Deputy, stepping in front of his car on patrol and then wasting his time and talking to him. He finds out the Plunkett brothers (local bullies) have been up to no good, breaking into the library and Hurly's General Store, but was stopped by Tipple the Cat.
PCs visit Granny and delivers the letter, but she tells the PCs the original families have broken their promises and deserve the punishment of the Blackbrook beast. The deal was the families were to protect and keep the river clean, in exchange they were to get prosperity and progress. The sawmill and the mines have polluted the land and river. The curse strikes again and JC develops gills.
PCs visit Hurly's General Store. JC talks to her mother (who plays the mandolin) about the Blackbrook beast, she vaguely remembers mention of a ritual that requires an Eye, Power, Sound, and Guide to bind the beast. Lulie asks Tom Hurly about Tipple's brave adventure and learned that the Plunkett brothers might have been trying to steal the taxidermy bear's remaining eye. Tipple is very protective and hangs out in the bear's mouth. It's also full of piss and vinegar. I tried to give it a treat.
PCs get past the warded cemetery attached to the sawmill. Perform a Ouija board seance on August Abernathy's grave and learn that we needed the eye of a bear (a fresh one is good, but a taxidermy glass eye is ok), a creature of the dark (Skin Tom located at the Plunkett farm), music from an instrument shellacked by a water beast, and Granny Badstone.
One of the PCs convinced Granny Badstone to help (with an ability). We go to the Plunkett farm, and find Skin Tom had skinned the Plunkett brothers. We cut a deal with him to help us. I steal the bear's eye (with a Shadow ability) avoiding Tipple. JC gets her mother to bring her mandolin (spent 2 XP to make the mandolin an heirloom with the right shellac which makes sense because earlier generations had cast the ritual before).
PCs succeed with the ritual, our scaly skin and JC's gills disappear. PCs start an environmental group to cleanup the waters, hoping to affect change before the next ritual is required, whereupon we could cut a new deal.
GM tells us Tipple can turn into a level 4 creature and it would have been amusing if we tried to take the eye. Which was funny because that's what I expected when I was told Tipple scared off the Plunkett brothers. I figured it transformed into some sort of monster cat. And I had mentioned this earlier to the others.
Five children have vanished without a trace, and the only clue is a hit animated show leaving young viewers in unstoppable, hypnotic laughter. The Estate is sending your team undercover as Netflix corporate lawyers to investigate. But the moment you arrive on-site, the investigation spirals into a cartoon nightmare.
Standard physics unravels and logic breaks down as you navigate a reality-bending gauntlet. Can you outmaneuver Professor PuffyPants and rescue the kids before the final credits roll?
No experience required (can be an introduction to Cypher)
Safety Tools: red light check + preamble questions
Trigger Warnings: cartoon violence
This was a great game. Lots of Toon fun. Very imaginative scenario.
My favorite game of the convention. Good Players, Good GM.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
Children have been mesmerized by Proffessor Puffypants Playhouse and a number have disappeared. PCs pretend to be lawyers and visit an apartment where a kid is mesmerized. The PCs are sucked into toon town. We turn into cartoon characters and fall thousands of feet.
Quinn spots a small bucket of water and dives into it. Jamie blows air into his thumb and balloons up his body and floats down like a leaf. Pheonix turns his noodle-like legs into springs and bounces on them.
Hundreds of kids are watching Puffypants onstage and all laugh in synchrony. Backstage, Puffypants' sidekick, Freddy Platypus, is despondent. He tells us Puffypants has gone over the deep end and needs to be stopped. Puffypants has put 4 items he despised to the 4 cardinal points and if we retrieve them, we can use them to defeat him.
1. Pout Potion of Weeping in the Willow Swamp. 2. Unfunny Scroll Paradox in the Gagreel Grave Yard. 3. Remote Control in the Cutting / Editing Room. 4. Terms of Service in the Legal Dept.
Being contrary, we did them in reverse order.
Legal Dept - we had to defeat various pieces of legal paper (User Agreement, Privacy Agreement, etc.) When we hit the "I agree" button, the paper would rollup into a scroll and fall to the ground. I refused to hit any of the buttons and would rather destroy them. Quinn was brave enough to accept various agreements. The last paper was Updated Terms of Service which Quinn "Accepted."
Cutting Room had animated giant scissors. Jamie snuck by them, but when he picked up the Remote Control, they attacked us. He was able to dodge a few of them and Pheonix set some of the celluloid on fire which distracted some of the scissors. We fled with the Remote Control.
Gagreel Grave Yard was protected by Laughing Hyenas. I told Hyena jokes (thank goodness for the internet) which made some Hyenas roll in laughter. Quinn and Jamie attacked the ones that didn't laugh. I had to tell a series of jokes. We got the Rick Paradox scroll.
Weeping Willow Swamp had these Rats of Unusual Sighs (ROUS) which were very depressed. Jamie petted them and gave them pep talks. Pheonix tried to convince the Weeping Willow to give up the Jar of Tears, but failed. Quinn gave it a shot and it worked, making the Weeping Willow untangle its roots from the jar. The Weeping Willow then extended its branches, so Pheonix gave it a warm hug (I guess I'm a tree hugger), and it pulled back more of its roots and revealed a Flag Gun.
Once we got all our quest items we returned to the center stage and Freddy tells us to attack Puffypants, and when he gives us the sign, we're to finish Puffypants off.
Using our items, plus other gags that we had picked up, we knock Puffypants down to 1 HP. Freddy then stands on a rake handle (there was a rain of rakes earlier) and gives Jamie the sign. Jamie steps on the rake and launches Freddy onto Puffypants' face, diaper butt first, and takes Puffypants out.
One of the gags was a Flag Gun that unfurls a BANG! flag. After use, 3 rounds later, "something" will happen. After stunning Puffypants with the Rick Paradox, I reminded the GM that it's been 3 rounds since the BANG! I rolled a 3 (on a d20), thinking that the higher the better, I was sorely disappointed. Then a grand piano fell on Puffypants doing massive damage. GM swore that's what a 3 is, he didn't fudge the result.
Once Puffypants was defeated, kids start vanishing. Freddy takes over the show (probably not a problem as Netflix cancels lots of new shows) and the PCs return home to find the kids aren't mesmerized anymore and the missing kids have returned.
On the street, some kids recognized the PCs as being on the very last Puffypants show.
A cyberpunk crew is hired to steal a predictive AI worshiped as a digital saint. The job should be simple: infiltrate the corporate cathedral, extract the AI, and escape. But once inside, the Saint begins returning memories the crew did not know were stolen and every recovered memory suggests this is not the first time they have tried to kill God.
The game is beginner friendly.
Content/Trigger Warnings: Cyberpunk violence, Strong language, Religious themes, Artificial intelligence, Memory manipulation, and difficult moral choices.
The netrunning system worked pretty cleanly because it was simple and used the same mechanics as everything else. Though it was still a 2-step process. Hack in (roll dice). Affect a system (roll dice). Whereas if a PC wanted to just attack something or affect something with a skill, they just rolled once.
Game was ok. Sneak in, eventually screw up, then bring out the violence, and more violence. PCs are pretty powerful. GM had lovely illustrations of various locations. Players were good tactical Players which was needed for this game.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
We had 3 choices of entry point as our heli was being intercepted: Helipad, Maintenance spire, or Cathedral main entrance. We chose the Maintenance spire.
As we break in and do things, we get flashes of memory, things we don't remember. This was the best bit as the PCs had to decide if what they're doing is the right thing or they're being manipulated. The bits of memory we had to read were a little bit too long (several paragraphs), but added a lot of flavor to what was going on.
We go through some maintenance areas, then to the main Cathedral, then to a Angel Delivery Hub, then elevator, then Main Memory, then Core AI, then escape. We were able to sneak all the way into the Main Memory. Then we had to deal with a few guards when our Netrunner finally failed several rolls. Then all hell broke loose.
We had to shoot the guards, disable the elevator, climb down the shaft, face massive resistance inside the Core AI. Most of the action happens here where we fight waves and waves of guards, automatic guns, black ICE, tougher guards, etc. The fight was exciting.
We got the AI and then instead of turning it in, we turned it loose to be free. We decided the memories we recovered were real and that the AI had helped us in the past. That giving it to our contractor wouldn't be a good idea.
GM gave us a map, but I think he took us through the cinematic tour as the rooms we went through didn't quite match the given map and our chosen route.
Overall, the game was fine for what it was.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sunday, August 23, 2026 9:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Gnash Their Terrible Teeth — It's Only Magic
System: Cypher
GM: ZealZaddy
5 Players (Tier 1 PCs): NicholasTerry (Nick as Axl Kihn - clumsy creative adept), solarpggames (Tom as Nell Wunch - appealing intelligent speaker), ElMagioso (as JJ "Medium" Bach - empathic adept who shepherds), dmkacey (Kimberley as Kitt Watts - dishonorable graceful explorer), Morgan Hua (as Fenix Purdy - impulsive brash adept)
A family friendly adventure taking place where wild things roam. The school has a sinkhole that everyone has been warned to stay away from—but at night you can hear sounds coming up from below. Forest sounds, and animal growls, and the gnashing of teeth. One of everyone’s best friend’s (Rowan) said they saw an eye peering up from below. Then they disappeared. So ‘somebody’ has to investigate.
Novices preferred and those who want a cozier experience.
safety tools: MCGs Consent in Gaming.
Trigger warnings: none
The setting is really Hogwarts and the PCs are The Holdovers during school break. That wasn't really indicated in the game description. All the PCs do magic. A good table of Players and a good scenario. We were up to some hijinks before we went into the sinkhole.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
PCs are stuck in school during break. Rowan wanders off, but the PCs decide to break into the Dean's office to change our grades. I said, we, but it was my PC's idea. I succeed in using a magic pen to update our grades, making B- to B+ and B to B+, etc. I also went through the Principle's Confiscation box and grabbed a Cypher, but I had my limit, so I gave it to Kitt who was a klepto anyway.
Kitt noticed through the window that Rowan had climbed into the sinkhole we were warned about.
We climb the chain link fence (to keep kids out) and find that Rowan had hid various personal items (I termed it junk) under a flat rock that Kitt tipped over. (GM gives us flashes of memory where we treated Rowan badly). I conclude that Rowan was going to commit suicide. JJ tried to contact Rowan's spirit in case he was dead. If he was, we weren't going into the sinkhole. His spirit didn't respond, so we knew he was alive.
Next step, into the sinkhole. I made the vines grow bigger and stronger before we climbed into the hole. At some point, we enter a giant cavern where there's stars above us and a cloud beneath us. We find we're feeling lighter. Kitt and I let go and float through the clouds. The others follow. Actually, Axl had to push JJ. Axl notices a key and grabs it. We land in a forest.
There are ferocious beasts in the forest who I distract with an illusion of a dancing cat wearing a top hat and cane. I notice a tree with a keyhole in it. The key opens up a door and we slip through. On the other side are Wild Things. The Wild Things are ungentle giants and even when they're trying to do kindly things, they could accidentally hurt us.
After some shenanigans including a conga line of Wild Things, we find Rowan, now King of the Wild Things. After much apologizing and threats by the Wild Things under the direction of Rowan, we convince Rowan to come back with us. His crown disappears.
The Uber Wild Thing, twice as large at the other ones, then gets pissed off that Rowan was leaving. It rouses the other Wild Things to attack us. We flee. Axl plants a bomb. And we barely get out, Nell and Kitt had to escape the clutches of the Uber Thing. After the bomb went off, I closed and locked the door behind us.
We climbed the trees, used telekinetic powers to push us into the clouds which made us lighter, and allowed us to reach the vines. Outside, Ms Anode, our art teacher (and minder) was waiting for us. Kitt told her that we saw Rowan go into the hole to save someone and we went in after him (and she rolled a nat 20). Kitt tells Rowan to help support her as she limped back towards the school. PCs head back to the school.
As the sinkhole mends itself and disappears, my PC, without turning around, waves the back of his hand at Ms Anode and announces, "Fixed it!"
The reconciliation with Rowan was really well done by all the Players. It was natural and heartfelt. I give big stars to all the Players for good roleplaying. My memory was that I off-handedly told Rowan to "Oh, grow up!" which hurt him greatly. It took me some effort to figure out how to apologize properly. My PC was brash and a bit unthinking, so I told Rowan, that you know I'm a bit brash and when I told him to grow up, it was unkindly and that I remember when I was told this myself it hurt my feelings too. I'm sorry I said that. Truly sorry. But we're also growing up and we make new friends, we lose friends (and I make an aside about how I'll probably lose touch with Kitt in the future), and make enemies. That Rowan losing our friendship is part of growing up. But we still cared, we went into the hole after him because we cared about him. There was still some more back and forth, but you get the drift.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sunday, August 23, 2026 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Let us, Prey—a Six-Gun Doomsday adventure
System: Cypher - Six-Gun Doomsday
GM: Shadomain (Jason C)
5 Players (Tier 1 PCs, 1 dropped out): Lolly3838 (as Elias Thornwind the shaman), qinqin0133 (Ibrahim as preacher Father Ripley), rainidae (bitterbudd as Selene the hunter), Morgan Hua (Mad Mack as graceful eccentric inventor)
The heroes begin desperately trying to escape a pursuing fiendish horror. The heroes meet as they attempt to escape, soon realizing that none will survive without working together. They flee through the ruins of a strange steam train which changes as they move through it.
The heroes are survivors of the weird western/horror apocalypse of the Six-Gun Doomsday setting.
List any specific book(s) being used: Six-Gun Doomsday. Players will have access to the Six-Gun Doomsday Players’ Guide PDF. Note that Six-Gun Doomsday was written using the CSRD 1, but makes several important rule changes to enable simpler and more dramatic play. It doesn't use the CSR ability pool damage system of the CYPHER wounds system, but a simpler “5 strikes and you’re out—probably?” system.
Pre-gen character sheets provided. Note that character sheets use the Six-Gun Doomsday character template system, which allows players to quickly customize their character’s abilities by answering three questions about their character.
Experience level required: beginner
Safety tools: MCG Consent in gaming PDF (PG 13 rating)
Trigger warnings: Gothic Horror, sometimes itching into a character’s past for horror. Potentially claustrophobia, although this can be veiled.
Pretty much railroady, but that was how it was described in the description, though we're really fleeing through train tunnels and we're not on the train. Scenario was run by the designer. Thought the scenario was ok and I enjoyed it. There was some good roleplaying, especially the annoying preacher. What's more annoying than a holier than thou preacher, a holier than thou preacher during the apocalypse (because he's right).
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
My PC is chased by a black void into a shack where there are other PCs. Before we can do anything, we drop through the floor into a train tunnel that slopes upwards. We find some equipment uphill and downhill of us is the sound of an approaching train. We take the stuff and flee.
We go through a series of locations and get pieces of a device. A school house, a tree house, and finally a farmhouse. In the farmhouse is a void knight. Behind us are rushing void buffalo.
The assembled device is a platform with a telegraph key (trigger), a telescope (sight), and a small rocket (weapon). We figure we need to shoot it at something, but we're not sure if it's the darkness chasing us or something else. In the school house was a cryptic clue: "You are drawn forward, not chased."
After a few rounds of fighting the void knight, I decide to shoot him (vs the buffalo). The rocket hits him and does enough damage to knock him down. Elias binds the knight to the floor with magic. And Father Ripley who had manifested Excalibur and was fighting as The Hulk, lands the killing blow. Meanwhile, void buffalo were running through the farmhouse and doing damage to us. Once the void knight was dead, the buffalo vanish and we show up at the exit of a train tunnel, outside is sunlight and a peaceful meadow.
Description: You play Jackie Chan's Squirrel, Samuel Jackson's Parrot, Snoop Dogg's Cat, Paris Hilton's Chihuahua, and Gary Busey's Dog. Your human is at some charity event and they abandon you at the hospitality suite. As the world spirals into collapse, you must work together to survive and travel to your wormiest heart of darkness.
Tone: Darkly Humorous (Dale & Tucker vs Evil, Evil Dead 2, Shaun of the Dead, Animal Farm)
Content Tags: Horror Tropes, Apocalyptic, Cannibalism, Harm to Animals, Drug Use (light), Political Satire (definite), Fowl Language (possibly)
The idea came to me for this when I learned about Gunther IV, a German Shepard, the richest animal in the world with $500 million. I also found there were other animals (Olivia Benson, Nala Cat) worth millions of dollars. At first I was going to build a game based on that, but then I realized it's not a big enough hook for roleplaying. (Sadly, it has been revealed that Gunther IV was a hoax created to cheat on taxes.)
So, what if I made a game about Pets of the Rich and Famous instead? Aha!
I scoured the internet for pictures of movie stars and their pets. I also wanted various animals and movies stars. So, I wound up with only two pictures of famous people with their pets: Paris Hilton and Snoop Dogg. I wound up photo-editing the other pictures. I had Wild Thang the ugliest dog in the world and since its been said that married couples start to look like each other (especially in choice of clothing and facial expression), I figured people and their pets would be the same, so Wild Thang reminded me of Gary Busey. I had a picture of a squirrel in a Kung Fu pose, so I immediately thought of Jackie Chan. I wanted a fowl-mouthed parrot (yes, a pun) and I immediately thought of Samuel Jackson. The only real animal names were Wild Thang and Tinkerbell, Paris Hilton's dog. Since Snoop Dogg likes to say D O double-G, I decided his cat was C A double-T.
So this was my line up: Byrd & Samuel Jackson, KFC (Kung Fu Chopstix) & Jackie Chan, Snoop Catt & Snoop Dogg, Tinkerbell & Paris Hilton, Wild Thang & Gary Busey.
By making the PCs the animals, the Players can do whatever they want with the PC, but the owner is just for inspiration. They didn't have to act like their human and it was up to interpretation.
Next up was what did I want to do with these PCs. Since all of the PCs are spoiled animals, conflict must come from adversity. What if the pampered animals are faced with survival? What if their world comes crashing down and they must figure out how to survive? What if it's not just their world, but the WHOLE world is crashing down. An apocalypse.
What challenges do they have to face? I listed them. What skills do they have? What system should I use? Recently, I had been running Alien RPG and Vaesen. Both use the Year Zero Engine (YZE). I decided it would work, system light, easy to learn, hard to kill or injure the PC.
I pared down the skill list and renamed some skills to be more animal-like: Fetch Stuff (gross motor skills), I Know This (figure out human tech), Find Food and Shelter (survival), Lick Wounds (healing).
Each Physical or Mental Condition reduces a PC's dice pool by one die in the respective skill, min of 1d6. For NPCs/Threats, I just have a general dice pool, each Success removes one d6 from their dice pool. Threats are defeated when their dice pools drop to zero. Players love watching the dice pools drop.
I didn't want Byrd to just fly away and leave the party, so I clipped Byrd's wings. I thought it would be funny if Tinkerbell had access to a lot of things, but she wouldn't be able to reach the RFID readers without help. Snoop Catt has through 1st and 2nd hand contact taken a lot of drugs and have seen a lot of real and imaginary things. He's chill. Wild Thang doesn't look like a dog and is fuggly. KFC needed an archnemesis, like all good Kung Fu movies.
All the animals speak a common language called "Animal," and human speech is more or less like adults speaking in the Peanuts cartoons, "Wa Wa Wa Na Wa." The PCs through experience know various spoken human words such as their name, fetch, sit, walkies.
I wanted the Players to get into the mindset of their PCs, so I added individual questions on their character sheets. After Players picked their PCs, I had them write down answers to their individual questions and then I asked each Player what their answers were at the table, so everyone can hear their answers. This also sets the tone of the game.
Next where do the PCs start, I decided what made sense was a Charity Event where the Rich and Famous attend, but they have to drop off their pets at an animal hospitality suite. This also takes the animal owners out of the picture.
Again, I wanted the Players to get into the head of their PCs, so I had another set of general questions that every PC had to answer about their attitude towards their situation and their owner. This was a great hit amongst the Players as they made up pretty funny stories and lines about their life with the Rich and Famous.
I then needed to get the human help out of the hospitality suite and leave the animals alone, at some point they'll figure out they'll have to work together to escape the hospitality room. Once out, they'll have to face the great outdoors without human help.
I then started listing various obstacles and encounters to test the PCs. I also wanted humans to get out of the way and make this more about the animals. I wanted an apocalypse. What came to mind was "They're eating the dogs, eating the cats, eating pets." What would make people do this? Bingo! Zombie Apocalypse.
I decided to lean into the MAGA-verse.
I put a few NPCs in the hospitality room: Porky Pig (Mike Lindell's) and Butkus (Sylester Stallone's).
Porky and Human
Mike Lindell
Stallone and Butkus
I wanted the NPCs to refuse to leave the hospitality suite because the game is about the PCs. Porky will tell the PCs that the only safe place is in the hospitality suite until his human comes to pick him up as he was told that "They're eating the dogs, eating the cats, eating the pets." Butkus (Butt-Kiss) refuses to leave because he's totally obedient to Stallone. He was told to sit and he obeys until told otherwise. I have Butkus stubbornly refuse to move from the spot Stallone told him to sit at.
I listed various encounters: Sewer Alligator, Cocaine Bear, ALF (eats cats), RFK Jr (eats roadkill), crazy cat lady (Taylor Swift), and of course, Trump at the White House Ballroom, and mind control alien toupees.
I tied it all together with Tail Swift handing out quests to the PCs. She's making the PCs do all the dirty work with minimal effort. She holds the magic wand of can opening inside her court of CostCo warehouse.
In the end, the PCs can rescue their owners from cryostasis in the underground bunker beneath the White House Ballroom.
After I built the game, I titled it A-Paw-Calypse Meow. The original working title was Pets of the Rich and Famous. When I told Sean N about the game, he told me I already won because the title has two puns in it. 😊
