Bay C decided to run a small invite-only RPG convention to replace BigBadCon (which didn't happen this year). He went all out: T-shirts (provided by Sean M), wooden name tags (provided by Kim F), lunch and dinner (provided by Bay), gorgeous modern venue (provided by Bay).
T-shirt & Name Tag
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Sat Dec 6, 10am-2:30pm (4 hrs excluding 1/2 hr for lunch)
The Haunting of Ypsilon 14
System: Mothership
GM: Sean M
3 Players: Josh H (teamster), Kim F (scientist), Morgan Hua (Manson - marine)
During a routine cargo job on a remote asteroid mining base the crew learns that one of the miners has disappeared. No blood, no body, no record of the airlock opening. Just gone.
Mothership is the Alien RPG that came out before Free League licensed the rights to the Alien IP (Intellectual Property) and created the Alien RPG. It uses a d100 system with other polyhedral dice.
The good news is that since it's not tied to the Alien IP, whatever horrors you run into can be anything and it gives you surprises.
I enjoyed the game and had a good time. My Marine rolled great on save throws and horribly on attacks which was bad for everyone as we TPKed and then had to use backup characters.
Sean did tell us the scenarios are very OSR, lightly described, and the GM has to do a lot of heavy lifting to figure out what's going on and to make their own connections and conclusions. If you look at the published scenario, you'll notice it's a double-sided single-sheet of paper, tri-folded, to look like a pamphlet. That's it.
I still like Alien RPG more than Mothership, but I might run Mothership scenarios using the Alien RPG system.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
We started off looking for a missing Mining Engineer, Mike. Clues pointed to a yellow slime found on the mining asteroid and Mike entering the mine (missing vac suit). Attached to the asteroid was our ship (a freighter) and a science ship.
We discover the head scientist, Dr Giovanni, who had gotten a sample of the yellow slime was isolating himself, so Kim's PC used bureaucracy to force the ship's captain to open up the lab doors. Dr Giovanni's at the door and he opens his mouth and a stream of yellow slime comes pouring out. I open fire and miss. We finally take down Dr Giovanni. We find his lab notes.
Another miner is devoured/crushed by something invisible in the mine.
We take the 10-minute elevator into the mine. Use squirt bottles to spray a water mist ahead of us, to see if there's gravity anomalies or something invisible. Go to where Mike found the slime, entered a crevasse, and found a computer setup, more slime, and a large alien fleshy pod. While looking around, the invisible thing attacks. I missed all my shots at it (4d10 damage) whereas Josh's PC did damage it, but not enough. It kills us all. One funny bit is my Marine is the last one standing and Sean had that GM look of "I think you should run," but I took one more shot at the thing, missed yet again, and died.
We take over a few NPCs as replacement PCs and Kim is now playing Sonya, the mining operations team leader and orders all of us to arm up and to go down into the mine. Josh takes the android. I take the captain of the science ship.
We find Mike's vac suit (filled with slime), rescue Josh's PC (was unconscious but we hit him with a Stimpak) who tells us what's happened. Two NPCs take him back to the freighter's medical facilities. Meanwhile, the invisible creature attacks. PCs retreat, send mining robots down the main hallway to buy us some time as we wait for the elevator.
After Josh's PC enters the code to the freighter ship and opens the airlock, the two NPCs drop him and run into the ship. Josh crawls after them, dripping yellow slime from his injured ankle.
The elevator arrives downstairs, and Sonya gets on the elevator. My PC, the last one standing is trying to kill the creature and is being swallowed, and I'm attacking it from the inside. Sonya hits the up button. My PC crits the creature, but rolls the weakest crit possible. My PC dies.
Josh decides to sabotage the freighter as he's going to die and wants vengeance against two NPCs who abandoned him.
Sonya gets on the science ship and abandons the asteroid. In the distance she sees the freighter self-destruct, taking out the asteroid.
THE END.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sat Dec 6, between games, about 1 hr
Ghost Court
Players: Bay C (Judge), Kaui D, Saul M, Jolene M, Hannah G, Josh H, Morgan Hua
It's a game modeled on People's Court, but ghosts vs living or vice-versa. This was pretty funny. Bay got a gavel, long black robes, and a wig of long curly white hair. We played plaintiffs and defendants in ghost court. Cards were handed out for various cases. I thought it was a cute idea, but the cases weren't pushed as far or as funny as they could have been. I thought the cases were "friendly" and a bit too cleansed for general consumption. If the cases were more twisted or outrageous like People's Court, it would have been a lot more funnier. It was still a fun party game of improv.
Sat Dec 6, 4-8:30pm (4 hrs excluding 1/2 hr for dinner)
Back to Bodie
System: Feng Shui
GM: Kim F
5 Players: Chris F (Shawn Cho - Sorcerer), Hannah G (Liam Cheung - Exorcist Monk), Jolene M (Kellie Jones - 2-Fisted Archaeologist), Saul M (Shellie - Martial Artist), Morgan Hua (Max Hunter - Magic Cop).
Martial arts heroes take on fiendish foes in a Hong Kong action cinema style.
In a flash of blue light, two influencers go missing in Bodie in the middle of a video streaming broadcast.
This is set in California vs the default Hong Kong setting. Overall, a fun game.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
Jennie May and Steve Stubbins are the influencers. Watching the video, Max knows the blue flash is a nexus gate. The influencers were outside of a western style saloon.
We get to Bodie, a historic state park, a gold mining ghost town, preserved by the climate. In the parking lot is Steve's car (I ran the plates). The entrance booth is manned by a shifty park ranger. I notice a Mason pin on his lapel. He tells us we can't enter at night, it's closed. I give him the hidden Mason handshake and he lets us in, but warns me to take everyone's cellphone. I don't do that.
We notice new powerlines running from the mines to the cemetery with glass insulators. Shawn senses Chi power flowing from the shutdown mine.
PCs hear piano playing at the saloon right near where the two influencers vanished. We find Rosa May playing the piano. Questioning her, we find she's from the past, Lincoln was president at her time. We tell her to stay put and we'll get her home.
PCs split up. One group heads to the Mason building (Shawn, Liam, and Shellie). One group heads to the cemetery (Max and Kellie).
At the Mason building, Shawn finds an old Mason tome on an altar, the owner is Solomon Stubbins with his death date continuously crossed out. Shawn has a vision of a calamity and is thrown back.
Before getting to the cemetery, Max and Kellie hear horse hooves and a posse rides up. They try to hide, but fail. It's the park ranger demanding their cellphones. I give him my phone, but I try to shoot him with my shotgun (hidden in a plain case), and miss. Combat ensues, but the others hear the shotgun blast.
PCs defeat the posse, and capture one of the Mooks. He tells them he works for the park ranger who actually is their mine foreman, but he dislikes Solomon Stubbins.
PCs go to the cemetery to check out the gravestones and Solomon Stubbins's tombstone. There's a glowing marker at it's base. Shawn tells us he knows what to do and messes with it. It goes off and we sucked back into the past.
We find the saloon and talk to Rosa May and she tells us that she's seen both Jennie and Steve. That Steve's been working for Solomon, upgrading the electric lines.
Shawn and Liam climb to the roof of the Mason building (people chanting inside), peer in a window on the 2nd floor and see Jennie. They rescue Jennie (out the window) and she tells us that she and Steve had a falling out and that Steve was helping Solomon.
PCs go to the mine (now open). There's Solomon doing some ritual with acolytes. PCs convince Steve to shut the power down. There's a black out and Solomon comes out to find out what's going on. Fight breaks out. Solomon shows that he's a powerful sorcerer with time abilities. During the fight, Kellie uses her whip to grab the amulet around Solomon's neck and crushes it as she pulls it off (rolled some massive number). There's an explosion at the cemetery. We finally beat Solomon (Kellie does the killing blow after I shot him in the back).
We go to the cemetery, the marker is still there, glowing. Shawn messes with it, it goes off and we're Back to the Future. We see Rosa's gravestone at the outskirts of the cemetery with an appropriate death date. Rosa's not in the saloon and we find a time capsule (plaque marker to be opened 2025 that wasn't there before) containing a thank you letter from Rosa.
There's probably a few loose ends which we didn't quite seal the loop on, but overall we fixed it.
I'm always a sucker for time travel stories, movies, and games. So, lots to enjoy.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sun Dec 8, 10am-2:30pm (3 hrs excluding 1/2 hr for lunch)
The Green Knight
System: The Green Knight
GM: Morgan Hua
3 Players: Aaron R (Noble), Josh H (Hunter), Shannon M (Knight)
Characters travel to meet their fateful end with the Green Knight after a year. Moral choices as they encounter situations on their travels. 1d20 roll above/below your morality to succeed.
I played this at BigBadCon 2023 and really enjoyed this. I wouldn't pay the full retail price for this ($35), but I found a copy on eBay for $18 (included tax and shipping).
One rule is that PCs automatically take 1 Dishonor when they encounter something on the road (it's a distraction) and if they interact with the encounter, it'll cost them another Dishonor before they can disengage with it. So basically, every encounter will cost them 2 Dishonor. And the resolution of the encounter will award honor/dishonor based on what they do.
Every failed die roll also costs 1 Dishonor.
PCs TPKed at the beginning of the 2nd encounter. Not really a TPK, but when a PC reaches 20 dishonor, they give up the quest and it's the end of the scenario if all the PCs hit 20 dishonor. Boy did they have really bad die rolls.
So, they opted to reuse the PCs, I set their Dishonor back at 10 and started them at the 2nd encounter. This time around, they made it to the end.
I normally adlib boxed text for RPGs, but in this case, the boxed text is so well written that I actually read to the Players the boxed text.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The first encounter, Act 1, is with toll takers and this is where the PCs had really bad rolls and they made a bad decision. So, at the end, they were at 17-19 dishonor. At the next encounter, they each fell to 20 dishonor easily and ended their quest at the very start of Act 2. Also when your dishonor is high, what you need to roll to succeed gets harder and harder, so it's a death spiral.
1st encounter: the PCs handed the peasant to the toll takers and took the mace that was offered them.
2nd encounter: the PCs let the fox go.
3rd encounter: the PCs recovered the skull and put the ghost to rest.
The Green Chapel: The Knight got his head chopped off. The Hunter got cut down by the Green Knight during combat. The Noble fled.
What I enjoyed is that the scenarios are not exactly as they seem and even the ending is a big surprise. If you approach the encounters in stereotypical D&D murder hobo fashion, it'll quickly lead to dishonor. Remember, this is King Arthur, not D&D. This is a morality tale.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sun Dec 7, between games, about 1 hr
Action Castle
System: Action Castle GM: Bay C
Players: Kim F, Kaui D, Arron R, Josh H, Shannon M, Hannah G, Morgan Hua
It's a party game, much like classic text adventures of old, but played with a human acting as parser and players issuing commands in order.
We start off in a cottage and the only thing we see is a fishing rod and an exit. It's pretty amusing as we navigate the text adventure and memorize the steps we've taken. We died twice, eaten by a Troll and jumping out of a tree. But we solved the game. It's good to be king!
Aaron wrote a book on classic text adventures and he definitely remembered various commands such as inventory. Aaron's book: 50 Years of Text Games.
The collective brains of 7 people definitely helped us solve the puzzle. It was amusing as we made mistakes (like jumping out of a tree) or when we got lost. Each Player could only "type in" one command before the next Player got their turn. An interesting and fun party game. Well, maybe for nerds.
Sun Dec 7, 4-8:30pm (4 hrs excluding 1/2 hr for dinner)
The Long Dark Teatime of the Soulless
System: Brindlewood Bay
GM: Bay C
3 Players: Josh H (sweater knitter), Shannon M (painter and socialite), Morgan Hua (Hya-cinth - plumber, widow of highly decorated marine)
Murder She Wrote. Play a group of elderly women solving murders with a unique mystery resolution mechanic.
We're invited to meet a friend for tea at a B&B.
We first created PCs. Sample names included Hya-cinth, so I took the name and included the hyphenation and my nickname is Hi-ya.
We had to create our backstories including our dead husbands. I decided mine was Moe, an ex-marine. Children: Able, Baker, Charlie, Dehlia (I got to name the girl). Pets: Dog, Cat, Parrot (yes, Moe named them that). My job was a town plumber. My hobbies was cooking. Style: Speed Walkin'. Maven Move: Angus MacGyver (can build a crazy device). Other players created things in my Cozy Place: a grenade (thanks Bay), Extensive Spice Collection (Josh), My husband's skull that babbles, but 10% of the time gives sage advice (Shannon), I added it wears a helmet.
Josh's maven knits all types of sweaters and wins awards (Shannon). I gave her a life-sized knitted award winning Sasquatch. Can't remember what Bay gave her. Her husband was a butcher.
Shannon's maven paints and is always well dressed. I gave her multiple giant backdrop sceneries that can be scrolled up and down for portrait paintings. Her cat wears a cat-cam on the collar with livestream upload (Josh). Again, I'm drawing a blank on Bay's contribution.
Then we had to introduce our PCs with a short day in the life.
I decided Hya was cooking a recipe from 1001 Dishes from Around the World. Under roast pig, it said to burn off the bristles, so in the backyard is a pig on a spit, but Hya uses a flamethrower to burn off the hair.
There was a lot of hijinks. Too bad we never got to use our items from A Cozy Little Place as we were mainly at the B&B.
The game is fun, but it still lacks the full rush of an Aha! moment when you really figure out a mystery vs making up a solution that happens to fit.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
Shannon's PC's friend has invited us to high tea at the Snowdrop House B&B. We got to add something creepy. Outside the picture windows are the veal slaughter pens (Josh). The gleaming decorations hanging above the tables that look like snow flakes are made of ice picks (mine). The soot on the fireplace momentarily looks like a leering face (Shannon).
Shannon's friend shows up and tells us that there's something she's looking into (she's a journalist). And she immediately falls down dead, knocking over our tower of high tea samplers, and an ice pick drops from above onto the table.
Some of the highlights from the game:
Percy (NPC), a quick change artist, who cos-played as cook, waiter, maid, bellhop, Sherlock Holmes, masseuse. He might have a split personality or was seeped in method acting as he graduated from the Brindlewood Bay Community College, majoring in drama.
Josh and I continuously referencing the Snowdrop House as the Stockton Slaughterhouse (that's what it used to be) to the chagrin of the new owners.
Shannon choosing not to be shot in the back by an unknown person holding a silenced pistol.
Shannon always digging through bodies looking for clues. At one point, the sheriff shows up and catches her red handed. Hey, there's nothing there I haven't seen before!
Lady Carfax warning me to not look under the rugs, but I do it anyway; later my back goes out, requiring a masseuse.
We started the game claiming we've solved 5 murders already, so this is our 6th and 7th solved murders.
We got 9 clues and tied them together.
1. Little glass of welcome pomegranate juice was poisoned. 2. Bus ticket out of town at 4:10am 3. Notebook with shorthand and an article about a Big Pharma in NY where diet pills were killing people, CEO was Pheonix Cole, the co-owner of Snowdrop House. 4. A scarecrow suddenly showed up outside. It wasn't a scarecrow, but a dead body with its face skinned off. 5. A man lifted up rugs when no one else would have noticed him. We later figured out it was Mr Swallow and under one of the rugs was a secret compartment with ancient land deeds which included this B&B. 6. A wad of paper was in the pocket of the scarecrow. They were pages torn out of the Guest Registry from the past week. 7. In Mr Swallow's room, there's a handcuff attached to the bathroom pipe. 8. In Mr Swallow's room, there's a mortar and pestle with red plant material residue in it. 9. Cole's residence, there's a envelope of compromising photos of guests hidden behind the stove.
Our solution: Mr Swallow isn't a real estate agent (#5* see below), he's a hit man. He had kidnapped (#7) a source that the journalist was supposed to meet at the B&B and tortured him (#9, involuntary S&M). He then killed him (#4). Mr Stockton (this land used to be his) put the body out there with the Guest Registry pages for us to find (#4 & #6). Mr Swallow poisoned the drink (#8 & #1). The bus ticket is the scarecrow's (#2). Pheonix Cole hired the hitman (#3) because the journalist was going to reveal something criminal about the diet pill scandal and needed the hitman to get rid of the evidence. The diet pill scandal had disgraced Mr Cole, but this new info would put him in prison. Mr Swallow pretended to be a real estate agent, but when he had found the deeds while he was looking for something else, he left them, proving that he wasn't really a real estate wheeler/dealer (if he was, he would have taken them), but he was something else (#5*). Mr Swallow also wasn't perturbed when he first saw the poisoned journalist (#1). Mr Swallow was probably looking for the scarecrow's evidence (#5) that incriminated Mr Cole. The Guest Registery pages (#6) has the name of the scarecrow who had checked-in earlier in the week. The pages were probably torn out by Mr Swallow. Mr Swallow probably found the evidence and had given it to Mr Cole who destroyed it. When Shannon's PC had a gun to her back, after the gunman left, she immediately ran into Mr Swallow which completely makes sense if the gunman and Mr Swallow were one and the same.
We also roll 12+ (natural 12 and +3) on the resolution, so we also found out that spooky old lady Carfax (plays checkers by herself, and makes dark pronouncements) and Mr Stockton (who had a habit of popping out of the bushes) were in league with each other, some sort of dark secret society.
An online free convention. I only signed up for two slots on Friday because a friend decided to run a small invite only RPG convention on the same weekend. I got into one game.
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Friday Dec 5, 10am-2pm
Jamais Vu
System: Kult: Divinity Lost
GM: Dave - gmdave78
2 Players: a.pseudonym (Eric), Morgan Hua (Sophia)
Pre-generated characters provided.
Content Warnings: Disassociation, Depersonalization, Mundane horror, Dissociative amnesia, Acute mental illness, Hallucination, Breakdown of social order, PVP, Death, Violence, Loss of identity.
Eric and Sophie wake up in their suburban home and find that the familiar has become unfamiliar. They remember everything about their life but find themselves unable to attach any emotion to it. Even everyday objects become terrifying aberrations as the couple slowly drifts into insanity.
Before the sun sets that day one of them will be dead.
It was an interesting play test. We did mess with the GM's head a little. I (male) played Sophia (female). And a.pseudonum (female) played Eric (male). GM kept on mixing us up because our voices didn't match the PC and we had to correct him. Heh. GM will still tweak the game to improve it, but I enjoyed it.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
First we created backstories:
Sophie:
Profession: Etsy seller of handmade bad sweaters, custom knit to buyers specifications. Will knit double-necked sweaters as per Addams Family on request. Physical Appearance: Velma from Scooby-Doo, but maybe more scruffy.
What I'm good at: Organizing the house. I know where everything is and can tell Eric where his car keys are. Where the flashlight is. Where the tarragon is on the spice rack.
Collection: Cows. Figurines, plates, refrigerator magnets, Got Milk?, plastic toys, etc. Favorite is a standing cow displaying udders with the phrase "Udderly Fantastic!" Other is a complete collection of Animal Sound Makers with every version of a cow's moo. She has one of the original 1904 Moo Boxes made in Germany.
Eric:
Profession: Works in a local sporting goods store, maybe as manager or at least trying to become manager.
Physical appearance: Pretty average height / build. Dark hair, clean shaven, probably needs glasses but refuses to wear them so when he gets tired he starts squinting a little.
Good at: computers. the only one at work who understands how the ordering system actually works.
Collection: Comic books. Not so much collecting the ones that actually are worth money but the ones he likes. Reads them but puts them back in the mylar bag after.
Each PC had 4 blank sections to be filled out throughout the game: Thoughts, Values, Truths, and Beyond the Veil.
Thoughts are things your PC may think, it could be true or untrue. Values are things your PC values. Truths are things that are true and might affect game play. Beyond the Veil are creepy things you've seen.
During game play, as we rolled partial successes and failures, we mainly got Thoughts added and a number were choices given by the GM and we had to pick between generally 2 bad choices (for dramatic reasons). In some instances, we got new Values or Thoughts which became Truths.
At the end of the game these were my 4 sections:
Thoughts:
There's poison in the food.
I put the poison in the food. If I turn on the TV, I'll die. (got removed)
Eric doesn't know about the danger.
I'm in danger.
I would feel safer if I had a weapon. I love my husband. (got promoted to a Truth)
If Eric touches the rose bush, he dies.
Something is causing this.
I must not look at mirrors.
If stab him now, it'll be all over.
Eric sabotaged the lights.
Eric tried to electrocute me.
The police will kill me. As soon as I leave the driveway, I'm going to die.
I have a few moments to live.
Values:
It's ok to lie if there's a good reason.
Guns are dangerous.
Truths:
I didn't put something in the wine.
I love my husband.
The rose bush is important to me.
Beyond the veil:
There's something divine in me.
There was genuinely creepy moments as you had to choose between thinking you're loved one was going to lock you in the basement or stab you in the back (two Thought choices). Various thoughts were just unsettling. Some thoughts were prescient and foreshadowed what was going to happen.
The best scenes was the start where I'm making breakfast and realize I poisoned the omelets. I dump it in the trash, but pull them back out and put them on a plate to feed my husband. I mean if I was going to poison him, what harm would a bit of dirt do? Of course, he sees me pulling the omelets out of the trash and put them on the plate. He refuses to eat it, so I dump it back in the trash. A pretty funny scene.
Going down into the basement and finding the lights don't work is a standard trope, but it works especially if the husband is carrying an axe and the wife behind him has a chef's knife -- and is given the choice of thinking: lock him in the basement or stab him.
Waiting for the police (we called 911) after I had stabbed an intruder, hoping things would turn out ok, but also thinking, the police will kill me. And of course when they show up, they start opening fire.
In the end Eric lived (he avoided harm from the cops), but I had to dive out of a window, landing on the rose bushes, and stole the police car. Since my glasses were broken and it was raining heavily, I crashed the car and died.
I also liked how the emotional rollercoaster works in this game. We start of very suspicious of each other. During play, we started to trust each other. Then more bad things happened and suspicion came back in. An interesting game.
KublaCon Fall moved to Burlingame from Santa Clara. Attendance level doubled. No free parking across the street at the abandoned theater parking lot. But RPG GMs got an amazing door prize (instead of the normal KublaCon pin which I never really cared for). This beauty lists for about $50.
GMs also get to sign up for games early, just like the VIPs who pay extra for this same privilege.
Overall, a pretty good convention.
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Level: Pets of Rich and Famous People, Animals can talk to each other.
Pregens provided.
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)
I had a great table and we laughed throughout the 5 hours. As per other runs, whoever picks Wild Thang kills it every time. So far, this run had the most non-stop laughs. Comedy is so much harder than horror. I think the table nailed it.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
After running this twice already, I've modified some things and added some stuff, and extended the scenario, thus the new 5 hr run time.
Some highlights:
When the alligator in the sewer attacked, Wild Thang who triggered the alligator just froze and became trash, so it went after another PC instead.
Wild Thang drinking sludge leaking out from the bottom of a dumpster.
Tinkerbell ankle bit and got the killing blow on a zombie, the cocaine bear, and Alf with her very, very weak bite.
KFC murdered RFK Jr and Trump with a letter opener.
Snoop Catt doing a magic trick by knocking salt and pepper shakers off a counter top. It's magic!
And the whole group, smashing a car through an underground garage gate. Then Byrd who was driving gets smacked in the face by the automatic airbag.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Nov 14, 2025 Friday 8pm-midnight (4 hrs, took 3 hrs)
Into the Odd
System: Into the Odd
GM: Sean Nittner
5 Players (2 empty seats):
Morgan Hua (as Benedict Jongler - The Axe).
Steven K (as Gizzard Wicherspin with faithful dog, Rags).
Max B-H (as Other Benedict - The Sneaky).
Pregens provided (actually characters created at table, but it was very, very quick).
A rules-light, flavour-heavy roleplaying game of industrial horror and cosmic strangeness.
Bastion is the only city that matters. In its industrial age, it sits as the smoke-shrouded hub of mankind, surrounded by a world of lurking horrors and cosmic interference. The Underground spreads beneath our feet and the stars loom above. You are an Explorer, braving places too far for maps and too old for records. Your expeditions touch the bizarre, wondrous, and horrific. You search for riches, but also Arcana, mysterious devices with unnatural powers.
This was actually the scenario in the book, but Sean started us at the bottom of the dungeon.
A great group of Players and we actually made it out in 3 hrs because we found an unlikely exit. I do want to say that the setting for Into the Odd is very cool and interesting because you have no idea as to what you're seeing and what things are, so everything is unsettling and bizarre. I really enjoyed this game.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
We start off with sliding down a chute, escaping the big bad guy, taking a talking skull with us. The skull has amnesia, but once we found one of it's missing memory rods and insert it, it knows more, which we did later; earlier on, it wasn't that helpful.
Our goal, escape which we know is up.
First thing, leave where we are, a butchery full of bodies. Next room, several boxes, since we don't have much we risk making noise and open three boxes and find a Corrosion Cannon (mine), a Coraline Bomb (Gizzard), and a Captain's Shredding Spear (Other Benedict).
We meet some mighty strange bio and bio-mechanical creatures doing their programmed jobs. But you know, it sometimes leads to violence as the Glass Mantis impales Gizzard and starts sucking his blood. Attacks just sends shards of glass at us, so we took cover from behind some chairs in the room.
Gizzard throws his bomb and it kills the Glass Mantis. This shatters the coral ceiling and exposes a ceiling vent. GM tells us that he thought when reading the scenario that no one would find this shaft in 1000 years as it's completely covered with overgrown coral. But hey, we found it.
A weird jellybean thing phases through a door and it merges with Other Benedict. It shows up like some weird tumor at his mid-section. We later learn that it's a Messenger Bean, from the skull.
We decide up is out. Gizzard had climbing gear, so after Gizzard failed a few times in throwing the grappling hook up, I give it a try and get it up there. Gizzard climbs up and finds another chamber. There's a ghostly figure that motions to him. He avoids it. Other Benedict goes 2nd and an arm tries to pull him into the wall, he fights it and falls down the shaft and takes some damage.
Spiders attack us. Other Benedict kills hooks his spear into one. The barbed spearhead starts opening up, tearing the spider apart. One spider wrestles me down, forces open my mouth and deposits an egg, and dies (very Alien-like). The other runs away as Gizzard nails it with a shotgun blast from the top of the shaft. Inside the dead spider is a glass rod. We insert it into the skull and it remembers more and becomes more useful.
Shinning a light up, we see it's a golden arm just sticking out of the wall into the shaft. So, Benedict (me) and Other Benedict squeeze up the shaft in tandem. I arm wrestle the thing and we get past it.
Through some more strange rooms with hints we're getting close to open water, and finally, we actually escape onto a beach.
GM tells me I have from a few hours to a day before the spider egg hatches and kills me. I tell the others, let's take the boat and if I show signs of distress, dump me off the boat into the water.
Other Benedict decides to do some ad hoc surgery. He uses the Messenger Bean to tell the Spear to seek the spider egg without killing me. The spear digs into my body, doing damage, requiring various save throws. It exposes the spider larvae and Other Benedict grabs it, taking spear damage, but can't pull it out. Gizzard helps to pull it out. They kill it. I miraculously make more save throws and live.
Damn! The party members went way above and beyond to save another.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Nov 15, 2025, Sat 9am-Noon (3 hrs)
Rustborn Bastards
System: Mörk Borg
GM: Dan Frederick
5 Players: Ty M, Chad R, Angelo S, Jacob S, Morgan Hua.
Pregens provided.
Mad Max at sea? Wasteland Degenerate + Cy_Borg at sea! 3 hour game run by designer / writer of Rustborn Bastards game.
The GM is the author of the system and is Kickstarting the game. The art is really good and like other Mörk Borg compatible games, the random tables are very imaginative.
I had fun. The GM brought minis, half-sunken rafts, sunk ships, whole ships, and other props. It was more or less a tactical combat game and we did 3 combats. The setting is sort of Water World.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
PCs start on a raft, low on water, low on food, low on ammo. We see the tip of a skyscraper peeking out of the water. There are water-zombies surrounding it and a crate. The water-zombies are bio-mechanical with metal claws; they're really dead flesh on a robotic body. We kill the zombies and claim the crate (new uniforms) and a hidden cask (narcotics). Beneath the crate is a trap door and stairs going down.
Also there's a capsized boat, mostly submerged nearby. One PC goes and investigates. The rest of us go down the stairs. Inside 3 feral Gillmen. We kill them.
Above, we notice a boat just cut it's engines (yeah, we all failed our notice roll earlier). Two PCs go up the stairs, the rest of us go out broken windows and swim towards the boat in strategic positions. The boat tells the PCs who show up to identify themselves, surrender their weapons, pay a tax, and everything will be ok. PC on the raft pretends to comply and accidentally knocks the cask into the water. A PC in the water does a head shot and kills one of the boat security and combat ensues. We murder the whole boat, about 6 security personale with some pretty good energy weapons. We lost only one PC.
One cool thing was I asked if I could hack the water-zombies with my cybernetics. GM said, there's no rules for that, but you can. I got a good die roll and was able to make a water-zombie attack another water-zombie which took two of them out of the action. Did this twice.
6 Players: Ojas T (left after 3 hrs), Lewis W (son), Nicholas W (father), Scott W, John B, Morgan Hua.
Pregens provided.
This educational opportunity will afford participants of English medieval history to accurately portray the grail quest given to Knights of the Heptagonal Table in 925 A.D. Characters provided. If you have your own set of CMRP random number generators, extra merits for you!
The GM also plays the HoLE (the show runner). When I read about this I wasn't sure about it, but playing it, it worked. Though I did find the game very random and not as funny as I had hoped. I didn't laugh that much, did smile here and there. There are demerits and they're not as bad as you'd think.
There's also some events where the PC is sent to "time-out" for 15 mins of real time via a timer where the Player just sits out of the game. I understand what that is for, but didn't like it. If it was a side skit for that one PC instead, I would have liked it more. I don't like game mechanisms where the Player is forced to do nothing. Even though it acts like penalty box, it's not labeled that and you do get bennies for sitting out. But if the tradeoff is missing 15 minutes of play for in-game bennies, I'd prefer to play.
I'm happy to have played this game as I was curious about it. My curiosity is now satisfied. This game wasn't for me.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The first HoLE was a penguin. I tried to brown nose the penguin and got a demerit. Later, we got demerits for not talking about fish or praising penguins. Finally Lewis had enough and filed a complaint letter. But before that, the penguin's head exploded and we got a replacement HoLE. The complaint letter got that new HoLE replaced, and we then got a Church Lady as the new HoLE.
God came down and gave us a quest to get the Holy Grail before Arthur gets it because God thought Arthur was a bit tiring.
One PC got chased by a house and eventually got eaten by it, but we had already fed a few followers and a dozen soldiers to it.
One PC was told that he had to leave the show for another skit. He agreed to it and GM told him it'll be for 15 minutes. The Party continued on the quest. There was a day of travel. So Player asked, that's more than 15 mins, right? GM said, "It's not time yet." Later, a timer went DING! So, it was 15 real time. GM then handed out some bennies and penalties to the PC who had the timeout. Yeah, I'm not a fan of this. I would have preferred that the PC actually had to do the skit.
Later, Lewis was given a choice of 15 mins in the confessional or to decline, he didn't want a time out, so he declined, had to roll for another random event, but instead of a d30, it was a d10. In this system, low is bad. He rolled, GM asked, which PCs are clerics, nuns, or religious. There was a Luck roll off. Who had the worst luck? Oh, you (Lewis got lucky and rolled high). How do you want to die? (I suggested giant foot). Player decided it was on theme. Squash.
At the cave of Aarrggh. We were given instructions that we had to individually face the challenges. There are three: Body, Mind, and Soul. I had the Knight with the Slay ability, so I went into the cave. GM asked me to make a Subtlety test. Knights don't have Subtlety. I die instantly, knight's head rolls out of the cave.
We ran out of back up characters before we finally slew the beast and gained the Holy Grail. About 6 heads had rolled out of that cave.
I found the game amusing, sometimes funny, but not laugh out loud funny. It really felt too random. The movie had more coherence than the game we played. There wasn't that much standout absurdity to remember. I wanted things akin to The Black Night, The Knights who say Ni, Dead Parrots, Coconuts, stupid riddles, philosophical musings, bringing out the dead, witch trials, vorpal bunnies, etc. Didn't get that, not at all.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Nov 16, 2025, Sat 10am-4pm (6 hrs, took 6 hrs)
Stowaway
System: Blade Runner RPG
GM: D D Blake
6 Players (1 empty seat): Travis M, Nick J, Jay M, Ric C, Morgan Hua (as Inspector Renaux)
Pregens provided.
SFO Spaceport security footage shows an unauthorized arrival sneaking off a ship from one of the off-world colonies. Some kind of animal, quadruped. So what? Why have you, an LAPD Blade Runner 340 miles away, been rousted from your comfy bed in the middle of the night? .... Beginners welcome, but please be familiar with at least one major IP source: Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, or Blade Runner: Black Lotus (the latter is usually free to stream on Amazon Prime).
GM decided we would make our own PCs. I had run Blade Runner before, but never generated a PC. The other Players were new to Blade Runner. I swore we took 2 hrs making the PCs. It didn't help that the newbies had questions about every step and there was a lot of table talk. GM spent a lot of time describing the world and nuances for our education which also took a lot of time. It was educational, but slowed down character generation.
Once we started the game, it was enjoyable. It was a good table of Players.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The PCs are 5 individual Blade Runners who know of each other, but aren't an existing team. We have my Inspector, an Analyst, a Fixer, a Skimmer (bad cop), and a Replicant Enforcer.
We're shown video of a wolf-like creature with glowing orange eyes getting off of an orbital shuttle at SFO. The problem is that we're in LA. It'll take hours to get there. And we're told to find it, get rid of it, make it disappear, make minimal waves. But we we're granted Alpha level clearance priority. We have 24 hrs to solve this. Another team will be sent if we don't resolve it.
The Inspector and Analyst go to the Esper room and start getting info about SFO, maps, satellite images, flights there, ownership, reports of animal sightings, unusual deaths, etc. The other 3 take their Spinners to SFO. Half an hour later, I'm taking my Spinner also. The Analyst decides to stay in the Esper room.
At the fueling station, the 3 PCs run into a problem. The fuel station is shutdown. Two civvie cars and one unmarked battle wagon is there. The PCs discover the battle wagon is from Wallace Corp. The 3 PCs solve the fuel problem by threatening the station attendant, but find out someone high up ordered it to be shutdown for the day. I arrive just in time to get my fuel.
We all go to SFO. We see men in hazmat suits on the tarmac. I turn on my lights and sirens and the hazmat teams get into their 3 respective vehicles (WY hazmat, Sable Bio van, and ambulance). Ambulance tells us the whole shuttle crew is unconscious and blind. WY hazmat and Sable Bio have no idea what the problem is. Sable Bio tells us there's an empty cage in the cargo hold. I get all their leader's contact info. We don't go into the shuttle. The Replicant figures out where the creature exited the craft and tracks it into tunnels. We pickup the Wallace kill team and bring them with us.
We follow an obvious path of unlocked doors to the bay. It crashed through a glass door. But no more trace of it is found. I spot a person on a rooftop watching us. We get her down and after some convincing, she tells us she spotted the creature and later, a cloaked figure following it with some sort of tracking device 1.5 hrs before we arrived and that person headed south. We get the number she calls when she sees something. Get our Analyst to call the number, I forgot what the result was, but it wasn't helpful.
Our Analyst starts gathering extra equipment: giant bottles of acid, more weapons, and a tracking dog and handler (as at one point we ran out of leads). All flights to SFO got canceled. I have him call the WY contact and LA contacts. The flight gets uncancelled.
Found the cloaked figure took a bus and got off at one or another station. Got the bus driver to tell us which stop (Replicant and I took the bus). Above us the others followed in their Spinners. Replicant got off the bus first, I get off at the next stop. In front is Sable Bio. Bingo. We all gather there.
Replicant spots someone climbing up Sable Bio's skyscraper. We force that person down and find she works for Wallace. We tell her we here to help. She tells us we need to get to floor 83. Wallace kill team watches the exits. Replicant and I go up the elevator. Fixer is in the air with a Spinner outside of floor 83. Skimmer takes the Wallace assassin to the roof, so they can go down.
On the way to the roof, the Skimmer cuts a deal with the Wallace assassin and takes her money. She locks him in his spinner and bricks it (not quite the deal he made) and then heads down the stairs.
The two going up the elevator meet Susan Greenrock, one of the owners of Sable Bio. She shows the creature to the PCs. It's behind glass, in a lab, in a cage. I give targeting info to the Fixer. Susan gets called away. I move away. Replicant readies grenades. Fixer opens up with guns and blows away the exterior wall, misses the creature. Then blows the creature away once the exterior glass is gone.
Susan escapes up to the roof, gets on a cloaked vehicle. Skimmer still can't get his spinner online. So, Fixer tries to shoot down Susan's vehicle (with a missile), but misses.
Inside, we find another creature (actually pointed out to us by the Wallace assassin), but it looks more human, no glowing eyes. Replicant kills that one too. We put LAPD police tape around everything and tell SFPD to go away. Later we learn that that one has Susan's husband's brain in it and that was done as punishment for an affair.
We find some cryptic clues and a sealed dewar of some sort. We don't open it.
Finally, Analyst arrives with our extra equipment and we drop the remains of all the creatures, evidence, and dewar into vats of acid. Mission accomplished.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Nov 16, 2025, Sat 4-8pm (4 hrs, took 3 hrs)
The Celestial Algorithm
System: Star Trek Adventures 2e
GM: Michael M Kelly
6 Players:
Andrew F (as Cpt Pike)
April F (as Una - 2nd in command)
Yune L (as Lt Ortegas - Pilot)
Paul M (as Dr M'Benga - Chief Doc)
David M (as Spock - science officer)
Morgan Hua (as La'an - head of security)
Pregens provided.
Players will get to choose their favorite Starfleet crew: Captain Kirk and the Original Series characters, or Captain Pike and the Strange New Worlds bridge crew, as the USS Enterprise faces the challenges of this published introductory adventure. Second Edition rules will be taught. Beginners welcome!
This was the new Starter Set's scenario. It's pretty good. We had a good table of Players, all Trekkies, but I was the only one familiar with the system. I've run STA 1e. The GM was actually trying 2e out himself, but he knew the rules pretty well, he only had to look up what skill was needed for tractor beams.
GM had the whole SNW crew and TOS bridge crew. SNW crew was about 12 PCs, TOS 8 PCs. I voted for the SNW crew because there was more variety. One Player never saw the SNW series. So, he picked Spock as his PC. He did an excellent Spock.
STA 2e is more streamlined than 1e, but then we didn't do any combat, so I'm not sure how 2e works without the challenge dice (d6s for damage and special effects). I did feel the Momentum cycle (gaining and spending) almost got in the way of the storytelling. We were focused on the Momentum pool and just rolling dice vs doing Trek technobabble. Our group got good at the Momentum cycle. When I first played Modiphius 2d20 system, it took a while to get the hang of it. I did push the group to spend Momentum when they were reluctant to, so maybe that helped. During the game, we only failed one die roll which led to a major complication. But most drama came from rolling 20s. We didn't get any 20s early on, but near the end, we got several in a row which made it more exciting.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The Enterprise gets sucked into a large ship. There's an Orion ship stuck with us too; it has radiation leaks, 4 life signs, all dangerously sick. Hailing it doesn't work. Transporters are sketchy, so we take a shuttle. We rescue the Orions (some diplomacy was required). Spock gets affected by the female Orion captain (pheromones). We tractor beam her ship behind us while an engineering team is onboard fixing it.
The inside of this ship is bigger on the inside than on the outside.
We're decode a message that tells us there's a series of tests we must pass to escape.
We meet some space whales that are sick and we cure them with the help of the Orion captain. She has some illegal drugs that can work to help cure the whales.
In all the STA games I've run, the PCs rarely get additional Determination. A bennie for playing against or in line with one of their Values. I actually triggered some Determination gain in this game.
I asked the Doctor to sedate all the Orions (during treatment) as I didn't trust them. Doctor refused even though one of his Values was anti-Orion. We both got Determination points for this roleplaying.
At another point, I asked the Captain if I could go over to the Orion ship and snoop around, get information on their weapons and tech. Captain denied my request and got a Determination point.
3 Determination points handed out. Well, I've never seen that before. And we actually used them.
Anyway, we pass all our tests. The ship is a machine intelligence. The tests are to prove that we are smart enough to help it. We agree to help it in exchange for whatever data it has hoovered up (from all the species it has trapped).
It says it has in stasis a foreign virus and needed our help to get rid of it. We find that the machine intelligence is pregnant. We convince it is ok (extended test) and its duty is to raise its child. We get our reward and are allowed to leave (with the Orions and space whales). Very Star Trek.
A free online convention, focusing on published or to be published Miskatonic Repository scenarios. All the scenarios I played in had good ideas for settings or good setups, but a few had issues in scenario design: mainly pacing as to when things happen or not enough interactivity with NPCs or the environment.
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Oct 17 Friday, 11am-3pm.
Shadows of Sumnerville: Trick r Treat
System: CoC
GM: MinaFane (Mina Fane)
5 Players (one no show):
Vlad D (James Knot - Photographer - Indy Jones costume)
John L (Logan Lomax - Stage Actor - Baseball Player costume)
Brian B B (Nathan Ellis - Woodworker - Skeleton costume)
Morgan Hua (Moe - Athlete - Circus Muscle Man costume)
Halloween 1995. Connecticut. In suburbia, a group of high school freshmen gather to trick or treat even as their peers transition into parties and 'cooler' fare. However it is hard to be completely free from the pressure to impress others. Wouldn't walking up to to the darkness north of the river, into the ruins of old Sumnerville (and on this the scariest night of the year), be a way of proving they aren't little kids anymore? CW: child death, body horror, fire, mutilation, real world religion.
I had a lot of fun in this one. We got to invent our Halloween costumes and pick preset character hooks (family situations and such). This was a pretty well-written scenario. Everything made sense and fit together. Good GM also.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
We wandered around town as we headed to the covered Sumnerville bridge. We run into various NPCs (having to do with our character hooks) and we do a couple of Trick-or-Treats picking up not so great candy. Though the Librarian handed out really good candy, but we noticed that there were these pin pricks on each of our candy wrappers. And it didn't smell right where the pin prick was. We notified the Reverend about this and continued on our way. Nathan was able to get a Goth girl (NPC) to go with us.
Across the bridge, Sumnerville is mostly burned down. We find a bust of Ichabod Sumner, a hidden cellar with a well and inside the well, tied to a rope was a strangely glowing multi-sided object. Under a tarp, there's dirt and a skeleton of two people who were merged together. Fearing the glowing object was radioactive, we just dragged it behind us on the rope. Soon, the Librarian's husband showed up in a truck and loaded bottles from a hidden cache inside a still standing chimney. Once he left, we found only empty bottles were left behind, but we sniffed the bottles and smelled the same funny smell as the well water and the doctored candy.
We headed back across the bridge, assuming the Librarian was going to poison the punch at the event at the central park. My PC, Moe, knocked over the punch bowl, pretending it was an accident. He then stole the bucket of doctored candy. The librarian was able to splash me with a glass of punch. I ran for the bridge and dump the doctored candy into the river. Something knocks me out.
Meanwhile, the Goth girl and the other PCs break into the library and find that there's a cult that included the Reverend. That the doctored liquid is highly flammable. That somehow it affects people who either consume it or are baptized in it.
The PCs see the Librarian's husband carrying Moe on his shoulders, he drops Moe, and opens up his shirt, inside are the merged bodies of missing children. The Librarian's husband tries to merge with Moe. The PCs attack and save Moe, but Nathan dies in the effort. The Librarian brings a bucket of poisoned water (for bobbing for apples which is a pretty ingenious way of infecting kids), hoping to splash us. But we used it on the Librarian's husband instead and lit him on fire with the Goth gal's lighter. While he burned, segments of the merged kids tried to pull away from the main body. Moe who had recovered consciousness pushed the old librarian onto her husband's burning body.
The kids are questioned and released, thankfully James took pictures. The Reverend leaves town. The town sweeps everything under the rug.
The best bits were the interaction with potential girlfriends (Logan and Nathan) and bullies (Moe) when we were Trick-or-Treating.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Oct 17 Friday, 4-8pm
Arkham Fire
System: CoC
GM: TallHalfling (Steve Anderson)
5 Players (one no show):
Daniel O'B (Vaughn - Recruit)
Tim H (Pierce - Mechanic)
Eerie P (Thorne - Medic)
Morgan Hua (Ashburn - Military)
A beautiful old Victorian house, up in flames. A frightened little girl, wailing for her mother. And a hundred-year-old mystery of grief, loss, madness... and fractured, fragmented Time. Welcome to the Fire Department in Arkham. Grab your gear. Buddy up. And try not to get lost in the smoke.
The idea of firefighters (instead of setting fires to erase evidence) as PCs was interesting, but the problem was the clues weren't interactive. We mainly wandered around collecting clues until we figured out what to do.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
There are a lot of rooms, each in a different time period that tells the story of Eleanor Barnes and her quest to recover her daughter Sophia.
We go to a house that's burning down and a PC notices a girl on the 2nd floor window. We rescue her via firetruck ladder and take her to an ambulance. She says her mother is still inside. We go inside and find the house is rundown and no one inside. The 3rd floor turret is too hot for anyone to survive. On the way back down to the 1st floor, there's a dinner party and we're in the past. There's a scream and Eleanor rushes upstairs to her daughter's room. The people are ghosts, we just pass through them. This scene repeats in a loop.
We see other looped scenes that describe Eleanor's descent into madness as she tries to recover her daughter via temporal mechanisms. Outside is the far future where there's been a great explosion and the city is a wasteland (this basically keeps the PCs in the house as there's nowhere else to go).
There's a junk closet where we can actually take stuff. I find 50' rope and belaying equipment (02 on a Luck roll).
We find a pentagram with a central crystal in the 3rd floor turret. We set up the belaying ropes for a quick exit. I try to smash the crystal and damage it (10 damage but not enough) and the time creature kills my PC in one blow (16 damage). After a long fight, the other PCs finally demolish the crystal and stop the time loops. As the turret catches fire, the surviving PCs escape. The house burns down with all ghosts in it.
My PC becomes one of the ghosts (time loops) that haunts the house. Spotted in the past before the house burns down in 2025.
The issue is that we're just watching the replay loops to piece together the clues of what had happened. There's really no interaction with anything, except for the supply cabinet. The only two spots of urgency was trying to find Sophia's mother in the burning house and when we had to fight the time creature.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Oct 18 Sat, 11am-3pm
HMS Harbinger
System: CoC
GM: richard0101 (Richard Watt)
5 Players (one empty seat):
Brian B B (Rosalind Frankland - scientist)
Gray S (Officer Charlie Hopkirk)
Gerald M (Dave Ancell - engineer)
Morgan Hua (Enid Toynbee - WREN Photographer)
Pre-war, 1939. Investigators are among the crew and visiting brass aboard a Royal Navy submarine on its maiden voyage. Difficult decisions may need to be taken to avoid a watery grave. All naval training will be provided.
First half of the game nothing happened. The NPCs were a bit taciturn. Action did pick up in the 2nd half, but pacing was a bit stop and go. The game needed better pacing, more tension, more interaction with the NPCs. The inside of a submarine was interesting though.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
PCs are on a short submarine trip with an experimental engine. The engine works, but the submarine scrapes against something unexpected. A pipe breaks, water floods the engine's battery room and chlorine gas comes out. The professor dies. We fix the leak. It looks like sabotage. Meanwhile, at the bow of the ship, there was a scream, a missing crewman, broken lightbulb, and slime in the torpedo tube.
Once the PCs got the speed of the submarine under control, by figuring out the device, we surfaced. A German frigate spots us, and we use the device to get away from the frigate. Then there's another scraping sound. Something has broken into the stern and killed the crewmembers there. Dave sees the creature, gets attacked, and raced towards the control room with the Deep One chasing him. The other PCs helped him seal the bulkhead door. The PCs make it back to port.
The one cool thing was the device we saw was just a fake prop. Some slate/pad controlled whatever hidden device boosted power to the engines. Somehow when the engines run fast, it disturbs the Deep Ones enough to make them want to stop whatever we're doing.
I made up a cool epilogue for my PC. She meets a US sailor, marries, and moves to Hollywood after WW2. Decades later, she's one of the movie people working on The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Oct 18 Sat, 4-8pm
The Dreams in the Workhouse (Preview)
System: CoC
GM: DeadWeirdoStudios
6 Players (one no show, one open seat):
Kevin K (Leonard Barnes - coach)
Moran T (Nancy Edison - student)
James C (Percy Winger - antisocial)
Morgan Hua (Nasir Nadir - accountant)
US 1920: Just east of the bank of the Occoquan River in rural Fairfax, Virginia lies the infamous Lorton Workhouse. Since its founding a mere decade prior it has gone from promising progressive institution to a legendarily oppressive prison where political prisoners face torture and hope goes to die. Is simple change in punitive policy all that drives this slide into darkness? Or is something truly sinister responsible for The Dreams in the Workhouse? CW: this scenario is set entirely in prison.
Pacing was a bit slow on this one too, but we actually did do stuff as we got used to prison life.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
We get to the low security prison on a bus. First thing that happens is a NPC gets a shotgun butt to the face for not behaving. We immediately get put on kitchen duty and learn that there are an unusual number of accidents. Leonard steals a fork. We notice there's a trap door in the kitchen and learn that there are steam tunnels under the Lorton Workhouse. There are various hatches in each building for easy maintenance and there's one in our barracks.
On the first night, two of the PCs have the same nightmare. It's also clear the other NPCs are having problems sleeping. One of the NPC prisoners had gone down the hatch (sleepwalking?) in our barracks and is missing, but the guards don't seem to notice. I start to think that the accidents are all due to sleep deprivation.
The next night, the PCs go down the hatch into the steam tunnels. They find an illusionary brick wall and discover strange medical experiments. A franken-creature, a stitched up thing looking like 3 merged prisoners shows up. Nasir flees before even seeing it and returns to the barracks. Nancy and Percy flee and exit the first hatch they find and wind up in a barn. Leonard hid until the creature passed him, damaged the machinery, and fled deeper into the tunnels and found another franken-creature, fled even more and got lost in the tunnels, days later, he finds a hatch and escapes. Nasir spends a day to steal some clothing from the tailor shop and is able to take the train out of Lorton.
Overall, I wanted more prison-foo: threatening inmates, bullying, senseless violence, sadistic guards, more accidents. But it was a low security prison.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Oct 19 Sun, 11am-3pm (finished early, took 2 hrs)
The Doom That Came to Winchester
System: CoC
GM: Variorum (Wes Brandenburg)
5 Players (one empty seat):
David C (Sylvester Marchetti - bartender / elephant gun)
Robert F (Lionel Lapierre - horse trainer / boxer)
Joe M (Patricia Munoz - biology professor)
Morgan Hua (Erin Murphy - grandson of farmhouse owner)
The investigators arrive in an old farmhouse outside of 1920's Winchester, KY after one of them receives a telegram from their grandfather telling them that something isn't right on the farm, odd occurrences he can't explain.
The Doom That Came to Winchester is a soon to be released one-shot featuring lots of investigation, roleplay opportunities, potential combat and serious danger, and tons more, but I don't want to spoil the surprises.
I enjoyed this scenario. We had a good group of Players and a good GM. We finished early because we did some smart things and got some good die rolls. The game had good pacing.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
My PC was the grandson, so I gathered some buddies to investigate. Grandpa told me about a patch of hard to mow grass, the family dog with 4 eyes, outhouse wood knot holes turning into eyes.
I first greeted the dog, Lester, and he looked fine except for a healing gash above his brow. The patch of grass was strange and of unknown species. We dug it up, and when we damaged it, pink colored fluid came out. We then back filled the hole. Put the grass in a bucket and threw it in the back of my pickup truck. Nothing else seemed out of place. We had arrived at 5pm, so we stayed for dinner.
We then started to separately see strange things: Patricia heard a woman ask for help., I saw hair from a hairbrush spell out HELP, Lionel and Sylvester saw the grandfather clock turn into a beating heart. We concluded that maybe the plant caused hallucinations. That would explain why grandpa saw weird things too. We ate dinner. Sylvester decided he had a bad stomach (afraid of water contamination) and only drank some alcohol.
Sylvester wanted to test out his elephant gun, so we took some old paint cans to shoot at. We spot a stranger in the woods with a rifle, he claimed he was hunting, but his story seemed a bit off. We sent him away. Sylvester nailed the paint can (extreme success).
Grandma invited us to stay the night. I gladly accepted, but Lionel decided the house was haunted and wanted to sleep in the storm cellar. I suggested that he could sleep outside, in the truck, or in the dog house (a joke). Upstairs, I see someone in my bed, once I pull the bed sheet, there's no one in it. Patricia sees a woman suspended against an earthen wall who asks for help. Sylvester sees nothing. Lionel found the storm cellar locked, so decided to sleep in the truck.
PCs get together to investigate the storm cellar (most earthen walled room we can think of). I unscrew the latch holding the padlock (keys weren't where they normally were). Inside was what Patricia saw in her hallucination. A malformed woman-creature stuck to the ceiling, but I recognize her face, it's my Grandma's friend, Margrett. She asks for our help to free her. She'll just leave and hide in the woods. I reassure her as I step back, and Sylvester closes the door on her. Patricia faints. I put the screws back in on the latch. We carry Patricia back to the house.
I wake up Grandma and she tells us about the Winchester Women's Society and how Margrett got pulled into it and she died and that thing in the storm cellar birthed out of her. It still had Margrett's memories, but it had killed some men that came after both of them. Grandma doesn't know what to do, but she knows that Margrett is getting worse. We decide to arm up and kill Margrett and burn the remains.
On the way to the storm cellar, a car drives up and a man offers to take care of everything. I decline, pointing my shotgun at him. He raises a hand and makes a sign, and we hear shotguns going off (warning shots), we're surrounded by at least 6 men with shotguns, including the man we had caught earlier. I tell everyone, to get back to the house. I douse the lights in the house. I tell Sylvester to shoot Margrett when they bring her out of the storm cellar. He does and blows her away (extreme success). Her body starts foaming and bubbling away. The cultists flee.
We monitor the dog, patch of grass, etc. And things went back to normal after a few days. We tell the sheriff about the trespassing. The cult had fled town suddenly the night of the shooting.
I thought that having a PC be a relative of the people in the house was a great idea for this scenario. It prevented the PCs from becoming murder hoboes. GM said we finished way early because the game either devolves into a chase (going after Margrett) and/or a shoot out with the cultists.
GM tells us the patch of grass and infected dog were offshoots/pieces of Margrett trying to get free. Why she was on the ceiling was that a part of her was boring up through the dirt.
Sat Dec 6, between games, about 1 hr
Sun Dec 8, 10am-2:30pm (3 hrs excluding 1/2 hr for lunch)
Sun Dec 7, between games, about 1 hr
Sun Dec 7, 4-8:30pm (4 hrs excluding 1/2 hr for dinner)
