Games being pitched - 19th January 2013

[James Mullen]

Here are a couple of games I want to pitch for the Meetup on 19th Jan; these are both games that playtested very well at Indiecon in November.

Game: The Next Big Thing
Yes Veronica, there is a GM: James Mullen
No. of players: 3 or 4
Slot: 1
This is light, close-to-freeform (there is a rule) game of near future, hard SF, where the PCs are all involved on a technical project of some significance, e.g. building a space elevator, mining the asteroid belt, terraforming Mars, etc. At the start of the game, players define the backgrond details of the world, choose the project, determine their character's role and choose at least one relationship between their character and another character or an organisation created in the initial phase. PCs are encouraged to be confrontational: when you say "My character does this to yours," the target (or the GM if an NPC is targeted) gets to say either "OK, but then this is what happens to you," or "Well, you try that... lets see who wins!" In the latter case, a single die roll, stacked against the target initially, determines the outcome.

Game: Blood & Water
You're still playing games with a GM?!: James Mullen
No. of players: 3 or 4
Slot: 2
Unashamedly based on Being Human, the PCs are monsters who were once people; the event that changed them also traumatised them and they now live with the closest thing to family they can find, that is others in the same boat. Play is driven by the PCs ambitions and fears, with the close bonds between the PCs being continually tested to see at what point they will snap. Having friends makes you more likely to succeed, but your friends will pay the price for what you do; going it alone protects your friends but means you are more likely to fail.

Draft rules for both these games can be found on my website, as usual.

[Magus]

I'm going to be offering a playtest of my game, The Facility

The Facility
Facilitator: Piers
Slot: 1 (12:30-4:30)
No. of participants: 5 to 7 (I will not be participating in the game but observing how the game is being played)
A number of participants will be Clients of The Facility. They have been taken to this place for reasons that are not wholly clear. Their task is to convince two Guardians (two of the other participants) that they have achieved the necessary requisites to be released from The Facility by the end of the game. Only one client can be released and the other clients will have explanations of why they cannot be released.

WARNING: This will be the first playtest of this game. It is in a rough and ready state and I may have to make up rules on the spot. I would suggest that people newer to indie games might not want to participate because of this.

[Mick Red]

Bollocks this is gonna cost me one of my few remaining annual leave days

[Alex Gwilt-cox]

Piers, are you pitching the Milgram prison experiment by the backdoor? (-;

[Magus]

Piers, are you pitching the Milgram prison experiment by the backdoor? (-;

Stanford Prison Experiment, with some of Erving Goffman's Asylums thrown in.

[Alex Gwilt-cox]

Cool! I'm game.

[Pete]

I've updated the website with your pencilled games, cheers!

I'm bringing Rabelais' Disaster Strikes! playtest, and I'll always have the usual suspects in my scrip: Seid, Witch, Montsegur.

Right, now who's going to be pitching the following games that I would like to play? Don't be shy now.

Dungeon Crawl Classics / Shadowrun / Legend of the Five Rings

C'mon you hippies! Cast off the yoke of Teh Magus!!1!'s oppression!

Cheers
Pete

[NimbyDagda]

I am bringing...

Last Train Out of Warsaw

The train was hurriedly assembled during the night in the Vilna station yard. It consists of an OK127 freight engine, a coal tender, and six coaches. Today it is the Pilava local.

Each coach is painted a jaunty red and yellow. They are market coaches for carrying people out of the city on Sundays and holidays, and each is designed to hold 40 passengers. They will hold 60 today. Inside, the wooden floorboards are buckled with age. Wicker seats are worn smooth and frayed. Chicken feathers swirl in the corners. They have all seen better days.

At 6:48 AM on 17 September, the last train in free Warsaw pulls into Gdańsk station. Artillery fire thuds in the distance and the air is filled with smoke. The city’s encirclement by the German army is almost complete.

During the night the train crept across Warsaw’s only remaining bridge across the Vistula and came to rest beneath the Dimek street bridge. Only the Quiet Man and Engineer were on board. Working with flashlight signals, a long line of men emerged from the darkness, guarded by Polish troops. Carpenters tore up the passenger car’s floorboards while more soldiers brought slim wooden crates. Each weighed fifty pounds and contained ten gold bars, the sum total of Poland’s National Bullion Reserve. They fit in the ten-inch space beneath the floor. After $11,400,000 was tucked away, the carpenters replaced the floorboards using shiny new nails.

Given a proper assortment of passengers, the Pilava local will look like an innocent market train, the sort that putters between cities on week-ends making every stop on the line. This innocent market train will be heading south past Pilava toward Dęblin, Lublin, Rejowiec and Zwierzyniec. Then east, into the old Ukrainian districts of Poland at Rawa Ruska. Lwów, Stryj, Dolina, and finally a sweep around German-occupied Czechoslovakia to Stanisławów and across the border into Romania at Sighet in the Carpathian mountains. 450 miles, 35 miles per hour, 14 hours.

and

We Are Here To See The Evil Wizard Kormákur

A group of brave souls have traveled through dark forest and hissing swamp to reach the moss-covered tower that now stands before them. They are each here to see the dreaded wizard Kormákur, but apparently Kormákur is not home.

both free games you can get from http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/downloads/

[catty_big]

If I can come up with a system for Chaotic Evil or my planned My Life With Master scenario by Saturday I'll offer to run one of those; failing that I'd like to get in another test run of Where The Heart Is.

Chaotic Evil:
No –one tells you how to do it, you’re just expected to learn on the job. Basically, you’re on your own from Day One. And the Number 1 rule is: Don’t **** up!!

You play apprentice demons, sent to Earth to wreak all manner of havoc, except that you’re all pretty crap, and you just hope you can cover up all your goofs before the Boss finds out and wreaks havoc on YOU!! Ah, you’ll get the hang of it. Maybe.

Players: 4-6
System: homebrew

Where The Heart Is:
Build an atypical family unit... and roleplay it- Simples!! There may well be tears and smashed plates before bedtime, but there could be teddy bears' picnics too. Awww. Health warning: could go to some dark places- mature themes.

Players: 4-8
System: homebrew

[Pete]

#plox 2 b running Mythender 4 me this weekend? I wanna stab Thor in the face!

In plain English, Ryna Macklin has released the final, free-to-the-public edition of Mythender.

On the other side of this bloodied snowy plain stands Thor, God of Thunder and Mythic Norden’s warmaster. His thousands of einherjar charge at you and your two comrades. Mortals watch from the distance, unable to turn their gaze away from the oncoming storm. As the horde charges, you let out a bellow that drowns them all of, shaking the very earth beneath their feet. Armed with your sword, loyal wolf companion, and your wits, you and your friends dive into the wray.

It’s pitiful. These **** don’t stand a chance. You’re a goddamned Mythender!

#ps I bagsies Ymir! #toughtitty #lol

[Shadowmourne]

#plox 2 b running Mythender 4 me this weekend? I wanna stab Thor in the face!

In plain English, Ryna Macklin has released the final, free-to-the-public edition of Mythender.

On the other side of this bloodied snowy plain stands Thor, God of Thunder and Mythic Norden’s warmaster. His thousands of einherjar charge at you and your two comrades. Mortals watch from the distance, unable to turn their gaze away from the oncoming storm. As the horde charges, you let out a bellow that drowns them all of, shaking the very earth beneath their feet. Armed with your sword, loyal wolf companion, and your wits, you and your friends dive into the wray.

It’s pitiful. These **** don’t stand a chance. You’re a goddamned Mythender!

#ps I bagsies Ymir! #toughtitty #lol

I'm reading through the game now with that very intention Pete.

Lamentably, Thor, in an act of brazen cowardice, has deprived me of the sheer number of dice required to run this by the book. Seriously, you need about 200+ dice and a similar number of tokens (in broad but specific combinations).

We might have to find a work around, unless someone would venture to wrest the required dice from the jaws of Jorgmundr and present them as an offer at the table...

This game totally rocks!

[Magus]

I'm afraid that due to work and personal committments The Facility will be in no shape to be run. Instead I will be offering a serious game of Fiasco, with Malcolm Craig's playset in 1970's Berlin with the Red Army Faction plotting revolution.

Right, now who's going to be pitching the following games that I would like to play? Don't be shy now.

Dungeon Crawl Classics / Shadowrun / Legend of the Five Rings

C'mon you hippies! Cast off the yoke of Teh Magus!!1!'s oppression!

Based on this I appear to have cast off the nickname "Trad-as-f**k Piers." Thanks, Min-Max Pete!

[Pete]

You can say what you like TAF Piers, but until Evilgaz officially rescinds your moniker, it sticks ... 'cos, you know, those are The Rules man.

:: notes that someone has given Indie Adam the title #tradam on the Indiemeet RSVP list ::

In other news, I have updated the Indiemeet page to reflect all proposed games; hot dang but that's a shovelful of hippie!

[Mick Red]

Can everyone cross everything please in the hope that 3" of snow doesnt bring our transport system to a standstill and **** this up for me

[cthulahoops]

Hi,

I'm sort of tempted to pitch The Quiet Year. It's an intriguing game. I'll have to read through it again first though.

#tradam.