Picked up nice and early, instead of taking the usual train journey I normally take, so we got to the MacDonalds restaurant in time for a quick breakfast before the gaming.
Just caught the trail end of the opening speech and got down to my table ready for running my first game in Slot 1, Tales from the Loop - ‘Heatwaves and Rain-Guns’.
I had six players signed up and ready to go.
I was also using my new display technique for a lot of my images and maps, reducing the number of physical handouts. You can now remotely control a Keynote presentation on an iPad via your iPhone. Not only control but also interact with it, drawing on the slides as they are displayed. So I had my iPad displaying the presentation to the players, I controlled it from my iPhone, and I used my iPad Pro to record and keep detailed notes. The only things I handed out other than the character archetype sheets and the character sheets were the NPC cards. I like to use them as they are very tactile and the players can hand them around and indicate which NPC they are talking about.
I took the players through the ‘Principles of the Loop’ and started char-gen.
We had a young Rocker called Calver, 11 years old with his drums and sticks and his love of ‘Prince Charming’ by Adam Ant. He had a black and gold Raleigh Grifter bicycle with gear changing handle.
Billy Steve is our 13 year old Computer Geek, with his calculator, playing Van Hallen’s ‘Running with the Devil’. His bike was a sensible Raleigh Willow (it’s not just for girls) with handlebar and rear luggage baskets.
Billy’s younger sister, the Bookworm Jill, gets him to carry her encyclopedias for her as she listens to Nina’s ‘99 Red Balloons’. She had a matching Willow though hers was pink instead of black.
The oldest at 15 is the Jerry the Jock with his ever-present football. He is obsessed with the ‘Ghostbusters Theme’ by Ray Parker Jr. He had a Raleigh Chopper bike with cross bar gear changer.
His 13 year old brother is the Troublemaker Jonny with his cigarettes and lighter who listens to Twisted Sister. He had inherited his brother’s old Raleigh Bomber bicycle.
Last but not least we have our Hick, Joe Sudden, with his sheep dog Shawn, listening to Queen’s ‘I want to Break Free’. He had a Frankenstein bike made up of different types, parts and devices.
I started with the background on Derby in the summer of 1984, hot and humid in the middle of a heatwave. With no water to play in and keep cool and inattentive parents, the Kids decided to head off to a secret lake near Gotham (pronounced GOT-ham) in Nottinghamshire. It only a short bike ride away.
The opening scenes from home covered what supplies the Kids were getting together to take with them. Some were organized and had tents, sleeping bags, food, torches, sun screen, insect repellent, etc. The other Kids were just going to wing it with the bare minimum.
The Mystery starts off with the Kids cycling off to Gotham on the country roads (with the Famous Five theme playing in their heads) when they are suddenly knocked off their bikes by a passing black Mercedes car with the private number plate RAV 1. Fortunately the Kids were able to not only keep their balance but a couple of them were also able to damage the car as it sped past them. The car screeches to a halt and the driver shots obscenities at them. During this confusion one of the Kids was able to steal a computer cassette from the car before the driver sped off again.
What followed was run-ins with robots (old and new), a gang of Gotham Hooligans, a rider of a Grav-Hover Motorcycle, a cool deep water lake (in a drought?), a United Nations task force, rainfall during a drought, and ended with a Roman-candle Windmill.
The game was well received by the players who came up with great ideas and solutions to the Trouble the found themselves in. Though I had to rush the ending a little due to the shorter slot running time.
Players of my Tales from the Loop game.
After lunch was Slot 2 and I was playing in a game this time around. Dragons Conquer America ‘The Mexica Raid’ by Remi Fayomi. Set during the time of the Conquistador invasion of Central America, we were playing the native Mexica people.
We were a mis-matched group of sacrificial captives held in the Capital city. Rescued from prison by one of our fellows, who was an outsider, we set about trying to halt a Conquistador attack at the coast.
Once getting out the city we were fighting through the undergrowth of the jungle, strange Mexica water spirits, and then finally the Conquistadors on the beach.
We also realised that the talk of ‘Dragons’ wasn’t metaphorical as there were real dragons flying and supporting the Conquistador attack.
We charged the beach to get our goal, a ‘bearded man’ to be a sacrifice for our own dragon summoning ritual, I managed to slay a European noblewoman in the process too.
More confusion reigned as we all got split up, many of us were wounded, at the wrong temple, and managed to summon the wrong godly dragon in our ritual.
A great game though we did struggle with the Mexica names, the Mexica culture, and the nature of sacrifice and bloodletting as part of a way of life. It was good to play outside the usual pseudo-European Middle Ages settings of most fantasy role playing games and the card mechanism is intriguing.
Well done to Remi for running the game.
After dinner in the pub downstairs it was Slot 3 and I was running my Things from the Flood (sequel spin off game to Tales from the Loop) game ‘Computer Cassettes and Crash-test Marionettes’. It would be the first time I was running both this game and scenario. I decided to forego the usual handouts, maps, images, three screen presentation, NPC cards, etc. It was just going to be me and the players with their character sheets. This game was also going to be more macabre.
I had five players, two from this mornings Tales from the Loop game.
I went through the ‘Principals of the Flood’, describing that it is all falling apart and life is boring. We then generated our Teens at the table before the scenario began.
We had Jack the Rocker with his notepaper and pencil. He had been caught at school smoking dope with Jen.
Jen was the Lone Wolf, her only companion is her pet rat, Amy. She had been wrongly accused of smoking dope at school with Jack.
Taylor is the Raver with her spray cans of paint. She had inappropriately invited a teacher, Mr Stevens, to go to a rave with her.
Melissa is a Snob with her loaded money clip. She got in trouble for being absent from school, trouble she couldn’t buy her way out of.
Wolf was the Street Kid with his lock picks. He had been wrongly accused of stealing lunch money from younger kids at school.
The scenario started with a ‘Breakfast Club’ style Saturday morning detention session in the school library. The supervising teacher, Mr Franklin, was too busy playing Doom on the office computer so the Teens were left to their own devices. Left at a loose end there was going to be nothing but trouble.
What followed was strange sirens from the Loop Facility, strange apparitions, weird news about a missing school girl declared deceased after six weeks gone (yet the Teens had spoken to her the day before).
The tension was ramped up and the Teens encountered strange occurrences, crash-test dummies, growing cables, black ichor, and strange tunnels under the school. Then it took a darker turn though the teens managed to destroy the big bad in the end.
The players enjoyed the puzzles and running through the maze of the scenario.
After that I headed back home to Derby.
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