I got there just before the morning game slots started at 09:30. I rushed upstairs to my allocated room, the Fronsac Suite on the second floor of the hotel. I had a table full of players patiently waiting for my game.
I was firstly running Fria Ligen Tales from the Loop game ’On Cloud Nine and Golden Sunshine’, my latest episode.
I handed out the Character Archetypes and blank character sheets for the players to go through, whilst I set up and got ready to start the game. The players even started char-gen while I set up, they were that keen!
We put two of the tables together to give us enough space to play in. Plus I had to park my laptop at one end for the display of my Keynote presentation for the game.
So I had five players, a sixth one was due as he was stuck in the queue for the Bring & Buy, and he would join us later.
So I took them through the Principles of the Loop to understand the setting, set the scene about Derby in the summer of 1984, and to inform them that they have been sent to a Summer Camp - not the nice fun summer camp from the American films with the summer sport activities, hijinks, splashing in the river, etc. No, this is a correctional camp for troubled children, a penal camp for underage offenders and not a holiday at all. The players Problem for their characters would be the crime the committed (or were accused of) that got them sentenced to the camp.
Michael had a Young Farmer called Dylan with his farm dog hooch, whose favourite song is ‘Blue Monday’ by New Order. His crime was breaking the right arm of the son of another farmer during a decades old feud.
Matt was playing the Weirdo called Percival whose iconic item was a string of sausages (very weird) and liked Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’. He was sentenced due to stealing a tractor to pull out a trapped cow in a ditch.
Sunny was Horace the Computer Geek with his modded Gameboy and obsessed with the cartoon Transformers song ‘The Touch’. He had a disagreement with his Computer Studies teacher, Mr Smith. So Horace hacked all the BBC Micros at the school.
Pete is playing Stevie the Rocker with his iconic leather jacket and is always playing Aerosmith’s ‘Eat the Rich’. He is trying to make a band with Horace. His crime (the most Rock & Roll thing he has done) was throwing a dust bin through a large plate glass window.
Morgan was playing the Jock, Toni, with her blood-stained netball and her love of Joan Jet’s ‘I Love Rock & Roll’. She was sentenced because she was bribed to throw the final of the Midlands Netball Tournament.
Joining the game later was Robert playing Bob the Bookworm with his magnifying glass and liked Aha’s ‘Take on Me’. His crime was that he burnt down the school library because it didn’t carry the books he wanted.
They were all members of the ‘mildest’ hut, Hut D, that operates as their Hideout.
So they were rudely introduced to the Camp Leader (commandant) Ms Hodgeson and learnt that they were in a competition, with the other huts, to win attendance at the Champagne Launch Party of the new Magnetrine Ship, Cloud Nine. The players were very keen and competitive and were wanting to beat the other huts to this prize.
Hut A was given the task of clearing up the litter and rubbish at the country park Elvaston Castle after a festival.
Hut B were issued the job of working on the local farm.
Hut C had the top job of delivering leaflets into the letterboxes of Derby.
Hut had the task of clearing books in their own hut.
Now the players’ hut, Hut D, were given the job of clearing a section of the River Derwent of the floatsum, jetsam, and debris that accumulated there. It sounds like a cosy job until they realised that the smooth and serene millpond surface of the river wasn’t water but solid sludge! Black, solid sludge and mud. Breaking the ‘surface’ were abandoned shopping trolleys, traffic cones, glass bottles, cans, and other detritus.
Straight away they sought to get a tractor to assist them in clearing the river but they also wanted to sabotage the other huts in their tasks too. So they planned and schemed, fortunately abandoning the more vicious and nasty plans.
So with plans in place they set about the adventure, using their Contacts to get a tractor to assist them, Sneaking about the camp to get extra tools and robotic help, planning to sabotage the efforts of the other huts, encountering broken robots, crashed Magnetrine ship, weird tramp, automations (not Minions!), and time portals. There were a few bad puns (Prof Bell was called Babybel - groan), a sausage obsession, vicious dog attack, too much interest in one of the character’s fit mum, feats of incredible strength from a twelve year old netball girl, and breaking into very bad German accents occasionally.
It was a lot of fun, lots of laughter and the whole group of players delivered an excellent game session. Very rewarding and a perfect start to the convention.
Unfortunately I was having too much fun that I forgot to take any photos of the group! D’oh!
I did record the game for Podcasting though, so expect that to be broadcast in the New Year.
Then it was a two hour lunch break so I had a good wander around the trade hall, got caught up in a first aid incident there - a busman’s holiday reallly. I had a sandwich and a small bottle of London Pride (£5.70 for a 300ml bottle!) and got set up and changed for my next game for the afternoon - Alien.
Now I have made a Nostromo uniform shirt before my arrival, from a white pilot shirt with the Nostromo patches and badges on. I also had the ‘Nostromo’ done in the same style lettering from the film uniforms too. I must say myself but it did look affective and did add to the atmosphere of the game.
I had only six players turn up for my Fria Ligan Alien game even though it was marked as full. A few were wanting to learn about the Alien game as they had the book from Fria Ligan so were wanting to experience it. A few of the players had their own dice too which helped a lot during the session, so we could get several dice rolls going at once.
I introduced the player characters and let them choose who they wanted to play. I also showed them how to unfold the Agenda sheets so they can access their agendas and orders for each of the three Acts in the game. I also took them through the character sheet and explained the skills to them.
I also mentioned that they may feel inclined to pass secret notes due to their agendas or events occurring during play. I encouraged them to say their secret intentions out loud so that everyone can enjoy them, and asked them to respect that their own characters would be obvious to that information. As with secret notes not all the players would be privy to that information and experience. I also warned them that in the latter acts of the game is *may* go player versus player. At the start their agendas are more closely aligned but will diverge as the game goes on.
The Players in my Alien Game
We had Doug playing Dr Monygham, the cryogenic specialist and acting as squad medic. Andy was playing Corporal Carlos Gould, stoic and capable. Anton was playing the Smart Gun Trooper Lance Corporal Hernandez, whose Smart Gun was smarter than he was. Nikki was playing Lieutenant Antonia Avellanos, the second in command of the squad. Iain was portraying Senior Hirsch, the Weyland-Yutani agent who was taking comprehensive notes. Finally Richard was playing Captain Decoud, the squad leader, who had to keep the group together.
Then I ran through the introduction to the scenario in the characters of the Sergeant Major Montero and as of the captain of the ship, Captain Mitchell, as if they were leading the mission briefing. Of course this was backed up with the Keynote presentation on my laptop with plenty of images of the station, planet, and the people involved.
The premise of the scenario is that the San Tome Mining Facility on remote planet LV-510 was reduced to a skeleton crew as the planet was going through a dangerous phase of terraforming. Dissidents in the workforce revolted and took over the Facility and took hostages from the Mine Management Team. They also took four executives, who were still in their cryogenic chambers, captive too.
The PCs are a Weyland-Yutani corporate hit-squad, brought in to provide a ‘Final Solution’ to the problem. Their orders are to eliminate all hostiles with extreme prejudice, capture the leaders of the resistance for ‘questioning’, and to rescue the hostages especially the corporate executives in cryo-sleep chambers.
Of course nothing is as it seems.
The players had some good ideas out of the gate, one suggested using the PDTs, Personal Data Transmitters, to locate the dissidents in hiding before engaging them. A good idea except they wouldn’t be able to use them until they liberate the main control room, the mission target.
So they get dropped down planetside via the UD-4L Cheyenne Dropship, this group decided on the main landing pad as their touchdown point, foregoing the auxiliary landing pad. Corporal Gould drove the M577 APC using his Heavy Machinery skill (1 + 5 Strength + 2 Bonus for the APC). He managed to succeed, rolling a six, but I explained to the group how to Push the Roll, gaining a Stress if he failed his roll.
The Cheyenne Dropship took them down to the Facility, firing a couple of missiles at the Radar before they noticed them. Senior Hirsch wasn’t happy with the wanton damage, noting it down in his notebook. More damage occurred though as the good lieutenant used the rail guns on the turret on the APC to rain damage on the windows above the main airlock as well as the vehicles on the landing pad.
Of course the group moved through the facility with extreme prejudice, dealing with the dissidents with relative ease. But as things went wrong with the mission, the Stress built up in all the characters, it went very player versus player at the end. It was a lot of fun.
Me with the players in my Alien game
The players were happy with the game and those players that owned the game were more confident in running games themselves.
Again I recorded the session for a future Actual Play Podcast.
The Alien wants to podcast too!
After that I packed up and went down to the main bar of the hotel, meeting people and chatting about games, role playing and conventions. I also took the opportunity to show off my foldable character sheets to anyone interested much to their delight and mock chagrin.
That was flooded by a quick trip to the pub, The Latymers, for another quick pint and a social visit. I left the pub to catch the 20:30 tube back to St Pancras Railway Station to start my epic trip back home. The train only went as far as Bedford again, so it was a long and cold coach trip to Derby, getting home at 01:30 in the morning!
In all a great day out, only spoilt by the long, long journey in and out.
