The Owlbear and the Wizard’s Staff 2025, St. Patrick’s Irish Club, Riverside Walk, Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa, CV32 5A.
Friday 12th -Sunday 14th September 2025.
So this is a little late due to my Cancer diagnosis, operation and recovery. Unfortunately I have been a little preoccupied to finish my convention report. Part ! is published now with Part 2 to follow...
So setting off early morning from Derby to get to Leamington Spa was fairly straight forward.
The early train went directly there with no changes so I plumbed for that one.
It was a bright sunny morning after the heavy rain overnight, nice and fresh.
I got into Leamington Spa just before 09:00 and walked to the venue, ten minutes walk from the Railway Station.
I arrived shortly after they had just set up the gaming tables and it was fairly quiet as most of the attendees haven’t turned up yet. I was shown my table, in the centre of the hall and I began to set up. I also got a swift coffee from the kitchen, they had tea/coffee making facilities (with biscuits) and a hot water urn so we were well supplied.
Very civilised.
I also greeted and chatted to other attendees, some I know or recognise from other RPG conventions like Furnace, UK Games Expo, Spaghetti ConJunction, and Continuum. Of course this is all too brief, just quick hellos and “how are you doings?”. Many wished me well due to my recent news about my Cancer diagnosis.
What is The Wall of Heroes?
The Wall of Heroes is a Fan-sourced and Fan-based initiative to commemorate those in the Role-Playing Games community who have inspired, encouraged and played alongside us, but who have left this earthly life.
Springing from the Convulsion and Continuum conventions, it is curatted by DR Moose. A long-time gamer and Church of England minister.
Names can be added directly OR via emailing rpg.chaplain@mousir.org
I also paid my respects to the “Wall of Heroes”, the list of gamers who have passed, including my brother Russell. This is a tribute to all gamers that attend RPG Conventions or are involved in publishing RPGs that have died. The list is maintained by Dr Moose, the RPG Convention Chaplain and Spiritual Guide of the community. You will see it at several conventions in the UK.
The venue is an Irish Social Club with a large hall that is suitable for performances, gigs, social events, celebrations, and dances. It has seating around the edge of the room with a small stage at the top end. The ceiling is vaulted so the noise hasn’t too much echo and the hall has lots of tables. Ideal for gaming.
Behind the stage is a small service kitchen where the organisers have set up tea and coffee making facilities with a hot water era, plenty of tea bags and instant coffee. There were even biscuits provided. An excellent set up for the con as attendees could make their own drinks.
At the other end of the hall was a bar but that was closed off but you could go into the rear of the hall into the main bar area and get a beer (or Guinness) from the bar too.
In the entrance hallway to the venue were the toilets and stairs to another function room upstairs that had space for another eight gaming tables. It is a great venue and nicely placed in a beautiful town by the River Leam.
The table label showing what game is organised for that gaming table.
My first game was Alien Remus, an unofficial game sequel to the film Alien Romulus I have developed.
I had come up with eight player characters, the images of each were photoshopped photographs of British actors. The player characters had a personal agenda, some details on their affiliations, and a couple of Talents. I hadn’t as yet developed any hidden agendas for the three acts of the scenario for each of the player characters, mainly because the actual scenario is more a loose series of encounters and events all depending on player choices.
The player characters are:
Roughneck Captain - Captain Brierly (Toby Stephens)
Pilot - Helmsworth (Cush Jumbo)
Roughneck - Hubert (Jack O’Connell)
Federal Marshal - Marshal Heat (James Norton)
Colonial Marine - Lieutenant Ferand (Jack Lowden)
Weyland-Yutani Rep - Cornelius Grafts (Lee Ingleby)
Doctor - Dr Razumov (Emilia Fox)
Android - Baylor5 (James Callis)
I had little standees with the player character image in each to have in front of the players, and got the players to choose their character from them displayed on the table.
I had six players in all, keen to play, and they chose their characters from the images, so the PCs not chosen were Pilot Helmsworth and Marshal Heat.
I had a selection of players who I knew and had played with before and brand new set of players that were strangers to me too. I had a player who was registered blind. He was accompanied by his friend and fellow player who helped him with his character sheets. I didn’t have to make any special or additional accommodations for him for he had his own dice that he could feel the results as the pips were embossed. I have had some Blind Guiding training before and had done some Audio Descriptive work too so I wasn’t too concerned. I described the images of the characters to him and chose based on them. His friend read out his character and cover sheets to him, covering his personal agenda, affiliations, and his talents.
I didn’t have any maps, floor plans, miniatures, tokens, images, or handouts to show the players - it was all done in ‘Theatre of the Mind’.
I did issue Stress Points, Air for their spacesuits, and any damage taken with different coloured casino chips, very tactile and again very easy to keep track of.
The same descriptions I gave to the the rest of the players to build up the environments and situations they were all in would also work for the blind player which allowed us all to play without any barriers or restrictions to the actual play at the table.
I certainly hope that I made him feel welcomed and involved at my game, the feedback at the end confirmed that though I wish I had time to get some critical response back to improve my delivery of my games.
So as the players settled down around the table, I described the character sheet and the cover sheet each of the players had.
The Cover Sheet.
The cover sheet has a large image of the character (same as on the standee), their two Talents fully described, the character’s personal agenda, the character’s affiliations, an image of their starship, USCSS Florian III, and full game stats too.
The character sheet is laid out in two columns.
The top of the first column has the character’s name and career, followed by their two Talents, named only as the descriptions are on the cover sheet. Below that are the relationships, their Rival and Buddy. These are blank at the moment but the players can fill them in during play. Below that is their Signature Item, used to recover from Stress.
Below that is space to write any tiny items that they may pick up.
Below that is space to write any critical injuries they may gain, but I did assure the players that they may not get any!
Below that is space to list all the gear, spacesuit, and weapons that they are carrying, some are already listed, followed by the Armour Rating of their spacesuit, followed by their Weapon stats.
Below that are their Conditions; Starving, Exhausted, Dehydrated, and Freezing. I informed the players that they wouldn’t even have time to get Dehydrated, never mind any of the other Conditions.
And finally at the bottom of the first column are the four Consumables; Air, Food, Power, and Water. I told the players that only Air was going to be used once they were in their spacesuits and I showed how to roll on Consumables to see if they lose any during the scenario.
The Character Sheet.
The top of the second column has space for the character’s Health, Stress, and Radiation. As I give out (take away) different coloured casino chips to represent wounds, stress, radiation, air, etc. these trackers will not be used during play.
Below that, for the rest of the second column, are the Attributes and Skills.
I’ve listed the four Attributes with each of the three Skills associated with each Attribute listed below the Attribute.
STRENGTH |
Attribute associated with physicality. |
Heavy Machinery |
Skill for interaction with ships engineering systems. |
Close Combat |
Skill for melee fighting unarmed or armed melee weapons. |
Stamina |
Skill for heavy lifting. |
AGILITY |
Attribute associated with dexterity. |
Mobility |
Skill for moving quickly or stealthily. |
Ranged Combat |
Skill for using ranged weapons such as guns, rifles, flame units, and grenade launchers. |
Piloting |
Skill for flying and operating spaceships and other craft. |
WITS |
Attribute associated with intelligence. |
Comtech |
Skill for using computer units, technical equipment, and communication systems. |
Observation |
Skill for perception, seeing, listening, feeling, tracking, and interrupting sensor equipment. |
Survival |
Skill for surviving extreme environmental conditions. |
EMPATHY |
Attribute associated with social and emotional. |
Command |
Skill for issuing orders down the chain of command. Gives bonus dice. |
Manipulation |
Skill for charming, beguiling, fast talking, negotiating, or bamboozling people. |
Medical Aid |
Skill for applying medical intervention to save lives or interpret medical data. |
I then took the players through how the dice pool works for rolling for Skills including how to Push Rolls by gaining Stress.
The dice pools work by adding the Skill score to it’s associated Attribute to get the number of dice; additional dice are added for Talents, situational modifiers, or weapon or gear bonuses should any apply. These are rolled using base dice.
Also showed the players how Stress actually works, PCs gain Stress Points when they push rolls or when they encounter something, or learn information, that is horrific or disturbing.
Pushing the Roll means that players can have a re-roll of the dice pool if they aren’t happy with the results, especially if they need more ‘6’s. The player re-rolls all the dice, except any showing any ‘6’s, and also gain a Stress Point, and a Stress Dice to that dice pool.
For every Stress Point they have they have to add a Stress Dice (or different coloured or style dice to differentiate from the base dice) to every dice pool they roll for skill checks, thereafter. The additional dice gives the player more chance of rolling a ‘6’ and getting a success, but if they roll a ‘1’ on the Stress Dice (it doesn’t matter on the base dice) then that initiates Panic.
Panic causes the player characters to act detrimental to themselves. The higher the score on the Panic Table, they roll a d6 and add the number of Stress Points to the result, the worst it gets for the PCs.
These are the key feature of the Alien game.
Then I started the actual game, with the USCSS Florian III on final approach to Jackson Star, delivering passengers, goods, and cargo to the Weyland-Yutani colony.
Only the crew of Florian III were awake, Captain Brierly, Hubert, and the pilot Helmsworth. The other PCs, Lieutenant Ferand, Cornelius Grafts, and Dr Razumov, were still in cryogenic sleep (or deactivate in the cargo hold for Baylor5).
As GM I was playing Helmsworth, relaying the flight data and computer readings to the players as crew, using flight jargon. All very routine, all mundane and normal. Until the computer takes control of the ship!
“Captain, I report that MU/TH/UR has taken over the flight controls of the ship. Emergency procedures have been initiated, authorised by high level Weyland-Yutani executive orders and triggered by special circumstances and unique situations. The ship is hard banking starboard, pulling out of orbit and away from the planet. It’s new heading is towards the planet’s ice rings!
“I’ve definitely lost control of the bird.
“I’m picking up a large metallic mass striking the ice rings ahead. It’s huge! Some sort of ship or station as far as I can see.
“It is being torn apart by the ice in the rings, there’s no transponder and I can’t identify it.
“Oh, MU/TH/UR is labelling it the Renaissance Station, it’s Weyland-Yutani and it is almost smashed up. “MU/TH/UR states that there’s a distress signal coming from a tower module, that has launched, like some large escape pod or life buoy.
“I can’t detect it on my scopes, and I can’t hear any distress signal, I hear no transmissions at all! Yet MU/TH/UR states it is there.”
“We have activity in our cryo-hold, some of the twenty popsicles are getting defrosted. And one of the “cargo” is activated too, we have a skin-job joining us. That’s the last thing we need, a company centric Android within us. A Baylor5 model too, a leisure model rather than an industrial unit.”
“We’re on auto-pilot now, I’m locked out of all flight controls. Where ever we are going, it’s at the behest of MU/TH/UR.”
“Now here it comes! Yes, an update, no, actually a new mission. A high priority mission.”
“High Priority Search & Rescue Mission. Failure to respond will result in full forfeiture of all shares and salaries.
“Proceed in all haste to the Remus Tower Module,
“Qualified and experienced personnel from the passenger manifest have also been awakened from cryogenic storage to assist in all rescue efforts. A Baylor5 android will also assist.
“Dock with Remus, gain entry in EVA suits, rescue any personnel, retrieve active cryo-pods, secure any flight box data, and preserve all Weyland-Yutani holdings and property.
“If the structural integrity holds for the Remus Tower Module, perform any repairs and restore all the vessel’s systems to ensure preservation.
“Uplink MU/TH/UR for automatous flight control.
“All rescued personnel and cryo-pods to be returned to Weyland-Yutani colony on Jackson Star.”
“Bugger!”
Hubert attempts to use his Heavy Machinery roll to wrestle control back from MU/TH/UR and succeeds with three ‘6’s. He also learns that the computer system has been upgraded whilst on their last journey, from a 6,000 model to a MU/TH/UR 9,000. He gain a Stress Point due to that news but elects to keep that shocking news to himself.
As the Florian III manoeuvres towards the ice rings and the wreck of the Renaissance Station, the Remus Tower Module does come into view. It is under thrust, escaping away from the exploding wreckage, under its own power. It has thrust engines at the base of the tower so it appears to be launched like a rocket away from its mother station. The Remus Tower is tall and slim, black metal hull with no markings yet has antennas, sensor units, and angular protrusions pointing upwards giving the tower a spiky look.
Scans reveal that it is an independent unit, totally autonomous vessel. The engines at the bottom are propelling the module at a standard 1G thrust, it does appear that the engine section would have been hidden out of sight when the tower was docked to the top of the Renaissance Station, so the tower would look like part of the station itself, hiding in plain sight. The black hull plating is “Stealth Coated” making scans into the interior difficult. However the decks can be seen to be perpendicular to the height of the vessel, so the set up is like an ordinary tower. It acts like an escape pod or a life buoy.
So the game actually starts, once I’ve given the set up of the scenario, with the players deciding where to dock the Florian III on the Remus Tower Module. The players also introduced their characters to each other as we have crew, passengers, and cargo coming together to work on the mission. There was some great banter starting already, some great character portrayals.
The android Baylor5 makes an Observation roll on the scans but can’t make anything out due to rolling no successes, and the player of the android can’t push the roll as they can’t get Stress Points but does have extra points on their Attributes.
Captain Brierly has a go and fails their roll too, so the Company Agent, Cornelius Grafts, looks and spots that there are cryogenic signatures detected and that the Remus Tower Module has no MU/TH/UR control, it would have connection to the mothership computer when it was docked with that.
The group elected to dock at the main airlock of the Remus Tower Module, avoiding the upper airlock as that appeared to be compromised. I was GMing Helmsworth the pilot so Captain Brierly had to make the actual docking roll.
With the Florian IIII docked, the small white ship in stark contrast with the black, dark, jaggy, sinister-looking tower module, and as the tower slowly rotates, it’s shadow crosses over the white ship, swallowing the ship in darkness - a tasty bit of foreshadowing.
The PCs made their way into the airlock all suited up in their spacesuits. Their HUDs are all linked to the Florian III where the only crew member, Helmsworth, stays in the cockpit, all the others are going on to the Remus module.
The airlock leads into the tower’s lobby, looking like a very high-end luxury hotel lobby with posh lighting, though that is flickering ominously. There are soft furnishings, a maître D station, and flickering CTR screens, one with a fire axe embedded through it. As they search around they discover that life support is off, there is gravity due to the thrust of the module, and the whole place looks abandoned.
What follows is a tense exploration of this Remus Tower Module, encountering weird and dangerous situations and working together mostly (until the final act) to try and save the twelve cryogenic pods.
Such a great game with some fantastic players who brought their characters alive and got involved in the exploration and the mystery.
There was an explosive climax, a full battle, at the top of the tower with all the PCs and players involved. They all escaped in the Narcissus shuttle but of course as we fade to black, we discover that there is another “passenger” on board.
A very satisfactory conclusion to the game and the session.
Photo by Fabio. Me in action Gming my game at OBaWS25.
Note the character stanndees on the table.
Part 2 to follow...
