Strahd von Zarovich would be the perfect Dark Lord, except for one small thing…

You killed him!

Your commlink’s buzz stirs you awake. “Hello, we’re just calling to confirm your appointment later this afternoon with Dr. Tate. The appointment is at 4:30 p.m. at our clinic at the corner of North Kimball and West Fullerton Avenue. Dr. Tate wanted me to impress upon you that this checkup would be most beneficial for you going forward. If you have questions about insurance, please be at the office thirty minutes early. Thanks, and we hope to see you then!"

It’s heist time! You and a group of criminals have come to this convention separately to plan out a Heist. The target, the Old South Blue Bank. In the vault there is close to $70 million dollars, plenty to set the group up for life. So how will you do it? What resources will you use? What is the escape plan? You decide!

They say that in the olden days, the world was warm, but barely anyone knows warmth outside of a gas heater. That you could have fruit from the tropics all year round, but now it's what potatoes and cabbage grow under UV laps. That the sun was powerful enough that power came from its very touch, but we live from the chugging of the gas generators.

Ice Station Omega, the only remaining soviet-era "Last Hope" station. It's been decades since The Freeze, and now it, the mines below, and the small radius you can reach on what snow capable vehicles you have is all you have ever known. In the buried warehouses are crates of guns and bullets, and the mines provide all the gasoline you want. What you're hurting for is food, and unity.

The call of the glow of the Aurora scratches at your psyche when your mind is open to its colours and veils. Threats both overt and covert seek their own goals at your expense. All you have is what you can grab hold of, and keeping it is a struggle.

But things could always get worse.

Content Warnings: Violence, Generalised despair and depression.

We will be using the Apocalyse World Burned Over ruleset, and thus while the initial setting exists, the plot will be driven from your choices as players and your agency within the world. This will be a game session uniquely for and about your awesome characters.

Hi there

I believe y'all were acquainted with my uncle, Kevin Hadley, although maybe you knew him better as Sarge.
He always told people he was in the Marines, but I don't know that he ever was. Turns out maybe a whole lot
of stuff he said might not have been true. Anyhow, nobody's seen him for a while and seeing I was the one spoke
to him most it fell to me to come down and sort out his things.
He mentioned y'all a few times, always kept a photo right there on his desk, got your names on the back and everything.

From some convention or other, 20 somethin years ago, I think. So when I found he had a whole shed full of things from that Aliens movie he never stopped talking about I figured y'all were the best folks to talk to about it. I was hoping you might could come on down and take a look, I know it's a fair way to travel for most folks, but I'm sure you'll agree it's worth it once you see what's in there.

I got no idea how much any of this stuff is worth, but I though y'all could check it out and give me some idea,
maybe even make an offer for some of it if you were so inclined.

This probably don't make a whole lot of sense, but I can give a better explanation if you decide to come along.
The 18th works best, I've attached a document with the address and some directions. It ain't the easiest place in the world to find, but you'll know it when you see it

Sincerely,

Holly Marsh

In the coastal port town of Balance, Ballentia horror lurks nearby in the creeping fog. Ships go to sea never to return and creatures slither silently by in the ocean.

The Wistal Whistles have been called in by Benedict Orez, young mayor of the town. He was recently appointed by his Grandfather and former Mayor Sirap Orez. He is determined to solve the mystery surrounding the fishing boats of Balance that don't always come back home as the town is now in big trouble.

Will the Wistal Whistles, an extraordinary mystery solving team, be able to figure out what's going on and put the town back to the bustling port town it always used to be?

A tale of curses, lost love and high seas treachery. Come aboard, me hearties as we take to the sea! Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life .... and death ....

'Adrift on Ruined Seas' is a homebrewed one shot pirate mystery horror adventure based in The World of Isen created by Brad Zimmerman. The one shot is played over 3 to 4 hours with pre-generated level 7 characters featuring characters previously seen in another horror home brew one shot set in Isen, "The Hallowed Festival of Frights" with some new friends also in tow.

Warnings: This session is fairly fun and super welcoming of all ages, abilities and who folx are or want to be, there are one or two moments of scary. Just the usual mystery solving with monsters stuff but I like to be upfront and keep my players safety in mind at all times. Any questions regarding this, please ask. Also this session, being with level 7 characters is a bit more advanced so some basic prior knowledge is advised.

'Adrift on Ruined Seas' is set in the homebrewed World of Isen, created by Brad Zimmerman. Session DM’d by Julz Burgisser who plays Marley Kraff in the D&D 5e actual play podcast ‘Fate of Isen’ available for download on iTunes, Spotify and all good podcasting apps. See www.fateofisen.com for more details on Isen.

You are a member of a new-age cult, run by two charismatic leaders. They have invited you, and several of your rivals, to an exclusive event where you must prove your worthiness to become their new Left Hand. Only one will be chosen.

Can you navigate the toxic environment of manipulation, constant scrutiny, and bitter rivalries to be the chosen one? What inner mysteries of the cult can you discover? And what happened to the last Left Hand, whose place you are vying for?

Notes:
- This has nothing to do with Lovecraftian mythos. The intention is for it to be dark and intense, exploring the manipulative tactics of real-world cults.
- Two players will be cast as the cult leaders. This will come with a bit of extra reading, but also extra knowledge/power/scope to make up aspects of the cult. The cult leaders will spend a significant part of the LARP interviewing candidates.

Content warnings:
Intense emotions, seriously unhealthy relationships (potentially one-sided and/or involving infidelity), gaslighting and manipulation, verbal/emotional abuse, financial and emotional exploitation, drugs, murder, suicide, religion

You are the Grinning Ravens gang, a group of up-and-coming gangsters in Doskvol, a haunted Victorian city. Trapped between the leviathan-demons of the inky-black Void Sea and the anti-ghost lightning fence, the Grinning Ravens must seize their fortune from whomever stands in their way.

Will you go up against the Spirit Wardens, the bronze-masked anti-ghost squad? Or will you support them in their war against the Dimmer Sisters and the street-witches? Will you seek enough coin to live out your retirement comfortably, or push for fame and glory? Will you succumb your vice, your traumas, or plain old gunfire, or will you live to run another score?

A fast-paced, fiction-first game of heists, ghosts, flash-backs and making it all up as we go along.

System experience useful but not required. Younger and teen players are welcome, but the game as-written requires you to feel comfortable saying "NOPE!" to the GM.

The Berlin Wall has fallen, signalling the end of the Cold War, of spies, secrets, and the threat of totalitarianism. It is a time to build bridges and to rebuild the world. As with charity, the best rebuilding begins at home, and to rebuild you must destroy.

This is a scenario about finding a way to remove the tumour growing in the heart of The Establishment and throwing that baby out - without losing the bathwater. The scenario is likely to play out as a series of raids and confrontations, and for sure, not everyone is getting out alive or in one piece.

The game is inspired by the masers of Cold War action, Robert Ludlum and Ian Fleming*, but this being a roleplaying game, of course there's more going on than checking the slide on a Beretta or setting the timers to the same six minutes you always use.

* As unproblematic as I can make his style of action anyway.

The Berlin Wall has fallen, signalling the end of the Cold War, of spies, secrets, and the threat of totalitarianism. It is a time to build bridges and to rebuild the world, but there are plenty of secrets left to grow anew in the ashes of burned spies. Now you know the truth, you've got to either disappear forever, or fight.

This is a scenario about what spies do when they finally learn a secret they can't keep, can't bury, and can't forget. Can they use what they know to serve their country, or will they be destroyed for the Greater Good? Depending on the approach taken, this could be a tense chamber piece of trust, or a more free-wheeling chain of investigation to climb the ladder of lies.

The game is inspired by the masters of Cold War paranoia and moral ambivalence, Graham Greene, Frederick Forsyth and John le Carre, but this being a roleplaying, of course there's more going on than sweating through confidential files and breaking alibis.