"They sort it with thimbles
they sort it with Care,
they pursued it with forks and Hope,
they threatened its life with a railway share,
they charmed it with smiles and soap."
A quest for an unknown creature in an uncharted land! a great but possibly incompetent leader! And there you are, after months of sailing, ready to find the Snark!
Just because you have powers, doesn't mean you're going to make it as a hero in Magnet City. Are you charming, heroic and, ultimately... marketable?
Superlative Entertainment is auditioning, and this is the most lucrative gig you could hope to land. Unfortunately, solo contracts are few and far between, so you're being trialled as a brand new team with some other hopeful unknowns.
Mug for the cameras, avoid property damage and save the day; It sure beats trawling the Barbican app for odd jobs as a low grade vigilante.
This game will use the Genesys narrative dice system first seen in Fantasy Flight's Star Wars RPGs.
Flatlined takes place on the world of Neon, in the Usher subsector of Reft. The Travellers awaken in a crashed spacecraft, with only the vaguest memos of how they got there....
This is a scenario for the modern version of the Traveller game - the archetypal space faring RPG. Character sheets, pencils and 2D6 dice will be provided - easy system to learn. For any age or sensibilities, as long as you like science fiction.
A ripple spread across the world. The sky turned white and the clouds became a riot of colours. In the following weeks chasms opened in the ground, and the less populous regions seemed to change. As months passed cities became isolated from each other as teleportation magic went awry and crossing the open expanses left many unhinged or dead.
A city of Artificiers attempted to protect carriages and the horses which pulled them, from the odd influences, eventually creating horse-less conveyances which came to be called the "Death Chariots" or "Death Coffins". Safer than other means of travel, they were avoided by all but the reckless, dimwitted or desperate, for the death rate was still high.
One year on couriers semi-regularly criss-cross the network of cities to ship luxury items, potion ingredients and packages for the Artificiers guild.
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The sun is high, the road is bumpy and now a band from the wild wastes are bearing down on your vehicle looking to capture you, your cargo and your ride. One of those days.
You are a member of Security Team Bravo Blue, a patrol unit assigned with securing the perimeter of the Nevada Test and Training Range (a place known to many as 'Area 51').
But despite the fancy name, and the 'exotic' location, it's a boring job, really; most of the time you're simply sitting in your JLTV (Joint Light Tactical Vehicle) counting the tumbleweeds blow by, while trying to remember where exactly the God-damned virtual fence line actual lies! Worse, given the shift nature of your job, you're either sweating like a hog in the desert sun or freezing your unmentionables off in the cold of night while doing it...
Hell, the most excitement you've ever had is that time a group of college geeks straying too close to the base's gates (shouting how they were gonna 'Naruto run' the place - whatever the hell that meant) or when a lost herd of cattle wandered onto the rocket engine test pad (place smelt like barbeque for a month afterwards!). Let's be honest, in the months and years you've spent in the plains and hills around Bald Mountain you've never seen hide nor hair of any secret alien technology or anything even slightly resembling little green men. Instead - all jokes aside - you just get on with your job, which, in this case, is allowing the base's hard working military and civilian personnel to simply do what they need to do in peace!
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Truckstop is a modern day, horror-sci-fi scenario for a 3 or 4 players, utilising a homegrown version of the OpenD6 mechanics (what I've called Raw Six) to quickly bring play to the table. As this is a flexibly written adventure, I can ramp up or toned down the horror as required, so happy to have players of all ages at the table!
Note - This scenario was run (under a different system) way back in the mid 2000s - just in case any might have jump on board back then!
An ordinary day for some young heroes-in-training is disrupted by strange unseen voices:
"Do you mind? we're trying to organize a robbery here"
"A robbery? You couldn't organize your way out of a paper bag!"
Thus begins one of the more bizarre episodes in the annals of the hero team Daybreak as they are transported to a strange otherworldly space for a reason that is not readily apparent.
This game may feature one or more villains from the card game Sentinels of the Multiverse, but no knowledge of that game or setting is required.
YOU ARE A SPACE MARINE: an immortal giant genetically engineered to be the perfect instrument of war. You and your squadmates are oathsworn protectors of the Astral Commonwealth - and one another. The iconoclasts of the galaxy shiver in terror at the very mention of your name.
However: support forces have not arrived following the recent liberation of Vannis, leaving you in charge of a diplomatic envoy dedicated to rebuilding after the conflict. You have no idea how to do this.
However: you’ve got one solar week until your superiors arrive to inspect the city, so best get to it!
NICE MARINES is a 1 page RPG about Space Marines doing very un space marine stuff. Like parades, being nice, and talking to people. You have no idea how to handle animale, lying, or sadness. You're not skilled, you're Confident, and we're trying to minimise the collateral damage of your success!
It's free to get from https://gshowitt.itch.io/nice-marines
Set in the 1930's, Pulp Cthulhu is a game of two-fisted adventure, weird science, dark deeds, and brave heroes.
Tired of your investigators dying in quick succession when jaunting around the world in a desperate bid to save humanity? Wishing that sometimes your investigator could make a stand instead of hiding and waiting for the eldritch horror to pass? Pulp Cthulhu ups the ante and provides you with tougher, more capable heroes — ready to take on the villainous machinations of the Cthulhu Mythos!
Have you seen Rachel Weisz and Brendan Fraser's The Mummy (1999) - That's the tone we're shooting for.
A game for 5 players.
There’s talk of good tidings ahead. A celebration, they’re calling it. The dawn of a new era. The birth of an heir.
Officially, the Young Emperor has no spouse and no recognised heir. That has not stopped the people of the Verdelline Empire from spreading rumours about him and the good Lady Stolas, one of his most trusted advisors, as she is soon to have a child. Many people would point out that there is no evidence of any dalliance between the two, but what good is a wet blanket in the face of a juicy scandal?
Of course, there are more important things for people to worry about than whether or not some young man with a nice chair is about to become a father.
The past year and a half has been fraught with tension, with politics being less and less a matter of talking or warfare and more a matter of making one’s enemies simply… disappear. The air is thick with blood and magic, but only if you know where to look.
And, even so, the Young Emperor wishes to make a show of peace. He says he wishes to welcome the child of Lady Stolas into the world with a party like no other. He says he wishes to see better days ahead. Those wishes might just come true— if his enemies don’t come for him first.
Empty Vessels: Inheritance is a Renaissance-themed high-fantasy, high-intrigue game set in the world of Empty Vessels. It takes place one and a half years after the events of EV: Omens, but no prior knowledge is required to play.
The Commodore wants a Xenobiologist, despite already having one. To entice this Dr Olipolious, she’s sending Harlequin, her current Xenobiologist, to meet with him and make him a job offer. The offer is so sensitive and secret that they have to meet in person, which means Harlequin has to leave the relative safety of the Commodore’s over juiced pocket battleship despite the enticing price on her head… and go to a science conference.
The conference is abord a small, upmarket private station in the middle of nowhere. Conference security is minimal and most of the other scientists won’t be conventionally armed. Your job is simple: take Harlequin to the conference, don’t let anyone who happens to figure out she’s there kill or capture her for the bounty, ensure the meet happens in privacy, and then escort both Harlequin and Dr Olipolious back to your ship.
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“Travel the Galaxy! Meet Fascinating New Life Forms, Then Kill Them!”
Set in the universe of the now complete webcomic Schlock Mercenary, Planet Mercenary is a fast paced and hopefully humorous game about trying to make money by shooting people, or in this case by attending what would have been a perfectly innocent scientific conference.
Knowledge of the game system is not needed, knowledge of the comic is a bonus!
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/
Maxim 14: “Mad Science" means never stopping to ask "what's the worst thing that could happen?"