Red Markets - The Same Old Grind

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It’s our playtest of the Red Market’s Convention Packet, written by Laura, Adam, and Tom (of the RPPR Forum).

Spring has sprung and The Telluride Funeral Service are looking for work in the mountains of Colorado. But when negotiations go south they’ll have to scrounge and scrape for every possible bounty that comes their way. How far will the crew go to make a profit?

THE PLAYERS:

Aaron – Cosmo, the negotiator of the group.

Adam – Bubba, the latent with an ax.

Ethan – Attendant, the scout.

Greg – Tech 9, the guy with the gun and a German Shepherd (Mr. Whiskers).

Call of Cthulhu - Our Temporary Supervisor

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It's a grim "purist" horror scenario from Ethan, based on a story by Thomas Ligotti. Like, really grim. Fair warning.

In a small gray factory on the edge of a crumbling town, workers spend long tedious hours assembling metal devices for some obscure purpose. The labor is dreary, but the pay is all right -- until a temporary change in management begins to reveal some troubling implications about the factory's nature. The brittle psyches of three workers will be tested to their shattering points.

If you'd like to read the original Ligotti story, it can be found in the collection Teatro Grottesco

THE PLAYERS:

Aaron - Gordy, a longtime worker struggling to support his family and control his anger.

Greg - Chet, a depressed alcoholic who's lost everything but his dog and his job.

Laura - Rachel, a young woman trying to escape from her family through work, online games, and anxiety medication.

Upwind - Powers Combined

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A few months back we were lucky enough to run a playtest of Jeff Barber's game Upwind, a high-fantasy game of skyships, lost science, and infinite sky. It uses a card-based resolution mechanic to resolve conflicts scene-by-scene rather than turn-by-turn.

As Knights of the Explorer's Guild, our heroes are tasked with journeying down into the Twilight Frontier to map the migration of an archipelago of highlands (flying islands). Strange creatures, pirates, and the landscape itself seek to keep the Knights from their task.

If you like what you hear, please consider backing the game on Kickstarter

THE PLAYERS:

Ethan: Kir - The soft-spoken yet persuasive healer.

Greg: Wink - The young and impulsive teleporter.

Laura: Domnall - The gentle giant with a kind face.

Fiasco - The Zoo

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The Brookmarket Zoo was once a world-class institution, visited by locals and travelers alike. Its animals were content, its visitors happy, its staff respected. Now, attendance is down, the zoo is desperate, and money is tight. Other, more successful zoos in other cities sniff around the place, looking to take away animals and staff. Are these the last days of the Brookmarket Zoo? Or can someone with powerful ambition change things for the better?

It's our first foray into Fiasco and we're starting off with The Zoo playset. If you want to skip the set-up, fast forward to 33:42.