*knock* *knock* Wake up, Neomorph. Time to cathart.
Team (tabletop) games
These are the most ancient and honourable form of roleplaying game. The table is optional but traditional. Some are system-based games, others systemless. But Messrs Pheno, Morph and Stuff guarantee that they're all good.
- Curse of the Obsidian Wolf — by Marissa Harris (1 session GURPS: Cthulhupunk, 5 players)
- Curse of the Unnamed Ninjas — by Andrew McLennan (1 session systemless, 4-5 players)
- Diamonds and Guns — by Joe McNamara (1 session Mage:The Ascension, 5 players)
- A Medieval Fairy Tale —
by Pointless Mental Cruelty (1 session systemless/D&D 3rd ed, 4-6 players)
Game cancelled - Morph apologises for any inconvenience - A Planet of No Importance —
by Brett Evill (1 session GURPS
4th ed, 5 players)
Game cancelled - Morph apologises for any inconvenience - Project Starswarm — by Peter Trueman (1 session GURPS Transhuman Space, 5 players)
- 'Til Human Voices Wake Us — by Andrew Smith (1 session Call of Cthulhu or D20 Cthulhu, 5 players)
- Union Blues — by Mik Bonsall (1 session Weird West, 4 players)
- (Back to the main games page)
Curse of the Obsidian Wolf
by Marissa Harris
"Yo, Mila! I scammed us another feed!" Heads turn, peering through the dingy dimness at the newcomer. On one face a bright smile and a sudden, quickly concealed, interest in the eyes of another. The music pulses and swirls through the room and the air is thick with incense and smoke."Heyo Taffs, whassadeal? Danger time?"
"Nah. Easy as snortin'. Some ol' bright has lost his stash and needs a crew to get it back. Buncha nerks in one of those corp stacks took it. Bright says there's nilo security and few eyes watching. Maybe a coupla mercs kicking back. We kosh 'em, slide through, snip the vault and we're in and out before they know what hit 'em." The smile fades to wariness "And the catch would be...?"
A game for 5 gangers - the lowest of the low - set in a futuristic London, where the city never sleeps, the TVs never turn off and the things that go 'bump' in the night are real.
| Pheno ratings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Characterisation 4 | Genre 3 | Rules knowledge 2 |
| Story/plot 4 | Seriousness 4 | Advisory rating M |
Curse of the Unnamed Ninjas
By Wizards of the Coats
Master assassins, spies and infiltrators; if stealth and secrecy are what you require, then ninja are who you should seek.
Yeouch! Damnit I stubbed my toe again! I can't see a thing with this god-forsaken mask slipping over my eyes!
Myth and legend surround them, with many cunning disguises hiding the true nature and purpose of their missions.
Look, just because you dyed your hair a different colour doesn't mean that people won't notice you're twins.
Unrivalled martial prowess, both armed and unarmed, few survivors are left standing in their wake.
Will you watch where you're pointing that thing?!? You almost took my eye out!
The names of the ninja clans inspire dread; the mere rumour of a ninja in town is enough to cause panic.
I don't care, "Clan of the Rabbit" isn't going to frighten anyone, unless they happen to be a carrot. Have you heard of any ninjas being hired to kill carrots? No? I didn't think so.
Fortunately, there are those who don't quite make the grade...
A single session series of mishaps for 4-5 ninja-wannabes. Competency is not required.
Wizards of the Coats are Becka Orth and Andrew MacLennan.
| Pheno ratings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Characterisation 3 | Genre 2 | Rules knowledge 0 |
| Story/plot ? | Seriousness 1 | Advisory rating PG |
Diamonds and Guns
by Joe McNamara
The tiny African nation of Madizambe is being consumed by civil war. For its inhabitants, this is a nightmare. For the Technocracy, however, it's a captive market.
You and your crew of disgraced, out-of-favour Syndicate operatives have a plane full of AK-47s, a few devices Control hasn't strictly approved for release yet and a burning desire to get out of Madizambe before the country collapses completely. Can you evade reality deviants, other Technocrats who want to shut you down and the utter chaos that is a country falling apart long enough to sell the guns and get out of there?
More importantly, should you?
A Mage: the Ascension game of chaos, action, backstabbing and moral choices for 5 players.
| Pheno ratings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Characterisation 4 | Genre 3 | Rules knowledge 1 |
| Story/plot 3 | Seriousness 4 | Advisory rating MA (violence, adult themes) |
A Medieval Fairy Tale
by Pointless Mental Cruelty (Mark Philp, Daniel Rehorek and Michelle Steel)
Game cancelled - Morph apologises for any inconvenience
"Once upon a time in the peaceful village of Green Meadows, there was a Minor Lord and Lady who lived with their beautiful young daughter in a quaint little manor on top of a grassy hillock. The Lord spent his days watching over the village, the Lady maintained the manor, and their daughter enjoyed dancing and running and skipping about, watching her parents living their "Happily Ever After".
All was merry in their lands, until one day a beastly Dragon appeared. The golden fields of Green Meadows soon turned as black as pitch, and a great suffering fell upon the village. The hardest hit were the Lord and Lady, as their beautiful little Princess went missing, feared scooped up by the jaws of the beastly Dragon as it swept up into the sky.
And so, as is always the way, a small band of unknown Heroes ventured to the peaceful village to rescue the Princess, the daughter of the Minor Lord and Lady, from the beastly Dragon, only to find there was a BIG problem...
And it was with the story itself! For not all stories are what they seem, and not all Storytellers tell their tales in the same fashion!"
Pointless Mental Cruelty are Daniel, Mark, Kimito, Alex and Shell. www.pointlessmentalcruelty.com/
A Systemless take on DnD 3e for 4-6 players.
| Pheno ratings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Characterisation 4 | Genre 3 | Rules knowledge 0 |
| Story/plot 3 | Seriousness 3 | Advisory rating PG |
A Planet of No Importance
by Brett Evill
3007 AD: six centuries after Earth was destroyed, the Empire is still morbidly obsessed with preventing mass deaths. It sends its best and brightest to hell-holes to stop the locals from exterminating themselves, to "fill full the mouths of famine and bid the sickness cease". Imperial flakes and burnouts end up in utopias like Colora, a planet without violence, poverty, or disease: where everyone is shiny and happy from the philosopher-kings to the cleaning robots. So what happens when Colora needs steely-eyed missile men?
Buckle your jackboots, you sad sacks. It's time to earn your pay.
GURPS 4th ed. An SF thriller for five dysfunctional Imperial Servants in the interstellar gloom of Flat Black.
| Pheno ratings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Characterisation 3 | Genre 3 | Rules knowledge 1 |
| Story/plot 4 | Seriousness 5 | Advisory rating MA 15+ |
Project Starswarm
by Peter Trueman
Executive Decisions Incorporated (EDI) is a transnational commercial security firm. In addition to extensive operations on Earth, it provides security services for many space colonies and asteroid stations.
Systems Technologies AG has interests in space resource extraction, robotics, fusion and anti-matter power, and space habitat construction. System Technologies founded the Lunar He-3 mining business, helped build Islandia and the E.U.'s Mercury colony, and is still the largest corporation on the moon.
Nanodynamics has a reputation as the embodiment of the developed world's military-industrial complex, dating back to the Andes War when it was a major supplier of robotic weapons to the Pentagon.
Exogenesis was the research arm of System Technologies AG, dedicated to exploring cutting-edge nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. Exogenesis is a pioneer in human uploading and advanced cybershells and operates on the asteroid Vesta.
In 2099, System Technologies AG sold Exogenesis to Nanodynamics. However the research base personnel disagreed strongly with many of Nanodynamics' new policies, leading to a prolonged labour dispute that has culminated in a rebellious and unlawful seizure of Nanodynamics' new facility by the Exogenesis staff. With the asteroid situated far beyond the reach of any nation's law enforcement agencies, Nanodynamics has contracted Executive Decisions Incorporated to regain control of its new research base.
That's where you come in.
You are the members of FT (Fire Team) Epsilon-4, participating in an entirely legitimate and sanctioned operation to recover control of Exogenesis Station for its rightful owners. Although you will be equipped with state-of-the-art armaments, you are to effect this with a minimum amount of damage and desirably no loss of life to Exogenesis and its staff. Remember that each employee and researcher holds valuable corporate knowledge that Nanodynamics wishes to utilise and that all equipment (including cybershells and artificial personalities) on the station represents a substantial investment to your employer.
A GURPS Transhuman Space adventure for five gun-toting, free-falling mercenaries.
| Pheno ratings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Characterisation 2 (practice bawling FIRE IN THE HOLE in an American accent | Genre 3(hard SF) | Rules knowledge 2 (helpful but not required) |
| Story/plot 3 (may be a twist in there, who knows?) | Seriousness 4 (being a merc is no laughing matter) | Advisory rating M (violence - hey, it's a merc game!) |
'Til Human Voices Wake Us
by Andrew Smith
Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread.
— Canto III, lines 106–109, Al Azif ('The Necronomicon'), [1898 Cawdor translation]
London 1923: an October of dank fog-shrouded streets and bitter tattered memories: smoke, mud, flesh, a mansion, love.
Tragedy strikes many. But gnostic wisdom has it that Tragedy has elder siblings from whom justice (or mere revenge) can be sought.
If you could, would you want things to be better? Would you make Tragedy take back Her insults?
Would you pay the price?
Five occultists and dreamers are about to find out. A single session Call of Cthulhu game (original or D20 or systemless).
| Pheno ratings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Characterisation 4 | Genre 1 | Rules knowledge 0 |
| Story/plot 4 | Seriousness 4 | Advisory rating MA (supernatural horror, adult concepts) |
Union Blues
by Mik Bonsall
"I tell yer, Junior, it's a long, borin' train trip from Dodge t' Chicago and there's many as would hope fer sumthin' to keep themselves occupied with. Which is why so many of the richer folk would have Poker games that would last the whole durn trip. O'course, they'd let anyone with money in. It was back in '76 and my travellin' companions were accompanyin me from Dodge."
Takin' a prisoner to the north to exchange for one o' ours. O' course, the Preacher didn't want to play an' I had to guard the prisoner, but the Preacher's Mexican friend played. I think even the yeller faced girl wouldha' tried, if she'd been able to get her head outta her books long enough. But pass me ma old Ranger star Junior. Helps me remember. We walked up to the station at Dodge...."
A weird west rail trip for 4 players.
| Pheno ratings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Characterisation 4 | Genre 3-4 | Rules knowledge 0 |
| Story/plot 3-4 | Seriousness 3 | Advisory rating MA (violence, horror, drug use, adult themes) |