Programme
Contents |
Friday
All welcome, even if you are not ticket holders to join us for the Social Friday night: come see what Grand Tribunal all about! Unlike previous years we have not organised a formal sit down meal this year - prioritising playing games and informal chatting instead, but food will be available at the Brewhouse :)
These events are entirely optional, and timings are just a guide to the earliest time they might happen. Feel free to turn up fashionably late. Follow hashtag #gt17uk on Twitter to check the exact time that we leave the pub to head to the hotel bar.
16:00 CHANGE TO YEARS PREVIOUS TO 2017. This year the Meet, Greet and Eat is at Brewhouse & Kitchen, Henrietta Street,GL50 4FA (opposite the Holiday Inn Express, behind the Premier Inn).
20:30 Card games, boardgames and socializing in the bar of the Holiday Inn Express, 33 Dunalley Street, GL50 4AP map
Saturday
10:00-22:00 - Gas Green Community Centre, see venue page for details. Please bring a packed lunch. Fish & chip supper can be delivered, optional. The nearby supermarket & corner shop both sell sandwiches.
10:00 Game Slot A
10:00 Introduction, setup, prep time (30 mins)
10.30 This years freeform Coombe Hill by Andrew Oakley. It is in a sense a sequel to Mop Fair which ran a few years back I'm told, and is Ars Magica based. A freeform is a game played walking about the venue, in costume (ask if you want to borrow something, and don't feel you have to dress up if impossible for travel reasons!) It's a sort of non-combat larp, and I think most people enjoy it even if this is REALLY NOT your thing. It is assumed everyone will play, but if you aren't, just drop CJ a line to let me know
12:30 Lunch
Lunch (please bring a packed lunch or visit local shops. In deference to our hosts no alcohol please in the venue. (30 mins). The Freeform wrap-up discussion and debrief will occur over lunch. Last orders for evening fish & chip supper will be taken here, so make sure you have spoken to Andrew if you would like to be in the order. Andrew goes and collects the food to save time for playing having phoned in orders from a limited menu to an excellent local chippy.
13:00 Game slot B (3 hours)
- The Shadow Over Innsworth, Unknown Armies adventure by CJ. Innsworth is a small English town just a few more from the tidal waters of the Severn Estuary. Yet those more can prove quiet a barrier when you are a party of Deep Ones sent by dream commands of Great Cthulhu to bring one of your own, the young man Daniel Marsh, home to the city under the sea. Dan is just experiencing the change, and he may need explanations as to what is going on, and convincing to join you. Play a group of five Deep Ones (to say nothing of the shoggoth!) tasked with discretely rescuing the lad. What could possibly go wrong?
16:00 Game slot C (3 hours)
- The Strange Case of Georgina Blenkinsop Unknown Armies by CJ 1827; the Season is at its height and the six Blenkinsop daughters have left their remote Norfolk rectory to take the waters in fashionable Cheltenham Spa. With Papa in India, and mama indisposed it has all become Utterly Horrid. Sister Georgina has to begun to act very oddly, and the Blenkinsop girls must use all their gentle good breeding and find a way to avert a terrible scandal. Designed to be played straight faced, this is a (very) black comedy of manners inspired by Jane Austen and the Brontes.
19:00 Raffle & Supper
This is the point at which the charity raffle occurs: sadly we haven't got as much from Atlas Games this year because of higher international postage rates, so if delegates can bring something - food, delicacies, second hand rpg stuff, interesting pebbles etc that is very welcome - to add to the raffle that is great, but by no means compulsory. CJ is putting in a still shrink wrapped copy of the Grand Tribunal boardgame and there will be some unique goodies. #
Every attendee receives one ticket, and more can be purchased for £1 each.
Andrew will fetch the fish and chips people have ordered, and those who prefer can walk to one of many nearby fast food outlets or prepare food in the kitchen: we have a full size TESCO superstore 5 minutes walk away.
20:00 Game slot D (till late)
- The Romance of Durenmar: The year is 1228 and the Order of Hermes have gathered for the Grand Tribunal meeting that occurs at Durenma in the Black Forest every 33 years. A group of teenage apprentices have been brough along by their masters and mistresses; unable to attend the sittings of the Council who are deciding weighty matters, they have the opportunity to explore this ancient covenant and the surrounding forests. Will they stumble upon a mystery? Will their new magic prove strong enough? And can they get over their past meetings and prejudices,and work together if needed? An Ars Magica adventure by CJ for 5 apprentices and one magical cat.
- Babylon Recall - A Blakes Seven adventure by Simon Burley An "adventure that never was", based on the classic British TV Space Opera. The freedom fighting crew of the powerful, enigmatic, alien spaceship "Liberator" soon won't be the only ones with access to the unbelievable technology of an ancient race.
Sunday
9:00-16:00 - Gas Green Community Centre, see venue page for details. Sunday may involve re-runs of games that were booked solid on their first run on Saturday too. Please bring a packed lunch. The nearby supermarket & corner shop both sell sandwiches.
9:00 Game slot E (3 hours)
13:00 Game slot F (3 hours)
16:00 Close
Close and wrap-up. People who need lifts are helped to station, and rest of us wander off for beer, an Indian meal and socialising for delegates who are able to stay till Monday, which we do every year. Highly recommended to sat Sunday night for the meal if you can; I'll post last train times to Bristol, London and Birmingham on the Venue page.
