TTRPG Pickup Con Games Schedule
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Pickup Con Schedule
*All times listed in the US Central Time Zone.*
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Upcoming Cons!
"On the Hill" a Standard One Shot in the Liminal Horror system, led by Nona de Koning
Liminal Horror is a rules-lite, adaptable Survival-Horror roleplaying game about regular characters and their struggles against the things that go bump in the night. The game focuses on surviving the weird and investigating horrors while blending simple, old-school-inspired rules with modern, narrative first principles. Survival is not guaranteed, and those who do make it through are often forever changed. Liminal Horror is not a game about solving mysteries, but rather surviving them. This time, you're all going to explore a state park where uncanny things keep happening. Can you make it back out alive? Play to find out! It does not matter if the new signs read “Gareth Pines State Park.” The locals will always call it The Hill, and they will always say it with a wary glance out the window. The trail maps and spray-painted blazes have done nothing to allay their superstitious fear of The Hill and its abandoned monastery. But the tourists still come. Whispered warnings at the gas station will not stop them from venturing out into the woods. The junkyard full of abandoned cars with out-of-state license plates will not stop them from seeking out the ruins on The Hill. And the tattered “Missing Person” flyers will not stop them from going missing themselves...
This game will be great if you like exploration, investigative horror, playing as ordinary people, doom clocks, OSR and NSR games.
New players welcome.
Pre-generated character templates are provided to pick from.
This game will be played in room #1 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord Server. Spectators are welcome in the Discord room.
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
"Live, Laugh, Die" a Standard One Shot in the Bad Decisions system, led by Nona de Koning
Bad Decisions is a very rules-light GMless game of lighthearted comedic horror. One where we each become the kind of hapless characters the audience shouts “NO! DON’T GO IN THERE!” to when they appear in a movie. In traditional role-playing games, you often want to do the smartest, safest thing to survive. Here, we like our heroes curious, irresponsible, and extremely mortal. The whole point of Bad Decisions is to get yourselves killed doing something terribly idiotic. Players take turns narrating and making Bad Decisions until, at the midway point, you are no longer just hinting at danger: danger is pretty much chasing you through a cornfield with a machete. Maybe literally. And from there, things start to move fast. We shift our focus from narration to a modified version of Liar's Dice, where anyone who gets eliminated gets…err…eliminated. Soon it’s head-to-head with just two players left. One will be the so-called Final Girl, but it turns out the other has been the Secret Mastermind all along! Be prepared to make Bad Decisions for your own character and to help narrate terrible endings for the other characters once things inevitably go terribly wrong.
This game is perfect for fans of collaborative storytelling, improv, horror movie tropes, and making bad decisions.
No preparation is needed.
New players are welcome.
This game will be played in room #1 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord Server. Spectators are welcome in the Discord room.
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“Parsely: Spooky Manor” a Standard One Shot in the Parsely system. Led by Nona de Koning
The job was simple: deliver a package to the reclusive resident of a mysterious mansion. But all is not as it seems…. Lord Spooky’s mansion is full of mystery and danger and who knows what else?!
Before the first 3D video game came out, all video games were text-based adventures. These were simple scenarios with limited interactions. The player would type their actions into the game, and if it was a valid command, the game would respond with new content.
Players will take control of a character together and the GM will play as the parser and control the computer processing your commands. Players will alternate giving commands like GO NORTH, LIGHT LAMP or GET SWORD, which the GM will follow to the best of the imaginary computer's ability. There’s no limit to the number of people that can play and no limit to the fun. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to unplug from your computer and plug into Parsely! Don't forget to hit SAVE and be mindful, because 3 deaths means GAME OVER! ;-) "
This game will be great if you like choose-your-own-adventure books, 80s computer RPGs, and Super Mario.
Players will control a single nameless player character together as a group
This session will be especially good for new players. New players are welcome.
The game runner is very familiar with this system
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚬⚬⚬ Serious
Combat: ⚪⚬⚬⚬⚬
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪
Exploration: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬
This game will be played in room #1 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord Server. Spectators are welcome in the Discord room.
CW: lack of control, character death (but without any gore or explicit details)
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
The Haunting of Waddle Manor
"The Haunting of Waddle Manor” a Standard One Shot in the Beakwood Bay system, Saturday, October 25, 2025 3:30 AM, lasting 3.5 hours, 2-4 players
About the game system: Beakwood Bay is a PbtA/Carved from Brindlewood roleplaying game for 2-4 ducks and a Keeper (GM), but not just any ducks. Inspired by Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics, in this hack of Brindlewood Bay, you play as bipedal Mallards hired to hunt down treasure instead of solving mysteries. Beakwood Bay is a thriving port city inhabited by all sorts of anthropomorphic animals, where anything can happen and adventure is always on the agenda. The city’s aesthetics are rooted in the early 20th Century, but there are all manner of scientific advancements, such as an experimental rocketpad, a bustling university, and many factories. The oligarchs who control these technology-focused businesses often act as patrons for working ducks and adventurous mallards. No one comes to Beakwood Bay without a plan of how to leave richer. But there’s a curse that comes with this pursuit, and many fall victim to the so-called Coin Fever. Ducks who are sitting on vaults of gold are frequently cruel and miserly in later years, pushing away family and friends to slavishly protect the gold they’ve acquired. But for now, you are just a Middle Class Mallard who dreams of adventure with your friends. Your ducks work in the service of the city’s wealthy benefactors, trying to make a fortune to call their own, all while working to avoid the crippling greed and exploitation that is rampant among the city’s elite. Hindered by NPCs after the same treasure, players do their best to gather clues (represented as helpful information and tools that can be used to recover the treasure) before finally trying to retrieve it. There is no prewritten canon path or method; instead, it's up to you to cleverly combine all that you've found to obtain the treasure! Will you succeed? Play to find out!
Waddle Manor has long been a source of spooky rumors and adolescent dares. Wilbur Waddle, the owner of the manor, died just two weeks ago, and his decrepit home is stuffed with the artifacts he acquired on adventures in life, with nearly every square foot filled with artifacts, bric-a-brac, books, or photos. It is a dark and stormy night, the kind no duck in their right mind would walk in the middle of. You, however, have been called. Each of you received a personalized letter, asking you to come to Waddle Manor up on Greenfeather Hill as soon as possible and be prepared to spend the night. You arrive to find others already there, and a short while later, the doors suddenly lock, seemingly by themselves. What is going on here and can you escape from Waddle Manor? Come find out in this spooky oneshot, if you dare! This game will be great if you like Ducktales, Scooby Doo, ghost stories, cartoons, comic books, Brindlewood Bay, PbtA games, and collaborative storytelling. Players should build characters ahead. Character creation is a quick and easy multiple-choice process. The game runner will contact players in advance to share handouts (rules reference & character sheets) and make your selections.
New players are welcome.
Players should have experience with some RPGs.
The GM is very familiar with this system.
This game will be played in room #1 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord Server. Spectators are welcome in the Discord room.
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
"Under the Weather" a Standard One Shot in the Bump in the Dark system, led by Nona de Koning,
“Bump in the Dark” is a Forged in the Dark (FitD) game about people hunting monsters in a fictionalized version of a mid-90s US mining town. Each player plays one of these monster hunters in a group that already knows each other. You will gather clues, piece them together, and solve a supernatural mystery, for which there is no predefined solution. This usually ends in a final showdown with some monster(s), your success partially depending on the earlier investigation. Consider shows like X-Files and Buffy, which feature supernatural mystery and action. The setting is quite dark and gritty, but not bleak. There are still moments of slice-of-life, humor, and levity, balancing out the supernatural horror. The game also has a strong message about the value of community and people in the town, particularly player characters, working together to make their town the best it can be and to stand against the darkness. Play to find out how the hunters survive as the stakes grow higher around them. Will they put the pieces together in time to save the day? Today's scenario is called Under the Weather, where local citizen Joe Halazia has been found dead in his home near Guilty River. However, all doors and windows of his house were locked from the inside. The state of the body indicates that this wasn’t a natural death, and it’s decaying at a supernatural rate. You will have to investigate soon, but there’s a problem: the weather forecast predicts that a huge storm is about to hit Last Pine.
This game will be great if you like the supernatural, Monster of the Week, the X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, chosen family, investigation, showdowns, PbtA, and FitD games.
The GM will contact players to select and customize characters ahead of time.
New players welcome.
This game will be played in room #1 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord Server. Spectators are welcome in the Discord room.
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
"Lovecraftesque" a Standard One Shot in the Lovecraftesque system, led by Nona,
Lovecraftesque is a GMless storytelling game of creeping cosmic horror, emulating the tone and pace of eldritch horror stories. As a group, we'll tell the story of a single character, who stumbles upon clues to a terrible evil. It creates slow-building, brooding horror that the main character at first dismisses, until all too suddenly it becomes impossible to deny. The ending will certainly be bleak, and the main character is likely to meet their doom. The game will use cards to guide us. Together we’ll build up a creepy eldritch mystery, one Clue at a time. At the start of the game, we only introduce subtle Clues, so the horror increases gradually, but as the game progresses, we’ll unlock scarier and more bizarre Clues. The truth behind the mystery is only revealed at the end, but we can brainstorm theories explaining the Clues as we play. During gameplay, we rotate between different roles. The active player will be the Narrator, whose job is to describe the world around the main character, and to reveal a Clue that hints at a terrifying cosmic mystery. Another will be the Witness, who portrays the main character and determines their actions in the story. Any other players are Whisperers, who support the Narrator by dripping in atmospheric description, answering the Narrator’s questions, and playing supporting characters. Each turn, we'll swap roles until eventually, we send the main character stumbling towards a confrontation with a cosmic evil. Time to find out the truth behind the Clues, and drive the story to a horrifying conclusion.
This game is perfect for fans of cosmic horror, card prompts, Fiasco, and other storytelling games.
New players welcome.
Players should have experience with some RPGs.
This game will be played in room #1 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord Server. Spectators are welcome in the Discord room. We'll be using Miro whiteboards. https://miro.com/
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“A Life on the Ocean Waves” is a Standard one-shot in the Goblin Quest system. Led by Nona de Koning.
Goblin Quest is a tabletop roleplaying game by Grant Howitt about slapstick violence, fatal ineptitude, and the most incredible adventure of your life.. Doodle and play five goblins each (in sequence, not parallel) and watch them one by one meet hilarious ends. As you play, you’ll tell stories about goblins trying to achieve basic tasks and meeting fatal misadventure as they do it. You’ll play the goblins, and you’ll steer them through (or, more commonly, directly into) adversity, and you’ll have a fun time doing it. Will they survive the dangerous world and complete all their silly quests? Probably not. But you'll have fun finding out! Today, your Goblins will go on a Quest we'll call A Life on the Ocean Waves. Tired of the reeking claustrophobia of the Green Pits, you’ve decided to get together a greasy crew of restless adventure types and set sail for a nautical life. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to build a boat out of filthy rubbish and scrounged scrap, and all you have to sail it on is the festering swamp that borders the western wall of the Great Battle Camp. What could possibly go wrong with that plan, right?
This game will be great if you like drawing, goblins, shenanigans, harebrained schemes, Saturday morning cartoons, and Grant Howitt's games. This system is especially great for new players.
The game runner is very familiar with this system.
We will build characters in session.
Note: drawing your goblins is a minor but required part of gameplay; this can be done digitally or on paper. If drawing on paper, please be prepared to take pictures of your goblins (using a smartphone) and share/upload them in our game's thread here on Discord.
Hosted in room #3 of the Pickup Con server, only using Discord, as always, spectators are welcome.
“Stonespire Marsh” a Standard One Shot in the Mausritter system. Led by Nona de Koning
Session pitch - Crawler Beyond The Stone:
Stonespire Marsh, named for the eponymous boulder at its center, is home to reclusive, sun-basking lizards. One day, amidst the muck and mud, they uncovered an entrance to the Stonespire itself, and their demeanor changed. They opened their island, speaking to visitors about a ""Second Sun.” They promise sanctuary and shelter the lost and needy, ""The Second Sun brings warmth and prosperity to all it shines upon."" However, pilgrims that enter the Stonespire never seem to leave again. What are High Priest Zon and the lizard cult up to? It's time for your brave mice to crawl beyond the stone and investigate what's really going on in Stonespire Marsh!
About Mausritter:
The settled mice huddle together, hidden in their settlements in trees and burrows and walls, scraping and saving. A tenuous existence. You are not like those settled mice. By choice or by necessity you are an adventurer. You live by your luck, your smarts, your bravery. With your friends by your side, you will abandon the warmth and safety of the mouse settlements and venture forth into the dark and dangerous places where other mice do not dare to tread. There is great wealth to be found by those that are willing to take it.
It's a huge and dangerous world out there. It does not look kindly on a small mouse. But if you are very brave and very clever and just a bit lucky, you might be able to survive. And if you survive long enough, you might even become a hero amongst mice."
This game will be great if you like Redwall, The Rescuers, The Hobbit, Over The Hedge, Thumbelina, OSR style RPGs
We will build Level 1 characters in the session. Character creation is lightning-quick and involves just a few random rolls. We'll do this together at the start of the session. If you've played Mausritter before and want to bring an existing character, contact me upfront to discuss.
This session will be especially good for new players.
The game runner is very familiar with this system.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬ Serious
Combat: ⚪⚪⚬⚬⚬
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪
Exploration: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬
This game will be played in room #1 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord Server. Spectators are welcome in the Discord room. The game runner will use Miro whiteboards for mapping. https://miro.com/
CW: drug use, cult, imprisonment, ritual sacrifice, possible PC death (you can continue with a new PC if that happens)
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
Check out the Rules: https://losing-games.itch.io/mausritter
“All Hands on Deck” is a Standard one-shot in the Descended From The Queen system. Led by Nona de Koning.
All Hands on Deck is a zero-prep GMless game and a hack of For The Queen. In this game, we collaboratively tell a story about a ship, its crew, and the sea they sail on. It is a game about the relationships between those people, about relying on each other, about being an individual in a team. We start by briefly discussing what sort of ship you sail, giving it a captain and naming them both. There is no need to dwell on details at this step; we'll learn more about our individual crew members, our captain, and our ship as our story develops!
This game will be great if you like For The Queen, ships, pirate crews, and collaborative prompt-based storytelling.
This system is especially great for new players.
The game runner is very familiar with this system.
Hosted in room #3 of the Pickup Con server, only using Discord, as always, spectators are welcome.
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“The Sunken Tower” is a Standard One-Shot in the Dragonbane system. Led by Nona de Koning.
Dragonbane is a classic fantasy TTRPG, OSR/NSR in spirit and full of magic, mystery, and adventure. Carefully explore, creatively solve problems, and treat combat like the dangerous thing it is! Dragonbane is designed from the ground up to facilitate fast and furious play, with room for laughs at the table, while still offering brutal challenges for the adventurers. The sea wind howls, and the smell of seaweed and decay stings your noses. You pull your cloaks tighter around you as the rowboat cuts through the restless sea towards your destination. Then the fog clears to reveal the sinking tower rising from the water. This is the moment you have all been waiting for, the day when the enchanted stone tower said to have been built by a mad mage rises from the sea once more. It only happens once every twenty years, according to the fishermen around the inn’s warming hearth, and only stays above water for two hours. Then it sinks back into the deep along with its treasures. There is a ghostly green light glowing ominously at the top of the tower. That is where the sorcerer’s emerald is said to be. Perhaps you will be the first to find it? Today, you'll play the Sunken Tower scenario, which Free League designed specifically for convention play. Players will need to work together to solve puzzles, win battles, and find valuable treasures. And all that in just two hours, as the IC part has a strict time limit! The session is scheduled for 3 hours to allow for introducing characters, a brief teach, a midway break, and a short wrap-up at the end, where your score is revealed! The latter is just a fun nod to those old-school tournament-style games, as always, telling a good story together is more important than winning! Pregen characters are provided.
New players are welcome.
The game runner is new to this system, but has plenty of experience with similar games.
Hosted in room #3 of the Pickup Con server, only using Discord, as always, spectators are welcome. using Miro whiteboards, https://miro.com/
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“Off the Hook” is a Standard One-Shot in the Descended From The Queen system. Led by Nona de Koning.
Rumors of a terrible sea monster have been floating around your seaside town. People disappearing, tides changing, total devastation... Gnashing teeth, unimaginable strength... Hardly anyone goes outside anymore. No one has actually seen this monster in all its entirety, but you can't live in terror forever. Boarding the next available boat, you set off on what might be your last marine journey. With nothing better to do, you begin to reminisce about the tall tales about the sea monster. Will they prove to be true when you finally encounter the monster? And can you bring yourself to end its life?
Off the Hook is a zero-prep GMless game and a hack of For The Queen. In this game, we collaboratively tell a story of rumors and mystery surrounding a sea monster currently terrorizing the seaside town you and your ragtag group of people hail from. Using a card deck and pregenerated prompts, we exchange memories, tales, hypotheticals, and general banter about the sea monster. Ultimately, we decide if we let the monster live, out of mercy or perhaps out of safety, or confront the monster, to capture it, kill it, or die trying.
This game will be great if you like For The Queen, sea monsters, pirate crews, and collaborative prompt-based storytelling.
This system is especially great for new players.
The game runner is very familiar with this system.
Hosted in room #3 of the Pickup Con server, only using Discord, as always, spectators are welcome.
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“The Coldsteel Curse” is a Standard One-Shot in the Cryptid Creeks system. Led by Nona de Koning.
In Cryptid Creeks, you play a crew of River Scout teenagers setting out to save Clawfoot, the place you call home. Guided by a benevolent cryptid called the Watcher, you will travel the waterways, track down Clues to dangerous Curses, and break them before it’s too late! All the while, an eldritch figure known as the Peddler schemes from the shadows, willing you to fail, and for Clawfoot to fall. It is meant to emulate a blend of mystery, horror, and coming-of-age genres. And the overall vibe is cozy horror, meaning it alternates between comforting and creepy fiction. The system is based off Carved from Brindlewood: this means there is no canon solution to breaking the curses! Instead, players must collect and piece together different clues to come up with a convincing answer and play to find out if they're right! This time, the Coldsteel Curse is plaguing your town: In recent days, vandalism and petty burglaries have been plaguing the area. People are saying that the docks have suffered the most because of this. In addition, the Tranquility ferry has ceased operations due to an unseasonably heavy fog. The police don't seem worried, but you are sure a Curse is the cause. It's not long before you learn that the McGally & Son Fish and Tackle shop is aglow with eldritch energy! Could this be the Ghost of Captain Coldsteel, a feared pirate who lived and died in this area many centuries ago? Can you find out what brought him back and how to stop him once and for all?
This game will be great if you like playing as teenagers, solving mysteries, Carved from Brindlewood, and media like The Goonies, Gravity Falls, Night in the Woods & Stranger Things.
The GM will make a thread in advance to sort character selections.
New players are welcome.
The GM is very familiar with this system.
Hosted in room #3 of the Pickup Con server, only using Discord, as always, spectators are welcome.
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“For the Spoils” is a Standard One-Shot in the Descended From The Queen system. Led by Nona de Koning.
For the Spoils is a zero-prep GMless game and a hack of For The Queen. In this game, we collaboratively tell a story about scoundrels looking to score big. For this month's Pickup Con theme of High Seas, I've predetermined we'll play as a crew of pirates! We'll tell the story of our crew planning, executing, and facing the fallout from what they hope is a big score. As is typical of heists in film and TV, your story will be told in a non-linear fashion - with point-of-view shifts, flashbacks, and other common tropes of the genre.
This game will be great if you like For The Queen, heist movies, pirate crews, and collaborative prompt-based storytelling.
This system is especially great for new players.
The game runner is very familiar with this system.
Hosted in room #3 of the Pickup Con server, only using Discord, as always, spectators are welcome.
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“The Sunken Lampooned” a Standard One Shot in the Beakwood Bay system. Led by Nona de Koning
About the game system:
Beakwood Bay is a PbtA/Carved from Brindlewood roleplaying game for 2-4 ducks and a Keeper (GM), but not just any ducks. Inspired by Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics, in this hack of Brindlewood Bay you play as bipedal Mallards hired to hunt down treasure instead of solving mysteries. Beakwood Bay is a thriving port city inhabited by all sorts of anthropomorphic animals, where anything can happen and adventure is always on the agenda. The city’s aesthetics are rooted in the early 20th Century, but there are all manner of scientific advancements, such as an experimental rocketpad, a bustling university, and many factories. The oligarchs who control these technology-focused businesses often act as patrons for working ducks and adventurous mallards. No one comes to Beakwood Bay without a plan of how to leave richer. But there’s a curse that comes with this pursuit and many fall victim to the so-called Coin Fever. Ducks who are sitting on vaults of gold are frequently cruel and miserly in later years, pushing away family and friends to slavishly protect the gold they’ve acquired.
But for now, you are just a Middle Class Mallard who dreams of adventure with your friends. Your ducks work in service of the city’s wealthy benefactors, trying to make a fortune to call their own all while working to avoid the crippling greed and exploitation that is rampant among the city’s elite. Hindered by NPCs after the same treasure, players do their best to gather clues (represented as helpful information and tools that can be used to recover the treasure) before finally trying to retrieve it. There is no prewritten canon path or method, instead it's up to you to cleverly combine all that you've found to obtain the treasure! Will you succeed? Play to find out!
Session pitch:
New-money billionaire Silas Pepperbeek has had just about enough of trying to ingratiate himself in Beakwood Bay society. But he has a plan that will make him a fortune and get him in good with the other oligarchs! He decides to sent the Mallards off to uncover the remains of the recently sunk so-called unsinkable freighter, the Lampooned, hoping to find the Shining Beak, a stunningly-detailed diamond bust of the legendary Morganna le Duck. The ship went down while crossing the North Atlantic, supposedly striking an iceberg and sinking in inhospitable frigid waters. He offers to pay handsomely if the Mallards recover it."
This game will be great if you like Ducktales, Indiana Jones, cartoons, comic books, Brindlewood Bay, PbtA games, collaborative storytelling
Players should build characters ahead.
New characters (this system has no levels) Character creation is a really quick multiple-choice process. The game runner will contact players in advance to share handouts (rules reference & character sheets) and make your selections.
New players are welcome., Players need to have played some RPGs.
The game runner has run this game a few times now.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬ Serious
Combat: ⚪⚬⚬⚬⚬
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪
Exploration: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬
This game will be played in room #1 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord Server. Spectators are welcome in the Discord room.
CW: greed, capitalism, social class differences
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
Check out the Rules: https://jackson-adams-rpg.itch.io/beakwood-bay (free download of character sheet)
Nancy Druid, a Standard Oneshot in the Polymorph system, led by Nona.
In Nancy Druid, you will play as a druid scout who solves mysteries along with a trusty animal companion! Your magic is drawn from the natural world, the day-night cycle, and the turning of the seasons. Will you be a sun druid, who brings brightness and a warm glow to all, with the help of your scout troop's companion critter? Or will you be a moon druid, versed in all things celestial and able to transform into an animal yourself? Nancy Druid runs on the Polymorph system, where each player only ever uses ONE polyhedral die: a d4, a d6, a d8, or a d10. Each die represents a different character “role” in the group, making you better or worse at certain types of actions. It helps characters feel unique and encourages teamwork! Do you wanna join a troop of scout kids and come solve a mystery?
This game will be played in room #3 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord Server. Spectators are welcome in the Discord room.
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
Recipe for Disaster is a Standard one-shot in the Wilderfeast system, led by Nona.
Hunter. Ranger. Keeper. Chef. In Wilderfeast, you are a Wilder. You are human, though you might not look like it, as with every hunt, you incorporate part of another monster into yourself. Once upon a time, the first Wilder dedicated their lives to containing the Frenzy, the incurable curse that amplifies hunger, pain, and rage in a vicious cycle. But despite their best efforts, it now circulates with virulent speed across the One Land. Wilders spend their time between hunting monsters that cannot be saved and helping those that can. As the Frenzy spreads, the Wilders fight to maintain harmony between humanity and nature. They kill the creatures they must, nurture the ones they can, and consume the ones they fail to save. In doing so, Wilders transform into half-human chimeras, for like all monsters, they derive their power from the One Law of the One Land: You are what you eat. The game offers a nice blend of exploration, roleplay, and combat in its gameplay loop: Travel and discover plants and monsters in the One Land. Forage and cook meals. Track and hunt down a frenzied monster. Honor its sacrifice with a feast that will forever change you (literally!) In today's adventure, poachers have captured the Wilders, along with several wild monsters they hope to sell to the Charter. But one caged monster has the frenzy and escapes! To secure their own freedom, to keep the infection from spreading, and to ensure no one else gets hurt, the Wilders must band together and hunt it down.
This game will be great if you like cooking, exploration, nature, animals, monsters, Dungeon Meshi and Monster Hunter.
New players welcome.
The GM is very familiar with this system.
Pregen characters provided.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬ Serious
Combat: ⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬
Exploration: ⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬
This game will be hosted in room #3 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server. The game runner will use Miro whiteboards for mapping. https://miro.com/ Spectators are welcome.
Content warnings: harm to animal-like monsters
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“Room For Everyone” is a Living World One Shot in the Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast system. Led by Nona de Koning.
Welcome to Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast, a sprawling old house outside time and space, where it’s always September 15th and there’s always room for a new visitor. The unusual blend of premade characters, modular rules, and legacy mechanics makes this TTRPG perfect for pick-up play: busy players can drop in and out without ever feeling lost, and anyone who wants to jump in can make a long-term impact without a long-term commitment. Yazeba's is yours to change. Perhaps Residents will leave or change, Guests will become far more important than you expected, or Journeys will take unexpected twists. Take control of one of the 7 long-term residents of the B&B or choose from a cast of 50 quirky guests, each of whom has their own ongoing storylines.
Chapters can be played in any order and include things like lazy afternoons, frightful nights, insurmountable chores, and zany competitions, so every adventure is full of surprises. When we were little, we were taught that a story is a sequence of events with a beginning, middle and end. But that’s not how all stories work: some loop around on themselves, some are told out of sequence, and some never end. After we play one Chapter, we can play another without worrying too much about whether it came before or after the Chapter we just played, or how much time has passed. Think back on that prolific paperback series you may have once read: you might have missed a few issues, or read them out of order, but you were always able to figure out what was going on. That's what Yazeba's is going for!
Chapters are short, so we may play more than one adventure during our session, swapping characters in between!
If you've played Yazeba's before, feel free to let your gamerunner know which chapters you've played, so you can try some new ones. There are many different types to suit different moods and player counts. It's the gamerunner's birthday, so we'll for sure play the chapter called Gertrude's birthday this time around!
This game will be great if you like legacy board games, trying different things, and collaborative storytelling.
New players are welcome. Players need to have played some RPGs. The game runner is very familiar with this system.
The game comes with pre-existing characters to pick from.
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪
This game will be hosted in room #3 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server. The game runner will use Miro whiteboards for mapping. https://miro.com/ Spectators are welcome.
Content warnings: n/a
Tags: fantasy, cozy, living world
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“A Baah-d Day at the Petting Zoo” a Standard One Shot in the Brindlewood Bay system. Led by Nona de Koning.
System Pitch: Brindlewood Bay is a PbtA-style game about a group of elderly women—members of the local Murder Mavens mystery book club—who find themselves solving actual murder mysteries in their quaint New England town. Being retired but with plenty of time and wits left, they've used what they learned from their favorite books to solve all sorts of cases. And you're invited to come solve the next one! There is no canon solution to the mysteries, instead, players must collect and piece together many different clues and come up with a convincing theory, then play to find out if they are right! Players are often encouraged to contribute to the narrative, not just when coming up with a solution, but also when exploring new locations and meeting new characters!
Session Pitch:This time we are playing a Sweeps Week mystery, which takes the Mavens on a trip to a different town with more futuristic/scifi/alternate-universe elements. In addition to the alternate setting, the case to solve isn't a murder, but the question is still whodunnit ;-)
The Mavens are visiting Dr. Marry’s Majestic Animals Petting Zoo, or MAPZ, on its grand opening. MAPZ is located off a twisting, rarely used highway connecting Brindlewood Bay to its neighbor city, Mucky Point. The zoo sits on a former dairy farm previously owned and operated by generations of a Danish family until its sudden closing 30 years ago. Rumors swirled in the past year as large equipment deliveries were spotted on the road to the farm. Many were surprised and delighted by the opening of what is described as “the world’s most innovative petting zoo.” Dr. Marry is an expert in animal genetics and has been doing unconventional research to create hybrids and evolved animals. Some notable zoo residents include bioluminescent rabbits, pygmy goats that smell like french fries, and highly intelligent geese. Some locals are concerned about the unusual nature of the zoo, while others look forward to new tourism. The Mavens have come to see it for themselves. This game will be great if you like cozy murder mysteries, PbtA games, collaborative storytelling, improv, Murder She Wrote, Riverdale, Pretty Little Liars, One Of Us Is Lying Players should build characters ahead. Character creation is a really quick multiple choice process. The game runner will contact players in advance to share handouts (rules reference & character sheets) and make your selections. You may bring an existing character with 0-1 advancements. New players are welcome. Players need to have played some RPGs. The game runner is very familiar with this system.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬ Serious
Combat: ⚪⚬⚬⚬⚬
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬
Exploration: ⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬
This game will be hosted in room #3 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server. The game runner will use Miro whiteboards for mapping. https://miro.com/ Spectators are welcome.
Content warnings: includes genetically modified animals (who we will not harm) and an artificial intelligence character (as an in-game character, not in the way of OOC AI-generated content, to be clear)
Tags: mystery, modern
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“Welcome to Hekaton” a Standard One Shot in the Legacy: Life Among Ruins system. Led by Nona de Koning.
System Pitch Legacy: Life Among the Ruins is a PbtA game about the survivors of a reality-twisting apocalypse, and how they adapt to and rebuild their new world. Unique is the shift between the zoomed-out overview of your setting over multiple generations and the zoomed-in play of individual scenes. Every player gets two different playbooks, one for their family and one for their character. When your own character isn't in a scene, you can grab one of the quick characters and guest-star in someone else's family! As you play you’ll move between the family and character levels, zooming in to play through a short adventure with a group of characters and then zooming out to show the broad strokes of your families pursuing their agenda. Your family (i.e. faction) is a collection of survivors brought together by blood, loyalty, or ideology, with their own strange powers hard-earned as they survived the apocalypse. They have their own needs, strengths, and doctrine, and you will use their forces to conduct diplomacy, claim resources, and use subterfuge on other factions. Families act slowly, taking days or weeks to take action. You’ll also have an individual character - a particular member of your family who is your story’s focus. They’re in a position to change the course of the family’s history, whether the family intended to give them that power or not. They’ll have their own skills and powers, as well as the ability to command the family’s forces and resources. They’re more flexible than a family, able to act in a matter of moments and call on their friends from other factions for aid. If you play beyond a one-shot, your character's choices can even impact their family for many generations to come!
Session Pitch: Welcome to Hekaton. This world was meant to be paradise. From the first probe flyby, we heard incredible tales of lush jungles, pristine oceans, and fantastic beasts. Our ancestors landed, and there were some teething problems, for sure. The space elevator took longer than expected to build, and the ambient spores caused widespread illness before we worked out the source. Solutions were found, and the colony was prospering. Then the titans came. Maybe they were always there, slumbering in the jungle. Maybe they’re agents of the planet’s immune system, generated to wipe out our infestation. Maybe the research complexes out there in the jungle made something strange that they couldn’t control. They struck like a hammer blow. Towering beasts several stories tall surged out of the jungle, tearing apart our city. With a snap heard around the world, a titan shattered the diamond filaments of the space elevator. We fled into our bunkers or deep into the wild as its shards crashed down, gouging deep furrows in the land. With victory achieved, the beasts melted back into the jungle. We don’t know why nobody’s rescued us. Maybe they think the colony’s dead. Maybe they’ve fallen to their own apocalypse. All we know is that we’re stranded down here, finding homes in the ruins of our grandparents’ palaces. But still we look to the stars, and dream of a life free from the titans..
New players welcome.
Players should have played some RPGs before.
The game runner will provide pre-generated characters to pick from, with room for customization.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬ Serious
This game will be hosted in room #3 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server, and spectators are welcome.
Content warnings: Kaiju monsters, apocalyptic keystones like resource scarcity and environmental threats, chances of minor PvP
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“I'm Sorry Did You Say Street Magic” a Standard One Shot in the Microscope system. Led by Nona de Koning.
I'm Sorry Did You Say Street Magic is a GMless and diceless worldbuilding game (a hack of Microscope) about building a city together: filling it with life and vivid detail, exploring its hidden corners, and meeting its strange and wondrous inhabitants. This city that we call home has a magic all its own. It is wonder, and joy, and spirit ̶ and with that spirit, we breathe life into the city together. An archipelago-based fishing town, separated by its various islands, gathers annually to celebrate the turn of the harvest. A collective of magical artists embarks on an ambitious project: a guerrilla public transit system powered by enchanted street art. In a sprawling metropolis decades from now, breakthroughs in biotechnology offer citizens superpowers far beyond mortal ability.
These are just a few samples of the types of cities and stories this game can create. What will ours look like? Play to find out! For a smoother and shorter experience, we'll use the Easy Streets supplement, providing us with a base framework to guide our worldbuilding. The gamerunner will provide several options for everyone to vote on, to ensure we'll develop a city with themes and a setting everyone is excited about.
This game will be great if you like worldbuilding, city life, exploring neighborhoods, people watching, architecture, and collaborative storytelling.
This game is great for new players.
The game runner is very familiar with this system.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬ Serious
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪
Exploration: ⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬
This game will be hosted in room #3 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server, and spectators are welcome. Using Miro whiteboards. https://miro.com/
Content warnings: n/a
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“Grown-Up Attraction” a Standard One Shot in the Tales from the Loop system. Led by Nona de Koning.
System Pitch Tales from the Loop is a TTRPG using the Year Zero Engine, a D6 dice pool system from Free League. You play as young teens in the late 1980s, solving Mysteries connected to the Loop. Choose between character Types such as the Bookworm, the Popular Kid and the Weirdo. Everyday Life is full of things like nagging parents and never-ending homework. But there are also Mysteries, where you encounter the strange machines and weird creatures that have come to haunt the countryside after the Loop was built. The kids get to escape their everyday problems and be part of something meaningful and magical – but also dangerous. Session Pitch The autumn wind is brisk and chilly. The calm of everyday life settles over the area. But something else is in the air. A taste of something forbidden, something unnaturally tempting. The Kids notice how adults behave strangely, becoming victims of desire. Can the nefarious plot be stopped in time or will the grown-ups go willingly to their own doom? This game will be great if you like alternate realities, solving mysteries, ordinary people saving the day, engaging with your inner kid and mixing slice of life with adventuring. New players are welcome. The game runner is very familiar with this system.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬ Serious
Combat: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬
Exploration: ⚪⚬⚬⚬⚬
This game will be hosted in room #3 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server, and spectators are welcome.
Content warnings: n/a
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“Throne of the Forest Queen” a Standard One Shot in the Trophy Dark system. Led by Nona de Koning.
Trophy is a strongly collaborative storytelling game with horror themes throughout. It is about a group of treasure-hunters on a doomed expedition into a natural biome that doesn’t want them there. The game tells the story of the physical and mental descent of the treasure hunters as they move deeper and deeper into their location. Their journey will ultimately bring them to ancient ruins that hold the treasure they seek, and the monstrous entities that now dwell there. This is not, however, a hopeful story of brave and daring adventurers slaying dragons and dragging bags of gold with them back to town. This is a horror story of entitled pillagers meeting tragic ends. It is very likely that all the treasure-hunters will die or — at best — be permanently scarred and haunted by their expedition. Can you trust your friends? Can you even still trust yourself? In this game, the Trophy isn't the treasure you seek, but nature trying to take you as its trophy instead. Trophy Dark is designed to be played as a one-shot with small groups of 2-3 player characters. Players are heavily involved in offering up possible consequences for others throughout the game instead of just playing their own characters, so please be comfortable with this when signing up. Single-oneshot adventures are called Incursions.
Today's incursion is called Throne of the Forest Queen, where the following lures in your characters... The constant drizzle that has accompanied you through the tangled woods abates as you come into a lush glade baked in golden sunlight. The stink of mud and leaf mold is cut through with a cleaner scent of pine and crisp mornings. A stag at the edge of the clearing casts a lazy glance at you before trotting further into the wood, its flashing tail an invitation to follow. You have reached the Queensweald—rumoured home to salvation, inspiration, cures to fantastical diseases, and wonders conjured only in dreams. Only the stout of heart enter the realm of the Forest Queen—fewer still return. Why then, if her favour is so hard to claim, do so many mortals seek it? Quite simply, it has value beyond gold. The queen’s power is nearly limitless. She controls the fae court of the forest and can make the dreams of mortals into reality if she so chooses. For so long as people desire the impossible, they will venture in search of her...
This game will be great if you like impending doom, collaborative storytelling, and horror. Characters will be created together at the start of the session. This can be done in mere minutes, assisted by random tables and dice rolls. Players need to have played some RPGs. The game runner is very familiar with this system.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬ Serious
Combat: ⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬
Exploration: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪
This game will be hosted in room #3 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server, and spectators are welcome. Optional use of Google Sheets as character keeper & player aid.
Content warnings: In general: fear, paranoia, character death, high chances of other player characters betraying yours. This specific incursion can also include Body Horror, Cannibalism, Graphic Violence, Harm to Animals, Manipulation, Slavery and Torture. Many of these elements, like Torture and Harm to Animals, will only be mentioned briefly if they occur and not roleplayed out in detail.
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“Lucid Dreaming” is a Standard one-shot in the Dreampunk system. Led by Nona de Koning.
At night, you dream. Your dreams are not idle imaginings, but visits to a persistent world of wonders and dangers both personal and alien. Will you find power there? Will you find freedom? Or will you slowly slip into Entanglement, and be trapped there forever? Play to find out!
Dreampunk is a PbtA-style game that uses a deck of surreal cards to encourage an improvisational style for inspiring challenges and obstacles. It actively involves both the GM and the players in this process! Rather than the numerical randomness of dice, it uses these cards as both creativity prompts and a resource to power your special abilities. Your character is a Dreamer, someone from a waking world who is drawn to the Dream when they sleep. As a Dreamer, you have powerful abilities to shape the world around you. To do so, you must incorporate elements from surreal art cards into your action using an element of your choice from that card. Lean into dream logic and find out all that your imagination makes possible!
Characters should be created ahead of time with guidance from the GM. The GM will also provide art cards, but if you prefer, you may use your own deck from Dixit, Mysterium, Everway, or a similar game, as long as you can upload images of your drawn cards to a shared virtual whiteboard.
This game will be great if you like PbtA, card resolution mechanics, Belonging Outside Belonging, Dixit, Mysterium, Everway, tarot, art, interpreting images, dream logic, and collaborative storytelling.
New players are welcome. Players need to have played some RPGs. The game runner is new to this system, but very familiar with PbtA and the board games the game was inspired by.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬ Serious
Combat: ⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬
Exploration: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬
This game will be hosted in room #4 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server. The game runner will use Miro whiteboards for mapping. https://miro.com/
Content warnings: minor elements of PvP in the sense that players may create
Tags: collaborative, diceless, cards, surreal, fantasy
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“Room For Everyone” is a Living World One Shot in the Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast system. Led by Nona de Koning.
Welcome to Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast, a sprawling old house outside time and space, where it’s always September 15th and there’s always room for a new visitor. The unusual blend of premade characters, modular rules, and legacy mechanics makes this TTRPG perfect for pick-up play: busy players can drop in and out without ever feeling lost, and anyone who wants to jump in can make a long-term impact without a long-term commitment. Yazeba's is yours to change. Perhaps Residents will leave or change, Guests will become far more important than you expected, or Journeys will take unexpected twists. Take control of one of the 7 long-term residents of the B&B or choose from a cast of 50 quirky guests, each of whom has their own ongoing storylines.
Chapters can be played in any order and include things like lazy afternoons, frightful nights, insurmountable chores, and zany competitions, so every adventure is full of surprises. When we were little, we were taught that a story is a sequence of events with a beginning, middle and end. But that’s not how all stories work: some loop around on themselves, some are told out of sequence, and some never end. After we play one Chapter, we can play another without worrying too much about whether it came before or after the Chapter we just played, or how much time has passed. Think back on that prolific paperback series you may have once read: you might have missed a few issues, or read them out of order, but you were always able to figure out what was going on. That's what Yazeba's is going for!
Chapters are short, so we may play more than one adventure during our session, swapping characters in between!
If you've played Yazeba's before, feel free to let your gamerunner know which chapters you've played, so you can try some new ones. There are many different types to suit different moods and player counts.
This game will be great if you like legacy board games, trying different things, and collaborative storytelling.
New players are welcome. Players need to have played some RPGs. The game runner is very familiar with this system.
The game comes with pre-existing characters to pick from.
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪
This game will be hosted in room #4 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server. The game runner will use Miro whiteboards for mapping. https://miro.com/ Spectators are welcome.
Content warnings: n/a
Tags: fantasy, cozy, living world
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“Intergalactic Cruises” a Standard One Shot in the A Complicated Profession system. Led by Nona de Koning.
Have you ever wondered what bounty hunters do when the galaxy no longer needs them? In this game called A Complicated Profession, they start new careers hosting intergalactic cruises! Reunite your disbanded crew of jaded sidekicks, shabby droids and shady accomplices. Then pick a hosting role on your cruise ship and start a new life together! Gradually leave more of your old Hunter self behind and embrace your new role as Host, although the past will always be a part of who you are. We'll play 1 to 3 cruises, depending on the play speed of the group, each cruise featuring different passengers and three different exciting events.
A Complicated Profession is a GMless collaborative storytelling TTRPG. Players will start by picking a Hunter and Host role from a variety of templates, then go through a mad-libs style fill-in-the-blanks process to create their characters, ship and galaxy. Maybe you used to be the Hotspot Pilot or the Hired Muscle? Well, no more. How about becoming a Chef, the Live Entertainment or simply the Janitor in your new career? Once your crew settles into their new identity, it's time to find some clients and take them through various exciting events! From excursions to meddling in their love life, here you can do it all.
This game will be great if you like collaborative storytelling, worldbuilding, space, cruises, and Saturday Morning cartoons.
This system is especially great for new players. The game runner is very familiar with this system.
The game runner will provide pre-generated characters to pick from.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬ Serious
Combat: ⚪⚬⚬⚬⚬
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪
Exploration: ⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬
This game will be hosted in room #4 of The TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server. The game runner will use Miro whiteboards for mapping. https://miro.com/ Spectators are welcome.
Content warnings: n/a
Tags: fantasy, scifi, humor, GMless
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“Final Lap” a Standard One Shot in the Descended From The Queen system. Led by Nona de Koning.
Final Lap is a zero prep GMless game where we collaborative tell the story of racers in a cartoony videogame like Mario Kart and Wreck-It-Ralph's Sugar Rush, trying to take on The Champion in the final race of the season! It is a Descended From The Queen game, using the prompt-based collaborative storytelling mechanics from For the Queen in different themes. In this case, it features themes of racing, rivalry, friendship, and self-sacrifice. No familiarity with any of these things is needed to play, but being comfortable improvising things on the spot based on various random prompts is key. This game is pretty much entirely roleplay. And while this game features a race, the goal of this game is not to win the race. It is likely that the Champion will win it, rather than any of us. There are no game mechanics to simulate the race. The game emulates the story of the race, as do many fictions featuring drivers.
This game will be great if you like Mario Kart, For The Queen, and collaborative prompt-based storytelling.
This system is especially great for new players.
The game runner is very familiar with this system.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚬⚬⚬ Serious
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪
This game will be hosted in room #4 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server.
Content warnings: n/a
Tags: storytelling, videogames, cartoons, racing
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“Barbie World” a Standard One Shot in the Dolly, We Bought a Dream House system. Led by Nona de Koning
In this GMless game you create a map of the Dolly Dream House together while you tell the story of its creative and imaginative renovation by your Dolly group. Randomly dropped dice will inspire where rooms can be created and what you may encounter there, but the specifics of the renovations and the stories that take place inside each room are up to you! It's a mixture of drawing and storytelling, all done together collaboratively in a shared virtual space. Please make sure you're okay with drawing on a virtual whiteboard. No skills are needed, MS paint level drawings are 100% fine and basically expected
You are a group of Dollys in a pinktastic plastic world who bought a Dolly Dream House to move in there together. A Dolly Dream House can be a single mansion or a complex of many gorgeous buildings. Your purchase contract has some basic information about the extravagant rooms of the Dolly Dream House, which are meant to be explored and furnished. You may of course also design the paths between the rooms and buildings according to your excellent taste. And your Dolly Dream House is of course located in an interesting neighborhood where people like to visit each other often. As you make your way from room to room, you’re going to meet folks from this wonderful community. The game ends when renovations finish and the Dollys move in! This game will be great if you like drawing games, collaborative storytelling, cozy games, cartoons, toys, nostalgia, your inner kid, and Cozy Town. This system is especially great for new players. The game runner is very familiar with this system.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚬⚬⚬ Serious
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪
This game will be hosted in room #4 of The TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server.
Content warnings: n/a
Tags: drawing, storytelling, cozy
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“Throne of the Forest Queen” a Standard One Shot in the Trophy Dark system. Led by Nona de Koning.
Trophy is a strongly collaborative storytelling game with horror themes throughout. It is about a group of treasure-hunters on a doomed expedition into a natural biome that doesn’t want them there. The game tells the story of the physical and mental descent of the treasure-hunters as they move deeper and deeper into their location. Their journey will ultimately bring them to ancient ruins that hold the treasure they seek, and the monstrous entities which now dwell there. This is not, however, a hopeful story of brave and daring adventurers slaying dragons and dragging bags of gold with them back to town. This is a horror story of entitled pillagers meeting tragic ends. It is very likely that all the treasure-hunters will die or — at best — be permanently scarred and haunted by their expedition. Can you trust your friends? Can you even still trust yourself? In this game, Trophy isn't the treasure you seek, but nature trying to take you as its trophy instead.
Trophy Dark is designed to be played as a oneshot with small groups of 2-3 player characters. Players are heavily involved in offering up possible consequences for others throughout the game instead of just playing their own characters, so please be comfortable with this when signing up. Single oneshot adventures are called Incursions.
Today's incursion is called Throne of the Forest Queen, where the following lures in your characters...
The constant drizzle that has accompanied you through the tangled woods abates as you come into a lush glade baked in golden sunlight. The stink of mud and leaf mold is cut through with a cleaner scent of pine and crisp mornings. A stag at the edge of the clearing casts a lazy glance at you before trotting further into the wood, its flashing tail an invitation to follow. You have reached the Queensweald—rumoured home to salvation, inspiration, cures to fantastical diseases, and wonders conjured only in dreams. Only the stout of heart enter the realm of the Forest Queen—fewer still return. Why then, if her favour is so hard to claim, do so many mortals seek it? Quite simply, it has value beyond gold. The queen’s power is nearly limitless. She controls the fae court of the forest, and can make the dreams of mortals into reality if she so chooses. For so long as people desire the impossible, they will venture in search of her...
This game will be great if you like impending doom, collaborative storytelling, horror.
Characters will be created together at the start of the session. This can be done in mere minutes, assisted by random tables and dice rolls.
Players need to have played some RPGs. The game runner is very familiar with this system.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬ Serious
Combat: ⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬
Exploration: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪
This game will be hosted in room #4 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server. Spectators are welcome.
Content warnings: In general, fear, paranoia, character death, and high chances of other player characters betraying yours. This specific incursion can also include Body Horror, Cannibalism, Graphic Violence, Harm to Animals, Manipulation, Slavery, and Torture. Many of these elements, like Torture and Harm to Animals, will only be mentioned briefly if they occur and not roleplayed out in detail.
Tags: fantasy, horror
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“A Baah-d Day at the Petting Zoo” a Standard One Shot in the Brindlewood Bay system. Led by Nona de Koning.
System Pitch: Brindlewood Bay is a PbtA-style game about a group of elderly women—members of the local Murder Mavens mystery book club—who find themselves solving actual murder mysteries in their quaint New England town. Being retired but with plenty of time and wits left, they've used what they learned from their favorite books to solve all sorts of cases. And you're invited to come solve the next one! There is no canon solution to the mysteries, instead, players must collect and piece together many different clues and come up with a convincing theory, then play to find out if they are right! Players are often encouraged to contribute to the narrative, not just when coming up with a solution, but also when exploring new locations and meeting new characters!
Session Pitch: This time we are playing a Sweeps Week mystery, which takes the Mavens on a trip to a different town with more futuristic/scifi/alternate-universe elements. In addition to the alternate setting, the case to solve isn't a murder, but the question is still whodunnit ;-)
The Mavens are visiting Dr. Marry’s Majestic Animals Petting Zoo, or MAPZ, on its grand opening. MAPZ is located off a twisting, rarely used highway connecting Brindlewood Bay to its neighbor city, Mucky Point. The zoo sits on a former dairy farm previously owned and operated by generations of a Danish family until its sudden closing 30 years ago. Rumors swirled in the past year as large equipment deliveries were spotted on the road to the farm. Many were surprised and delighted by the opening of what is described as “the world’s most innovative petting zoo.” Dr. Marry is an expert in animal genetics and has been doing unconventional research to create hybrids and evolved animals. Some notable zoo residents include bioluminescent rabbits, pygmy goats that smell like french fries, and highly intelligent geese. Some locals are concerned about the unusual nature of the zoo, while others look forward to new tourism. The Mavens have come to see it for themselves. This game will be great if you like cozy murder mysteries, PbtA games, collaborative storytelling, improv, Murder She Wrote, Riverdale, Pretty Little Liars, One Of Us Is Lying Players should build characters ahead. Character creation is a really quick multiple choice process. The game runner will contact players in advance to share handouts (rules reference & character sheets) and make your selections. You may bring an existing character with 0-1 advancements. New players are welcome. Players need to have played some RPGs. The game runner is very familiar with this system.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬ Serious
Combat: ⚪⚬⚬⚬⚬
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬
Exploration: ⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬
This game will be hosted in room #4 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server. The game runner will use Miro whiteboards for mapping. https://miro.com/ Spectators are welcome.
Content warnings: includes genetically modified animals (who we will not harm) and an artificial intelligence character (as an in-game character, not in the way of OOC AI-generated content, to be clear)
Tags: mystery, modern
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“Hordes of the Endless Night” is a Standard One Shot in the Legacy: Life Among Ruins system. Led by Nona de Koning.
System Pitch Legacy: Life Among the Ruins is a PbtA game about the survivors of a reality-twisting apocalypse, and how they adapt to and rebuild their new world. Unique is the shift between the zoomed-out overview of your setting over multiple generations and the zoomed-in play of individual scenes. Every player gets two different playbooks, one for their family and one for their character. When your own character isn't in a scene, you can grab one of the quick characters and guest-star in someone else's family! As you play, you’ll move between the family and character levels, zooming in to play through a short adventure with a group of characters and then zooming out to show the broad strokes of your families pursuing their agenda. Your family (i.e. faction) is a collection of survivors brought together by blood, loyalty, or ideology, with their own strange powers hard-earned as they survived the apocalypse. They have their own needs, strengths, and doctrine, and you will use their forces to conduct diplomacy, claim resources, and use subterfuge on other factions. Families act slowly, taking days or weeks to take action. You’ll also have an individual character - a particular member of your family who is your story’s focus. They’re in a position to change the course of the family’s history, whether the family intended to give them that power or not. They’ll have their own skills and powers, as well as the ability to command the family’s forces and resources. They’re more flexible than a family, able to act in a matter of moments and call on their friends from other factions for aid. If you play beyond a oneshot, your character's choices can even impact their family for many generations to come!
A CENTURY OF DARKNESS I sometimes wonder what sunlight was like. My grandfather told me stories his mother had told him – how you could stand on a tall building and see the city stretching away from you and bustling with life. How you could stand in a field – a field! – and close your eyes and bask in its warmth. How every day it painted the entire sky, reds and blues and purples. But that was then, and this is now. Now the only light we have is the light we make, burning oil for each moment a fizzing bulb or burning lamp is shining. And every hour of every day they burn, because outside the light they might be lurking. The wraiths came when the sun went out – though maybe they were always waiting. Their bodies are smoke, and their eyes are flames that cast no light, but their claws? Those are most certainly real. Even now I can hear their whispers and songs outside, but in a way I’m grateful – it’s a welcome distraction from the splutters of our dying generator. Something must change. We must make a change. I will head out into the darkness tomorrow, friends at my side, and find a way to bring the sun back.
New players welcome.
Players should have played some RPGs before.
The game runner will provide pre-generated characters to pick from, with room for customization.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬ Serious
This game will be hosted in room #4 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server. Spectators are welcome.
Content warnings: wraiths, apocalyptic keystones like resource scarcity and environmental threats, chances of minor PvP
Tags: post-apocalyptic, collaborative storytelling
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning
“Seat of Power” a Standard One Shot in the Beak, Feather & Bone system. Led by Nona de Koning.
Beak, Feather, & Bone is a collaborative worldbuilding tool as well as a competitive map-labeling RPG. It's original setting comes from Ravenfolk myth, but works with any setting. For this oneshot we'll skip past the lore and play as humans in a medieval type of town (which may absolutely include mythical/fantasy/magical elements), to keep the game the most accessible to everyone. In this game we are all a player; there is no GM. You do not control a single character, but speak as the voice of an entire faction within the city. Starting with an unlabeled city map, players are assigned community roles before taking turns claiming and describing locations. We draw from a standard 52-card deck to determine a building's purpose and then describe its beak (reputation), feather (appearance), and bone (interior). As buildings are claimed, a narrative for the town and its inhabitants emerges, including major NPCs and shifting power dynamics. Will your faction take the seat of power at the end? Play to find out!
This game will be great if you like collaborative storytelling, character creation, and worldbuilding.
New players welcome. Players should have played some RPGs before.
The game runner is very familiar with this system.
Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬ Serious
Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪
This game will be hosted in room #4 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord server. The game runner will use Miro whiteboards for mapping. https://miro.com/ Spectators are welcome.
Tags: worldbuilding, storytelling, faction play
Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile
https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/nona-de-koning

