Nona de Koning’s Game Runner Profile

https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-game-runners/Nona-de-Koning

Schedule Listing: https://www.indecisionist.com/ttrpg-pickup-con-schedule/have-yourself-a-merry-little-murder

Warhorn Listing: https://warhorn.net/events/ttrpg-pickup-con/schedule/sessions/3278dff2-7a21-4e67-8d44-027131c77483

The handouts (rules reference & character sheet) will be messaged to players on Discord ahead of time "<b><u>Session pitch:</u></b>

Christmas is approaching, and that means it’s time for the Great Holiday Gala. This year’s Gala is special because the venue, the BelCanto Concert Hall, is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The Holly Stamp Card Company sponsors the Gala, making their mark with their banners and a display of limited edition keepsakes and ornaments. The Gala fills the week with choir and orchestra concerts, community dinners, board member functions, and, finally, the Gala Ball and charity auction. Celia Domingo wants to pamper her favorite great-aunt, one of the Mavens (players), with plenty of tickets and backstage passes to the Gala.

Unfortunately, Miles Greaves, the beloved founder and owner of the BelCanto, passed away before the celebration began. Thus, this year, his family has gathered for both the Gala and

his funeral. To make matters worse, at the wake, Greaves’s great-nephew, Nathan, made a drunken spectacle of himself and claimed Miles had been murdered. The next day, when the BelCanto opened to prepare for the first of the Gala concerts, Nathan is found dead on the main stage; the cause of death was an apparent blow to the back of the head.

The possibility of a double murder during the biggest holiday event of the year is too juicy for the Mavens to ignore, and those all-access passes will be just the thing to help get to the bottom of what’s going on.

<b><u>About the game system:</u></b>

BRINDLEWOOD BAY is a roleplaying 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. <b>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!</b>

The Mavens themselves are all elderly women whose partners have passed away and whose children have long flown the nest. Now, they’re enjoying their golden years in the picturesque town of Brindlewood Bay, keeping their homes the way they like, pursuing their hobbies, and finding comfort and companionship in each other. Their mystery book club has been meeting on the top floor of The Candlelight Booksellers every Saturday evening for the last ten years. The Mavens are particularly fond of The Gold Crown Mysteries series by Robin Masterson, featuring the globe-trotting super-sleuth, Amanda Delacourt (which only exists in-universe and not in our world).

The Mavens' special interest in these books has resulted in them becoming amateur detectives themselves, and by the time the game starts, they have helped local police solve several high-profile crimes. Sometimes people approach them to get their help on a case, but usually, the Mavens just stumble onto it—much to the chagrin of the authorities, who almost always resent their meddling.

There are some supernatural elements in play in the background, but those will need to be uncovered through repeated plays and aren't a part of this one shot. There is also a meta-level to the setting, where the Mavens are actually characters in a TV show that the players are watching. <b>If there is enough interest in it, the game runner is willing to offer this system at future cons in a West-Marches approach where both of these elements will feature more prominently.</b>"

This game will be great if you like holiday specials, cozy murder mysteries, collaborative storytelling, improv, PbtA games, 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.

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 hosted in room #3 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord Server. Spectators are welcome in the Discord room.

Murder will be featured (but without gory details), and other content will be adjusted based on players' lines & veils. May contain hints to cults and the supernatural and subjects such as infidelity, illness, and other "family scandals"

“Me and the guys were out kinda late, and we’re trying to get back to my friend's house quick. We’re hungry. So we decide to hop a fence and take a shortcut through this tunnel. It’s just a short one for an overpass, you could run it in 10 seconds and there’s nothing coming.

But the moment we step inside, it’s pitch black. It’s like the thing is a mile long and we hear that whistle behind us so we run. The lights make everything look really strange, but we just keep going for the opening at the end, and then...

We got hit by a train? But it passed through us like a ghost. We’re screaming and that whistle is blaring. And then we get to the end of the tunnel and there’s just, there’s nothing there man.”

So says a young man coming to the Edgewater Supernatural Society for help. This game will be a modern twist on D&D 5E, where you’ll play as amateur sleuths in Chicago, IL. Your group of meddling misfits works to help everyday people that encounter the sometimes dangerous world of the supernatural. "

This game will be great if you like Buffy or Angel, Supernatural, Scooby Doo...

Players should build level 3 characters ahead.

Use point-buy or standard array for stat generation.

Any officially published content for classes, feats, etc is fine. Permanent flying features excluded. Non-licensed content needs to be run by me, (a screenshot is probably fine) just don’t do it the night before the game.

DO NOT CHOOSE A BACKGROUND OR EQUIPMENT. To help give the game some modern flavor, I’ll be creating a list of custom backgrounds with equipment for you to choose from.

This game is recommended for those that are comfortable with D&D 5E, as I won’t be creating new modern classes. We’ll be playing fast-and-loose in the interpretations of the flavor text if we need to keep things feeling “modern”.

Please make a character who is part of the Edgewater Supernatural Society. For one reason or another, something compels you to want to learn more about the supernatural and solve mysteries.

This will be a “magical realism” take on modern-day Chicago. (Think Buffy or Supernatural) Most of the population isn’t aware of the seedy, magical world that exists around them. But your characters are aware of some parts of it.

If you have any backstory notes, please feel free to let me know. Please send me a copy of (or link to) your character sheet at least 2 days before we play. "

Players need to be familiar with this system.

The game runner is very familiar with this system.

Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬ Serious

Combat: ⚪⚪⚬⚬⚬

Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬

Exploration: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬

Spectators are welcome in the Discord room. This game will be hosted in room #2 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord Server

CW: Mild horror and spooky situations, differences in perceived reality

“Me and the guys were out kinda late, and we’re trying to get back to my friend's house quick. We’re hungry. So we decide to hop a fence and take a shortcut through this tunnel. It’s just a short one for an overpass, you could run it in 10 seconds and there’s nothing coming.

But the moment we step inside, it’s pitch black. It’s like the thing is a mile long and we hear that whistle behind us so we run. The lights make everything look really strange, but we just keep going for the opening at the end, and then...

We got hit by a train? But it passed through us like a ghost. We’re screaming and that whistle is blaring. And then we get to the end of the tunnel and there’s just, there’s nothing there man.”

So says a young man coming to the Edgewater Supernatural Society for help. This game will be a modern twist on D&D 5E, where you’ll play as amateur sleuths in Chicago, IL. Your group of meddling misfits works to help everyday people that encounter the sometimes dangerous world of the supernatural. "

This game will be great if you like Buffy or Angel, Supernatural, Scooby Doo...

Players should build level 3 characters ahead.

Use point-buy or standard array for stat generation.

Any officially published content for classes, feats, etc is fine. Permanent flying features excluded. Non-licensed content needs to be run by me, (a screenshot is probably fine) just don’t do it the night before the game.

DO NOT CHOOSE A BACKGROUND OR EQUIPMENT. To help give the game some modern flavor, I’ll be creating a list of custom backgrounds with equipment for you to choose from.

This game is recommended for those that are comfortable with D&D 5E, as I won’t be creating new modern classes. We’ll be playing fast-and-loose in the interpretations of the flavor text if we need to keep things feeling “modern”.

Please make a character who is part of the Edgewater Supernatural Society. For one reason or another, something compels you to want to learn more about the supernatural and solve mysteries.

This will be a “magical realism” take on modern-day Chicago. (Think Buffy or Supernatural) Most of the population isn’t aware of the seedy, magical world that exists around them. But your characters are aware of some parts of it.

If you have any backstory notes, please feel free to let me know. Please send me a copy of (or link to) your character sheet at least 2 days before we play. "

Players need to be familiar with this system.

The game runner is very familiar with this system.

Tone: Silly⚪⚪⚪⚬⚬ Serious

Combat: ⚪⚪⚬⚬⚬

Role Play: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬

Exploration: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚬

Spectators are welcome in the Discord room. This game will be hosted in room #2 of the TTRPG Pickup Con Discord Server

CW: Mild horror and spooky situations, differences in perceived reality