Tabletop RPG Night w/ Side Quest Books & Games

Join us for an evening of tabletop RPGs to beat the winter blues! We have an exciting roster of festive facilitated and GM-less games, so snag a ticket for your adventure of choice, and we'll see you there!

ABOUT THE FACILITATED GAMES

Under Hollow Hills

In Under Hollow Hills, you play the performers, planners, and crew of a traveling circus. You’re fairies and mortal humans, of various kinds and descriptions, but one and all you’ve found your way to the circus and now you travel with it. You make your way through fairyland and the human world, performing wherever you go, in street fairs and crossroads markets, in vacant lots, fairy palaces, amphitheaters, and among the standing stones. You perform for great and small, and to you, a child’s birthday in a town park is as important as the command of the the great Crowned Heads of fairyland.

Wherever you perform, you change: you change the seasons, you change the fortunes of those you perform for, you change their hearts. You change yourselves. This is the game: we change.

We will spend the first half hour or so creating and fleshing out our characters and their circus! The circus will be performing in fairyland to honor the coming of spring, and we will play with a focus on hopeful, kind, and collaborative storytelling as we spin a tale of new beginnings and growth.

Your GM:

Wren (she/they) has been playing and running TTRPG sessions for over 15 years, with a focus on story, character growth, and Rule of Cool. She loves games full of enthusiasm, humor, gentleness, and creativity, and is invested in creating a kind and welcoming space for all involved!

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To Serve Her Wintry Hunger

May the crocus never bloom, for you have work to do.

In To Serve Her Wintry Hunger, players take on the roles of wicked winter spirits hunting down a human lost in a deadly blizzard. This dark fairy tale roleplaying game for 3-5 players.

Your GM:

Paula is an indie GM who has been running games for 7 years, including at PAX Unplugged. She specializes in running immersive and memorable indie games that feel accessible for the new and refreshing for the experienced.

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Dybbuks and Dreidels is a story-focused TTRPG system for a GM and 3-6 players that draws from Jewish folklore. It uses dreidels instead of dice, and puts a lot of emphasis on the metagame and not just the story itself.

Your GM (designer of the game!):

Matthew Gurevitch (he/him) creates independent TTRPGs under the title "Flourish or Fate Games." So far, he has only published Dybbuks and Dreidels, but has notes on 4 potential games he could write next. When not playing or writing RPGs, he dances, cooks up a storm, and has a side gig from 9am-5pm as a software developer.

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.dungeon

Welcome to the ruins of Annwn. The once populated hills of this massively multiplayer online game are now void. They call it a Dead MMO. A polygonal mess of PS1-era graphics, empty plains, and dungeons that grow and grow and grow from the inside of the planet's wounds. Up above, the eye of the sad god glares its chromatic light down upon the remaining players, while its tormented hand contorts into magical shapes, rarely crossing paths in their messy orbit. When they do, the shadow magic that powers the game explodes with its ancient might.

Your GM:

Cam (they/he) is a game master with several years of experience running indie tabletop games for friends and strangers! He welcomes players who love to learn about/explore new systems and worlds to his table. They love to help players gain confidence in this unique medium that encourages collaborative storytelling and worldbuilding.

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Space Train Space Heist

Space Train Space Heist by Sam Dunnewold is about exactly what it sounds like. Take on classic heist story roles like the Hooligan, the Gadgeteer, the Space Wizard, or the Con Artiste (among others) as your crew barrels their way through the aforementioned space train to complete their aforementioned space heist. This game is goofy, fast-paced, and can run without a GM—players take equal agency in deciding where the story goes, how the rolls shake out, and what nonsense the crew gets up to. If the term Forged in the Dark means anything to you, you'll recognize this system as using a pared down version of it. If it doesn't, you'll get the joy of discovering a rules-lite system that lets you roll a whole lot of six-sided dice, encourages high risk/high reward actions, and gives each character playbook their own unique little twists.

The theme song for this system is Endless Fantasy by Anamanaguchi.

NOTE: Players at this table will be required to wear masks unless actively eating or drinking; masks will be provided if needed.

Your GM:

Courtney (she/her) will be your facilitator! While Space Train Space Heist runs without a GM, I'll be guiding you through the rules, and taking a more proactive role in running the GM-y parts of the game as everyone adjusts to getting to share that role. I've been playing TTRPGs for about five years, but for like two of them I was playing four to five games a week, so my cumulative game experience is what one might call "entirely too much." I love showing off the weird indie games in my vast collection, so I take any chance I can to run them. I can't wait to share this game with you! Your fun Courtney fact for the day is that my other big hobbies are crochet and LARP.

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Mothership

Mothership is a rules-light, sci-fi, survival horror TTRPG where you and your crew try to survive in the most inhospitable environment in the universe: outer space! Excavate dangerous derelict spacecraft, explore strange unknown worlds, encounter hostile alien life, and escape the horrors encroaching upon your every move.

You are a bored socialite from a monied background, living a comfortable life in Corespace. Your friends have invited you to a shindig a short space-yacht ride away at the Hodder Forest Reserve Habitat. It’s the anniversary of a mysterious accident that resulted in 50 workers’ deaths and the park’s closure: urban legends swirl, hearts race and something stirs in the depths of Hodder Forest…

This game requires no prior experience with Mothership or other TTRPGs. All materials will be provided.

NOTE: Mothership is a horror game for mature audiences. It contains violence, foul language, some sexual content, drug use, and depictions of mental illness, trauma, stress, and panic that may not be suitable for all audiences.

Module Specific Content Warnings: Scenes of graphic violence, body horror, capitalist horror, emotional trauma, psychological distress and obscene language.

Prohibited content that will not appear in this session: Sexual violence, animal cruelty, child harm/abuse, torture, sex, racism, homophobia, sexism, transphobia, addiction, mental illness, and suicide.

Your GM:

My Name is Ben Xavier, pronouns are he/him. I have been a Mothership Warden for a little over a year and have been GMing other rules-light TTRPGs (Knave 2e, Vaults of Vaarn) for over three years. My GMing philosophy is that the players make the story, I just provide the problems. My other hobbies include cooking, history and video games. A fun fact about me is that I like making my own pickles.

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ABOUT THE GM-LESS GAMES (You'll get a quick primer on the rules of your game once your party has arrived!)

Dialect is a game about an isolated community, their language, and what it means for that language to be lost. In this game, you’ll tell the story of the Isolation by building their language. New words will come from the fundamental aspects of the community: who they are, what they believe in, and how they respond to a changing world.

Players take away both the story they’ve told and the dialect they’ve built together.

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The Quiet Year is a map-building game. You define the struggles of a community living after the collapse of civilization, and attempt to build something good within their quiet year. Every decision and every action is set against a backdrop of dwindling time and rising concern.

The game is played using a deck of cards – each of the 52 cards corresponds to a week during the quiet year. Each card triggers certain events – bringing bad news, good omens, project delays and sudden changes in luck. At the end of the quiet year, the Frost Shepherds will come, ending the game.

The Quiet Year occupies an interesting space – part roleplaying game, part cartographic poetry.

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Desperation is a survival horror game, often without the survival. It is two small games, built on the same dark tone and mechanics, that are truly pick-up-and-play experiences.

Dead House: There's a blizzard coming, an unholy storm that will bury the town of Neola as sure as the frozen ground will refuse to receive their dead. Until sprint they will lie in the dead house, anf they will be stacked like cordwood. Because the citizens of Neola are going to suffer, and be tested, and be found wanting. They are going to K*ll and worse. The dead house is going to be full.

The Isabel: A three-masted schooner, her pig-headed Captain and crew of malcontents, and passengers with unsavory secrets, are on a course that puts them in the teeth of a vicious gale. The ship is sinking, and the survivors are only beginning an odyssey of horror. On the high seas, through the punishing surf, and finally on a forbidding shore, the living may well envy the dead.

Note: Your group can choose to play either one (or both!) of the games included with Desperation!

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For the Queen is a card-driven collaborative storytelling game that invites you to tell a dramatic narrative about a Queen’s journey with you, her companions. What will you learn about her (and yourself) along the way? And in the end, will you stand for or against her?

Get started by choosing your Queen from among 25 lavishly illustrated Queen cards—or create your own! Launch into gameplay in minutes with the guided Rules cards, then read and answer the Question cards to develop a world, your characters, and their relationships with each other and the Queen. Ultimately, answer the final question: when your Queen is attacked, do you defend her?

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ABOUT THE EVENT

• Games will get fully underway by 6:30, and will end around 9:30.
• Materials will be provided for all games.
• Parking around Union Square can be tough. Please take public transport if you're able — the Union Square T stop is less than 10 minutes away, and there are several bus stops near by. If you need to drive, there is paid parking on Somerville Ave until 8pm, at which point it's free.
• Upstairs at Bow is the second-floor event space at Bow Market in Union Square in Somerville. To get there, walk up the Bow Market driveway, go to the lobby past Rebel Rebel on your right, and go up either the elevator or the stairs. The entrance to Upstairs is to your right.
• Masks are optional, but please let us know and stay home if you're feeling unwell.
• Drinks are available from Nook, the bar associated with Upstairs. (Please do get a drink, alcoholic or otherwise! We have a minimum to meet!) Food from Bow Market vendors can be brought in.

Host or Publisher Side Quest Books & Games