Monash University Roleplayers Proudly Present


CAPRICON V

The Weird And Novel Gaming CONvention

September 22, 23, 24

At Monash University
Wellington Road, Clayton

Still Melbourne's Cheapest role-playing convention!

Welcome to Capricon V

This year, Capricon is proud to present nine roleplaying tournaments as well as a freeform and two card game tournaments. This booklet provides information about Capricon V, and contains all that you need to register for the convention.

Capricon V is to be held at Monash University, Clayton, from Friday September 22 to Sunday the 24th. Players can register at any time during the convention or by pre-registration prior to the convention.

Tournaments are run in 2.5 hour sessions, which are scheduled to start at least 3 hours apart. Sessions start at 9am, 12:30pm, 3:30pm, and 7pm on the Saturday and Sunday, and 12:30pm, 3:30pm and 7pm on the Friday. The convention doors open just before 9am on the Saturday and Sunday, and at 11:30am on the Friday. Prizes will be given after the 3:30 session on the Sunday.

Capricon is run by the Monash University Roleplayers. Food and drinks will be available from a canteen, and a barbeque lunch will be available on the Saturday and Sunday.

Entry and Registration

Everyone must register with the convention before they can enter any of the tournaments. Capricon is still Melbourne's cheapest gaming convention. Convention registration is only $5 and tournaments cost $2 per session. There is no late fee or additional charges. All pre-convention entries should be posted to:

Pre-convention entries should contain bank or personal cheques, or postal notes, made out to CAPRICON. Please do not send cash through the post.

Although entry to tournaments is filled on a "first in, best dressed" basis, every effort will be made both before and during the convention to help you play what you'd like to play when you'd like to play it. While team entry into events is preferred, individuals who enter team events will be grouped together into teams to the best ability of the tournament and convention organisers.

Enquiries

For general enquiries, registration problems and other enquiries pertaining to Capricon V, please phone Andy Smith before 1-pm on (03) 9848 9178; if he's not home please leave a message and he'll get back to you. For enquiries regarding any other aspects of the Monash University Roleplayers please phone Damien Moore on (03)9888 1722, or email murp@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au

Where and When

Capricon V will be held at Monash University's Clayton Campus from Friday September 22nd to Sunday the 24th. The campus appears on map 70 of the Melways, reference G 10; there is also an expanded map of the Clayton Campus in the Melways. The convention desk and canteen will be in the foyer of the Western Science Lecture Theatres Building. The roleplaying sessions and card tournaments will be in the same building. The location of the freeform is to be advised.

There will be numerous signs guiding players to the correct location on the weekend of the convention.

Parking

There is parking available on the university ground and around the university. Attendees are advised to park only in the Blue Permit areas during the convention - all other areas will be patrolled and fines are still in force.

Convention Rules

We ask that you adhere to the following rules for the duration of the convention:

Tournaments

The following nine roleplaying tournaments appear in alphabetical order by scenario name. They are followed by the freeform and then by the card game tournaments. Each of the roleplaying tournaments is one session in length.

To assist the prospective player in the the selection of tournaments the author of each tournament has provided a rating for the tournament in each of the four categories, namely Seriousness, Characterisation, Rules Knowledge and Adult Content.

Seriousness is rated from 1 to 5, where a 1 indicates the scenario is completely light-hearted and silly; and a 5 indicates the scenario is completely serious and unrelieved by humour.

Characterisation is rated from 1 to 5, where a 1 means that characterisation is appreciated but largely irrelevant to the scenario; and a 5 indicated that the scenario revolves wholly around characterisation. To an extent, characterisation also indicates when degree of complexity and subtlety of characterisation is expected of the players.

A Rules Knowledge rating of 1 means that the scenario is either systemless or that knowledge of the system is of no value. A rating of 3 means that rule knowledge is appreciated but not essential, and a 5 means that an understanding of the rules is essential.

Adult Content is not rated from 1 to 5, instead an estimate of the Australian censorship rating for the scenario is given. In other words, the adult content rating indicates the film classification the author estimates the scenario would receive if it was a film.

Enquiries regarding specific tournaments should be directed towards the tournament organiser or (as a last resort) Andy Smith (ph#(03)98489178).

A Matter of Blood.

So the fool Sartar's Kingdom is at an end. He came, he went and now his kingdom is ruled by others. Such is the lot of mortals and their works. A time too will come when the Lunars will be gone; and yet we remain in our mountain eyrie, protected by our sweet blood pool - so carefully tended, so carefully culled. So cease your worries and rather rejoice - for have we not defeated time and been given the dark pleasure of ripping power from a screaming world?

Crime in the City

"There's still crime in the city,
said the cop on the beat.
I don't know if I can stop it,
I feel like meat on the street.
They paint my car like a target,
I take my orders for fools,
meanwhile some punk blows my head off.
When I play by the rules.
That's why I'm doing it my way;
I took the law in my own hands,
here I am in the alleyway,
a wad of cash in my pants.
I get paid by a ten year old.
He says he looks up to me.
There's still crime in the city,
but it'd good to be free.
FREEDOM!"
-Neil Young.

Gratitude to the Unknown Instructors

A four player single session Call of Cthulhu scenario by John Deague.

"What they undertook to do
They brought to pass;
All things hang like a drop of dew
Upon a blade of grass"
-W.B. Yeats

Hades

Inside base 13, nothing moves. Doors remain closed, elevators are still, and shadows lie undisturbed. One by one the flickering lights splutter and go out. the few computers remaining online mutter to each other in the growing dark, until they fall silent in the night. In the silence, in the dark, something stirs.

In a Hostile Environment

Playback A\\01756\hyp.hilo\zad\com 3
Apra 17 04:17:18 2190
"Colonists on 4623 in 'Narcissus' experiencing difficulties with local environment. Dispatch 8 colonial marine surveyors to colony immediately. End of Message."

You've been here for 2 months now; studying the atmosphere as it is changed by the terraforming station here, setting up satellite observation posts. Unfortunately it appears to be running far behind schedule.
The Scientists here aren't listening to your warnings that the station is tooled incorrectly; they simply take your findings and tell you to shut up.

Monkey Magic

"In the worlds before Monkey, primal chaos reigned. Heaven sought order, but the phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown. The four worlds formed again and yet again, as endless eons wheeled and passed. Time, the pure essence of nature, the power of the earth, the forces of the sun and the moon all worked upon a certain rock, old as creation. And it became magically fertile. That first egg was named "Thought". Tathagata Buddha, the father Buddha, said 'With our thoughts, we make the world'.

Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch. From it sprang a stone monkey. The nature of Monkey was ... irrepressible!"

Panacea

Dr. Herman Eckhardt was a dedicated and successful genetic researcher at Northwest General Hospital, one of Australia's leading medical institutions. So why should he one day find that he is locked out of his lab and files, barred from his work, and fired from the hospital payroll? Who would go to the trouble of framing a doctor for malfeasance, and why?

With a habit of thorough research and a professional reputation to uphold, Dr Eckhardt enlists some professional help: Topper and Blakefield Investigations. Can the good doctor, with the help of Max Topper, Sally Blakefield, and their newest hireling Christian Sabel, get to the bottom of the mystery?

Sailing to Byzantium

Seeking after the immortal in a drab dust dream
Watching all our windows with in the brute green gale
Knowing somehow science failed us as we shrink from sleep
Grasping after vicious artifice with one husked hand

To be Continued?

There is Horror and Insanity... are you in Ravenloft?
There are Gods and Demons... are you in Planescape?
Who knows where you are?
Who cares?

You're in an Asylum named Bedlam...
There have been noises of fighting and explosions of Magic!
You can smell smoke....
Can you escape before it's too late?

All you have are your wits...
Your Cunning...
Your Integrity...
Your Ingenuity.

Who are you?
How did you end up in here?
How do you get out?
Why is it called TO BE CONTINUED?

Von Mackarael

An intricate 10 character freeform in a single evening of Suspense, Enchantment, Villany and Heroism. Serious but not cathartic. A Chaosium-type system will be used.

Magic the Gathering Type I

A type I tournament. Standard restriction list applies.
The tournament will be played for mock ante. In the event that you lose a match your ante card is removed for the duration of the tournament (you do NOT actually lose the card). Sideboard must remain at 15 cards throughout the tournament, if your deck drops below 60 cards at any time, you are considered forfeit. A seventy card deck is recommended.

Magic the Gathering Type II

A type II tournament. Standard restriction list applies. Fourth ed. revised cards. Expansions are Fallen Empires and Ice Age, OR Ice Age and Chronicles (if Chronicles has been available for sufficient time).
The tournament will be played for mock ante. In the event that you lose a match your ante card is removed for the duration of the tournament (you do NOT actually lose the card). Sideboard must remain at 15 cards throughout the tournament, if your deck drops below 60 cards at any time, you are considered forfeit. A seventy card deck is recommended.