There’s talk of good tidings ahead. A celebration, they’re calling it. The dawn of a new era. The birth of an heir.

Officially, the Young Emperor has no spouse and no recognised heir. That has not stopped the people of the Verdelline Empire from spreading rumours about him and the good Lady Stolas, one of his most trusted advisors, as she is soon to have a child. Many people would point out that there is no evidence of any dalliance between the two, but what good is a wet blanket in the face of a juicy scandal?

Of course, there are more important things for people to worry about than whether or not some young man with a nice chair is about to become a father.

The past year and a half has been fraught with tension, with politics being less and less a matter of talking or warfare and more a matter of making one’s enemies simply… disappear. The air is thick with blood and magic, but only if you know where to look.

And, even so, the Young Emperor wishes to make a show of peace. He says he wishes to welcome the child of Lady Stolas into the world with a party like no other. He says he wishes to see better days ahead. Those wishes might just come true— if his enemies don’t come for him first.

Empty Vessels: Inheritance is a Renaissance-themed high-fantasy, high-intrigue game set in the world of Empty Vessels. It takes place one and a half years after the events of EV: Omens, but no prior knowledge is required to play.

The Commodore wants a Xenobiologist, despite already having one. To entice this Dr Olipolious, she’s sending Harlequin, her current Xenobiologist, to meet with him and make him a job offer. The offer is so sensitive and secret that they have to meet in person, which means Harlequin has to leave the relative safety of the Commodore’s over juiced pocket battleship despite the enticing price on her head… and go to a science conference.

The conference is abord a small, upmarket private station in the middle of nowhere. Conference security is minimal and most of the other scientists won’t be conventionally armed. Your job is simple: take Harlequin to the conference, don’t let anyone who happens to figure out she’s there kill or capture her for the bounty, ensure the meet happens in privacy, and then escort both Harlequin and Dr Olipolious back to your ship.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

“Travel the Galaxy! Meet Fascinating New Life Forms, Then Kill Them!”

Set in the universe of the now complete webcomic Schlock Mercenary, Planet Mercenary is a fast paced and hopefully humorous game about trying to make money by shooting people, or in this case by attending what would have been a perfectly innocent scientific conference.

Knowledge of the game system is not needed, knowledge of the comic is a bonus!

https://www.schlockmercenary.com/

Maxim 14: “Mad Science" means never stopping to ask "what's the worst thing that could happen?"

It's back and it's bigger and better than ever before!

Take the role of an amazing hero or a despicable villain in a fast-paced, winner-takes-all, pro wrestling competition.

This game is about getting to the action quickly and building your wrestler’s story through a mix of matches and backstage drama. Character creation is simple; wrestlers are built from basic elements which you can create yourself, or roll randomly using the Legend Machine.

You’ll build your character’s acclaim as you compete in matches, form alliances with other wrestlers and grab the mic to call others out. Make outrageous stipulations, book incredible matches and claim titles to seize glory!

Soaring Lions is about characters and stories. You need absolutely no knowledge of professional wrestling to play this game, just as much enthusiasm, creativity and energy as you can muster. Still not sure? Check this short explanation of why pro wrestling is an art form.

Across Kapcon weekend this game will be run several times to create a Big Series. You can play in one session, or play in as many as you enjoy. At the conclusion of Kapcon, the winningest player will claim the Summer Slam Title for 2022.

This game will be high-energy and (possibly) get a little loud when things get exciting. You'll need to be prepared to think on your feet, create a character at the table, describe outcomes and throw in suggestions for plot twists at short notice.

Is this the best game you'll ever play? Probably. Sign up today to lock in your opportunity for eternal glory.

I will be running Monsterhearts. A powered by the Apocalypse game of teenaged monsters. It's not really for the faint of heart and I encourage you to bring as much teenage melodrama and self absorption as you can manage. The story doesn't matter nearly so much as how you feel.

The night before the coronation ceremony of Fire Lord Ozai, Fire Sage Bai arrested several intruders trying to steal a historical scroll from the Dragonbone Catacombs in Royal Caldera City. These brave heroes hoped to save a bit of the undoctored Fire Nation history from Ozai’s wrath, but they now face a lifetime of incarceration! Luckily, an elderly Fire Sage, Niuan, has freed the heroes and given them the scroll they sought, promising to help them if they agree to smuggle him out of the city during their escape. But can Fire Sage Niuan be trusted? How will our heroes escape from the city? And what will Fire Sage Bai do when he realizes they have escaped with the scroll...and Niuan?

Avatar Legends is a heroic fantasy game set in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra in which you play a young hero from one of the Four Nations who is a force of change in the world. The game is about bravery, friendship, and doing what is right in the face of often insurmountable odds. Together with your companions you face devious foes and dangerous opposition, defeat them as a team, and learn what it means to be a hero in the process.

Rescuing the notorious womaniser, Sanguigno de’ Masnadieri, is a desperate mission for a desperate band: a handful of knaves against all of Vortiga’s guards, among the best trained in the Kingdom. Fortunately, Sanguigno’s beheading is planned to round off the Red Carnival, a week of revelry, parties, and indecencies, during which everyone, even those guards, will be distracted and most likely drunk. Easy-peasy.

This is a spaghetti fantasy scenario set in the world of Brancalonia, an all Italian medieval, roguish, and picturesque setting for D&D5e. The PCs are knaves, mercenaries, rogues and similar rascals hired for all sorts of odd jobs, generally illicit, dangerous things that nobody wants to do. And that's on a good day... On a bad day, there are curses, demons, witchcraft, monsters and double-dealings to contend with as well.

Because of the threat of Covid our con will be a bit different this year. The big change is that we're trying to limit mass gatherings on the main floor, which means limiting announcements. As part of this, we're not doing scoring or prizes this year, because that means prizegiving, which means everyone in a room cheering. While things are normalish in NZ, we're playing this on the safe side, and trying to avoid risk. We're also duplicating the game and timetable info - "the wall of games" - so people don't have to congregate in one place to see what's on.

There'll be a QR code on the upstairs entrance and on the main floor. Please scan in each day. We'll also have hand sanitiser in multiple areas so you can decontaminate. Our registration spreadsheet provides pretty good info for contact-tracing, but we're hoping no-one needs to use it for that purpose.

Obviously: if you are sick, please let us know by email or on the KapPhone (022 341 5067) and stay home. We will provide a full refund. If you're a GM, don't stress - we will cope.

Also obviously: wash your hands!

We hope that none of this is necessary. As of today, the shields are still holding. But we want to run a safe con and that means planning for the worst just in case. Hopefully it'll just be this year, and next year things will be back to normal.

Your group of fortune-hunters and militant entrepreneurs known as the Handiwork Heroes all hail from a similar region of the Oathsworn League, in the world of Valn. Specifically, a number of the company have their roots in the settlement of Talden, a mixed community of halflings and humans nestled at the base of the mighty Cloudcaught Range, in the district of Oakfields in a country called Rutlandshire.
It is here that, after half a dozen years of adventuring together, vanquishing evil and aiding the helpless, your leader Captain Elminai “the Warbird” Bronaion has decided to return to for the occasion of Heartwinter’s Night.
You arrived in Talden three days before Year’s End of 140 Oathsworn Calendar, and spent the next three weeks either catching up with family members, helping out in the community, and/or being treated to rounds at the Frosted Flagon as the returning heroes you are while telling tall tales of your journeys. But rumours start to catch your ears something is amiss in your quaint little township...

Written by J Walton.

Partly inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s fantasy novel, The Tombs of Atuan (1971), this is a live-action game for 6-10 players, exploring sporadic events in the lives of a group of priestesses charged with serving dead spirits—spirits that are nameless, ancient, and often hostile.

The players will take turns portraying either the priestesses or the Nameless Dead in a series of scenes that are chronological but not clearly located in time. Moments, days, months, or years may pass between scenes. There is also no fixed ending to the game, so things continue in a cyclical pattern—even including characters dying or leaving the sisterhood and new characters being inducted as members—unless the characters themselves decide to break that pattern.

This is a ready to play game, and characters will be selected during the game. Recommended costume is "something black", and a black shawl or formless robe would be ideal (bring extras if you can). Markers for the dead will be provided.

A stack of one hundred greasy street-worn bills, American, takes up 6.89 cubic inches, or 112 milliliters. A paper bag, like the one you get your groceries packed in or like the one you are looking at right now, holds 1,428 cubic inches, or just north of 23 liters. That’s 207.25 stacks of cash if you filled it with mathematical perfection, which its previous owner clearly did not, but close enough. And if each stack was composed of 100 twenty dollar bills, the contents of the bag you are touching with such tender longing would be worth four hundred thousand of somebody else’s dollars, give or take. But there are some stacks of hundreds mixed in, and the bag you are holding lovingly in your arms isn’t full-full, so it all evens out at half a million dollars like somebody planned it.

Because somebody did. And chances are they are going to miss their grocery bag as much as you love it.

We will be playing this Fiasco Playset (by Jason Morningstar), adapted into a LARP format: a series of lovingly improvised scenes about people with lots of ambition and no impulse control in a high pressure situation. What could go wrong?