The Clockwork Café

The Clockwork Café
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The Clockwork Café

Welcome

Welcome to The Clockwork Café, a freeform (theatre-style) game set in a fictional Geneva of 1905. The game, The Clockwork Café, takes place in the café of the same name, secret home to the famous Society of Lady and Gentleman Adventurers of Geneva, where all of Europe's spies, adventurers, master-criminals and detectives meet on neutral territory to exchange tales of daring-do! It is a game of larger-than-life heroes and villains, where the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

The aim of this site is to provide potential players with information about the game and to provide a casting form so that I can determine who plays which character. All the information you need to play the game will be provided in booklet form. The booklet will be e-mailed to the players in Acrobat (.pdf) format well in advance of the game and will also be provided in printed form at the game itself.

What Should You Read?

If you are new to freeform games, you may want read my take on what a freeform game actually is. Similarly, if you have never played in one of my games before, you may want to read about what you can expect from one of my games and what is expected of you as a player. However, please feel free to skip those sections and also the history of the game and how it came to be. All of those sections are there for your general background information and none of them are essential reading for the game itself.

Please read the notes about where the game is to be run, just to check that you are playing in the correct run and have gone through the sign-up procedure. In general, ALL queries about sign-up for the game/convention, how to get there, etc, should be directed to game/convention organisers and not to me.

Finally you should read the game page which will tell you about the game itself.


How to Play

Like all my games, The Clockwork Café is a pre-cast game (ie you don't provide your own characters: they are provided for you). Casting is the process of ensuring that you get a character that best meets your requirements as a player. In order to help me cast you, all players are required to fill out a casting form. Once you have been cast, you will be sent a character sheet, detailing:

  • an overview of your character, along with your character's background and motivations
  • what your character's aims and objectives are
  • who and what your character knows

Please read the main Casting Page before filling out the casting form.

Please note that you can only be cast if you have already registered to play the game. For more details on where the game is being run and on how to register, please click here.

Since The Clockwork Café is a reasonably complicated game, with some background material, the aim is to have the game cast and the player booklets and character sheets sent out to the players at least a month before the game. This gives you plenty of time to read the character sheet and costume for the part. In order to meet this deadline, it is important that the game fills as soon as possible so that I can cast the game and get the character sheets out to you as soon as I can.

Although detailed costuming is not compulsory for the game, I would request that players make some effort to costume (ie a formal shirt and tie is preferable to t-shirt and jeans). If you have any specific issues with costuming, please mention them on the casting form. Note that the referees and your fellow players are often happy to lend items of costume if you need them.


Games Page
Games Page
History
History of the Game
www
What, Where, When
The Game
The Game
Casting
Casting