contingency2027/docs/schedule.md

Contingency 2027 — Schedule & GM Load

Wed 27 – Sun 31 January 2027 · Searles Leisure Resort, Hunstanton

Running times

Slot times below are placeholders. Contingency 2026 ran three slots a day (morning / afternoon / evening). Confirm the 2027 published times against Warhorn before printing anything, then update this table.

Session	Assumed time	Play budget
Afternoon	14:00 – 18:00	3h30 play + 10 min break
Evening	19:30 – 23:30	3h30 play + 10 min break

House rule: 3h30 of play in a 4-hour slot, planned to ~3h15 of actual content. Session clock counts play time only and pauses for the break.

The grid

#	Day	Session	Game	System	PCs
1	Wed 27	Afternoon	BLACK SUMMER — Last Flight Out	Walking Dead Universe (modified)	5
2	Wed 27	Evening	AFTERIMAGE	Blade Runner RPG	4
3	Thu 28	Afternoon	DEAD AIR I — Ash & Amber	Call of Cthulhu 7e	5
4	Thu 28	Evening	THE FAVOUR	The Dee Sanction	5
5	Fri 29	Afternoon	DEAD AIR II — The Quiet City	Call of Cthulhu 7e	5
6	Fri 29	Evening	ANOTHER BLOODY TREASURE MAP	VANITY	5
7	Sat 30	Afternoon	DEAD AIR III — Full Volume	Call of Cthulhu 7e	5
8	Sat 30	Evening	THE CURIOUS CASE OF MR PARKER'S DIARY	Vaesen	4
9	Sun 31	Afternoon	Reserve	—	—
10	Sun 31	Evening	Reserve	—	—

Why the slate sits this way

• DEAD AIR runs Thu / Fri / Sat afternoons — same session, three consecutive days. A player who wants the whole arc books one time of day and never clashes with themselves. Each part is written to stand alone for drop-ins.
• Wednesday opens on the two most physical games. Black Summer and AFTERIMAGE are the least prep-hungry on the day (AFTERIMAGE is already finished) and the best "arrival day" energy — a hard survival run and a noir case.
• Evenings alternate tone against the afternoon's Cthulhu: Dee Sanction (Thu), comic fantasy (Fri), folk horror (Sat). Never two bleak games in a row on the same day.
• VANITY sits Friday evening — the loosest, funniest game on the night the bar is busiest and the table is most likely to be tired and social.
• Sunday is deliberately empty. People leave, energy drops, and two reserve slots absorb overspill demand or a re-run without new prep. If Sunday evening never fills, that is a feature.

GM load check

Day	Games	Prep-heavy?	Notes
Wed	2	One (Black Summer)	AFTERIMAGE is a port — read-through only
Thu	2	Both	Heaviest day. DEAD AIR I must be fully finished well in advance
Fri	2	One (DEAD AIR II)	VANITY reuses the existing convention rules digest
Sat	2	Both	DEAD AIR III is the arc payoff — needs the most playtesting
Sun	0 booked	—	Reserve

Consequence: eight new-or-ported games is a real workload. The three CoC games share a setting bible, NPC lineage and art direction, which is what makes the count achievable — treat DEAD AIR as one production with three outputs, not three productions.

Prep deadlines (working back from 27 Jan 2027)

By	What
End Sep 2026	All eight scenario drafts at v1. Trilogy bible locked.
End Oct 2026	Pregens complete for all eight. First desk playtests on DEAD AIR I–III.
End Nov 2026	Playtest fixes applied (v2). Handouts and art briefs written.
End Dec 2026	Art generated, handouts laid out, GM console modules built.
10 Jan 2027	Print pack produced: sheets, handouts, GM screens.
20 Jan 2027	Read-throughs done. Everything marked convention-ready.

Open logistics questions

1. Confirmed slot times from Warhorn — the table above is assumed, not verified.
2. Table size cap at Searles (does 5-player seating work in the game rooms?).
3. Whether the DEAD AIR trilogy can be flagged on Warhorn as a linked series with booking priority for players taking all three.
4. Power/table space for the GM console tablet in the evening rooms.