More notes on my Con Games

Based on my experiences at last year's GASPcon I need to do very specific prep. Rather than worrying about specific stats, as they are easy to create on the fly. What I need more is the mechanics to give a very specific feel to the game and a crib sheet of vignettes and characters to touch on when I need something to make the game fun.

Easy Credit Blues
I want this to feel like a mix of Serenity with Issac Asimov and other late 60s and 70s sci-fi. That means the crew's ship is liable to be falling apart rather than the immaculate ships of Star Trek (the Serenity contribution) while all the possible worlds to visit are remnants of a star spanning empire, with some major similarities between them. However that alone isn't really that interesting in a one shot con game. What I will have much more fun with is a card based mechanism to deal out random secrets that all the players have, things like "you're a traitor and seek to screw the players at a critical moment" or "you're actually a humanoid robot thats attempting to pass as a human". Each card will have ROLEPLAY IT written in big bold letters and "if you cant do this one, speak now!" so they will be warned and informed, and hopefully willing to introduce more elements of chaos and confusion.

Doom comes to Barvales
I will be drawing on the whole survival horror element of Death Frost Doom, Resident Evil, and some of the video games Ive been playing up the weird and horrible aspects that Lamentations is intended to have. A major element of the game will be surviving, with an eye to either carve out a new niche in the new order or take back the city from the horrors. That means gaining or protecting resources and taking advantage of all the resources I provide. My Doom players will get cards too - dealing out a card listing the character as being a local of Barvales, a pious pilgrim, or an outsider who has come to take advantage of the holy ritual everyone is coming together for.

For both games Im looking to deal out personality quirk cards, to give the players something to roleplay besides the cliched stuff like the drunk scottish dwarf.