RopeCon 98 Report

WARNING: Parts of this may not interest you... I decided to save my
workload and write only one con report.

FT list members: No GZG games were played at the con. Skip now if that's
all that interests you. (If you want to know why I didn't run any, read
on).

I *will* have photos online as soon as they come back from the shop.

FRIDAY:

Things start well as it appears that I've been booked to a table that
does
not exist. Oh well, I claim another table and set my first game:

******** Surf Napoleon Must Die!!! **********

Surf Napo is a 4-way battle using Armorsoft's excellent, simple, fast,
and
foremost FREE SciFi gaming system. I go about posting ads for the game
before the public really moves in, I set the terrain and the minis and
then I realize -- I need more d10's! I rush to the dealer area and buy
33d10.

Surf Napoleon, by the way, features a battle between Napoleon, DRS
Earthies, Alfs and Robots for freedom, liberty, suntan lotion and the
right to surf.

Ok, I convince my first player that yes, the Napoleonic troops DO stand
a
chance. He decides to play the Alfs anyway (and keeps calling them
Eldar,
for some reason I can not fathom). I recruit three more players, one an
avid but open-minded Napoleonic gamer. 

DRS Earthies decimate Napoleon's artillery in very short order. The
rest of Napoleon's stuff doesn't have much in the way of long range, so 
he must try a sneaky approach. The Alfs sneak in a few potshots with
their
Atmo Fighters before getting blown out of the sky. Robots move slowly
but
surely to exterminate any opposition.

Alfs and Earthies clash, Napoleon is slaughtered and Robots take
potshots
at people getting too close. In the end, Robots win by default since no
one really paid attention to shooting them.

I take my scheduled break to see the con and listen to the guests of
honor, and make a mental note to give Napoleon's artillery more cover
for
the next game.

Ok, next time around I give Napoleon the cover he needs. His artillery
does survive the entire game, but the rest of the troops don't fare
quite
as well. After rearranging the map, Robots and Earthies fight a bit and
Napoleon manages to rearend some Alf tanks. However, the scenario
victory,
marginal though it is, goes to Alfs as they scoot away with their
replenished supply of suntan lotion. I make a mental note to give
Napoleon
even more cover if I ever play this game again. Highlights of the game
included the Alf player setting a careful infantry ambush for the
Earthies, only to be decimated by a couple of Rabid Hamster APCs.

I was already preparing to go home when two players demanded to play.
Ok,
I set up half of the scenario, Alfs vs. Earthies. The game proceeds
pretty
much along the same pattern as the two previous ones, ending in a draw
as
the remaining dregs of both sides decide to run away at the exact same
time!

I had made photocopies of the rules and gave every player a copy. Some
forgot to take theirs, but every envelope found a home by the end of the
con.

*** Modifications: To avoid the "all your troops ran away on turn 1"
syndrome, I divided the troops into units and rolled morale for each
unit
separately. I also ruled that all the terrain was either normal or hard
going (half move for all troops).

*** Final verdict: Generic Legions is a good con demo game. It takes
about
5 minutes to explain the rules, and generally you don't have to explain
them again. I could step away from the table to take a photo or peek at
the other games, and the game was rolling happily when I got back. 
However, it may be a bit simplistic in the long run, it uses *far* too
many dice rolls (too many dice per roll, *and* too many rolls to resolve
a
single shot) to be truly "big battle". It might be nice if there was
more
difference between infantry and tanks (ie. so that infantry is not just
weak slow tanks).

(Dave, if you want a copy of the scenario files, email me)

SATURDAY:

Things start even better: They don't have clue where my table is. After
a
bit of haggling, I just take one beside the one I had on Friday (because
I
had noted that the lights above that table were busted).

Saturday is the big day of the con, and I had a triple event planned for
it:

****** Dawn of the Living Lead	*********
****** Day of the Living Lead	*********
****** Night of the Living Lead *********

Fantasy Rules! demo was the name of the game. I had planned to kit out 5
armies for the players to choose from, but unfortunately Chipco's
"ConAid"
didn't cross the Atlantic in time, so I had to settle for 3 armies on
somewhat crummy cardboard bases.

The armies were:

Lord Helmet of the Undead

Lord Helmet as General
Herbert West as 1st lvl Necromancer
The Doom Guard as Heroes (2)
Will'o'Wisps as Traps (2)
Skeleton Warriors as Undead HW (3)
Skeleton Spearmen as Undead Spears (3)
Skeleton Archers as Undead Bows (2)
Skeleton Horsemen as Undead H.Cavalry (2)
Mummies as Undead Small Monsters 
Skeleton Dino as Undead Battlewagon
Ghosts and Vampires as Minor Spirits (1)

Kleb Draak's Evil Conquerors for a Better Tomorrow

Kleb Draak as General
Walpurgis as 1st lvl Wizard
Jaek and Helwud as Heroes (2)
The Pit and The Pendelum as Traps (2)
Chaos Warriors as Handweapons (3)
Chaod Halberdiers as Spears (2)
Disciples of Red Redemption as Fanatics (2)
Chaos Knights as Knights (2)
Balrog as Lesser Spirit
Gargoyles as Minor Spirits (1)

(Btw: Could we perhaps rename the spirits Major Spirit, Spirit, Minor
Spirit -- I always confuse Minor and Lesser)

The Feuding Feudals

Sir Bold as General
St. Marlin as 1st lvl cleric
Sir Sure and Sir Yes as Heroes (2)
Mr. Hood and his merry fellows as traps (2)
Halberdiers as Spears (3)
Archers as Bows (2)
Crossbowmen as Crossbows (2)
Valiant Knights as Knights (3)
Cannon as Direct Heavy Artillery
and... Moomin Attack Squad as Small Monsters

As you can see, these are all low fantasy armies. I really wanted to
avoid
the "boom, your general's dead on turn 1", especially with novice
players.

First game pits Lord Helmet vs. Kleb Draak. I actually get two guys who
tried the system at last year's con to play. Having learned from last
year, I reduced the amount of obscuring scenery and provided a sample
setup for the forces. Going through the rules takes 10-15 minutes and
then
they take on like real pros. Kleb's morale clock goes down notches as
Lord
Helmet deals some minor damage from afar, but the nimble Spirits soon go
about cracking some bones. Getting the battlelines to clash for the
first
time in a con game was a really satisfying moment -- this is the way
it's
supposed to play -- and the players got the idea of keeping their lines
together pretty fast instead of charging their units in piecemeal
WH-style. The spirits really annoy the Lord Helmet player, causing havoc
in his rear, but in the end the doughty undead prevail.

Both players were *extremely* happy with the lower magic level.

Next, it's the Feuding Feudals vs. Kleb Draak. I get two relative
novices,
explain the rules and off they go. The Feudal player panics when he
learns
the Fanatics are opposite his knights. He starts a crazy maneuver,
trying
march his knights in column in front of his entire battleline to the
other
side. The Kleb player quickly catches on and traps the frontmost unit of
Knights. Not a pretty sight... in the ensuing chaos the chaos warriors
manage to slip in with minimal missile casualties and the carnage begins
costing the Feudal player the game, largely because his knights never
really got to do anything useful. This game ends a lot quicker than the
two undead games, as nearly every phase someone's morale clock goes down
a
notch.

It's starting to get late, so I setup the night game -- Feudals vs. Lord
Helmet. This time the Helmet commander is a guy who's going to WFB
tourny
finals. To his credit, he grasps the game very quickly. The opponent is
a
novice to FR!

This game comes to a real close fight. A *real* close fight. The feudals
ran out of morale first, but managed to win on points. I'm getting ahead
of things... So, the lines start their approach again, there's a cavalry
skirmish on the flank as the feudal player invigorates his knights to
charge. This fight, however, doesn't go so well as Lord Helmet himself
steps up to fight the knights. On the other flank vampires disable the
cannon and mummies shamble along -- as the moomin attack squad is
trapped,
things look grim for the feudals. However, the undead dino is felled
under
a torrent of arrows and bolts and the Moomins clear their trap, smashing
the vampires. A moment later the battlelines splinter a bit and crash.
General melee ensues with troops dying like flies. The Moomins start
wading through enemies, putting down the mummies and capturing Herbert
West who tries to escape only to be eaten by the ferocious Moomins. The
Feudal morale clock hits 4 and all seems lost as units lose resolve and
vanish from the battlefield. However Lord Helmet has lost almost all of
his better units and he's unable to pull his line together -- separated
undead foot troops are crushed one by one until it's the remaining few
humans (and their white-furred allies) against one undead cavalry unit
stacked with Lord Helmet himself and the Doom Guard. Both sides are so
low
on morale clock that they dare not issue challanges and the fight goes
on
for a couple of turns without result... finally Lord Helmet pulls his
troops together and demoralizes the Moomins, winning the phase and
ending
the game. Unfortunately, his losses were higher than the feudal's,
despite
the 50 point bonus.

Notes: All players liked the low magic system. Spellcasters had an
effect
but it wasn't too pronounced -- and losing your mage wasn't the end of
the
game. I could think of taking an entirely no-mage force for a low magic
game without any special tricks like witch hunters, magic wards etc.
Some
players didn't like the clumsiness of single units, but this was a minor
complaint. A couple of times the "turn to face the highest base factor" 
rule caused funny results as it was actually counterproductive to
rearend
or flank a foe. 

I wish I had had something to display for Chipco (poster, banner,
rulebook, anything) -- my rules in an old office binder are not very
visual.

The most popular question by onlookers: "What are those Moomin trolls?"
The answer, ofcourse, was: "Why, they're Moomin trolls."

I'm going to think of something really wicked for next year.

SUNDAY:

I didn't even bother asking where my table was... I just took the one I
had last night. No one seemed to mind.

I had thought about which game to run, and I had finally decided to Sky
Galleons of Mars. I love the idea (maybe because I loved John Carter
books
as a kid), but the rules are a bit cumbersome. Ok, so I had a small
aerial
battle to remind me just how clumsy the rules were.

I took a lunch break and cooked up some new rules and the table was full
of players. Maybe it was because everything else was winding down in the
Sunday afternoon, but I soon got 6-7 players and cooked up a major
battle
between free Martians and British imperialist pigs. We used playing
cards
to determine initiative and I changed all boring crew hits to hull hits.

This seemed to work relatively well, but I still think the rules need a
complete overhaul... 

The Brits tried to use their superior mobility to deal with a portion of
the martian force first and this might have worked if their Reliant had
been worth its name -- as it happened, a lucky hit caused a trim
critical
immobilizing the Reliant and then followed by a lob gun hit the big
gunship was still long enough for the Martian ramships to catch it. What
followed was a very ugly boarding fight as two martians rammed and
grappled the lone brit -- in the end the British player was complaining
that his craft would not stay aloft with so many boarders on board...

Meanwhile, a British gunboat made the mistake of sailing over the crest
of
a hill while being shot at. Damage that would have been mediocre over
flat
plains caused a crash. The last British boat wasn't faring too well
either
-- damaged in gunfight and unable to attain higher altitudes, it was
mobbed by two martian hullcutters.

Very exciting and despite the Brits' bad luck, everyone had fun.
Definitely something I want to bring back next year.

Closing notes:

Sky Galleons was close to ideal con game in my mind, because:

- I could explain ALL the necessary rules in 10 minutes or less
- It could accommodate many players without needing any special rules,
  and players could come and go
- It's something DIFFERENT, and most importantly, it LOOKS different,
  from a DISTANCE (eg. even though SG2 works rather differently, it
  doesn't really LOOK that different from the dozens of other SciFi
  skirmish games)

Ok, why didn't I run a GZG game?

 First of all, see above: The first ideal rules out DS2 and SG2. Ok,
that
leaves FT. FT could be a good con game, but:

 - I had not promised to run it. No obligations.
 - I had a green felt on my table
 - My table was too narrow (last year I had bad experiences with ships
   flying off the table)
 - I didn't have any new ship sheets ready :-(

-- 
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