Re: Big Games

On Tue, 21 May 2002 10:03:22 -0500, Allan Goodall <agoodall@att.net>
wrote :

> On Mon, 20 May 2002 21:28:59 -0400 (EDT), "John Crimmins"
> <johncrim@voicenet.com> wrote:
> 
> >Now, the last time I ran this game it went pretty well...but it was
slow, very 
> >slow.
> 
> FMA, like SG2, is a fairly slow game. Ten figures per side is about
the
> maximum you can expect to use and still have a game complete in two to
three
> hours unless you strip things out. I did a playtest with 6 figures per
side
> for a rule that Jon was asking about. It was played on a kitchen table
with
> buildings as the only cover. It used a new rule that Jon came up with
having
> to do with suppression. There was no time for overwatch or a number of
other
> things that could have slowed down the game. It took about 90 minutes
to
> playtest. The suppression rule Jon is working on actually speeds the
game up a
> bit.

Really?  I thought that my relative unfamiliarity (and my players' total
unfamiliarity)
with the rules was what was slowing things down.

> If you want the game completed under, say, 3 hours, you'll need to
limit
> players to 2 or 3 figures each. 
> 
> Look at it this way. If it takes a player, on average, even just 2
minutes to
> resolve the actions of one figure, 15 figures on the table will take
30
> minutes per turn (until figures start dropping). Now, of course,
maneuvering
> is much faster than that, but combat is slower. Plus there's all the
table
> talk, questions, running to the bathroom, etc. 

The plan is to have a total of about 50 figures on the board...but one
of these minis is the
goal of the scenario, and about 40 more of them are going to be
zombies...who will, in fact,
be moving as a group.

(A pack?  What's the collective noun for a group of zombies, anyway?  I
think that "a
shamble of zombies" sounds pretty good.)

> If running with zombies, you might want to use the group activation
rule. In
> fact, you could enforce the group activation rule for the zombie
player (i.e.
> they have not choice).
> 
> Another option is to play the game using SG2. I haven't tried giving
one
> player "squads" of individual figures and the other player regular
squads, but
> it might actually work. 

Also an idea.  I'm kind of waffling between Stargrunt, FMA, and
ShockForce right now,
frankly.  I've been making FMA more cinematic (and ShockForce-like) by
giving individuals
abilities like "Quick Draw", "Sneaky", or "Sharpshooter".  Maybe I
should just stick with
FMA for the slightly more serious games, and use SF for the sillier
ones,

-- 
John Crimmins
johncrim@voicenet.com