Subject:
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Pirate Game at Dragon*Con
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.gaming
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Date:
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Tue, 4 Jul 2000 23:48:11 GMT
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Viewed:
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648 times
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Franklin Cain and I ran two 4-hour, 24-player scenarios at Dragon*Con in Atlanta
this past Saturday. Lessons learned:
(1) Two experienced referees are BARELY enough for this many players.
(2) 4 hours, when at least one will be consumed in setup and the first
(teaching) moves, is not enough time for people to work up from cutters to
serious ships. Need more time or a different scenario.
(3) An age cutoff is required, at least for a large game. I'm thinking perhaps
12. I wish that I had asked our youngest players their ages, so I could set it a
bit above that :-( We had two in one game, three in the other. They were
actually GOOD kids, and helped us happily and creatively in the setup, which is
one reason we cut them so much slack in the game . . . because, between short
attention spans (e.g., off somewhere else when they should be moving) and a MUCH
greater enthusiasm for dealing damage than for taking it, they interfered
significantly with the ability of the older players to enjoy the game. Childish
adults wish to hang out with other childish adults, not necessarily with real
children :-)
(3.5) On the other hand, we had a couple of players whose age I'd guess at 16,
who were among the most fun in the game. Old enough to understand all the rules
and play well, young enough to display contagious enthusiasm.
(4) I modified the combat charts before the game, and I liked the result. In a
nutshell: Hull and rigging are both now +3 to hit. Hull and grapeshot hits are
now significantly more productive. Grapeshot now triples the distance modifiers
(bonus or penalty, either way) to hit. We had more people using hull and rigging
attacks "properly" rather than firing at the deck every time. Grape is still not
quite nasty enough at close quarters, but it's getting there.
(5) Those players who were eliminated in the first few turns were re-started at
Port Royale but required to join different fleets (most of them just united into
their own new fleet). That kept people from feeling rooked when they had bad
luck early on.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Pirate Game at Dragon*Con
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| (...) Atlanta (...) at (...) into (...) I'm curious as to what the scenario set up here is. You mention people starting with cutters, and 4 hours not being enough time to upgrade (from my experience, 5 or 6 hours may not be enough either), but have (...) (24 years ago, 5-Jul-00, to lugnet.gaming)
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