Subject:
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Re: Brickfest 2000 Pirate Game Postmortem
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.gaming
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Date:
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Mon, 19 Jun 2000 16:09:54 GMT
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wubwub@wildlink#AntiSpam#.com
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32 times
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"Frank Filz" <ffilz@mindspring.com> wrote:
> Ok, I've been kicked off my duff by Evil Stevie himself to write my final
> postmortem. We haven't seen any additional comments for a while.
>
> I'll discuss various areas as they come to me.
>
> PREPARATION:
>
> The game requires much more preparation that I had realized. I spent several
> evenings the week before building ships, and we still didn't really have
> enough cutters. Hopefully this will not be an issue the next time and I will
> have all my ships built. I also didn't get a chance to pre-build any
> islands. Packing was also an issue. The pirate ships are hard to pack. This
> may limit how many big ships I bring to future games (which may not be an
> issue - we never really needed the big ships). Thanks to everyone who
> supplied stuff for bases (Shiri for her inn, Chris Weeks for a couple
> islands, and Stephen Campbell for his base - I hope I didn't miss anyone,
> thanks to Stephen Roberts for supplying his own cutter, and supplying a
> backup of stock ships had we needed them [did anyone else bring cutters?],
> Stephen Campbell also brought some bigger ships which we didn't use). I also
> needed to be more prepared with materials (copies of the record sheets, read
> the rules, etc).
...BTW: I thought your 'instant cutters' with 2 end to end boat pieces worked quite well.
U should ship off pics to Evil Stevie for reference in emergencies like we had (too few
cutters!)
> One good thing which came out of my forgetting to bring tape measures. We
> used range sticks made out of LEGO bricks. These worked nicely, and look
> great in the pictures. It would be real nice if TLC would re-release the 1x1
> bricks with numbers and letters so we could mark the sticks...
>
> FACILITIES:
>
> We had a space about 20'x30'. It would have been nicer to have a larger
> space. It would have been MUCH nicer to have a lockable or otherwise secure
> space. It was nice that we were not closed off in a back room (it's a shame
> the castle folks were off in a back room, I don't think I made it there
> until Saturday). Had we had a secure space, we could have set up (and
> perhaps even started) Friday night. After playing, I definitely want to
> stress that a carpeted space is more important than a bigger space. We spent
> a lot of time kneeling or laying on the floor. The cafeteria would have
> rapidly become uncomfortable. Also, the carpeting presents less worry about
> scuffing the bottom of the ships. A major problem was that the space was
> seriously under-air-conditioned. By 6:00 PM when we basically stopped, I
> was essentially wiped out, largely due to heat issues (it took all evening
> for me to pack, mostly because I just didn't want to deal with it). As a
> result of all of this, we ended up with only about 6 hours of game play. Due
> to the cramped quarters, we elected to change the 2' range of cannon to 18".
> This worked well.
...I agree the 18" worked great as a way to limit ranges well without making rifles and
pistols overpowerful. A thought on the cool range sticks would be to build them with diff
colours to 'mark' key ranges (easier to calculate range mods).
...Locked room is definitely a good thing! And I agree about carpet. I didn't think it
would be that important, but after playing, carpet is a _good_ thing (tho with the stoopid
AC in that building, playing on tile floor would have kept us cooler :-)
> SCHEDULING:
>
> The scheduling was a bit chaotic which caused problems. There was one point
> where the game was abandoned for a demo. Several people were missed in the
> call for lunch take out. Dinner arrived while we were trying to finish the
> last couple of turns, and by the time we got to the cafeteria, the pizza was
> almost gone.
...lol! I suspect with a big event like pirates, scheduling will always be a problem.
People will come and go throughout. One possible way to improve the situation would be to
try and make sure turns end just before popular demos (which would be hard, true, but a
good goal to wurk towards).
> GMING:
>
> Major problem - we only had one GM. This was in part caused by my looking
> around as we were setting up and seeing only 4-6 players. By the time we
> actually started, we had more like 12 (Chris Weeks, Stephen Roberts, Lindsay
> Braun, Jackie and Andy Lynch, Shiri Dori, Jeff Stembel, Tim Courtney, Mike
> Shamus, Jameson, Abe Friedman - ok, so that's 11, 10 actual ships), a few
> people started later (Stephen Campbell arrived just as we started, and
> joined in turn 5, Nathan McDowell took over for Jackie and Andy, Inbal Dori
> took over Abe's ship later in the game). The fact that no one had played
> before also led to some slowness. Some major errors I made were forgetting
> the initiative rules, forgetting to plot the NPC ships, and forgetting about
> the chase rules. My estimation of the NPC ships movement also was annoying
> to one player. One bonus that helped was that the players who were
> experienced gamers took it upon themselves to resolve some of the movement
> issues, and resolve some combat (like rolling to hit, and then telling me
> when I got over, "no one hit"). One issue later in the game was how to work
> with a younger player. Inbal was probably able to understand the game, but
> the pace was definitely frustrating to her (in general, people were
> constantly worried that their turns had been skipped).
>
> Some thoughts for future GM assistants:
>
> - deputize some of the players to oversee combats which are not near and
> dear to them
>
> - let some assistant GMs run a bunch of NPC ships. This would let those
> ships be run a little more carefully yet still be fun. Each assistant could
> take a merchant or two as needed, and a military ship (perhaps each could
> have a military ship for the whole game, and try and chase down rumors of
> the pirates or something), each assistant could also take on suttler duties
> for one or two of the ports.
...Another idea would be to have some more experienced players to run just 1 other NPC
ship. For example, the 1st merchant was on the other side of the world from me, so I could
have run it without too much 'conflict of interest' (perhaps a glance or two from the GM
to make sure I wasn't trying to steer it to an ally or towards myself.
> Steve Jackson has confirmed that this is the first time a large scale game
> has been run by someone other than himself as far as he is aware of.
...Woohoo! I think we did pretty good with it too (he'd have been proud :-)
> RULES:
>
> There is a lot to understand of the rules. Some large charts to put on the
> walls would help. Simpler damage charts for NPC ships would help (the PC
> ships have the combat charts, so the NPC ships just have to have compas
> diagram and damage boxes, with a few lines for comments). The wind didn't
> change enough.
...I agree about simpler damage for NPC ships. Perhaps a 'reaction chart' for them. After
X hits of any type, they stop in place, after Y hits, they sink. Simplify say for every 2
hits they lose 1 crew or similar.
> One player commented that he thought that characters wandering about the
> islands would play more of a role. The problem with the invincible
> alligators contributed to this problem. The scale of treasure may be a
> problem also (taking a prize probably gains you much more than just finding
> treasure). Probably it needs to be harder to take a prize (but the game also
> has to move at a pace such that over the course of a few hours, islands get
> plundered, ships get robbed of their cargo, and an occasional prize is
> taken). I think that the island action should be important (it gives players
> another reason to sail around).
>
> The weather was a real drag. We played almost the entire game under a light
> wind from the west. I used the pre-generated chart, and several times, even
> though the 5 or 6 roll to change the weather came up, the next line on the
> chart was the same.
...Perhaps keep with the pregen, but change on 4-6?
> Things like turning radius and pursuit rules perhaps should appear on the
> record sheets (need to think about some rules to summarize on the record
> sheets)
>
> I ran something which was a meld of the battle game and the campaign game.
> Some of the affects of this were that the islands were pretty much always
> there (I guess I could have introduced new islands which someone
> discovered). Another effect was that the battles occurred at the same pace
> as ship movement, so it was possible to sail into a battle. I don't think
> this is bad for a game (even though it is mighty unrealistic from a campaign
> point of view).
...It did slow down the 'outside' world (ie, the parts not in battles) :-/ I do like
keeping the battles there, but think we should experiment with a separate time scale for
the 'outside world'.
...An idea on 'invincible' animals would be to let them be killed (perhaps even by pistols
if enuf hit in 1 turn), but they 'regenerate' after a random time (ie, are replaced with
new alligators). This would make getting on the island easier, but possibly more
dangerous.
>
> I liked the way I ran skeletons. The skeletons moved and attacked after live
> characters. Their attack was a throttle (though they could pick up weapons).
> When hit, the skeletons got a save, the save was a 1-4 on a d6 for gun fire
> and 1-2 or 1-3 (I forget) for cutlass attacks. I didn't allow cannon fire at
> the skeletons other than grapeshot (which could be shot at a cluster within
> a couple inches).
...I wish I could have seen the skeleton combat! Lots of people commented on it :-)
Skeletons would also be a good candidate for the 'resurrection' bit posted above! :-)
> Some thoughts have been raised about rule changes:
>
> - initiative randomizer (I think this would add too much complexity, I also
> don't see a problem with the pirates early on having a dramatic initiative
> advantage)
>
> - things like swivel guns (probably a complexity add)
...Swivel guns are a good idea. Maybe let them roll to hit like regular cannon, but always
only do 1 hit either to hull or rigging?
> - siege mortars
...This one is cool! We need to tinker with it to see how to make it wurk.
> - Different range penalties for grapeshot (may add complexity, need to look
> at the suggestion)
>
> - wind speed variation seemed to add complexity without much value (wind
> direction change on the other hand is worthwhile)
...Perhaps keep it 'normal' unless changes needed by the GM... at least for games of our
mixed battle/campaign type.
> ---------------
>
> I'm sure there's stuff I missed, but I'm running out of energy for tonight.
...Excellent report, Frank! And thanks again for running it and making it go :-)
...you can go back to ignoring me now...
wubwub
stephen f roberts
wamalug guy (http://wamalug.org)
Jain's Guide (http://wildlink.com/lego/jain)
Visit the wildlink (http://wildlink.com)
lugnet #160
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Brickfest 2000 Pirate Game Postmortem
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| Ok, I've been kicked off my duff by Evil Stevie himself to write my final postmortem. We haven't seen any additional comments for a while. I'll discuss various areas as they come to me. PREPARATION: The game requires much more preparation that I had (...) (24 years ago, 18-Jun-00, to lugnet.gaming)
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