| |
In lugnet.fun.gaming, Frank Filz writes:
> First off, as has been mentioned before, this was absolutely the best
> game we have played so far. Some contributions to this were:
I agree, but I think that this is in spite of some things that you may feel it
is because of.
> - We were able to setup Friday night.
Very important! It would be even better if we could coordinate the game ahead
of time, and get more participation in island provision and crew/ship setup.
> I really simplified island play. Instead of having major scenario
> islands, most islands just had some buried treasure, or a stranded
> pirate or two or three. The most time spent on any island was about 5
> turns (3 separate islands). None of those islands required heavy
> interaction with me.
>
> - With more treasure to be had on the islands, several folks made it
> into port to sell captured ships and treasure and buy more gear or
> better ships.
I think it is good that there were lots of good quick simple islands. The more
the better. But I also think that there is benefit to more complex scenario
type islands. I've been reading through Steve's rules again and I note that
battle is supposed to happen independent of the overall timeline. I think
islands should work that way too. However, both of these absolutely require
someone to act as a sub-GM. I should have done that instead of playing and
trying to help where I could.
Selve-serve islands just like suttling, through a palm or laptop, would
minimize the need for GM interaction.
> Some things which may not have gone so well:
>
> - The only larger ships were three class 2 ships I brought. We were
> severely lacking when Scott Quirk (?) got a big treasure haul.
Yeah, we'll have to do better at coordinating this next time.
> - I probably made gems a little too valuable (they were word 1d6x10
> gold, if a 6 was rolled, they were worth 1d6x100 gold, and if yet
> another 6 was rolled, they were worth 1d6x200 gold).
I think the mined silver was similarly too valuable (or too quick to acquire).
> - I had talked about using a deck of cards for island contents, I think
> this would be a good idea.
Yup. Or software.
> - We didn't have enough range sticks. A combination of the K-8 not being
> out Friday, and the sparseness of it meant we had to improvise a bit. I
> am thinking about having some 2x4s engraved with numbers to use for
> making some range sticks.
Oooh. Good idea! I intend to bring more than two range sticks next year.
> - We were almost short of island material, though Lindsay came up with a
> couple clever ways to use all the palm tree bits Chris had brought
> amongst which was only a single palm tree fork. Duplo 2x2 bricks
> actually worked out to make nice little rocks (which tended to not be
> very interesting, though one chain made a handy way for some pirates to
> swim from one island to the next, and reduce the chance of attracting
> sharks).
I think Duplo in general is a tremendously valuable island tool, the potential
of which we have only scratched the surface.
> - NPC ships are just a pain,
Wow. I'm surprised at this. What hassle did they cause? Just remembering
them? Maybe this is evidence once again that a dedicated assistant GM is
really needed. I'll do it next year unless we automate stuff in the mean time.
> The Islander catamaran wasn't too much of a pain to
> run because it didn't last long.
It lasted long enough for me to sell it at port!
> - I needed to think a bit about the islands which were a little more
> interesting. The shrine was pretty easy when Kai Brodersen blew up the
> statue's head with a cannon ball (each pirate who spent a turn searching
> found 1d6 gold, with a 6 meaning a gem instead). On one large island,
> Lindsay stumbled into an alligator. On another, Larry found some silver
> worth mining (unfortunately, his ship and captain were killed and
> someone else [durn, forgot the name] captured the silver). On a third,
> some islanders were present, and put up a bit of a fight (and launched a
> catamaran which proceeded to nearly sweep Larry's new ship of crew,
> fortunately he was right next to an island populated by three stranded
> crew, and then headed to Strawberry Island to collect some giant
> strawberries and some more crew).
I still think it would be very cool to generally use the islanders more,
creating a simple political and economic model that governs their behavior.
That would take care of lots of islands and there would be a sensible "look and
feel" to how the islands effected the game.
> I'm thinking that most islands should be small (the 16x16 printed
> islands work great, but a few built up islands like the shrine or
> Strawberry Island [built from about 10 Duplo bricks - this provided
> cover for Larry once] would be nice also). The larger islands are harder
> to deal with since they can take several turns to explore. The island we
> used as a pirate base turned out to also provide some separation of the
> ocean which worked well.
I agree in general, feeling that it should be clear that the islands on the
floor -- like the ports, represent larger more complex environments. The
division of the sea by islands is to my thinking a very good thing. We had
scands of islands this time and I actually think that more would still be
better.
> When Scott realized he wasn't going to be able to crew all the ships he
> had to buy to spend his money, he negotiated with Shiri and (?) who were
Aaron?
> not in the best of shape. They helped crew his ships and the combined
> armada stood a good chance of sweeping the ocean had we more time. Of
Pisha! We could have outmaneuvered him and sown dissent among his partners.
> course Chris Weeks and Larry had joined in common cause, and Kai was
> potentially going to join them, which would have made it a close fight
> (but still with the advantage to Scott's fleet).
It depends on how long a pirate coalition like that could hold together.
> Lindsay and (?) capturing one ship, starting to tow it home, and then
> the other player back stabbing Lindsay just as Scott's fleet was about
> to set sail.
I think it was Nicholas Greene.
> The time two ships both destroyed each other's cannon (I think this was
> Larry and Shiri).
That was great. But I actually think the tables should be recomposed. The
chances of that happening are not exactly high, but I do think they're too
high.
I'm going to take this year to make some changes to the system and convince you
that they're appropriate to implement.
Chris
|
|
| |
Christopher Weeks wrote:
> > - We were able to setup Friday night.
>
> Very important! It would be even better if we could coordinate the game ahead
> of time, and get more participation in island provision and crew/ship setup.
Definitely would have helped. Over the next months, I plan on organizing
all my minifigs, so I may make up bags of pirate crews which would speed
up that part. More islands certainly would have helped.
> > I really simplified island play. Instead of having major scenario
> > islands, most islands just had some buried treasure, or a stranded
> > pirate or two or three. The most time spent on any island was about 5
> > turns (3 separate islands). None of those islands required heavy
> > interaction with me.
> >
> > - With more treasure to be had on the islands, several folks made it
> > into port to sell captured ships and treasure and buy more gear or
> > better ships.
>
> I think it is good that there were lots of good quick simple islands. The more
> the better. But I also think that there is benefit to more complex scenario
> type islands. I've been reading through Steve's rules again and I note that
> battle is supposed to happen independent of the overall timeline. I think
> islands should work that way too. However, both of these absolutely require
> someone to act as a sub-GM. I should have done that instead of playing and
> trying to help where I could.
I've never quite figured out the asynchronous play Steve suggests. That
was one area which really puzzled me for a long time since it almost
implies a separate map for large scale movement. One problem with that
style is that he suggests you can't enter an in progress battle. It
would also give a serious benefit to the skilled players.
I need to think more about scenario islands, but as other stuff becomes
more self serve, that will give me more time to handle scenario islands.
A 2nd GM would also make more time to handle such islands (and each GM
could handle the scenario on several islands).
Interestingly, we keep talking about how a 2nd GM would help things, and
then convince ourselves we don't need one, and then wish we had one. I
think it's becoming clear the Pirate Game is a big enough attraction
that we will get enough players to make two GMs worthwhile, and if the
2nd GM handles some (or all) of the NPC ships, then they will likely
have almost as much fun as if they were playing a pirate ship.
> Selve-serve islands just like suttling, through a palm or laptop, would
> minimize the need for GM interaction.
I will work on making the simple stuff self serve. Some suttling will
still need GM attention, but the bulk of it doesn't need attention.
> > Some things which may not have gone so well:
> >
> > - The only larger ships were three class 2 ships I brought. We were
> > severely lacking when Scott Quirk (?) got a big treasure haul.
>
> Yeah, we'll have to do better at coordinating this next time.
Of course this year we were probably somewhat in denial about the fact
that I wasn't going to be bringing enough ships to run the game all by
myself... I did try and hint that we needed some larger ships, but
Lindsay's project obviously took over...
> > - I probably made gems a little too valuable (they were word 1d6x10
> > gold, if a 6 was rolled, they were worth 1d6x100 gold, and if yet
> > another 6 was rolled, they were worth 1d6x200 gold).
>
> I think the mined silver was similarly too valuable (or too quick to acquire).
Perhaps, it did take several turns to acquire it though. But definitely
something which needs work.
> > - I had talked about using a deck of cards for island contents, I think
> > this would be a good idea.
>
> Yup. Or software.
I'm thinking cards as not introducing the possibilities of technical
difficulties. I also don't currently have a laptop which is useable
(plus a laptop is a major hassle when flying).
> > - We didn't have enough range sticks. A combination of the K-8 not being
> > out Friday, and the sparseness of it meant we had to improvise a bit. I
> > am thinking about having some 2x4s engraved with numbers to use for
> > making some range sticks.
>
> Oooh. Good idea! I intend to bring more than two range sticks next year.
I will make some up myself. I could have easily fit several into my big
box.
> > - We were almost short of island material, though Lindsay came up with a
> > couple clever ways to use all the palm tree bits Chris had brought
> > amongst which was only a single palm tree fork. Duplo 2x2 bricks
> > actually worked out to make nice little rocks (which tended to not be
> > very interesting, though one chain made a handy way for some pirates to
> > swim from one island to the next, and reduce the chance of attracting
> > sharks).
>
> I think Duplo in general is a tremendously valuable island tool, the potential
> of which we have only scratched the surface.
The disadvantage of Duplo is that minifigs can't stand on it. At one
point, three guys tried to stand on an island, and all but one kept
falling off. With a 4x4 LEGO island, it would have been trivial to get
three guys to stand. I may make up some small rocks though. That would
be a fun evening's project and would pack pretty easily.
> > - NPC ships are just a pain,
>
> Wow. I'm surprised at this. What hassle did they cause? Just remembering
> them? Maybe this is evidence once again that a dedicated assistant GM is
> really needed. I'll do it next year unless we automate stuff in the mean time.
The problem is plotting and/or remembering them. One thing is that the
plotting time is a time for me to catch my breath, and also the best
opportunity to run to the loo (which my digestive system was making me
do (doo...) rather often Saturday...). Automation of other tasks really
won't help much. I think the only effective way to use NPC ships is to
have a 2nd GM, or have a player who can be objective handle them
(Lindsay did a good job for several turns).
I'd also like for NPC ships to have the opportunity to have +1
initiative captains, plus, once larger ships come into play, PC ships
will be at the same initiative.
> > The Islander catamaran wasn't too much of a pain to
> > run because it didn't last long.
>
> It lasted long enough for me to sell it at port!
I meant it didn't last long as an NPC ship.
> > - I needed to think a bit about the islands which were a little more
> > interesting. The shrine was pretty easy when Kai Brodersen blew up the
> > statue's head with a cannon ball (each pirate who spent a turn searching
> > found 1d6 gold, with a 6 meaning a gem instead). On one large island,
> > Lindsay stumbled into an alligator. On another, Larry found some silver
> > worth mining (unfortunately, his ship and captain were killed and
> > someone else [durn, forgot the name] captured the silver). On a third,
> > some islanders were present, and put up a bit of a fight (and launched a
> > catamaran which proceeded to nearly sweep Larry's new ship of crew,
> > fortunately he was right next to an island populated by three stranded
> > crew, and then headed to Strawberry Island to collect some giant
> > strawberries and some more crew).
>
> I still think it would be very cool to generally use the islanders more,
> creating a simple political and economic model that governs their behavior.
> That would take care of lots of islands and there would be a sensible "look and
> feel" to how the islands effected the game.
Developing islanders is certainly worthwhile.
> > I'm thinking that most islands should be small (the 16x16 printed
> > islands work great, but a few built up islands like the shrine or
> > Strawberry Island [built from about 10 Duplo bricks - this provided
> > cover for Larry once] would be nice also). The larger islands are harder
> > to deal with since they can take several turns to explore. The island we
> > used as a pirate base turned out to also provide some separation of the
> > ocean which worked well.
>
> I agree in general, feeling that it should be clear that the islands on the
> floor -- like the ports, represent larger more complex environments. The
> division of the sea by islands is to my thinking a very good thing. We had
> scands of islands this time and I actually think that more would still be
> better.
I think too many more islands would have started to make sailing a real
hassle.
> > When Scott realized he wasn't going to be able to crew all the ships he
> > had to buy to spend his money, he negotiated with Shiri and (?) who were
>
> Aaron?
Yup.
<snip>
> Pisha! We could have outmaneuvered him and sown dissent among his partners. • <snip>
> It depends on how long a pirate coalition like that could hold together.
Always true.
> > The time two ships both destroyed each other's cannon (I think this was
> > Larry and Shiri).
>
> That was great. But I actually think the tables should be recomposed. The
> chances of that happening are not exactly high, but I do think they're too
> high.
It happened once at BricksWest also. I agree, the chance of cannon being
destroyed is too high. It effectively wipes out a cutter.
> I'm going to take this year to make some changes to the system and convince you
> that they're appropriate to implement.
I'm certainly all ears for new system ideas. I will be trying to work on
some myself, so please keep me in touch with your ideas.
I may have to get Steve's permission to publish an alternate set of
rules (I do have his new edition of battle rules in MS Word format, all
ready to edit). I also would like to come up with new ship record
sheets. One thing I also want to re-visit is the chain shot rule. It
simply has to be made more effective. Some clarification of the crossing
the T rules would be good too (including formalizing my rule for
determining them - a crossing the T happens when your line of fire
enters the ship through the bow or stern, and leaves the focsle/poop
deck before crossing the gunnels. It seems to consistently represent a
30 degree or smaller arc which seems reasonable and is easy to eyeball
rather than having to get out a protractor or something.
Frank
|
|
|
