To LUGNET HomepageTo LUGNET News HomepageTo LUGNET Guide Homepage
 Help on Searching
 
Post new message to lugnet.gamingOpen lugnet.gaming in your NNTP NewsreaderTo LUGNET News Traffic PageSign In (Members)
 Gaming / 834
833  |  835
Subject: 
Re: Request for Pirate Game thoughts and Player/Ship/Captain names
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.gaming
Date: 
Sun, 22 Jul 2001 23:10:24 GMT
Viewed: 
1961 times
  
Christopher Weeks wrote:

In lugnet.fun.gaming, Steve Burge writes:
- Again, I really should have had a 2nd GM. Next year I will listen to
that advice and not feel bad about a player not being able to play.

If we were going to play two games (one on one day, one on the next) then I
would be completely happy (I mean, I'd prefer) being your second (or a first)
for one of them.  If not, then I guess I'd do it, but be less enthusiastic.

I suspect it will be hard to do much in the way of two games at
Brickfest, though a battle game should be manageable Friday if I can get
the time off. Of course a battle game has lower GM needs, though I think
a 2nd would still be helpful.

- We didn't have enough ports

   How many did you have? I had 4 (one for each compass point) and it
worked well. I had Spanish, French and English ports + a pirate port which
would always be neutral towards players and was easier to recruit crew from.

Must the ports be on the edges?  Part of the problem at Brickfest was that the
ports were so far from the action.  I was thinking about building up a
rocky island (similar to the one I brought) with an armored base built up on
it.  It could be near the middle for added access...of course it would be
dangerous to dock while at the mercy of the other players.

A port in the center might be a good idea. I'd probably make it have
somewhat fewer resources so that there's a balance between a long trip
and a shorter trip. It would actually be a good place for a pirate base
(perhaps the pirate bases should be scattered more in the middle with
the imperial bases on the periphery. Generally, a ship is safe while in
port.

I like the idea of doing stuff at the ports being out of game time and just
having it take as long as it does.  To some extent, game time is a construct
anyway.  I think that I'd include ship repairs in that too.  So they'd take
less than realistic time to implement, but who really cares?  Time is taken
getting to port.

I need to think out repairs. They certainly need to take some time, but
they also need to be worth doing. I'd like to get the port activities
streamlined enough that it doesn't take much time, but I think a turn
spent in port is reasonable. That may be enough time for repairs to take
also.

- Again, I managed to make one scenario island way too tough. I need to
think more carefully about how hard to kill undead should be. Another
scenario island never got touched because no one wanted to tackle 20 or
30 islanders.

I don't think anything was too tough.  I might think that the value of the
treasure on the easy islands was too great.  As long as the islands are
possible, and worth it (or at least likely to be) then there's no such thing as
too hard.  We could have decided to team up, but we didn't.  You did your job
by providing us with many options.

Yea, I think the easy islands were a bit too easy. Phaero (as opposed to
Faeroe) island was a bit out of whack on treasure. It only had one of
those Amazon treasures, compared to three on the Amazon island. One
thing I think I will do in the future is actually place the treasure on
the islands myself so I can adjust it to the difficulty of the island.

I do really appreciate the islands which were brought. I think the
islands this game were much more interesting. It also reduced the amount
of setup time (especially when I declared last year's Dino Island to be
Skeleton Island this year).

I really liked how the island on the Chip and Dip (Belville Fairytale
Castle) Baseplate worked even though no one assaulted it. It just took
about an hour or so worth of my packing time to make sure I had the
materials for it, and then about 15 minutes of my time to give some
direction to it's being set up.

One thing which would be interesting on a larger island is to actually
make a combination adventure and port island. There could be a pirate
base or neutral port on one end, and some adventure on the other end.

- I only got two merchant ships out, plus one player (well two players,
Larry Pieniazek took the ship over later) played an imperial ship (I
don't think this worked out too well, I won't have a player do that
again

   A seperate ref to run the NPC ships is useful. An experienced player can
do this and it's not that much different from playing.

Yeah.  That seems like a fine position to play to me.  Particularly when you
have both merchants and war ships in play.

We had actually talked about this some last year. I think it's time to
go with the instinct. Hopefully the next time we play (either at
Piratefest or at the next Brickfest, or whatever other event may show
up) I can be a bit more prepared and have some time to recruit and
assistant or two and have some time to discuss GMing styles etc. so that
the overall experience presented to the players is coherent.

Frank



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Request for Pirate Game thoughts and Player/Ship/Captain names
 
(...) If we were going to play two games (one on one day, one on the next) then I would be completely happy (I mean, I'd prefer) being your second (or a first) for one of them. If not, then I guess I'd do it, but be less enthusiastic. (...) Must the (...) (23 years ago, 22-Jul-01, to lugnet.gaming)

7 Messages in This Thread:


Entire Thread on One Page:
Nested:  All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:  All | Brief | Compact
    

Custom Search

©2005 LUGNET. All rights reserved. - hosted by steinbruch.info GbR