Before a Throne of Bone - How a Combat Might Go

Many of you are, no doubt, aware that my friend Mavis Cruet is busily designing a megagame inspired, in part, by one of our favourite pastimes: Aye, Dark Overlord! You can read about his progress at http://stormyportgames.blogspot.co.uk

I'm trying to help, but I keep running up against a problem. He is AMAZINGLY productive. His ideas are born, develop, encounter difficulties, evolve and wither before I've got around to checking my email. I could spend a blog entry discussing the ways in which parenting two under-6s severely restricts one's ability to be creative, but we all have stuff to deal with and mine is probably no more or less challenging than yours. So, let's try something a bit more positive.

I want to tell you about the game that I envisioned when I read his blog on Monday morning. By the time I write this, on Wednesday morning, things had moved on and the game I thought was emerging looks to be in danger of washing away on the tide. With a bit of luck, this description will drag some of its best aspects back onto dry land.

We are playing Upon a Throne of Bone. I am Lieutenant Hiss and I answer directly to Queen Cobra herself. It's Turn Six, and Castle Aldheim has been substantially weakened by the forces of Archfiend Mavis Cruet. We all know it's about to crumble, spilling treasures in all directions and rewarding its destroyer with a hefty Terror bonus. I want to steal the victory for my mistress, out from under her rival.

Mavis made his original assault on the Castle, in Turn Four, with the following force:

1 x Giant Guile 0 Magic 0 Strength 4 sWords 1

6 x Orc G0 M0 S1 W0

2 x Battering Ram G0 M0 S2 W0 Siege

1 x Vampire G2 M2 S2 W0 Rise[1]

The Castle has a Location Value of 3, but has been defeated twice, so once more will finish it.
It defends with S10 W2 and has the following pre-requisites: G2+ or M2+, Siege.
In Turns Four and Five, the servants of Mavis defeated the Castle and took a single Strength Point casualty from losing the Swords Round. As a result, only 4 Orcs remain, but his total Strength (currently 14) is still more than enough to destroy the Castle.

I can engage an army and then, if I win, roll on into attacking the location in the same turn, but I will not be able to send additional forces or special effect cards between the two actions. So, I send in every monster I have, with the hope of chasing off Mavis's troops and destroying the castle myself. Here's my roster:

3 x Serpent Assassin G1 M0 S0 W1

6 x Giant Scorpion G0 M0 S1 W1

2 x Burrowing Wyrm G0 M0 S3 W1 Siege

I plan to win the Guile Round (Me 3 vs Mavis 2), sending his Giant home, so that I can go on to win the Strength Round (Me 12 vs Mavis 14-4=10). I will lose the Magic Round (Me 0 vs Mavis 2), but a two-point victory is only enough to exterminate one of my Serpents or Scorpions; the Siege Wyrms will be safe! I'll also decisively win in my speciality, the Swords Round (Me 11 vs Mavis 1-1=0), so I'll be able to spitefully destroy a Battering Ram on the way out. It probably isn't worth targeting the Vampire, as it has the Rise keyword and for 1 glass bead (which represents Chaos Energy) it can be sent home instead of dying. Once the battle is done, I'll assault the Castle. Guile and Magic do not have Rounds at locations, but rather meet pre-requisites. My Guile will still be at least 2, my Wyrms have Siege, and I'll beat the defences in both Strength and Swords, so the Castle will fall and I will get all the Terror and Treasures... Yay me!

So, we arrive. Mavis's lieutenant glowers at me, not impressed at my underhand tactics. We reveal our troops... Aw, hell. Mavis must have guessed what I was up to. He's redeployed his Giant elsewhere and replaced it with 3 additional Orcs. My plan is in tatters, but I might yet win.

Guile Round - Me 3 vs Mavis 2

I still win by 1, but that isn't enough to run rings around his clever Vampire (G2). Irritably, I send home one of his Battering Rams.

Magic Round - Me 0 vs Mavis 2

I smirk, knowing that, though he can now kill one of my Monsters, he has no satisfactory targets to select, but the expression freezes on my face when he opts to convert his winnings into Chaos Energy and takes two glass beads from the Control. What is he planning? I don't have to wait long to find out...

Mavis's lieutenant plays the Spell Card "Champion" along with the glass bead it requires. He may now select one Monster and, for the remainder of the game, its characteristics are one third of the total for all Monsters of the same type in this force (including itself), rounded up. Predictably, he chooses an Orc:

Orc Champion G0 M0 S(7/3 =2.3)3 W0

Effectively, this Strength 3 Orc simply adds 2 to his total Strength, but that's bad news for me.

Strength - Me 12 vs Mavis 13

I have lost the battle and my forces must retreat, allowing him to make his final assault on the Castle. He wins by 3, which is enough to slaughter one of my precious Burrowing Wyrms, which he does. Oh, I'll make him pay! Now, comes the Round I always win.

Swords - Me 11 vs Mavis 0

It's tremendous overkill, but at least I have the satisfaction of robbing Mavis of a valuable pawn. But, which one? His Vampire will just Rise again, and the Orc Champion will grow in Strength as Mavis gains more Orcs. So, that the Champion seems like the obvious choice. Then, it hits me: the Battering Ram! Without it, his attempt to destroy the Castle will be scuppered. I grin horribly and take a breath...

"Wait a minute," says Mavis's lieutenant, "I know what you're thinking, but if you let me destroy the Castle, you can have everything that comes out except the Terror and the Gold."

I'm momentarily paralysed with indecision. Maybe Mavis has done comprehensive surveillance of the Castle and his lieutenant knows that it only contains Gold. Or, maybe there are Spells and imprisoned Monsters inside that I could take back to my dark mistress. Oh, how happy she would be with me then! What do I do?

What Makes a Megagame? - Player Numbers

Don't worry, the title isn't a spoiler. I just wanted to make it clear that we're not discussing every essential element that goes into making a megagame. Rather, this post focusses on the extent to which player numbers are responsible for generating the experience, with side-references to associated roles and activities.
I should be editing Bellerophon's final instalment, or writing up my memories of Planet of the Damned (which was awesome), but my plate's a bit full this week and this post was easier to wrap my head around, so this is what you're getting! :-)

It all started when a member of the Megagame Makers facebook group posed the question

"What's the minimum amount of people you need for a Megagame?"

As I type this, the answers currently available on the thread are 7, 30 and 40. I found the question really intriguing and read all of the comments with interest. I know I've only been to two megagames, but pretty soon I had some observations that persuaded me to suggest an alternative answer. Before I do so,  let's have a look at my thought processes:

From the article Loners Who Can't Stop Joining Teams
All The Time by Ryan Plummer

You can't play a megagame by yourself, that much is clear, and it sometimes feels like "the more, the merrier". Nevertheless, there is an undeniable attraction to the answer "7". Three teams of two and a Control? Let the negotiations begin! To my mind, though, that game would lack a few dimensions that have made my megagame experiences uniquely enjoyable. So, I want to answer a slightly different question:
"What is the minimum number of people for a megagame experience that ticks all the boxes?"
Or "a megagame experience that doesn't feel like something is missing?"
Or something like that...

Here's my answer:

1. Each standard team needs a leader and two other people with potentially conflicting priorities. In this way, the team is always discussing/debating/arguing and the leader is always making difficult choices. If this isn't happening, I really don't think we're megagaming.

   

   Han Solo doing an impression of everyone in Turn 9.

2. Smooth play can be achieved when each team has a Table Control, or when the systems are simplistic enough that no Control is required. I think, once the systems become that thin, it can come down to whoever talks loudest which isn't necessarily the most satisfying for everyone (or so I'm told!), so let's add a Table Control for each team.
3. There should always be the possibility of allying with one table against another. This suggests a minimum of three tables, but then two teams can gang up on the third in a bit of an ugly and oppressive way, so I'm going to argue for four tables.
4. Then, you'll want the players that your team cannot comprehend or predict. This aspect could take the form of another type of team with different objectives, but that's likely to become player intensive. A similar effect can be generated by having Rogue Agents who move freely in the game-world with a separate ruleset. Ideally, I'd suggest there be slightly fewer of such players than there are tables. This gives greater importance to their movements.
5. The Rogue Agents will have a very different ruleset, unknown to the teams and probably somewhat opaque to the Table Controls. For this reason, they will also require a Control who fully understands their game and can facilitate it.
6. While we're on the subject of Controls, I'd like to throw in two more that I believe have significant impacts: The NPC Control who represents other factions, equivalent to the teams, and can weigh their responses to various stimuli. And the Game Control who takes responsibility for a wider narrative, introducing story elements throughout the day and resolving unexpected occurrences (such as God Duels).
7. Finally, megagames seem to thrive when there is a healthy flow of information and misinformation. There's a lot of work in producing briefings and you don't want this entire team chained to a desk at any point, which means it's rarely a solo endeavour. Whether you choose to call them "the media" or "the voices of the gods", I think at least two players should be starting fires all the livelong day. Let's call them Intelligence Operatives.

   

   Thanks to Tom Mouat for the use of this picture.

So, for those of you who lost count somewhere, that's

4 tables (each with a team of 3 and 1 Control)   = 16

3 Rogue Agents with a Control                          =   4

NPC Control and Game Control                         =   2

2 Intelligence Operatives                                   =   2

It is, of course, possible that my OCD has driven me to massage these figures into a classroom-sized group of people. However, I am hard pressed to see which elements here can be trimmed without a noticeable deficiency appearing in the experience. Thus, I'm going to wander back over to facebook now and post the answer "24". Feel free to add your two penn'orth in the comments below. :-)