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revford blog
Calibrate the communications flow
BLAM in Wargames Illustrated
Sat, 30 Jan 2010 09:55:53 GMT
There is a write up with photos of BLAM 2009 in the latest issue (268) of Wargames Illustrated.
A few photos of my stuff made it into the magazine, my TARDIS console, The Doctor, Katie, Vic and K9 from our Doctor Who game, as well as my Goa'uld and a few Jaffa and from the Stargate 1895 game.
More photos of the minis are available here:
I'll try and get some shots of the full TARDIS interior up soon.
Also I wanted to make sure and credit Rattrap Productions for the rules we used for Doctor Who, The Brokers of Death used the .45 Adventure rules with the Amazing War Stories supplement.
One last note on the Stargate credits, that Goa'uld is a Priest model from the Crocodile Games Wargods range.
Things I learned about running a game at BLAM
Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:56:22 GMT
During our game of Doctor Who at BLAM 09, "The Brokers of Death", and whilst playing some of the other excellent games put on by our fellow Lead Adventurers, I picked up on a few things that I'll change when we come to run another Adventure outside our normal gaming group.
Firstly I learned that while both .45 Adventure and Doctor Who are extremely popular on The Forum, it seems there isn't much crossover between the two groups. Here is a diagram to explain:
The lesson being not to assume that because a certain set of rules or setting are popular, that everyone will know what's going on.
Also try to keep things simple and set things up so they require no prior knowledge other than info you can give people on the day. In less that 3 minutes.
One thing I think we got right was simplifying the NPC character stats down to a single line, from the full sized tables used in Rattrap games. Those tables are great for players who are experienced in playing the game and want to see all the options available, but would be unmanageable for RPG type games with massive supporting casts.
A single player character or guest star NPC looks like this:
Bobalobalobalobert Vesta
Raxacoricofallapatorian (Grade 2)
| Location | Base | DR | Wound Level | |||||
| Head (1) | BR=3 | 4 | BR=3 | BR=1 | Unconscious | |||
| Torso (2-4) | BW=3 GT=6 | 4 | BW=6 GT=6 | BW=6 GT=6 | BW=5 GT=4 | Unconscious | ||
| Arms (5-7) | HT=5 SH=4 | 4 | HT=5 SH=4 | HT=4 SH=4 | HT=3 SH=3 | HT=2 SH=2 | No attacks Cannot carry | |
| Legs (8-10) | DG=3 SP=5 | 4 | DG=3 SP=6 | DG=2 SP=5 | DG=2 SP=3 | DG=1 SP=1 | Crawl only | |
A murderous merchant from the Vesta family, looking to sabotage that conference by killing of his trade rivals.
Skills
Pugilist (+2): Models with this ability are expert in some form of boxing. Models with this ability get +2
to their SH score and attack with no weapon in close combat as though they have a club. They do not, however, have the 1" range of the club. This
cannot be taken in conjunction with Martial Arts.
Compression Field: Raxacoricofallapatorians can capture, skin and wear people as disguises. This takes two turns to complete once the victim has been killed in close combat. Once worn, the disguise is perfect and only detectable by the gas exchanger giving off a smell of Calcium Decay.
| Weapon | Close Combat | Short | Medium | Long | ||||||||
| Claws | 0" | +2 | 6 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Where a group of extras look like this:
The Station Staff
Unlucky Employees of the Conference Centre
| Name | Quirk | BR | BW | GT | HT | SH | DG | SP | |
 | Captain Michell | Tired Veteran, ex-police took this as a quiet semi-retirement. Armed with a Heavy Laser Pistol |
3 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
 | Murray | Bored with this job, too smart for it. Armed with a Laser Pistol. |
6 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
 | "Doc" Pepper | Station Engineer, jobsworth. Armed with a Laser Pistol. |
4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
 | Bernard | Slow of wit but quick and nimble, runs a lot as he's always late. Armed with a Laser Pistol. |
2 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
 | Mike | People assume he's dumb because he's big, but he's not as daft as he looks. Armed with a Laser Pistol. |
3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
 | Sandra | Another jobsworth and a snob to go with it, mean. Armed with a Laser Pistol and rubber gloves. |
3 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| Weapon | Close Combat | Short | Medium | Long | ||||||||
| Laser Pistol | 0" | -1 | 5 | 10" | +2 | 5 | 18" | - | 5 | - | - | - |
| Laser Pistol, Heavy | 0" | -1 | 5 | 12" | +2 | 5 | 20" | - | 5 | - | - | - |
All extras, unless otherwise noted have DR 4 in all locations which is normal for unarmoured people. Extras use the standard hit locations, any hit to the head or torso is a kill, any to the arms or legs leave them wounded and unable to go on.
Also included is a picture of the model and a character quirk to give them a little personality.
This really speeds up NPC use and generation and lets us run lots of characters without too much trouble.
Extras are similar to the 1/2 Grade or Hordes of Mooks rules from .45 Adventure, but even simpler and for people who are basically just moving and reusable encounter markers.
The game only had three NPCs with a table of stats, Weird Des the cheap Merc running security, Professor Goatse the Vorlon and our villain The Raxacoricofallapatorian. Everyone else was a one liner.
For K9, I removed the parts of the table that didn't apply, he doesn't have Arms or Legs, then moved the skills he still needed from them around the table:
K9
Robot Dog (Grade 2)
| Location | Base | DR | Wound Level | |||||
| Head (1) | BR=5 HT=4 | 5 | BR=5 HT=4 | BR=4 HT=2 | Deactivated | |||
| Torso (2-6) | BW=3 GT=6 | 5 | BW=3 GT=6 | BW=2 GT=5 | BW=1 GT=5 | Deactivated | ||
| Motor (7-10) | DG=3 SP=5 | 4 | DG=3 SP=5 | DG=2 SP=3 | DG=2 SP=2 | DG=1 SP=1 | Immobile | |
The Doctor's faithful robot dog K9. The retro robot rover's computer mastery makes him a ever helpful companion.
Skills
Mechanic: Models with this ability know the inner working of machines and vehicles. By spending an
action and making a successful BR test, a mechanic can repair a non-working machine. If the item happens
to be an invention (see rules for Inventors) then the model must roll using half their BR score.
Language: Models with this ability have learned many different languages, both those still used and those long dead. When faced
with deciphering a language related clue, warning, etc, models with this ability must pass BR test to decipher it correctly.
Devotion: Models with this ability would take a bullet for the hero (master). If the model with this ability is within 3" of a
Grade 3 model that is wounded, the wound can be transferred to the devoted model instead (it is transferred to the exact same
location). If the wound kills the Devoted model, then the Grade 3 model can expend one Hero Point and take an immediate action
(even if the model already acted this turn or the model would not act yet because of its DG score).
Undying Loyalty: Models with this ability are devoted to the person they follow. As long as their hero (or master) is around
they won't run from a fight. Models with this ability never take a morale check as long as a friendly Grade 3 model is conscious
and still on the board.
Computer: K9's onboard computer allows him to access any computer system by plugging himself into it, once connected he can
access any information, disable systems or copy data on a BR check.
Laser: K9 has a small built in Laser, this is undetectable until deployed as his own energy signature hides the weapon.
| Weapon | Close Combat | Short | Medium | Long | ||||||||
| Laser | 0" | +2 | 4 | 10" | +5 | 4 | 18" | +3 | 4 | - | - | - |
As I was running as late as a late thing, I realised that the sheet I took with me still said Legs instead of Motor, but you get the idea.
Now that I think about it, I should have applied this logic a bit further and simplified the sheets even more, The Doctor and Katie don't need a HT score, as it's used for shooting for example.
In the best games players either didn't need to look at reference sheets at much after the first few turns, or even at all. Simpler sheets with no unimportant information will really help with this.
On Props and Hats, it should be a wig or hat for everyone, or none at all, they can be of various levels of silliness but it would stop people worrying too much about who has to wear ridiculous looking costume and who doesn't.
Both Props and Costume bits for everyone next time.
Last note is timing, I'd guessed, based on the games we'd played in the past that the scenario would take about 45 minutes for experianced players, or an hour for people new to the system. It actually took around 2 1/2 to 3 hours for a game.
This was mostly down to people having long conversations with all the extras, which is good in a way as that was the point of the game, to have a story based adventure rather than a shootout, but I think next time I'd cut the number of Extras down so Heroes can get to the Guest Stars faster, also find a simple way to mark out who is a Guest Star and who is an Extra. Maybe a sign with the story title, Starring and Guest Starring notes with pictures of the Stars and Guest Stars.
And that's about all I can think of for now, other than have everything ready by August so we have
plenty of time for any last minute changes.
I'll post up the full set of Encounter Cards, Guest Star and Extras stats soon. For now our Heroes are available here:
Crossfire Rules
Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:01:55 GMT
Levi the rules we used in Matakishi's Modern African Skirmish are
available here:
Crossfire: WWII Rules & Organisations
With more about the scenario here:
Operation: Running Deer @ The Lead Adventure Forum
Operation: Running Deer @ Matakishi's Tea House
We're Off To BLAM 2009
Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:17:39 GMT
It's we're off to BLAM in about an hour, just time to finish the scenery. :)
I'll post some pictures when we get back.
For any Lead Adventurers who what a sneak peak at the rules we're using for The Doctor and his Companions, look here.
Doctor Who for BLAM
Sun, 17 May 2009 16:46:12 GMT
BLAM is coming up again soon, I couldn't find enough junkies for the Dealers game to work so it's a change of pace and I'm thinking Doctor Who .45 Adventures.
With that in mind, here are a couple of newly painted minis for the event, first Katie, The Doctor's new companion. I decided to create a new character for BLAM rather than use an existing one. The mini is from Artizan's side of the Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang range.
Alongside Katie we have Professor Goatsie, a solicitor attending a space trade conference on a distant moon. His mini is a Vorlon from the Mongoose Babylon 5 range, now sadly out of production.
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