{"id":241,"date":"2011-01-01T13:24:47","date_gmt":"2011-01-01T13:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=241"},"modified":"2011-01-01T13:24:47","modified_gmt":"2011-01-01T13:24:47","slug":"new-years-eve-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=241","title":{"rendered":"New Years Eve Gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have never understood the fascination with partying on New Years Eve. \u00a0Like Halloween, it’s a holiday I don’t understand. \u00a0Most New Years Eves, we sit at home as a family, watch some old black and white movies, and go to bed before midnight. \u00a0Every once in a while, Candy would want to do something on New Years Eve. \u00a0I’d rather not be on the roads, so we began having people to our place. \u00a0I’d much rather pay for the food and clean up after the party rather than go out.<\/p>\n

Having done it two years in a row, we now have a time-honored tradition of inviting members of the Harford Area Weekly Kreigspeilers, the gaming group in which I am a member, to our place to game all afternoon and evening. \u00a0I find it a really nice way to spend New Years Eve. \u00a0There’s only a little booze, but we have a good time anyway. \u00a0Imagine that.<\/p>\n

\"Granville,<\/a>
Granville, IL, the site of the battle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This year we played four games. \u00a0The first was my Pulp game. \u00a0I had intended to run it with To Be Continued… by GASLIGHT<\/em><\/strong>; however, I ran out of prep time and just used Blood and Swash<\/em><\/strong>. \u00a0For about two years, I’ve been assembling the town of Granville, IL. \u00a0This is very loosely based on the town of 1200 people, and their one main street, near where I spent my summers as a kid. \u00a0Some of the buildings were built from War Foam kits, others from Litko. \u00a0A couple were scratch built from foam core.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A figure's-eye view down main street toward the town hall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The basic scenario involved two rival gangs. \u00a0The first gang occupied a number of buildings in the town. \u00a0 This gang, known affectionately as the Jennifer gang after “Ma Jennifer,” the leader, \u00a0had just hijacked some booze from their rival gang, and the profits from this transaction were hidden in a safe somewhere in town. \u00a0They had also recently kidnapped the daughter of one of a state official in order to gain some support\/concessions. \u00a0The second gang came to town to take the money from the safe — which they considered rightfully theirs — and to free the hostage to ingratiate themselves with local corrupt officials — this is Illinois, after-all. \u00a0The attacking gang, which we’ll call the Palmer gang, didn’t know where the safe or the girl were hidden.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A view of the game in progress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The police were neutral. \u00a0They could engage any of the gangs. \u00a0Each player had three figures with pistols and one figure with a submachine gun or shotgun. \u00a0Once the gangs began using weapons other than pistols, the police could break into the arms room and bring out the BARs and .30 cal. machine gun.<\/p>\n

My intent was for the Palmer gang to spend a lot of time searching the buildings for the safe and the captured girl. \u00a0Eric Heliman did in fact spend a \u00a0lot of time looking for the safe. \u00a0The girl was in a small boarding hose on the other side of town. \u00a0Her location was accidentally revealed to the Palmer gang when on of the police moved into the building and the roof needed to be removed. \u00a0A sharp fight soon ensued in the boarding house, during which the captives got loose and jumped out a window. \u00a0She didn’t see one gang as being any better than the other. \u00a0With members of both gangs chasing her (Jennifer and Sam for the Jennifer gang and Eric S. and Tank for the Palmer gang), she managed to run across the alley in her underwear, through the theater, and out the front, where she ran into some police (Geoff) who, despite the best efforts of both gangs, managed to take her to the safety of the city hall.<\/p>\n

\"Gangster<\/a>
This character had almost nothing to do with the game, but I really like this picture.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the other side of town Eric H. found the safe. \u00a0Despite the noise created by Tommy, Sammy, Chris, and Steve exchanging fire down below, Eric managed to crack the safe. \u00a0 Eric shoved Tommy’s figure out the second floor window, and Tommy failed his Save (with a 20!) falling on a bystander in the street. \u00a0Eric decided that it was lower risk to jump out the second-floor window with the satchel of cash than to try to get through Bertha’s Italian restaurant on the first floor where Steve’s police were filling the place with shotgun shells. \u00a0In the meantime, Chris had finally gotten the engine started on a getaway vehicle (a truck full of flour barrels for the Eagle Foods store. \u00a0Unfortunately, the Jennifer gang and the police were closing in on Eric.<\/p>\n

\"Part<\/a>
Part of the fight for the money satchel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite machine gun fire which caused the truck to conk out, Chris used the vehicle to run over people. \u00a0It became like the pirate tavern, in which everyone who touched the satchel was gunned down. \u00a0At one point, police machine gun fire enraged the little dog sleeping in the alley with a hobo. \u00a0The little dog charged the police, passing unscathed through a hail of bullets and leapt at a policeman. \u00a0In true Blood and Swash<\/em><\/strong> fashion, he failed his slug roll and went sailing past the policeman! \u00a0In the end, one of Eric’s figures picked up the satchel and ran off into the woods, avoiding pursuit.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A view of Santa's Workshop at the start of the game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second game we played was a G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T<\/em><\/strong>. game run by Chris. \u00a0He has been assembling figures for a North Pole game LOOSELY based on the Tolkien Father Christmas Letters<\/em><\/strong>. \u00a0Santa’s forces consisted of toy soldiers (Eureka), teddy bears (Eureka), Elf North Pole Militia (Brigade Games), snow men with candy cane guns firing stale gumdrops, and many characters from the Rankin-Bass Rudolf holiday stop-action animation. \u00a0 \u00a0The “bad guys” were an assortment of goblins and evil snow creatures bent on stealing packages of toys.<\/p>\n

\"Carnage<\/a>
Carnage on my side of the table<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The carnage was terrific. \u00a0On my side of the table, in a series of sharp engagements, the “bad guys” knocked out the teddy bears, killed Rudolf, killed Yukon Cornelius, damaged the pop-gun artillery, etc. \u00a0On the other side of the table, the goblins killed Santa, wiped out two units of toy soldiers, and melted all the snow men. \u00a0The only main character who survived on the Santa side was Bumble. \u00a0We figure Christmas will be interesting next year with the Abominable Snow Man delivering presents.<\/p>\n

\"Bumble<\/a>
Bumble and Yukon Cornelius<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The HAWKs consensus was that the North Pole game could benefit from changing the initial deployment of the Santa forces and perhaps making their units — and Santa — a little tougher. \u00a0It was a real hoot.<\/p>\n

We finished the evening with a game of Munchkin Booty (the pirate version of the game) and Kung Fu Fighting. \u00a0By then we had watched the ball in Times Square go up and had a little champagne. \u00a0I think it was a very successful party, and we look forward to doing it again next year.<\/p>\n