{"id":1536,"date":"2013-01-01T13:35:41","date_gmt":"2013-01-01T13:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=1536"},"modified":"2013-01-01T13:39:36","modified_gmt":"2013-01-01T13:39:36","slug":"ringing-in-the-new-year-the-right-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=1536","title":{"rendered":"Ringing in the New Year the RIGHT Way"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The stalwart few who remained for Noah's dungeon crawl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In what has become a time-honored tradition, the HAWKs got together at my place to ring in the New Year by gaming until the ball drops. \u00a0This began several years ago before I deployed to Iraq. \u00a0I wanted to have one last gaming event with the guys before heading to the desert. \u00a0The first couple of years everyone stayed until midnight. \u00a0As evidence of greying of the hobby, we had 20+ gamers with a few vivandi\u00e8res<\/em>\u00a0(spouses). \u00a0About half the folks left after the first couple of games. \u00a0It may be that death and mayhem in the Indian jungle wasn’t enough excitement for everyone on New Year’s Eve, but several folks wanted to be with family for the ball drop or just pooped out.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A blurry shot of both Duke Morrison games<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is hard to develop a game for 20+ players, so instead, I ran two GASLIGHT games simultaneously. \u00a0I was able to get away with this because GASLIGHT is very simple and also because almost all the players were very familiar with the rules. \u00a0I ran play tests of both of my Cold Wars GASLIGHT games.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An overview of the table for "Duke Morrison vs. the Thugees"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I didn’t realize until half way through the evening that I had turned off the flash on my camera, so in the low light, many of my pictures turned out blurry. \u00a0This shot depicts the layout of Duke Morrison vs. the Thugees. \u00a0The good guys are trying to get to the temple in the center to rescue Ginanna Naninnia from the clutches of “Toad Face” and his minions. \u00a0I used a modification of the Zombies by GASLIGHT zombie generation system to generate thugees and minions. \u00a0Thugees were better in melee, but the minions had muskets (requiring reloads). \u00a0We actually had to reset this game after 45 minutes, because we were generating too many minions. \u00a0(That’s the value of play testing before a convention!)<\/p>\n

\"Gianna<\/a>
Gianna Naninni awaits her fate at the hands of "Toad Face" and his Thugees<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Any figures who entered the temple moved to another table where I had placed one section of Noah’s dungeon craw terrain. \u00a0Gianna was in the temple awaiting her fate. \u00a0Though Duke Morrison was gunned down in the jungle and had to be carried along, eventually the good guys reached the girl, but were unable to fight their way back out of the temple — even with Sergeants Cutter, MacChesney, and Balantine arrived as reinforcements.<\/p>\n

Due to the unpredictable nature of GASLIGHT and the ability of players to spoil a well-planned and play-tested scenario, I usually keep one or two “balance” forces in my hip pocket. \u00a0For the Thugee game, I had the Pulp Sergeants Three (the characters from Gunga Din) for the good guys and a giant beetle for the bad guys.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An overview of "Duke Morrison and the Mounties"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is the setup for Duke Morrison and the Mounties. \u00a0In this scenario, assisted by Sergeant Preston of the RCMP and Yukon King, Duke Morrison’s posse must rescue Gianna Naninni from being sawn in two by the gangsters and also must blow up the lab equipment that Professor Serafini Naninni had been forced to build for the Venusians. \u00a0Gianna was in the second floor of the mill in the foreground of this picture. \u00a0In 12 turns, she would be killed.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The interior of the mill where Gianna Naninni almost met her fate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This picture shows some of the carnage in the upper floor of the mill where Naninni was taking her ride. \u00a0Duke Morrison and “Boats” Morgan defeated a number of Venusians and gangsters and rescued the girl. \u00a0The good guys then turned their attention on the other objective.<\/p>\n

(A note on the naming: \u00a0Since being stationed in Italy int he late 80’s, I’ve thought the name Gianna Naninni just rolls off your tongue. \u00a0One of her songs, Bello e Impossibile<\/em>, Beautiful and Impossible, is a favorite of mine. \u00a0While the singer is not particularly attractive, I’ve attached her name to this character in my series of Duke Morrison games, because I like the way it sounds.)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The cave \/ laboratory of the Venusians<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Duke Morrison lead the charge into the cave \/ laboratory (build from a Dwarven Forge cavern set). \u00a0He ran headlong into a gangster who he dispatched quickly in hand-to-gland combat. \u00a0Every time he tried to move toward the lab equipment, however, another gangster, trapper, or Venusian set on him from behind. \u00a0He eventually overcame all opposition and successfully destroyed the lab equipment. \u00a0For Cold Wars, I will “put a clock” on the time to destroy the equipment and add a couple of guards to the interior. \u00a0Without a time limit to destroy the equipment the good guys were able to mass on the mill and then turn to the second objective. \u00a0I wanted the good guys to have to split their forces.<\/p>\n

(By the way, both Yukon King and Sergeant Preston met their demise in this scenario.)<\/p>\n

After we cleaned up this game and had a meal of lasagna, Noah set up his popular dungeon crawl game.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A giant purple worm (one of my favorite monsters from before AD&D) has a snack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This game could only handle 10 players, but about half our guests left after dinner, so this worked out okay. \u00a0The game took us until a few minutes before midnight. \u00a0We toasted the New Year with sparkling grape juice and finished cleaning up. \u00a0As is typical of the HAWKS New Years Eve gaming spectacular, everyone had left by about 1230.<\/p>\n

We had planned three big games, beginning at 1500. \u00a0At the last minute we dropped one game from the event list. \u00a0If everyone had stayed, we would have needed to run both the Dungeon Crawl<\/em> and Santa Claus vs. the Nazis<\/em> in parallel. \u00a0As it worked out, we had just enough game for the number of players. \u00a0I think everyone enjoyed themselves. \u00a0I have really \u00a0never understood all the hoopla associated with New Years Eve, so these gaming nights are a nice way to mark the occasion without putting up with drunks.<\/p>\n

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