Hey, Chirine, I played TRACTICS.

[Deleted]

Last year at GaryCon in 2013, I played TRACTICS with Mike Reese, one of the authors, and a former USArmy Treadhead.

First interesting point... each team had a short platoon of tanks and some infantry. When the author sets the game up as a small scale skirmish, it explains why some of our regimental-level battles got unwieldy.

I was the third of 3 Russian tank commanders, in the "Tail End Ivan" position. Then Mike gave us the info that made me think of you.

"The T-34/76 has a two man turret. You can either lay and fire the gun, or you can observe and give orders to your crew."

I believe my exact words were, "YOU B@STARD!"

(For those of you not in the know, I will yield to Chirine's far greater expertise and let HIM tell you the importance of observation.)

And as a bonus, he also pointed out we had no radios, so we had to watch the platoon commander madly waving flags at us to get orders.

Well, of course, on about turn 3 our PL came under fire and buttoned up. So... no orders. He advanced, and I followed. Then at the rim of a woods he engaged a target off to his right that I couldn't see. So, I swung to the left and pulled ahead.

And saw a platoon of 4 Mk III J's about 350 yards off to my right. Oopsie.

A furious fusliade of 50mm rounds and 9 penetrations later, my crew and I are Glorious Heroes of Mother Russia.

Mandatory RPG content: When you have no communication with anybody else on your team, the line between "What would a tank commander do in 1941 under standard Soviet doctrine of the time" and "What does your character do" is a very, very porous line indeed.

[Deleted]

Ha! That's a laugh. Nothing like early war scenarios to get one killed, are there?

The joker in this deck is the two-man turret crew; the commander is horribly overloaded with work, and usually loses the over-all tactical awareness that gives the other mob the advantage - can't shoot the main gun accurately, either. The hull gunner on the bow MG and the loader are horribly underworked, but the layout of the tank means that they all they do is pretty much brew up the tea and put sour cream on the pirsohki. The massive turret hatch that is pretty much the entire rear half of the turret roof doesn't help, either. You can't see for beans in a buttoned-up tank; I was in M-60s for most of my time in, and we normally preferred to keep our heads out in the open air so we could see and survive. (The cynical amongst us wore two sets of dog-tags; one around the neck and one around an ankle, inside a boot. The idea, based on Israeli combat experience, was that if the anti-tank round hit the turret, they could ship your parents the right batch of hamburger; solid hits meant that the lower half of the TC's body would get vaporized, and a grazing shot would mean the top half would become a mist and a memory.) Keeping your head out and looking around was literally a matter of life and death for you and your crew.

By the by, this kind of scenario is the kind of thing we used to play here in the Twin Cities all the time. There was a lot of what later became 'role-playing' in our games; I used to play the heroic Hauptmann von Brautwurst of the Afrika Korps, beating up the British convoys in the Western Desert in my little tank (a Pz I, loving built by Gronan just because he's a funny guy, and armed entirely with a 7.62 MG 34 and a devout prayer that the Brits were on their tea interval), and discovering to my horror - "Himmel! Donner und Blitzen!" - that the Yanks had sold the Tommies a Grant with * both * a 37mm and a 75mm on the same chassis. Der poop hit der fan in short order, and I put in for a transfer to the Eastern Front; it just seemed safer, there.

One of the classic 'RPG' elements in Twin Cities gaming back then was some poor French officer figure - we all had miniature 'personality figures' for commanders in many of our games - and the little guy would get hacked about when he took a hit in the game. (Was this one of Dave Wesleys, or one of Jim Danielson's figures?) I think he finally wound up with a hook, a pegleg, and an eyepatch on his battered 25mm body. Or my beloved First of the First; the Legion of Victorious in Vimuhla, First Legion of the First Palace of Mu'uglavya. They have * never* failed me on the game table, over the past thirty-five years of bloody combats on Tekumel. They never, ever failed a morale check, and so over the years I made sure that when I found better weapons and stuff for the miniatures, they 'went up in level' and got the very best of everything. I recently replaced their original Ral Partha wire pikes with nasty sharp pointy steel ones from North Star, and they terrify opponents simply by showing up on the table. I have a 'stats card' for every unit in my forces, and I keep track of the unit's performance; some of the old grognards in the collection have cards going back to 1976, and have become 'elite' / 'player characters' due to their unfailing performance.

Observation. Well, if you can't see it, you can't kill it. If they can see you, they can kill you. Seems pretty simple, really; it's why I have periscopes at the game table for my players to check observation - no dice rolls, just look. Same thing with the laser pointers: if you can hit it with the laser, you can hit it with your crossbow.

In the 'straight RPG' sense, observation is just as important. Follow me back in time to the days of yesteryear, when it was a dull evening at the old house and we were bored. We were sitting around, and musing on the very best marching order for a party of player-characters, and the idea came about that we should try an Actual Real-life Experiment. So, Gronan gets into his coat of plates, Olaf gets into his mail, and I hand Alfric (Gronan's squire) and Keith the Cleric a couple of lit candle lanterns. We then unlimber the rattan arsenal, we turn off all the lights in the house, and I - The Monster - go and hide someplace with my treasure of plastic gold pieces. The boys count to fifty, and then come in after me. They go Fighter (Gronan), Squire (Alfric), Cleric (Keith), and Fighter (Olaf); perfectly sound as a marching order, and all in accordance with what was considered Best Dungeon-crawling Practice.

It was awful. Me, I had lots of fun killing all of them in succession, several times over. (I had picked out several ambush points in the house.) A guy would appear out of the gloom, I'd give them a quick double tap on the back of the head to let them know they were dead, and they - being very sporting types! - would keel over dead to the horror and bafflement of the rest of the party. The next guy would look down to check the casualty, and I'd nail him. Then the cleric would try to see what he could do, and he'd get it. last and not least, the last guy in the line would try to see what was going on, and then he'd get it.

In the really dark corners of the house (Remember those attic stairs, Gronan? Oh, my...), I started at the back of the party and worked my way to the front. Same results. Two very experienced fighters, one pretty experienced squire, and one decent cleric all dead as the proverbial doornails saver times over.

What got them killed was lack of observation - not that they didn't try really hard, but that we learned that two fighters in *** closed face helms *** can't see much of anything. If the two unarmored guys weren't looking in the right place in the right time with the lantern held in just the right place, they couldn't see anything either. Most of the time, they said in the post-mortem, the light blinded them and ruined their night vision.

So, the RPG lessions for today:

1) Open-faced helms; a nice burgonet is a good idea.
2) Put the lanterns on a short chain on a short stick; you can keep it low, out of your eyes, and stick it into dark corners while keeping back out of striking range of some nasty lad like me.
3) Put a lightly armored fighter in the front as a scout; they can see better, move faster, and get out of the way of the heavies when they need to.
4) Do the same at the back, and have them keep looking to their rear.

Success in RPGs, at least the way we used to play here in the northwoods, came from teamwork and communication back up by observation.

Is this what you were looking for, Glorious General?

yours, chirine

[Deleted]

Loverly. Yes, I remember exploring Ye Dungeon Of Horrors. In fact with your kind permission I'd like to put MY memories of that in my book.

I also remember things like "The lanterns do NOT go in the front rank, not if you want to see anything" and "Unless it's a bullseye lantern, don't hold it up at head level, you'll blind yourself!"

And, of course, "I can't see a thing in this helmet!" "This is NOT going to work!" "Why didn't you say so before?" "I DID say so before!"

Historical note... in one of the Crusades... III, I believe... a Frankish chronicler tells of a siege where one of the knights tossed away his barrel helm and borrowed a kettle-hat from one of the footmen.

To say nothing of being down in the "crypt" (basement -- the chest freezer was the Evil Sarcophagus) and after about fifteen minutes noticing that Olav had spent the entire time standing a foot away from a 2 x 3 foot hole in the top of the wall with his back to it. I believe my comment was "Great, so something reaches out of the hole, bites off the tasty bit, goes back into the hole, and when the lantern falls the rest of us wonder where Olav's top half went."

And as another example of the fuzzy line between commanding troops and roleplay, I've found at some time if you study the situation enough you start to think less like "a guy playing a game" and more like "what would this guy have really done?" For instance, one of our group recently made a WWI variant of General Quarters, a naval game. German and British WWI destroyers were built to different principles; the Germans had much more torpedo armament, where the Brits were bigger guns. You HAVE to use them differently, and hey nonny nonny, using them in the historical way works!

Another game a few years back, 2004 or so, made me think of all the books Chirine has lent me on WW2.

I was commanding a German force in late 44, with orders to "delay the Americans." Note 1: "Delay the Americans" means DELAY them, not stand and die to the last man. Note 2: Panic really is contagious, and weird stuff really does happen in war.

Turn 1 the Yanks advance. Over on my left I see a trio of Shermans pull up onto a hillock and stop at the top. I've got a Panther bore sighted on the hillock, so I open fire on the center Sherman. I hit, and the 75/L70 AP round opens up the American tank like a tin of sardines.

It turned out to be the battalion commander's tank...

The rest of the command unit on the hillock promptly fails its morale check, spins around, and races off the hill back West at top speed. The M4 platoons on either side see it rout, roll their OWN morale checks, and promptly fail, taking a company of infantry with them. The adjacent units then also fail THEIR morale tests. And the entire American force, made up, by the way, of veteran, experienced troops, routs off the board. Plausible; panic really is contagious. I wouldn't bet the rent on it, but it happens

I won the game in one turn, for the expenditure of one round of ammunition.

And I knew Chirine's exhortations to read the writings of those who were there, had wrought a change in me when I then said to the rest of my team, "Mount up, lads, we're getting out of here."

When the other players asked me why, in great shock, I said, "Our orders were to DELAY the Americans. I've fought Americans before; they're going to run back to the last village, dig in until the devil himself couldn't take their position, and then call in all the artillery and air strikes in the world. And when they arrive, WE AREN'T GOING TO BE HERE. I haven't brought these boys through the Desert, Russia, and Normandy in one piece to lose them now. The Americans aren't coming back until tomorrow morning. We've delayed them. Those were our orders. That's what we've done. And now we're getting out of here while we still can."

[Deleted]

Please do feel free to include this in your book - they are your memories, too, and I think folks would be interested in what 'a real dungeon crawl' might be like.

Make sure to include your pungent comments on trying to get up or down stairs in your helm, too!

My traditional function, as it always been, is to be the 'memory bank'; please feel free to access it!

I also strongly agree with your comment that there is a very fuzzy line between commanding a unit on the tabletop and role-playing; back in our heyday, it was a spectrum of game play, not mutually exclusive genres. I miss that style of play, and try to encourage it at the new table...

yours, chirine

[EdOWar]

May 22, 2014 7:02:32 GMT -6 chirinebakal said:

Ha! That's a laugh. Nothing like early war scenarios to get one killed, are there?

In the 'straight RPG' sense, observation is just as important. Follow me back in time to the days of yesteryear, when it was a dull evening at the old house and we were bored. We were sitting around, and musing on the very best marching order for a party of player-characters, and the idea came about that we should try an Actual Real-life Experiment. So, Gronan gets into his coat of plates, Olaf gets into his mail, and I hand Alfric (Gronan's squire) and Keith the Cleric a couple of lit candle lanterns. We then unlimber the rattan arsenal, we turn off all the lights in the house, and I - The Monster - go and hide someplace with my treasure of plastic gold pieces. The boys count to fifty, and then come in after me. They go Fighter (Gronan), Squire (Alfric), Cleric (Keith), and Fighter (Olaf); perfectly sound as a marching order, and all in accordance with what was considered Best Dungeon-crawling Practice.

It was awful. Me, I had lots of fun killing all of them in succession, several times over. (I had picked out several ambush points in the house.) A guy would appear out of the gloom, I'd give them a quick double tap on the back of the head to let them know they were dead, and they - being very sporting types! - would keel over dead to the horror and bafflement of the rest of the party. The next guy would look down to check the casualty, and I'd nail him. Then the cleric would try to see what he could do, and he'd get it. last and not least, the last guy in the line would try to see what was going on, and then he'd get it.

In the really dark corners of the house (Remember those attic stairs, Gronan? Oh, my...), I started at the back of the party and worked my way to the front. Same results. Two very experienced fighters, one pretty experienced squire, and one decent cleric all dead as the proverbial doornails saver times over.

What got them killed was lack of observation - not that they didn't try really hard, but that we learned that two fighters in *** closed face helms *** can't see much of anything. If the two unarmored guys weren't looking in the right place in the right time with the lantern held in just the right place, they couldn't see anything either. Most of the time, they said in the post-mortem, the light blinded them and ruined their night vision.

So, the RPG lessions for today:

1) Open-faced helms; a nice burgonet is a good idea.
2) Put the lanterns on a short chain on a short stick; you can keep it low, out of your eyes, and stick it into dark corners while keeping back out of striking range of some nasty lad like me.
3) Put a lightly armored fighter in the front as a scout; they can see better, move faster, and get out of the way of the heavies when they need to.
4) Do the same at the back, and have them keep looking to their rear.

Success in RPGs, at least the way we used to play here in the northwoods, came from teamwork and communication back up by observation.

Is this what you were looking for, Glorious General?

yours, chirine

This is brilliant. So often in games players simply assume complete situational awareness, despite being in a dark, hostile alien environment. It can be hard to convince players that they can indeed easily miss minute details in a dungeon, with nothing but flickering torchlight, while wearing a full helm.

[Deleted]

May 22, 2014 14:47:26 GMT -6 EdOWar said:

It can be hard to convince players that they can indeed easily miss minute details in a dungeon, with nothing but flickering torchlight, while wearing a full helm.

When exploring the "crypt" with the Sarcophagus of Ancient Pot Roast, at one point there was a small pile of junk on the floor. Chirine, who was also referee for the exploration phases, said "there might be coins in that (simulated by bottle caps)."

In order to see, I ended up with my helm off, on my knees, my face about eight inches off the ground, and a lantern held so close I could feel the heat.

My comment was, "Just put an ordinary African black scorpion in this pile of junk and I'm dead, never mind any sort of giant or magical critter, because it's going to sting me right in the face before I even know it's there."

Good times, good times.

But this is why the peasants in the local village haven't cleaned the dungeon out years ago.

[Deleted]

May 22, 2014 17:16:13 GMT -6 @gronanofsimmerya said:

May 22, 2014 14:47:26 GMT -6 EdOWar said:

It can be hard to convince players that they can indeed easily miss minute details in a dungeon, with nothing but flickering torchlight, while wearing a full helm.

When exploring the "crypt" with the Sarcophagus of Ancient Pot Roast, at one point there was a small pile of junk on the floor. Chirine, who was also referee for the exploration phases, said "there might be coins in that (simulated by bottle caps)."

In order to see, I ended up with my helm off, on my knees, my face about eight inches off the ground, and a lantern held so close I could feel the heat.

My comment was, "Just put an ordinary African black scorpion in this pile of junk and I'm dead, never mind any sort of giant or magical critter, because it's going to sting me right in the face before I even know it's there."

Good times, good times.

But this is why the peasants in the local village haven't cleaned the dungeon out years ago.

I could not agree more! These days, I'd dig out my box of really cheap plastic bugs, and leave a scorpion or two for you to find the hard way. Nothing personal, you understand, it's just business; somebody has to keep those pesky player-characters down...

Seriously, that little adventure in the dark was something else, and a real eye-opener for all of us. I think we all came away with a very different outlook on our adventuring, and we got a lot more careful a lot more quickly. We paid a lot more attention to the little details, and started poking swords and stuff into spaces and room ahead of us to make sure that there were no nasty surprises. Mind you, we still ran into nasty stuff, but we were a lot more prepared for it after this romp in the darkness.

And, i think, this also may exemplify the 'Twin Cities School Of Gaming', in some ways. My feeling, perception, call it what you will, is that we did a lot more of this kind of thing then folks may have done in other gaming hot spots. I think it may have had something to do with Twin Cities gaming being one part of what much later became separate genres of fandom; back in that day, all of us (aside from the black-powder Historicals players, who were then - and still are - a very separate sub-group) were all part of the larger (albeit still relatively small) fandom that existed at that time. As I've mentioned, it was part of a spectrum of activities we all participated in at some level. Chirine's armor, for example, had the breast- and back-plates hammered out by Gronan in the armouring shop; that's still the original, there, some thirty years later. (it wears like iron, doncha know...) We all played TRACTICS, we all did RPGs, etc.; we did not specialize. Yes, we all had our individual interests and areas of expertise, but we played anything we could get our hands on in any way we could...

yours, chirine

[Deleted]

An interesting thought. I noticed that Lake Geneva had that same aspect... we played games of all types. We'd talk about "Boot Hill" in between turns of a CHAINMAIL game, for instance. Stratego, Risk, Tractics, Don't Give Up The Ship, Greyhawk... all were one.

Of course, the Minneapolis gaming community and the Lake Geneva gaming community were closely connected in the pre-1975 era. Actually, wargaming in general was pretty close knit; Gen Con was about 250 to 300 people, and if you didn't know them all, you'd at least recognize their names.

And I love the observation about the rubber scorpion. For those of you who don't know him, that sounds EXACTLY like the sort of thing Chirine would do. Those are the lessons that stick...

I do wish more gamers were also "wargamers," though. Not because it makes you "tough" or "manly" -- pushing little plastic tanks around is about as far from "manly" as you can get. But it gives you different expectations.

See, you learn in wargames that you can't win a battle if you don't risk your troops. There is NO such thing as 100% guaranteed safety. A Sherman tank in TRACTICS can only observe a 4" wide swath, and pretty much any gun the Germans have after 1943 is a one-hit kill. Sometimes, the first hint you have that the enemy is out there is when your lead tank explodes.

You can't win a battle without risking your troops, and if you risk your troops you WILL lose some of them. Those thoughts were in our minds the very first time we went into Greyhawk...

[Deleted]

I'd agree with your observation about the closeness of the two 'centers of gaming' here in the Midwest; there was the proto-HMGS on the East Coast, and some pockets of gaming in the larger metro areas in California, but that was pretty much it back then; Lake Geneva - and correct me if I'm wrong! - seemed to have more activity going on then one might have expected in metro Chicago. And that may be a reflection of the then-current concentrations of F/SF fans as well. Interesting.

If I may be permitted a personal observation, the change from a gaming culture of 'everybody pretty much played everything' to a very diverse, very broad, very commercialized, and very specialized gaming culture - "I don't play that set of rules" and I can only use the specific brand-approved and -authorized object - has kind of put me off. Not that I want to decry anyone's personal choice of game style, game play, or game genre; what's baffled me has been the 'tribalism' of some folks in the 'OSR', 'Gygaxians', 'Arnesonians', 'fanbois', what have you, to the point where I'm stepping on anyone and everyone's toes when I talk about what you, and I, and Dave Wesley, and Fred Funk, and all the rest of all those old guys used to do of a Saturday afternoon.

Shrug. Go forth, roll dice, and have fun. This is supposed to be entertaining and fun, after all!

And yes, I'd love to see more people playing 'wargames', 'free kriegspiel', or whatever term of art is current these days. The game we played a while back, with the humans fighting the Shunned Ones, was a really good example of the kind of learning experience that you talk about; the guys learned an awful lot about how to use their player-characters in a skirmish. Yes, they lost a lot of people killed and wounded - but they didn't make those same mistakes in the game this past Saturday. They learned in the doing, on the job, and they took their lumps from each other and have become - in my opinion, anyway, much more skilled adventurers as a result. They started taking hits, and realized that the NPCs down the rabbit holes were better armed and more numerous, and they pulled out and got reinforcements and better gear.

The next phase of this particular 'micro-campaign' will see them going underground; I will be running a truly three-dimensional game, as I'm modeling both the surface table (as you saw in the photos) and the Underworld levels. They will have to think on their feet, and I am frankly looking forward to what may very well be the very best game I have ever done - and I include the recent "Then Darkness Fell" and "The Great Mos Eisley Spaceport Raid" games.

I have just had a truly horrible thought. Given the changes in the game hobby and the game culture, could we even run "The Great Mos Eisley Spaceport Raid" anymore? I'm not talking space, scenery, or miniatures - those are the easy part, as that's just grunt work. What I wonder is (and I'll try to articulate it as best I can, given I'm just in this morning) could today's gamers participate in such a game and have fun playing in it?

I honestly don't know the answer to that. Comments? Thoughts?

And a closing thought: has anyone out there in the land of modern gaming, besides Gronan and I, ever read "The Defence Of Duffer's Drift"? I daresay, Glorious General, we could run it today as a D & D 'tournament module' at Gary Con, and there wouldn't be a player-character left standing after the weekend...

yours, chirine

(By the way, everyone, the book is available from the Gutenberg project as a free download. Have a look, if you'd like; I think you'll enjoy it!)

[Deleted]

"Defence" is available from Gutenberg? I have to download that! Everyone, I can NOT recommend that book too highly!

As far as "The Great Mos Eisley Spaceport Raid"... well, one of the things I learned in business school that was actually useful is "Management of Expectations Is Important." I think if you announced it and clearly described its rules light, referee-judgement nature, you'd find willing players. Dave Wesley ran two or three sessions of Braunstien at last GaryCon, and they were all full!

In fact, in certain parts of the hobby you could even describe Mos Eisley as "Braunstien style" and you'd get players for that reason alone. Le plus ca change...

And I'm heartened to hear that your current players are enjoying the "wargame" aspect; fight, make mistakes, learn, fight again, learn more.

[EdOWar]

I'd love to hear more about the "Great Mos Eisley Spaceport Raid," if you don't mind taking the time. Was it a miniatures skirmish or more of an RPG session? If I'm guessing right, it sounds like it might have been played right after the first Star Wars movie, but before the sequels (which added a lot of baggage to the SW universe).

[makofan]

Thanks for turning me on to The Defense of Duffer's Drift. It was a great read!

[Deleted]

May 28, 2014 11:23:06 GMT -6 @gronanofsimmerya said:

"Defence" is available from Gutenberg? I have to download that! Everyone, I can NOT recommend that book too highly!

As far as "The Great Mos Eisley Spaceport Raid"... well, one of the things I learned in business school that was actually useful is "Management of Expectations Is Important." I think if you announced it and clearly described its rules light, referee-judgement nature, you'd find willing players. Dave Wesley ran two or three sessions of Braunstien at last GaryCon, and they were all full!

In fact, in certain parts of the hobby you could even describe Mos Eisley as "Braunstien style" and you'd get players for that reason alone. Le plus ca change...

And I'm heartened to hear that your current players are enjoying the "wargame" aspect; fight, make mistakes, learn, fight again, learn more.

Good comments! I'd like to think that running a Braunstein might have attract some folks; I enjoy them immensely! I ran one last year at FFG, and it seemed to go over pretty well with the people that came. Maybe I'll try it again. I dunno; we'll see, I guess.

Yes, I'm pretty heartened too at the way the guys are 'learning the trade'. I'll be amused to see how the next game in the series goes; pictures and a report forthcoming, of course.

yours, chirine

[Deleted]

May 28, 2014 13:51:21 GMT -6 EdOWar said:

I'd love to hear more about the "Great Mos Eisley Spaceport Raid," if you don't mind taking the time. Was it a miniatures skirmish or more of an RPG session? If I'm guessing right, it sounds like it might have been played right after the first Star Wars movie, but before the sequels (which added a lot of baggage to the SW universe).

Let me see if I can answer you in some sort of concise manner...

No, and yes; yes, and no. The game was what I think would be called today 'A Braunstein'; it was both and neither a miniatures skirmish and an RPG session. As we've noted in this thread, back in those far-off and innocent days of yore we didn't make the difference; we played miniatures with a very strong RPG element, and RPGs with a very strong miniatures element - it was all part of a spectrum of gaming, where we suited the play style and game type to the situation to hand. It was, as Gronan mentioned, a very porous membrane.

So, anyway, this was back in the late 1970s, at the game sessions run at Coffman Union as part of the old Conflict Simulation Simulations student group at the University of Minnesota (Prof. M. A. R. Barker, faculty Advisor); in 1978, I think. Quite a few of us had gone to the World Con in Kansas City in 1976, and I got to meet and talk with George Lucas and get a look at the props, costumes, and concept art for the forthcoming movie. I picked up the various publications, like the "Blueprint Pack" as they came out, and then saw the film ; the original print screened at the convention was much different then the version we saw a year later in the theater. Being an inventive type, I was running a "Star Wars"-based campaign with several linked games; the last game in the series was the flight down the Death Star trench using 1/1200 miniature fighters, the second was a chase through the Death Star's corridors by the player-characters to turn off the tractor beam - I made a huge set of corridor and room tiles for this - and the first game was the arrival at Mos Eisley of Our Heroes. I booked the Mississippi Room, the big one that we had on Saturdays, and ken Fletcher and I showed up early to start setting up. At 11:45, for a noon game - we had the room from noon to six - I popped out from behind the locked doors of the room to address the assembled players. I handed each player a sealed envelope; inside was a 3 x 5 card with their names, objectives, and a fistful of poker chips to represent money that they could use for bribes, deals, and the like. The cast was all-star:

Jabba the Hutt: Dave Arneson; Han Solo: Mike Mornard; Greedo: Dave Wesley; Boba Fett (I had advance information from Mr. Lucas): Ross Maker; Imperial Stormtroopers: Fred Funk - and so on and so on; I think I had some twenty players.

At noon, we threw the doors open, and the players were given five minutes to see the game area. The room was 30' x 30', and we had set up a 20' x 20' game 'table' using the room's furniture in a fractal pattern; no playing area was more then 3' across, and all areas were accessable; the gaps between the 'arms' of the fractal pattern were assumed to be open areas. We had covered the tables with buildings, junk heaps, docking bays, spaceships, alien plants, and everything you'd expect in a block-buster SF movie. There were something like 500 miniatures, and a good thirty landspeeders. I shooed everyone back out to the lobby, and started calling in the players by character name; at the start of the game, none of the players knew who was playing who - they had to find out by asking each other in the lobby / lounge. I used the sweep hand on the room clock to limit turns; I ran this game in as close to real time as I could, to keep the pressure on the players.

Utter chaos broke out instantly. The players began the delicate dance of trying to figure out who was who, and move their figures on the huge 'tactical display' as their names were called. In effect, there were two sub-games running to make up one mega-game, and the action was just as fast and furious out in the hallway as it was in the room itself. About a minute into the first turn / round, there were many, many shrieks of horror and great cries and lamentations abounded - the 'tactical display' was not static. My assistant GM, Ken, was playing all the 'extras', and moving the townspeople and their vehicles around as the locals went about their usual nefarious pursuits. This meant that the players had to watch the room through the doors, negotiate and plot in the hallway, and move their stuff when they were called. I simply dealt with situations as they came up, like when the Imperial Stormtroopers tried to stop a landspeeder, sure that it was Luke and Obi-wan, only to discover that it was Granny Nxlpk from Procyon IV taking the grandkids out for coddled greeps; this being Mos Eisley, Granny was packing more heat then they were, and a squad of Stormtroopers became Heroes of the Empire in short order as Granny made a series of spectacular die rolls.

As the game went on, I sped things up some more by calling in the factions as they developed; all the Imperials came in at once, for example, and helped each other move. (The bickering was hysterical.) The game lasted for five hours, and ended on a high note as the Imperials chased Han, Chewbacca, Luke, Obi-wan, and the two droids through the streets in a running firefight on landspeeders. While this was happening, Jabba and his minion had robbed the First Interstellar Bank of Mos Eisley, burned down the orphanage (taking only moderate casualties from the dear little children, they were happy to see), conned Princess Leia out of the Rebel Alliance's treasury, and fixed a few parking tickets.

It was, everyone said, a good way to spend the afternoon...

Does this help?

yours, chirine

[Deleted]

May 28, 2014 15:16:18 GMT -6 makofan said:

Thanks for turning me on to The Defense of Duffer's Drift. It was a great read!

Wonderful! You are very welcome!

yours, chirine

[EdOWar]

May 28, 2014 19:13:30 GMT -6 chirinebakal said:

May 28, 2014 13:51:21 GMT -6 EdOWar said:

I'd love to hear more about the "Great Mos Eisley Spaceport Raid," if you don't mind taking the time. Was it a miniatures skirmish or more of an RPG session? If I'm guessing right, it sounds like it might have been played right after the first Star Wars movie, but before the sequels (which added a lot of baggage to the SW universe).

Does this help?

yours, chirine

Yes, it does. And thank you for taking the time to describe it, for I was picturing something more like a traditional session of D&D or some other RPG.

I've heard of a "Braunstein" before, but never really quite grasped what they're about. It sounds like gloriously chaotic fun, though I think modern gamers would have a tough time wrapping their minds around such a game, where so many players at once are given a sandbox to play in and can do just about anything, including working at cross purposes to one another.

[Deleted]

I think so, too. It was a different time and place, then.

"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."

Gronan, what do you think?

yours, chirine

[thorswulf]

What figures were used for the Great Mos Eisley Space raid? Starguard? A mixture of many others?

[cadriel]

I have to say - this thread is terrific. The stories you guys have are excellent. Can't wait for Mike's book, and would encourage Chirine to think of one as well. I would seriously buy a book full of anecdotes like you have shared.

[Deleted]

"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."

Amen, amen, and amen.

As far as "what did we use" -- whatever we could find. Chirine has a sharp eye for detail and noticed how many SF widgets were something else repurposed; he realized that Stormtrooper blaster carbines were Stirling submachine guns slightly modified, long before Lucasfilm admitted it.

He brought that eye for detail to gaming. The local game shop, the "Little Tin Solider Shop," had a huge box full of busted up figures that they sold for cheap. Chirine used to spend hours sifting through it for raw material for conversions... a peasant figure, a bit of Squadron Green Putty for baggy sleeves, a belt, a pistol from Starguard, and hey nonny nonny, it's Luke Skywalker in his Tatooine garb. McEwan's medieval Monk was a "gimmie" for Obi-Wan Kenobi, of course.

And some packing shapes in styrofoam and other odd bits, painted a pale ocher and then detailed in earth colors became Mos Eisley. I believe my exact words on seeing it for the first time were "Well f*** me!"

And of course there were the Gearboxian ambassadorial party, who bore an amazing resemblance to HO scale WW2 tanks. (Bolos, don't you know.) And at some point for SOME reason, the Imperial Stormtroopers fired a heavy 6 shot missile launcher at point blank range at the Gearboxian ambassador's young son, killing him, starting a war between the Gearboxian Hegemony and the Empire.... and blowing a 10 foot hole in the back wall of the main vault of the First National Bank of Mos Eisley (S. McDuck, President).

As Dave Arneson (God rest him) used to say, "Who needs a confusion spell? Just make the players write out their orders."

[Deleted]

One way in which I very much agree with Chirine about the "past is a different country" -- Gamers nowadays seem to take it all SO F*CKING SERIOUSLY!!!!!!

On one board somebody was bellyaching that the material component for the ESP spell was a copper coin -- "Penny for your thoughts." Yes, it's a dumb joke. Gary loved dumb jokes. The "Gust of Wind" cantrip requires you to eat beans.

But this guy wasn't taking the attitude of "Dumb joke is dumb," which is just a matter of taste. He was carryin' on about "breaking immersion" and "unrealistic" and "ruining the mood" et cetera ibid op cit i.e. viz eieio.

My reply was "Gary loved dumb jokes, and if he'd known that forty years later people were going to get so worked up about it, he'd have put in twice as many."

Really, a lot of gamers these days seem to have the sense of humor of a compound fracture.

[thorswulf]

Having gamed with John McEwan for many years, I have been fortunate enough to get to experience this style of gaming. I grew up with the semi immersion approach so it was quite eye opening to me. As a matter of fact some of the games have very Braunstein-like elements to them. I know what you mean about converting figures, I do that sometimes. Back in the day there just were not as many choices as we are given today.

[Deleted]

Do you still see Mr. McEwan? I had a bucketload of his STARGUARD figures. Larry Bond (yes, THAT Larry Bond) and I played a TON of Starguard. I see that the game is still in print... blessings on John McEwan!

[Torreny]

Oh, man. That Mos Eisley game sounds wizard!

[Deleted]

May 29, 2014 8:31:12 GMT -6 cadriel said:

I have to say - this thread is terrific. The stories you guys have are excellent. Can't wait for Mike's book, and would encourage Chirine to think of one as well. I would seriously buy a book full of anecdotes like you have shared.

He is currently working on a book titled "To Serve the Petal Throne." His current plans (as stated on his 'blog Chirine's Workbench) are to release it as a PDF file for free download.

[thorswulf]

Yes Gronan, John McEwan is still in business. Check out The Miniatures Page manufacturers or Google the word Reviresco. That's the current name of his company. He still has all the old StarGuard line, and has added to it over the years as well!

[Deleted]

May 29, 2014 7:44:50 GMT -6 thorswulf said:

What figures were used for the Great Mos Eisley Space raid? Starguard? A mixture of many others?

As Gronan said; a ton of Starguard figures, the Archive Star Wars sets, Minifigs, Greenwood and Ball, Valiant, Dragontooth, you name it. Anything and everything - the being behind the counter at the coddled greeps stand was a RAFM Call of Cuthulu figure that Ken added a paper hat to. The centerpiece of the game was my MPC model of the Falcon, complete with lit interior.

- chirine

[Deleted]

May 29, 2014 16:22:17 GMT -6 @dubeers said:

May 29, 2014 8:31:12 GMT -6 cadriel said:

I have to say - this thread is terrific. The stories you guys have are excellent. Can't wait for Mike's book, and would encourage Chirine to think of one as well. I would seriously buy a book full of anecdotes like you have shared.

He is currently working on a book titled "To Serve the Petal Throne." His current plans (as stated on his 'blog Chirine's Workbench) are to release it as a PDF file for free download.

Here's a brief summary of the book for you:

To Serve The Petal Throne - The Adventures of Chirine ba Kal

The work is divided into six volumes, for the ease of the reader:

Book One: The Chalice Of The Flame [11,238]
Relating the beginnings of the original Thursday Night Group, and their adventures up until the revealing of Prince Mirusiya hi Tlakotani…

Book Two: Beneath The Blazoned Sail [20,895]
Relating the further adventures of our heroes, on their first voyage to the Southern Continent with Captain Harchar of the Clan of the Blazoned Sail (Dave Arneson), and what befell them there…

Book Three: Advance Standards! [6,927]
Relating the epic adventures of our heroes as they go to war, on the Northwest and Northeast Frontiers, and their battles lost and won…

Book Four: Across The Sea Of Worlds [7,526]
Relating the adventures of our heroes on their second voyage of discovery with Captain Harchar, and the strange places they visit… (Blackmoor, to be precise.)

Book Five: The Golden Seal [37,323]
Relating the adventures of our heroes as they march forth on the marches, trying to preserve the City and Province of Hekellu and the Chaigari Protectorate, and the many and strange occurrences on their way…

Book Six: To The Distant Shores [16,316]
Relating the continuing epic (and not so epic) adventures of our heroes as they attempt to age gracefully in a time of strife and civil war…

Current word count is 102,038; word counts in brackets are as of February, 2014.

You'll get to meet the Glorious General in Books One, Three, and Four, by the way.

- chirine

[Deleted]

May 29, 2014 8:31:12 GMT -6 cadriel said:

I have to say - this thread is terrific. The stories you guys have are excellent. Can't wait for Mike's book, and would encourage Chirine to think of one as well. I would seriously buy a book full of anecdotes like you have shared.

I strongly advise getting a copy of Mike's book as soon as you can; it's going to be an invaluable look into the early days of the hobby, and present the human element that I think has gotten a little lost over the years. I mean, I really liked Jon Peterson's book, "Playing At The World"; it's got more of an academic focus, though, so the two books will go very well side-by-side. If you are interested in the history of the hobby, get Mike's book. (Unsolicited testimonial here, folks.)

My own little tome is going to simply tell the story of how we all fared out at Phil's for the better part of fifteen years. It's told from the point of view of my alter ego, Chirine, and you get to meet all of the people who helped Phil create Tekumel. The idea is to give you ideas from Phil's games, so you can have your own adventures in his astounding creation.

- chirine

[Deleted]

Oh hokey smokes, I'd forgotten about that Falcon model. And of course, Chirine then scratchbuilt an Imperial Star Destroyer that was somewhere between 3 and 4 feet long.

One of the things I hope to get across with my book is that we approached "Greyhawk" and "Blackmoor" as just another game, and that our wargaming had a huge effect on how we looked at things. For instance, if you drop 50% of the Orcs, it's about time for them to start thinking about a morale check. You don't win a battle by killing every enemy guy, you win it by making them decide to get the Hell out of there.

The same for the Orcs. Take down their captain and three or four of the toughest and the rest start thinking about retiring to beachfront property on the sea of Rhun.