Multi-Party Dungeon Crawl

[Blaker]

Howdy Yall,

Tonight my youngest son's (age 17) Boy Scout Troop's Senior Patrol Leader approached me and wanted to know if I had any of these dates available, Dec, 16, 17 or 18, 2011.  They are scheduling the Christmas Party which in the past 8 years has always been a sleep over game all night with every video game and console you can image. But this year, they all voted and decided that they wanted this year's Christmas Party to be miniature wargame related.  Of course, they turn to me to provide them with 48 hours of wargaming madness. . . 

Sooo, thinking about this, what can I do for 12 to 16 scouts to play all night wargaming. I could use my standard large participation games, like, Starship Troopers, All Things Zombie, or Gutshot.  I am sure that one will be SST since I have a ton of those minis that dont see the light of day and it would be great fun to see about 200+ Bugs overrunning our Boy Scout squads of MI      

However, on previous threads, we discussed multiple dungeon parties. Soo I am thinking that a second game be the dungeon crawl and this would be a great group to try it out on since most of them dont play wargames and wouldnt know if I was messing up 

Soo, my basic thoughts are at least 4 parties entering from different areas of the dungeon all trying to find whatever the big prize is and getting out alive.  Should this be a basic D&D type fantasy crawl or should it be more Indiana Jones/Pulp type crawl or maybe a Jason and the Argonauts Greek Adventures type crawl ?

The community center we usually hold the party at has 12 hexagon shaped 5 foot across to the flats tables.  I was thinking of joining 4 of them at their corners leaving the center open for me to sit in a swivel chair. Each party would start on one of the tables moving toward the center by various routes.  Eventually they will open corridors that link tables together. I would then move those dungeons onto a single table unit they all meet on one table and are fighting it out with each other and the dungeon dwellers to get the prize and get out.

Any thoughts, tips, encouragements, ideas about type of crawl?  I know that I will have to get more dungeons, currently I have enough for 2 large rooms, 4 medium rooms and 2 small rooms so I would need more rooms and lots and lots of hallway pieces.  Starting now to plot and plan would also give me time to paint up the minis I need - why doesnt Nik live across the street instead of the pond, then I wouldnt have a painting issue with time        

Go ahead now jump in and post what you think - thanks - blaker 

[FierceKitty]

Give them at least one game that isn't fantasy, for heaven's sake!

[Cyril]

Making 15 people playing the same miniature game can be very tricky in my opinion.
The biggest issue is that a single gaming turn can easily last from 20 to 30 minutes.. which is a real bad thing when you plan to stay up all night gaming and plan to keep everyone interested.
In other words, the most critical requirement here is to to find a way to keep the game flowing for all players !

So, first I would choose a *very* fast rule system. For instance, even though being quite simple to understand, I fear that the SST system might result in veeeery long turns.
If you have time on your hands, you can even design it yourself as a downgraded version of any rule system. The key is no one should have to roll more than once for each action.
I would also give a little "character sheet" to each player "à la" Hero Quest.. it creates a link between the player and its hero that should not be underestimated !

Then, I would choose a gaming flavor known by everyone. Unlike FierceKitty, I guess fantasy might be the best option here... Don't get me wrong, I like "real" wargaming.. but reenacting Gettysburg might not meet its success here!
Also, your idea of entering a dungeon simultaneously from different entry points can be good.. if you can handle all player teams !

I'll post again if some other ideas cross my mind.
In any case, I'm very interested in any trick you may find to make so many people play miniature games !

[Blaker]

Fear not Fierce, some of the older scouts (about 5) have played in my big battles of ACW, Nappys and Canvas Eagles, hence the reason they wanted to do a wargame party.

I need to go right now but wanted to say thank you Fierce and Cyril good points.  Be back later today.

[FierceKitty]

Ah, that's reassuring. But I'll be out of the discussion fo a while now, since it's bed time on this side of the world.

[Blaker]

Nite Nite Fierce 

Cyril, you make a great point. I have been teaching wargaming classes to middle school aged kids for the past 16 years. Many of those classes have at least 12-20 kids in the class. And Most of the classes are big battle style meaning multi players per side, however many are one on one type games aslo. I usually downgrade the rules for the big battle style to keep the games flowing and of course 'their attention' so they dont start other activities 

I find that even though the kids are in a historical wargaming class their topic of discussion usually is about the latest video game about some fantasy world. And since I am replacing their video gaming all night, I need to keep it running quickly.  I did a SST multi player class about 4 years ago and there were only 12 kids and it went fairly smooth.  I let the kids run the MI squads so they are all working together for one purpose. I usually run the bugs and or enlist my two sons to run the bugs. It is always fun when the kids just finished cleansing what they thought was a safe area and then a bug hole opens up and bugs pour out - lots of screaming, wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth by the MI players     I make sure there is always some kind of crazy stuff going on in different areas of the table to keep the kids re - thinking their plans.

Very interesting to see how they adjust and work together, you see the leaders really stepping up and taking charge in a good way not a bully style way.

I think the multi player dungeon crawl will work, each group working together with each other but against the other groups.

First thoughts, get the Hero party minis painted, then take pictures of each mini, then create a stat card with the mini picture on the card and all of it stats. I will laminate these cards and have the scouts draw a card. That way the parties are created by the drawing of the cards and not by peer pressure or kid selection. Hopefully that will keep the buddies from creating their own groups and enforce them all to work together with scouts they usually dont hang out together. Kind of a subtle way of getting them to work on their social skills outside of their comfort zones 

I am leaning towards an Indiana/Pulp style crawl between the wars. What would each party be made up?  Of course we have to have a British party desert kit, maybe a cultist type party, an Egyptian/Turkish party, if it involves going under the pyramids, a pre-Nazi party (no pun intended), an American explorer party, I dont know just some ideas. If in an Egyptian setting, dwellers could be Anubis warriors, Tomb Guards, hmm any swarms of scarabs in the Dungeon Monster section - no, maybe Leon will add it to the list 

As far as the Jason and the Argonauts themed crawl, each party is a different Greek City State all looking for, of course, the Golden Fleece. Dungeon dwellers easy here, lots of skeletons, beastmen types, minor bosses would be Minotaurs, swarms of rats, hmmm, what could be the big and final guardian of the Fleece?

And the standard fantasy crawl with individual parties made up of all elves, dwarves, etc or maybe a mix of them in each party. Dwellers would be typical fantasy, lizardmen, skeletons, wizards, giants etc.

One of the big factors in deciding which theme to use would be miniature availability and rule updates in the case of the pulp style theme.  Once we figure out what minis would work for what then I need to get about to ordering them and laying out a rough draft of the dungeon to determine what I would need to order to complete the dungeon.

This is all very exciting for me, planning the games and getting all the materials ready is more than half the fun for me. The rest is watching the players play the game 

Okay I rambled, some of you need to throw your two pences in the decision process and thanks 

[Blaker]

Just a thought, what about a Sci-fi themed crawl where the four parties are different factions of humans trying to find the Power Source that will help their cause in the interstellar war that is going on at the moment?

Dwellers would be from the Sc-fi range with Aliens and Predators lurking about with some other goodies from the range   

And this could be under planet so the dungeon pieces would work just fine . . .

Okay back to plotting and planning   

[Leon]

This sounds really cool.  All of us at Pendraken have been involved in Scouting at some stage, so it's good to see the two being combined!

My thoughts are only quick ones off the top of my head:
- You'll need a lot of Dungeon pieces to cover four tables!
- Could you get yourself a 'second' who can DM two of the sides while you do the other two, to keep the game flowing quickly?
- Could each side have their own goal, and it becomes a race to complete the task first?  That would allow you to put all those Theme idea's onto the tables in one go.  So one side could be the 'Mummy' dungeon, with the Anubis troops, etc.  Another side could have the Aliens and Marines, another could be traditional Skellies and Goblins, etc, etc.

[nikharwood]

Sounds stunning Blake - you're right, we're conspired against by geography!

I think your ideas are good - but you'll need to ensure that everything flows nice & smoothly as others have said; I like Leon's idea of themed tables with a common task focus - this might make life simpler.

Another option would be [especially if you can press gang some helpers] to run parallel activity: so while say half the group are involved in a big battle, the other half are split into smaller groups that are playing smaller games challenges [possibly on a round-robin basis] - you could include here some paired games & individual challenges:

- gladiator pit fight
- chariot / horse / AFV racing
- zombie challenge
- run the gauntlet [could be zombies, could be the Band of Brothers Capt Speirs's mad dash through the snow - Portbury Knights did this in 28mm for Legionary & it was a great, fast solo challenge - if you want the rules & setup for this, let me know & I'll zap you my notes]

There's probably more...but I'm knackered 

[Blaker]

Howdy Leon,

The 4 dungeons running 4 different themes did cross my mine, but I am just a glutton for punishment. Having played multi opponents in chess matches at the same time many many times in my teens, I am comfortable answering several questions at once.  Yes, lots of dungeon pieces, I have been sketching dungeon configs for most of the day today.

I am still leaning towards only one theme on all tables, however, having each table a self contained dungeon is tempting 

Nik, I am taking the Gladiator arena game and the chariot racing game, both from Two Hour Wargames. They are fast and intense. The Band of Brothers romp in the snow sounds interesting, when you get time, shoot them on over 

Well thats time for now, gotta go fix dinner, my turn tonight 

cya

[FierceKitty]

That descrption of a bugs and MI game sounds like many 19th century Sudan games I've been in. Except that Fuzzy-Wuzzy is more intimidating.

[Blaker]

Howdy Fierce,  of course, most sci-fi battles are projected Historical battles into a Sci-fi/fantasy universe with their weapons.  Man if I had enough Fuzzys, that would be really cool to pull on the kiddos - hmmmm      Or Zulus   

Dang it Fierce, got my brain thinking crazy thoughts   

Must focus, must foc . . . oh well, as I look up the Colonial range in Pendraken's catalog 

[KOVAV]

why couldn't have that have been my boyscout troop!? that they elect a miniture wargame instead of video games!? all night? what is this madness! My Generation, (I am 18, been wargameing since 14) it seems, has no taste for wargameing. I almost never get a willing opponent thats not the better part of a decade older than me! and those I do get that are my age or slightly older/younger barely have the paciance to sit through just one one hour game, and thats me doing most of the prep for them. I envy you sir!

[sixsideddice]

To Quote Palpatine... "I`ll be watching your progress with keen interest, young Skywalker"

Sounds AWESOME.



Six 

[Blaker]

Holy Moly I just finished my 4 dungeons for the Scouts and not counting the final dungeon, I need 203 more dungeion pieces and thats not counting the furniture, monsters, doors, stairs or heroes        

Gotta go back and re-think the dungeon layouts, like make them shorter and less challenging 

Dang it