Wednesday 21 March 2018

Gateway games

Hi all

Another little pause from the ATZ campaign for a little bit later, just while I figure out the next scenarios.  

A couple of posts ago I mentioned the board games club I belong to. I go weekly, when I can and I really enjoy the strategy that has now crept into modern board games.  Of course my first love is tabletop war games and I'm an enthusiastic ambassador for the genre to the club members.  So I figure what we need is a game that bridges the gap between board games and tabletop games - "gateway games".

There are a number of podcasts and YouTube videos around gateway games like this -

https://youtu.be/PlvwYYzagFY

But I didn't want to buy something new, then I remembered that I've built some pretty cool layouts recently with some really basic rules (that fit on 2 sides of A4) and that they have some appeal with most folks, gamers or not. The zombie board I had actually playtested with some of the club members, precisely because I wanted to see if it had appeal to the non-miniature gamer - and it went down a storm!

Then I remembered that I had built the modern city tiles on the backs of my dungeon tiles that I built a while back and my brain went into overdrive! DUNGEON CRAWL TIME!!



Yes, I decided to write some basic rules of my own for a really simple dungeon crawl mechanic.  the rules once again fit on a couple of sheets of A4 paper excluding the character sheets and monster bestiary.  But by limiting the monsters to goblins, orcs, zombies, vampires and super villain - the Dreadlord I was able to keep that down to a minimum too! In no time at all I had knocked up a game that seemed to suit the purpose and took it down the club. To spice it up I took two teams....

The Boys


vs The Girls


Both teams would enter the dungeon at the same time, at separate entry points and race through the dungeon to confront the Dreadlord and stop the summoning of his pet demon. In order to stop the game dragging on and to make it more competitive, I added a real time element to the game that had the teams jumping. It went down an absolute storm with the Girls taking the win!




















All in all, I think I'm making some headway, to the point that i am taking a board to the club's board game convention Uncon 3.0 - an Unconventional Convention.  Next time, I have adapted my hospital rules to fit a more simple ruleset (as opposed to ATZ FFO) and stand alone as a game and see how they like it.












hope you enjoy
dGG




20 comments:

  1. Wow, atmospheric and wonderful pictures!

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    1. Thanks Phil, the game worked really well too

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  2. What a great idea Andy to utilise something you've already built, to encourage the board gamers into more of a wargaming setting. Plus a great opportunity to utilise some great scenery and figures

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    1. The group are still talking about it, so it must have struck a chord!

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  3. Awesome eye-candy, Andy, precisely what is needed to capture the imagination of people into our hobby :-)

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    1. Exactly Simon, I will recruit more gamers!

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  4. You have the most fun Andy - it looks amazing!

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    1. We do have fun Michael, this was really enjoyable with both teams scrabbling to get their activations finished before the other (which would end the round!)

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  5. Great idea, and if that "board" doesn't attract some players in nothing will!

    Cheers Roger.

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  6. Much kudos to you, Andy, for coming up with this idea.

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    1. Thanks Bryan, it worked so well. I DM’d and enjoyed it as much as the teams did!

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  7. Great idea and some very nicely painted figures as well.

    Did you post about the board build, if so roughly how long ago was it, I'd like to have a read of how you did it. My ulterior motive is that I mentioned to Mrs Vagabond that Mrs Gobbo plays board games and there was a faint flicker of interest. We tend to play cards, backgammon, that sort of thing but I'd like to ease her to the dark side and this might be a way forward.
    Cheers

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    1. No problem Jon, I did post about it and the link is below for the first one. Most of it I filmed and posted on YouTube
      http://dagobbosgrotto.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/throwing-down-gauntlet-wip.html.

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    2. Thanks for this I'll go through it tomorrow.
      Cheers

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    3. There a loads of additional posts too with bits and pieces for the tiles

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  8. Brilliant idea Andy, and well executed - you're a perfect ambassador for the 'tabletop gaming community' so more power to your elbow mate :-)

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    1. Cheers mate, I’m in the process of polishing up my “mystery at the hospital” rules for the hospital I built a couple of years back as well!

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  9. That was a lovely scenery, easy to setup game (from what it seems) but got all the Enjoy Game boxes checked.

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    1. Thanks Cedric, it’s an easy game to set up once the board is done! ;-)
      The walls are all modular so it’s a little bit of work but the rest is pick up and play

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