Family Game Preparation

As I mentioned the other day, our annual "Family Fall Festival" is coming up rapidly (this approaching Sunday as a matter of fact).

For this year's fare, I am steering clear of a miniatures-based experience, as time has slipped away from me for preparation. Since we primarily play RPGs in our friends and family gaming group, no one will bat an eye if I roll out an RPG scenario.

Although I still have plans to run Fall of Delta Green eventually, the sample adventure is potentially far too involved for a single session.

I have found a standard Call of Cthulhu one-shot adventure to run, but I will be instead running it with The Cthulhu Hack Cthulhu Grey, a rules-light game based on the even lighter Cthulhu Dark. Call of Cthulhu, 7th ed., is pretty easy to understand for the most part but I don't want a D&D 5e situation where everyone is reading their character sheets trying to figure out what they can do (which has, coincidentally, also been my experience playing Call of Cthulhu, albeit 6th ed.). 

Rules-light hopefully means we can get into it much faster without getting bogged down in mechanics and worrying about long lists of specific skills (characters have an occupation, three skills, and two stats).

The hard part, for me, is that I like the Family Fall Festival and Christmas games to stand out from the other gaming we do during the year. It's part of the celebration and I want it to feel that way to the players - not just ordinary ho-hum.

Minis are out, so I'm turning my attention to the ambiance. 

I've purchased a table cloth(we don't use tablecloths ever so while it's not spooky, it's different) and LED candles for lighting. 

Now, as I have trouble reading even in bright light, I know the dim light may be an issue - that's why I picked up 24 votive candles and three tapers. Unfortunately, in last night's testing, I found 3 or 4 votive candles each may not be enough - at least not for me. So, I'll probably order some more to make sure we're covered.

I have a playlist of 1920s music to put on in the background while I set up, and from which I'll segue into creepier ambient music when the game starts.

Sound effects on hand will include waves, wind, rain, lighting, and strange sounds, controlled from a venerable Boss SP-303 "Dr. Sample" rather than software on my phone or laptop (to minimize light from anything but candles).  

Sometimes being a music-gear pack rat pays off.

Now that I think about it, this whole thing has a performance vibe, where the actors don't know their roles until the day of. I digress ...

The adventure, like most Call of Cthulhu adventures, comes with player handouts. I'm getting those printed, since they are in color, and possibly aging some of them with tea or coffee. 

Strange coins play a role in the investigation, so I picked up some creepy made-of-metal prop coins from Etsy. 

Picture by The Unassailable Mage on Etsy

They don't match the ones in the story, but they are odd enough, and I got enough that each player can take one home as a memento. 

I also picked up inexpensive sets of five different d6s for each player. This is entirely self-serving so I can tell at a glance when someone's Harm or Insanity is higher than their other dice. It just happens to have the benefit that they can keep them to add to their collections after the game.

At the very least, if they don't have fun, they will at least come away with some goodies! (Is this bribery? Maybe.)

Finally, I was looking for a centerpiece for the table - there are plenty of cool looking Mythos statues on Etsy, but those typically cost more than I can afford to pay for a one-time use. I recalled I had some air dry clay left over and finding it still good, I decided to try a proof of concept.

Behold, an ancient (and tiny, like 3") evil idol

Cthuloid idol.

 

My crude (aka non-existent) sculpting skills actually work to my advantage here, I think. The downside, as I've encountered before with this stuff, is that it takes forever for the clay to dry completely when it's a thick chunk.

So, for the "final product", I made a mass of aluminum foil roughly in the desired shape and then applied thin strips of air dry clay.  At least that was the plan. I kind of used some thick lumps for the "legs".

Shub-Niggurath

Despite that deviation, in the whole, this process theoretically means it will dry quicker - which is good, since I need this all finished - including painted - by October 6!  My goal is a "crude and disconcerting ancient idol of a previously unknown religion" and  once the paint is applied I think it'll sell that even more.

Why Shub-Niggurath? (asked no one)

Because she's my favorite. 

Also because the adventure is tangentially based around one of the water-affiliated entities and I want to draw the players minds away from that at first - especially the ones familiar with the Lovecraft Mythos who will immediately grasp for Cthulhu and Dagon.

There's still a lot for me to do before Sunday not least of which is finishing converting the scenario from the format of the module to my preferred format for running (this process, though tedious, means I really learn the module, so that, ironically, the final document needs only minimal reference during the game).

Tonight I pick up my PA from the rehearsal space so I can start working on setting up the sampler. (See, it really is a performance!)

Finally, on top of everything, I've been re-reading some of my favorite Lovecraft stories -mostly to mine for his vocabulary for describing cosmic horror and the creeping dread that overcomes his protagonists as they realize the full horror of what they are experiencing.

I may post again before the game but if not, I'll see you on the other side!

AVEF Punitive Expedition

My attention has turned to prepping for our Family Fall Festival game (I'll be running a Call of Cthulhu RPG adventure using The Cthulhu Hack rules) but I still managed to setup and play a game this weekend:

After the devastating ambush of an Allied Venusian Expedition Force (AVEF) patrol, the allies decided to strike a retaliatory blow upon the lizard folk of Venus. A show of force would be made at a lizard gathering spot - an abandoned ancient temple complex known to be used by the lizard warriors as a gathering ground for exchanging intelligence about the Earthlings' movements. An engineer section would, if possible, blow the temple sky high.

Unfortunately, the lizard folk were well aware of the column fast approaching the ruin and sent a considerable force to oppose it.

Armies consisted of 6 units each which, 1/3 would arrive on turn 1, 1/3 on turn 2, and 1/3 on turn 3. The composition of each wave was determined randomly, with the exception of the AVEF cavalry, who would arrive from one of three potential flank points on a die roll on turn three or after, depending on the result. 

There are 5 objective points 1) the center thick jungle terrain on the AVEF edge , 2) the hill on the lizard edge, 3) the ford, 4) the thick jungle to the right of the AVEF (center top in the picture below), and of course 5) the temple complex. The temple complex is worth 2 points, everything else is worth 1 point. A tie is quite possible.

The forces arrive on the battlefield.

The French advance on the AVEF left, but it's slow going.

Lizard folk archers arrive on the hilltop, accompanied by a triceratops battle wagon to their left.

The stalwart Highlanders arrive in the AVEF center.

The lizards, unimpeded by their native jungle, reach the temple complex first.

The AVEF gatling makes its way into position - a clear lane of fire to the complex - while the Highlanders become entangled in the jungle growth.

First contact! Lizard skirmishers (of the Gecko tribe) tear through the jungle and crash into the advancing French. 

The Gatling opens fire on the complex. Unfortunately, they are hindered by the cover provided by the ancient stones, as well as by the fact that they are poor shots.

The French fall to the lizard skirmishers. They continue their relentless advance along the river.

The Gatling crew has no idea what is coming towards them. Meanwhile, more lizard forces arrive by land and, concerningly, by air.

Lady Luck finally shows favor to the AVEF; the lancers appear behind the lizard heavy troops (of the Marine Iguana tribe) and crash into the triceratops battle wagon.

Although greatly reduced by a hail of arrows, the Highlanders manage to reach the complex and engage the lizard archers in violent hand to hand combat in and around ancient walls and pillars.

Surrounded and vastly outnumbered, the lancers fight valiantly for Queen & Country & Planet.

When the Gatling crew fell, the AVEF flank was completely exposed - leaving the engineers and the commander in charge of the force to hold off the approaching Geckos and Pteranodons.

The battle wagon is knocked out of the fight, but the Marine Iguanas closed in. The lancers' luck has run out.

The AVEF is decimated. The few survivors are forced flee back towards their base, with a flight of Pteranodons no doubt pursuing overhead.

This was another crushing victory for the lizards. Now, it is true that I was playing them as "my" force, and even I look with suspicion upon the result. Still, I don't control die rolls or card draws. 

When I was setting up the sides, I had thought the superior fire power of the AVEF would help overcome any hidden bias. What I had failed to account for was 1) the limit to LOS presented by the crowded terrain which would greatly reduce the range their rifles could be effectively deployed from and 2) how my rules changes would impact things.

Once again, I used In Good Company. 

However, I added and changed a few rules:

The first modification changed what a unit could do on its activation. As played above, units can only take 1 action on their activation Move OR Shoot OR Melee (which might involve a charge into melee, but you get the idea) or for leaders, they could instead choose a leader action.

Movement was adopted from Contemptible Little Armies. The value to the left of the slash is for open ground, to the right is for rough ground. Lizards, being native, are not subject delay through the Venusian jungle, the way non-native troops are. The dice are rolled once per unit and apply to all figures in the unit.

• AVEF Foot units 2d3/1d3
• Gatling units 1d3/1d3-2
• Lizard Foot units 3d3/3d3
• Lancers 4d3/1d3
• Pteranodons 4d3/4d3

To try to preserve the rule about machine guns moving and shooting, I modified that bit to read:

• Machine guns and cannon may NOT move and fire in the same turn

That's actually quite a bit stricter, but it makes more sense given my restricting units to move OR shoot when activated.

Leader actions are:

• Order friendly unit within 6” to fire
• Order friendly unit within 6” to move 1d3”
• Attempt to recover any in hospital figures for a unit within 6”

Both sides made good use of these.

Finally, I added a morale rule:

If a unit ends a turn with only KIA and in-hospital figures, then it has routed/been destroyed and does not return.

Nothing earth shattering, but it would add just a little more to an enjoyable slim set of rules.

The rule change that had the most impact, I believe, was the rolling for movement. The AVEF just rolled horribly all around, but the Highlanders spent several turns traipsing through the jungle. They should have gone around - had they done that they could have brough the center into contention.

Whether that would have changed anything is up for debate - the AVEF, with the exception of the lancers, rolled poorly in close combat and especially so when checking to see if the figure was out of the fight, in the hospital another round, or back to its unit.

The morale rule, while I like it in theory, did mean that there was no chance for the French to come back from a rather devastating melee that ended with the remaining seven figures in-hospital. My new rule meant they would never get a chance to even check their status.

Perhaps a better rule is if a unit STARTS a turn with all of its figures killed or in-hospital, then they are routed/destroyed. That allows for every in-hospital figure to at least test once (on the STOP card that ended the previous turn) before a unit is written off.