Just a quick note to say thanks to Clint, Sam and Ed for working this weekend at the FTF.
The Freeps constisted of:
Tina (‘I want emissaries!’) as Woodies/Duns
Clint (‘Burn the bloody camps!’) as SG and team leader
Darren (‘Which way is west?’) as Northmen
Mark (‘Another one gone bankrupt…’) as NG/Cor
Kevin (‘We’re doomed!!’) as Eo
Mike (‘What about if we…’) as SE/Dw
and me (‘Cirdan just got eaten :(’) as NE/Card
Despite an initially promising start, with highlights of Duns, Card and NE smashing Rhudaur early and Woodies and Dw smiting the Dragon Lord in an equally timely manner the DS scored a sound victory. NG was decimated and Cor was under constant pressure. Nthmn and Eo faced wave after wave of troops whilst SE and Woodies kept slapping down WK insurgents. Duns had to chase the DkLts and SG managed to sink two fleets to the cunning QA.
All in all a great game. I learnt a lot and really enjoyed myself - I’d definitely recommend it to others.
Showed a few of the players something of the Kin Strife module and they seem excited by it all so that’s cool. We’re looking at doing another FTF in the summer time and I’m looking to see if we can get a team from elsewhere in the world to play (probably Europe - the time differences for UK to anywhere else is a tad awkward!). I think that we can organise that relatively easily. If that takes your fancy get in touch.
Learnt a couple of techniques that I shall enjoy employing in my next game as well…
The problem we have is that the code is not transportable at present so we can’t do one [easily] in the States. We can have a group of you play in the States, get your turns into us here in the UK for example (where we’d process and send back). The problem with that is that:
It really needs to have a GM there in the US to chivvy and assist. Not sure what the price of a return trip is at present. That means higher costs. Why else? - cos you guys are not used to the speed of the turns, the pressures you play under etc and it’s very helpful to have someone there to assist. Either that or a player I TRUST to get it to work - as I don’t know most of the players personally that would be awkward - I can think of a couple I know would be helpful here though. John Seals and Jeff D. would be fine players for that (no offence to others, there’s probably others but I’ve worked with these guys already so know that they are reliable in such things - there’s probably others though that in my sleep deprived state I’ve not thought of) - others would be welcome to step forward but I’m very cautious.
It needs to have a group of players happy to play at unusual hours. (Say 5/6 hours [as it’s likely to be British summer time] behind - so that means a UK start time would be 12noon-11pm, US 6/7am-5/6pm. Is that doable? (Lots will say yes but when it comes to the crunch it’s a bit harder to get “bums-on-seats”.) (The UK FTFs last from around 9am (turns to run at 10am) until 9pm at night.
It very likely needs an East coast location. We tried finding one of them before (a scout hut, church hall [difficult for the weekend] or something similar would be fine - with some sort of sleeping arrangements near-by for the less rough-and-ready amongst you all) and it was difficult. This needs someone over the pond to sort out.
Say 3/4 machines for inputting with a fast (ish) printer on the US side.
Skype connection or similar for speedy responses to problems.
I’m pretty sure we can get 12 players (UK side) to play such a team though. Saying that - it’s mostly a problem of logisitics and willing.
No, I meant my bum would be on the seat it is now - at my kitchen table. I’d have my Allegiance Chat Room open in one window, Mapper and MEOW in others, enter, save, upload to meturn.com…go for a coffe and a smoke and start it all over again…
I suppose potential internet issues would kill that, though…?
I think it could end up being a disaster. How would you be able to interact in any effective way with your allies?
Okay AIM, (or similar), chat room or some sort of Skype conference call could work but even so I think it would be a disaster waiting to happen.
You could try it in a game you’re in and feedback to me on that though - I’m open to new ideas.
Internet is not 100% safe for speed and reliability. We’re in the process of getting a server sorted but that would only assist reliabilty and speed not sort out any potential issues that could occur. Getting turns sent to allies to get them back would obviously assist here.
Out of curiosity who’d be up for this? Time differences (UK/US/Europe) would still be a problem similar to the one I’ve portrayed above but doable. Turns run over the Fri-Sun as in a normal FTF.
Well, Clint, I’m up for just about anything. I think this would work as long as everyone on a team tested their AIM (Yahoo messenger, MSN messenger,…) before hand and made sure it was working.
You aughts try scotland. We do get sun but in 5 minute intervals. With snow,rain, hail and everything else in between. Mind you am down South now and its sunny. Too damn hot for me…
