"Daunting Taunts" Topic

I was down in Pasco at Eighth Day doing my pre-convention playtest of 'A Little Gaul' before unveiling it at Tactical Solutions.

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'A Little Gaul' is a half baked set of rules I devised for skirmish/small warband actions set in ancient Gaul. If I ever get the Gallic stuff straightened out, I will then extend it to the Romans (got some ideas for them too).

In addition to some of the more familiar, traditional wargame activity, the game features a phase where players exchange boasts, insults and other antics. In essence, if you can get the other guy to smile or laugh, your chances are enhanced.

I have been somewhat apprehensive about doing this as the game players need to approach things with a lot more levity than is normally the case at a wargame. I have these visions of a fist fight breaking out sometime in the future.

Well to make a long story short, the boasts, insults and taunts didn't go too badly. The Defending Gauls had their opponents rolling on the floor at times (they had a player with a wicked sense of humor) and managed to hold off the settlement's sworn enemies for much of the evening.

As the night went on, the insults became increasingly unsuitable for children. This is going to be a problem. Not sure how I'm going to deal with this.

Might be the first miniatures game that gets a rating that deems it unsuitable for children. Not because of the subject matter of the game but because of the conduct it draws from the players.

mjc

I have always felt that the best chance of beating an opponent was to psyche him out first, if possible. :)

At my old club, ALL of our games used to come with a certain amount of role-play/levity/boasting, etc, and it made them tons of fun.

I men, if the game isn't FUN, then why play it?

Respects,

Josephus describes a short weedy Zealot called Jonathon distracting the Romans by stepping out while they were preparing their ramps to assault the Temple Mount & taunting them to combat. A dismounted cavalryman charged him but fell over, & was duly dispatched. Then as he stood waving his shield & sword & mocking the romans still further, a centurion picked up a bow & shot him. He fell onto the body of his victim.

Tp guide them towards more Gallic taunts (and away from modern ones), perhaps you could make a list of relevant terms (things a Gaul, or a Comic Gaul) might use, and have the players incorporate them into their taunts? Give more of a boost for success with more terms?

I might use cards in such a case, with the terms on them, to be surrendered when used. That would keep folks from using the same lines all the time.

MJC, that's funny. We used to run a game at Beavers (Junior scouts age 4-7.5 years) where the leaders started off trying to make the individuals in the group, standing along a line, smile or laugh – as kids cracked, they joined the taunting (they had to keep 6 feet away – we used lines in the gym and nothing nasty, of course) group. It went to the last kid standing. It was one of the kids' favourite games!
--
Tim

For insults/taunts from a slightly later period, you might try this amusing game:

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My 6 year-old and I played it a couple of times and he now has a bunch of C.11 taunts and insults memorized. This summer he came home from camp one day and asked me "What's the F-word?" I told him it wasn't for kids and I wasn't going to tell him. "Well," he said, "is it Fox-beard?" -- which is one of the Viking taunts!