"15mm Superhero Gaming - Desert Rescue Session Report" Topic

This is partly to get people thinking about what it would really take to prevent the "graying of the hobby" which is a subject that seems to invariably come up when gamers gather for any length of time.
It is important to remember that I've been hearing about this concern for twenty years. But that's a digression.
The simple answer is to reach out on line and promote the hobby.
Let's first consider the barriers that are built into our hobby, that makes bringing in new people to the hobby difficult.
1. Rules are not as simple as you get in a board game. It is not in the interest of rules publishers to create simple rules to play. Indeed, the exact opposite is true, the more supplements and subtle changes they make, the more they are able to convince players that they absolutely need the 10th supplement.
2. Our armies are built over months and years.
3. Cost. Imagine a young man coming to his parents and asking them, "I'm into this game thing now and I really want to get into WW2 gaming but to get started I need a couple of hundred bucks in figures and paints to get my game going. Oh and by the way the rule book cost $45. USD And I'll need supplements after that."
The response, "Whaaaat?"
4. Your typical gamer is somewhat of a loner type, (he can spend hours in solitude without a bother), has an affinity in varying degrees to history, has an organized mind and creative. Intense heat and cold keep most of us inside. Hot weather at Historicon is perfect gaming weather!
5. Playing weirdo card games is so much easier to haul around.
6. Kids who start playing while in grade school, must endure the savagery of high school and hell raising years in their 20's before they might come back to the hobby.
So where do we find hardy souls to recruit?
Obvious choices are the VA, boy scouts, history clubs, VFW outfits. There's a whole new generation of hardened soldiers who are out of the service who might want something like this.
An absolutely captive audience would be inmates. Yes, I donated eight board wargames to a prison once. They wouldn't allow dice so I told them to put numbers on bits of paper and draw it out of a cup or hat. I have no idea what effect this donation had, but it was something I felt I needed to do at the time.
Promotion is a sales game and a sales game is one on one interaction with people. You have to organize and execute a ground campaign. It must be sustained over time. Expect mostly negative results. Goals should be modest. Try to get two people the first year. Always remember, you only need one guy across the table from you to play a game.
Be willing to give the old stuff away. No one's gotten rich selling miniatures especially used ones. The value here can't be quantified. It is not in the purchase or sale, value for both parties, would be knowing that you passed some of your stuff on to the kid that comes after and knowing that kid would not forget your generosity or your name, and one day he would remember and in years to come, pass it on to the kid he would find who had that light in his eyes when he saw soldiers marching across the table.

Recently I ran a small 15mm Superhero gaming session for my daughter and nephew. It had been more than a few months since our last session – Rise of the Dead and I was excited to use my Flames of War desert scenery. Below are the details for this new adventure….

Desert Rescue

In the heart of the desert, Hydra agents have hidden away the captured Taffy Man deep in an underground bunker. Nick Fury has selected two superheroes that will lead a clandestine rescue mission: America Girl – leader of The Repulsers superhero team, and Plasma Man – its newest member.

Superheroes:
*America Girl
*Plasma Man (and Minions)

Avengers (NPCs):
*The Vision

Villians:
*Catoblepas
*Hydra Henchmen

Result:
The small team parachuted into the compound, avoiding being seen until the last minute. They then descended into the secret facility by elevator. Plasma Man summoned one Minion, and the team split up to find their extraction target. They found some keys and hacked in the main computer before freeing Taffy Man from his cell. Catoblepas attempted to block escape, but the team had found an auxiliary service elevator, and Taffy Man held off Catoblepas and the Hydra henchmen while the rescue team hacked the controls. Now back on the surface, the team used the stolen keys to steal a Hydra vehicle. Needing support, The Vision made an appearance to provide covering fire during the escape to freedom.

More pictures on my gaming blog, Mezmaron's Gaming Liar:
link

Not sure why the first post got pre-appended to my post….

because it is "The Bug." It happens on a regular basis. I don't think I've ever seen any 15mm SH gaming.

Cool beans!

I take it that the kids loved it?
I know I would've when I was a kid (and nowadays too…)

I've introduced 22 people to the hobby. Those are the ones who stayed and became gamers, eight of them are two families where I got mother, father, son and daughter into the games. Four more are "father-son" teams where the father was brought into gaming by me and the son came along later and now is a gamer and plays in my group as well.

One of the families came from a co-worker who I introduced to the game.

Forget agonizing about the rules, the figures, the cost, the milieu. War Games will not sell itself. YOU have to do it and you do it by personally advancing and advertising it, telling people what you do, why and how and inviting them over for a game. People will rarely come for just the game, but they will come over if you're a nice persont o hang out with, and you are fun to be with. The other family I met through the internet, and corresponded with the mother for years. One day she was going to Maine for a vacation and we had made arrangement to have them over our house. A month before I told her about war games and she desperately wondered if we could have a game. I did, the whole family was hooked, 9 year old son, 16 year old daughter, and mom and Dad.

War games is social activity. They will come and hang out and play the game if you're fun to hang out with, and the games are fun. So if you want to "grow the hobby" be nice to people. You also have to DISPLAY your stuff. I have thousands of my minis in special built shelves and racks. Also bookcases full of Board Games. My next door neighbor is my next intended target.Had him over during a storm when he wanted to borrow a generator and some tools. He saw the figures and had the typical wide eyed stare of a 9 year old and he's over 40. His radio-controlled road racing track he made two years ago (covered his while damn yard and wound around his swimming pool is now falling apart and weeds are growing high. I suspect that hobby is past and it's time to move in on gaming.

The point is, to get people to go to games you have to be sociable and nice to them. if you don't want to do that, forget it, all the cheap figures, easy rules, and artificial things you are trying to make it work won't.

Where do you get your 15mm supers at? The Aholes are no longer on Highlanders site.

Old Glory, I believe

link

This looks like something I want to do with my guys. I have the figures and scenery and all but….
What rules did you use?

I would love to see your rules.

-Eli

I use home brew rules based on Flames of War. You can see the character sheets on my blog. Each character gets a sheet. NPCs get a number of hit points instead.

link

Energy is used to perform attacks. You gain one per turn. That way, the most powerful attacks can't be used every turn.

Simple but fun. It all started when I used Captain America in a Flames of War game. Took off from there.

Mez

There was a guy in Dayton that did a superheroes game named Bryan? Ran it like a cheap easy D&D. Best damn drinking game I ever saw. The rules were fantastic. The end was an epic battle with all the characters fighting on top on the Empire State Building (which was the stores cash register) much to the entertainment of all.

His name was Bryan, not the rules, and he had a whole collection of maybe 60 models in 28mil of villains and heros and damsels in distress and cops and newspaper people. And this was in the early early 80s?

His name was Bryan, not the rules, and he had a whole collection of maybe 60 models in 28mil of villains and heros and damsels in distress and cops and newspaper people. And this was in the early early 80s?

Brian Phillips. His game was "Official Super Heroes" and yes it was published in the 80's.

Originally designed as a Marvel Superhero game with the intent of Heritage Models producing it. Could not secure the rights, so created all original (with a lot of knock-offs of Marvel).

Brian and I get together often for a variety of games, and in fact played this a few weeks ago with Marvel characters.

Kim

I think a lot of the "greying of the hobby" fears are well-founded. I think kids and young adults have too many options that provide "easier" entertainment outlets than miniatures (and even RPGs, honestly). Where I draw the distinction from the normal grumbles of "kids these days. . .get off my lawn" is that younger generations are just as capable of enjoying a hobby like miniature wargaming, the problem is that no one is showing them that this stuff even exists (so much stuff is online only now) or society finds wargaming very "non-PC".

I think wargamers definitely need to get out there, if they can, and evangelize the hobby.

If I am being truly honest, though, I don't think wargaming (at least historical wargaming) will ever grow to great heights again.

That's my two cents, from a 28 year-old.