"A participation game" Topic

We are putting on a participation game, a bit diffrent perhaps.

So to get a handel on what level of briefing is required a sort of straw poll.

Do you use turret down in your tank games?
Do you use hull down for your tank games?
How about un-buttoned and buttoned up?
Suppressive fire at unlocated targets?

For group games that are intended to include players outside your close gaming circle, the fewer rules you have to deal with, the better off you'll be. Keep it simple and be ready to GM and decide rules on the fly without reverting to a book.

Depends on the game. If the introduction tells me I'm advancing into unknown territory then I hope I'd consider brassing up cover. I'd expect to use hull down/hidden as standard. Maybe make it clear that the enemy may be hidden. And what the time constraints are. Can I dismount to scout ahead?

Some friends and I regularly put on demo/participation games at shows in the South of England. We've put on simple games (most recently a pre-Dreadnought naval game with simple rules); skirm8sh games using modern scenarios; through to larger historical games with quite complex rules. A key thing we've found is to have a couple of handouts the public can take away, and always have someone spare to talk to people, entice them 8n and tutor them.

As for those rule mechanics, you can find the latter two in Chain of Commane for example, which is a fun game and simple to show people.

Depends.

What level of experience do the players have?

Just tanks or full combined arms?

Figure/model to real life ratio?

Figures per player?

What rules can make a difference too

I do this with F&I and AWI skirmishes. I ask the players to write SOPs for anticipated situations. For example, you are sneaking up on a house and the dog starts to bark; what will you do?

My games are mostly done on my table solo, with e-mail players being briefed before hand with a map, maybe a photo of the table with no troops. Once the game starts I am moving for both sides and resolving situations using their SOPs as far as possible, plus random die rolls as needed. Only when something happens that requires new input do I sendf players a sitrep, with photo of what they can see, and ask for new instructions.

The answer to all the questions is 'yes', but with the caveat, 'sometimes'.

Ive run loads of participation games at a range of shows. The main things you need to think about first are how long, how many players, competitive or cooperative, and what exactly is it you are trying to demonstrate /showcase?

For UK shows (which is where I assume you will be doing this, keep it short, simple and fast. No one wants to use four hours of shopping time playing a game. If it is an actual games convention, they can be longer and (a bit) more complex.

Martin Rapier – You deduce correctly, the UK. We tested out the game (one player vs the GM). It worked, do I think its great, No! But it cannot be great, its a convention game so has to be less than perfect due to time constraints and the acceptance that many players will not have a clue and may not really be interested in the period.
We have tried to make players think as well as throw die, and hopefully get some idea about the challenges of commanding a tank platoon.

Just briefing material to prepare now. Thanks for the reply.

Bean Sidhe – Thats why convention games can suck. Idiots abound along with some folk. Hopefully the briefing will put idiots off.