I managed to persuade Neil to run another game of 3:16 on Sunday, and it was a real blast! We had great fun, and dealt with the bugs appropriately. It did go a bit pear shaped when my previously unhurt squad got sucked into close range and then 3 of them all yelled "grenade!". Fortunately, the armour was intact...

We only did the one mission (as the con closing ceremony was at 10 and we started at 8:30) but in that time 3 complete newbies to the game, plus myself who has read it went all the way through character generation and a full mission. Superb fun!

---
Dom Mooney
http://www.bits.org.uk/
http://www.powerprojection.net/

I didn't play but I watched some of the first game and the players were clearly impressed. I expect to pick up a copy at Gen Con.

And remember... Grenades are only dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.*

:-)

*Or roll badly.

I think the rolls went something like:

PC (Grenade), PC (Grenade), Sgt (move to near), Aliens, PC (Grenade)

Though possibly the aliens went earlier in the sequence which made it even more precarious, I can't quite remember.

The use of a Strength is what saved them form an almost TPK :)

I may have been a bit lenient seeing as it was only the second encounter in and it was a one-off.

- Neil.

Games Co-ordinator
Dragonmeet 2008

"There is no place for Messiah here - it`s only hobby" - Deckard @ The Burning Wheel Forums

...are safer since your FA and NFA are both near 10, so you don't "Fail" (in fact with an FA of 10 and using FA you are immune from Grenades). Since you only get fragged on a fail.

But, they are certainly a phase of the campaign you have to get through.

Joe Prince's Trooper Torres almost fragged everyone when he played too.

Nice to see a Strength being put to good use.

And don't be lenient. The players have a tonne of stuff to help them. The GM is not one of them.

But don't grenades do 1 kill to all PCs at close on a success or have I read them incorrectly?

- Neil.

Games Co-ordinator
Dragonmeet 2008

"There is no place for Messiah here - it`s only hobby" - Deckard @ The Burning Wheel Forums

What I meant was I allowed the Strength to save the troopers the damage from the final grenade, otherwise they all would have been toast.

As this was really a fun game between friends rather than a full on demo / con game, I was happy fudging that (unless of course that's supposed to be what happens).

- Neil.

Games Co-ordinator
Dragonmeet 2008

"There is no place for Messiah here - it`s only hobby" - Deckard @ The Burning Wheel Forums

Strengths and Weaknesses can be used at any time, and they interrupt what was about to happen. So, players should absolutely see what the dice are before deciding to use them. But they don't have to wait for their turn, y'know?

When you see the dice are bad use the Flashback when it works best for you.

As a player this might mean letting fellow Troopers get kills first then you use the Flashback to save the squad, or you could just use it before anyone acts so that they don't get kills first.

Grenades say:
"*SPECIAL EFFECT: Grenades cause a kill to any PC at Close Range with the aliens who failed their die roll this Combat Round."

Ahhh... so I had misread grenades and they aren't quite as dangerous as we thought. And is that regardless of whether the player using the grenade succeeded or not? (that question should probably be in the FAQ thread).

- Neil.

Games Co-ordinator
Dragonmeet 2008

"There is no place for Messiah here - it`s only hobby" - Deckard @ The Burning Wheel Forums

I have to add that two players from Continuum are bringing their character sheets to Indiecon so they can continue playing!

And I printed the back page of the book on the character sheets so that people taking them away had all the contact and ordering details they needed.

- Neil.

Games Co-ordinator
Dragonmeet 2008

"There is no place for Messiah here - it`s only hobby" - Deckard @ The Burning Wheel Forums

Using a grenade only requires you pull the pin.

:-)

So, if the user fails then they absolutely frag anyone at Close who failed. They were using grenades and that's what they do. But they don't kill any aliens, though, as they failed to succeed on FA. Safest that you use them from Near range (but not as effective).

And awesome, Neil. I really like the idea that players can take characters to new games of it with different GMs. The game scales itself based on the ranks, number of players and the FAs and NFAs of the group. Flashbacks take care of themselves.

I'll be running this at IndieCon and maybe we can get some rotate a GM action going on?

All I can sat is that I had a (wait for it)... blast!

Bad Brummie accent and a Trooper with FA 8 and NFA 2. Far easier to just frag anything than attempt to change ranges... especially when D10 kills are up for grabs.

QED
The (elusive) Dr Moose

http://www.gwenthia.org
One million ideas... and all of them incomplete (even after publication)!

Most definitely! I'll be packing my my 3:16 stuff and the Lego troopers.

- Neil.

Games Co-ordinator
Dragonmeet 2008

"There is no place for Messiah here - it`s only hobby" - Deckard @ The Burning Wheel Forums

Newly promoted Srgt Bryon reporting for duty "E cannon ready to swat some bugs sir"

Excellent news Sgt., will Trooper Flippance be joining us on the mission?

- Neil.

Games Co-ordinator
Dragonmeet 2008

"There is no place for Messiah here - it`s only hobby" - Deckard @ The Burning Wheel Forums

There's bugs to be swatted, and as the supremo bug swatter of the mission I am first in line sah!