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Dex McHenry's After Action Report
So, a little while ago Tom Davis asked me to come along to one of his games day. I was keen. I said yes, especially to return the favour for him attending a day of 15mm 17 th century gaming I put on last November. And then I didn’t go to his thing…
However, I was so stricken with guilt that I said to Tom, “Tell you what Tom, (for that’s actually his name) I’ll not only come to the next one but in lieu of sacrificing my firstborn as a guarantee of attendance, I’ll put on a game for you (which is much the same thing right!?)”*
And so it was that I was entered into the hallowed realm of those attending a FerretCon.
The big question was what game to put on? I had been playing some solo Five Parsecs From Home (5PFH) and thought that might work well for a co-operative game.
I just needed a scenario.
Then I started kicking around some ideas like a bank heist or something and then I looked online for some ideas, ended up on EBay and found some random T-shirts related to the ‘Altered Carbon’ TV show and that got me thinking about all the Richard Morgan books I’d read and one thing led to another…my favourite of his Sci-Fi…’Woken Furies.’
In one swift swoop, Five Parsecs was out and Bug Hunt was in. But not with Giger-esque, acid dripping venomous vent crawlers. Rather, instead, with vicious little Military Artificial Intelligences (AIs) who could build autonomous battle machines just like in that Sci-Fi cinema classic, Hardware!
A movie watched on VHS originally while waiting for Carl McCoy to put out a proper Fields of the Nephilim album. And Lemmy is in it! Anyway, I digress…
So, with a quick skim reread of ‘Woken Furies’ the New Hokkaido Bug Hunt was born.
A quick survey of my existing 15mm sci-fi scenery and figures turned up some troopers and some scatter terrain, and these were supplemented with buildings and rocky outcrops from my AK47 Republic wargaming stuff.
An emergency drone shipment was ordered from Ground Zero Games topped up with some bits and pieces from Headbunny Games. An old fleece blanket was chopped to resemble an island, providing a roughly 3ftx3ft playing area. It all looked good.
One slight flaw remained. I had a copy of Bug Hunt but I’d never actually played it. However, I read the rules and they felt rather like 5PFH from so I could wing it, right!? I mean, what could go wrong.
I’ve put on demo games before. Who needs a playtest!?
So I turn up for FerretCon with my box of tricks. And other than Tom (which remains his name) I know absolutely fecking nobody. But everyone is polite. It’s early. There appears to be tea, which often indicates the presence of civilisation even if I don’t actually drink the hot greywater; coffee is where the action is kids! I set up.
Now we have three games set up and a few players.
There is an awkward moment where we all shuffle around and try to decide what games to play.
Everyone is now very polite, that kind of politeness where no-one wants to commit to anything in case anyone is offended.
It’s a games day. I suggest we roll dice. So it’s decided.
Some poor mugs now get to playtest my Bug Hunt while the rest end up with one of Tom’s free form Role Play things…I am sure he’s play tested it more than I have my game…
(Note from Tom - He most definately had not)
My first rule of any game with new people is that they will enjoy it more if they a) don’t die and b) win. That’s possibly two rules but who’s counting?
This is a strategy that often (I’m definitely not counting) brings people back to play with me a second time! (Maybe I am counting!).
So, Bug Hunt with robots instead of bugs; robots with guns too. It could get messy.
Well, to increase survivability, I give all the players grenades, tweaking the grenade rules so that these are localised Electro-Magnetic Pulse grenades rather than traditional High Explosive. The troops are divvied up and off we go.
The players move (thankfully they are mostly already familiar with the rules), we get some blips out, the players move some more, we get some robots out, there’s shooting and in no time at all the players get to the objective without loss (a relatively unheard of thing in Bug Hunt circles apparently). Game over.
Except the players say ‘Well that was easy Dex. Can you dial it up so we have to do an evacuation too.’
I take that as a good sign, place down some ‘rescue’ hovercraft as the new objective and the game is on anew. There’s a bit more danger, more blips, more shooting and then the players get away. All good fun. Even some laughter.
Then there is a pause for lunch. People sit around. Some of us pop out to the local shops. Everyone comes back. There’s light hearted banter, humour, more serious discussion of encounters with racism in the hobby and countering it and I think ‘we have good, honest, balanced people here.’
And at that point I like FerretCon.
There are points of commonality between all the players present. Not all the same commonality, as that would be boring, but enough to generate vibrant discussion and good natured laughs. Also the bar opens. I like venues with bars. And then onto the afternoon game.
This time I dial up the danger, for a new set of players, by dialling down the number of grenades they can have. This time it’s a more tense affair. Troopers are dying before the players get to the objective. They are close.
There are loads of blips and loads of robots and even more blips on the way. The players are looking crestfallen; hope of success is bleeding away with their dwindling supply of grenades.
In one corner some troopers are trapped making a last stand. In a desperate last gamble there is a rush to the objective.
If this one dice roll is not successful it’s curtains for the players, they will have failed and they will be dead. The dice is cast…drum roll please…a SUCCESS.
There is laughter and there is cheering. I like this. I like FerretCon.
Then sadly we pack up. All the toys go back in the box. However, I have met some great new people. Kev, Boris, Paul, A different Tom, Mark, Chris etc. A good day out. We talk all ideas for the next FerretCon bouncing concepts around like some cerebral basketball. Tom has plans. We all add to them. Tom has amended plans.
Deal me in. It will be fun.
*Actual words used at the time may have varied from the above but the general sense was the same.
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