AAR Vic-Con Sept 5, 2015 A Fistful of Kung Fu!

Vic-Con is an all day event held at the home of my friends Victor and Claire, who very generously put up with the invasion of a gang of wargamers, friends, family, and various camp followers. There is food, there is gaming, most of all, there is fun.

Seeven players played. Rules from Osprey [Ganesha Games] written by Andrea Sfiligoi. All terrain and monsters built or bought on the cheap. My goal is to show you don't need Big Money to play Fun Wargames.

I used the playing card initiative system I yoinked from Savage Worlds. Joker gives initiative place of player's choice and +1 for all attacks that turn.

No one has previously been able to freely enter the Sacred Quarter to cause mischief. The sorcerer Que Lung and his compatriot Princess Iron Fan have figured it out and they and their gang are stealing the greatest of the treasures in there. They plan to waltz across the city to their waiting limousine and trucks. They don't know seven gangs have heard about it, and plan to take their stolen treasures for themselves.
  
So, seven gangs on the table trying to be the last ones standing when the sorcerers leave the Sacred Quarter.

This will be the first time I played with guns being involved.

I also was playtesting the use of motorcycles.

View from the Sacred Quarter end of the table.

The Sorcerer's Limousine is parked under the skywalk in the corner. 

Warehouse district to the right. Water tower in the center front.

Water tower with Barrel of Dangerous Stuff in front of it.

Elephants mark the entrance to the Sacred Quarter. I wish I could find some temple dogs!

The observatory.

The skywalk.

Closer look at skywalk. I was impressed with the setup they made.

The skywalk is destroyed with an exploding rocket car beneath it (why would anyone park a fully fueled rocket car on the street? The dice never lie). Made short work of the limo and one of the protagonists.

Zack's Gun Fu Master fights off the huge razorbeast that came over from the Sacred Quarter to see what all the fuss was about.

Looking over the Sacred Quarter and warehouse district.

Looking over the center of town.

Looking over the far end of town.

So. I made a couple of mistakes.

I recently made some motorcycle mini flats and wanted to give them a try in game. After some previous bad experiences with functional vehicles in game, I had decided to tell the players in advance that all of the vehicles on the table were non functional for driving and merely there for eye candy. I gave them to Zack as the most experienced player there.

I have made it a habit in big games to hold back on giving my bad guys CHI points until the players started spending them.

Zack was "Meh" on the motorcycles. He took out one of the other the protagonists with one of his mooks on a motorcycle. He said the crowded battlefield was still too restrictive for effective transport using the bikes. I am not really disappointed, I just wanted to try it out for those who were so hungry to use vehicles.

If they really want to play Car Wars instead, I have that, too.

The CHI is a problem that takes away from the soul of the game, spending CHI to do cool stuff. Taking away the ability of the bad guys to do harm by not spending CHI is not helping. Bad guys will start the game with a full compliment of CHI and the players will just have to deal with it.

The players spent a good number of actions opening up vehicles, looking in them for useful stuff. THEY offered what they were looking for, rather than putting it on me to be creative. I really appreciated that, and made it easier to say "yes".

All in all, we had a great game. I usually give out a few tokens for clever play that can be exchanged for an automatic roll of 6, to be used for whatever they want. I gave out a half a dozen of these.

Support small press games like Andrea's, you won't regret it.