I had four players (from left to right); Ryan (in red, who played in my Kill Team game a couple years ago) played Espern Locarno, Imperial Navigator, Jon (from Jon's Hobby Desk) played Taddeus the Purifier, Ministorum Priest, Craig played Amallyn Shadowguide, Asuryani Ranger, and Another Tim (who is kind of cut off in this picture) played UR-025, Imperial Robot. it was kind of fun to see Taddeus and UR-025 on the table - as I haven't played with them yet. Wow... the Robot is pretty awesome!
Jon's played the game and plays a lot of 40K, Craig and Tim were familiar with the 40K universe, but had not played Blackstone Fortress, Ryan knew nothing of the game or background, so I did a bit of explaining of the background and then the basics of the rules and a bit about how a campaign is played (to give some sense of WHY they would be looking for archaeotech and clues). My hope was that we would be able to complete a full expedition and get back to precipice to spend archaeotech - just so they could see how a campaign is played - even if they wouldn't get to USE the new goodies they picked up with their archaeotech.
I had prepared the exploration deck as I was setting up the game before people had come by. If I were doing it again (running a demo at a convention), I might actually just seed the deck with certain combats and challenges - maybe even predetermine the order of them rather than shuffling...
The first exploration card revealed a combat.
There were Traitor Guardsmen and Ur-Ghuls as hostiles - there were a LOT of Guardsmen and I think I suitably frightened them of the Ur-Ghuls and it was the first of four combat they might have to face - so they, sensibly, played it a bit cautious...
There was a third discovery token - and the card I drew was Negavolt Cultists - but in the position it was in, it generated a twist rather than hostiles. The twist was the one were entering a discovery area required an agility check and failure meant a grievous wound...? All but Amallyn Shadowguide had a d6 for Agility - so 66% chance of failing and gaining a Grievous Wound on the first encounter!
Set up fields of fire and let the enemy come to them and blew them apart with overwatch fire...
Then, the lights went out... and event required us to flip a hostile card from the deck and if there was a twist, it remained in effect for the rest of the game
They blew apart most of the baddies... then six more guardsmen showed up! They decided not to be greedy and left one of the discovery markers unchecked and made for the escape chamber.
The second exploration card was also a combat - there were TWO groups of Guardsmen. The picture above is part way through the second turn and almost all of them were wiped out already!
Though my game was scheduled to be played over two sessions, Jon had signed up for Scythe in the second session and left us. luckily there was a fellow named Tyler that had joined us to watch and when Jon left, he took over Taddeus.
Boom! Guardsmen cleared out, treasures acquired, on the way out! This second combat went a lot quicker.
Third Exploration Card - ALSO a combat!! Yikes! (This is why I was feeling like maybe seeding the deck might have been a good idea!)
This was the first time they'd faced Spindle Drones - but they were at Threat Level 0 - so not to scary...
All were dealt with quickly enough.
I forget what discovery cards were drawn - at SOME point the cards that happened to be the cards required for Shadowguide and Locarno's Secret Agendas were drawn - but not by either of those players. Everyone was in a cooperative enough mood (or recognized that an ally that was inspired might actually save their collective asses and improve their overall chances of survival) and so they were traded (or given) to the respective characters. UR-025 also ended up inspired - through gaining inspiration points throughout eh wholesale slaughter of Traitor Guardsmen! I'm pretty sure Taddeus also ended up inspired by the end of the game... but I'm not sure if he completed a Secret Agenda or just acquired 3 inspiration points... Not really time to take notes when trying to keep a game going at a convention!
After the third combat there were two Challenge cards. One was The Chasm - everyone had to make an agility roll or potentially fall into the chasm - as I mentioned three of them only had a d6 (only two of the sides have successes!) Strangely, two of them passed - and neither was Amallyn Shadowguide - with her d12 Agility! Failing means having to discard a discovery or resource card or taking your chances rolling the Blackstone die (a d20) on a 1 character dies, on 2-19character takes a Grievous Wound, on a 20 character miraculously survives. Wisely they both chose to discard some archaeotech they'd acquired earlier!
The second Challenge card was, I think, The Race - all roll a d6 and add their move. Those that tie bump into each other in the race to collect archaeotech and fall down and had to make a defence roll or take a wound. those that didn't choose in order of highest total to lowest from four cards drawn from the discovery deck. Two collided and fell, but didn't take a wound. The other two collected archaeotech. I forget who did what... ?
The Sixth Exploration Card was the final combat! An AMBUSH! In it both Taddeus and the indomitable UR-025 were knocked out of action - but neither died in the recovery phase! They didn't even bother trying to fight through the waves of Traitor Guardsmen to get to the discovery markers on the sides.
After that there were two more Challenge Cards. The first was a hidden treasure - everyone rolls four activation dice and the highest total gained a discovery card. The final one was the Countdown - the one I did last game where you have 20 seconds to stack the five destiny dice - but they have to be stacked with numbers, in order (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) and have to be ROLLED that way... they decided to skip that one... (as you have the option, on that card, of just passing it by).
I did set stuff up for the precipice step, and they had a look at the cards, but no one purchased any or tried out any of the things you can do at the ships...
It was a fun game with a fun bunch of guys.
I was there setting up at 6pm, but was done and waiting by the time the last guys showed up to play at 6:30. Amanda and I walked out of the building at 11pm - after packing it all up again. So we probably played for 4 hours - that also included explaining all the rules and a bit of the background.
Unfortunately, Amallyn Shadowguide's rifle barrel got broken... I had feared this might happen, and had even considered NOT TAKING HER for that reason... I did recover the broken bit, so hopefully I'll be able to glue that back on... spindly plastic bits can sometimes be glued back on. If it was metal, there'd be no way something that thin could be glued - as it's just too thin to drill and pin.
I took all of the cards out of the "Stasis Vaults" to play this, so we'll be rebooting our own campaign when we get back to it. I am pretty excited about doing so, though! Might be just me and Amanda playing it though. But that's okay, I guess. Playing games with my favourite person in the world is pretty awesome - even if the minions won't join us anymore!
While I was playing this Amanda tried out Ecos and Innovation. She thought they were both good and would play them again... but not ready to run out and buy us copies!
There were still lots of games going on when we left.
We'd gotten lift to the Convention, as I had 10 games I was bringing for the auction, but we walked home - it was really nice out (for early March) and only a half hour walk to our house. Not sure how nice it's going to be Saturday as the temperature is dropping and there is a heavy snowfall warning!
I signed up for Wingspan Saturday morning (which I've never played and thought it might be interesting to try) and Stone Age at noon (which I have played and it's fun and we don't own a copy, so I only ever play it at ToonCon) but was feeling a bit tired in the morning and, honestly, running games WIPES ME OUT - so I decided to skip the early games and would head over in the afternoon for the later afternoon game I'd signed up for (Architects of the West Kingdom - never played it - never even heard of it before I saw it listed in the schedule), and, of course, the GAME AUCTION!!!
There isn't a LOT in the Auction that I'm all that interested in. I'm more interested in getting rid of games at this point that acquiring new ones. There are a few I have my eye on, that, if I could pick them up pretty cheap, I would... but I have a feeling they will sell for much more than I am willing to bid. We shall see...
After that I am running Hellboy!
Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:
ToonCon Part 2 - Saturday Evening - Hellboy.
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