Steve Lortz You haven't heard very much from me since GenCon *cause I've been pretty busy. In September my then fiance's (we got married in November) Dad said he'd help us get a particular house if we were interested. Liz knew how to convince me, She showed me the largest of the three bedrooms and said "This can be your game room!" So I've been spending the last seven months fixing up an old house, adjusting to married life, and finding ways to meet expenses we weren't expecting for several more years. On top of that, Stan Stephens opened a new branch of the Wizard's Keep in Fort Wayne at the beginning of the holiday retail season and I was commuting up there till we trained in some locals. I haven't been able to do much design work or writing, but I have run games at several game-days, and I'm starting to incorporate "matrix- less" matrix games into them. For instance, in one game of Perilous Encounters a band of stalwart dwarven artillerists were serving a monstrously large cannon at the top of a hill. A skirmish line of dwarven handgunners were at the foot of the elevation. At one point in the game the bad guys sent a giant over to put the cannon out of action. When the giant reached the gun, I didn't know what to do because I had neglected to write rules covering every possible situation. So I asked the player what his giant was doing to the gun, and what he thought should happen. He said the giant was kicking the gun and that it would roll down the hill and squash the hand gunners. Then I asked the dwarven player what he thought should happen. This guy said the giant would stub his toe and fall down. Next I asked for two more opinions, one from each side. One of the bad guy players suggested that the violence would cause the magazine to blow up destroying everything within several inches. Another good guy player said, yes, the magazine would blow up, but the giant would be killed too. Then I had them all roll as if it were a matrix game. The suggestion that the giant would stub his toe and fall down and the suggestion that the magazine would blow up both failed. The two other arguments both succeeded, but since the magazine had not blown up, the giant could not have been killed in the explosion. Consequently, the cannon rolled down the hill. I allowed saving throws for the skirmishers to see if they could jump out of the way, and fortunately for them, they all made it. These little "matrix-les matrix games are real lifesavers when the action in a game takes a turn not anticipated by the rules-writer, and they keep the players' attention focused on the unfolding story rather than on the game mechanisms. Thanks for all the work you put into E.G.G., and thanks for the copy of "Campaign in a Day','" I'll have more to say about that as my schedule permits. Howard Whitehouse Thanks for the set of 3 Campaign In a Day books. These are excellent! I especially like being a "Victory Condition" Yes, I'll see you at Nashcon. I am planning events for Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, so if you can schedule your event so I can play, I'd be grateful! I am working on several projects - all at once, of course, so as to make the completion of any one of them less likely. 1. A solo paragraph game based of Henry Hook's memoir of the hospital of Rorkes Drift. This is about 1/2 done, but spotting errors in it is the hard thing (eg the "if I lost my bayonet at paragraph 43, how can I have one again at 74?) 2. A "Jungle game" for 19th century forest wars, using Arthur Harman's method of giving each player his own "sight table" actually a cardboard circle or "V" shape about 10" across, which is the limit of forest visibility. Umpire has a map or table top display of everything. This is being experimented with currently. I'll try at least elements of it in my "Heart of Darkness" game at Nashcon. 3. I'm painting ships and 15mm figures for a grand PYRATE GAYME (including eyepatches, rum punch, etc) which will be deliberately social and foolish and NOT a historically accurate simulation of anything. I expect it will use 1/1200 ships for maneuver and 15mm (1/100) vessels for close in work - ideally on two tables with matching (ie in different scales) terrain. Sounds complicated but I own so many types of terrain it's not. My Sudan hills become desert islands when placed on a blue cloth! (It was good to see you at Nashcon! I'm sorry that you got called away - I hope that you wife is doing well. You are embarking on one of life's great adventure/nightmares - child rearing. Watch outt They may look cute at first, but all boys should be considered anti social until proven otherwise, and all girls should be considered borderline until proven otherwise. Then again, I may be biased by the pathologies of the people I counsel. Naa. After you left they posted that all your games were canceled. So by Saturday evening, no one was expecting a water pistol game. But armed only with a plastic eye patch and a plastic cutlass I set them straight. "Arrrrrh! All ye Pyrate scum, there be a Pyrate game going to happen by the pool at 6 o'clock! Howard Whitehouse's Water pistol Pyrate gamet Arrrrh!" Fifteen minutes of bad acting and a worse-Long John Silver accent recruited 20 to 30 brave pirate lads ready for action. As per your instruction, I made the "rules" up on the spot. I wetted down a yard wide section of concrete between the two sides. "These two sides be ships, say I. This wet part here be the drink. Anyone who steps on this drink twill be thrown in that drink (le the pool)! Arrrrh!" I divided the sides up equally, though it was hard to prevent desertion when I told the one luckless side that they were on a Spanish tub. Everyone had a Water Pistol AND a Cutlass. All squirts would kill - If you noticed them, so the guy who came in in the fire fights suit had a distinct advantage. With that the game was off. Both sides started out with ineffective long range water fire. But I be believen in leadership by example, I do. So I raised my cutlass and sounded the charge. Over the drink I jumped, into the jaws of death. Those stout hearts who followed me overwhelmed the wretched defenders (I would lie to you about this - not I, good honest sailor that I be)! This was followed by three of four more such silly battles. One was just with cutlasses, save for my pistol (well hidden the hand behind my back), I be no fool! Be I could never get anyone on board a Turkish ship, Damn their eyes. In the end everyone was wet, there were a few scraped knees, and no one got thrown in the pool. Good game you ran there. Let me see, what else happened at Nashcon? I ran my Bonnie Prince Charlie game. The noble Prince succeeded In getting himself killed in a major battle just south of Edinburgh. A fun time even If the Scots did not make It Into England. Just for a lark I raised the Manchester unemployed In a labor riot - since one of the Scots potential recruit units were the Manchester unemployed (Peasants in SSR - which is to say garbage). The game ended before my impudence could be crushed. The convention was filled with Ancients, Colonials, Napoleonics, and Moderns using many sets of rules. I played In one game using McRules (Colonials). They play fast, I'll give them that. My natives were overwhelmed and killed to the man In two turns. That really was a little too fast. The other element of the rules which concern me is that to figure out casualties one must multiply fractions in ones head. I've never been very good at doing this kind of thing. It smacks a little too much like work. Still, the figures and layout for the game was marvelous. On friday evening the HMGS Mid South had its annual business meeting and barbecue feed. Good food and a quick meeting, nice. There seemed to be agreement that the point of the hobby is to have fun and play games. I whole heartedly agree with this sentiment. Being as I am a member of HMGS Midwest I didn't vote or speak up, but I did note the underlying tensions that all organizations have. Maybe someday I will try to organize Indiana historical gamers but not until I've gone a little bit more crazy and think that the hobby NEEDS me to SAVE it from its present state of lethargy. I am not that crazy yet. The vendors did a bustling trade in miniatures and other accoutrements. Greg Novak was down from Illinois. He tried to convince me that I should go and market MGS. But he sounded a bit long in the tooth. It seems to me that people who put a lot of money into "marketing" games either 1. lose their money or 2. work very hard and break even or maybe make a very small profit. Personally, I think I'll keep on waiting for one of the big companies to decided that MGs are an idea worth stealing, where on they can take all the risks and do all the work of marketing. Greg traded a game with me that I think sums it up. It's called "Doolittle and Waite" a game about lawyers and law suits. This seems to be a hobby in which we spend money, not make money. Running the Pyrate game has wetted my appetite to do other "analogue" games. You have used water pistols to great effect as guns. The analogue I have in mind is to use paper airplanes to be javelins. I've done a few experiments, they never fly straight. The players could be divided it to peltast and ioplites. Each side would have hoplites and peltast. The hoplites could shuffle along in tight formations with rolled up newspaper axes and swords while the peltasts would skirmish with them. Maybe we could run this together next year at Nashcon. You could be the general of one side and I could command the other. Pick your own soothsayer to read the omens. Good luck with all that parenthood stuff.) Mark Van Roosendaal Dear Chris, Your name was referred to Simcoarum by Sam Mustafa. Simcoarum Systems is a Play-by-Mail company. Currently we have two commercial games, GRAND ALLIANCE and A NATIONAL WILL; one game in Playtest called FREEDOM and developing our fourth, GUNS OF 14 a WW1 simulation of the European Theatre. Simcoarum is looking to expand its advertising. Does the EGG Newsletter allow advertising and if so, could we obtain the costs? Enclosed is a check for $5.00 to obtain the lastest copy of the EGG Newsletter and for Your troubles. I hope to hear from You soon. Thanks for the letter. To be honest, I've not done any advertising in EGG, save for my own games and reviews of magazines and games I've played recently. I guess since this is a booklet format now I could include a regular page or two of ads in it. But I have no Idea how to price ad space! It is time I get off the fence on this issue and make space open for ads. Please write back to me quoting a price for a half page or quarter page ad. Also If anyone else out there has any experience with pricing such things, please write to me an tell me what a good price is. EGG has never been a profit driven magazine - and never will be. I put it out because I like to write, and I like to get letters. For me it is a break even proposition. I'm afraid there wasn't a check in with this letter when it reached me. A regular subscription Is only 7$ - like I said I don't do it for the money.) Back to Experimental Games Group # 19 Table of Contents Back to Experimental Games Group List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1991 by Chris Engle This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com