From Chris Good show Matt! Sounds like a great game. You hit the lands mines inherent in all MGs - the need for a clear scenario with focus of story and characters. And you found the games inherent strength - it works even with problems because the players make it work. I wish I could play in your Darkest Africa game. I've got the figures to do it (admittedly most of them are unpainted!) When you do it let us see your scenario. Others may want to do it as a convention game. Who knows, maybe next years Historicon? Matt Replies Thanks Chris. Now that I've had a night to sleep on it, and time to sound out the players I can see that I made one major blunder. I should have used the movement and shooting ranges in PBOM. Had I done that the game would have worked brilliantly, despite my occasional bungling with the arguments. I'll do better next time. All the players seem willing to give it another go. On conventions: This year I hope to attend Barrage on Sept. 22 (the Hawks mini-con in MD), and the HMGS cons in Lancaster - Cold Wars and Historicon. If anyone on the list makes it to these cons we should arrange to get together for some in person MGing! Right now I'm polishing up my DA scenario. I still have some work to do in the all important "making up funny names" department, which of course is crucial to the success of any skirmish game. :) If it's a success maybe I'll run it at Barrage. I always try to run 2-3 games at Historicon and Cold Wars. I'm thinking that a Wild West game, with some MG mixed in, could be cool. I've played in several wild west games at cons, and none of them have been entirely satisfactory. I think my next move will be to put together a military campaign game using the classic MG rules. I haven't settled on the right topic yet. I think the American Revolution could be a good choice. There were lots of great personalities on both sides, and plenty of things to do (besides fighting): politics, diplomacy, naval actions, Indians, loyalists, desertions, supply problems, propaganda.... Back to Table of Contents -- Matrix Gamer #28 To Matrix Gamer List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Chris Engle. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com