The Doom of Stahl Mask

So, the other weekend, when the real world was a bit more normal, I had the pleasure of running a participation game of 7TV at the Hammerhead show in Newark.

I’ve already written about the preparation and background to this game in a previous post.  However I wanted to give an update on how things went, especially as this was my first time doing this sort of thing at a show.

First off, many thanks to Karl at Crooked Dice for asking me to help out and run a game alongside his trade stand on the day.  As many may know Hammerhead is quite unique in the wargaming calendar in being a show that is 100% based around participation games.  No ‘just watching’ here; it’s all about having a go.

The setup on the day

I therefore wanted to make it as easy as possible for folk to play and to that end I had a set of pre-built casts ready to go.

The opening crawl…

I stuck mostly with the format and setup I had trialled at the club a few weeks earlier, with some minor changes to the bad guys in particular (as I had finished painting a squad of Pulp Figures Jet Troopen that I really wanted to field).

I also made a few changes to the scenario, dropping the peril cards but utilising the ‘Ark of the Convenant’ macguffin card.  I fleshed out a bit of the background and set the game up as the last part of a 12 part cinema serial called ‘The Doom of Stahl Mask’.  Stahl Mask was the titular villian and another great mini from Pulp Figures.

The evil Stahl Mask

In addition to the ‘opening crawl’ I also dug out some quick reference sheets I’d picked up at a previous event and made sure each player had easy access to a plentiful supply of tokens for plot points and that dice and tape measures were close to hand.

Setup and ready to go

I arrived in plenty of time to setup and having done a test setup of the table earlier in the week was able to set out the game fairly quickly.

The villains

Our heroes

Despite a bit of waiting around after the doors opened I soon had my first punters.  A chap and his teenage son who had played the game before (at Hammerhead the previous year) and who were keen to give the new Pulp rules a go.  This game was a joy to run as they both really got into the spirit (and ridiculousness) of the game and plot.  I am terrible at remembering the details of games, but this went pretty much down to the last ‘cliffhanger’ card.

Almost immediately I had another set of players keen to give the game a go.  Another father and son duo with previous experience, this was again a fun game to run through and at times attracted quite a crowd (viewing figures were high!)

And then straight into yet another game!  This time with a pair of novices.  Now this was a bit more of a challenge, partly because I had to spend longer on laying out the rules and helping out with some decision making; but mostly because my players were also trying to keep a couple of young ones from getting too board while they were playing.

Henry Indiana adventuring archaeologist (renamed Ohio Smith by one of the players!)

All of a sudden it was 3.30pm and the show was nearly over!  Just like that!  I’d done three full back-to-back games without much of a break in between.  I managed to get a very quick look round the show and was able to pick up a few goodies from Karl (as well as a set of command cards for Iron Cross from the Great Escape Games stand).

A Crooked Dice pre-release I was able to pickup on the day,  I expect he will be cameoing in many games moving forward!

I packed up utterly exhausted, but really pleased I had been able to run the game without too much of a hiccup and almost constantly throughout the day.  This was my first visit to Hammerhead (and the Newark Showground venue) in any capacity (I never managed to get in when I was trading).  I obviously didn’t get too much chance to look around, but it seemed quite busy (I think a lot of people realised that this might be their last chance to get out to a show for a while) and the venue was light and airy (albeit a bit chilly too).

I really look forward to the opportunity to do the same again sometime.  Sadly with the current global situation all shows (including planned games at Chillcon Sheffield and the next 7TV day at Dales Wargames) are now on hold, but I see this as an opportunity to plan out some new episodes and maybe get that ‘secret’ base finally finished!

A new secret base WIP

Oh and of course I mustn’t forget the fact that I was able to pickup my 7TV Pulp Sci Fi pledge on the day…..

“Klytus, I’m bored…..”