Monday, September 26, 2011

Monday Night Mordheim; Campaign Organization

Hello, and welcome to another installment of Monday Night Mordheim. I tend not to think too much about what I am going to post, unless I'm on a roll with something. I tend to look at what is happening around me and then riff off that.

Originally I was going to write an article about multiplayer, or about using Mordheim as a roleplaying substitute. However, after the events of tonight, I want to talk a bit more about the role of Campaign Organization.

I've talked a lot about campaigns here, and it seems that the subject is inexhaustible. So what brought me back to them tonight? Well, Boy Scouts. Those of you who know me, irl, know that my kids and I are involved in the Boy Scouts. Tonight after the Cub Scout meeting, there was a adult leader meeting. At this meeting, we worked on getting the Spaghetti Dinner. Lots of things were discussed, and I ended up getting the plum assignment of data entry of the mailing list to digital. Huzzah, at last the troop is entering the 20th century. Sitting around with the Scout Master, Assistant Scout Master, The Troop Council, and the other members of the adult leaders group, I realized something. It takes a lot of work to get something done right.

Like a Spaghetti Dinner, a good campaign requires a lot of forethought before it can be put into action. I've talked about the pre-campaign set-up, and the types of campaign that someone can run. What I've completly neglected to mention is the stuff that is required once the campaign starts up and gets going. So, yet again, I am going to hit up a bunch of different points, doing so in my favorite way possible; a numbered list.

1. Win-Lose-Draw Record. While each player in a campaign will probably keep this themself, but it pays to have someone keep an official track of it. That way, there is a neutral (or quasi-neutral) party keeping everyone honest.
2. Experience During a Match. Each scenario has ways to get additional experience beyond just the participation award. In most of them it is heroes that get additional experience for taking someone out of action, but in others models (heroes and henchmen) gain additional experience for completing certain tasks. This should all be recorded by another player who is not taking part in the battle that is going on.
3. The end of battle sequenece. This is especially important. I can't count the number of times that someone has lost their warband record sheet, and we had to rebuild from just the notes we had on file. Recording each post battle sequence can help this immensely. Also, it helps if you have some unscrupulous players (and we all know they are out there, but they obviously don't read this blog). Sometimes a surprise audit of the warband record sheet can catch those guys off guard, and keep 'em honest.
4. Game schedules. Depending on the type of game, this can resolve itself fairly easily, or become complex. A map campaign may have a set time for the campaign phase, and then each player schedules matches against opponents at their leisure. That's tough to handle, but it needs to be done.
5. Campaign Recorder. During the campaign, someone needs to keep track of what happens during the campaign. There are times that someone misses a meeting or a match, or doesn't catch what happened. The campaign record or some sort of telling of what happened during the game. This can be very important and very indepth, or it can be very open and vague. If you do something indepth, like battle reports, it can be a great benefit to the game. Especially if people like to use sneaky tricks. You can read up on them and see what worked and what didn't.
6. Space Maintainer. The janitor. Someone needs to clean up after the game is done, and it can be done in many different ways. Everyone splits the chore, last one out cleans up, owner of the space (if someone's house) cleans up, loser cleans house, the guy who didn't chip in for pizza. Something, anything. Leave the place you were in better then when you left it.
7. Liaison. This one is not really that important, unless you play in a FLGS, then it is VERY important. The Liaison should be someone there to help explain the game and promote it and invite more people to play in the game.

Well, that's enough for now. I can't take much more of this. Next week, I think I'll do something interesting.

Oh, and if you happen to be in Pittsburgh on November 12th, I can recommend a great place to get some spaghetti....

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