Team Tabletop #5: the Rap

One of the members of Team Tabletop ended up creating a rap as a follow-up to the mission write-up. I cannot claim credit for this one, as any rap I would make would be on par with Vanilla Ice's "Ninja Rap".

Here's the lyrics:

Roll for initiative, toss out the beagle
Hidin from the spotters cause the airstrike is lethal
I destroy the tank and pass the balsamic
Layin down mines and these dummies fall on it
But that ain't the end of a turn-based tale
Cause we gaussed the motherfuckers and LRMed out the whale


I personally would like to see this sung by hologram Tupac with Digital Underground.

Google Tupac and Digital Underground. I dare you.

Team Tabletop #5 - End of the Battletech Campaign

On the Saturday before Father’s Day, our battle-tested group of game developers gathered together to fight the final event in our ongoing Battletech campaign.

At 5am that morning, our GM sent out the mission details. We were to enter enemy territory in an urban environment. Our primary objective was to destroy at least 80% of the enemy forces, which consist of every enemy we had met in the campaign previously, but had survived. Thanks to our success at the communications tower and repair facility, they would not be repaired, nor would they have reinforcements. This game would be the culmination of all previous games in the series.

We had a secondary goal of destroying a building that had the enemies’ generals and other authority figures. Once they had been alerted to our presence, they would evacuate, so we had 5 rounds of battle to accomplish this mission.

Our third and final goal was to have at least 50% of our team survive. Just as a specification from the GM, that included if our mech was destroyed, but our character ejected safely and ran like hell. Obviously he did not expect us to survive, either because this was a dangerous mission, or because he’s seen us play.

The usual suspects gathered in our usual space, this time making an effort to start early as we have been warned that this game had the potential to go long. In light of this early start and the weather holding at beautiful 70-degree and sunny day, we gathered around noon and enjoyed the weather and grilled our food.

It should be noted that most of the members of our group have been playing tabletop games since our time in high school, and in that time we do tend to go back to the food that worked for us back then (pizza, chips, soda, etc.) But as our tabletop gathering has continued, we have slowly been bringing in our collective culinary expertise into the fray. We set a monumental summer spread of gastronomical delights, it is worth discussing. I should note that I have found in my lifetime of geek-onometry that the ability to cook well has served me to be a better geek and more successful person in countless ways.

I destroy the tank and pass the balsamic

Our menu:

• Teriyaki & honey marinated chicken skewers
• Garden fresh salad and tomatoes with the juice of a freshly squeezed orange
• Spinach and sausage stuffed mushrooms
• Watermelon
• Chips and dip
• Beer, soda, lemonade, iced tea, and seltzer
• Bucket of chocolate chip cookies*
• And a bunch of stuff that was not consumed, such as homemade capicola, variety of cheeses, and fudge brownies

*I have noticed a direct correlation to the presence of these cookies at a gaming session and the likelihood of GM decisions working out in the player’s favor.

We sat on the deck, looking out over Jersey suburbia with the Empire State Building and Freedom Tower cresting over the horizon of homes discussing possible repairs. We gathered around a Droid tablet with our repair times broken down into a Google Doc spreadsheet we created earlier in the campaign. This doc calculated overall repair times against time remaining, so we could make a quick assessment of the damage and get back into the fight.

In our last mission, we had junked two of our most powerful mechs beyond repair. The other two were lightly scratched. Plus we added a very beefy Clan Mech as the reward from the last mission, so that was definitely going into battle this time. We put the Clan Mech into the hands of our rounded out pilot, and then did a quick repair job to get our best gunners loaded up with close-proximity gear. We were split for a bit on whether we should give the best pilot the scout to zip around, or let him hang in the background and launch volleys of long-range missiles. We finally decided nimble was the best course of action and it had served us well so far. We snuffed out the citronella and went back inside, ready for battle.

Now it's time to die... in a brightly colored rainbow block land.

At the gaming table, our dutiful GM had used what was available to construct an elaborate downtown complex. But what was readily available was my daughters building blocks and Noah’s Ark set. These items have become handy in the past, even providing the impetus for our slogan “LeRM the Whale”, but never have these toys been used in such nuanced fashion. It seems the fine people of Duplo have made certain that not only are their toys perfect for small hands learning basic manipulation while avoiding choking hazards, but that a bunch of 30 year-olds could use them for Battletech campaigns.

Our group lined up on the far side ready for battle. The conditions of the game were that the enemy was unaware of our position until they saw us or heard us. The rounds would not begin counting off for the secondary mission until the enemy was alerted to our presence.

It's like we're attacking Hoth, but sneakier

Game on.

One of my personal favorite quotes of Mike Tyson is, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”. Our last few missions have proven this to be true. Early in the game we construct elaborate plans, only to have everything go to hell once the enemy begins shooting back. 

The only way to make this man scarier in his game was have him belt out "In the Air Tonight"

This time we decided to keep it simple: run to the edge, and set up a sneak attack where enemy forces seem weakest. There was a huge assemblence of tanks on the left of the board, so we decided to swing right, cut behind the wall, and jump the two mechs just hanging out in cover.

We were able to cut across the giant open field rather easily, to which our GM exclaimed,"you guys are lucky there is a giant wall in the way so they don't see you coming". We did point out that it was not our fault that their city planner decided to place giant concrete walls between downtown and the suburbs and perhaps next time he would want to defend his town with a radar or watch tower. Of course this is a world where walking tanks that can fall down and trip are somehow superior to regular treaded tanks, so architecture and technology must be suffering from poor STEM education.

We snuck into the downtown section and prepared a surprise pincer attack. We knew from this point on that strategy would be thrown out and this was our last chance to setup before kicking this beehive, and given the mission objectives, about on half of us dying. We checked in to make sure we were in optimal positions, and everyone gave their nod of approval to tear open this can of kickass. Approval was given around the table and we prepared ourselves for hysteria and hi-jinks.

That's 360 collective tons of stealth and sneaking in a populated  financial district

Next round was a surprise round. Evidently these mechs had been summoned back to the core city of their forces to make a final stand (a la Alamo-style), but decide to just hang around in blind spots with new view of possible incoming forces. “Surely”, they must be discussing over the thousandth smoke-break that day, “these giant concrete walls that block everything except traffic of major highways will prevent all incursions to this fine city”. I understand that real-life combat is mostly boring, with occasional moments of pure hell, but if you are going to position guards, posting them on the outside of the door rather than the inside may prevent you from being horribly disfigured in a sneak attack.

So we horrible disfigured these mechs in a sneak attack.

Argyle Emblem are friendly players. Skulls are dead enemies.

They were surprised, but we were more so. It seems that we had tangled with these mechs before and severely damaged them in previous combat. With our jump-around-a-building-and-launch-every-rocket-we’ve-got technique, these guys were quickly evaporated.

At this point, the large armada of tanks spots the explosions of our missiles. The battle is on and everyone knows we are there. Time to play this carefully.

There seems to be enemy forces nearby, but we're not sure where.

Our GM had given us an additional advantage to this game. Our employers brought a land-mine artillery gun into this fight. Yes you read that correctly. An artillery gun that shoots landmines. Now that our enemy knew we were here, we could begin calling in artillery strikes to setup landmines in the next round. As long as the enemy was not nearby, they would be unaware that those spaces were mined. We immediately focus the artillery at the outside pathways in the city so we can funnel the enemy in the center. This would prove to be our smartest move throughout the game.

After clearing two enemies, we have taken half the city. How bad could the rest be?

What qualifies as not our smartest move, in fact failing completely to come in the running for smartest move, was the remainder of our battles. Enemy mechs would rush up in our faces in avenues and jumping over rooftops, while tanks spun around behind us and called in their own missile barrages. In a few short rounds, our Warhammer was severely damaged and overheating to near shutdown, our Clan mech had lost most of its front armor, and the Shadow Hawk had almost lost a leg. We had only killed 2 of 20 enemies, and we were close to losing this fight.

Fortunately for us, having spammed most of the city with landmines, most of the enemy forces were doing an amazing job of destroying themselves. Tanks would roll over a mine and just survive long enough to hit the next mine. Enemy mechs would jump on top of a roof, get hit with a barrage of our missiles, and then fall back behind cover to see a nice bouncing betty punch them in the nards. As a team of game designers, our overall strategies tend to be flawed but our ability to spawn camp and spam an exploit is unparalleled. 

The enemy experience was pretty much this: Jonah Hill meets Bouncing Betty

As the game progressed, we had more kills from landmines than any team member. Our Clan mech was barely holding on while our Warhammer somehow was able to avoid fire long enough to not go into critical meltdown.

We turned the game into Minesweeper. Notice the sea of deaths near the river of mines.

We lined up all dead enemy mechs and tanks to keep a kill toll. We needed 16 kills to win. We had done enough damage to kill of 14 and just needed 2 more confirmed kills. The time had long passed to earn our secondary mission, but we were very close to our primary and tertiary mission goals. A group of enemy tanks were surrounded by mines, but had chosen to dig in like ticks throughout the game. One tank was cornered and another surrounded in yet another ring of fire. We assumed if we spook one surrounded tanks and fire everything off at the final tank, we have this wrapped up in one more round.

What's an F5 tornado? The finger of God.

We carefully position ourselves in striking distance for the cornered tank, but leaving an open flank for the surrounded tank to take the bait. Correction. 3 of us carefully position ourselves. The tank DOES take the bait and destroys itself. The 4th one of us then takes the moment of celebration a little too far and gets cocky with the Clan mech. He then jumps directly in front of the tank rationalizing that if our rockets don't finish it off, his fists will.

What he failed to realize, but what the GM had been waiting for, was this was a special short-range missile tank, which unloads holy hell into the face of anyone dumb enough to get into its grill. It returned fire with 20 loads of missiles, which meant 20 chances of critical hits. Our grinning GM pulls out his pound of dice and dumps them all on the table. What followed was such a complex round of mathematics and probability, it took 3 of us to help calculate the critical hits and following damage. Both the tank and the Clan mech were vaporized.

So to sum up, we won the primary and tertiary goals and successfully ended the campaign. All of our pilots survived (barely) and can continue on to a new contract/campaign. Nearly all of our equipment is severely damaged beyond repair, but we live to fight and play another day.

Team Tabletop #5 is coming

This weekend is the return of Team Tabletop.

We will be doing the fifth and final mission of our current Battletech series. So far we have cut off enemy communications, found an advanced unit, destroyed a manufacturing facility, and failed in cutting off enemy supply lines. Early reports tell us we will be facing an urban combat environment for the first time.

Should be fun.

We'll be getting an early start, so there WILL BE BRUNCH. 'Cus that's how we roll.

Team Tabletop #4

Battletech Mission #4

Our group of NY/NJ area game developers once again assembled for our tabletop gaming session to continue our current Battletech experience. In the game, we have formed a motley crew of mercenaries trying to make a buck in the conflicts in space.

In our previous 3 missions, we have stormed a fortified communications array, failed to protect a demolition crew to disrupt a supply chain, and blow the holy hell out of a tank factory.

Now we have been told in our pre-game mission briefing that we are to enter a planet covered in heavy jungle. We are searching for a Clan mech, but we will be facing off against an enemy recon squad in the search as well. Our team must rescue the Clan mech, and if possible destroy the enemy recon force and any defenses they have.

How many producers does it take to Meta-Game?

In this group, most of us are game producers and project managers. Since Battletech involves resource management and choice of mechs prior to entering combat, we have applied our professional skills into our strategy.

Our pre-game planning, using mech sheets and a spreadsheet on a Droid tablet to manage repairs

We are facing off against a GM who is a game designer by trade. He is wily and has forced our hand in previous conflicts to extend ourselves and make sacrifices. He has also given us the hint to install Beagle sensors due to the heavy fog and tree cover. And anyone that has played a game with a GM involved, you know that if they suggest something, you better do it. You will not get a second chance to make that mistake.

Over burgers and our Google doc spreadsheet, we analyze what mechs we can repair from the last session. Our heaviest mech has been destroyed which opens up quite a bit of repair time for remaining mechs, so we cover our options:

- most of our mechs need only light repair

- we are heading into a jungle, so we need light mechs with jumping capabilities (it takes more to walk through dense forest per turn). These should also be fast, since our GM has probably hidden the Clan mech on the far side of the map.

- we need to remove weaponry from the light mechs to install these Beagle scanners, so they will functionally be scouts only

- we need to back up the scouts with firepower. We believe most of the combat will be short-range, so we bring in the Thug. We are split on the Warhammer (up-close combat) or the Catapult (long-range damage and needs heavy repairs at this time). The Warhammer can fend for itself, but the Catpult can move faster and the scouts can call in long-range strikes from it when they find the enemy. We decide to risk the repair time on the Catapult and send in our best gun to pilot it.

Somehow this mech required 5 hours of repair to the arms

Our strategy: go in fast with the 2 scouts. As we scan the area for enemies, put the catapult in a good location to hit the entire map. Slowly bring in the Thug for cleanup. Essentially, zerg-rush to the far side of the map so we can cutoff the enemy and get the Clan mech.

Into the Woods

We immediately take off into a pincer formation with the two scouts acting as point. Our scanners are not having much effect as something seems to be jamming us. As we march through (or in most cases jump over) the woods, we see artillery shells being shot off in the distance. A round later, those shells are splashing in where we were just standing. Lesson learned: this is not the game to stand in one spot.

 Not a single reference image on the internet of Battletech mechs in the jungle, but a ba-jillion Avatar images. Internet, you have failed me.

Our scouts are halfway across the map when suddenly our Catapult is jumped from behind. The Thug doubles-back to provide support while our scouts continue to head deeper into the brush. Now our scouts are jumped.

Somehow our scouts are able to pull through, even though they are being out-gunned and out-manuevered, we return enough damage to keep the enemy at bay. We're also able to locate to 3 artillery camps and wipe them out. 

At this point, we have turned the entire jungle into a meat grinder. We have located all artillery camps and enemies. We have given out a fair bit of damage, but our team is also starting to become a little worse for wear. Our scouts are badly damaged, one having lost an arm. Our Thug barely has any armor left, and the Catapult is just able to stay alive long enough to put a few more missles into the air.

Fortunately we were able to knock down one of their mechs. The other mechs scattered as it looked like we would now have the numbers to defeat them. We then had the freedom to look for the Clan mech (which happened to be close to our starting point and we would have found it if we just walked forward).

Next Round - the Final Mission

The next game will cover the final mission in this series. We only have a few mechs left and not a lot of time for repairs. Our team handles knock-down fights well, but we suck at recon and escort missions. Let's see what the GM brings us.

Tabletop Game Tonight

Tonight the plucky crew of NY/NJ game developers will be continuing our Battletech series with our fourth mission. Our team has been pretty beaten up, and most of our mechs are heavily damaged or beyond repair.

No idea what will be coming, though we will be using baby toys for our battlefield layout, especially the squeaky whale.

I'll post a recap of the game in the not-so-distant future.

PAX East 2012 Aftermath

The time of year for PAX East has come and gone, and once again it was an epic gathering of epicness. PAX truly creates an excellent venue by mixing the best of GDC and E3 into a mega-presentation made for the fans. As a game developer, it's great to see the latest games and hear some of my confederates current thinking and direction in games. Here's a quick recap of what I saw:

2012 Expo Hall Floor

Gamers are Awesome

Throughout the entire weekend, engaging with a packed convention center with only shoulder-to-shoulder space, I only had to deal with 2 jerks, and one of them was not part of the convention. Thousands upon thousands of fans converged and were kind, thoughtful, attentive, and considerate. They are also extremely passionate, which seems to be gamers greatest strength and biggest problem.

As gamers, we love this stuff. We love it when someone dresses up in Cosplay, getting to play Felicia Day in Munchkins, or having normal conversations with makers and audience. Just look at the recent Mass Effect 3 ending press. It is an experience that has serious investment from the audience, so much so that the audience is having EA remake the ending!! This connection between maker and audience just has not existed before. Now we live in a world where we can alter what is entertaining us after it has been manufactured!

Hopefully an ending remake that adds awesome this time

But this passion came become overwhelming for the uninitiated. Walking in a densely packed space with cosplayers and obscure in-jokes does not allow much room for a learning curve. These are fans that love this stuff, and cannot understand why you do not share their enthusiasm. It's hard to find common ground with non-gamers, even though we could make connection to how emotional people get over their local sports teams.

What really is the difference between this guy:

And this guy:

If you said "attention to detail", then you are probably a cosplayer.

Here's an example of just how great gamers are in groups:

At PAX East, while waiting in line for Friday, someone blew up a beachball and a crowd game started instantly. We all knew the rules: keep the ball in the air. People would shout at those close to the ball to help push it to those who haven't gotten a chance to play. One dad lifted his son on his shoulders so he could hit the ball. Then 6 more balls came into the fray and I heard someone scream "multi-ball!!" Now you had to be very aware of your surroundings in case a rogue ball came your way.

Even waiting in line is a game

All of this because we were waiting. And excited. But also a little bored. But mostly a community with an unspoken understanding. We are here to have fun. We are here because we are fans. We will not judge your fun or fandom.

The Best 

- Assassin's Creed 3 -my personal favorite of the high-end games catapulted the series to a higher level. There was a demo video that showed how the player would engage in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Expect large armies, historic settings, and a Arkham-esque approach to taking down soldiers from trees. 

- Chivalry - at first this indie game seems like an interesting attempt at first-person gladiatorial combat. Imagine Skyrim only you fight in a mutliplayer arena. It is in it's Alpha stage and it seemed very refined for that level of development. My first playthrough wasn't spectacular, but when I was pushed into a wall of spikes, the game got my attention. My last battle I finished off my opponent, stood over the ragdoll, and decapitated it before the endgame screen came up. I walked away cheering.

The game objective seems to be to kill chivalry in the most bloody way possible.

- Future of Education Panel- I was surprised how many educators came to PAX, but this panel was standing room only. I came away convinced that Valve is up to something that will significantly help your kids in schools. Expect great things in the next few years. 

- World of Tanks- this Russian-made, free-to-play tank game is doing extremely well in the PC market. And the developers are great to talk to as well. Also expect great things from this team in the not-so-distant future

- Secret World- a post-apocalyptic zombie shooter MMORPG. Read that again. The description alone is worth checking out the game.

- Independent Games -  there were a lot of indie games in demo at PAX this year, and every single one I played was a lot of fun. Many were niche games, such as throwbacks to old side-scrolling fighters. But I loved those games.

- Costumes - these fans are putting a lot of time into these intricate costumes, and it shows.

- Team Unicorn & Felicia Day - thanks for being approachable and playing a few games.

- Free-to-Paint Models - great idea to add a little crafting into the tabletop area. How can you not paint a dwarf or ogre when it's free.

The Worst

- More of the Same - Most of the Expo Hall floor was covered with more big shouldered space marine and special ops shooters so that you lost track of what game was what. This may be indicative of the industry as a whole as many studios shuttered in the last few years and this generation of consoles is nearing its end. Many studios are only looking to make money where it has been proven that you can make money. If you are looking for something besides this year's Gears of Duty, go to the indie booths.

- The Staff of the Royale - Usually the GGW party thrown by Digital Noob is one of the best during PAX. This year there was a bit of a snafu as the usual place closed down. Royale provided the save in the last 24-hours before the event. However, the bouncers were instructed to turn away anyone in sneakers and jeans. That's pretty much every single gamer in town.  I even heard Cliffy B was turned away.

This PAX East was bigger and better than previous years, and I hope the trend continues. I am already looking forward to next year's event. See you at the tabletop tables.

Team Tabletop Continues

The call has gone out.

The forces of good and evil will do battle on 4/20. No word on our next Battletech mission as of yet. More on that to come.

Dex Out