Mega Game - Mega Post

So this weekend I had plans that involved DIY – and then I got an e-mail asking me if I wanted to take part in a mega game set in Mythic Greece on the Saturday to which my response was obviously 'What the hell is a mega game?' Having found that out my response was 'hell yes!' and so it was I found my self in an upstairs room of the Royal Armouries with 50 other people at 9.30 on a Saturday morning ready to play 'Of Gods and Men'

So what is a mega game?

If a murder mystery dinner party is a larp with really fixed roles and no game mechanics then a mega game is a larp with lots of game mechanics, no outfits and very little role-playing. Well I say no outfits – but a few people dressed up and I did kind of wish I'd brought my Greek Helmet from the fireplace.

There are three groups of players – the gods, the heroes and the city states. We were the 3 players representing the city state Arkadia (should have been 4 but one of our group was randomly taken up to join the God game). It was our job to decide what we did with the resources of our city -

We responsible for assigning the resources of our city – deciding if we built boats, men, temples or city walls, then sending our boats and men to trade and pick fights either with other cities or far away lands.

The hero's were looking for quests and monsters and needed cards to deal with them while the gods were up to something that was rather unclear but could intervene in basically anything they wanted. The hero's seemed pretty straight forwards but the gods had a really interesting design – there were three players for each god and at any point one was behind the scenes doing something that was never clear, one player was the oracle of the god and could be spoken to and one was the hand of the god who could intervene but not otherwise interact. Created a rather interesting mechanic.

Based on the above you should be able to tell that the three groups of players did not understand each other rules sets – and indeed it was clear that each group was not getting a full understanding of there game space and there was meant to be some exploration over the course of the day.

It was designed with a pretty punishing schedule – a turn every 30 minutes and no break for lunch. If you were out of the room for a wee when something went down – then you were out of the room for a wee. Kudos to them – they kept everything on track for that schedule which could not have been easy.

Just like a larp it had a really big of volunteers supporting the event and making it run – with a really high ratio of GM's (or control in there terms) to players as they had one per a city state stationed who sat on your desk at all times. With other ones for specific areas – trade, overseas combat, gods and quest resolution.

So how was it? I want to tell you it was great – but if I'm honest I found it really frustrating.

I found my self initially a bit worried by the 32 page rule book and not only because it was written and set out in a way which gave me flashbacks to games from the 1980's but it also contained the following sentence...

However, certain heated historical controversies, such as the “New Chronology”, the “Dorian Invasion” and the causes of the “Dark Age”, are treated with deliberate liberty.”.

So this game is written by and for people who feel the need to point out that a game with gods in it might not be historically accurate.

Having seen the game in play, and thinking back to the article about theme, I personally think the designer of the game prized fidelity above clarity and simplicity. When your trying to get 50 people playing 3 separate but interrelated games who don't know a game to interact then your rules need to be simple – not simpler then you might normally use but simple. Take for example the 'prestige gain rules' - they ran to about half a page of text and apply differently for attackers and defenders with a different set of modifiers for each – and it certainly felt like they were often ignored or pointless in favour of (you won – have a prestige). And boil down – basically to – did you get really luck on your dice roll because if you did have more points. Randomness has it's place – but basically that seems odd.....

I know from talking to people that in the hero game there was a fundamental disagreement about how one set of rules about cards were applied – which might well have borked an entire element of the hero game.

In one case we were handed a bundle of divine power to support an attack on Attika – only to find out that mechanic did not work that way and the divine player was doing it wrong. Likewise there were tons of little counters flying around that did things (gain resources – have a re-reoll - +1 on all dice rolls for this city state) which had nothing on them to help explain how they were used.

These things are going to happen – but you can limit how much of this happens – design your systems to be simple with an obvious flow, while making sure the UI helps people know what is or is not allowed. A simple city icon on a card will make it clear where it lives.

Equally if you have rules about how can talk to who – then damn well make sure every player knows what they are – not burried away in the rules. Want to talk to a god – you have to have at least a shrine. I'd read that rule – and so did not talk to gods on the first turn – pretty damn sure most other people ignored that. Hell I think – I think – that you were meant to sacrifice 3 resources to a god if you wanted to speak to them (because otherwise I'm not sure what the hell the petition rules did) but I'm still not sure.......

But what really made it frustrating for me that the game was built to have a resource bottle neck into it – gold. Basically everything cool required gold and there was one way to get it – trading. We invested heavily in boats – I mean heavily – and lost every time. Because apparently that god can flip you down two spaces irrespective of your boats, while that person can cock block because you because they control that province, etc. And this happened turn – after turn – after turn. We lined up gods to help us – and it turns out there not that useful in this place or they wandered off and did something else..... And second place is basically pointless while your progress to what you actually want is reset to zero every turn.

Then you discover that yes – you've got this horrible resource block but two groups of players don't because they just get given a gold every turn you wonder why your bothering and seriously consider going home. The icing on the cake being after the end of the game when you discover that a) you can stop those people getting there free gold by attacking them but nobody did – and when you point out you did attack them (twice) so it seems that rule was being missed and b) that every nation should have had some sort of starting advantage but your control did not give you yours (not that two boats is in anyway equivalent to a free gold every turn in balance terms).

The game also needs to work out what it is – because the game makes reference to internal challenges and alternative victory conditions but it's not that sort of game. It's not an RPG – where I can set some personal goals and still have achieved something because it's got victory points.....

The game also had roles for the city people – specifically the wanex who was required to sit at his table at all times. Gods that was boring – being a wanex locked you to a table and often for no damn point......

So we came joint last – we really came last but we got bonus points for how cool our national sign was and while it was a glorious sign that still feels odd to me.

In case your wandering the two sides you can not see say “Ask us about our man eating horses” and 'This space available for advertising”.

Oh – another thing where got rather screwed was from the monster cards – specifically man eating horses. Now I can now see what they sort of where meant do – monster cards go on your table – hero's want to defeat them and in doing so give you the city prestige. Don't defeat them – you don't get a new one (I think). So when card hit our table that nobody seemed to be able to defeat – then that just ground to a halt. Half the game we had hero's coming up – looking at the specifications and going 'There are rogue cards? Huh?' and wandering off. As a city I'm not sure what we where meant to do about this – but it certainly moved us out of . On the day – the need to clear out monster was a lot less clear – they did no harm to the city and so we did not see the incentive to deal with them. That said – I don't know what we could have done to help sort it out – as a city we did not seem to have any levers to pull.

Looking back I can see what we did wrong – we should have got involved in colonies specifically the ones that give control over gold, we should have been less defensive (but getting randomly attacked on the first turn rather put us on the back foot), and we should have been clearing out monsters.

It's all well and good to say what went wrong – but if I don't provide some constructive advice then what's the point. Some of this is very specific – some of this is very general.

Drop the injury and death rules – it seemed pointless and slowed things down a bit. If you need to – give people an injury token if they lose a dual which gives them a negative for the next turn.

Drop character stats for city players – there basically pointless as it stands.

Invest in a projector -and project something up on the wall which shows a) what turn it is, b) what phase it is, and c) how long you've got left till the next one.

Have some more phases – specifically -split the 'admin' phase into a 'ten minute' negotiations phase and a 'five minute' action phase. So make it clear that people are meant to be moving around and talking in that phase – and the pull them back to quickly do there book keeping and actually do what they have to do. Then split the 15 minute 'resolution' phase into a '5 minute go to your space' phase and a 10 minute actual resolution phase. Under the current design a player (be that god, or a hero) could try and do a bunch of different stuff a turn – which lead to some odd waiting around. We've invaded – but there going to get there hero – and are delaying until he gets there. Wait – can they do that? When we got invaded they said “you got a hero? No – lets go”.

Make player presence important – so having a player at a specific trade location or battle is significant. It's ok to make having a hero matter more but if a player is somewhere make that matter.

Drop the roles for city states – but make it clear if a city state has nobody at it when an attack is launched then they just lose....... It's ok to have somebody be “ultimate decision maker” but just revolve that round the table.

Now I'm into more general stuff. Cities, gods and heros need to meshing more – apparently all gods wanted was a battle dedicated to them (Which is another thing – if it's a vital part of the game – make it a required stage not an optional one.....). The cities needs to be holding more resources which both gods and hero's want – that are limited – in order for there to be proper negotiations and deals. A hero will come and lead your assault because it's better then doing nothing. Specifically I'd make a city sacrificing gods to a God an important thing because it boast a god, while a city can acquire hero cards by spending resources (specifically I'd drop the free ones you give players – unless that was a special advantage).

Things need to be more based around how you are doing – so if a city that is doing well attacks a city that is doing badly then it should be worth less to them. While a city that attacks a nations that is doing well should be rewarded for warning.

There needs to be rules around alliances – and where the prestige goes. This should be a major bone of contention when joining up – rather then the current 'we all get it!'.

The trading needs to be less winner takes all and/or not reset to zero every time and/or less susceptible to dickery so that boats are the thing that actually decides trading. So a god can only remove one of you boats per point of power not just move your whole ranking, or an associated colony gives a special token that worth X boats in that place or you can also spend resources/manpower in a one off boost.

Anyway – bit long but there needed to be a lot of background.

I'll not lie – I was disappointed, I had high hopes, and they were not met. If they come back to Leeds I'd be willing to give another one a try but probably not the same game unless they make some radical changes to it.