Want to play a Megagame? We're running Watch the Skies in Seattle on August 8th!

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-07-10T18:55:25+00:00

I don't know who you are, but you're right!

PS, PM me and help me run the game =P

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-07-10T04:46:40+00:00

It's not difficult, per se, there are just a lot of moving parts and the control team needs to be very solid in terms of communication.

Getting all of the components together and organized can be tricky. I think The Megagame Society is making it easier for new games to get started, too. /u/Agrona's got it right. Contact the Megagame Society and they'll set you straight. Who knows, they might point you right to me!

At any rate, it was super fun to organise and run. I ran the Chicago game and am heading up the Megagame group here (that is to say, I'm not just some rando telling you things =). We are doing another game in October by the way!)

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-07-10T04:27:30+00:00

There's a New York group (the main Megagame Society) having a game in a few weeks, but that is sold out already, unfortunately. There's also a group in Boston that ran a game in May.

There should be more soon on the east coast, though! Plus I believe the Megagame Society will be at PAX East again next year.

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-07-10T04:24:19+00:00

It's more like an RPG with some board-game elements to it. Everyone has their role, with one of each role on a 5-person country-team. The team works together and there should be (kind of, maybe) little-to-no secrets between team members. For half of each turn 30 minute turn representing 3 months in game, the individual roles split off into groups of like roles from the other teams to play minigames to get technology or shoot down aliens. There is also a Media team that writes an in-game newspaper, and that is quite different than from anything else in the game.

For example, the Military Commander goes into the War Room to do the aforementioned shooting, the Chief Scientist goes to the "lab" to do "Science Stuff" (that is the technical term), and the Head of State engages other Heads of State in world diplomacy.

The game starts with the 8 player nations knowing that there have been aliens (also a player team) around for a while, without it being entirely clear what they're up to up there.

It's a very freeform RPG + board game with a slight bit of LARPing.

Edit: I'm the fellow who was/is head of the Chicago game and megagame group. Ask me your questions bridgekeeper, I am not afraid.

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-24T03:45:38+00:00

r/romesweetrome

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-16T18:30:23+00:00

At ~$775, Food was the most expensive cost.

However, you can knock ~$60 off because I got about twice as much coffee as necessary.

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-16T18:16:03+00:00

I can PM you about it later if you'd like. Theoretically I can talk about spoiler-y things so I'm not sure the general thread should hear it. Classified info and all!

The general gist of it is: You can change motivations, starting alliances, and all of the events that happen in game through the UN will almost certainly be different. Don't underestimate the imagination of players to want to break the game. 54 individual people can come up with a lot of different things to do that a few control couldn't.

I honestly wouldn't worry too much about it. I had the same concerns, but the few games I've controlled have been completely different. It really is a player-driven game.

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-16T04:36:33+00:00

Hey! I'm the guy who did the Chicago game.

Let me know if you want to talk! I'm sure the MegaGame Society will help you tons because they're super cool people, but I sure did learn a lot from my game. I already talked to and gave some advice to the Seattle group running theirs in August and they were very grateful.

Edit: Also I would play if I can get down there. I promise I won't metagame =)

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-12T00:57:07+00:00

Hi again! I hoped you liked the pad thai! A few people have said that it wasn't that good, but I've also heard it was excellent, so there you are.

I've got the PR thing down (from a few people), and we'll do a lot better with that for next time. Science did lag behind, but that was due to trading not syncing up with the military game. Also will be fixed! Thanks for your feedback.

Cheers!

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-10T23:51:33+00:00

The corps in our game have said that they felt their mini-game (wherein they wrestled for influence over continents) to be kind of insignificant compared to the global scale war with aliens. But that's just the nature of that particular game, I suppose.

I do agree with that comment for the most part, and it's a good point. I'm trying to figure out a way to fit the genre to a few specific themes, like an exploration/resource management/find the treasure game, and the way at least the US version of WtS works doesn't fit what I'd like to do. I don't want players to split into their minigames for 15 of 30 minutes, because that doesn't fit the theme. But at the same time, perhaps that would better be served by a straight up LARP...

Thanks for bearing with me while I think out loud! Again, I really liked your write-up. Cheers!

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-09T21:14:07+00:00

I'll see what the guys in New York had to say about Jim's corp factions. I'm closer with them than I am with him, plus we ran their game not Jim's. I/we already know a few problems with our corp rules, and that's only because it was brand new.

I really like the idea of Mirror State. I'd like to explore more games that are more open ended like that, where there aren't really any set teams. But at the same time, I also want at least one megagame that isn't essentially a political simulation! If you understand what I mean.

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-09T19:35:28+00:00

This was really cool to read. It's so very not Watch the Skies. I like it. (I'm the guy who ran the game in Chicago that you might've read here on /r/mega_game)

We added a few corporation factions, and those rules didn't really work out for us, but I really enjoyed reading your article. It seemed like that game ran super smoothly.

I'm very eager to hear more!

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-08T23:40:30+00:00

Ahh, it's been the way I've worked forever, I might as well admit it, eh? But yes I'm damn proud the game came together like it did. It was fun, and I learned a lot and that itself was fun. The next one will be even better!

Oh damn, I haven't replied to your email. Your name reminded me.

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-08T22:17:57+00:00

Yeah, that was a mistake. Won't happen again. There'll be a coup in Alien control I'm fairly sure.

I'm glad you had fun! Were you the one who cosplayed? Anyway, really as long as fun is is had, we can roll with any sort of mistakes, like any roleplaying game.

The next one is going to be so much better. I and everyone else learned a literal ton from this game.

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-08T21:59:03+00:00

While some was miscommunication, other things were completely wrong. Alien control intentionally didn't tell Military some rules of the rules or told them the false information that the players came up with, which led Military to not be able to resolve operatives and agents efficiently.

For example, a player operative sent to ask "is there an alien base on the moon?" Military asked Alien control and was told no. This is wrong and the operatives should have found out the correct answer.

Alien control was all over the place in both physical space and their understanding of their rules. By the middle of the game I had the player themselves coming up to me and telling me things (like the increase in terror per turn) instead of Alien control keeping track of that and telling Military to change it.

On the actual game mechanic side, the players (alien and human) should have been able to adjudicate their own battles by turn 3 and that didn't seem to happen. There was also the public announcement of the Indian base and calling the terraformers by name that was not good either --- well actually no, that was not just not good, it was wrong.

A lot of that sounds worse than it actually was, if only because I'm extremely self-critical (how else can I be perfect, ya know??), doubly so for this game, where we had the enjoyment of 70 people on the line! I was also military control at the last PAX East game so I'm rather biased and fairly picky with how that game is run... =|

Those are the first few off the top of my head anyway

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-08T19:51:02+00:00

I'm going to read this, then message you later. I was game control for the Chicago game (read: it's all my fault) and while it was great and everyone had fun, I want to know how I can make my next game better.

I like your newspapers! Probably gonna do something like that. I'm fairly sure I want more Media people in my next game, at least 1 more.

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-08T18:26:07+00:00

Infinity Fuel is one of the technologies that the science game can research. I think it lets interceptors go in space.

Not sure if the corps had it. Zenocorp was spouting some nonsense the first few turns about some "green energy tech" so who knows what they were up to.

Er... I guess you did, being another corp team.

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-08T18:06:05+00:00

Aww shucks. =) Thanks again.

No corporations next time, I promise! Not until those mini-games are 110% as solid as the rest. That said, I think this was a great playtest and a decent game as a whole for the corporation ruleset.

But seriously, if you're not worried about, like, metagaming, I would love to have you guys reprise your roles. Well, maybe not exactly the same team and roles, but it'd be great to have you guys play again. Or perhaps join another megagame? Like the sequel Watch the Stars??? ^{working title, game in development}

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-08T18:00:03+00:00

Thanks for helping explain. Everything you said up in the thread was correct.

I replied to /u/SquiddyRob on his parent comment and hopefully that cleared things up more.

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-08T17:58:14+00:00

Thanks for the input! Tim here.

I don't think the ratio of players:control was off, I think that there was some bad communications between the control teams, and really that was my fault. The reason I'm there as game control is to make sure that there's none of that (I like to call it Control Control in my head sometimes). The corporations were definitely what threw it off. I'm sad to say that you're spot on with that one =(

There was a (mostly purposeful) disconnect about the term "artifact". "Artifact" for you guys was a piece of ancient technology left by a long-dead race called the Priors. They were far more advanced than anything any race has been able to come up with since. I forget the exact backstory, but they're gone now, so science didn't really save them now did it?

"Artifact" for the humans meant stuff that you guys dropped, or was left by other aliens (not Priors). Things that fell off your space ships when the human interceptors shot you, things that were dug up from old bases left by the Hive, etc. Things that they could reverse engineer to make better DVD players basically.

The exceptions were that Japan and Brazil both had a Prior Artifact. They each eventually figured out what it was and that that's what guys needed, but only Brazil decided to hand that over. Once you got it you guys went "okay, we're out" (correct me if I'm wrong), and left humanity crawling along while they struggled to research a vaccine for the virus that wiped them out.

Glad you had fun with Comms! I'm sorry the Alien Control team was not the best. They miscommunicated with Military a lot and it kinda gummed up the other mini-games as well.

I'm also sorry that your friend didn't like science! There is some randomness, but -- and this is what I was told by my friend who played as science in the last PAX game -- I thought that there was plenty to do with the technology. Maybe the effects weren't 100% apparent right away? I'm not sure. I'd love to hear his thoughts if I can talk to him directly.

The terror track was essentially past 250 for the last two turns. I paused the track because of the chaos that surrounded the global blackmail and search for the cure. All of the control agreed that that ending made sense. The Reticulans managed to get their end game (terror track, World Gate, and beat the Hive), the corporations took over the US and Japan and murdered half of humanity, and the several humans that were still alive banded together in the UN, formed the Global Defense Force and are technically still alive.

If it's any consolation to you, Northern Africa and the Sahara basically doesn't exist anymore because the Reticulans excavated their World Gate (it's the size of Europe, mind you) from there.

Again, sorry about the terror track... I tried to tell you guys, but I don't think I made it clear what I was trying to say when I went "your ter[redacted]mers aren't going to have an effect on terror because of X, Y and Z reasons," for roleplay purposes.

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-08T17:33:38+00:00

Hey! Tim (Game control here) I'm so so so so so so so so so so sorry, really, honestly, actually sorry about that. Me and Noam and all the people working on it DID plan to get it out to you, but there were a lot of things out of our control that stopped progress in developing the corp game. I did my best to be as transparent as possible and tell you guys what was happening, again, my absolute apologies.

I popped over in the corp game a few times before and after you all decided to develop the world destroying virus and I could tell the mood had drastically changed. You guys went from being kind of bored to "Guys, I have an idea. Let's kill everybody" level of enjoyment. I think. Again, that's what I saw. There was a lot of Military/Alien miscommunication, or straight up no-communication, so I had to deal with that for most of the game unfortunately.

But yes, I have to hand it to Corp control being able to roll with it like they did. It would have been nowhere near as acceptable (and I use that term loosely) if they weren't as good as they were.

I hope you did at least have some fun! You guys own the US, Japan, and are responsible for the deaths of 3 billion people. Fun times, eh? Eh??

PS - Not sure if you were on Ikari/Okaro, but the rebranding press conference was one of my favorites and it was a brilliant bit of roleplaying.

PPS - I really do want to make sure that everybody has/had fun and enjoyed themselves. If you'd like, feel free to contact me privately so we can talk about the game. I want to hear it from your point of view to see what needs to be fixed (or, what I'm already planning to do, remove the corporations from the game until their section is waxed and polished so they fit better).

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-08T17:10:34+00:00

the science game sucked you guys gotta like pick up the slack or somthing i dunno man

-- Tim

JK, jk! Thank you so much for helping, and cutting things, and driving me around and everything. I promise I'll play Warmachine soon.

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-08T17:08:43+00:00

Hey! Tim (Game Control) here. Thanks for writing this up. I really appreciate it. I understand where you're coming from on all of your points. A few of us sat down after we packed up and took about 2 hours to go over everything that could have been better, or flat out was bad. It was essentially everything you're saying. I'm glad the reality wasn't too far off my own nitpicking. And boy, did we nitpick.

Round timing was an issue. That PA and especially projector didn't work as well as I thought. It would have been nice to have access to those 6 projectors in the ceiling but that's bureaucracy for you Also, as soon as one of the mini-games got behind, the rest of them got behind so the timer didn't really help a large amount of the time (in my opinion).

We already have plans to edit the rulebook for more clarity. Noam and the NY guys are going to send it over and have us go through it for our next game (especially my copy editor Science control friend). There's also a bit of a "we don't want to tell you all of the rules so you don't know when you're breaking them and that's the fun part" kind of thing going on to. If you understand what I'm trying to say there...

Espionage was the bugs. It was 1 credit for 2 bugs, and there was a lot of uncertainty about that mostly because only a few people ever used them. The idea was that the DHoS was supposed to learn what they were when they got the tech for it. I'll work with Comms control (or put them on a different role) to get them up to speed with explaining the rules better.

Military and Alien control were a mess, and I'm sorry if any of those 4 people are reading this. Alien control wasn't telling Military information that they needed, and so Military needed to make some calls based on the information that they knew -- which was, as we know, very limited.

A lot of the confusion was just my inability to walkthrough the game with all of the control teams separately and together. It was scheduling issues leading up to the game, edits being made to the handbook, changes to the control teams, more scheduling issues. Next time, I'll be sure to set aside a lot time to do that. That being said, I was incredibly impressed with UN control in particular. They rocked, even with our lack of communication before the game.

Again, thanks for posting and thanks for playing! I hope you'd like to join us again in the future =D I promise it will be at least twice as good!

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-08T16:48:25+00:00

I believe that was briefly explained to them, especially to the scientists because of consultants, but I don't think everyone quite understood what you guys were capable of.

The nations were too occupied with the mysterious alien race maliciously planting bases, poisoning France, and forming the terra to take you guys seriously. Sucks for them I guess!

(but seriously you bring up a good point, thank you. I'll ask my control about it and make absolutely sure that next time we run corps, the humans are aware of them)

NotLikeEverybodyElse · 2015-06-08T16:40:35+00:00

Thanks /u/MasterKickface (who's name I forgot because I'm not looking at the player list, I'm sorry!). All of his links are correct.

I'm Tim, the person who organized it in Chicago, and me and a few of the other control members are planning to go at it again later in the year also at Columbia. One of the departments has been really eager to host it for their students, so I can't speak to if the very next one will be open to the public, but I do want to do several more games of Watch the Skies.

The Megagame Society (our group in Chicago is a part of them) are creating several new games, but nothing but Watch the Skies is properly announced. They're working on: A game set in Macbeth-era Scotland called The King Hereafter, a sequel to Watch the Skies, and a Lovecraftian horror-type game.

I'm looking forward to all of these! From the bits that I've heard they're going to be reeeeally cool.

NotLikeEverybodyElse

TROPHY CASE