Tears like Rain: PbOM (minis) mini-game

[komradebob]

For the record, hanging out in these parts is having strange effects on my miniatures game designs. This is a stand alone scenario I made up based on Chris Engle's (Matrix Gamer) Politics by Other Means miniatures rules. It is most assuredly a competetive game, but I sense some other CA slipping in there at the edges...
Let me know what you all think.
Robert

Tears like Rain
An Old West Right-outta-the-bag-adventure for use with the Politics by Other Means miniatures rules by Chris Engle. Right-otta-the-bag-adventures are short games meant to be played with a minimum of figures. One bag of plastic soldiers will be enough to play these games. All of the variant rules needed to play the game are included in the adventure. Right-outta-the-bag-adventures are designed as introductory games to teach new players the core Politics by Other Means rules and show the flexibility those rules allow.

The Story:
If you watch older western movies, you might get the impression that the history of the Old West was one of savage native tribesmen attacking defenseless white settlers. Native Americans tell a very different version of that history. In Tears like Rain, a village of Indians comes under attack by a troop of soldiers bent on revenge for a wagon train massacre that occurred several weeks ago. Players will have to decide for themselves whether the villagers actually had anything to do with that attack or whether they are victims being punished for someone else's actions.

Usually in games of PbOM, players will take the role of different competing groups. Tears like Rain is different in that all players will be playing both the Indians and the soldiers during the turn. The object of the game is to get as many of the villagers off the board as possible. The game ends when the last villager has been removed from the board, either by being killed or escaping.

Things you will need:

Two or more players. You can play Tears like Rain with up to six players.

As always, you'll need dice, a ruler or tape measure marked in inches, and some terrain.

A bag of cowboy and Indian figures. For Tears like Rain it will help if your Indians come in at least three different colors. If they don't, you'll want to do a little pre-game prep work. Simply divide your Indians into three basically even piles. Put a piece of tape on the base of each Indian in the first pile and write the letter A.  Write B on the bases of the second set of Indians and C on the bases of the Indians in the third pile.

Set the cowboys aside for now. All of the cowboys are going to be used as soldiers for this game. Don't worry about dividing them by color.

At least one pen or pencil and a piece of paper. You'll need this to keep score as the game goes along.

Setting up the Game:
You can use whatever terrain you have available. In this game, light cover like trees or groups of rocks give better saving throws to figures attacked by ranged weapons. They also block movement by figures on horses. If you use hills, they completely block line of site for shooting attacks.

Have all the players take turns putting out terrain. Stop when it seems like there is enough to everyone.

Setting up the Indians:
Players take turns setting up the Indian figures one at a time. The Indians can be placed anywhere on the table. Continue until all of the Indians have been placed.

Roll to establish initiative order:
Players will act in the order established at this point, from highest to lowest, throughout the every turn of the game.

Pre-Game Rolls:
Before the game gets under way, you will need to establish a few more things.

The 3 types of Indians.
In the game, the Indian figures will fall into three categories: civilians, warriors, and braves.

Civilians are the very old and very young. They do not fight in this game, even if the figure is armed. The civilians are scared and confused. They move d6-1" whether on foot or on horseback.

Warriors are the average tribe members. Although they have weapons, they aren't especially good with them. They are considered to be armed with whatever weapons they have on them. They move d6" on foot or 2d6" on horseback.

Braves are the fiercest fighters in the village. They are armed and know how to use their weapons. They move d6" on foot or 2d6" on horseback. The braves will be expected to hold off the soldiers while the rest of the villagers escape.

With your three different groups of Indians, declare one group 1 or2, the second 3 or 4, and the third, 5 or 6. The numbers refer to the numbers on a die. Make sure everyone playing knows what the color and number match ups are then roll the die. The group that matches the number that came up is the civilian group.

Now roll to decide which group is the warrior group. Pick one of the two remaining groups and declare it 1, 2, or 3. The other one is 4, 5, or 6. The die roll will tell you what color of figures are warriors. The final group is your braves.

If you used tape and letters, you use the same method, but use a letter rather than color when rolling.

Make sure that all of the players are clear which group of Indians is which type. You might want to write it down.

Setting out the soldiers:
Roll randomly to determine one long table edge and one short table edge. These are the two edges that the soldiers will come in from to attack. The short table edge that the soldiers are not attacking from is the escape route.

Players should now take turns picking and placing on soldiers at a time. The soldiers can be set up within one inch of the two table edges you rolled for their entry points. Once all of the soldiers are set up, the game can start.

Playing the Game:
When it is a player's go, they will do each of the following things, in order.

1)Move d6 soldiers. The player picks one soldier at a time and moves it d6" if on foot or 2d6" if on horseback. The soldiers must be moved towards the nearest Indian figure. If there are two or more Indians equally close, the player moving the soldier may decide which Indian the soldier moves towards. Finish moving the number of soldiers rolled, then go on to the next step.

2)The player makes attack rolls for each soldier he moved, one at a time. The soldier will always attack the closest Indian figure that is in range. If two or more Indians are the same distance, the player may choose which to attack. Soldiers hit on a 5 or 6. Soldiers with pistols have a range of 6". Soldiers with any sort of rifle have a range of 12". If the Indian is hit, lay them on their side for now.

3)For each Indian that was hit, the player chooses one of the other players to make a saving throw for that Indian figure. The saving throws are as follows: If the Indian was in the open, the save is 5 or 6. If the Indian was in cover, the saving throw is 4, 5, or 6. If the saving throw is failed, remove the Indian from the game.

4)Players making saving throws for an Indian may choose to make a special saving throw. They may declare that the Indian may have been wounded rather than killed outright. In this case, the saving throws are 4, 5, or 6 if in the open and 3, 4, 5, or 6 if they were in cover. Remove the Indian as normal if the saving throw is failed. If the save is made, leave the Indian on the table, lying down. This figure is wounded and may not be moved without assistance.

5)A wounded Indian that is wounded again is killed without a saving throw.

6)The player now moves d6 Indians. Their movement rate is determined by their type. A wounded Indian may be moved by having an unwounded Indian move into contact with them and then moving both together from then on. A pair of Indians moving like this lose one inch of movement. An unwounded Indian can only help one wounded Indian at a time. They may leave a wounded Indian at any time to make a normal move. When a player is moving an Indian that is helping a wounded Indian, it only counts as one figure moving, not two.

7) If any of the Indians are moved off the escape route edge, the player earns victory points. A civilian is worth 3 points, and a brave or warrior is worth 1 point. If the figures moving off are an unwounded Indian helping a wounded Indian, the victory points are doubled. Make sure to write down the points as a player gains them. Figures that move off the table are out of the game and may not return.

8) The player now makes attacks one at a time with the Indians he moved. Indians that are moving wounded Indians may not make attacks. Civilians and wounded Indians of any type may not make attacks. Warriors hit on a 6, and Braves hit on a 5 or 6. All Indians have a range of 6" regardless of their weapon type.

9) Soldiers save on a 5 or 6, regardless of cover. The player that hit them should pick another player to roll the saving throws. For each soldier that fails the saving throw, the attacking player gets 1 victory point. Write the victory points down as the player gets them.

Play passes to each of the other players in sequence. Each player follows the same steps as outlined. Players may move and attack with Indians and cowboys that other players have already used earlier in the turn.

Special Rules and Events
Players have one opportunity every turn to try to introduce a new rule or special event. (A turn consists of every player going. Once every player has gone, a new turn begins). After a player has tried to introduce a special rule or event, they won't get to try another one until a new turn begins, regardless of whether the attempt succeeded or failed. Any unused attempts are lost at the end of the turn.

The following is the list of special events or rules players may attempt in this game. Each has a description of the effect, rules for when a player may attempt to use it, and the roll needed to succeed. If the roll succeeds, the rule or event takes effect immediately.

If two players attempt to introduce a special rule or event at the same time, they should each roll for high die to see who gets to roll for the event first.

Desperate Strength
Pick any Indian figure. This figure can move two wounded figures instead of just one. The other rules for moving wounded figures still apply. A player can attempt this special rule at any time during the turn. Make sure to mark the figure. Any number of Indians can be given this special ability. Roll needed: 3, 4, 5, or 6.

Braves Attack!
A group of Braves make a desperate attempt to hold off the soldiers. If the attempt roll succeeds, the player may roll d6 and move that many braves (not warriors or civilians) and attack with them. The player may use this special event at any time during the turn. If the braves hit any soldiers and those soldiers fail to make their saving throws, the player attacking with the braves gets 2 victory points per soldier instead of 1. If another player's go was interrupted, they complete the rest of their normal sequence after the player introducing this event has finished the braves' actions. Roll needed: 5 or 6.

Run for your lives!
The player may attempt this special event at any time during the turn. If successful, they may move all of the remaining civilians d6". Only roll 1 die. All of the civilians immediately can move that amount. The player immediately scores any victory points for figures moving off the escape route edge. Roll needed: 6.

Yellow Hair's Ghost
A player can attempt this whenever it is another player's go and they are on step 1 of the sequence: move soldiers. If the roll succeeds, that player must move and attack with 2d6 soldiers rather than d6. Roll needed: 4, 5, or 6.

Flank Maneuver
A group of soldiers has ridden around the village and is trying to cut off the escape route. A player may attempt this before another player begins step1 of the sequence. If the roll succeeds, the attempting player rolls d6. He places that many soldiers up to 1" in from the escape route edge. He must take soldiers from any that have been killed first. If there aren't enough, he may take soldiers from those farthest from any Indians to make up the difference. The player whose turn was interrupted must use those soldiers for steps one and two of the sequence on his go. The interrupted player does not roll for the number of soldiers as usual. Roll needed: 5 or 6.

Tears like rain
Great Spirit weeps for The People's pain. The sky suddenly blackens and a rapidly increasing rain begins, accompanied by stunning flashes of lightning and roars of thunder. The soldiers are momentarily stunned by the unnatural events. The Indians may now escape by any table edge. This event may be played at any time. Players collect victory points as usual. Roll needed: 6.

Ending the game:
The game ends when the last Indian is removed from the table either by escaping or by being killed. The game also ends if there are only wounded Indians left on the table. Players should count up their victory points. The player with the highest total wins. If there is a tie for high score, the victory is shared.

Final thoughts.
Tears like rain is a very peculiar game. As players, the people at the table are competing to get the most victory points. On the other hand, given the story, players will be tempted to act in concert to help the villagers escape the clutches of the bloodthirsty soldiers. The rules are designed to cause players to come into conflict almost no matter what they do. The Tears like rain special event is very powerful, but hard to achieve. With only one opportunity per turn each, players will need to very carefully weigh their options. Some of the other special rules are designed to be distasteful, forcing players to choose between preventing the other players from gaining victory points or saving villagers themselves. I think you'll find this adventure very enlightening and perhaps a little disturbing.

[Callan S.]

Hi Robert,

Looking at it from a nar view point, I think you have lots of thematic pressure, but currently have no clear focus point in place to explore it. For example, if there was a game where you get 10 points for stepping on a puppy, there's some thematic pressure there (I think).

But without an in game focus point from which to explore it, it'll just come down to whether the player wants those points or not. There's not much to explore there that you probably didn't already know about the other player. However, if an in game focus point like a character is introduced, then justifications outside the players own interests can be made. In other words, the player might say his PC steps on puppies, because he was malled as a small child by a dog. Once the justification can be made at a different level than just pure player motivation, it can be a lot more interesting. Were you trying to do that with the players answering whether the indians attacked the caravan or not?

[komradebob]

Hey Callan, thanks for popping by with feedback.

Were you trying to do that with the players answering whether the indians attacked the caravan or not?

Um, no. In all honesty, that got thrown in at the end as bait. Bait, in the sense that since all of the players would be playing the soldiers as well as the indians, I thought I would leave it open and see if some sort of "proto-roleplaying" occured, especially in regard to the play of the soldiers.

However, if an in game focus point like a character is introduced, then justifications outside the players own interests can be made.

If we concieve of the indians collectively as a single character that all the players will control, would that make a difference? Part of the play really does revolev around the reponse of the tribe to this deadly punitive raid by the army: Do you fight, flee, attempt to rescue the wounded? As players, how much are you willing to block other players to win, and by what means?  Will you attempt to outflank the indians, even though that is the only way any of the players will likely grab victory points, yourself included? Are you willing to risk your one free event a turn on opening up the escape routes, knowing that the other players will be a ble to use them also? Are you willing to take a chance on local counterattacks, knowing that your braves will almost certainly end up moving in the wrong direction ( towards the enemy, instead of the escape route)? When you are forced to play the soldiers, how aggressively are you willing to play them? There is a certain amount of flex in there for a clever player, hidden amongst some otherwise very mechanical rules for using the soldiers.

Leaving the question of narr aside for a moment, what did you think of this otherwise ? ( I'm only tabling the narr discussion because I don't have a clear response myself this morning. I'll beg a few hours to consider athought out one).

Anyone willing to playtest this one for me? I could definitely use some feedback.

[Callan S.]

I think it does pose alot of difficult questions to the player. But I'm not sure they have the breadth of impact, since what's at stake for the player is loosing a game and/or watching figures he's sympathetic to but knows are just icons, get taken from the board. While at the in character level, it's alot more confronting. You can't really treat all the indians as a single character to avoid it, because as a player your making choices for both sides and there is no in game character equivalent for that (unless you bring in some double agent type character, who doesn't even have to be on the field). You can get some nar moments though, with indians deciding to drag their friends to safety. But the issue of the player wanting more points might actually conflict with that.

Putting nar asside...I can't put it asside. I wouldn't know how to win your game, and every time I'd ask myself how to win I'd end up asking myself what winning is. It probably would be exciting for other players to find out what I decide, but it'd pale in comparison to what the characters in the field think is winning, with their blood on the line. I'm not quite sure where that leaves you, but I think the design is provocative and would make you think on a few different levels, as a player. If that's what your aiming for, then without having playtested yet, I think you've hit your mark! :)

[contracycle]

In my opinion, Matrix Games already have a tendency to produce RPG-like character identification.  Precisely becuase the rules are so loose that an argument to a characters individual psychology is just as good as an argument to hard physics, character identification becomes "useful".  Now this is not precisely the same, of course, but IMO there is reason to think that identification with nearly any human character in a game is possible to some degree.

[komradebob]

Callan:

Putting nar asside...I can't put it asside. I wouldn't know how to win your game, and every time I'd ask myself how to win I'd end up asking myself what winning is. It probably would be exciting for other players to find out what I decide...

I guess that's the narr-like part I was thinking of when I posted this game. A lot of times miniatures games seem to lack a certain amount of emotional buy-in for the players, at least beyond a "get points-win level". The other players finding out what you'd do part is definitely at the core of what I was thinking.

Although, it wasn't anywhere in my mind when I sat down to write this scenario. I was really just shooting for a minis game that played cat's banjo with traditional minis game sides and turn sequence set ups. It was when it was done that I realized there was a hint of something else in there too.

Contracycle:

In my opinion, Matrix Games already have a tendency to produce RPG-like character identification.  Precisely becuase the rules are so loose that an argument to a characters individual psychology is just as good as an argument to hard physics, character identification becomes "useful".

I'm actually interested in the very early forms of roleplaying. For example, I've been going back and looking at the stuff Dave Arneson has written on his site about early Player to piece/miniature identification in the Blackmoor campaign. Going back even farther, I've been looking at HG Wells work and some of the just pre-D&D refereed wargames of the 60s and 70s. It is that hard to identify point when a player starts to take the piece's psychology and player created/modified personality into account in their in-game actions that I'm finding interesting.

[komradebob]

So...
Can I convince anyone out there to give this a playtest for me?

[Callan S.]

I'll playtest it, but I have little ability to predict how soon. :)