mini-mace 2009 Report

mini-mace 2009 Report

When we started mini-mace, we were inspired by other events in the area that were running one-day game events (game days) and thought it would be a good way to keep the passion up for MACE, increase our exposure and get more games played.  It has been 6 years since we started.  Since then, mini-mace has not disappointed me.  It is amazing to me just how strong this event has stayed on.  And now we are expanding to a new event down in SC, called mini-mace south.  We only did it because people asked us to. It blows my mind.

I was worried on the day mini-mace 2009 rolled around because I was feeling under the weather.  But I toughed it out and thanks to Diet Pepsi Max, I was able to stay coherent long enough to run two games.  What I noticed first off when I arrived at the Golden Corral at Hanes Mall in Winston Salem, was that it was already getting crowded early one. I guess more and more people are trying to get their money’s worth by getting breakfast. It is always good to get the full day even, even though it does start a little early for some folks.

My first game gathered players fairly quickly – Battlestar Galactica the Board Game always seems to get players.  I volunteered to marshal rather than play so that others could play. This time, we tried a house rule to fix a flaw I found in the game.  Instead of handing out the Loyalty cards, I wrote on poker chips either a C or an H, and everyone randomly drew poker chips.  I also added a S poker chip to include the sympathizer.  Once the Cylon revealed himself or herself, they would draw from the Cylon loyalty cards  to get their special reveal event.

It was an intense game.  It started out real bad and got worse real quick.  Before the first jump, all the Vipers were either damaged or destroyed and at least one Cylon was already making problems for the group.  After the first jump, things seem to get better but gradually got worse again as time went on.

Unfortunately, the game was interrupted by my clumsiness.  It is always a risk when running games at the Golden Corral that food or drink will get on your game. I have taken that risk every year with no problems.  This time, I spilled a glass of water all over the skill cards and loyalty cards,  Ugggh.  We were able to save most of it, and then use some one else’s components while mine dried out.  Thanks Jim.  The humans lost again in the end but came fairly close with 6 Jump points.  The Cylon poker chip method seemed to work pretty well.

I had signed up to run two games the next slot… an RPG and Talisman. I figured Talisman as easy enough that I could get a group going on it and then run my RPG.  No one wanted to play Talisman, but I had a full table for the RPG.

mini-mace is also an event of contrasts between types of players.  Me moving to the board game to the RPG reminded me about this contrast.  Board gamers are very casual and want to play whatever, whenever.  They do not need a schedule.  They just need a table and a game library to choose from.  The RPGs had their schedule in hand and were looking for the next game table in the next slot and when board games ran over, they got confused.  It was interesting.

The RPG group was ready for some zombie killing.  I was running an adventure set in the World War Z world, based on the book.  The game system I was using was True20.  I like True20 a lot.  I basically took a group of people that were on a plane that was supposed to land at Charlotte-Douglas crash in the Catawba River/Lake Wylie area, just south of 85 near Gastonia.  I thought of this before the “miracle in the Hudson” event that occurred at the beginning of the year, but it was eerily similar. The 5 players survive the crash and have to get to safety somewhere dealing with a post Great Panic south Charlotte.

This was an absolute blast.  It had some real zombie-movie style moments.  The group did real well, but we were running late so I had to end it early.  I did not tally up all the kills, but there were quite a few.  And the interpersonal roleplay between the players was hilarious.  I had a Air Marshal, a Army soldier, a corporate exec, a punk kid, and NFL football player who plays for none other than the Carolina Panthers.  It was great fun.

mini-mace had 50+ people, which is the most we really can handle in that room.  If we get more next year, we will need the other room the GC has available. It was a great success.  I had a lot of fun.

See my mini-mace pics on my facebook.

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