Halloween fun
November 1, 2015So, Halloween is behind us, and it was a blast! We had a few friends over for gaming, too much food and a movie, and while sadly a couple of guests had to give it a miss due to a flu, the evening was a success. The movie of the evening was Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. I was seriously suspicious at first, but the movie was an absolutely brilliant 80s horror comedy that I had somehow missed until now. We ate, ate and ate some more, here are some pictures of what was on offer:
I did a lot of prep for the game, which in my mind was the main event of the evening (although the food and sweets most likely were it, actually), painting the last minis until 6AM Saturday morning. Even with that I wasn’t able to finish everything on time, so the priest mini you’ll see in the photos had to go on the field unbased. In the end I had most of the minis finished – pictures will follow in later posts – so we got to play the game with fully painted minis. Plenty of pictures to follow, just click on any of them for larger versions.
The game featured an unlucky town somewhere around New England in the 18th century. Every year this town gets attacked by monsters on Halloween. It’s not that big of a deal, some towns have to deal with drought, some with Indians, some with monsters, and at least the monsters attack only once a year. The scenario was very simple, with an endless stream of villagers streaming towards the village church from the edges of the board, monsters trying to catch then and five villagers armed with muskets trying to drive the monsters away. There were some bonfires scattered around the table, making life more difficult for the monsters and weakening them in combat if they got too close, with the church and the priest having a similar effect. The game lasted for 12 rounds, or the twelve tolls of the church bell on witching hour. The system we used was a simplified and streamlined version of Ganesha Games’ Fear and Faith, utilising the Song of Blades and Heroes engine.
The monsters were a werewolf, a vampire and a group of zombies. Each had their own strengths and weaknesses: the werewolf was the strongest in combat, but if he killed anyone, he had to stop for a while to savage and eat the body. The zombies were slow, but all but impervious to shooting and they added anyone they killed to their ranks. The vampire was the weakest one in combat, but usually had more actions than the others. He was also unable to go too near the bonfires and the church grounds. The villagers couldn’t kill the monsters, only drive them away momentarily by shooting – after all, the monsters were the stars of the show. The players were running the monsters, trying to gather as many points as possible by eliminating the villagers.
What followed was a riot. I don’t have a detailed report of the game, so I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. We saw the vampire and the werewolf rampaging around, the zombies milling around in confusion, plenty of villagers die and the monsters getting driven off several times by well-placed shots. During the entire game, only three villagers made it to the church alive, with the vampire proving to be the most efficient killer despite the werewolf collecting big points by catching the priest on the final round. Everyone really enjoyed the game, especially my girlfriend playing said vampire and trying miniature games for the first time. And NO, the game wasn’t biased…
First off, the monsters:
And then the game itself (photos by Emmi Lounela):
Photos by Mia Meri:
So that’s it! We had so much fun, I definitely recommend themed games and plenty of sugar for everyone. I’ll leave you with one more horror, happy Halloween everyone!
That looked like great fun dude! A fantastic way to introduce gaming to non-gamers.
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by Bob Kinnear November 1, 2015 at 20:39Cheers Bob! At this rate I’ll soon have someone to actually game with regularly…
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by Mikko November 1, 2015 at 21:28The setup looks great, especially the lit up church. I’m glad it went well! (Just visiting from finding your modern vampire wargame project.)
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by Craig Oxbrow November 2, 2015 at 12:25Thanks for the comment Craig! Suitably enough both the vampire and the werewolf (and the ruleset, come to think of it) were bought for said project – that never really materialised.
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by Mikko November 2, 2015 at 19:51Very cool scenario and I also like the lit up church. The food looks good, too.
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by daggerandbrush November 3, 2015 at 23:30[…] this year have related to pirates, like the civilians (see here and here) that I painted for our Halloween game but will be used in pirate gaming as […]
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by Looking back on 2015 | Dawn of the Lead December 31, 2015 at 18:26That looks like a great Halloween game, I particularly like the lighting effects in the church, it makes it look like a real sanctuary from the evil night! What rules did you use for this game?
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by tinpotrevolutionary January 2, 2016 at 15:27Cheers! The church lighting was accomplished by sticking a smartphone with the flashlight on inside. We used a modified version of Ganesha Games’ Fear and Faith, which worked fine!
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by Mikko January 2, 2016 at 15:45Haha this was brilliant! “Where is your God now?”
The whole thing kind of reminds me of Sleepy Hollow.
Great WordPress name by the way. Very clever. Plus Dawn of the Dead (2004) is one of my all time favourite movies.
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by imperialrebelork September 13, 2016 at 13:35Hahah, thanks! Also a good call: I actually had a Headless Horseman miniature planned for the game but I didn’t have time to finish him…
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by Mikko September 13, 2016 at 15:37[…] year’s Halloween game was a success, so I’m running another one this year. With my interest going the way of […]
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by From the painting desk #44 – Horrors of the deep | Dawn of the Lead October 23, 2016 at 15:08[…] game, and I finally finished the Headless Horseman miniature that I originally intended for the Halloween game of 2015. Better late than never, I’d […]
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by From the painting desk #57 – Headless Horseman | Dawn of the Lead November 6, 2017 at 12:02