Sunday, February 28, 2010

Grizzlyville Goes with a Hitch --  

Well our local gaming convention, Dak-Kon XV, was this weekend and "Shootout in Grizzlyville" won the "Best Presentation Award for 2010".

Sadly I was not there to see it.  I came down with a ferocious bug and was too sick to attend (I could barely even talk).  Fortunately my gaming buddy, Murdock, was able to fill-in for me. 

Instead of using the MDF boards as previously reported, he used one of the Hotz Matz from Hotz Artworks.  Specifically it was the "One Horse Town Western Town Mat" and it is perfect for use with the "Whitewash City" buildings.

Murdock was able to run four games (the first simply a "training game") over an 8-hour time frame.  As previously indicated, he used the "Fistful of Lead" rules, which are very easy to learn and lots of fun to play.

In the photo to the right it looks like some British Colonial figures have somehow appeared on the table.  (By the way, click on any photo for a much larger image.)

Well, Grizzlyville is set in southeastern British Columbia, Canada . . . and the original uniform of the Northwest Mounted Police was in fact the British colonial uniform, including the very climate-inappropriate "pith helmet".

 I've only had a brief phone call from Murdock (and a few photos that he emailed me), but one of the highlights was when the NWMP appeared on the table.  One of the onlookers suddenly went, "ooh, I want to play them" . . . it turns out that he was a real-life Mountie!

Apparently the games were lots of fun . . . and lots of Dak-Kon attendees were excited about the buildings -- which are available as inexpensive .pdf files -- so it is a good thing that I had printed out about 50 fliers with the web addresses for the buildings and game rules.

-- Jeff

9 comments:

marinergrim said...

Great news about the game. Bad news about the organiser.

Hope you're feeling a lot better Jeff and able to enjoy the warm glow of putting together a winning game.

Bluebear Jeff said...

Thanks, Paul. I'm feeling a bit better . . . it isn't anything serious, just a very nasty cold . . . but it would have been ridiculous to try running a game when I could barely whisper and was coughing all of the time.

Yes, winning the "Best Presentation Award" does give me a warm glow . . . but I was sort of figuring I'd have a good shot at it . . . the buildings look very impressive on the table top.


-- Jeff

Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.com said...

Well done Sir! But a shame you couldn't be there in person to enjoy the day. Good thing you have stalwart associates.

Are you familiar with Ian Tyson's "Four Rode BY" about the BC outlaw Allan McLean and co?

http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ehultgr/music/lyrics/f/four_rode_by.txt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_McLean_(outlaw)

-Ross

Bluebear Jeff said...

Ross,

Thank you for the good thoughts.

No, I am not familiar either the book or the outlaw . . . but I will check them out.


-- Jeff

tidders2 said...

hope you're feeling better; glad to know the demo game whent alright and did so well

-- Allan

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Congratulations on the prize! Well done, hard work rewarded...

I think some kudos to Murodck as well for stepping into the breach - a good buddy indeed...

A J said...

Gah! Murphy strikes again. Just when you needed to be fit for the game, along came a bug! I hope you feel better soon, Jeff. It sounds like Grizzlyville was a justified success.

ColCampbell50 said...

Jeff,

Congratulations on winning the game prize! And best wishes on a very speedy recovery.

Jim

MurdocK said...

Best game of the day was the last one with three gangs of outlaws taking on the sherrif and the troop of North West Mounted Police that had taken a rest-stop in town!

The 'improvised' building shootout rule got used to a final super-cinematic conclusion!

I plan to have it written on my blog this coming week.