Mines of Moria from GuadaComaCon

I'm a huge procrastinator, which is why it's taken me more than two months to post some more photos from this year's local game convention, GuadaComaCon.

These pics are from a Mines of Moria scenario run by a father-and-son team who made the drive in from a couple of hours east of here.  They missed their scheduled game slot because of car trouble, but I'm glad the eventually arrived and put on their game.

The game was based on the free Swordplay rules from Two Hour Wargames.  It featured all the highlights of Moria: the Watcher in the Water (a scratchbuilt figure), Balin's Tomb, and even the Great Hall with the big, bad, Balrog.

I was running 5150: Star Navy at the time, so I wasn't able to participate or take as many photos as I would have liked.  And as this was about the time my camera battery crapped out, most of the photos were taken on my ancient Blackberry, so apologies for the lack of quality.

As you can see, these gamers had a big setup, and it attracted plenty of interest from attendees.  I'm told that the players made it all the way through, and even managed to actually take out the Balrog--something the original Galdalf & Co. previous groups who played couldn't even manage.  Maybe I'll get a chance to play this next year.

Dungeon crawl: THW style

Got together this week with Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy and helped him playtest a rough version of a dungeon crawl game that he's working on. 

It's still in the early stages and uses a deck of regular playing cards to determine the dungeon layout and your group encounters.

We used the free Swordplay rules, with that game's In Sight test, for combat.  We had three battles between a trio of adventures and five or six goblins; the first group included a leader.

 The battles were quick and deadly.  I enjoyed putting the rules through their paces and offering suggestions regarding the game.  We sure did seem to encounter a lot of goblins, though :)

All the figures are from Reaper Miniatures, and Ed tells me they're painted by Combatpainter, who lives on the border.  The "dungeon" is actually 4"x4" floor tiles.

After that, we had time to play out a three-round smoker bout using the Friday Night Fights rules.  This game is similar to the gladiator rules in that you need to know when to conserve your bonus dice and when to spend them--but unlike Red Sand Blue Sky, you don't get a chance to get more bonus dice during play. 

I ended up KOing my opponent at the very end of the last round after he ran out of bonus dice.

The "ring" is a printout from the game.  I forgot to ask where the minis came from.  My thanks to Ed for once again hosting the gamenight.