Figure Painting Total - February 2019

I picked up a few more figures in February. I picked up some hockey figures at Dollarama to use with the Jugger game. I also got a good deal on the Big Trouble in Little China game. It was a bit crunched in one corner, like it had fallen, so it was 25% off.

Big Trouble in Little China game – 40
Hockey Champions – 24
Chronoscope - Black Mist – 1
Chronoscope – Nightslip – 2
Chronoscope – Sister Marie – 1
Chronoscope – Frank Buck – 1
Chronoscope – Jane Porter, Victorian Heroine – 1
Chronoscope – Pulp Era Female Pilot – 1
Chronoscope – Jack Ryan, Pulp Explorer – 1

Feb figures bought – 72, figures painted – 0

Running total 2019 – figures bought 100, figures painted 0

Have at thee!

So our final project is to fully design a game. The challenge part was to not have a roll-and-move mechanic.

My three main ideas to pursue were:
- a spaceship race game - giving energy each turn to speed/shields/weapons. This would involve a board or set of tiles to make various boards. Each player (2-6/8) would control a craft. They would have a control panel that they would have to adjust each turn that would affect how much they could move. They could also assign points to either front or back shields or weapons to try and damage the other crafts.

- a giant robot battle board game (having read a bit of MechWarrior and Battletech - plus being a RoboJox fan). The giant robot game (2 – 4 players) would be a very simple version with the robots having various weapon types and being able to damage each other. Enough damage would render the various weapons inoperable and finally destroy the robot.

- a gladiator-type board game. The Gladiator game (2 – 6 players) would allow you to equip with various weapons that could do different damage. Armor would be minimal. There would also be the capacity to be pitted against animals – lions, tigers, boars, bulls, wolves.

The giant robot and the gladiator are based around similar concepts. With a board for the arena and the players controlling 1 or 2 figures. I was thinking I could use the battle mechanics as a test bed for my Jugger game rules.

I had also toyed with a western gunfight card game (which seemed to play too fast) or a fencing/swordfighting game (but would have to make different from En Garde or Highlander).

After further thought, I decided to pursue the fencing game. It would involve a board for the piste, markers for the fencers, and cards for the target moves. Being forced off the end of the piste would score as would an attack to an area that the opponent couldn’t defend. The various weapons – epee, foil, saber would all have different target areas.
I have solidified the rules, and had a few test games to ensure it works. The game has the flow I was hoping to achieve as well as capturing some of the unique terms (balestra, riposte, etc).
I have focused solely on Foil fencing to start. After the course I will come back to it and finish sabre and epee.

I have arranged some blind testing - I just have to get the rules from my head to fully realized on paper before that can happen though.

Jugger quotes

In getting together my notes, I watched the Blood of Heroes again - more with an eye to the game and an ear for quotes. The following are some of the good ones.

The opening scrawl: People no longer remembered the Golden Age of the 20th Century. They didn’t remember the miraculous technology or the cruel wars that followed. They didn’t remember when juggers first played The Game or how it came to be played with a dog skull . . .

When he found out how long they had lasted when Sallow's team had challenged the League team:
Young Gar – 26 stones! That’s all, 26 stones and you received the attention of the League?
Sallow - We were the only ones who ever lasted that long – and two of us were still standing. Was a good game. Played very well.

In the elevator down to the Red City:
Kidda – How deep do we go?
Sallow – Very deep.

Sallow's old league teammate Gonzo warning him not to challenge:
Gonzo – Sallow, you’ve got one eye and two good legs. It’s bad enough up top. But don’t f*ck with the 9 Cities.

and my favorite one; the one that sums up the game:
Gonzo – Lord Vile, I’ve broken juggers in half, smashed their bones, and left the ground behind me wet with their brains. I’ll do anything to win. But I never hurt a soul for any reason but to put a dog skull on a stake, and I never will.

Jugger - The Blood of Heroes

I had seen The Blood of Heroes about two decades ago. I am fairly sure I saw it in the theatre and I know I saw it many times on cable and recently picked it up on DVD for very cheap. It stars Rutger Hauer and Joan Chen. It’s basically Mad Max meets Blood Bowl.

Like most gamers, I thought it would make a neat game. I know Chris MacLaughlin had talked about designing a Blood Bowl team based around a Jugger team – naming his catcher a Kwik, etc. I thought about it again recently and did some searching online.

It seems that there are people playing this as a sport. There is a league in Germany and in Australia.
While it looks like fun, and I’m fairly certain that I could get enough people together to field two teams for a game, I’m not so sure that we could play without too much trouble from the Park Police. We’ll have to keep it on the back burner for now and let it mull.

Further searching seems to come up with a lack of a Jugger board game. So I finally put together rules for one. I had an epiphany moment about the movement and it all came together from there. I had a bit of an issue with the board but sorted that out yesterday.
When I get my notes together, I'll post the rules up here.