Megagame plans for 2019

Happy new year! here are the megagames I am planning to run or design in 2019.

Den of Wolves, 23 February 2019

Den of Wolves is essentially Battlestar Galactica, minus specific IP such as robots with bouncing red eyeballs, with a focus on the politics of the survivor fleet and crisis management. Click on the heading to go to the event page for the game blurb and some links to after action reports from games in the UK.

Den of Wolves is an experiment in using an off the shelf design, and then not hacking the rules! I do have some plans for adding some elements to the game that players can riff off in their roleplaying, but I do not intend to alter any of the mechanical elements of the game. This is also the first time I have run a game in Wellington without piggy backing on a convention, so the cost of the game includes venue hire, as well as production and licensing costs. As we already have players coming from Australia and Auckland, I am hoping for a good local turnout as well.

Tickets for Den of Wolves are on sale here. Unwaged or Control $15, Waged $30. There is a $5 price rise on 19 January 2019.

Photo from South West Megagames, of the three sheets used to control one ship in Den of Wolves.

Colossus of Atlantis, 1 June 2019

A complete revision of the second version of the game. This is likely to be what I run at Wellycon.

The central premise is that all the players start the game as leaders in the expanding empire of Atlantis, and are members of one of the factions competing to dominate Atlantis, without triggering the wrath of the Gods and the doom of Atlantis. The game will follow a three act structure:

1. In the first Act of the game, all player versus player options are disabled. This is a learning phase of the game, during which Atlantis will expand over a map of the Mediterranean and adjoining lands with 60+ significant cities.
2. In the second Act of the game, the player versus player options are enabled and both players and factions can be exiled from Atlantis.
3. In the third Act of the game, we will find out if earlier player actions mean Atlantis is likely to suffer a deluge or not.

The game will feature up to eight factions drawn from Ancient Greek myths and history:

1. The Amazons, a team of women pushing for emancipation
2. The Aristocrats, a team that seeks rule by the best people
3. The Democrats, a team that seeks rule by all people
4. The Medes, a team that supports peace, trade, and magical research
5. The Monarchists, a team that supports the rule of Kings descended from the divine Poseidon
6. The Oligarchs, a team that seeks rule by the wealthy
7. The Stratocrats, a team that supports military spending and war
8. The Tyrants, a faction that seeks to make Atlantis great again.

Each faction has players with the following roles:

• Archon – the team leader who represents the faction on the Council of Atlantis, and in any street fighting that takes place in Atlantis
• Strategos – the team general who commands military units on the main game map
• Engineer – the team builder of military units, wonders and other technological marvels
• Priest – the team magician who tries to keep the Gods happy, and can create curses that harm other players and wards/amulets to protect players from disasters
• Trader – as well as playing an economic role for the team, the trader is also the team spy.

During the game, players will have the option to spend time performing hero quests based on Greek mythology. This might happen if you are exiled from Atlantis for a turn, or if your team chooses to send you off questing. Questing can result in both great rewards and tragic complications.

Flower Power II, second half of 2019

Revisiting one of my best games, which was originally run down in Christchurch in 2006. The premise was a lost colony, settled by peace and nature loving hippies, which had gone through technology collapse, balkanization, warfare, and then recontact with the rest of humanity.

The original Flower Power game was essentially a world war two scenario of mass industrial warfare, with some drug smuggling and COMINTERN intrigue on the side. It definitely resonated with many of the players, who still reminisce fondly about the game today.

I now think the best frame for revising the game is to focus on contemporary issues of fragile states, peacekeeping, and counterinsurgency that we see happening around the world today. Where many of my past megagames have involved teams with relatively equal amounts of power and options, Flower Power II will feature factions with asymmetric power levels and options in the game.
I am not sure yet what the player roles in the game will be, but the factions are likely to include:

1. Offworld aid organisations, trying to uplift local education and economic practices
   
2. Offworld civil government representatives, trying to shepherd the planetary government into membership of an interstellar polity
   
3. Offworld military commanders, trying to keep the peace
   
4. Offworld private military contractors (mercenaries), trying to profit from keeping the peace
   
5. Smugglers, trying to make profits from criminal activities
   
6. Corporations seeking access to local resources, or contracts to supply offworld goods and services
   
7. Planetary coalition government, trying to avoid a return to destructive warfare
   
8. Insurgent factions derived from former local governments, spanning a range of ideological positions, and tactics from non-violent protest to terrorism.