UK September 2012 k/spiel

It's 12:30pm on a normal Tuesday at Flatwood School. You and your clique are loitering/smoking/revising in your usual spot when over the school tannoy you hear the following (panicked) announcement, "Attention all pupils! There has been a zombie outbreak in canteen. We think it was caused by the Turkey Twizzlers. The military have been informed of the situation, and rescue helicopters will be arriving at... NO... HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?... PLEASE... LET GO OF ME!... ARRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!! *FLESH RIPPING SOUND* OMNOMNOMNOMNOM!"

If you would like to come, please sign-up to Doodle here http://doodle.com/u7uvxmbepihwinun

Subject to numbers attending surviving, the game will be followed by our inaugural AGM, election of officers etc.

Martin

Still checking diary...

If the boys fancy a big game on a similar theme...

http://www.megagame-makers.org.uk/

http://www.megagame-makers.org.uk/megagame-urban2.htm

Or there is a WW2 game...

http://www.megagame-makers.org.uk/megagame-eotb.htm

Thanks for the links Mark. It can all feed into the design process.

Martin

Hi all,

A little more information on the game:

The date for the game is now set for 23rd Sept.

Each player will represent the leader of a different school clique - Nerds, Jocks, Bullies etc. - each of whom will have their own strengths, styles of play, and objectives.

The main aim of the game is to survive, but of course, while everyone's distracted by the zombie menace, there will be opportunities to settle some scores and make some... improvements... to the school. As always, beware of teachers!

If you're interested, and haven't signed up yet, you can find the doodle sign-up linked in the top post (apparently I'm not allowed to link to it directly yet!)

Phil

How many player slots are there? Its looking quite likely that my daughter, Megan, will be joining us. Cookery class girls maybe for her? Some nasty weapons among the breadknives, meatcleavers and electric mixers I imagine.

Excellent news. There is certainly room for more players, and Megan will be very welcome to join us.

There is actually at least one all-girl clique included in the design, but there is no reason why she shouldn't take charge of the Bullies, the Rebels or any of the other groups if she would rather do that.

Can you or Megan add her to the doodle list please.

Martin

I hope the game went well?

All dead and now Zombies?

Excellent game Mark, yes.

Actually we played two games in succession, as zombies tried to take over Flatwood Park School, and various cliques and factions took them on.

In the first game the Bullies ploughed a lone furrow. They had a number of adventures, but by-and-large avoided heavy combat with zombies. They were first to reach the rescue helicopter when it arrived, and fibbed to the pilot that they were the lone survivors. They also achieved a secondary objective by saving the school hamster of which their leader was unaccountably fond.

Meanwhile the Jocks, Nerds and Japanese Exchange Students had battled bravely and killed scores of zombies, although several of their own number were caught and devoured on the way. Sadly, significant portions of the school were blown-up and otherwise burned in the process, due to the liberal application of Molotov cocktails. The 3 factions eventually managed to link-up, and were moving towards the rescue helicopter as the game ended. Their last sight was of the helicopter disappearing into the distance, as about 80 zombies closed-in to finish them off in the playground! Was that the Bullies waving at them through the rear window? Yes I very much think it was.

The second game was notable for a failed attempt by the Nerds to blow-up the Food Tech room by turning on all of the gas cookers. This was foiled by the Prefects, who naturally officiously tried to protect the school fabric. Pleas by the Nerd leader that they might kill a lot of zombies, and that Food Tech was not a real subject anyway fell on deaf ears.

There was a more serious confrontation in the Staff Room. The head of the Cheerleaders had recently refused to date the leader of the Bullies. In revenge, he was determined to steal her favourite party dress. His group finally caught up with the Cheerleaders in the Staff Room. They snatched the dress, but the Cheerleaders had, unbeknownst to them, previously acquired some antique pistols from one of the classrooms, and proceeded to gun-down the Bullies in fine style. With friends like these, who needs zombies?

The rescue helicopter was now arriving and the feisty gals made their way expeditiously to it, where they were joined by the Prefects for a well-earned escape. The poor Nerds remained as 'zombie-meat' for the second game running. But who cares about them anyway........oily little swots.

Great fun, and we all thought this would be well worth running again. Thanks to Phil and the other youngsters for putting-on their first game.

Martin

Sorry to have missed it and sounds like great fun...

Some good stories to tell...

Had great fun. In the first game I played the Japanese Exchange Students who could not speak or read a word of English, so all the classrooms and offices that were clearly labelled on everyone else's plan of the campus, to me were blank, so I had no idea where I was going, and when the headmaster announced over the tannoy that the rescue helicopter would be arriving outside the French and German classroom in ten minutes, my guys were none the wiser.

We were however, in true manga stayle, all ninja trained and had leet skillz in shuriken and nunchaku so as a consequence, and being well-armed, we ploughed through numerous zombie groups, helped by entering the staff lounge and pilfering all the teachers brandy, rum and whisky bottles, stuffing soaked rags in their necks and so arming ourselves with a few molotovs. A barrage of these took out one whole group of 12 zeds in the corridor that linked the history classroom to the girls bathroom. By then however a huge explosion had rocked the entire science wing and we later found out (by gestures and much smiling and bowing) that the Jocks had turned on all the bunsen burners in one science lab and left some burning materials in the other. Eventually gas met flame and half the school went up in a vast fireball.

The Japanese students eventually got into the groundsman's hut (having seen the Jocks go in just before them and emerge with a chainsaw and Bob the school caretaker's stash of porn mags) where we found a large ride-on lawnmower with a grass bin trailer and a stock of cleaning mops and petrol. Soaking the mops in the petrol and thus arming ourselves with flaming torches we proceeded out of the store shed roaring along in a Naruto-themed combination of panzer-grenadiers -meets- Viking funeral.

A huge battle developed in the quad, in which we roadkilled no less that 17 zeds and burned many more in co-operation with the Jocks and their chainsaws only to finally see the rescure helicopter lifting off with the grinning and waving Bullies safely on board. Shimatta, as we say in Japan.

We did get the Cornetto award of that game for slaying no less than 45 zombies, by far the highest of any group although we lost two of our own number, Gendo and Shinji.

In the second game I umpired and Megan played the Cheerleaders but I think they were more akin to anime magical combat waitresses or something as they were seen running about the place variously armed with arc welding gear with gas cylinders, a circular saw from the woodwork shop and some antique pistols formerly owned by the Geography teacher. As Martin above relates, a final stand-off between their leader and the embittered and love-spurned leader of the Bullies ended in the Cheerleaders shooting the Bullies and escaping with one of their two objectives completed which was to save their fashion show dresses although these were somewhat spattered with Bully blood.

It was a great day and the game pacing was about right. The humour of the game made a nice change to the usual serious business of military Kriegspiel. Megan thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Mr. Digby wrote:The Japanese students eventually got into the groundsman's hut (having seen the Jocks go in just before them and emerge with a chainsaw and Bob the school caretaker's stash of porn mags) where we found a large ride-on lawnmower with a grass bin trailer and a stock of cleaning mops and petrol. Soaking the mops in the petrol and thus arming ourselves with flaming torches we proceeded out of the store shed roaring along in a Naruto-themed combination of panzer-grenadiers -meets- Viking funeral.

Armistead's Brigade in full cry!

Thanks all for the kind words. Glad it seems to have gone down well with the group

It was great fun watching it all unfold, and seeing everyone getting into the spirit. Definitely well worth the effort, even if the last minute rush of getting it all in shape (insert dad's frown here) did leave me wiped out from Sunday evening all through Monday.

A big thanks are due to all those who helped me with the design process, couldn't have produced anything even close to that without their help and guidance.

Any suggested improvements for what I hope will be next time are more than welcome!

Until next time...

Phil