Ahh...the last few days of the school year...reports...clean-up...and a few gargantuan games of Fistful of Lead to keep the masses entertained.
My school runs two activity days for the last few days of the year. The few remaining days of the school year in Australian schools are days often allocated to end of year activities, and this gives the students and teachers a break from the curriculum. The teaching staff - those with a bit of energy left in the tank - can run sessions of sports, games, crafts, quizzes, working bees...the list goes on.
The students choose their activities.
This year I've hosted a small but regular group of players for our lunchtime Fistful of Lead games. They're usually lightning quick, shoot & scoot games but the lunchtime format can be somewhat limiting. It means I have to pace myself to get the game set up, run through to completion, and packed away before classes begin again.
The regular 'gang' have been super keen to play a longer game, so the two activities days were a good opportunity for two big proper games. I did not take many photos as I was flat chat busy running the games. In any case, I've run similar games and taken a bunch of photos for other sessions that people can seem on the blog if they wish to click around.
As one can see from the photo above, our first game was huge. 11 players. Humans versus Zombies. It was classic zombie scenario, find the fuel & find the keys, get to the car and drive away.
With 11 Year Seven and Eight students on board, it was hair-raising with loads of noise and carnage and trash talking. My regular gamers were helpful in that they quickly explained the rules to the newcomers, and we were off....
I was the 'game-master', and that meant I was orchestrating the card draws and reminding the students about what to roll, and how to apply all the modifiers. It goes without saying that a lot of the students were pretty loosey-goosey with their measuring as well.
Anyway, it was a hilarious game that the zombies won easily in the end, but being true to the spirit of Fistful of Lead there were:
* wild dogs randomly fighting each other and attacking the humans
*zombie dogs mauling the drunken Sheriff
*the Zombie Lord scaring the 'high school sweetheart' off the table using the 'Fearsome Prescence' rule
*flare guns incinerating groups of zombies
*the lumberjack character got speared through the head with a skeleton warrior's spear (I had to pad out my characters with D&D figures..)
* the Nurse got eaten up early in the game, so the Humans lost the ability to heal themselves
The human players - and not usually for a bunch of teenage boys - had absolutely no plan and little to no coordination. Some of the players found the essential elements, but other players were having too-good-a- time running down zombies on the other side of the board to help out.
As always is the case when you put on a big game, there were a bunch of curious onlookers, and the kids were amazed that someone would & could make all the terrain and paint all the figures.
The second session on the last day of term was smaller, as less students attend the final day. I ran a skirmish battle scenario. Bandits verses Government troops. We had seven players and it was a tough fight that extended into lunchtime - the kids didn't want to go until the game was finished, so it took just over two hours.
Both sides were after the two 'treasure' tokens I had hid around the table. There were a few vendettas being played out around the table, with little regard to the objectives. This has been a real trademark of these games. You give a student a character with a rocket launcher, or some grenades, or a sniper rifle, and all they seem to want to do is go to town on each other!
The fight got particularly nasty toward the end...with lots of savage hand to hand combat, as most of the troops had rolled 'stoppages' and couldn't shoot. All in good fun though, with lots of high energy chatter and trash talking.
In the end the bandits just held out by a whisker, but you can get a sense of the carnage...loads of wounds, shock counters, weapon stoppages and dice...
All the best, Happy End of Year!
Comments
I think this is exactly what would happen with adults - " The human players had absolutely no plan and little to no coordination. Some of the players found the essential elements, but other players were having too-good-a- time running down zombies on the other side of the board to help out. "
We all like to think we would play it sensibly, but really we know it would be a disaster 😁
One thing I do try to keep a lid on though is the swearing. It's always an uphill battle with most kids (& most adults) but the intent is that next year we may put on some public demonstration games, so I'm going to get the students to work on their 'clean' & appropriate language.