Pirate Gaming at Brickfest 2000

See my LEGO® Pirate Links page for general pirate links.
See my LEGO® Pirate Ships page for information on pirate ships.
See my LEGO® Pirate Gaming page for gaming links and discussion.
See my LEGO® Pirate Creations page for my own creations.

On June 10, 2000, I ran a game of Evil Stevie's Pirate Game. This page is a writeup of the game.

In the following pictures, the smaller pictures are thumbnails of larger pictures, click on the small picture to see the larger picture.

PICTURES OF PIRATE STUFF AT BRICKFEST 2000

© Copyright 2000, Abe Friedman
Linday Braun's Gloire. This ship was not used in the game, but was handy in case the imperials needed re-inforcements...

© Copyright 2000, Abe Friedman
Some of the assembled pirate ships out on display Friday evening. My Black Seas Barracuda is in the front, with the Red Seas Barracuda to the left. You can see the pink sailed ship of mine. The Carribbean Clipper, Cutter, and Red Beard's Runner in the background are all Stephen Roberts's. The rest of the ships are mine (and this is only about 1/3 of what I brought).

© Copyright 2000, Jennifer and Dan Boger
A small pirate base. This was used in the game over near Stephen Campbell's imperial base.

© Copyright 2000, Abe Friedman
We moved the pirate ships into the train and historical sets room for safekeeping overnight.

SETUP

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
Early in the set up of the pirate game

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
Shiri Dori and unidentified kid (who had fun playing with the ships, but didn't play the game) consult with Frank over the set up

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
Frank plops something down

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
The islands have started to sprout

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
Frank starts to build skull island

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
Skull Island starts to take shape

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
Shiri starts to help set up

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
Mike Shamus joins in.

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
Gotta love that Brickfest 2000 shirt!

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
Good thing those pants didn't split!

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
Looks like Skull Island is complete. Note also that some of the other islands have sprouted trees.

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
The crews are starting to assemble

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
Oops - earthquake. Shiri arrives with her the Bloodstone Inn for one of the neutral ports

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
Stephen Roberts starts the "Piracy 101" class.

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
"Hey you in front of the camera, get your butt out of the way!"

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
"Piracy 101" is in full swing

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
The pirate fleet starts to assemble

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Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
Sorry, secret preparations in progress...

THE GAME

Brickfest 2000 Webcam image, © Copyright 2000, Kevin Loch.
Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines! (woops, wrong period...) Captains, plot your moves! The game finally starts

© Copyright 2000, Jennifer and Dan Boger
The fleet of larger ships awaiting potential use later in the game (note that we never got very far in the game to bring in larger ships). The largest ship which saw action was a Class 3 Imperial Flagship.

© Copyright 2000, Shiri Dori
I'm confused about something (standing). Jeff Stembel, Andy Lynch, Chris Weeks, Jameson, Lindsay Braun.

© Copyright 2000, Shiri Dori
Stephen Roberts explains something about the rules while Lindsay stalks across the ocean. Abe is in the background.

© Copyright 2000, Tim Courtney.
Lindsay Braun and the assembled fleet. Lindsay's ship is by his foot and the Eldorado Fortress is beside him.

© Copyright 2000, Tim Courtney.
Jeff Stembel, Andy Lynch, Jackie Lynch, Chris Weeks, and Stephen Roberts's legs. This picture is of the starting positions. From the left you see Skull Island and Temple Island with a small ruined temple, next are the whales, then Weather Island. Just in front of the players you can see a neutral port on the left and the Imperial Trading Post on the right. Sabre Island provides an additional guard for the trading post.

© Copyright 2000, Tim Courtney.
Shark, unknown spectator, Jeff's ship in starting position, Jeff Stembel, Skull Island and Temple Island, the neutral port, and Andy's legs.

© Copyright 2000, Tim Courtney.
Stephen Roberts and Abe Friedman (starting to move his ship on the first turn). You can see Port Jamaica (the pirate base) and several smaller islands.

© Copyright 2000, Tim Courtney.
In the background is the neutral port which had Shiri's Bloodstone Inn. Coming forward is Jameson's legs and his ship, Lindsay's ship, and the Eldorado Fortress. That's Abe to the left.

© Copyright 2000, Tim Courtney.
Stephen Campbell standing, Shiri Dori sitting, and myself directing people to start their first turn. To the left of Shiri is a smaller pirate base. Stephen's fort isn't out yet. The Helfarrr is in front of Shiri.

© Copyright 2000, Shiri Dori
Left to right: Nathan McDowell, Jeff Stembel, Andy Lynch, and Jackie Lynch. Nathan will later take over Wanda and Colin's ship currently being played by Andy and Jackie.

© Copyright 2000, Chris Weeks
Chris Weeks's ship, the Gungan Kludge, captained by Cap'n Hoppin John. This is one of two "emergency" cutters which I built in five minutes from a pair of Belville row boats. These ships actually were somewhat reasonable.

© Copyright 2000, Chris Weeks
A pair of pirate cutters sail the high seas. That's Lindsay's Deadly Bumblebee captained by Cap'n Quigon L'Effete on the left with Mike Shamus's ship on the right.

© Copyright 2000, Jason Rowoldt.
This looks like turn 1. People clockwise from the left are Jackie Lynch, Chris Weeks, Stephen Roberts, Abe Friedman, Jameson, someone's legs, the back of Shiri's head, Andy Lynch's legs. This is a nice picture of the overall layout of the high seas. You can see most of the bases and islands (the only things not visible are Stephen Campbell's fort and a pirate base which would be off the bottom of the picture.

© Copyright 2000, Frank Filz.
Here we are on turn 2 I think. Around the room clockwise starting in the upper left are Stephen Roberts, Abe Friedman, Jameson, Lindsay Braun, Tim Coutney, Shiri Dori, and Mike Shamus in the center. You can see part of Jacky Lynch and Chris Week's legs. Andy Lynch and Jeff Stembel are out of the picture (but that's Jeff's ship in the lower left). Wanda and Colin are captaining (and 1st mating in the case of Colin - no, not his first time with a woman you dirty minded person, Colin is the 1st Mate) the Rusty Bucket which is just above Jeff's ship, also heading towards Skull Island.

You can see how nice the LEGO range sticks look in the pictures.

Just above Skull Island, you can see Weather Island, which utilized Chris's playground. In front of Stephen is Dino Island (island also supplied by Chris, Dino's by myself). To the left of Stephen is the 6277 Imperial Trading Post. Between Stephen and Abe is the pirate base (6279). Behind Jameson is a neutral port, with Shiri's Bloodstone Inn. Right in front of Lindsay is 6276 Eldorado Fortress. Mike and Tim are converging on a treasure island. Behind Mike is a native outpost. Between Mike and Skull Island is another treasure island. Another neutral port is between Jackie and Jeff off the left side of the picture. Another pirate base is near Shiri, and Stephen Cambel's Imperial base will show up in front (well in back of Hurricane Shiri).

© Copyright 2000, Jennifer and Dan Boger
It looks like I'm on my way over to help Mike and Tim resolve combat. Shiri has just moved up to the merchant ship, but note that it is about to escape when I remember to move it. Stephen Campbell is sitting and taking in the situation, deciding when to join the fray. Note his imperial base at his feet.

© Copyright 2000, Shiri Dori
Cap'n Scarrr of the Helfarrr closes on the merchant ship and attacks (note that I had forgotten to move the merchant ship for this turn which caused some of the confusion - the ship suddenly sprang away from the Helfarrr here).

© Copyright 2000, Chris Weeks
Lots of local gravity problems. That's Tim Courtney's ship, the Plasticity, captained by Cap'n Bad Jim the Funny Hat.

Shiri's ship, the Helfarrr, captained by Cap'n Scarrrr, is trying to chase down the Imperial merchant ship, but due to a favorable wind it will escape to the fog (I was also estimating distances so who knows if it got a slight extra tailwind or not).

© Copyright 2000, Frank Filz.
Now we pan to the left of the room a bit. From left to right are Nathan McDowell's legs (he will later take over Colin and Wanda), Jeff Stembel, Jackie Lynch, Andy Lynch, Chris Weeks, Stephen Roberts, Abe, and Mike's legs. Now you can see the neutral port in front of Andy. This picture is also at turn 2.

© Copyright 2000, Frank Filz.
Lindsay's ship, the good cutter Deadly Bumblebee, with Cap'n Quigon L'Effete at the helm, passes by Jameson's ship and they exchange fire. Lindsay's ship is the blue and yellow cutter. Note a small island with an alter of some sort and a spider guarding it.

© Copyright 2000, Frank Filz.
The Rusty Bucket and Jeff's ship close on Skull Island. The Rusty Bucket is the ship on the right.

© Copyright 2000, Shiri Dori
Andy Lynch, Jacki Lynch, Chris Weeks, Stephen Roberts. Jeff's ship and the Rusty Bucket (captained by Wanda, Colin as 1st mate) approach Skull Island.

© Copyright 2000, Frank Filz.
Cap'n Quigon surveys the seas over a rum and coke (well, the rum was a little weak, perhaps it was just a coke [whatever that is, tastes like bilge water with a bit of sugar in it]....).

© Copyright 2000, Chris Weeks
Stephen Robert's Red Tail (Cap'n Blargh), Chris's ship, and Abe Friedman's ship arrive at Dino Island.

© Copyright 2000, Abe Friedman
Dino Island is visited by three ships. That's Chris Weeks's ship in the upper left (and I think those are Chris's legs), Stephen Roberts's ship is in the upper right, and Abe's ship is lower center. I think this shot is from before the T-Rex was killed.

© Copyright 2000, Abe Friedman
Looking over towards the Southern part of the ocean. Lindsay's ship is in the foreground center. Jameson's is behind and to the left. Dino Island is at the lower right corner. Starting from the left, going clockwise, we have Tim Courtney showing off the great Brickfest 2000 T-Shirt. I'm helping Tim and Mike Shamus deal with a treasure island and some natives. You can see the merchant that Shiri was chasing just peeking above Tim, with the Helfarrr sailing out from behind Mike. I'm not sure who the spectator sitting in the chair is. Stephen Campbell is just starting to sail into the game. That's his fort that suffered from Hurricane Shiri in front of him. Jeff Stembell and Jackie Lynch are attacking Skull Island. Beside Jackie is Weather Island. Mike Shamus is coming to Tim's aid in dealing with the natives. That's another treasure island off Mike's knee.

© Copyright 2000, Frank Filz.
Chris's, Stephen Roberts's, and Abe's ships close in on Dino Island. Note the emergency cutters made from two Belville rowboats back to back with a mast, cannon, and a few bricks and plates. The one on the left is Chris's while the one on the right is Abe's. Stephen supplied his own cutter. Abe's ship has just felled the mighty T-Rex.

© Copyright 2000, Frank Filz.
The crew of the Rusty Bucket fire for effect, dismantling 3 skeletons on the first volley. Marksman Colin (in the green suit and blue cap) proved quite a good shot (he did after all get his start as a trapper up in the Canadian woods [I gave many of the players bonuses which were in some way tied to who they were, one of the possible bonuses is American which gives a +2 with muskets]). Wanda can be seen in the pirate hat in the back. Jeff's ship also fired a volley of personal fire, and every shot missed, or passed harmlessly through the skeletons (it's hard hitting them bones).

© Copyright 2000, Frank Filz.
The crews jump out onto land. Note that Jeff's ship is captained by the forest wench. Two of her crew have been throttled by skeletons. One of Wanda's crew has also been throttled. At this point, we are at turn 7 or so I think.

© Copyright 2000, Frank Filz.
A nice overhead shot of Skull Island. Note that a skeleton has boarded the Rusty Bucket and slain a crewman.

© Copyright 2000, Chris Weeks
The crew of Jeff Stembel's ship get into hand to hand combat with skeletons on Skull Island.

© Copyright 2000, Chris Weeks
Looks like one of Wanda's crew has just killed a skeleton on the left. There's Jeff's captain commanding her men on the right.

© Copyright 2000, Frank Filz.
Meanwhile, over at Dino Island, one of Chris's crew ventured onto land and discovered how nasty aligators are. Notice that the Pterodactyls have taken wing. They were strafing ships and trying to capture crew. One of them eventually did capture a man off Chris's ship.

© Copyright 2000, Shiri Dori
An aerial shot of Dino Island after Abe has killed the T-Rex and the aligator has gotten one of Chris's men.

© Copyright 2000, Chris Weeks
The crew of the Gungan Kludge are enraged by this violence and whip off their masks revealing themselves as the greatly feared (or at least ridiculed) Gungan!

© Copyright 2000, Shiri Dori
Nathan has taken over Colin, Wanda, and the Rusty Bucket, they are still battling it out on Skull Island with Jeff's ship. Mike sails over to the temple island with his captured islander boat. Stephen Campbell's ship is starting to approach.

© Copyright 2000, Jennifer and Dan Boger
The battle on Skull Island is nearing an end, note that most of the skeletons are "dead". Mike has come over to Temple Island. Stephen's ship can be seen approaching the fray.

© Copyright 2000, Chris Weeks
Meanwhile, over on Skull Island, much mayhem has been dealt. The last skeleton has been dispatched, unfortunately, several pirates have lost their lives also.

© Copyright 2000, Chris Weeks
Mike has sailed over to Temple Island. Jeff's ship and the Rusty Bucket head for a new merchant who has sailed into the deadly triangle.

© Copyright 2000, Shiri Dori
Shiri's younger sister Inbal took over Abe's ship and is attacking an islander hut to capture some treasure.

© Copyright 2000, Chris Weeks
Inbal Dori has taken over Abe's ship and is landing on the Islander island. An Imperial warship has come out in response to Quigon's vicious act of piracy and is engaging his ships in battle.

© Copyright 2000, Chris Weeks
Meanwhile over at Temple Island, one of Mike's men has been caught by a crocodile. Stephen Campbell's Sea Wench (Cap'n Slut) has just left Temple Island after boldly stealing a treasure.

CRITIQUE

My first impressions:

Saturday morning saw us off to a slow start at setting up the pirate game. I think it was 11 by the time we were ready to start. We had a break for lunch and a few breaks for demos, and finally wound up at 6 PM or so. We learned a lot about running the game (like it was a mistake to only have one GM given the number of players Stephen had rounded up by the time we were ready to start). There was also some confusion caused by areas which the rules don't specify well (like dealing with aligators on shore).

I also only got out three merchant ships. Captain Scar (played by Shiri Dori) tried to capture the first ship, but was handicapped by a wind direction favorable to the merchant and her starting position and she never caught up with it. Lindsay managed to capture the 2nd ship. Two players (Chris Weeks and Jeff Stembel I think) cooperated at the end to capture the third ship. A pair of people (at least one of which was an AFOL spouse, I didn't quite catch if they were a couple, or both spouses of other AFOLs) played captain Wanda and first mate Colin. They had good success at shooting skeletons (killing three on the first turn of personal combat), and their ship eventually shared the plunder of skeleton isle with Jeff Stembel's ship.

Chris Weeks was awarded the perseverence award for taking out an aligator on dino island after much effort (and one lost crewman who mistakenly ventured onto the island). Stephen's ship found a huge pink chest of silks on dino island.

All in all, a good time was had with the pirate game, and hopefully in the future I can streamline some of the things which slowed the game down. I will definitely use at least one assistant in the future (though I have some ideas to allow assistants to be more participatory than the GM can be).

Issues

Several issues arose during the game.

Space:

Our space was somewhat limited, though we were able to make do. The biggest problem was that we did't have the space overnight, so we were unable to set up Friday evening. Another problem was anemic airconditioning.

Pacing/GMs:

When we started approaching readiness to play, there were only a few players, so I decided to handle the GMing myself. By the time we actually started, Stephen Roberts's recruiting resulted in 11 players. Having one GM for 11 players really slowed the game down. One thing which would help (and was done to a limited extent) is to have experienced players help resolve some of the combat. Other things which would help pacing is to make sure everyone understands the turn sequence, and that if they are not in conflict with anyone, they can just move their ships (and needn't even necessarily plot movement).

One thought is to have the assistants have some NPC ships to run so they can be more active in the game than just helping resolve combats.

Another pacing issue was for players who came into the game late. Stephen Campbell spent several turns just getting into the action. Some way to drop them more into the thick of things would help.

NPC Ship Sequencing:

One problem was that I frequently forgot to move the NPC ships. Additionally, I sometimes just estimated the distance they moved. This caused frustration for at least one player. One thing I forgot to use was the initiative system which would have actually had all the NPC ships move first (until Lindsay captured the merchant). Use of the pursuit rules might also have made a difference in Shiri's pursuit of the merchant.

Weather:

Almost the entire game was played under a light wind from the West. The weather system didn't allow for frequent enough changes. Also, I think that the number of wind levels may be more than really necessary. A light wind seems like it mostly just slows the game down (though it would make a difference if two ships were battling it out, and reinforcements were on the way). Steve Jackson noted that the pre-generated weather chart he supplied had a few places where there were two identical entries together, which results in a slower weather change, and we happened to be in that part of the chart, so that certainly was a contributing factor. I will be examining the weather system to see what changes might be worthwhile.

Creatures:

The rules don't cover all the creatures, so I had to make up some stuff. I liked how I ran the skeletons. The crocodiles/aligators were a pain on land though. The rules make them almost invincible. I will be changing this so that when they are on land at least they are easier to kill (even in the water they should be, they can't dive to avoid damage as easily as sharks can).

Young Players:

Young players (under say 12 or so) can be difficult to manage. They often are impatient, and may not always accept losses.

My thoughts from a response to Steve Jackson's post about the Dragon Con game:

I'm definitely interested in ideas on how to resolve the issues around younger players. You did mention they were helpful during setup. I suspect in general, one is just going to have to set an age limit and then be prepared to deal with the occaisional immature player (and there is nothing saying that player won't be 20 - I've had some immature players in college). You may still be able to let them help set up, but it may be best not to get their hopes up.

In a smaller game, the solution may be to set the younger players of in an insulated corner, bordered by understanding players. Make sure there are some interesting islands for the younger players to explore, and just hope they don't cause too much disruption (the younger player in the Brickfest game caused no disruption because she was exploring an island no one else was near).

Of course some young folk may not even become an issue. While we were setting up the Brickfest game, there was one youngster who wanted to play. He just commandeered one of the ships and sailed it around the play area. By the time we actually started, his parents had taken him and left (they were just dropping in). He was causing no disruption or damage, and seemed to be enjoying himself, so I just let him be. I'm not sure what I would have done had he wanted to play (one thing I probably would have done would have been to talk to the parents and point out that we planned to play for quite some time, and that while the game is open to some coming and going, it could present a problem, and also explain that the game is certainly an adult type of game. I would hope such discussion would get the parents figuring out how to lure their child away from the game). H3>Picture Taking:

Stephen Campbell mentioned a polaroid to take pictures of each player's ship to help in ID. Another thing which would be nice for game writeups would be more pictures taken during the game (especially before movement for each turn).

The Good In The Game

One thing which worked very well was the LEGO range sticks. I had forgotten to bring tape measures, so we crafted a bunch of range sticks from LEGO. We used 4 studs to the inch (Lindsay has suggested 3 would be better, but I feel that trimming the ranges of small arms fire would be painful). Due to the limited space, I did change the no-penalty range for cannon fire from 24" to 18". The range sticks also look great in the pictures (and help give scale since it is so easy to see the range markings). One thing which would be helpfull is some short range sticks for use in personal combat. It was sometimes difficult to maneuver the range sticks in amongst the rigging of the ships.

CREDITS

A lot went into this game, so I'd like to credit everyone possible:

The number one credit goes to The LEGO Company for producing a neat line of pirate ships and fortresses.
The number two credit goes to WAMALUG (Washington Metro Area LEGO Users Group) for hosting BrickFest 2000.
The number three credit goes to Steve Jackson for developing Evil Stevie's Pirate Game for us to play.
Credit goes to the following folk for helping make the game happen:
- Stephen Roberts for helping us with the space, rounding up players, and introducing folks to the game. Stephen also provided his own cutter, and brought along his pirate ships in case we needed them.
- Chris Weeks who provided two nice islands.
- Shiri Dori who loaned us her Bloodstone Inn for one of the ports.
- Stephen Campbell who provided an imperial base (and may have provided his own cutter also).
The players (captain and ship):
- Stephen Roberts (Cap'n Blargh of the Red Tail)
- Abe Friedman ()
- Jameson Gagnepain ()
- Lindsay Braun (Cap'n Quigon L'Effete of The Deadly Bumblebee)
- Tim Coutney (Cap'n Bad Jim the Funny Hat of the Plasticity)
- Shiri Dori (Cap'n Scar of The Helfarrr)
- Mike Shamus ()
- Jeff Stembel ()
- Jacky Lynch (Cap'n Wanda of The Rusty Bucket)
- Andy Lynch (First Mate Colin of The Rusty Bucket)
- Nathan McDowell (took over from the Lynches, Cap'n Wanda of The Rusty Bucket)
- Chris Weeks (Cap'n Hoppin John of the Gungan Kludge)
- Stephen Campbell (Cap'n Slut of The Sea Wench)
Kevin Loch and Brickshelf for the Webcam and image hosting.
Lugnet posts which contributed to this writeup:
- My Brickfest Pirate Game Pictures (thread includes my commentary on everyone's pictures)
- Brickfest 2000 Pirate Game Postmortem

Comments to ffilz@mindspring.com

Page last updated July 26, 2000

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