Death Temple of Sarnath: Southern Front Game 1

I traveled to Raleigh, NC last weekend for Southern Front put on by the Triangle Simulation Society. I must say it was a blast, I had the opportunity to meet many fellow gamers and the best part was just sitting around shooting the breeze about military history with like minded fellows.  In particular, I got to meet and talk rules with John of John's Wargaming page. It was a pleasure!  

I encourage anyone who can to attend next year, it is a small but cozy convention, I think they had about 70 participants and all of the people were friendly and the games looked great.  And it was much quieter than Historicon. 

Here are the files I used for the scenario, please feel free to use them.  I will be putting up a Pulp specific page on my website, but this will give you access until then. 

I am going to post my recap of the event in parts, mostly because I am still trying to recover, I stayed up way past my bedtime.

I arrived late Friday night and immediately crashed after stacking up my stuff for my game.

I arose at 7, had a nice breakfast, and set up my table to be ready at 9.

But, I had no players!  I was set up in one of the side rooms and did not get a lot of foot traffic.  No worries, though, I was actually glad.  I needed the time to regroup from driving 5 hours the night before to get there after work.  So, I wandered about and took a few pictures, will share them in a future post. 

Meanwhile, here is what my setup looked like. 

Hercules Poirot and the RCMP ready for action 

 While Arab Slavers look for product for the slave markets of Oman

 The Bugsy and Bunny Gang arrive, seeing revenge on Alexander Crawley, who double crossed them and stole the heiress they kidnapped fair and square!

 Meanwhile, researchers from the German Institute for Theosophical Studies parachute in searching for artifacts...

Doc Savage and crew are intent on saving the world.

Alexander Crawley prepares for blasphemous rites 

Miss Shirley Uoff struggles at her bonds, hoping to avoid a fate worse than death!

Game 1

I had a full house for my 2pm game, 8 players! I did not record the action blow by blow, as I was running about keeping the ball rolling, but some highlights include:

• The player playing the Germans was actually German, so the accent was spot on!
• Lots of people sinking in quick sand
• Dinosaur attack on the RCMP
• Hercules Poirot cleverly using his telescope to figure things out from afar (this actually was quit clever)
• Fu Manchu versus the Cannibals
• Miss Lemon saving the world with a precise shot that shatters the EYE OF AZATHOTH, preventing who knows what evil from fully materializing into our world.
• Gangsters versus Feral Goats
• A cultist machine gun that literally could not hit targets 3 inches away while rolling 12 dice...
• The RCMP, Hercules Poirot, and the heiress taking off in the seaplane, only to have it blow up in a magnificent ball of fire after the Germans shoot it with a flare gun!
• In the end we voted and the Gangsters won, as they achieved their objective of murdering Crawley in revenge, with the artifact destroyed and the girl toast, everyone else was pretty much out of luck.

The game took right at 2 hours, so met my speed requirements.  Also, I asked for and got great feedback from the players on the scenario, specifically, some factions that had no fire arms needed to start closer in!  I did that for game 2, and I actually think for the next time i run this, I will go with a 4 x 4 table to get everyone in the action a little quicker.  All in all though, everyone seemed to have fun, which is the important part!

Here are some shots from the first game, next time, a recap of game 2!

 Here are my erstwhile players, you never met a finer bunch of near'do wells and lovable rouges.

 The RCMP immediately after the dino attack.  Being Canadian, I am sure there will be a LOT of paperwork for this one. 

 Fu Manchu and company struggle with Cannibals while the gangsters close in.  The colonial authorities can be seen at top, they are busy exchanging shots with slavers. 

An unspeakable horror began to materialize, but fortunately, Miss Lemon put an end to that nonsense!