Fistful of Lead - Questions

[Mr. White]

Later this year, I'm gonna have a gathering of buddies to celebrate my 50th and I want to run a multi-scenario adventure using my Roswell '98 collection. As this will be me and 5 players new to a ruleset, I'm looking for something that's easy to run. A convention level type game. It seems like Fistful of Lead - Wasteland Warriors might be what I need. Before I buy in, I have a few questions for those that have played it.

1) It looks like it can be run with a "GM" like player, is this correct? I can run creatures and the players would each have their own gangs?

2) With 5 players, and knowing nothing about the system yet, is there a "point per player" limit I should use so they each have a few models and we can get games done in about 2hours? Or...how long can I expect a 6 player (5 gamers and GM) game to last? This will help me plan how many scenarios I want to put together in a day.

3) Is there a decent source for unit card generating or will I need to create these cards from scratch?

4) What type of scenarios are in the book? GM-led or every player for themselves?

5) Any thoughts, tips, or suggestions for the system?

Thanks!

[boywundyrx]

I'm answering without my access to my rulebooks, but I've run about 5 games of various flavours of FFoL at conventions and more at home, usually sci fi or horse and musket, but I did use Wasteland Warriors to help create some aspects of my He-Man game last year. I've also played Bigger Battles at a convention.  Jaye has a lot of videos up on the Wiley Games Youtube channel which will help give you a sense of gameplay too, if you haven't watched any yet.

1) You'd generally still be a player, i.e. each of your creatures would play off a card.  If you're looking to have something where you as GM aren't trying to win the game, just be an agent of chaos with the creatures and random events, that'd work within the system.

2) It's more a standard structure to each player's force. A leader, a #2 (given various titles, usually 'specialist'), and a number of regulars, usually 4-5. You can convert some regulars to grunts, at a 1:3 ratio.  Each type of figure (leader/specialist/regular/grunt) gets a set number of traits and sometimes gear. I can't remember if big creatures are baked into WW though.

3) There are form-fillable pdfs, I think for most of the rule sets, can't remember WW but it should be under the free downloads.  For my He-Man game I was pulling from at least three rule-sets, so I made my own cards in Word.  The pdfs have drop boxes for traits, which is handy.

4) WW has probably the widest gamut of creative scenarios, but I can't remember any being GM-lead (which sounds like a co-op game).  I've had multiplayer games where there are two sides and 2-3 players are on each side; I've also had free-for-alls.

5) I really like it, I bounce between Fistful of Lead and Song of Blades and Heroes systems for most small skirmishes, but FFoL shines when you're looking at more than 4 players and want to get players up to speed quickly.  There's a lot of fun customization you can do with it too, like combining traits across genres.

[BaronVonJ]

1) You don't NEED a GM, just someone to keep track of things. You can bea player, or as boywundrrx says, just have fun being the guy causing chaos.
2) No Points. Points aren't real. Be prepared to run 4-8 miniatures per player. These rules are written for lots of players convention style. You'll be done in 3 hours for a 6 player game if you stay on top of activations. Quicker if players have played any wargaming at all.
3) There are form fillable free pdfs on our store. You need Acrobat Reader (which is also free).
4) Tons of scenarios easily scalable from 2 -8 players.
5) WW is not a standalone game. You need the Core book or Galactic Heroes to play. If you just get the pdfs, total of $17. We're running a 10% sale on printed books however.
As mentioned, we have a ton of videos, and lots of blog posts here and online to look at. A quick Google will get you plenty of game play. On Table Top just did one for Reloaded, our western rules.
We have a Youtube channel, Facebook page Discord to ask questions and see what others are doing. I don't check LAF looking for Fistful of Lead questions and only saw this because someone alerted me. We can always be reached through our webstore , facebook or discord if you have questions.

[Mr. White]

Thanks, both!

I think this is the ruleset I want to try out for this event. I'll take a look at some videos and see which are best to send out a little prior to get players up to speed.

Baron, I sent you a DM on some specifics about the books. cheers.

[iDreamofMinis]

FFoL is perfect for this.  I have run games with up to 8 players, some of whom had little to no wargaming experience.

One suggestion I would add, and this depends on how much time you have to play, is to have premade warbands/gangs and let the players choose their warbands/gangs.  This saves time by skipping the "Session Zero" of people pouring over the traits lists.

[Mr. White]

One suggestion I would add, and this depends on how much time you have to play, is to have premade warbands/gangs and let the players choose their warbands/gangs.  This saves time by skipping the "Session Zero" of people pouring over the traits lists.

Perfect! this is a great tip. I'll premake the gangs, lay them out, then let the players roll-off (or something) order to select theirs for the day. thanks again!