The Ghost Market at HotLead 2013

[Viper4Dan]

This March we ran our annual HotLead Convention weekend in Stratford, Ontario. Canada. Over the weekend I ran 3 games of my "Mongols With Mausers" Back of Beyond game, where players are encouraged to "battle, bluff or bribe their way to victory". This year, the games were loosely based on the "Battle of the Ghost Market" from the film "The Good, The Bad, and The Weird" (yes, I have the figures!). The general scenario background reads:

It is the Spring of 1922. The last remnants of the “White” forces in Russia are being wiped out, Mongolia has now been taken over by the Bolsheviks, and the civil war still rages in China, leaving the borders between China, Manchuria, Mongolia and Siberia fluid. Armies, rebels, bandits, adventurers, smugglers, merchants and opportunists are to be found everywhere. Amidst all this chaos is one place where no government has control, and where anyone, from anywhere, with money or something to sell can find refuge: The Ghost Market. Tucked away in an isolated mountain valley in Manchuria, and ruled with an iron fist by “Colonel Oleg” and his personal army, The Ghost Market is a haven for every refugee, cut throat, trader, scoundrel, deserter and adventurer to find rest, resupply and sanctuary....for a price. Anything and everything is for sale from a wide variety of Mongolian, Chinese, Russian, European, and Korean merchants, innkeepers, smugglers and pimps. All pay a small percentage to live under the watchful eye and protection of “Colonel Oleg”

Recently, you have heard rumour of a map to great treasure hidden by the Quing Dynasty before it was overthrown in 1912 that has come into The Ghost Market. You would be rewarded richly if you could acquire it. There are most likely many others looking for this map as well.

There were 9 factions at play here:

Yoon Tae-Goo (aka “The Finger Chopper”) a Korean thief and opportunist.
Park Chang-Yi, the greatest bandit and assassin in Manchuria (“and that means all Asia!”).
Park Do-Won, relentless Korean bounty hunter.
Boris Badinov, Bolshevik Officer
Bataar Khan, Mongol chieftain, bandit and warrior.
Tzun Yung Guy, Chinese Warlord Officer
Kung Bo, Chinese Warlord Officer
Chin Li Chinese Warlord Officer (with German support)
Colonel Oleg, former Cossack cavalry officer (in both the Red and White armies!), smuggler, businessman, the man who commands and runs “The Ghost Market”

It was all rousing good fun, with many funny hats and worse accents. I have included random shots of the table as the various groups battled through "The Ghost Market".

[Viper4Dan]

A long view of the table looking down the "main street" to Colonel Oleg's mountain stronghold.

Special thanks to Pablito Remisch for the photos.

[doowopapocalypse]

Great stuff! Any more pictures?

[Hussar072]

Viper4Dan,
I am always in awe of your stuff! Wish I could have played that weekend, everyone looked to be having a blast everytime I glaced over from my position at the door!

Pat

[Ignatieff]

Great game, figures and terrain.  Excellent!

[sepoy1857]

Great looking game! Where does the mini Taj Mahal come from? That's awesome.

[Poliorketes]

Nice setup

[coggon]

Great game, figures and terrain.  Excellent!

What he said-IMPRESSIVE!

[Turbo-Ben]

Did you play the game with 9 players all at once or could they choose from the 9 factions?
How many models had each player?

And did they find the treasure?   

[Svennn]

Lots of loveliness 

Where are the pagodas from? Please dont say aquarium ornaments

[Turbo-Ben]

Lots of loveliness 

Where are the pagodas from? Please dont say aquarium ornaments

Please say they are - it would mean we all can get them too!

[Viper4Dan]

Gentlemen, thanks for the positive comments. I try to add a little more to the game each year. It started as a minor skirmish on a barren dessert table about 8 years ago and has now grown out of control!

Pagodas and Taj Mahal are from a variety of pet stores, aquarium stores and Wal Mart. There is the odd resin building in there, as well as a lot of homemade "Middle East" type buildings made out of blocks of floral arrangement foam heavily coated in carpenter's glue and painted. The three round towers are from an old "Pirate Seige" game.

As for the 9 factions, each player had a group of about 20 figures to work with, and had to wear the compulsory and appropriate "silly hat".

As for the game itself, its what I call my OBC (One Brain Cell) homebrew rules, suitable to teach at a convention in under 5 minutes. Nothing spectacularly new with that. I have each faction take a turn based on a totally random card system. After each player has had a turn, we go to "The Bribe Phase" (so appropriate to the period). In addition to having individual victory conditions worth so many victory points, each player has a little silk pouch full of about a dozen old Chinese coins. Each of these is worth a victory point at the end of the game as well. During "The Bribe Phase", players send each other hastily scribbled notes, trying to set up alliances, deals or out and out bribes. Coins are then usually then paid to complete the bribe. In addition to being used for victory points or bribes, coins can also be spent in exchange for a saving throw, re-roll of any one dice, demand that the GM reshuffle the turn deck if they don't like the card that comes up, etc. Finally, each faction has two minor random event cards that can be used only once, against anyone, at any time during the game. Basically, it has all the chaos and fluidity of a "Chinese Fire Drll". Basically, all good, rollicking fun! If kids end up playing, they tend to forget the scenario and go after someone like a pack of heat-seeking ferrets!

Oh, in one of the three games they found the treasure!

[Vanvlak]

Stunning! Grand table, and - nice hats! 

[sepoy1857]

Thanks! I recognize one of the guys in your pictures from our gaming club (Kent-Essex Gaming Society). They put on a number of games at Hotlead this year.

[jamesmanto]

It certainly attracted a lot of attention even when the game wasn't going on!

And Dan you left out the best quotable quote of the game: "Tomorrow you will be dead, and I will be shopping!" 

James