Strange Aeons for Multiplayer

[heybale]

Sorry if this has been covered, but how does Strange Aeons work with more than two players? Do you use more points, or add extra factions, or both? Or does the system bog down?

Thanks-

Mike

[Alien Dave]

I ran a game for four players recently.  We assigned two players to rival cults and two players to rival Threshold agencies.

Initiative was rolled per player, not per faction, and recorded.  Other than that, it seemed to go quite well, especially when the cultists took out the Threshold agents and then turned on each other to achieve their nefarious aims!

Dave W

[Bowman]

..........it seemed to go quite well, especially when the cultists took out the Threshold agents and then turned on each other to achieve their nefarious aims!

Man.......you just can't trust those damned cultists!

[thebinmann]

I ran a game for four players recently.  We assigned two players to rival cults and two players to rival Threshold agencies.

Initiative was rolled per player, not per faction, and recorded.  Other than that, it seemed to go quite well, especially when the cultists took out the Threshold agents and then turned on each other to achieve their nefarious aims!

Dave W

Hi

I did similar here, but only two sides, the extra BPs used may have skewed it in favour of the lurkers....

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=18567.0

Binmann

[Uncle Mike]

Working up some 'official' multi-player rules. Depending on when they are completed you should see them in either Morbid Adventures or Shocking Tales #3...anyone with thoughts/ideas please let me know here or through P.M. what your thoughts are.

[Cherno]

I'm looking forward playing a campaign of SA with me as GM/Lurker and two players as Thresholders... Any ideas what could cause problems? Are one "hero" for each player too much or does it scale well when the army points just get doubled on Lurker side? Also, would it get too crowded to accomodate two double-size gangs (2 Threshald teams and a double-size Lurker army)? I'll be playing with 28mm miniatures on a 4x4 table.

[Keeper Nilbog]

 Intending to run a 'multi-player' threshold/investigator game for the people at my gaming group. Was intending to to let each player have 10BP so that they could have a character + someone else, with the Lurkers having BP equal to the number of players (so that people who couldn't play would have little effect on the game, other than a slower development of there team).

 The only thing that's been giving me trouble is the 'actions' of the teams/Lurkers - at present the plan is to let each character have an action, then give the lurkers an equal number (so the lurkers don't stand around staring at the stars). I don't think this will directly unbalance the game, as lurkers have less access to command/leiutenant abilities.

  Just going to need lots of cultists. 

[vaganardi]

I usually run games with more than 2 players. I create the scenarios and the sides and the players divide up the forces.

It works great.

I have also run story driven multi-part games where the players each controlled one character and the villians were run by me. (That way they did what they were going to do to promote the plot.) the players had fun, and when someone died they were replaced in the next part.

[Yggdrasil]

I think it's important, that there are as many Lurker Lists as Threshold Agent Players no matter how many Lurker Players there are. This means that in a game with 3 Threshold Players and 1 Lurkerplayer, the Lurkerplayer have to use 3 different Lurker Lists (one List for Thresholdplayer A, one for Player B and one for Player 3). With this condition its guaranteed that the used Lurkers could be defeated by the Threshold Players.

Simply adding the Agents BP together makes the game unfair because the Lurker Player could use too strong force (like an Godling) which can't be defeated at an early Stage of the Threshold Agents. We tried this once, but it didn't work very well.

For Initiative i suggest to roll for the lists and not for factions.

[Keeper Nilbog]

Agreed, and was looking at something similiar as i'm not always going to have the same amount of players - so individual lists would make it easier to 'drop/add' lurkers in relation to the Threshold group.

[styx]

Mind you I have not tried a multi-player game yet,  but based on my reading the logic should be based on the # of players. If you have 3 then the Lurker player should have a combined pool of the other two players. If there is 4 (and 2 are Lurker) then each would build a seperate list. If there was three Threshold players and one Lurker then the  Lurker gets a pool of the 3 combined.

I would say that no Lurker should be more than double what the highest figure cost is. So, if you have a 10 BP character then the Lurker should not tip above 20.

Now, IMO if you get into a 3 Threshold vs 1 Lurker to me having a Godling may not be bad if the scenario fits the situation and is like an epic ending to a campain to experienced teams.

[YIU]

Threshold teams gain experience at the end of the scenario. Did someone tried to do the same for lurkers ?

[LidlessEye]

There's a mechanical problem with limiting the maximum lurker size.  Let's say two Threshold squads, 17 and 19 points, decide to team up against a single Lurker player.  Net value: 36 points for the Lurker list.  The Scenario roll is taken: Monster Attack!  As the Lurker player is only allowed one model, they don't have much choice but to take a Godling (or other high-value Lurker).

Threshold teams gain experience at the end of the scenario. Did someone tried to do the same for lurkers ?

Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten: http://www.unclemikesworldwide.com/dev/Kulten_Beta.pdf 

[styx]

There's a mechanical problem with limiting the maximum lurker size.  Let's say two Threshold squads, 17 and 19 points, decide to team up against a single Lurker player.  Net value: 36 points for the Lurker list.  The Scenario roll is taken: Monster Attack!  As the Lurker player is only allowed one model, they don't have much choice but to take a Godling (or other high-value Lurker).

Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten: http://www.unclemikesworldwide.com/dev/Kulten_Beta.pdf 

That is true, the thing is either you would have to write scenarios keeping that in mind for multi-player games or put some rules in place that would make execptions to the current scenarios in the book to make them work.