Frustrations with the Weeping Angels

[gloriousbattle]

Are they an interesting, spooky, surreal alien race, or just a stupid idea somebody came up with when Doctor Who went over budget and they had to go digging through the old BBC sets for a cheap rubber monster?

I really don't know.  I keep coming up with different answers.

Also, how would you game them?  CAN you game them?

Assuming that their standard enemies are the Clerics, (who, despite their spaceships, seem to operate like a pretty prosaic modern army on the skirmish level), how do they even fight?  When the sun is up, the Angels get massacred, and when the sun is down, the Clerics lose.  Seems like a wargame is possible only if the plot assumes some kid playing with the light switch.

I think I've decided that they are not gameable, at least not in a wargame setting.  They are a (maybe semi-interesting) horror trope, and so might work in a pen and paper horror rpg, but just not workable as a sci fi army.

Still, I'm willing to be educated.  Has anybody done a game where the Angels were workable as an enemy without changing the Doctor Who version too greatly?

[Cory]

On the whole I agree, however last year I played in a rather nasty convention game where the Angels were treated as a hostile terrain. When their activation cards came up if no one within 8" was looking (270 degree arc of sight for models), they moved.

In the beginning they seemed useless, but as they closed in it became difficult to face the enemy and the angels at the same time.

[gloriousbattle]

In the beginning they seemed useless, but as they closed in it became difficult to face the enemy and the angels at the same time.

Interesting idea, and I can see how that might make them useful as a trap or hostile encounter, though not as an army.  Of course, you seem to be saying that in the game you played, they were a GM controlled plot device.

Still, a neat idea for integrating them into a game.

[Michka]

Are they an interesting, spooky, surreal alien race, or just a stupid idea somebody came up with when Doctor Who went over budget and they had to go digging through the old BBC sets for a cheap rubber monster?

It seems to me there are monsters that are fantastic, while not being good game subjects. I think we gamers lose sight of this.

Just my two cents...

[gloriousbattle]

As a TV/Film monster they are excellent. It would take far too long to explain why and I would sound like a know it all dick. Just trust me.

Based on that statement, alone, I trust you!  

As a wargame army, I dont think so. Then again people do unit vs daleks in the tom baker era. I do remember human weapons were useless against daleks so i cant see how that would be game fodder either.

Even though that is my premise, I'm not so sure.  I am forever saying how this or that couldn't be good gaming material, and then I am pleasantly surprised to have someone prove me wrong.  For now I tend to agree with you, though I guess I'm hoping to be surprised.

After all, Cory has already shown how they could be of some use in gaming, even if not as an army.

[fastolfrus]

Doesn't need to be night-time, they'd be a bugger in fog or smoke, and probably difficult in heavy rain too. Most rules don't bother with weather, but it doesn't take much to interrupt vision.

Also dead ground & terrain could be a major decider.

Could they travel underwater? I would guess so since they don't breathe, so swamps, rivers and canals could be a hazard.

[uti long smile]

I'd have to agree they are a doozy to recreate on the tabletop.

There are some rules in the Last of the Time Lords DWMG PDF here, which might help:

http://www.drwhominiatures.co.uk/dl10.html

[gloriousbattle]

Doesn't need to be night-time, they'd be a bugger in fog or smoke, and probably difficult in heavy rain too. Most rules don't bother with weather, but it doesn't take much to interrupt vision.

Also dead ground & terrain could be a major decider.

Could they travel underwater? I would guess so since they don't breathe, so swamps, rivers and canals could be a hazard.

I think that in one episode, it did say they need to breathe.  However, I guess that conflicts involving the angels would mostly be skirmish/assassination/guerilla thype things, rather than large field battles, which seems pretty reasonable.

I'd have to agree they are a doozy to recreate on the tabletop.

There are some rules in the Last of the Time Lords DWMG PDF here, which might help:

http://www.drwhominiatures.co.uk/dl10.html

Thanks for that link!  Never saw it before.

I did go to film school and worked in the industry as well. That being said I already start to sound like a know it all dick.   Abort abort abort!

Just joshin'  and no offense meant.     If you are the same scurv who used to post on TMP, you have more than earned the right to occasionally be a dick. 

[gloriousbattle]

Yeah Billy boy got the shits and gave me the heave ho. He seems to of kicked lots of other people out too since I have stopped going there. I mean WTF is up with kicking out the Weavers! A nicer couple you could not meet!

They gave me an oop game once.  A fantasy boardgame by Judges Guid called City State Warfare.  Great klittle piece from the early 80s, that allowed you to convert your D&D character to a wargame.

They didn't even charge ne shipping.

Oh well, Bill's far from being the only mod with control problems.  Back to more enjoyable aspects of the universe.