TribeMeet UK - What Would You Attend?

[Stoof]

On the question of what we do in the coming years with TribeMeet. Things have been a little lacklustre this year with regards to TAG War (run what you brung) - the committee was a bit burned out preparing campaigns each year and we needed a bit of a break. Admittedly we also haven't pushed as hard this year on the advertising front.

We had pencilled in Necromunda IN SPAAAAACE for next time, but is that what our adoring public desires?

So, what kind of TribeMeet would you like to attend? Assuming a weekend in mid September like current TribeMeets.

 

[Tiny]

I messed up your poll by voting for all the options. As I said in the other thread; I'd attend a weekend of tiddlywinks with you fine folks.

 

[Stoof]

I messed up my own poll by doing that too, because I don't get many gaming opportunities and likewise just want to play games with friends.

 

[DarkMouse]

I've voted for both Necromunda only (all varieties) and specialist games

Maybe it's worth having a revolving set? So each year it switches up between Mordheim as a focus and Munda as a focus? Then have space set aside for people to run other games (BFG has been run like this in the past? ) that way people can still play whatever they want and (hopefully) the Mordheim enthusiasts can take the reins for designing a campaign for their year, giving that desired time off to recover?

Just my thoughts

 

[Malevolent Pink Cat]

How much does there need to be a (detailed?) campaign each year?

From the one meet I attended (Sept 2022), a huge amount of effort had obviously gone into the Thunderdome and the gladiator rules, and the gladiator matches were a lot of fun (even if my gladiator spent most of his time shooting (to boos from the crowd) and then getting bloodily eviscerated, along with my poor heavy bolter heavy), but as someone who had never actually played Necromunda ORB before, I found it a bit overwhelming trying to learn how to play Necromunda ORB on the fly, *and* overlaying all the special pit fighter rules at the same time, and I would have found the weekend very entertaining even just playing random games of Necromunda against lots of different people with so many great gangs.

I can understand that more experienced people may want something overarching to make the whole thing more involved / standout, but I wonder if running a more basic Necromunda style campaign (such as the Dark Uprising campaign for Newcromunda), where most of the rules are already written, might achieve that whilst also lessening the pressure on the team? And if special rules are a must, then maybe more simple ones, such as "take 250 credits, create a sump sea captain" (or whatever), or having various newly created dramatic personae turning up in gang fights, or loosely dividing people into two teams by gang type, and then maybe a single special scenario to play at some point over the weekend (even one from one of the White Dwarf articles, like the old "It came from beneath the Sump" stuff)?

I have no experience running anything like this, so maybe the above is not very helpful (and I thought the 2022 meet was fantastic fun, so please don't take anything above the wrong way), but if I as a more infrequent player felt a bit overwhelmed by the special rules, and the committee feel overwhelmed by creating them, maybe dialling them back a bit might actually work for people with various different experience levels / levels of involvement?

 

[Ardavion]

I'm everything except bolt action and N17+ (would happily play ORB if NCE wasn't an option).

I don't have the time or money to invest in BA (also, historical gaming doesn't really enthuse me), and N17+ just doesn't work as a system for me, especially since the goalposts get moved every year in terms of new rules and models.

"Other", as I'm happy to do an RPG session or similar (trying to figure out what I'd like to run if this year goes ahead), and we've had the occasional board games and card games after hours/when someone wants to play them in previous years.

In terms of running an event, I've typically been ok turning up and playing, so the prizes at the end haven't really bothered me; if sourcing prizes was an issue I wouldn't be bothered by that aspect being scrapped - if someone wants to run their own competition they can organise it as an individual, I guess? It would take it away from being a committee thing, though.

In terms of a narrative, I do like that aspect - that only works when you have enough people playing, so opening up an event to multiple systems dilutes the impact. It might also work better to have more structure to games, like a pseudo-tournament. You have a list of attendees and potentially days they'll turn up for, so round-robin people as best as the player roster allows and schedule games to last for ## minutes - there's bound to be an AI chat it that can organise that sort of thing, and that could be posted ahead to time. That means that people can expect a certain number of games and get a variety of opponents, with breaks for food/drink etc.

Following on from above, are there any AI tools that could be used to generate ideas or rules? Surely someone has plugged NCE into an AI chat bot and told it to create something that fits those rules?

 

[Trafalgar Law]

This is a tricky one as I've lost a lot of interest in Necromunda lately so a pure Necromunda event might not appeal, but a multi game event can also be problematic as I will inevitably be torn between which game I want to play. For example with the TAG war event Inquisitor is probably my favourite game so I would definitely want to play the campaign someone is planning, but most of my hobby time these days is taken up with Battletech and so I'd love to play some Alpha Strike or even Classic and i definitely want to play more bolt action too. There simply isn't going to be time to do everything. So personally I'd prefer separate events focused around an individual game, although that will require a lot of organisation.

As a side note I'd be very interested in playing a Gorkamorka campaign if anyone else is interested.

 

[Punktaku]

As a jealous observer, who will likely never make it to that side of the world, I really liked the way you had each years campaign linked together. I thought that was a cool idea.

 

[MusingWarboss]

We really need to 3D print an Invader Zim miniature to have stood around on the tables.

 

[Ben_S]

I'm unlikely to attend whatever, especially given the timing (run up to new school year). But probably the low uptake this year is because so many of us seem to be in some kind of hobby funk. I know I have been for months now.

If I were to attend, then my interest would be Necro (NCE/ORB) and maybe other specialist games (Mordheim/GoMo) and/or X-grave.

 

[Biggle_Bear]

I can’t make them due to not being uk based. But if I could, I would be looking for nostalgia trips. So orb, GoMo, Mordheim, etc. but I would be equally enticed by other systems based upon that nostalgia (especially if it is a quick to learn narrative system) or other games from the era such as Cyberpunk 2020.

I have the feeling that the low numbers at the moment is more to do with world events somehow though. Something in the air lately.

 

[Stoof]

From where the poll is at the moment it looks like one year we should focus on Specialist Games - BFG, Quest, Mordheim, GoMo, Space Hulk etc. I'm down with that (I've never played Mordheim somehow).

 

[Tiny]

I've never played Mordheim but would love a Mordheim weekend.

I get the feeling we may have gone a bit too broad this year.

 

[Malevolent Pink Cat]

I'd 100% do both Mordheim and BFG weekends.

 

[Karandrassh]

I would do a mordheim weekend, maybe a bfg weekend, the holy grail a GorkaMorka weekend and I am always up to run a Inquisitor campaign. And in terms of boxed games I have both space hulk and WQ:bsf

 

[MusingWarboss]

I get the feeling we may have gone a bit too broad this year.

Anything goes? Possibly a little broad.

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I do like YakMeet being dedicated to Necromunda - just expand it to all versions ORB, NCE, N17-23 (and LRB if anyone wants). Might even throw in SW:A.

You have BoltMeet which is Bolt Action based already, so that could be expanded to any WW2 era thing if anyone wants.

I think a fantasy based Meet might have more appeal than just pure Mordheim. Chuck in some classic fantasy battle, Heroquest etc and you’ve got a themed event.

A SpaceMeet or YakMeet in Spaaaaace! Might be cool, with space being the theme. So BFG, Space Hulk, Space Crusade, X-Wing/Armada (get some use out of those old models), Star Wars generally, etc.

YakMeet Apocalypse - wasteland games, Ash Wastes, GorkaMorka, Gaslands, Dark Future, Car Wars etc. Max Max type stuff.

Board for a Day - board based games, one day event, or even the evening of one of the others. So, Talisman, Lost Patrol, Space Hulk, Heroquest, Space Crusade, ThunderCUBE! Even 2D based Necromunda. Or similar.

Not sure how much interest there Is in Historical stuff outside BA. If there is you can test the waters with an evening of Saga or something similar. I’d keep it Skirmish level though, not massive Napoleonic wars in 32mm!!

In some cases though you gotta avoid treading on the toes of similar events which, incredibly also happen in and around Newark!! Such as Bring out your Lead, or that massive historical convention that seems to happen on the showground.

 

[ClockworkOrange]

One of the issues we have is the venue is excellent for our needs but it needs 30 attendees at least to make it viable.

The time put in by the committee to put on the full NCE campaign, theming, books, accounts, tickets, competitions, scenery, prices etc etc cannot be underestimated. We just about managed to keep it together last year but it lacked the same energy hence the ever thinning event book and the break this year.

Over the years the committee has become my main gaming buddies, opponents, nerd friends etc so we could quite easily slim it down to an event that’s just us and play whatever the collective butterfly is building this year. Which is effectively how Boltmeet was born.

But, then we’d lose this precious thing called Tribemeet, which I’m loath to do. Every year I say yeah that was great but someone else can sort it next year! and then my OCD makes me book something and then I start bullying the heard of cats that is the Committee* (and you others who buy tickets) to do stuff . I’d just like a few more of you buggers to come!

*this never works, they just look at the Troll and say you aren’t in charge, and then do everything the night before the bastards.

 

[ClockworkOrange]

Ps the Troll will never play BFG again! BoltMeeters will understand anything else is fair game.

 

[MusingWarboss]

The time put in by the committee to put on the full NCE campaign, theming, books, accounts, tickets, competitions, scenery, prices etc etc cannot be underestimated.

My first TribeMeet was awesome! You were the first game too - sump ship battle!!

There’s no doubt that you all put on a great event, I’m not sure how it could be publicised more if it remains a YakTribe members only event though. It’s being pitched to an already limited group and if they can’t go (for whatever reason) then there’s gonna always be an issue. Then again if you open it out it’s not a Yak only thing.

I’d just like a few more of you buggers to come!

Indeed. It was a little sparse last year and TM has been my only real Necromunda game time the last few years anyway.

I remember you saying somewhere you tried to get Luke from Geek Gaming Scenics to come along one year - which would’ve been cool. I did note from online videos last year at BOYL it suddenly got an influx of YouTubers. That pushed its existence out a bit more. It used to be a relatively small event until recently.

Eric from Eric’s Hobby Workshop was there - that dude has been doing huge Necromunda scratch building for years, would’ve been cool if we could’ve persuaded him to come along to TribeMeet.

Likewise ex-GW Louise Sugden was also there and she loves Necromunda too!

Do they even know TribeMeet exists? I’m pretty sure they must know of YakTribe though.

I don’t know what happened to @Kiblams on here and we occasionally get a post from the chap who does State of Play.

 

[ClockworkOrange]

Curse of the NCE/Newmunda split I think, I don’t think the YouTubers are interested due to us being niche of a niche these days.

If I’m honest I actually think Newmunda is the main culprit for our dropping numbers to a NCE event plus Sumpmeat (Or whatever the copycats are called) is at a similar time of year. We get more attendees when we invite the Newmunda crowd but the Committees heart isn’t in it and it feels like two separate events in the same building sometimes.

Edit - an idea forms around making events in one impact the other somehow