Running an Arena with more than 4 cars

[HeatDeath]

It sounds like this solves the "pile on the last player this turn" problem. It's basically equivalent to the advice I posted above - a mechanism to ensure you don't have more than 4 players in a furball. Each player is in a dramatically simplified furball [albeit with extremely dynamics "terrain" consisting of the other cars] with only two other cars - the one attacking them and the one they're attacking.

You still have the game-length problem though. Because movement isn't phased, there will be quite a bit of players sitting around, waiting for their next turn.

Another alternative victory condition I've heard proposed [by GameMasterChris on the unofficial Discord] is have the game run until the first car is eliminated. Then the survivors are ranked by the condition of their cars. This encourages every player except the strongest one to spread their damage around, since nobody except the currently strongest player wants the weakest player eliminated. This worked well when I played it with my three kids - it kept them from piling on the youngest. It may have other issues though - as always, extremely thorough playtesting of any planned convention scenario is not optional.

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by HeatDeath

Another alternative victory condition I've heard proposed [by GameMasterChris on the unofficial Discord] is have the game run until the first car is eliminated. Then the survivors are ranked by the condition of their cars.

The obvious problem: It encourages sandbagging -- if the "winner" is the car with the least damage, players would be best-served *avoiding* combat.

I suppose one *could* go the opposite direction: When the first car is eliminated, whoever has the *most* damage wins....

For this model, tho', I'd go with "whoever has inflicted the most damage to others wins"; this would require keeping score of how many damage-producing hits each player produces.

[HeatDeath]

Play with bloodthirsty young girls who want revenge from the last fight where elder daughter "accidentally" did a speed-5 t-bone into her little sister from clear across the map after losing control half way through her move.

Believe me, "sandbagging" will not be a problem. :D

[kjamma4]

Originally Posted by HeatDeath

Believe me, "sandbagging" will not be a problem. :D

Ha, ha. Sounds more like punching bagging!

[Sam Mitschke]

Getting kids, and *especially* girls, to play is a huge win in my book. That's fantastic! Thank you for teaching/including/encouraging them!

[ChargersWI]

Originally Posted by 43Supporter

For this model, tho', I'd go with "whoever has inflicted the most damage to others wins"; this would require keeping score of how many damage-producing hits each player produces.

That's what I've done when running other games with multiple players. Encourages players to get into the fray rather than sitting back and watching.

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by ChargersWI

That's what I've done when running other games with multiple players. Encourages players to get into the fray rather than sitting back and watching.

Indeed -- and I confess: One of the big reasons I wiped the floor with NOVA was Not Charging In; so I know better than most the value of Hanging Back and waiting for the "steak money" part of the game. :)

It seems to me CW6 lends itself to the "headlong charge" school of gaming, which has its charms, but really isn't my scene.

[sazzlefrats]

An obvious solution to the pile on the schlemiel is to have a cumulative -1 to hit for each additional person attacking the victim. The reasoning is that you have smoke, flying bits of armor, shrapnel, exploding ammunition, etc.... and it gets harder and harder to see the guy.

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by sazzlefrats

An obvious solution to the pile on the schlemiel is to have a cumulative -1 to hit for each additional person attacking the victim. The reasoning is that you have smoke, flying bits of armor, shrapnel, exploding ammunition, etc.... and it gets harder and harder to see the guy.

Something like the "explosion markers" from _Battlefleet Gothic_, only helping the target rather than hindering?

[NexusGameTheory]

My group ran a lot of 5 player games as we played our league and we had several homebrew rules that really made things "zoom". :D

1. Game is over when the first player is eliminated
2. Often there were other primary objectives, eg. race points
3. We tested out several of the alternate methods for alternating movement as suggested by users here, the easiest seemed to be "everyone going 5 move now", done? "everyone moving 4 go now", etc. We knew the correct order, so if there was ever a question of who had to go first, we knew

The combination above meant that we only went over game time by a reasonable amount, and more importantly, people didn't feel as left out during movement, everyone tended to stay focused and engaged with the game which really matters.