AAR: WTS: New Materials @ Gencon 2022
After-Action Report for the Megagame “Watch the Skies: New Materials”
When: Thursday August 4th, 2022 @ Gencon
AAR By: Tony Dougherty
Background and pre-game
This would be the Duke's second run of WTS: New Materials and after the success we had in March, we were keen to live up to our own expectations. Additionally, we were the new guys on the block in the MegaGame Coalition so we had plenty to prove. I’m speculating here, but I felt there was a fair dose of unsaid skepticism from the other MGC folks. I had heard that other runs of WTS were not always very positive and/or well organized. I knew we’d do well there but you just never know how a game is going to go.
I had not done a convention game before so there was a lot for me to learn, including some parameters that we had to work within. For example, we had a very specific time window so I had to rejigger the turn timer and shorten the teaching segments. We were also asked to read out something from the MGC and use their format for surveys etc.
We were lucky enough to have setup time on the day before so we did most of it then after we’d got our badges and vaccination bands. That gave us a chance to meet the team and go over last minute rules for the new control folks.
On the morning of, as we were still setting up, we had one player ask to speak to our science control to see what they could do about bringing a kaiju up from the depths of the ocean! For me, this wasn’t really what I’d intended for this version of WTS and I felt like we had enough going on, but I relinquished control a little and decided that this was supposed to be the player’s game. The player talked through what that might look like with the science control. My only stipulation was that if/when it appeared, it would seriously smash stuff up! Like, why bring some monstrosity from the depths? Is it going to be your friend?!?
All quiet…. for now.
Quarter 1
The first few turns were pretty typical - everyone is getting a feel for the game. There was some announcement about Mothra but I don’t remember the details. It always amazes me how as lead control there’s still so much I didn’t know about how the game played out.
There were lots of alliances forming. I think folks see the $$$ of the alliance and they make them fast so they can get more income fast. Interestingly, there were several groups of alliances forming: One was an anti-Nuke alliance and another with the name A.N.A.L but I can’t remember what they were supposed to do.
I know that India spent everything they had acquiring the live alien that shows up on the science game in turn 3. That’s always funny to me - that they spend everything and then can’t do anything with it because they’re broke and have no other materials.
Quarter 2
Quarter 2 was crazy. Some of the things that were happening felt like some last-turn madness items and I’m glad I put the break in here to give me chance to resolve everything.
Firstly, the aliens were starting to ally with France and there were some fireworks going off, indicating to the aliens that they were willing to cooperate. I believe the aliens outright told the French team that they were missing their mother which completely caught me off guard - that the aliens would reveal their biggest secret, potentially making them extremely vulnerable.
Secondly, there was a huge amount going on on the military map. The Brazilians and the US formed a W. Hemisphere treaty and the Russians decided to blockade the <French/British>. In retaliation, they teamed up and destroyed the Russian ships and it felt like the world was on the brink of War.
There was so much terror building from the aggressive war map and the alien actives that we hit our first threshold. This triggered the war between North and South Korea. Unlike the March run, the US and China allies rushed in and had a huge battle resulting in a super-close victory for S. Korea. The original design intention was for the UN to solve the problem so they were pissed that the military players were so aggressive. It made for great inter-team conflict.
Disgusting Aliens watching from outer space
Finally, the boffins in the science game developed a cure for cancer using some alien goo they’d found. That’ll come up later…
Quarter 3
…right now in fact! Anyone who took the cure started to grow a second head, further causing terror across the globe!
One of my favorite moments from the game happened in round 6. The Brazilians came to me and said they were annoyed that the Daily Earth News media never gave them any + PR points even though he’d pump them for information. So they devised a plan to kidnap him, rough him up, and make him read from a script, awarding the Brazilian team PR and taking it away from the French team. The media guy really hammed up his injuries and read it like he was under duress, it was fabulous. On the next turn, the Russians rescued him.
Not sure why I look so intense in this picture. Maybe my hat wasn’t working properly.
Also around this time, SIX countries went to DEFCON 1 - it was like a domino effect. On the plus side, some teams started to do some negative terror science things which helped take the edge off the craziness.
Quarter 4
On turn 7, the Japanese fired a nuke into the ocean and the Kaiju rose to annihilate Tokyo! A lot of the countries rallied round to help defend against it and were successful in driving it off. We decided that we would bring it back again on the last turn (9) for a final throwdown.
China and India came to me and wanted me to know explicitly that the COVID vaccination that the aliens gifted the humans would NOT be used and would be destroyed at all costs. I loved the paranoia of that moment.
The Queen was finally found. They had recruited a few countries to help them by giving them radiation detectors which I thought was a novel solution. I particularly enjoyed the human players debating whether they should turn them on! Also around this time, there were rumors of an Alien Father and how dangerous he might be. I think it was just one of those lovely moments of misinformation.
Look at all the madness near the UK!
The Aliens had visitors on the moon and mars from some of the nation players. Additionally, one of the aliens visited the UN for a turn to lay out their reason for being here and how they had decided to make Earth their home but were concerned about all the weapons. In another favorite moment of the game, one of the news team reported on this to the effect of “The Alien fit right into the UN by blathering on and saying absolutely nothing”.
At this point there were so many threads of player stories it was hard to keep up, here are some notes I took:
China attempts to leave Earth for the moon?
Brazil destroying Japanese supply lines
Media declaring himself to be an alien
Asian alliance vs the aliens
4 countries still in DEFCON 1
There might’ve been a decoy Queen at one point?
France and India under Mind Control?
On turn 9, we had our UN bomb threat which went perfectly. They resolved it by operative actions and deciding to spend the money originally earmarked for the terrorist swiss bank account, on hunting down the terrorists and ensuring they got justice. The Kaiju rose near the UK and was destroyed, coating the entire south of England in a goopy mess. And Science did some light probing of the folks with dreams and discovered it was all a big misunderstanding.
Final Thoughts
It was way more chaotic than our March run! But just as much fun. One of my control team (who helped back in March) said he had more fun, which I take as high praise as there were way more people he knew in the Louisville run.
Also, the feedback we received was 100% positive and I’m super proud of that. I think we scored highest across the entire 4 days which is amazing. My control team were excellent - they really got into the role and helped craft the weird and wacky stories the players came up with.