A Terrible Accident

by on January 31, 2025 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Sixty seven lives were lost when the Black Hawk hit the passenger plane at Washington National Airport. Most information we have points to it being an accident. But an accident made possible by serious things that were done wrong. The Black Hawk was flying above the approved ceiling for helicopter flights. And a single traffic controller was doing the job of two. Earlier in the day there had been two of them. But one was authorized to go home, and the other had to pick up the slack. Would that problem have been noticed if two were on the job? I’m not sure we’ll ever know the answer to that. But I don’t like that the norms were not followed. The norms are there to keep things safe. And things were not safe by any means.

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A Tragic Accident

by on January 30, 2025 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

While a civilian airliner was on final approach to land at Reagan National Airport, an army Black Hawk from the priority transport battalion flew into it. The priority transport battalion flies priority transportees everywhere around Washington DC, but the army reports that this was a training mission and that no VIPs were onboard. They report three occupants on the helicopter, added to the sixty-four souls on the airliner. But I have to ask, why did they have a training flight up at night, flying through the landing corridor of an international airport? Why did the helicopter simply fly directly into the airliner? Is this a tragic accident? Or is it worse than that? Is it an on purpose? We need to find out.

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Castle Con

by on January 29, 2025 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Castle Con was easily the best run first-year general gaming convention I’ve attended. They sent around 700 gamers through the weekend, which is an amazing number. And the staff handled all the crazy that happened without alerting the gamers. I know they had some crazy. They told me a couple things. And I know there was a lot more. There had to be. Every first-year convention has the crazy. The things that happen that nobody expected. They handled it all. They did it so well that I never saw it. Granted, I saw on Friday that they were going to have an issue on Saturday and talked to them about it. As busy as we were Friday, there weren’t enough tables and chairs for everybody who would come on Saturday. They got more tables and chairs. Whether they’d come to the same conclusion or not, I can’t say. But they reorganized the open gaming area and fit more space to play on. And we filled it up. They did good. I look forward to being part of the next Castle Con, and I hope more of you come to it.

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Castle Con

by on January 28, 2025 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Castle Con had some 700 people show up, which is an amazing number. Especially for a first year con. I’m frankly amazed.

I ran approximately two-dozen of them through demos, and had another dozen watching. Most of the watchers were parents who grew up playing BattleTech and were letting me give their kids their first shot at playing it. Around a dozen of those who played at my table were kids. None of them had played BattleTech before. Of the adults, it was half and half between those who had played BattleTech before and those that had not.

Now Castle Con was created by a board gaming group, so the attendees trended towards that distribution. The kids and half of the adults had no concept of what BattleTech’s movement system was. They played like board games, or like Alpha Strike, simply measuring the distance between start and end and going there. The idea that they had to expend movement points to turn, could only walk forward or back, and that movement points used was not equal to hexes moved was an alien concept to them. And converting only the second number, and not the first, to the TMM was equally alien.

Obviously, I’m going to have to brainstorm a better way to teach the movement system. I am ten years plus out of practice on that. But I find it very interesting that such a large number of my demo players simply had no concept of the idea. Some of them groked it after repeated explanations. Others did not. It was something I had to actively teach and keep on them about it or they would forget it.

It was the single largest hangup people had about learning the game, and I find that very interesting.

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BattleTech Demos

by on January 27, 2025 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I ran a BattleTech Classic and BattleTech Alpha Strike demo this weekend at a local convention. I’ve been doing Alpha Strike demos for years now, and was possibly the first Demo Agent to start demoing it under its original name back when I was a Demo Agent. It really is a quicker and easier way to play BattleTech. As I said back then, “this is the future of BattleTech.” And the movement and TMM mechanics are one of the big reasons for this. This weekend was the first time I’ve demoed Classic in years. It’s been over a decade since I’ve taught new gamers on Classic, and it was the movement and TMM that confused the gamers more than anything else. The idea that MP allowed you to move, but what counted for movement was actual hexes traveled, that you then converted to TMM was the single biggest hangup new gamers had. Over and over again. Many, many new gamers. It was the single biggest mindjob they had. Obviously I’m going to have to come up with a new way to explain since it was such a recurring issue. It is just an interesting take to take away from a convention. While many of us may consider Alpha Strike’s movement and TMM mechanics too simple and too abstract, I’m now firmly in the camp of considering them to be far superior mechanics when it comes to introducing new players to the game. And we HAVE to consider introducing new players to the game if the game is going to survive.

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