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I'm making this post as a sort of journal type process of what it's like to try to step into a host's shoes. You see, this past Halloween we decided that we needed to do a Halloween themed event, however nobody wanted to actually plan and host it. Eventually I decided to step up into it, and overall it is a decently stressful process. This considering the fact that it was planned to only get 6 or so players, so it was a pretty small event. Anyways, for those who are wanting to run events for the first time or want to offer suggestions then let me hear them.

So to start we are a Bolt Action group and we were going to house rule some baddies and try out something akin to the Firefight rules for skirmishes. It was decided that we would have two additional people volunteer to run a scenario each. Three scenarios with 2 players with a squad each versus a scenario runner.

The scenarios included the following themes; "Nazi Super Science", "Bayou Baddies", and "Grimm's Fairy Tales". Overall Bolt Action rules were used but then we added Konflikt '47 rules to add some extra flavor to the game. Setting up the scenarios was easy, missions selected included the point defence, sabotage, and top secret missions. The players would have to blow up a voodoo altar, abduct a Nazi scientist, and survive against a hoarde of the supernatural.

Rules were set as the following; each scenario would have set npc army setups, each scenario would run for 5 turns, players would get 1 order die for every model, every npc army got 1 die per squad, every player model counted as a veteran model and ignored team weapon rules, and each player had to have a minimum of 1 nco and 5 other guys.

NPC armies: 3x 3 man squads of ranged units, these were regulars with an 18" rifle range. 5x 5 man melee units, these were inexperienced and counted as having some sort of soft cover at all times. 1 big bad, depending on the scenario these had different rules. The bayou had a huge gatorman, grimm had a werewolf, and the science one had a robot.

Player squads had 1 nco and 9 men to start. They also had 100 points to spend on upgrades including gear and skills, for example the 'elite' rule from Konflikt. They could get extra points by dropping men from their squads to a minimum of 1 nco and 5 guys. National rules did not apply.

Players were scored on the following level: 0 points for failing objective or losing all models, 1 point for finishing the objective with less than half their models remaining, 2 points for finishing the objective with more than half their models remaining.

Each player received a bag of candy, and the player with the most points at the end received three toblerones that were glued together and wrapped in gold wrapping paper to look like a gold bar.

So yeah, long post but that was the basic setup. Overall the missions were desperate struggles, but the players accomplished all of their goals even though it came down to the wire with players having 1 or 2 guys left. Balancing between squads vs single models wasn't too bad, especially when supplementing Bolt Action rules with Konflikt rules.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
The next event being hosted is a December tournament, and I've managed to get some donations from Rubicon and other areas. I am personally putting up a T-34/76 and a Richard Winters Gamesday model from Warlord games. However these aren't the tournament prizes, these are charity raffle prizes.

The tournament is following these rules; 1,250 points, normal tuen limit rules or 1.5 hour time limit, 14 order dice limit, 3 rounds with 2 of them having missions rolled for and 1 mission being a top secret scenario set to tournament rules(3 objectives vs 1), a $10 entry fee with all entries going to the prize pool. Winner gets 40%, 2nd gets 25%, best painted gets 25%, and third gets 10% or entry fee refunded.

The top secret mission is themed, with it being Santa's sleigh being shotdown over Europe and the objectives being presents that have fallen from the sleigh.

Honestly though, I have learned that companies are ready and willing to make donations when it comes to charity events, my main concern. I've also learned that hosting these events can be difficult and sometimes hard on the wallet, but at the end of the day it is all worth it when you pull one off.

Good on you for stepping up and running stuff! We have a little collective here that do the same and I think a lot of people don't realise just how much hard work it entails (though they all have right to moan about every little detail they don't like whilst not doing any of the work!). One thing we do is have a communal pool of money that the profits (if any) from each event go to so if one event flops it is not a financial burden on the TO, the emotional one is a bugger though.
Nice to hear that companies are willing to step up and helpout with prize support, we have a local shop that is willing at times though sadly they seem to be loosing interest.
Look forward to reading more of your experiences.