Going to my first megagame next week

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Looks cool! This may be a stupid question but what's the difference between megagaming and larping?
 
Heh, obviously I may get some of this wrong not having been to a megagame yet.

But essentially from what I can tell megagames are what LARP would have been if they'd come directly from wargames without stopping at tabletop on the way.

But from what I can tell some of the most significant differences:

Megagames are turn based rather than real time.

They're a lot more abstracted and the rules are a lot crunchier. So with military actions rather than having a live fight (or even playing rock paper scissors) instead it's something more akin to a wargame in how its resolved.

Shut Up & Sit Down played one which is where I first heard about the concept -
 
It seems like more of a British thing, which is a shame, because I was fascinated back when I first saw that SU&SD episode. All I know is basically from that.
 
Report back:

That was a lot of fun. A lot more wargamey then I expected (although the rules were at the simpler end comparatively) but lots of potential for politicking as well.

In terms of players, a decent mix of people who were very game focused and people who were more about the rp. Definitely going to the next one in a few months.

It seems like more of a British thing, which is a shame, because I was fascinated back when I first saw that SU&SD episode. All I know is basically from that.
Assuming you're in the US there's at least some going on - http://megagamesociety.com/
 
So tell us about what all you did!

Edit: I initially misread the title as "metagaming." Ha...that would be equally interesting to hear about.
 
I;'d say about 30 players.

Setting: 1913 in Mexico, just after the Presidente had been murdered. My character was this guy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Díaz_Soto_y_Gama. A hardline anarchist trade unionist and a member of the Zapatistas. The game started with two parties (the Zapatistas and the Constitutionalists) but Pancho Villa formed "The Brotherhood of the North" as the game went on.

The game took place on a map of Mexico, split up into five boards. We all had a base and at least some troops. It was played in turns, negotiation followed by military. Obviously, there were some reasonably simple wargame rules.

The very first go on my map, was me trying to invade a town but I were repelled by the federales.

I'll just do some snapshots now rather than a blow by blow account.

Everyone on my map declared for the Zapatistas apart from the peasant looter Juana Gallo at the top of the map.

As is typical for gamers, the first half of the game was very peaceful with people dividing the maps up among them. The fighting took place in the second half. I mostly worked as support when that happened, even jumping to another map to help Zapata take Mexico City. (Which he then lost after I moved back to my map again. Bloody peasants).

It was actually the Constitutionalists who fired the first shot and broke the uneasy peace. Which I saw coming and had been unsuccessfully trying to persuade Zapata that we should go on the offensive.

I was getting increasingly frustated with Zapata's lack of militancy and looked (and the player of Zapata still doesn't know this) at changing sides. Sadly, while Villa would have been happy to have me in the Brotherhood of the North his campaign manager felt that my red line on nationalisation was too much. (All I asked for is that they adopted a policy of taking over foreign owned businesses without compensation. What could have possibly gone wrong?)

Valentina Ramirez and I were almost ready to form our own two person militant party. But then she got herself caught trying to steal American guns. From an American factory. On the American mainland. As you can imagine, she had other things to worry about then politics. (Although kudos for being the only other character to make mine go "wow, that's a bit fucking hardcore").

In the end, an election was held with American observers. The Zapatistas decided to support Pancho Villa instead. (I'm not sure what the negotiations that led to that were because I was apparently not invited). But, sadly, even with that, the filthy Constitutationalists won by around 3 million votes.

Overall, I had a great time. And will be returning for this game - http://www.penninemegagames.co.uk/the-shot-heard-round-the-universe.html
 
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