First game on the Sunday of Gamewang! was the always reliable Contenders. It's a fact that I have never played in a bad game of Contenders. Some games have been better than others, but it's always delivered good, solid play every time it has been rolled out. So, there were no worries that it wasn't going to deliver this time round.
Sitting down to play were Stuart MacIntyre and Stuart Clarke, both of whom are more familiar with games that are more traditional in their way of working than Contenders, although neither of them are unfamiliar with games like Cold City, Piledrivers & Powerbombs and so on.
We brainstormed a setting and eventually latche don to having it in a prison, with the contenders as prisoners. I scratched my head for a bit wondering if the prison setting would provide enough scope for play. Turns out any worries I might have had were groundless.
The contenders started off as:
John Moray (Stu C). A car thief who had hit his third strike. His connection was his son, whom he wanted to see grow up but feared his wife would take him away.
Paul Simpson (Stu M). Wrongly arrested for tax fraud. His connection was his father, a prominent lawyer who he hopes will continue to fight his case but fears that he will end up rejecting him.
Marvin Sykes (me). Petty thief and car thief. His younger brother, Carl, was jailed with him and he wants to keep him on the straight and narrow and keep him away from the gangs, but he fears he'll fall in with the seriously hardened criminals.
We saw some initial work scenes in the prison, with all characters trying to get some resources together in the face of the iniquities of prison life. There were also connection scenes involving Moray and Simpson, with ambiguous outcomes in most cases. Sykes, on the other hand, started badly and continued down that track for the rest of the game! The only high point for Sykes was winning (on just) his first fight.
Later in the game, Moray established a new connection with the warden, hoping to better his position and go some way towards gaining early release. Interesting, because it's been relatively rare in my experience that new connections are brought in to play. Moray also gave Sykes a comprehensive kicking in the prison yard. Fair play, because it was Sykes that started it and he was being a dick. This was just one example of Sykes, in the quest to stop his brother going bad, becoming the very thing that he hated.
The fights in the game were swift and snappy, creating excitement for everyone round the table. Both the Stus grasped the way fights worked instantly and the moved along with a great deal of pace and vigour. NPC boxers actually came into it a fair bit, especially the man mountain of 'Hound Dog' Maxwell, a giant of a man (Power 5!) and the most feared fighter in the prison. So why on earth did the imprisoned accountant want to fight him?
We finished the game with an epic 10 round fight between Simpson (the accountant) and 'Hound Dog'. And epic it was. I've never actually seen a fight that long in any game of Contenders I've played. Remarkably, Simpson won with 9 victory points to 6, vanquishing the massive Maxwell and establishing a fair amount of status in the prison.
We ended the game there, because we were running out of time and there was no real way to follow up that fight!
Hopefully the two Stus will pitch in with their comments on their first game of Contenders.
Cheers
Malc
