how to host a game?

[harry]

I' ve been playing the game for about 2 years. I have only played with family members. I hope being a member of this site will put me in contact with other area people who will want to play.
my question is how do you go about hosting a game? Do you go by the official rules and develop house rules where the official rules seem vague?And what about custom characters. I am very sceptical about playing with custom characters. I must admit i have some custom characters myself. And i know they can present complications. but I don't want to discourage potential players by outlawing customs.
so if any one has any advice on hosting games let me know

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by harry

I' ve been playing the game for about 2 years. I have only played with family members. I hope being a member of this site will put me in contact with other area people who will want to play.
my question is how do you go about hosting a game? Do you go by the official rules and develop house rules where the official rules seem vague?And what about custom characters. I am very sceptical about playing with custom characters. I must admit i have some custom characters myself. And i know they can present complications. but I don't want to discourage potential players by outlawing customs.
so if any one has any advice on hosting games let me know

1. Stick to the official rules and in case of uncertainty, check the Heroscape Advanced FAQ or this site.

2. Be extremely careful in allowing custom units. They need to be rigorously tested to prevent any issues. When I am playing with my son, we use customs sometimes; when we play with groups we do not.

[The B.I.V.]

Friendly games are a great place to test customs.

Brandon

[LongHeroscaper]

Originally Posted by The B.I.V.

Friendly games are a great place to test customs.

Brandon

Not for the first few times with briefly known people.

harry, you may want to be a little bit more specific about your location so that local people on this site can make contact with you. Good luck finding new playmates .

[Ugly-Caco]

Originally Posted by LongHeroscaper

harry, you may want to be a little bit more specific about your location so that local people on this site can make contact with you...

Hogwarts? You'll need owls.

[harry]

sorry about not posting my location. this is really my first time posting anything. so it is taking a while and help from my wife. but now my location is up.

[harry]

my concerns for customs is based on my recent experiences. when playing with family members they tend to be more patient. we a currently playin a game with aliens vs predators vs mechs. there are so many variables when trying to create balanced character and teams. I gave the speed and defence to aliens, i gave predators attack and stealth and the mechs range and defense. the predators so far have been nearly all destroyed.
I have often made my favorites characters very powerful althought not intentionally. on e exanple is the custom of yoda with a life of 9.
so i guess what should be the rules with customs and making them balanced.

[Cavalier]

Spend some time in the Custom Units & Army Cards subforum. Especially looking at some of the stickied threads.

[Revdyer]

It's great to hear the you want to play with more people, harry. I hope you can quickly get in touch with some good folks. I think you'll find that the game will "open up" a great deal, even without introducing any custom figures at all. Just playing new people means you will see the game played in new ways.

Another way to meet people to play with, by the way, is to watch the EVENTS section to see if there are any gatherings within travel distance for you.

Welcome to the site!

[Sokol]

Welcome to the site harry!

[Kroc]

Welcome to the sight and the next time I'm home maybe we can get together. While I live in Turkey my family is from Huntington, so maybe we can get together.

Like everyone else has said, when you are first playing with people: No Customs, No House rules. Otherwise you'll end up playing Arguescape, not Heroscape.

Especially customs, balancing customs is very hard.

[Oogie_Da_Bruce]

There are definitely some things you want to consider when hosting a game.

1. (And most important is) Know your audience.

If you're inviting other gamers, you can dive into the advanced ruleset pretty quickly. Customs shouldn't be too much of a problem either (so long as everyone can agree and after a few games of official figs).

If they are casual or non-gamers, you really need to make the game as easy for them to understand as possible. The best way to do this is to build some smaller premade armies on a simple map. This takes away the decision overload that comes with learning a new game. Drafting an army (and looking at ALL the cards) is a sure fire way to get them burnt out before the game even starts.

2. Have the game ready to play.

Definately have the map already built and armies already bagged That way they can get there and start playing right away... while they're fresh.

3. Make it a social gathering.

Food, Drinks, and Music tend to make for a more pleasant gaming experience (typically).

4. People like it more when they win.

Not saying throw the game, but maybe take the crappy army.

$0.02