Transcript
Gerry Game Won by Jerry Belich @j3rrytron - jerrytron.com Special Thanks ● ● ● ●
Benedict Fritz ( @benedictfritz ) for helping with the first playtest, tweaking, and solidifying the rules. The organizers and volunteers of Bit Bash 2015 , for putting a game on the docket that was neither finished conceptually, or physically, and for helping run it during the festival. Kevin Geisler, who hurt himself by stretching his leg too far, so I thought to warn people about proper stretching. Shervin Hossein, who ripped the entire front of his shorts while taking the winning stride for the British, with epic comedy timing.
Changelog v1.0 ●
Initial release.
Story This game is inspired and very loosely based on The Battle of Jutland , a WWI naval battle. The title refers to the Germans as Gerry and Game Won because of the contention about which side actually won the battle. Don’t read too much into it. In the game, there are three German spies, one on each of three islands. The German team wants to retrieve their spies, and the British team wants to capture them.
Player Types This is a six player game, with two teams of three players. One team plays as the Germans, and the other team as the British. There are two types of vessels, carriers and frigates. Each team has one carrier and two frigates. Carriers get one action per turn, and frigates get two actions.
Game Components There are three island pieces (fig. 1), three German spy tokens (fig. 1), and six armbands (fig. 2). Each team’s armbands consist of two colors, red and black for German, white and blue for British. Frigates have red or white as the primary band color with black or blue as a smaller patch. Carriers are simply the inversed colors. The playfield should be at least forty feet long, and twenty feet wide.
Actions An action can be any of the following: a movement, an attack, taking a spy from a source in range (like an island, or a disabled frigate).
Movement Warning: This game involves potentially taking large steps and control over your body. It is recommended you stretch first, or at least make sure you do NOT stretch your body past what it is capable of doing safely. It’s just a game. One player movement consists of taking up to a full step with one leg, while keeping the other foot firmly planted. You are not allowed to lift or reorient the second foot during a movement. After taking a movement, you must face your body in the direction of your step, as your arms represent your broadsides, important for attacks. You don’t have to take a full step. If you have
more than one action, you can move twice, allowing for turning a corner. Turning boats is hard, and that challenge is part of the game.
Attacking In order to attack another vessel, you and the defender raise your arms (each arm being the closest to the other), and if you can reach each other, you are within range to attack. For best range, it is advantageous to have your side face an enemy. To determine the result of an attack, you simply play a quick round of Rock, Paper, Scissors . If the attacker wins, the defender is disabled (this is true for a frigate or carrier). Ships CANNOT be destroyed. If it is a draw, nothing happens. If the defender wins, they get a free action they must immediately take. This could be to move away, reciprocate the attack, or any other valid action.
Disabled Ships & Repairs A disabled ship cannot take any actions, and so essentially loses their turn if still disabled. Any friendly ship can use an action to repair another ship, as long as they are within range. Range is determined exactly the same way as an attack. Carriers are special in that they can use an action to repair themselves, so it is impossible to permanently disable an entire team.
German Spies On each of three islands are a single German spy. The Germans are attempting to retrieve them, and the British are attempting to capture them. Only frigates can retrieve spies from the islands, because carriers are too large to get close enough to shore. Frigates must move close enough to an island where they are within an inch or two of touching the island. They do NOT need to step on it. It takes one action to retrieve a spy from an island, or disabled frigate. Once a spy is aboard a carrier they become more difficult to retrieve. You must first successfully attack the carrier to disable it, and then successfully attack it again for each spy you want to retrieve.
Game Setup First a playfield is required. Ideally you want to find a twenty by forty foot space, though feel free to adjust for your space. Use tape, or visual landmarks to designate the edges of the play field. Three islands, made from felt, are placed evenly spaced across the greatest length of the field, centered in the shorter length. On each island is one German spy, also represented by a piece of felt with a rough bit of velcro on the back. On the German team, each player will wear a felt armband, red for the frigates and black for the carrier. The British will wear blue for the frigates, and white for the carrier.
Each band is also numbered, starting on the German side carrier with ‘1’, then British carrier with ‘2’, and back and forth alternating with the frigates on each team, so German and British alternate every turn. The Germans all start on one of the long edges of the playfield, and British on the other. Now that all pieces are setup, each player, in order of their number, picks their starting position on the long edge of the playfield. After positions are chosen, the game begins.
Order of Play Each armband has a number on it, from 1 to 6. Turns go in this order, and a player is only skipped if they are disabled when their turn arrives.
Winning In order to win, a team must have at least two German spies aboard their carrier, and reach friendly waters, which are represented by the edge of the field that team started the game on.
Printouts The following three pages are larger graphics of all game pieces required to play. Feel free to print out and use, or just use as references for creating your own. The original pieces were made using felt cutouts, and attaching sticky backed velcro (the hook side) as a way to attach and detach pieces like the spies during gameplay.
Islands and German Spies
German Armbands
British Armbands
