The Deadzone Proxy Project, Part III


On 24 February I rolled down to my FLGS and played two games of Deadzone. The first was with the store manager, a friendly chap named Tsuneda-San, and we ended up using my Rebs and GCPS forces in a 150 point battle. I lost that one, but followed it up with a fun four way battle between the Rebs, the GCPS, the Plague and the Forge Fathers. That game was also 150 points per side, and all the players present were newcomers to the game. We used forces provided by yours truly, as well as army lists I had designed as well. I played the role of games master and taught them to the rules as best as I was able, a job that was supposed to have been done by Koizumi-San, the Japanese Mantic distributor. Koizumi-San had called in sick and no-showed on the day, pleading bad health. Let's hope that it was really the case, because that's the second time I've heard that excuse from him. Maybe I'm being uncharitable, but lately Sin (his Twitter handle) has been less than friendly in his dealings with me, forgetting orders and replying late to my messages. Maybe I've pissed him off somehow or perhaps he is crazy busy, but I hope that he realizes that I'm his ally and we share the same goals - namely, spreading the word about Mantic games, and increasing the player pool in Japan. I have Sin to thank for introducing Deadzone at the Nishi-Tokorozawa store and providing me many of the Mantic products littering my shelves, so I hope things work out for the best. On this day, however, Sin's no-show put Tsuneda-San in an awkward position as he had to apologize to customer after customer for not being able to explain the rules and showcase Deadzone as advertised.

Four way battle between the Rebs, the Plague, the Forge Fathers and the Enforcers.

Despite forgetting a raft of rules much fun seemed to have been had by all in the introductory game. The new store at Nishi-Tokorozawa seems to be getting more traction and traffic, despite being located in the middle of nowhere. I've been able to expand my circle of gaming contacts, and am happy to include Hitoshi, Mio and Tsuyoshi in that orbit. The fact that I can call them by their first names is good. Mio also represents a watershed in Japanese miniature gaming for me. She is the first Japanese female gamer I have encountered over here in the Land of the Rising Sun who plays miniature games. I have met other female gamers in the Japanese International Gamer's Guild (where the male to female ratio is perhaps 3:1), but Mio is the first who actually plays miniatures games per se. She seems to be an avid role-player as well, judging by her tweets. Role-playing in Japanese is out of my ambit for the moment, but I might DM an English session in April or May with Tokyo Role-Playing games. I even bought a digital copy of Warhammer Fantasy Role-Playing Game (4th edition). Why I did that was simple. I've never done it before, they are looking for GMs, and I want to meet new people. Since the demise of the tabletop battle version the role-playing version and the computer game version are now keepers and repositories of the Warhammer lore, so I felt it was incumbent on me to support it.

My Deadzone collection to date. I have quite a few models in reserve, but the ones on display here are complete 150 point squads. Starting from the top left and spiraling clockwise into the center (as well ignoring the clump of models in the bottom right) the factions are as follows - Nameless (Doom), Mazon Labs (Mantic), GCPS (Raging Heroes), Forge Fathers (Mantic), Marauders (Raging Heroes), Enforcers (Mantic), Rebels (Raging Heroes), Plague (Mantic) and Rebels again (Raging Heroes).
On 16 March I went Craft Lab again (the name of the Nishi-Tokorozawa store) and demonstrated The Walking Dead. Once again I was introducing the game to a bunch of newcomers (Hitoshi, Tsuyoshi, and a young chap named Yamaguchi-San) and they seemed to enjoy it. What warmed my heart more was the talk between Hitoshi and Tsuyoshi about their budding Deadzone squads. Hitoshi seemed to have started a Veer-Myn squad, while Tsuyoshi was building an Enforcers squad. Mio seems to have bought the Forge Fathers, so my trip and introductory game in February was not for nothing. Yay! And I don't even sell these damned things. I just want people I can play with, and so I will take active steps to promote Mantic games and make them enjoyable for people to play. I was also happy to hear that on 24 March an impromptu Deadzone tournament had been organized at Craft Lab by Sin and Tsuneda-San. I was unable to attend as I was acting as tour guide for my sister and family who had come to visit Japan, but it bodes well for the future of Deadzone as a gaming system.


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