Every year, my club runs a big event called “Tentcon.” We throw 60-80ish people in a rented space and play a bunch of wargames as a mini-convention. Every year, I try to do something unique and interesting—which leads to me constantly changing my mind on what I want to do.

Well, I’m trying putting my foot down on one: we’re doing Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms as a coop game. I’ve rejected this idea before out of fear that the game might be a bit too much to learn all at once, but I was always thinking of having them bring their own stuff or play competitive games. As a cooperative adventure, we can tune this into something viable.

Let’s start, like with any good wargame plan, with who our target audience is. The objective is for players to have read nothing about the game before the match and for them to only have the loosest idea of what The Elder Scrolls is even about. They need to be able to show up, get the idea behind the adventure, and feel like they’re making choices that matter while understanding their potential outcomes. This is no simple task: it requires the right pacing and scenario.

So how do we solve it? First, we start with a narrative anyone can understand. You’re a group of Dark Brotherhood assassins, tasked with killing a specific commander in an Imperial fort on the frontiers of Skyrim. Done. Even if you understand nothing about The Elder Scrolls, the idea of being assassins on a mission to kill a specific target is easy to latch onto. It shows some of the best aspects of the ruleset, like the ability to sneak around undetected and not necessarily murder everyone. Furthermore, it gives options to the players so they feel like they have a choice. When do you pop out of the shadows? How? What risks do you take?

It also helps us to solve the pacing problem. As you are sneaking into the fortress, you start by learning movement rules and how sneaking works before you learn how combat works. You also get to learn the basic round structure and flow of the game as a group. By the time you enter combat, you’ve learned most of the rules and now just need to understand how to read the dice.

As it is a cooperative adventure, we can also get away with each player only controlling 2-3 models. Give each one a well geared hero and two grunts. This helps keep complexity down while showing you what’s great about the system. It forces you to work with your fellow players, coming up with a plan of entry and attack.

The remaining complication is timelines. We’ll have to playtest to manage it so you can learn the game, sneak in, execute, and extricate successfully within a three hour time block. No small task. In my head, I’m envisioning a 6×4 foot board with a lot of terrain and 20ish imperials that the 8-or-so player models need to sneak and kill their way through. I’m hoping sneaking does a lot of lifting here, avoiding a ton of dice resolution. I think the levers are in how many implied objectives exist on that map. Is there wildlife to contend with before you make it into the fort? Do you need to open a gate? Do you have to identify the target? If you get spotted, does that mean all enemies go on alert or just a few localized enemies?

The best part, to me, is that this is an excuse to use all the files I have from backing the MyMiniFactory campaigns that Modiphius has run for the games. I can print as many Imperials and Dark Brotherhood as I possibly need, which is fantastic. Both factions should be easy to paint. The opportunity to print off and paint up a full fort is also a cool idea. I could build on my existing set and just enrich it with more pieces. One of my favorite parts of Tentcon is always the chance to show off some cool terrain.

And, as an added bonus, I’ve got a partner in crime in my buddy I play the game with. He’s a masterclass in Elder Scrolls lore and with him at the storytelling helm I’m sure we can come up with something that helps the players realize there’s so much more to this setting than most people realize.

There really is. The Elder Scrolls is absolutely one of the best fantasy worlds out there, with incredibly deep and engaging lore and many storytelling opportunities. The game Modiphius built for it doesn’t quite do it justice, but it’s a great framework to interact with the setting and world. I wish it had more, but what’s there is great. I’m sure if we do this right, we’ll deliver the kind of game people talk about months later and really illustrate why we love the setting and Call to Arms itself.

Now, back to the painting mines. I’ve once again signed myself up for a lot.