February 16, 2021: Ogre Playmat Contest

The object of this contest was to create a scenario that worked on an existing Ogre playmat. Our thanks to everyone who entered; I judged these myself, and enjoyed the job!

Our winner is John-David Karnitz, for "Eyes on the Prize," a short and vicious scenario for map M7. He wrote a good intro, telling the story of a recon satellite's last moments, and then presented the tactical battle to recover the downed information. John-David gets a signed Ogre Pocket Box Bundle and Ogre Sixth Edition, and the scenario will appear in an upcoming special collection to be entitled Illuminated Manuscript. And right now that title is all I can breathe about it!

Second place goes to Dan Carey for "Coastal Raid," a medium-length scenario for map M6. The title nicely describes the action. It can use (but does not require) a variety of counters from Deluxe Edition supplementary material, and it's always fun to work those in when you have them. Dan gets a signed Sixth Edition and a set of Bullet Dice, and his work will appear in the next Ogrezine (if we do it) and somewhere else, otherwise!

Third goes to John-David again, for "Grab the Goose," a set of meta-rules for using the playmats to introduce hex-gaming concepts to young children. He was definitely thinking outside the box with this one! And ranking it above more conventional scenarios was definitely a judgment call on my part, but I stand by it. "Grab the Goose" might bring us a lot of new players, even if we have to wait ten years or so for them . . . So his prize box will include a second Ogre Sixth Edition – which I will not personalize to him, because a sensible person would sell the second copy and buy some other gaming loot! We will post "Grab the Goose" online, and probably make some other use of it later.

-- Steve Jackson

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