Peanut M&M's ®: A Battle in a Bag
by David Michael
Introduction
I think every role-playing game (RPG) game master (GM) has faced the following situation: The party of player characters is finally making their move on the Evil Overlord and his minions. They have mustered their allies and are marching to the Evil Citadel. The Evil Overlord has called his minions and is marching to meet them. A large battle is imminent.
It's going to be a knock-down, drag-out battle pitting hundreds of fantasy creatures against each other. But who has that many miniatures? And even if you are the uber hobbyist and have the correct number of miniatures accumulated, how do you tell which ones are the "good guys" and which ones are the "bad guys"? And then which are the "good guys with pitchforks" and which are the "good guys with dour expressions"?
I'm here to offer a solution. A sweet, crunchy, chocolately solution: M&M's ® Peanut Chocolate Candies.
NOTE: The author is in no way associated with Mars, Incorporated.
In a 22 oz bag of Peanut M&M's ® you have a large number of "troops", "painted" with easily differentiated colors--and big enough to fit easily in the standard 1" hex or square grid of a battlemat. They're cheap and, even more importantly, edible.
What more could you possibly want?
How Many is a "Lot"?
So how many "troops" are there in a bag of Peanut M&M's ®? For my research, I purchased a 22.7 oz (643.5g) package at a local grocery store. It was grueling, counting all of those candies without eating more than 2 (honest!), but I did it.
My 22.7 oz bag had 270 candies in it (I give myself an error margin of +/- 5). I'm going to go out on a statistical limb and assume that the average 22.7 bag has ~270 candies. This comes to ~12 candies per ounce (or 2.38g per candy). So if you need a larger "army", or a smaller one, you can guage which size package to buy accordingly. Or you can just eat the ones you don't need.
| Bag Size | Troops |
| 11 oz | ~135 |
| 16 oz (1 lb) | ~190 |
| 22 oz | ~270 |
| 32 oz (2 lbs) | ~370 |
According the M&M's ® FAQ web page (http://www.m-ms.com/cai/mms/faq.html), the following colors are in a bag of M&M's ® Peanut Chocolate Candies:
| Color | % |
| Blue | 20% |
| Brown | 20% |
| Green | 10% |
| Orange | 10% |
| Red | 20% |
| Yellow | 20% |
So the breakdown of candies per color in a 22.7 ounce bag of 270 candies is:
| Color | Count |
| Blue | 54 |
| Brown | 54 |
| Green | 27 |
| Orange | 27 |
| Red | 54 |
| Yellow | 54 |
Your Chocolate Troops
So now you know how many candies you have available, and in what colors. Now it's time to assign the colors to specific troop types.
The smaller percentage of green and orange candies can be used to advantage by making those the "elite troops" of the opposing sides. Or green and orange can be combined to make up the lesser of two sides of an uneven battle.
Let's say you have an orc horde attacking a human settlement. Since it's supposed to be a "horde", you want the bulk of the candies to represent attacking orcs. The player characters represent the only magic-users and otherwise "heroic" combatants for the village, so make the green and orange candies the villagers, and the rest of the candies as the orcs.
For the villagers, the orange candies could be the men and the green candies could be the women. Or they could represent miners using pickaxes and and hunters using bows.
For the invaders, you make the blue ones conscripts, ill-armored with simple weapons, thrown into the fore-front of the advancing horde. The brown and red are the real orc warriors, using battle axes and shortbows, respectively. Finally, the yellow candies are the warleaders and shamans of the different tribes. (Ok, so we fudged a bit on the yellow and had them do double duty.)
I recommend deciding the roles of the different colors before you open the bag. You have sufficient information to guess (and come close) to how many of each candy color there will be. So let the candy stay fresh. (Though, if you divvy up the forces beforehand you get to eat the "extras" yourself. Why share if you don't have to, eh?)
However, it's quite satisfying to announce the battle by ripping open the bag and dumping the candy on the battlemat.
"OK, " you say, surveying the mass of combatants. "That looks about right...sort the green and orange ones over here...those are your allies. The rest...well...they don't like you."
If You Kill It, You Can Eat It
It's only fair, of course, that the players get to eat any enemies their characters kill during the battle. And if you're feeling generous, you could even let them eat the enemies that are slain by their allies, as well. You're the GM, though, you have first dibs.
When I say "eat any enemies their characters kill", I mean it "out of character". Though if the players want to role-play the concept...well...they're really sick. Don't let them have any candy. They don't deserve it.
As a final note, you might want to clean off your battlemat before you dump the candy on it. Just to be nice. And sanitary. I mean, come on.
Conclusion
M&M's ® are simply too damn cool to let 'em just be a snack food at your gaming sessions. Get 'em involved. Let 'em kick some player butt in your next battle. They'll love you for it. (The players or the M&M's ®, you ask? Yes.)
Really.
David Michael is co-owner of Samu Games, a game company focusing on Internet-based multi-player games, and developer of The Journal. David has been gaming, both as a player and a game master, since 1989. He can be reached at davidrm@samugames.com for comments about this article.
Special Thanks
DavidRM would like to thank C. Scott Wilhelm--because I can't remember which one of us did this first. ;-)
M&M's ® is a registered trademark of Mars, Incorporated.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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