I’ve ridden that train, I’ve daydreamed that daydream, and honestly the hardest part is just getting enough people to pay for their ticket and actually be on the same line to make it happen. (I guess think of it like a really wacky venue fee, lol)
But alright, say that part is taken care of. We’ve got at least 8 people along, say, the Wolverine line. That’s Detroit to Chicago, with the stops in between to pick up other rid—sorry,
players and all meet up in the same car.
Hypothetically, here’s how we would do it:
Very technically, you could run a very low-power local game setup on an Amtrak train. Certain areas in coach class do have table setups that can seat up to four people, two on each side like a restaurant booth, with (iirc) another such table on the opposite side of the aisle. (The other side may have been a table-for-two setup, I can’t remember for certain.) There are also power outlets and USB ports for charging devices at said tables.
Furthermore, the cafe car does have all table’d seating, and assuming there are no stipulations that say that you can only sit there if you are eating food or whatever, that area is typically pretty empty (most people order their stuff and take it back to their seat), and can support way more than 4-8 people very comfortably without blocking other rider’s ability to access and use the cafe car’s services without disruption.
In my opinion, best option would have to be WLAN for connectivity (yes, built-in local wireless and all that entails in terms of reliability), but outside of the usual pitfalls of playing over local wireless…you could absolutely have private battle lobbies going on an Amtrak train.
It should be noted that motion controls can get a little squirrelly when in a moving space like a train, but we wouldn’t exactly be going for a high level of competitive integrity with a setup like this anyways. (At least trains turn a lot less frequently and a lot less sharply than, say, a bus. Just play TTB when on a bus imho, lol)
But my overarching thought is that as long as we aren’t yelling at each other or getting in people’s way or otherwise making trouble for the other passengers, I feel like the train riders/Amtrak staff would probably just be amused rather than try and shut us down. It’s entirely possible this would only work once for several reasons, so we would want to prioritize being passive, discrete, polite, and quiet to give the group that actually makes this presumably rare event occur the best chance of being successful, memorable, and totally badass’d.
Going further, I will note purely for funsies that doing an actual wired LAN is theoretically possible (albeit without the standard dock/display setups). We would all need USB-C to ethernet adapters (preferably including in-line power via that adapter if you wanted to LAN and charge simultaneously), ethernet cables, and a router/switch of some kind to link them all up. (Stands to get your Switch off the surface of the table so that the adapters have clearance to be connected would also be recommended at that point going this route.) I don’t believe this is practical for several reasons, however, starting with the fact that powering all the devices would become a logistical nightmare, and I can’t say for sure that bringing power strips along would actually solve that issue, which is to say I have no idea how much power those outlets are actually capable of supplying. The other big reason I don’t think this is ultimately the best route to take is that the more equipment you have to pull out and rig up, the more attention would be drawn by onlookers/staff, the messier we would appear (cables EVERYWHERE), and the longer it takes to put it all away in shame if the conductor decided to be like…
Those are my thoughts. I would love to be a part of that group photo if anything like this was ever actualized (even a 2v2 or 3v3 situation would be pretty amazing, let alone an entire 4v4 going), and this is totally impractical unless the stars aligned very specifically for it to be able to happen, but it’s absolutely a plausible scenario, functions better than trying the same type of thing on other forms of transport like a bus or plane (plus you could potentially pick up new players along the same route, which I just think sounds spiffy), and would absolutely go down as a legendary occurrence in the scene.
At any rate, daydreaming about it on the way to and from Chicago was enjoyable. Never say never ig, but holy damn that would be a hell of a thing to make happen.
