The Dolorous Stroke

[Hobgoblin]

I bought this brand-new skirmish game the other night. It's very interesting - quite freeform, but with a really meaty combat system ("meaty"in the charnel-house sense)  using playing cards for both bleeding and serious wounds.

Last night, the kids and I played through a little skirmish. I posted some thoughts on that here.

We're definitely going to play it again, with a proper narrative scenario and probably using some tweaks I suggested in the blog post to get around our paucity of card decks.

[Cait Sidhe]

It does sound interesting. The deck of cards required per character seems like it would require a lot of space. Is it intended for a single character and a bunch of minions (you mention minions are one hit, no cards) or are you actually going to be fielding multiple card decks per player?

[Hobgoblin]

It's intended for several characters - around three a side, I think - each with their own deck of cards. So, last night, we played with one character and a deck of cards each.

The one-hit per minion is my suggested tweak (along with one wound per big minion); it's not in the rules, which assume a deck per character or monster.

I can see the game working well with very few miniatures in quite a small space, which would leave a fair bit of room on the tabletop for cards. For our next game, I'm planning a 'Chapel Dolorous' with a cruciform structure made out of dungeon floor plans and some grail-type thing on the altar that the main characters are trying to make off with.

[LeadAsbestos]

Sounds excellent! Might be just what I need for my Nightfolk! And for that price, certainly worth a try.

[Hobgoblin]

Yes, you can't really go wrong with that price, even if you just cannibalise a few bits of it for other games (I can imagine using the blood and wound cards for one hero per side in Song of Blades or even Dragon Rampant, for example).

I had a couple more thoughts on the game, which I've put here.

[LeadAsbestos]

What I need is a story-driven, detailed, rpg-lite that isn't all wizard focused/get the treasure like FG. I'm going to get this and give it a try. Maybe a Glorantha mod?

[Jagannath]

Thanks for mentioning this game, just bought it - I’m always looking of rules that cope with very small encounters whilst not devolving into a pure dice rolling exercise (see: almost every gladiator game ever). Knock-back (so Miniatures can redeploy or move away) seems really important to this. From a cursory read I’d have liked more granularity to the type of attacks too - something that gives some tactical choices there. I really like the card wound system but it seems to outweigh the granularity of the combat a bit. 

I’ve been working on a ‘mod’ of Ganeshas mighty monsters to achieve a similar-ish thing, though it’s miles away from finished. For attack tactics characters will have C and Q scored for their limbs (like mighty monsters) but attack options (with pros and cons) depending on equipment. So a sword can ‘thrust’ or ‘hack’ for example. Both have different damage statistics and different critical failures - so it’s a tactical decision which to use. I wonder if I can budge some extra detail like that into Dolourous Hack.

Btw did you clock the ‘Animated’ rule under Supernatural Gifts? Seems to me you could use one blood deck (as you’re only using it to make checks against toughness) for all the mooks on the table? Plus it adds a little more unsureness than ‘dead after one wound’, keeping players on their toes?

This is a cool ruleset.

[Hobgoblin]

Modifying Mighty Monsters is a great idea. It's one of those rulesets that we play about once a year, but we always enjoy it when we do.

Have you looked at Mythras (the non-Chaosium version of RuneQuest)? The cut-down version (which is still pretty extensive) is free. You might want to skip all the skills and background stuff - but then again, it might come in useful if you want extra depth and progression and use of the environment.

I haven't played this version, but from the looks of it, this stuff covers all the little details of combat - dropping a weapon, readying another, parrying, etc - as well as the old RuneQuest ever did and possibly a little better. And the special effects (there were only impales and crushes in old RQ, but there are lots more now) look really good.

The real bane of RQ (as an RPG, let alone a combat game) used to be generating monsters/opponents. But there's now an online generator that allows to create foes of various aptitudes at the touch of a button.

It's a lot more work than The Dolorous Stroke or Mighty Monsters, of course: they definitely win on 'time to table' and sheer elegance. But if you want ultra-gritty combat with lots and lots of decision-making, Mythras might be worth a look.

[Jagannath]

Thanks - I’ll take a look at that.

In my mind I want to write a ruleset for really small scale combat - one or two combatants just fighting over a bridge, or playing out a single room of a dungeon crawl for example. I’m half tempted to scrap the MM mechanics and come up with my own. We’ll see. If I get something vaguely legible out I’ll send you it.

Right, let’s have a look at Mythras!

[DivisMal]

Hello folks! It's nice to see the usual suspects again discussing a new set of skirmish rules! 

I also bought TDS and am very impressed. Nice layout, Arthurian theme and a clever mechanic to make characters last longer.

Hobgoblin has some excellent posts concerning TDS on his blog, and I like particularly the suggestions for grunts and henchmen.

It could still need a bit of polishing, but hey its a fiver and you pay more for the latest infusion of well established rulesets from indie developers.

I have another issue, and that is not related directly to the ruleset: I feel, the rules do deserve some very well painted 28mm (or larger minis). It is indeed a worthy successor to Inquisitor in this respect.

Currently I lack a decent collection of Arthurian knights, queens and giants in that scale, so I was considering doing a Warhammer conversion. Something like Inquisitor did, but for a grimdark Fantasy setting.

Btw, I've been looking for such a game for (strange?) aeons, too. So thanks for the links, Mr Hobgoblin!