DAFtness (Dark Age Fantasy)

[dijit]

Well after reading the past couple of threads about vikings and Arthurians, whilst I've been reading Robert Holdstock's 'Mythago Wood' (I read it first about 10 years ago - excellent book), I've decided I'm going to dust of my love for all things Dark Age and add a fantasy spin to it. Now it's time for those saxons and celts/picts to face some of their nightmares. First up is to make an Urscumug (Aka Woodwose or Wildman), with some nightmarish beasts, then there's got to be a necromancer aided by ghosts (perhaps Romans?).
So as I've not got a board worth showing yet and my minis are in need of a bit of love and care before their photogenic again, are ideas for rulessets or scenarios or even other creatures and beasts?
I've considered both WAB and SOBH, though not convinced with either. WAB is good for bigger battles, and would easily allow me to draw in fantasy creatures, but doesn't work too well as a skirmish game. SOBH is great for quick games, but I'd prefer more detail - any ideas?

[myincubliss]

The LOTR / WOTR rules? There's a yahoo group with adaptations for different rulesets, plus the fact that they're suiyable for skirmish type affairs with the SBG right up to whopping great castle assaults with the WOTR rules.

[Red Orc]

Interesting idea, I'd never thought of applying mass-battle rules to it. I tried some time ago to do an RPG version based on a Call of Cthulhu-Runequest-Stormbringer mashup, but it wasn't spectacularly successful. I got the feeling it would have been better to have it as a weird one-off rather than trying to develop an ongoing story.

For minis you really can use anything from CoC horrors, to GW's forest spirits, to fantasy heroes ... my own take on the Urscumug is less like a woodwose and more like a minotaur, ogre or preferably some kinda boar-demon. But hey ho, I guess it's different for each of us 

If your idea is that the Saxons and British are the ones producing the mental templates from which the mythagoi are derived, then the Saxons are probably going to be thinking of trolls/trow/drow - I'd suggest undead, barrow-dwelling, gold hoarding, vicious, kinda like vampire elves - and the British are either Christian and therefore beset by Devils of varying kinds, such as succubi, or pagans who believe in the various spirits of the woods and such like, so more like fantasy wood elves.

[dijit]

It's obvious to see you've read the books Red Orc! My Urscumug is like a 'mino-boar' I've just scuplted the basic body shape. One of the great things with such games is that so much is possible with them.
I've just got my hands on LOTR so giving it a butchers to see what it's like.

[Red Orc]

You'll have to keep us up to date with how you get on with this. I'm interested at least!

As to reading the books, well, I honestly thought 'Mythago Wood' was one of the best fantasy novels I'd ever read. The others, all 4 or 5 or whatever it is, are good, but they don't have the same impact in my opinion as the first one.

It seeemed like an obvious thing to try and turn into a game, but I never even thought of running it as a batlegame. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that LOTR could work really well.

[Thantsants]

Not familiar with Mythago Wood but I'd like to be!

Sounds interesting - got me thinking of Beowulf - what about a Grendel type monster?

I seem to remember seeing loads of interesting monsters at Ral Partha although the shop seems to be down at the mo while they move premises...

http://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/index.htm

Do like the idea of a ghostly Roman Legion as well!

[dijit]

Well I've dusted off my Saxons and started getting their bases sorted, though they still need a lot of love and care. Red Orc - it's clear that you've read the books and put some thought into how to game them. I'm thinking of setting it roughly 600Ad, so the Saxons have had time to settle, but the welsh/celts haven't been totally beaten yet. Been doing some research into Saxon and Celtic myths. So far I've got:
Beowulf
Tristan and Isolde - (classic love triangle, might form a good base for a scenario alla Guitar Hero Andys from the recent Arthus thread)
Various Gods - especially Valkyries
Sceadugan - Shadow walkers, shapechangers, the stuff of nightmares
Various Elves (not Tolkienesque, more wild, pixie like, but very fickly and at time unpleasant)
Succubi

The idea forming so far is to have an ongoing quest, with the hero having to solve parts of the quest in each game.
The rules I'm looking at so far are WAB (but played as a skirmish game), SOBH and possibly Boardsword adventures.

[Hawkeye]

Have to agree with dijit and Red Orc on this one - Mythago Wood is, hands down, one of the best fantasy novels I've ever read. I even did my MA dissertation on it! Looking forward to seeing how this project pans out. As I remember, weren't there also some WW1 mythagos? Stories about soldiers in the war had entered the collective unconscious and were manifested in bodily form? Now that I think of it, were there also a couple of mythagos born from the English Civil War too? It's been a long time since I read the book, and my memory may be unreliable on this one.
Still, a GREAT idea for a project, dijit!

[Thantsants]

Have you ever read Eric the Viking by Terry Jones?

There were some cool baddies in there - Dog Fighters stick in my mind for some reason...

[dijit]

No I've not read Eric the Viking.
@Hawkeye - yes there is 'Shellhole Sam', who appears to lead soldiers lost in no mans land home. And then there's a musketeer, which I'm assuming is Civil war, though his story isn't presented.

I'm still trying to work out how to include other periods prior to 600AD into it, or whether I should just take a plunge and do it fully as in Kylkuk's Legion, which includes everything from Stone Age hunters through Celts to Renaisance knights. Though I think 600Ad would still remain to primary focus.

[Hawkeye]

Absolutely, dijit, I understand. In fact, I think giving yourself that focus for a project like this is important, but I had vague memories of the other mythagos/archetypes, and wondered if you had thought about including them. It's a great idea - really good modelling and gaming opportunities.