Ideas for Magic counters

[Plynkes]

Hiya. Just looking for suggestions for counters or markers to denote magic in an African game. I will have a witchdoctor-type character who can "cast spells" during a game. Whether this magic is real or not is by the by, it has a negative effect on the morale of susceptible units.

I need some kind of marker to denote which units have already had spells cast on them, as continuing to target the same unit will have less and less of an effect (withering away to no effect eventually, or quite quickly for the veteran and elite troops), as they see that nothing bad is actually happening to them (this is to stop this feature from becoming overpowered and unbalancing the game).

So, any ideas what might be cool to use as such a marker? (Just thought it would be better to have something nice-looking, rather than just a counter with "Magic" written on it). Pretty much needs to be something I can make from stuff lying around the place, as the game is next week.

I suppose I could just use my elephant poo counters if comes down to it, but I'm not sure whether elephant poo has any inherent magical qualities or not.

[JollyBob]

I suppose I could just use my elephant poo counters if comes down to it, but I'm not sure whether elephant poo has any inherent magical qualities or not.

I'm sure a great steaming pile of Jumbo's tuppences balanced on the heads of your brave askaris would serve admirably to illustrate a downturn in their morale. 

Other than that, some skull markers (buffalo for preference) would do, maybe?

[Westfalia Chris]

The "slightly creepy" look would be the way to go, I´d agree. Maybe to get a zombie monkey or something similar. Other than that, even if the elephant poo is not magical, it´s still brown and sounds like a bell.

[Malamute]

Ahh, Juju markers.... Sounds exciting.

I am thinking what about some cheap African trinkets that you find in curio shops etc. Fake(obviously)lion claws or small African dolls, or small masks?

Or paint up and base some of the accessories from the Foundry DA range. I remember seeing a pack with miniature wood carvings, african village stuff etc.

Or some chicken bones, boiled down and based on a washer.

[Overlord]

How about some native totems?

I recently made these for Darkest Africa/Pulp/etc games:



Made from 1 pence coins, cocktail stick/skewer, thread and some GW and Foundry skulls.

[Gluteus Maximus]

Ahh, Juju markers.... Sounds exciting.

I am thinking what about some cheap African trinkets that you find in curio shops etc. Fake(obviously)lion claws or small African dolls, or small masks?

Or paint up and base some of the accessories from the Foundry DA range. I remember seeing a pack with miniature wood carvings, african village stuff etc.

Or some chicken bones, boiled down and based on a washer.

I like the mask idea. It would be easy enough to make some out of greenstuff, or use one of the Foundry figures and cast them in plaster, if you needed lots. Quick, cheap  and easy 

I have the village goods set with the items Malamute mentions and those would work well too - although you'd have to order them by mail-order, which might take too long.

Mind you, a pile of elephant poo would have some magical effects on me, I'm sure, so that would work well enough.

I'd like to see your ideas, once you have them fully worked out, as magic [real or imagined] had a big effect on the C19th African psychology and it would be fun to include in my games.

[Plynkes]

I love those totems, Overlord! I may well copy those if there's time (I'm frantically painting cattle and Masai right now).

I have a box of GW placcy skellies I was saving for a Jason and the Argonauts game. I'm sure I could nick a few skulls and still leave enough to kill Todd Armstrong.

Great ideas so far. Thanks, chaps.

[Overlord]

They are pretty quick to build:

Superglue stick to a coin.
Superglue a length of thread around the stick.
PVA sand/gravel etc onto base.
Undercoat.
Paint.
Flock.
Add skull of choice (Painted seperately)
 

[Hammers]

Being a great hoarder of markers, and while I dearly love your elephant apple markers, I would go for the classical beheade black rooster strung up on a pole. Perhaps with a bloodied voodoo doll under it.

The Musee Royal d' Afrique Central in Tervuren had a beautiful collection of all kinds of juju magick.
Perhaps you can find some inspiration there...

http://www.africamuseum.be/museum/permanent/museum/permanent/permetnog1

[Gluteus Maximus]

They are pretty quick to build:

I like those! Even I could manage to make some to put around my African village 

[Malamute]

They are pretty quick to build:

I like those! Even I could manage to make some to put around my African village 

They are great, like em alot.

[Argonor]

They are pretty quick to build:

I like those! Even I could manage to make some to put around my African village 

And Black Cat Bases has a bag of 100 skulls... 

[Gluteus Maximus]

And Black Cat Bases has a bag of 100 skulls... 

Hmm, add those to some of Pardulon's "Skull Piles" and there should be enough for any necromancer-in-miniature 

[Rhoderic]

Fortress Figures also sells cheap skulls. There are lots of other companies that sell skulls as well, but many of these tend to be much more expensive.

[Plynkes]

I'd like to see your ideas, once you have them fully worked out, as magic [real or imagined] had a big effect on the C19th African psychology and it would be fun to include in my games.

Not really my ideas at all, just the plundering of other people's. I really like Chris Peers' "In the Heart of Africa" for its background, ideas and cool army lists, and it is a fun game to play. However I think that T&T is a more fun game to play, and so I wanted to transfer the spirit of witchdoctor powers from ITHOA over to T&T.

I'm quite lazy so I've basically made a witch-doctor a machine gun. Except one that fires no bullets. The witch doctor character must be within a certain range of his victims (18" in ITHOA, but that's not set in stone). They must be able to see him, and he can't be operating as part of a unit while casting his spells (his antics would probably be lost in the crowd. He needs to be noticed). The targets must also be susceptible to this kind of thing, i.e. practitioners of traditional African religions. Not sure about African muslims. Peers renders them immune to such stuff in his game, but African muslims do often seem to go about weighed down with multiple charms to ward off the evil eye and such, so I'm inclined to have magic have a power over them due to their superstitions.

European and Indian troops would be immune, and explorers too (apart from explorers already delirious with Malaria, it would probably work all too well on them, maybe a pre-game check for that?  ) Not sure about African troops trained to a very professional European standard, such as Schutztruppe and the KAR. I'll give that a think.

So once all that is sorted out, the shaman or laibon or whatever makes a skill check as he does his dance (would count as a special action, for orders purposes I guess), blows his powder or whatever. If he succeeds consult the following table.

Raw Units - Automatically Pinned
Trained Units - D6 suppression points
Veteran and Elites - D3 suppression points
- No further effect

For each subsequent spell cast on the unit after the first, you move one step down the table, until you reach the "No further effect" line. So you see the need for keeping track of how much magic they've had flung at them.

As you can see, this system means that magic will initially be totally paralysing to raw units, (though not very effective beyond that), but only have a negligible effect on units with better morale.

Hopefully this will add a little colour to the game without breaking it. I'll tell you how it goes.