Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Frostgrave => Topic started by: Pippa on 18 August 2015, 02:48:40 PM
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Played a game of Frostgrave this week (still fairly new to the rules) and we played it totally as a co-operative game. The way we did it was to have 3 random monsters spawning at the end of each turn in random locations. The hunt for treasure became quite perilous! It played really well like this and was very enjoyable and I was just wondering if anyone else had adapted the rules for co-operative play and if so, what they thought of it?
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We've just started with our 4 person group. We're just killing each other and grabbing treasure right now, but I like what you're doing.
A battle report would be cool.
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Almost sounds like Zombicide when you play it that way, and I know what a nail-biter that can be... lol Zombicide has been a big hit with my non-gamer friends, so maybe this can be a gateway drug. ;)
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Every game should have AI rules so people can play with their friends in coop mode... For some groups, it's more fun taht way because the campaign is not bound to be dominated by powerplayers :)
I hope we will see some fan-made or even official solo/coop rules.
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Every game should have AI rules so people can play with their friends in coop mode... For some groups, it's more fun taht way because the campaign is not bound to be dominated by powerplayers :)
I hope we will see some fan-made or even official solo/coop rules.
In Wyrmalla's thread about non-Wizard leaders, I posited that non-magic-using leaders could be used to simplify solo (or in this case, coop) play, as spellcasting would probably be the most difficult aspect to modify. It's not hard to imagine mercenary captains or treasure hunters who are looking to make a big score in gold and aren't interested in grimy old spellbooks combing through the ruins and causing your wizard trouble.
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I have not had a chance to play yet, and my not until after the new year. But our group is a big fan of Mordheim, and for many years we have only played it cooperatively. I expect that is how we will play Frostgrave too, once we turn to it. Glad to hear it is working out for you! I am interested in hearing how you structure your games (and from anyone else who plays cooperatively).
-Michael
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forstgrave has solo and coop potential for sure ! A warband, a wizard, together in a journey in an old haunted city, full of monsters, undead and all, searching for particular artefacts and treasure. it would be a great game by itself!
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This is something I would love to look into more, but just haven't had the time. Would love to hear what people are doing with it.
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Sounds good! Were you playing with a warband each, or did you split one warband and both control it?
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My first thought after reading the rules was "this could be great fun as a co-op". The second was "wish I hadn't backed Zombicide: Black Plague now!".
Will be keeping a close eye on this thread :)
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I like this idea a lot!
I've done similar things with other systems - especially for convention games (where you never know what sort of highly competitive, rule-lawyery type might show up and potentially ruin a game for people jus tther eto have fun if playing a player versus player skirmish)
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<snip> But our group is a big fan of Mordheim, and for many years we have only played it cooperatively. I expect that is how we will play Frostgrave too, once we turn to it. Glad to hear it is working out for you! I am interested in hearing how you structure your games (and from anyone else who plays cooperatively).
-Michael
Could you give a brief description of how your group has handled Cooperative play for Mordheim? I'd be interested to hear not only for use with Mordheim but how that approach might be applied to Frostgrave. My group has done some "co-op" Mordheim in the past, but basically it's been a GM running a narrative scenario along with all the enemy models, so not really a true co-op style with no GM.
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Could you give a brief description of how your group has handled Cooperative play for Mordheim? I'd be interested to hear not only for use with Mordheim but how that approach might be applied to Frostgrave. My group has done some "co-op" Mordheim in the past, but basically it's been a GM running a narrative scenario along with all the enemy models, so not really a true co-op style with no GM.
Just like you said with a GM I think, at least from the campaign that was posted online :).
http://hobbyblog.wargameweaver.com/
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We have played a variety of different ways. The most fun is also the most involved - that is, creating a narrative campaign specifically for cooperative play. Maxxev links to the most elaborate of these campaigns, my brother's "The Vampire Hunters". It takes a considerable amount of record keeping, but is a great deal of fun. Jim did another similar (simpler) campaign, "The Warpstones Belong to Us", which I have not had a chance to play with but he and my Tennessee friends had a good time with it, by all accounts. Both have NPC adversaries who progress as the campaign games are played out; they can be run by a designated GM but what we tend to do is have the players collectively run them, usually showing very little mercy to ourselves.
The site also has some collaborative scenarios that I suspect could be adopted moderately easily for Frostgrave. Most are designed with multiple allied warbands in mind, but "The Restless Dead" was written for solo play (if you really want a challenge, play "The Restless Dead" in combination with "Escape from Mordheim" - not for the faint of heart). Both of these scenarios could be ported over to Frostgrave fairly easily.
"The Lost Chest" is actually a competitive scenario, one that has produced some really good games - but it needs 3+ warbands.
We have also played allied warbands in linked scenarios.
We have experimented with starting everyone with one hero and a couple of henchmen, all working together as if they were a single warband even though they may be drawn from different lists. That approach seems to work well, but every time we start a campaign like that we are disrupted by life. I think this approach would be harder to port over to Frostgrave, as there are fewer (but more critical) "heroes" in Frostgrave.
My group has just voted to play G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., so I probably won't be able to lure them into Frostgrave for a few months. But I will be working on ideas - and I am very interested in whatever collaborative ideas others work out.
-Michael
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Incidentally, brother Jim doesn't know about Frostgrave yet, as far as I know, so shhhhhhhh. I just posted his birthday present this afternoon - the rulebook and a box of the plastic soldiers. He and the Tennessee gang have been playing a Star Wars RPG (ewww) but I'm thinking he will be hooked. But for the next few days, nobody mention "Frostgrave" around him, please.
-Michael
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This is something I considered.
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So have since played co-operatively again, refining it a bit more.
Lots of Terrain on the table but with ten points at which monsters might generate (we positioned them carefully as to cause the most problems for our adventurers, so near treasure and at choke points/crossroads etc)
Six bits of treasure as usual
At the end of every turn roll a D10 to determine which point the monster comes in at and a D20 to determine which monster it is. We did this twice to bring in 2 monsters each turn.
We were just using the first column on the random monsters chart as our wizards were both fairly inexperienced but obviously you tailor that to your own skill levels.
Game ends when all treasure off (or of course if everyone dies!)
One of the main reasons to play a game like this co-operatively for me, is that when you are first learning a game, It's very frustrating when your opponent gets a lucky shot and takes out one of your characters before you really get to see what they can do. We found that playing this way, we had more scope to try out different spells and combos to see what we liked using.
Another thing we tried was to deal 10 random spells out instead of picking them. Treat them all as your own wizards spells so no penalties to casting non-aligned and neutral etc. Again it was just to make us each try spells we hadn't considered taking. just a bit of fun but it proved quite interesting.
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Sounds simple but effective. How did your warbands fare?
-Michael
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I'm always down for co-op. Sounds good. Especially if it's...co-op with a little bit of trickery.
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Just joined the forum :)
I had just read the rulebook, and had a similar thought about playing solo/co-op.
I haven't played miniatures wargames in ages. I used to play Warhammer fantasy and 40K back 15 years ago or more.
Just don't have the space or players here in Japan.
Saw the video review by marnaudo (on BGG) and then noticed they actually have it for sale over here, and in English.
So bought a copy right then.
Looks cool so far, quite straight forward and not too long, which is great for me. Also don't need a multitude of minis.
Right now I'm using my Descent 2nd edition miniatures for the whole warband and creature encounters.
I have a game setup to try solo vs creatures. I'll let you all know how it goes if I finish before I leave for the U.S. (the day after tomorrow.)
Chris
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Sounds simple but effective. How did your warbands fare?
-Michael
The first game where we were bringing in 3 monsters per turn, both wizards met grizzly ends!
When just bringing in 2 per turn it was much more evenly matched. Enough monsters to keep you fighting but not too many to be overwhelming. Both wizards survived to claim all the treasure in about six turns. I should add that as we are just mucking around trying out the rules, we are playing with no-frills basic wizards still. I'm still trying to decide what sort of wizard to go for.
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I wonder if the 1:1 ratio of wizards to monsters will scale up beyond two?
Glad to hear the second pair of wizzards fared better than the first pair!
-Michael
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Welcome to the forum, chrisbogert!
-Michael
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For the Co-op style of play with 2 (or more!) monsters arriving per turn... do you guys give xp to Wizards that personally kill monsters?
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Have not tried this yet....can't think why not ... sounds right up my snow covered alley.
Will give this a go when we play later on today.
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Just starting this at our school club. Already two players have asked if they could be allied. On the basis that,'a verbal contract is not worth the paper it is written on' I have allowed it. To my mind the main aim is to have FUN. I can't wait until one stabs the other in the back.
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So have since played co-operatively again, refining it a bit more.
Lots of Terrain on the table but with ten points at which monsters might generate (we positioned them carefully as to cause the most problems for our adventurers, so near treasure and at choke points/crossroads etc)
Six bits of treasure as usual
At the end of every turn roll a D10 to determine which point the monster comes in at and a D20 to determine which monster it is. We did this twice to bring in 2 monsters each turn.
We were just using the first column on the random monsters chart as our wizards were both fairly inexperienced but obviously you tailor that to your own skill levels.
Game ends when all treasure off (or of course if everyone dies!)
We tried something similar a couple of weeks ago.
4 players and a game master reading/explaining the rules, spells and rolling for the monsters
All treasures were placed in buildings.
The first figure who enter in a building activate the "things".
Procedure:
- 1d8 for direction;
- 1d6 how many inches far from treasure
- 1d6 for the floor, only needed if you use multi levels building (ie: 2 floors: 1/2/3=ground floor; 4/5/6-1stfloor; OR 3 floors: 1/2-ground; 3/4: 1st floor; 5/6: 2nd floor)
- 2d20 roll on the bestiary table.
All monsters have been summoned in the first 3 turns,
Notes: increase the table size, 4 warbands need space.
It worked fine.
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Hey Guys, I wanted to ask if anyone has played more co-op games and what kind of rule additions they use. I havent played a co-op game yet, but me and my buddy are interested. I was thinking that not competing for treasure might make the game a little slow. So, after a certain number of turns, say 6 or 7, if the warbands are still on the board hoards of 4 skeletons or zombies spawn from the table edges. Each turn after the 6 or 7 gets an increasing number of hoards each turn. And the hoard would activate as one so would be pretty devastating in combat. So please let me know what you are doing for co-op play, or anything else!
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We are also trying to avoid trying to butcher the other warband. I really like the idea of just fighting the city for survival and not the other warband. :D
At this moment the most used tactic is to kill the other warband and get all the unclaimed treasure. We tried to counter this in 2 ways.
1) Increase random encounters
2) Set a turn limit and all treasure still on the board is not claimed
But in the end i would love co-op scenario's.
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Co-Op sounds like an interesting approach that would swing Frostgrave closer to D&D. It would certainly appeal to the less competitive gamers in my club. It's probably what i like the most about the Lich Lord campaign and the final scenario.