Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: Ethelred the Almost Ready on April 18, 2018, 02:56:05 AM
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Once again Aekwaffer and his gang went on the rampage, to bring liberty peace to the wilderness (well, liberating the souls of creatures from their bodies and rest in peace).
Again he was joined by the wizard, and sometimes pin-up model, Gloria; Dire Brian, the famous archer; Thomas of Kerry; Nils Barri, Chrispin Davis and the brothers Stuart and Kenneth of the Green Hills (this foursome might call themselves loyal followers, Aelkwaffer calls them orc-fodder).
With a glint in the eye, Aelkwaffer begins the slaughter of the Orc Clan (a clan of Vikings who ate too many psychoactive funghi and now believe they are a mythical race of beings).
(https://image.ibb.co/fBrbRn/20180417_212228_resized.jpg)
Too soon did they disturb the Sisyphus the Saucy Sorcerer of Sicily who got his mystical powers from the equally mystical standing stones (one might say they are the six standing stones of Sisyphus the Saucy Sorcerer of Sicily). Deactivating the magic runes on these stones will help weaken Sisyphus.
Below: Sisyphus. He life believes in getting a head, or two, or three or four....
(https://image.ibb.co/bPJ1sS/20180416_173406_resized.jpg)
Blood and slaughter continues with the heroes getting separated as they try to get to the standing stones before Sisyphus gets into spell range. Gloria repeatedly fails activations and spell rolls leaving the men to have to do the hard work.
Where wolf? There wolf. Sisyphus' pet werewolf, Stephen, appears (NB his favourite movie is Young Frankenstein).
(https://image.ibb.co/mLbbRn/20180417_212112_resized.jpg)
A mana flux occurs, Gloria's spell casting will only get worse...
(https://image.ibb.co/jbnuCS/20180417_212019_resized.jpg)
Failed activations see Sisyphus get off a few magic missiles in revenge for the brutal slaying of Stephen. He manages to bring down Stuart and Kenneth, but is severely slashed several times by Thomas and decides to suddenly, slyly slip away Run away, run away.
(https://image.ibb.co/jVUKe7/20180417_211754_resized.jpg)
Moral amongst the Orc Clan collapses with them running away, leaving a few wandering monsters to be destroyed, but not before Gloria is bashed to the ground by a trolls club.
(https://image.ibb.co/ehiO6n/20180417_211706_resized.jpg)
This was a scenario of my own and made use of some modifications to the rules.
If Gloria wanted to cast more than one spell in her turn each spell after the first had a cumulative -1 to success.
Archery was also toned down, with a -2 to second and third shots fired in a turn. Against large creatures archery still enjoyed a +2 to hit, but the damage could be saved on a roll of 5-6. Previously Brian killed almost all the larger creatures himself, now he was still a significant character, but no more so than Aelkwaffer or Gloria.
I have used a simple morale system so creatures and characters don't fight to the death without thoughts of self preservation.
Orcs were beefed up to DL9 and I reduced their susceptability to magic. Trolls no longer lumber around directionless and I added an extra Monster Frenzy and Monster activate card as I often found the more lethal monsters often stood around doing little.
Overall, this increases the lethality for the characters, so monster numbers are kept down a little.
Still, with this being a now experienced war band their victims were: one troll, one giant spider, a werewolf, 34 orcs.
Stuart and Kenneth died. Gloria recovered from her wounds. As Sisyphus escaped there are few XP from this game and Sysiphus will appear again.
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Cool. That last pic looks rather menacing with the troll looming over the unconscious people.
Love the names, very Monty Python.
Which rule system are you using?
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Sisyphus says superior stories are from Sellswords and Spell Slingers. Same as Argonor is using.
This is certainly the best solo game i have played.
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I may have to look into it then being a gaming group of myself and my kids.
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Just a few photographs and comments, no long story this time.
In this scenario the forces of evil are raiding a village and the inhabitants are besieged in a tower.
The adventurers must try to save village buildings from being burnt and stop the enemy breaking into the tower (scenario event cards either caused a building to burn or the siege to tighten).
A complication was the appearance of a necromancer with a force of skeletons (Things couldn't get worse card).
The table set up. Partially completed ruins (tower, walls and rubble from Urban Construct)
(https://image.ibb.co/iDKX3c/20180429_131551_resized.jpg)
A damsel in the tower.
(https://image.ibb.co/cWGvOc/20180429_115954_resized.jpg)
Slaughter at the (improvised) bridge.
(https://image.ibb.co/btMO9H/20180429_115849_resized.jpg)
Burn, baby; burnnnn...
(https://image.ibb.co/gK339H/20180429_120345_resized.jpg)
Luck can go both ways. Here three charactes are down, having only taken down three lowly minions. Shields and armour make the chances of being seriously hurt quite low, but try telling my dice that.
(https://image.ibb.co/bPJs3c/20180429_122427_resized.jpg)
Gloria approaches the scene of devastation left by her fireball last turn. Magic can be powerful. I have pulled this back a bit by making multiple spell casts in one turn more difficult. The necromancer can be seen with my newly painted skellies and a troll is busy trying to break into the tower.
(https://image.ibb.co/nnzzic/20180429_122439_resized.jpg)
The mission was mostly successful (tower and one building saved) but three minor adventurers were put out of action, as were Gloria and Dire Brian, the archer. Unlike my last game, all were revived. Replacing Stuart and Kenneth are now Young Calum (white cape) and Brunhilde.
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Splendid looking games!
Have you made a document with your modifications?
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Argonor, I have a number of files for straight modifications and also for a more specific attempt at having rules to fit a Silmarillion setting. I can certainly e-mail them to you if you want to pm me your e-mail address.
I have tried some rules that might suit your desire to have a rogue character and also ran a game with two suped-up Noldor elves.
For a Silmarillion setting I am still struggling with ideas of fate and grief (important in a campaign setting) and trying to get "magic" right (elves would argue there is no magic).
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Nice writeup. I'm hopefully getting some cash for some sculpts I sold recently so this is how I'll be spending some of that cash.
Ethelred, Do you just have the PDF or did you spring for the printed book? If so where did you get it from, Ganesha or DrivethruRPG?
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I think I got it from the Drive Thru RPG site. I got it in digital as the main rules are basic and you seldom need the book. Also, I am modifying a lot of the not so important rules which take up a lot of the book. Many of the monsters I am either not using or modifying, so getting proper cards in print isn't important. I just print them in black and white off the PDF and use a glue stick to paste them onto cards.
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Do you even need them as cards? Could you just roll a suitable die, d20, d100 excluding numbers that aren't needed and make up a reference chart?
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Do you even need them as cards? Could you just roll a suitable die, d20, d100 excluding numbers that aren't needed and make up a reference chart?
You do need the event cards, because some you can discard, some will cause you to reshuffle the deck. You can also customise a deck by adding some cards and removing others - far easier than creating a new table. It would be hard to replicate this without cards. As I said, cutting out the cards as printed off a home printer and stuck on to a cheap set of playing cards they work just as well as fancy custom made cards.
The monster, potion and spell cards aren't needed, but they certainly help to speed up play. You simply take out what cards are needed for that particular game and put the rest aside. I keep them spread out next to the gaming table where they can easily be seen without shuffling through them.
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Some fantastic games there. I need to get some more games of Sellswords in.
I've also bought the pdf version of the rules so I can more easily customise the cards (once I've decided what changes I need).
I would also appreciate a copy of your amendments if you would not mind?
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Sunjester,
I have just sent a rather long e-mail with several attachments to Agonor.
If you want the modifications/ideas I have I can send them if you PM me your e-mail address, or if you already have Agonor's e-mail you could get them off him.
Agonor, e-mail sent. I hope it is not too long/confusing.
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Got it, thanks.
Haven't had time to look at it, yet, though, shall do so before the weekend (as mentioned, I have a co-op game planned then).
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PM sent, thanks.
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I managed a cooperative game recently with my nephew from the Netherlands. Used the standard rules with no modifications. I think he liked it, but it was very slow as he tended to over think and played with excessive caution.
Back to a solo game today as the weather is too bad to do anything else.
Aelkwaffer and his band have had quite a few upgrades and and now rather deadly. It is hard to make up scenarios now without them being too easy or too hard.
This one ended up being of midling difficulty, thanks to a run of good dice. Despite that, the game was still enjoyable, and I think this is down to the narrative nature of the game and the randomness afforded by the cards. You can still have a strategy - it's not that random - but you have to adjust that plan (quite a lot) as the game goes along.
For once Gloria didn't lose all her magical power (this occurs on rolling a 1 on a d20 when casting a spell) and didn't recurrently muff her activations. As such, she was a monster killing machine with several well-placed fireballs doing real damage.
Two characters went down, one left severely wounded and required assistance to get off the table (and therefore needed a change in strategy), the other dead as a dodo.
In this game the characters are being pursued by quite considerable enemy forces. They have to hold off enemy who get too close, kill the monsters holding the bridge (safety lies on the other side) and escape the main pack that is after them.
Ah, yeh.... Just don't roll a one when trying to heal a downed character.
(https://image.ibb.co/n6W0dy/20180512_155248_resized_1.jpg)
Another snag right at the end. Dire Brian, the rear guard, has escape in sight when he fails all three activations. Aelkwaffer has to return to the bridge to make sure Brian will escape unharmed.
(https://image.ibb.co/gUFtyy/20180512_162953_resized_1.jpg)
Wargs and "orcs" close in on the bridge.
(https://image.ibb.co/dxDfdy/20180512_164117_resized_1.jpg)
A final fireball only toasts one orc, but the bridge is set on fire and pursuit ends.
(https://image.ibb.co/kV4xQd/20180512_164046_resized_1.jpg)
The shade of Chrispin Davis will forever roam the woods as his body could not be saved. Most of my characters are loosely named after some of friends. I have now killed two good friends and my wife's boss (who is/was a very nice chap). Perhaps I need to start naming characters after people I don't like!
(https://image.ibb.co/jcdP5d/20180512_163957_resized_1.jpg)
I believe Aelkwaffer and his friends may be running out of time as their doom now approaches. Soon, a new band of heroes will arise (even if they are only partially painted so far).
(https://image.ibb.co/gt8Dyy/20180512_165617_resized_1.jpg)
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Do you even need them as cards? Could you just roll a suitable die, d20, d100 excluding numbers that aren't needed and make up a reference chart?
Here's the table I set up for the event cards (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nb4QfDbo44cPtO2JUYaGYVZdRZTfzh3Ue3kHVGr0Snk/edit?usp=sharing) - roll a d6 and a d8. Some cards instruct you to remove them from the stack once they're drawn, in which case I'll just reroll if it comes up again. It's worked well enough for me so far.
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Another nice battle.
I'd advise against naming them after people you don't like. Two reasons, 1, you may rush them headlong at enemies in order to get them killed. 2, if they end up turning into an epic calendar you will still hate them due to the name associated with them ;)
Here's the table I set up for the event cards (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nb4QfDbo44cPtO2JUYaGYVZdRZTfzh3Ue3kHVGr0Snk/edit?usp=sharing) - roll a d6 and a d8. Some cards instruct you to remove them from the stack once they're drawn, in which case I'll just reroll if it comes up again. It's worked well enough for me so far.
Thanks for that. I'll make a copy if you don't mind. :)
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Splendid games, and I really like how you improvises terrain when you need some, and multi-purpose elements.
I did not get around to discussing your houserules with my gaming buddy last Saturday, as our game took quite longer to finish than anticipated, but I still have it on my to-do list (as also my Campaign Activity Period for my own party).
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Splendid games, and I really like how you improvises terrain when you need some, and multi-purpose elements.
I did not get around to discussing your houserules with my gaming buddy last Saturday, as our game took quite longer to finish than anticipated, but I still have it on my to-do list (as also my Campaign Activity Period for my own party).
Most of my past gaming was at 15 and 6mm, so I lack a good range of stuff for 28mm. I need a decent bridge, or perhaps two - one standard rustic stone, and another more refined and elvish.
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I decided to play a quick game to try out some rules. The whole thing got bogged down with repeated multiple failures to activate. The characters never moved more than 8" from the starting point after about 10 rounds of play. One enemy figure (a werewolf moving at 6") moved 30" and engaged in several rounds of combat in the same time. I gave up. The first time I abandoned a game of SS&SS.
Just how many creatures can fight against one character.
Two characters had three open sides. To their front were a large werewolf and a troll. Coming from their front and one flank were two groups of orcs, totaling another 8 figures. Are the orcs going to swarm around the troll and werewolf to also engage?
To make matters worse, this was a low magic game - more Tolkienish use of magic. So no fire balls to thin the ranks. Clearly, gaming in a Tolkien setting means reducing the number of enemies and not having too many powerful creatures.
Edit:
Now I have completely given up for the day. Last few dice rolls: 6,4,6,1,2,2,2,6.
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Change your dice! lol