Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: 6mmfan on May 24, 2019, 05:54:18 AM
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Hi all
I had my first games of Sellswords and Spellslingers as a solo game. First I created my party and tried the “Through the Badlands” scenario
The Party
Heinz the Paladin
Fighter:2 Handed Sword, Strong, Leader, Armour 1, Impetous
Yiggi the Magican
Club (Staff), Spellcaster, Fireball, Weak, Smart
Soren the monk
Fighter:2 Handed Mace, Strong, Heal, Heavy Drinker
Jyn the Ranger
Archery:Bow, Forester, Keen Senses
(https://i.imgur.com/vgEHVYW.jpg)
The Monsters
I used Reaper Bones Bugbears as they are large and my Troll was not painted! The Orcs are all old Grenadier 25mm figures.
(https://i.imgur.com/Ah4F4C0.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/FK1Kgbj.jpg)
The game
I rolled the monster deployment and all of them were in my half of the table! Soren checked and he was sober.
Setup
(https://i.imgur.com/mMl1P41.jpg)
Turn 1
Heinz activated twice and charged the Orc Brute. He did 2 HPs but it didn’t drop the Orc
Next Yiggi went and successfully cast 2 fireball causing 4 HPs killing a different Orc Brute.
(https://i.imgur.com/37rFWT5.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/mjUTjs5.jpg)
Then Soren rolled 2 activation’s (but only got one) and moved to the Brutes body. The event card was a Mana flux
Jyn rolled 2 20’s! and a 4. She cancelled the failures and attacked the other orc brute finishing him off. So far so good!
(https://i.imgur.com/ehO0QlM.jpg)
Turn 2
Buoyed by their great start, Heinz again rolled 3 dice and got 3 successes. He rushed towards the Giant Bugbear (Troll) and scored 2 hits and dealt out 4HP. Yiggi rolled a 20 and a failure, so she cancelled the failure and did nothing. Soren searched the dead Orc and then moved to the action. Jyn also searched the other Orc and then joined the fight against the Bugbear.
(https://i.imgur.com/a5Cx1T5.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/k6HL0Is.jpg)
Turn 3 A change of fortunes!
First Heinz failed a couple of activations and a monster activation card came up. The Bugbear attacked Heinz but his armour saved him. The Bugbear also regenerated a wound just to make things worse. Yiggi also failed her activations and a wandering monster in the form another Bugbear appeared right behind her, and charged. It whacked her causing a loss of 2 HP. Soren also had bad luck and failed his 2 activations. A monster activation card came up and attacked Heinz but his armour saved him again. Meanwhile Jyn the Ranger rolled 2 successes and attacked the Troll twice. But instead the monster hit her twice and she dropped to 0HP and was out of action.
(https://i.imgur.com/xML4y8w.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/OFclfGF.jpg)
Turn 4 Bad to worse
Heinz attacked the Bugbear but all he got was a nasty headache as his armour saved him again. Yiggi decided to try something risky as fighting the Bugbear was not going well. She rolled 2 successes and disengaged without a taking hit. She loosened off a fireball but her aim was shaken by the frightening experience she just had.
(https://i.imgur.com/ptPdr9a.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/23PhZXQ.jpg)
Soren again failed to activate and got another Mana flux and a Wandering monster card. This time is was an Orc brute who again came on right behind him, then and charged Soren. Luckily the Orc missed and took 2 HP.
Turn 5
Heinz again missed with his armour saving him. A horde move card came up and one of the orcs moved closer to Jyn. Yiggi rolled 2 dice and failed one. She drew a loss of Balance card and slipped over! She tried a fireball from the ground but missed. Clearly she was shaken!
(https://i.imgur.com/cxrBvdq.jpg)
Soren killed the Orc but got 2HP of damage for his troubles!
Turn 6
Heinz missed his attacks and got killed in return. Also another Wandering Monster (Bugbear) arrived from the western edge. Yiggi activated, failed and got a Monster Frenzy card. One of the Bugbears finished off Yiggi as she lay on the ground. Meanwhile Soren was busy researching healing spells, but then he realised he was the only party member left standing, so he took off.
That was an appropriate card to end the game with.
(https://i.imgur.com/1vAhbWM.jpg)
Afterthoughts
The initial deployment was tough with all the monsters close.
I was probably rolling too many activation dice, giving the monster too many actions. Coming from SoBH you tend to roll more dice when the action heats up, but this was not a great approach with SS&SS and turning events cards over.
My party needs more armour/shields! The Bugbears and Brutes each dish out 2 HP of damage, so each PC is dead after 2 hits. The PCs with armour got hammered!
Combat is brutal if you roll bad against tough monsters.
I played the spells slightly wrong and also missed a activation when I rolled a 20, but I don’t think either affected the outcome of the game!
Also I didn't read the Troll card very well and missed the random movement. I could have avoided the first Troll.
Conclusion
A great game system which really works well and it feels more RPGish than the SoBH rules. I like games which are not predictable and this is very good for solo play. It seemed like a tough day for the party so I will have to try again and hope for some better luck.
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Oh dear! But I agree: getting beaten up every now and then is good in a solo game.
By the way, your mat looks fantastic! Home built, I'm guessing?
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Excellent report. Better luck next time. SS&SS is a great game and I'm sure your adventure party will rebound.
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Nice game report. It's great that you enjoyed your first game of these rules.
Some of your "killed" characters may only be hors de combat. Your next game could be the rescue of your characters.
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Nice AAR. I enjoyed that. A pity the rolls didn't work your way.
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I didn't know these rules ! thank for the AAR !
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Great report (even if the party did not do so well). I have played a few games in this system, and quite like it.
-Michael
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A nice write up and a great looking table. It sound like you had a lot of fun, even if you did get massacred!
You made the classic newbie error, which I also fell for, Scenario 1 in the rules is NOT a good starting scenario! It is probably the toughest of the Basic level scenarios. The party need to get across the table as quickly as possible before they are overrun by masses of orcs. The problem is that a starting party needs money, so PCs stop to loot bodies, which slows you down, which gets you killed. Plus it's never a good thing to get into combat with a Troll!
Try playing a couple of the other Basic scenarios first, to gain some experience and build some of your skills up (hint; Shoot Into Melee is a really useful skill for a bowman and can be a lifesaver). Then come back and replay Through The Badlands, you will find it far less one-sided.
Sellswords is a great system and a lot of fun solo or playing as a team. Once you have played it for a while you will find it quite easy to create your own scenarios and it really works for a narrative style of play. My regular Sellswords partner and I are now on our second campaign with our PCs. Enjoy!
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Excellent report. This game has intrigued me since I first heard of it some months ago. I'm thinking I might tweak it slightly to do historical stuff: run of the mill orcs could be, well, run of the mill warriors, trolls could be champions, etc. Could be a lot of fun, I think...
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Excellent report. This game has intrigued me since I first heard of it some months ago. I'm thinking I might tweak it slightly to do historical stuff: run of the mill orcs could be, well, run of the mill warriors, trolls could be champions, etc. Could be a lot of fun, I think...
Without magic the game does become harder, as I have found doing a Tolkien based game with little/no magic. You may find you need fewer enemies. Otherwise, I should work perfectly
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Interesting report. That first scenario seems to murder a lot of players.
FWIW your "gnolls" in the photos are bugbears. For ex: https://www.reapermini.com/search/bugbear/latest/77232
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Interesting report. That first scenario seems to murder a lot of players.
FWIW your "gnolls" in the photos are bugbears. For ex: https://www.reapermini.com/search/bugbear/latest/77232
Oops you are right! i'll change it
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Thanks all
It was a great game and as a solo game it was very engaging.
I also had a 2 player game (same scenario) where we just made it off the board. Sadly no pictures for that.
I'll add another report soon as I did a replay of this game.
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Without magic the game does become harder, as I have found doing a Tolkien based game with little/no magic. You may find you need fewer enemies. Otherwise, I should work perfectly
Thank you for the tip! Hoping to see more posts in the future as you try other scenarios... :)
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Is there rules for dungeons in the game ?
thanks
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Nice report!
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Ok, I just bought the rules... half way through them... liking them a lot!...
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Is there rules for dungeons, or is it outdoor only ? I readed all reviews I found, and didn't find the answer to this.
thanks !
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It's for dungeons too... it's really a tactical RPG type rule set... you could use them for anything really... I plan on using them for open terrain, town settings, and dungeon crawls... it's heroquest on steroids... I love it. You can have even have a GM if you want to.
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thankyou for your answer !
How does the ruleset manage dungeons ? For instance, hidden random dungeons like in castle ravenloft, or do you play on a visible dungeon map ?
thanks
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I think you could do a fog of war situation with a dungeon as the adventurers explore, but when you roll the dice to place the monsters you will have to reveal that area of the dungeon and every area of it as they advance towards you. If you are running it GM style, then the GM could know where they are and have them advance towards the party on paper until they get into view of the party, then they could reveal themselves...
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Andrea has a dungeon supplement in development. And a zombiecalypse version of the game :D