Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: UncleRhino on August 06, 2008, 01:57:11 AM
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Here is the link to the Rattrap forum with the updates I am doing for my Fall Recruits game of Broadsword Adventures. Please forgive me for being so lazy as to not re-post everything here. The convention is September 12-14th at Lee's Summit High School in Lee's Summit, Missouri. I am not certain yet what timeslot the game will be running, but I will post an update here once I get things finalized. I won't give out any more details, but there will be two other Rattrap games at the convention, one will be a Valley of the Thunder Lizard game hosted by Chuck and a Fantastic Worlds ((John Carter of Mars)) game hosted by Dan. I don't have details on their games, and could not leak any more than I have already done without threat of horrible violence!
If there are any folks present here who will likely be in attending the convention that would like to join in on the game, send me a PM and I can save a spot in the game. I can take four players. Again, forgive my laziness!
http://rattrapproductions.com/speakeasy/viewtopic.php?t=1162
RWF
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Here is the link to the Rattrap forum with the updates I am doing for my Fall Recruits game of Broadsword Adventures. Please forgive me for being so lazy as to not re-post everything here. The convention is September 12-14th at Lee's Summit High School in Lee's Summit, Missouri. I am not certain yet what timeslot the game will be running, but I will post an update here once I get things finalized. I won't give out any more details, but there will be two other Rattrap games at the convention, one will be a Valley of the Thunder Lizard game hosted by Chuck and a Fantastic Worlds ((John Carter of Mars)) game hosted by Dan. I don't have details on their games, and could not leak any more than I have already done without threat of horrible violence!
If there are any folks present here who will likely be in attending the convention that would like to join in on the game, send me a PM and I can save a spot in the game. I can take four players. Again, forgive my laziness!
http://rattrapproductions.com/speakeasy/viewtopic.php?t=1162
RWF
We'll definately be looking for your table again!
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I'll be running some games at RECRUITS and will definitely stop by.
-J
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Cant wait to see the tables!
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You know, if you guys can't make it for some reason to the convention, let me know and we can always schedule a time to get together and I can run the game at my home or at one of the local game shops.
RWF
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Well, here are the finished product photos of the table itself. I made another three 2x2 squares to go together as a 4x4 if that sort of gaming need arises. If you look closely, you can see the two types of encounter markers I am using. The jungle terrain itself, is mounted on scrap cd's and mini-cd's, but there are other jungle-ish bits of terrain as well, those are encounter markers, and since the Stygians are looking for Black Lotus plants...well...there might be one in and among all of those.
Also note the encounter markers I made are just standard steel washers with the cat litter/white glue combo and the three green paint scheme I use on all of my stuff. But I added some resin skulls I had in my bits box, I figure in 28mm that an orc skull is pretty close to a gorilla skull...so why the hell not. I also figured I would make up a dozen of those and together with the eight I made for Spring Recruits with broken up bricks and rubble on them, I won't need to make any more encounter markers...ever. Until I get around to doing .45 Adventure city stuff...by the way, does anyone know of a company that makes manhole covers? I figure those would be ideal encounter markers for a city environ, even if they are potentially going to be all over the place.
Here are the pictures, tomorrow I have to finish off the escaped (and pissed off) slave faction and do a leeeeettle bit more typing on handouts for my own reference and I will be ready to go on Saturday.
(http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm10/RFless72/FallRecruits--DrumsofGullah-1.jpg)
(http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm10/RFless72/FallRecruits--DrumsofGullah-2.jpg)
(http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm10/RFless72/FallRecruits--DrumsofGullah-4.jpg)
(http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm10/RFless72/FallRecruits--DrumsofGullah-7.jpg)
(http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm10/RFless72/FallRecruits--DrumsofGullah-9.jpg)
The game is in the 1-4 and 5-10 Saturday slots if any of you are from nearby and want to check it out. If you ARE going to attend, send me a PM and we can work something out so you can give it a go. Also, if you DO NOT have Broadsword Adventures, Scale Creep (a vendor who carries the Rattrap lines) will be in attendance, let's see if we can get it sold out.
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not to commit Threadomancy...but RAFM makes manhole covers in the Iron Lords range. The ones with Chicago on them are part number 39010 01002. They also have a New York pack. Cost is about $7 for 6...at least from my local anyway. ;)
Great looking boards. I wish I could make it, but no vacation time left for this year...maybe next year.
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Cool gaming table. I like the rather bleak sort of earth color. And due to the set-up of the fills and trees it looks very - complete somehow. Now what about some in game shots???
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I really like what you've done there, those colours seem very evocative of the jungle. How do you get figures to stand on the slopes?
Perhaps one suggestion: Clump the plants together a bit more in places. Currently they don't really seem like they'd get in the way much, when every individual piece of vegetation is easily circumvented.
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I could stage some in game shots and try and fool you, but I will get some on Saturday and post them as soon as I can. As to models standing on slopes, some of the hills have magnetic sheets under the basing material that works a bit with the steel washer based models, the models on slotta bases do alright. The texture of the basing material helps to keep models in place, too.
You know, Rhoderic, I thought to myself, damn, I need another dozen jungle stands...but I just don't know what I would do with that many otherwise. I really don't have much of a use for this many, that many more would be a bit better, I agree. It is not that they are hard to make, not at all, it is just that the con is tomorrow!
RWF
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Well, the car is packed and I am off to the con. Hope to see some of you there, yes, even you European fellows should make a stop by, as I am eager to meet many of you.
NEWSFLASH
If you were planning on picking up BA or any of the Rattrap line from Scale Creep Miniatures, THEY WILL NOT be at the convention.
Pictures to come perhaps as early as tomorrow.
RWF
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Well, the game went over very well. Despite pretty much the whole day in a fair amount of pain in my left foot, I had a great time running it. People seemed to enjoy themselves a great bit, and I was actually told that it had many of the elements that make Howard's stories great.
The lousy part is I had typed out a detailed review of the whole thing yesterday morning with pictures inserted and everything...and the power flickered and it all got lost. I guess I need to have a ten minute rule with posts, just go ahead and post them every ten minutes and go back and edit them so I don't have to be that pissed off ever again.
I will get it typed out in the next day or two and post pictures and more details of the game and how both sessions went.
RWF
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I hate it when that happens! Still, I'm looking forward to some cool pics and a report. It's always an inspiration to look at gaming pictures and read some cool story.
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Saw you / Met you at RECRUITS. Game looked great. I couldn't stay to watch, but looked like it was gonna be fun. I'lll conatct you off line.
-J
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Ok, here goes attempt number two at a convention report!
Faction One were the Escaped Slaves. Two models in this faction, a Major Noble and a Barbarian Hero. Duke Theletes of Argos( who is actually a duke, but also a pirate) and his Aesir bodyguard Brodir. Since this faction had no sorcery, I made them fairly well rounded as far as character design, but also made sure they would be very tough in melee combat. The duke is a Master of Arms 2 and Brodir could Ignore Pain and have Flurry of Blows 1(so he got two attacks per melee). Having just a few hours ago escaped from the slavers during a raid by damn near a whole tribe of Kushites, the Duke, Brodir and Elyssa(the duke's favorite slave girl, a comely Brythunian wench) made a run for it during the raid by the natives. In true pulp fashion, she fell behind and was lost in the jungle. Not wanting to leave her to either the slavers or the natives, Theletes and Brodir rush back to find her. Their victory condition was to find Elyssa and escort her off of their starting table edge.
Faction Two were the Slavers. Three models in this faction, Ibrahim bin Suleiman and two Grade One Warriors. I was not really sure if they were better represented by city dwellers or barbarians, so I went with barbarians since these were nomads from Shem. Ibrahim was a defensive nightmare with a shield, long blade and Stalwart Defender, and the other two both had long blades and shields as well, since they had no sorcery and only Ibrahim was higher than Grade One, I made sure to make them all be fairly well equipped. Their victory condition was to recapture Elyssa and/or the Duke, if they got one of the two, it was a minor victory, if both it would be a major victory. There was absolutely no necessity in capturing Brodir, because Northman thugs are a dime a dozen and their blades can be bought cheaply. He would not have good resale value after they took out their frustrations on him for their trouble.
Faction Three were the Kushites. Four models in this faction, lead by a M'bura(Witchdoctor), Ghol'mi(Smoke Warrior) and because they were savages, for each grade 2 or 3 model you have on a faction, you get a free grade 1!!! I decided this would be a fine way to represent how the Kushites would outnumber the others and also give them a bit of a home field advantage. M'bura wore a Demon Mask, had a sleeping dart and his spell was Spirit Ancestor. Ghol'mi had Brawler 2, Fearless, Ignore Pain and a couple of other skills designed to make him a real beast in melee. Ghomli is an ambitious man, a man who has slain a lion with his bare hands, and looking to make a name for himself... The "free" savages were warriors with shields, spears and rush attack,which quickly became known as the "drive by attack". The goal of this faction is to drive away the interlopers from Gullah's holy place, to do so, they must kill or drive off half or more of EACH of the other three factions in play. Kind of steep, but they did wind up with four models(seven grades!!!!!), so they were more than up to the task.
Faction Four were the Stygians. Consisting of a High Priestess of Set and two Initiates, these three models were there looking for Black Lotus! The high priestess was draped with vipers, carried night dust, a blood bllade and amulet of Set(Mok), Savvy(which despite her BRAINS of 6, she was never able to use successfully) and despite the fact that I am not a big fan of the spell, Wall of Fire. The initiates were true religions fanatics and were armed with maces. They had Undying Loyalty, Devotion and Boundless Will. Basically, they were there to keep the priestess safe, and she was there for the Black Lotus, even if she had to sacrifice both of them to find it. Their victory conditions were to find as much Black Lotus as they could and escape with it from their starting spot.
The Game Overall:
Encounter Markers. There were 27 encounter markers and I had two different sorts. There were 12 steel washers with skulls scattered about the 4x4 playing area. I also had 15 bits of aquarium vegetation mounted on poker chips that I bought from ebay before I made my cd mounted jungle stands, I referred to these as the Stationary Encounter markers. Three of the Stationary Encounter markers were Black Lotus, when a model was in base to base contact with one of these, they had to make a WILLPOWER test(plus their Grade level if they were in the Stygian Faction) or succumb to the effects of the plant. The effect was that they would lose a turn and have strange visions that were made up on the fly by yours truly. I think some folks saw great battles from the past, grisly visions of Gullah, the hairy ape god who lives in the moon, the rise and fall of empires past and present and all that sort of thing. If a model failed its WILLPOWER test and lost a turn it did gain some form of insight into things to come and was rewarded with a HERO POINT. If a model passed the WILLPOWER test, it could gather up some of the Black Lotus safely and carry it away. I decided that any of the factions could do this, however, but none other than the Stygians collected any. Elyssa was a triggered encounter, one of the Stationary Encounters and one of the Encouters had to be both found for her to appear on the table, she was controlled by me and generally shrieked and ran about looking buxom and needing to be rescued. It was decided that she could not be attacked, but that she could be captured by any of the factions OR rescued by the Duke and Brodir. Two other two-part triggered encounters were The Drums and a Downpour. When the first of those two types of encounters was revealed, the condition would begin and remain in play until the second was found. The Drums were the standard Howardian Kushite/African ones that generally bothered and upset non-Kushites but gave some sort of advantage to the Kushites, in the end I decided that while The Drums were playing, the Kushites would have a +1 GUTS bonus. Downpour was just simply that, it rained and rained hard, during this ongoing condition, anyone making a DODGE test for any reason had to roll two dice and keep the lower of the two, visibility was also reduced to 24". The Drums and Downpour were in effect for almost the entirety of the first game and came on and off quickly in the second game.
The Child of Gullah was the last two-part triggered encounter. In both sorts of encounters there was some kind of ominous sign that something large and hostile was lurking nearby, and when both encounters were revealed, the Child of Gullah would appear. Basically, a Gorilla with a nasty attitude, it would attack the nearest model and give me something to fight with as well. M'bura carried with him a Black Painted Skull which he could offer to the Child of Gullah as a sacrifice, if he did this, he had to win a WILLPOWER test against it to have control of it for a short time, 2-3 turns.
The Traitor: Ghomli is an ambitious man, a very powerful warrior who has slain a lion bare-handed. He also wants to rise to the positin of Tribal Chieftain, he can do this if he is able to show that he is stronger than Gullah's Child by defeating it in melee combat. Once that is done, he has only to kill M'bura and return with the head of the Child of Gullah to his tribe and oust the existing chieftain. Basically, once the Child of Gullah appears in the game, the Kushite player had to give me the Ghomli character card and he would get the Child of Gullah card--as long as it was under his control! From that point on, Ghomli would be played by me (hooray, I get to play) and the Child of Gullah would be under the control of the Kushite player as long as he could maintain control.
Well....that is basically the meat and bones of the game itself, i will post photos and talk more about how both of the games played at RECRUITS were very different from one another this evening when I return from work. Don't you just love a cliffhanger?
RWF
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Awesome set up. I love all the background you filled in for the players letting them really feel like they were part of the world.
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Now there is a story to be told. You make it sound so easy! I wonder why I always struggle to come up with a few good ideas and your scenario is full of them! That must have been a real treat to both play and lead this scenario. Thanks for the info, I will definetely steal some of your ideas! :)
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Great stuff, Ryan. I'm sorry I missed this at Recruits. You have to run this sometime when I can play.
Chuck
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Hello all. I had a chance to play on Saturday and had a great time. Ryan put on a very entertaining game. Ryan explained the character generation to me and looks like a game that you could put together quickly. I look forward to playing more Rattrap games in the future.
Patrick
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And it will be worth your time, believe me.
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I forgot to mention above how I treated Hero Points. The character sheets in the book(which I used) do not have a spot for keeping tally of Hero Points, so I decided everyone loves candy...so...I had little plastic baggies for each player with a number of Skittles contained therein. Each Skittle was a Hero Point which the players had to consume to get the effects of their Hero Point expenditure. I DID allow for diabetics to pass their Hero Points on to another player, so I was not a jerk about it. I DID have to explain very quickly to the players what the baggies of Skittles really were, and added that any unused Hero Points would be theirs to keep after the game.
I think having treats was a good idea, but not the largest selling point of the game, but I am afraid now that I might actually refer to spending Hero Points in my future games as "Skittling a roll". I should be able to post some action pictures tonight, but I will warn you that it is much easier to get good close-up shots on a 2x2 than it is on a 4x4.
Oh, I am copyrighting Skittling a Roll...your players will have to M&M theirs, or maybe, if you are more of a chef they can have the opportunity to Macaroon a Roll.
RWF
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Alright, that is pretty much the setup for the two runnings of the games, let me break down the two of them individually.
GAME #1
Our very own Lead Adventurer and local miniature painting legend Chambersofminiatures decided he wanted to be a Kushite for the day. I will always hold a spot for someone from this forum so if you attend future RECRUITS, let me know in advance which session you want me to hold a spot for you. And you thought you did not get any super cool benefits...
After the Skittles explanations and the background and all of that the game got going with some early moves and exploration. The Kushites with four models had a much easier time of that, since more could find things quicker, something I had not really considered during design, but it makes for a bit more desperation on the part of those looking for Elyssa. Pat's Kushites found the Drums encounter early and benefitted from the bonus to GUTS for several turns early on, although eventually the other encounter silenced them. One of the Slavers wound up finding some Black Lotus and having " an acid trip" that resulted in a bonus Skittle for him! Much laughter and conjecture abounded over the presence of drugs, a lost Brythunian beauty, the list could go on and on. As the four factions neared the center of the table it was clear that there would be blood spilled rather rapidly. It would be washed away in the Downpour that was triggered and lasted for a few turns. The Stygians found one of the Black Lotus encounters and were able to harvest the deadly plant very early, but I was quick to inform them that the more they found and recovered the better off things back in Stygia would be, so they sought out more. I forget who, but someone triggered the two encounter markers for Elyssa and the Child of Gullah fairly early on, so then it was a race against time to see when the ape and the babe would appear. As it happens, she appeared first right towards the center of the table. The Duke and Brodir make straight for her and wound up in deadly combat with the Slavers over the lissome lass. Brodir in particular found himself fairly well matched by Ibrahim bin Sulieman, and once they joined combat it wavered back and forth in the rain until the end of the game. To their mutual credit, I think Ibrahim was the most sorely wounded of the two, his shield arm was tiring and the powerful Aesir was shrewd in attacking his hated foeman's arms. Ibrahim did not panic, however, nor did he break off to try and grab the girl and make a getaway, this is where that Flaw-Bloodthirsty came to haunt him.
About two turns into their titanic struggle for the girl, who changed hands a time or two, the Kushite warriors N'kuta and M'bora raced into the small clearing and executed a textbook Rush Attack. Well, it was damn close anyhow, as N'Kuta broke his spear on his first pass and wound up fighting the Duke with a shield and fist combination. This fight went back and forth as the Duke was unable to put his foe down. At this point, N'kuta broke away from combat to make way for the mighty Ghomli, who charged the Duke and did not live up to my expectations as a real monster. Don't forget that all the while in the background the Stygians were exploring encounter markers and had silenced the Drums and managed to turn off the Downpour as well. The Kushite leader, M'buna, found an encounter which challenged me and made me laugh out loud, then he found another one that would change the game.
The first required a test vs. GUTS to explore further encounter markers, as a strange call came from the nearest jungle stand. Pat immediately asked me what made the call. Hell, I don't know what made the call and I did not go into any more description on my list of encounter marker designations other than to say " a strange call". So I told him it was "Intuka'tuka" an not to be trifled with! I still don't know what the hell Intuka'tuka is and if I do figure it out, I sure as hell won't tell anyone what it is, it makes it that much more frightening as is. The second encounter brought the Child of Gullah into play. I was smart and had not taken the gorilla miniature out of my case so the players would see what else was in it. A few eyes got wide when I placed it. Pat had been asking me since the first turn of the game what the Black Painted Skull on his character sheet meant, so now, I told him. He also was not sure why he would have the Animal Handling skill...well...there you go!
He made his rolls an hurled the skull at the ape and now had control of his whole faction AND the Child of Gullah....WRONG, I promptly traded him the ape's character card for that of Ghomli, and had him break off from combat with the Duke to move towards the ape as fast as possible. By this point, the Shemites and Brodir were having a serious row smack in the middle of the table, Elyssa had gotten to the Duke who was busy fighting a Kushite warrior and trying to make good his escape with his favorite slave. Seems like we have not mentioned the Stygians in awhile, doesn't it?
As the Child of Gullah barrelled into the Shemites, the High Priestess stepped forth and began casting Wall of Fire... A turn later, she had placed it and it killed both Shemite Grade 1's, wounded Brodir and Ibrahim AND the ape. A turn or so earlier, M'buna had cast his spell, Ancestor Spirit on Ibrahim, but the spirit was not able to get past the guard of the fierce slaver.
At this point our time slot was finished and it was time to see how things wound up in terms of victory. The Duke had partially met his objective, as had the Stygians, who found one of the three Black Lotus plants. One other plant had been located, but they were not quite able to reach it before the end of the game. The Slavers did not recapture anyone and pretty much got either barbecued in the end or slowly carved up by Brodir, the Aesir bodyguard. The Kushites were delighted to see that someone else was doing much of the killing and making their job easier, but none of the Stygians had fallen, nor had the Duke and Brodir. It really seemed like to me, the Duke would meet his victory conditions best if he abandoned Brodir and fled with Elyssa, which I think he was in the process of doing.
Here are a few action pics I took along the way.
The Duke's Player uses a Hero Point!
(http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm10/RFless72/FallRecruits-19.jpg)
I make Chambersofminiatures (Pat) perform some kind of Kushite Juju dance before his Spirit Ancestor spell will go off
(http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm10/RFless72/FallRecruits-24.jpg)
The Duke struggles against Ghomli, before Ghomli becomes an ambitious traitor. Brodir is on the right about to engage the Slavers. Elyssa is found just after this picture was taken.
(http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm10/RFless72/FallRecruits-26.jpg)
The Child of Gullah Arrives!
(http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm10/RFless72/FallRecruits-28.jpg)
There are a few more pictures I apparently did not upload, but this should wet your whistle for the time being, more to come!
RWF