Something new to try "Part Deux"

[Roger]

Hi everyone, Just thought I'd throw this out there for anyone that's interested.

My buddy and I love frosgrave,and we've been playing it at least once a week since its started,and we normally get in 2 games a session.
We've played around with the rules quite a bit, amount of xp for treasure ,limiting the amount of any one type of soldier to 2,casting all spells from their base number, or halving the penalty for casting an out of school spell.

But the latest thing we've tried has changed the dynamic of the game massively.
We normally play with  at least 6 wandering monsters ,already on the board ,and a monster appearing every time we contact a treasure.
 We keep the levels of the monsters down with a new warband and add more as we get better. We've got them all printed out on cards and just draw from the top of the deck.

Now for the good bit. we designate a regular playing card for each of our players ,shuffle the cards and that player does his actions and so on.
Monsters get a card as they come into range and they get added to the discard pile and will go when their card comes up.
Treasure monsters activate immediately and also get a card .
We've found this stops pre determining moves knowing that the monster can go at any time and not just at the end of each phase, same goes for the wizard.
It almost makes it a bit more realistic , as people in fights dont take it in turns to move.
I imagine it would also put a spanner in the works of people that try and just go for the wizard kill as they cant determine where people might be ...
If nothing else its worth a try for the total confusion and fun it can cause .

We,ve played about 6 games like this, 2 with our level 20 ish gang and the last 4 with totally new gangs.
Its definitely added a "oh $*it" quality to the game when monsters can start going before your wizard ...  

Roger

[Wraith01]

I can see this being fun, specially once you've played the game as much as you have.
I haven't played my first game yet. But I'll copy and keep this idea in my Frostgrave folder for future reference.

[Ivan DBA]

This sounds great.  Could you explain a bit more about how the cards work?  What cards are in the deck at the start of the game? 

[Iain]

Sounds good indeed. Wandering monsters always cause such entertaining havoc, nice to have excuses for more of them. In your system, does each player have one card - or is it one for the wizard, one for the apprentice, one for each soldier ?

[Roger]

Yes Iain , each player has a single card. I've got the Inn as my home base and a kennel , so I end up with 11 figures in total.
I give the wiz and apprentice the K & Q , and the rest of the gang get from A to 9.
My friend and I stick to Clubs and Spades for our gangs , all the monsters get Diamonds and Hearts .
we have cards in the deck for the wandering monsters, they are marked by tokens on the board ,normally 1-10 of one suit.

 All our monsters are printed onto cards as well. As soon as the wandering monster/token is in sight or range we pull to see what it is. again this is also random. you can get blank playing cards, or just get them from the pound shop and write what monsters you like on them.

So we end up with 2 piles of cards one for players and monsters for their turns, and a separate deck of what type of monster with stats and quantity, max of 2.

You sort of have to decide if you're going to go and attack the monster, or try to avoid it. the randomness adds something , you might try and avoid it only to find out it a skeleton
If the wandering monster card is drawn before a gang member card , we pull to see what monster it is and move it accordingly.
Its a fairly simple idea and you can house rule it to suit your gaming preferences.

it takes away the wizard and 3 move, then the apprentice and 3 move kind of scenario.
especially if the wizard is way down the deck and the monsters all get drawn first
Hope this clears it up a bit, but if not I can clarify anything you arent sure about.

As I said this isnt a hard and fast system so you can modify to suit .

Roger

[Dusty27]

Damn it Roger! Your some sort of board game whisperer...

THIS IS EXACTLY what I was looking for.

More Neutral elements on the table. A simple way to have monster stats on cards. Also it makes it super simple to tell who has gone and who hasn't. I like this alot!

I am going to print up some cards this week.

You sir are amazing. This should complement Ulterior Motives quite well.

The only thing I intend to change from the formula you have presented it is to use Mimics. I just got my "Foundations 4: Rise of the Mimics" in the mail and started painting. I think I am going to have an rolls of 13 or higher on treasure spawning them.

This is cool.

[Roger]

Thanks Dusty, but Im afraid I cant take any credit for this system, I did remember where I got the idea from.
It came from a wild west gaming system ...Doh !!!
It does mix the game up a bit ..well quite a whole damn lot actually .
We started playing that the monsters came in from the board edge, but even on a 3 ft sq they would get stuck on a board edge or against terrain.
so we just threw them into the middle . plus one guaranteed to turn up when you got to the treasure, and he's just  1" away from the treasure so you cant pick it up and run

Roger

[Roger]

Right, we had a bit of a brainwave yesterday and changed the card system a bit.
Rather than a card for each player, and to speed things up a bit, we tried
1 card for the Wiz (K) and 3 if they are in range to group activate,
1 card for the apprentice(Q) and 3.
and 1 card for the rest of the soldiers (J).
If during their turn the group splits up then the next round they come under the soldiers moving card.
and if they came back at a later stage the reverse happens.

we still had 10 wandering monsters, each with their own card from the start.
and as soon as we touched the treasure 1 monster turns up immediately and has his action (only 1 action on arrival and 1" from the treasure )
we then add a card for that monster into the deck.

shuffle at the end of the round and so on.
you just have to remember what card belongs to what monster, and remove them when they die.
It did speed the game up quite a bit,but still keeps the random activation.
it was a fun game , even though I did end up with 2 wraith knights and a bear at one stage

Roger