D&D Adventure System and Dungeon Command models for Frostgrave

[ced1106]

I started the thread on BGG because Castle Ravenloft, one of the D&D Adventure System games, is popular there, and happens to have miniatures that fit many of the Frostgrave core monsters (eg. skeleton, zombie, ghoul, vampire, etc.). Since I have all the D&D AS and Dungeon Command games, I fiddled around with mapping these miniatures to the Frostgrave monsters and warband members. You can read the thread, but will need a BGG account to download the spreadsheet in the files section. The spreadsheet is lacking Frostgrave stats for the other miniatures (eg. dragons), so if anyone's written them, drop me a PM!

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1855745/dd-adventure-system-and-dungeon-command-miniatures

EDIT: Here's the text if the link doesn't work. You'll still need the BGG account for the speadsheet, or PM me for the latest copy!

Introduction: I've been pillaging my D&D Adventure System (unpaited mini's) and Dungeon Command figures (painted mini's) for Frostgrave, and I figure I'd share what Frostgrave soldiers and monsters map to which miniatures. I'll be submitting a v.0.1 of a spreadsheet that maps these miniatures to the monsters on Frostgrave, as well as provide an encounter table and sample warbands. I haven't made stats for new monsters and welcome them from veteran players on this thread. (I downloaded the bestiary in the BGG files, but they don't map well to the miniatures.) Some miniatures fit multiple soldier roles, so a unique miniature may have more than one entry (eg. the Catti-Brie miniature has a bow, so the model may be an archer, tracker, or ranger). The spreadsheet uses only the core Frostgrave rules, so you won't have to buy any supplements to use it. (EDIT: BTW, The wizard, apprentice, tracker, and apothecary are armed with staves, putting the most demand for staff-wielding D&D figures. Same goes for the crossbow-wielding crossbowman and marksman. Just proxy if you run out of matching figures.)

Monsters: The good news is that Castle Ravenloft, one of the more commonly owned D&D Adventure System games on BGG, has most of the monsters statted in Frostgrave. The bad news is that, even when drawing from all the monsters in the D&D Adventure System, you won't have all the monsters. Some monsters come from other D&D Adventure System sets (eg. Cave Bear Troll), and a few from the Dungeon Command sets (eg. Boar, Owlbear as the Snow Gorilla!). The encounter table has additional entries you can use to use all of the number of miniatures of a particular monster in the Castle Ravenloft set (eg. three skeletons), as well as Level 4 table for more difficult encounters (eg. three Ghouls, minor demon). EDIT: In practice, for Dungeon Command, you'll just create a pool of unused miniatures and either grab one that matches an encounter roll (eg. a Hypnotic Spectre for a Wraith) or reroll.

Warbands: I've also made sample warbands based on the weapons, shield, and armor of these figures. Warbands are separated into painted (Dungeon Command) and unpainted (D&D Adventure System) miniatures, so I haven't done any warbands that use mini's from both sets.

Dungeon Command: To make warbands from the painted Dungeon Command sets, I used one or two sets to make a warband. The bad news is that you won't have all possible soldiers from even two sets. The good news is that you won't have to rummage through three D&D Adventure sets to build your warband! The warbands are: Heroes of Corymrr , Drow and Undead, and Humanoids. Thematically, with its undead, the drow warband worships Kiaransalee, the drow deity of undead, slavery, and vengence. The humanoids (eg. orcs and goblins) are lead by the Hobgoblin Sorceror, since hobgoblins are more powerful and organized than orcs. (EDIT: To stretch out your warband options, you could always use two unpainted D&D Adventure system heroes as wixard and apprentic to lead the painted Dungeon Command: Heroes of Corymyer warband, and vice-versa.)

D&D Adventure Set: To make the warbands from the unpainted D&D Adventure Set miniatures, I often needed to use miniatures from two or three different sets. I came up with three warbands: Drow and Temple of Elemental Evil Cultists, Humanoids (eg. Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds), and Heroes. Few miniatures were used from the Castle Ravenloft set to make warbands, since many CR miniatures were used for the Frostgrave encounter table. For those familiar with the Temple of Elemental Evil from D&D, an article suggests that the Drow are (or were in the original module design) behind the ToEE. The warband reflects one of the remaining surviving Drow from the ToEE after its destruction years ago; the rival elemental cultist factions have been (forcibly) united by the few drow remaining. For the hero miniatures, as a fair warning, if you are familiar with the D&D heroes (eg. Drizzt), you might not be happy with the soldier roles assigned to them, since I assigned soldier roles based on the equipment, not personality. So... the Infantry solider role assigned to Drizzt is, uh, really assigned to his cousin who only *looks* like Drizzt!

ToEE: http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2014/04/more-on-temple-of-elemental-evil.html

Conclusion: No changes have been made to the Frostgrave core rules, and, like the Frostgrave game itself, feel free to change the miniature assignments to your liking. Myself, I'll be fiddling with the warbands for solo adversaries (eg. replace the wizard and apprentice with more monsters or something!).

EDIT: File is up!

[LiamFrostfang]

  wouldn't open for me.
 seems like a great idea fer usin up the cool minis...get em painted by force.