*
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 29, 2024, 08:46:59 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Donate

We Appreciate Your Support

Recent

Author Topic: Fantasy skirmish recommendations?  (Read 3111 times)

Offline Hobgoblin

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4912
    • Hobgoblinry
Re: Fantasy skirmish recommendations?
« Reply #15 on: January 27, 2020, 08:17:48 PM »
As others have said, Song of Blades is great and has all the standard monsters covered (though kobolds were omitted from the rule book and can be had as a free download from the Ganesha site). You could also combine it with the same author's Four Against Darkness if you wanted a procedurally generated dungeon.

From the RPG side, you could look at "micro-games" like Microlite20 (free on DriveThruRPG), Searchers of the Unknown and Into the Odd (there's a free edition of the rules). Those all have ultra-stripped-down rules that enable them to play very quickly.

Of the three, Into the Odd is probably the least wargame-like (it has no "to hit" rolls, only damage), but it does have a brilliant hit-points system. Once you're out of hit points, you take damage from Strength - and you have to roll under your remaining STR on a D20 to avoid incapacitation each time you lose STR points.

That's important, I think, because one of the big gaps to bridge between RPGs and skirmish wargames is the survivability of PCs. If you want more of an RPG feel to a game, the PCs will probably have to have a bit of "plot armour". One way to achieve that would be to give all characters HP (generally in a fairly low quantity, e.g. 1d6) but allow a few select "PCs" to have an Into the Odd-style STR save as well. So you can have a high degree of risk in the old-school style, but also have a higher chance of survival for the PCs. There would be no guarantees, of course: even a STR 18 barbarian can still fail his saving through once his HP have been whittled down.

Offline Blackwolf

  • Potato Cup 3 winner
  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Galactic Brain
  • *
  • Posts: 6225
Re: Fantasy skirmish recommendations?
« Reply #16 on: January 27, 2020, 09:16:18 PM »
Nice thinking Hobgoblin, I use to give my players "hero points" which did much the same thing.
May the Wolf  Walk With You
http://greywolf1066.blogspot.com.au/

Painting Clubs Joined: APC,MPC, PPC,PAPC,LPC.

Offline mweaver

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2683
Re: Fantasy skirmish recommendations?
« Reply #17 on: January 29, 2020, 02:11:20 AM »
Citizen Sade: "As my group are huge Mordheim rules fans too, would you care to share your revised approach to initiative? "

PM sent so as not to clutter the thread.

-Michael

Offline Bloggard

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3458
Re: Fantasy skirmish recommendations?
« Reply #18 on: January 31, 2020, 11:00:58 AM »

From the RPG side, you could look at "micro-games" like Microlite20 (free on DriveThruRPG), Searchers of the Unknown and Into the Odd (there's a free edition of the rules). Those all have ultra-stripped-down rules that enable them to play very quickly.


thanks very much for the 'Unknown' link - I've only recently become aware of all this OSR stuff, and that's a nice resource!

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
Re: Fantasy skirmish recommendations?
« Reply #19 on: February 01, 2020, 01:57:40 PM »
Battle Companies really helps the Middle Earth SBG rules get into the realm of RPG lite with nice mechanics on progression, equipment and character fatality risk.
Home of the Grumpy Gnome

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/

Gabbi

  • Guest
Re: Fantasy skirmish recommendations?
« Reply #20 on: February 04, 2020, 09:55:21 AM »
Battle Companies really helps the Middle Earth SBG rules get into the realm of RPG lite with nice mechanics on progression, equipment and character fatality risk.
I've read good things of Battle Companies, and was very interested. Unfortunately GW sells the rules as a supplement to the standard rules, not as a stand alone rulebook. So I found the entry cost too high and passed over.
« Last Edit: February 04, 2020, 10:51:49 AM by Gabbi »

Offline Chillyray

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 48
Re: Fantasy skirmish recommendations?
« Reply #21 on: February 04, 2020, 07:24:39 PM »
I am playing Rangers of shadow deep, solo at the mo. It is a terrific game, and I have used a range of cheap minis for the monsters. Mostly reaper, copplestone and northstar, spiders and wolves. I swapped orcs for gnolls and just used the stats for the gnolls! No problemo! I have combined metal and frostgrave plastics for my warband. I am going for a Dark ages, Viking vibe. I down loaded free buildings and printed them out, glued to cardboard or foamboard, they look great. The rock formations are just layers of broken polysteyrine with a bit of shaping. I love the campaign setting and the rpg elements... developing the warband from one scenario to the next. Joseph A Mc Cullough is my hero.

Offline mkultra99

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Bookworm
  • *
  • Posts: 72
Re: Fantasy skirmish recommendations?
« Reply #22 on: February 04, 2020, 08:13:21 PM »
Fistful of Lead Core.. The author is coming out with a proper dungeon supplement in the future, but with the core rules and Wasteland Warriors, you have all you need for dungeon bashing.
Lots of good stuff in the system.. you can shape your game by editing or creating new 'traits' and with what happens when a joker (we also use Aces as triggering cards) is used for activation (trigger wandering monsters or force a roll on a list of events).

We have used it for Conan and StarWars "rpg lite" gaming and are also doing 17th century horror in the new world and Cyberpunk in the near future. Very versatile system.

Offline pixelgeek

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2026
    • Zac's Gaming Blog
Re: Fantasy skirmish recommendations?
« Reply #23 on: February 04, 2020, 08:31:33 PM »
Fistful of Lead Core.. The author is coming out with a proper dungeon supplement in the future, but with the core rules and Wasteland Warriors, you have all you need for dungeon bashing.

IIRC the plan is to release a historical book and then a fantasy expansion for it