Reign in Hell! (Or maybe in Heaven...)

[Macrossmartin]

Greetings, all!

I recently stumbled upon a new game of miniatures-agnostic demonic combat; Reign in Hell. Set in an underworld that has — well — gone to Hell lately, the game needs only 10 models per side, and you can pretty much use whatever inspires you for your Cabal (warband) of confined celestials.

It looks like a bit of fun for not much money. (US$10 for the PDF, $15 for printed.) Needs a lot of D12's, but that's about the only peculiarity.

Here's the website:

https://www.snarlingbadger.com/reigninhell

And a pretty good review:



Contemplating what sort of fallen fiends I'd like to recruit, I recalled a distant idea I'd had to wargame the War in Heaven of Enoch, Milton, et al. (I've always wanted to see an Osprey about that campaign, but I'm pretty sure it won't happen.)

That set me off looking for angels in miniature form (or biggature form, if they really can dance on the head of a pin), and I found these lovely 3D print files from Raging Heroes on myminifactory:



Those will do nicely! 

Raging Heroes also do actual, cast resin minis of angel-ish figures, too; Their Sisters of the Orphanage range:



There's others out there too, such as Reaper's less dynamic but classy, classical angels. So, not shortage of recruits.

Out came my copy of Gustav Davidson's Dictionary of Angels for more ideas about Orders, Choirs, and so on. Thousands of names in there, with their allegiances, powers, and suchlike. 


Then, I jammed on the keyboard, and came up with a rough sketch of what I plan to mod and build to make this work...


REIGN IN HEAVEN

Concept:

Use Reign in Hell as starting point for rules and campaign for fights between angelic forces in Heaven.


Fluff:

Idea #1 (Less Biblical)
Samael’s revolt left all Heaven in ruin. No-one knows what became of God in its aftermath, but He hasn’t been seen nor heard from in millennia. Left to their own devices and without His guidance, the Choruses of angels become dissonant. Arguments become fights, swords are drawn, and Heaven is plunged into the chaos of war anew.

Idea #2 (More Biblical)
The original ‘War in Heaven’: Samael has taken arms against his Father, and at least a third of the Heavenly Host marches beneath his banner. Upon this terrible war rests the fate of Humankind, the Earth, and possibly all of Creation itself.

Players command Choruses of angels (warbands) which vie for control of the Spheres of Heaven.


Things I’d like to incorporate into the rules

1. a variation of the In Nomine’ RPG's ‘D666’ system:
3x 1’s = ’The Word of God’ — The roll is an auto success for forces of God, auto failure for forces of Samael. 3 x 6’s = ‘Hail Samael!’ – vice versa result.

2. Secrets - each Angel has both a virtue and a sin they are hiding. Specific virtues give bonuses against an opponent with a ‘matching’ Sin; eg, Vigour trumps Sloth. But, in some cases, a Sin can triumph over a virtue: Seduce might temp an Angel with Chaste.

This leads to the danger of an Angel switching sides if they lose enough Virtue (forces of God) or Sin (forces of Samael). This might happen in mid-game, or maybe between games in campaign turns - not sure just yet.

3. ‘Faith’ replaces ‘souls’ in the text. (Angels trading in Souls doesn't feel quite right.) Or maybe vitae? Essence? Spirit? Angels can slay those of their own side (same as demons in Reign in Hell). Hey, these etherial warriors are ruthless!

4. Add ranged weapons (bows, magic attacks).

5. Minor ‘grunt’ Angels might be much smaller, physically, than the hero types. (20mm, even 15mm), with multiples on each base. (3?) But they are statted as a single model, and are all removed when the unit is killed.


Scenery:

The ruins of paradise! Floating islands that used to be the idyllic landscape of Heaven. Grecian temples, waterfalls, gardens etc.
Angels can move vertically pretty much as easily as they move horizontally.


No humans?
If set during the original war, there are no Human souls in Heaven. (Adam and Eve are supposedly the only Humans alive at that point.)

Maybe Human souls can be recruited as very lowly grunts if using the ‘Heaven after God’ scenario. But, they cannot fly. (Can be carried by angels.)


That's my take on Reign in Hell, but I can see lots of opportunities to use just about any models to recreate any maelstrom of monstrous minions throughly thrashing each other. I've heard a lot of people thinking of using Oni and other Japanese mythic beings for an oriental angle on Hell, or ghosts and wights, etc. etc.

I'm glad I thought of this for my setting, as I'm feeling pretty inspired. Congrats to Vince Venturella and 'Uncle' Adam of Tabletop Minions for this little set of neat rules that seems to have captured the imaginations of quite a few gamers.

Anyone else planning to take a trip to Hell? 

[Chief Lackey Rich]

West Wind and Old Glory both still sell the Lucifer's War game, which uses Scott Pyle's Goalsystem engine.  Even if you want to use Reign's rules, there's plenty of LW minis that will work fine for the game.

https://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/products.asp?cat=Lucifer+Wars