Devilry Afoot vs. Silver Bayonet (or other?)

[mikedemana]

Hi everyone! I'm reaching out to the great hive mind of the forum. I would like to run a skirmish horror game (planning for 2026) for our Sunday evening gaming group. I've purchased both Devilry Afoot and Silver Bayonet. I'm weighing how each is suited for the type of games I'll be running. I would love to hear your opinions.

First, the parameters. These are most important, and if you could keep them in mind in your advice, I would be most appreciative....   

1. On a typical evening, I will usually have six players. Ideally, I would like them to command two or more figures (so they don't have to sit there and twiddle their thumbs if something happens to their one character). However, I certainly don't want them to control a half a dozen or more each. That could get out of hand with 36 figures to activate individually.
2. I plan on this being cooperative, with all players vs. the monsters (not 1 vs. 1).
3. I want them to have actual decisions to make, so each figure must move, fire, act, investigate, etc., individually.
4. I want the horror aspect in the game, with figures being terrified or having to test their courage, and so on. Equally, I don't want it to be so easy to fail morale on a semi-permanent basis that a player with two figures has both too scared to do anything. And they sit there and are forced to, you guessed it, twiddle their thumbs.

For those who have played the games, what do you think of having a player control 2-3 figures? Would that work? In Devilry Afoot, perhaps they could each have a character and a follower.
In Silver Bayonet, they could each have a Junior Officer and one other figure (Doctor, Grenadier, etc.).

My thought is to base the games in the New World in the 1600-1700s, so that I can use my large collection of French & Indian War figures, native Americans, and so on.

Thanks in advance for any advice or comments...!
Mike Demana

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

Silver Bayonet is just sorta meh for me.  Not really a fan of its dice resolution mechanic which seems to me more bland process than having a real effect from thoughtful decisions about tactical choices but it can still be a fun game.  I have not yet played Devilry Afoot, but you might well want to look at Fistful of Lead or Song of Blades and Heroes.  Even if you use 5 figs per player the play of both is very fast but both would work just as well with 2-3 figs per player.  The Pirate/musketeer version of SoBH ( Ganesha’s Flashing Blades, iirc? )is a real hoot.   

[Cat]

I play Silver Bayonet monthly at the FLGS, it could certainly work for your purposes.  Three or four figures per player will still move along quickly.  As figures can die rapidly, that could also help avoid player elimination when the night is still young.  (Although players could trade off some characters if need be.)
 
As written, only a couple of stock monsters with the 'Hypnotic' attribute require courage checks to close and attack (Vampires and Goblins).  That could easily be attributed to any others as you wish.
 
Courage checks can also be required by scenario events, cards in the objectives deck may call for them when investigated, ruins or other terrain features may call for them if the character attempts to enter.
 
The Canada supplement has a number of localised monsters from native myth to the more prosaic grizzly bears and moose (dangerous when in rut).  The Loup-garou character from the supplement is way over-powered however — players tend to use the Werebear stats from the core book, or Lupo Mannaro from Italy instead.  New character types from the Carpathian supplement, Coachman and Woodsman, would be right at home in the Old French War too.

[mikedemana]

Thanks for the feedback, folks. Others feel free to chime in, too. There are some mechanics in Silver Bayonet that I also don't like. For example, it makes no sense that a werewolf, after successfully goring a player, would then "back off." I'm usually not a fan of McCullough combat mechanics, but he seems to fixed the Frostgrave weirdness for this game.

Cat -- thanks for the specifics. I was thinking of buying the Canada supplement because the New World is where I'm setting my games.

Mike Demana

[Cat]

The 'back off' rules can be tweaked to taste, something along the lines of:
* The defender backs off if they haven't dealt more damage than they took.
* except monsters with 'allergies' always back off from a character wielding an allergenic weapon regardless of damage outcomes (so the werewolf will recoil in the face of a silver melee weapon).
* and monsters with 'weakened by faith' always back off from a character sporting a holy symbol.
* if the monster doesn't back off, the character must.

This is a rulebook with ample margins and takes well to the pencil!  McCullogh is active on the FB group, and heartily encourages house rules.  Not that I need any encouragement...
: 3

[Chairface]

I love both games. For a group that large I'd go with Devilry. Its more geared for that sort of crowd

[mikedemana]

Thanks, Chairface! Would it be too much if each player had a character and a follower? That way, if one can't do something in a round because of a failed check, perhaps the other can? Nothing worse than a player who can't do anything except sit and watch others do things...

Thanks for the advice -- glad you enjoy both. Do you have a blog or YouTube channel where you post game reports?

And Cat -- I appreciate the advice. I got to play in a game of Silver Bayonet (kind of) at Historicon. I think the system seems like it works well, though there were too many players and too many house rules or changes to really tell...ha, ha!

Mike Demana

[Chairface]

Thanks, Chairface! Would it be too much if each player had a character and a follower? That way, if one can't do something in a round because of a failed check, perhaps the other can? Nothing worse than a player who can't do anything except sit and watch others do things...

You could go that way, but honestly the turns go fairly quickly. Followers are great, but I wouldn't  make them a neccessity

Thanks for the advice -- glad you enjoy both. Do you have a blog or YouTube channel where you post game reports?

No, but I have posted on both the Silver Bayonet and Devilry Afoot FB pages under David Winters, although game reports might be a generous name for my infrequent posts

[Chairface]

Either way you and your group will have a lot of fun

[mikedemana]

Thank you, David -- I will check out both of those FB pages. I tend to forget about doing that except for maybe the game I currently playing. Despite the politics and ad hominen crap that can go on Facebook, it is actually a great resource for gaming.

Mike Demana

[Chairface]

My experience with FB gaming groups have been overwhelmingly positive

[erpigi]

Both Devilry Afoot and Silver Bayonet are great choices for cooperative horror skirmish games and can suit your plans well. Having six players controlling 2-3 figures each seems like a good balance to keep everyone engaged without overwhelming them or the game flow. In Devilry Afoot, players could manage a main character and a follower, which fits nicely with its narrative-driven, tense gameplay. Silver Bayonet traditionally uses larger squads, but reducing to a Junior Officer plus one support figure per player keeps things manageable and fast-paced. Both systems support a cooperative approach with monsters as common enemies, and their mechanics allow for meaningful decisions as each figure acts individually.

Regarding the horror aspect, Devilry Afoot shines with its built-in fear and courage mechanics and event-driven suspense, offering plenty of tense moments without overly punishing players and sidelining their figures. Silver Bayonet includes morale and terror checks, which work well when adjusted to prevent players from being stuck with inactive scared units—teamwork and recovery options help here. Both systems are flexible for your chosen setting in the 1600s–1700s New World era, letting you use your French & Indian War miniatures effectively. Overall, both games can provide the immersive, cooperative horror experience you want, with easily tweakable rules to keep all players involved and the action flowing.


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[mikedemana]

Both Devilry Afoot and Silver Bayonet are great choices for cooperative horror skirmish games and can suit your plans well.

Thanks for your input! I think I will try Devilry Afoot first, and if the players don't enjoy it, switch to Silver Bayonet. If they don't like that, I'll fall back to Fistful of Lead... 

Mike Demana

[fred]

I played my first game of Devilry Afoot yesterday - as players get to roll 2 dice per turn to activate, the chance of failing your activations totally is slim. I think it happened once for 4 characters over 6 turns.

The bigger risk is that the character gets killed. 

In multiplayer games, it's the downtime between your individual turns that can be tedious. So I don't think giving each player a character and a follower is a great idea. As this doubles the time of each player turn, but doesn't help with the problem of the character being killed, as their follower will flee then.

I'd go with 1 character per player - it will keep things moving. You could go with 2 characters per player - but will need to adjust the scenarios quite a bit, as they are designed around the 4-6 characters not for 12.

Edit - I’d also assign the characters to activation tokens - removes another level of decision making and analysis paralysis

[co_diver]

When just my buddy and I play coop, we don't have too much "analysis paralysis" - we're usually on the same page on which of our characters should activate when we draw a Hunter token.

That said, we did pay one game a few weeks ago with a couple of other guys - so 4 players total.  In that case, there were a couple of times where, due to the circumstances in the game, 2-3 players were motivated to want one of their figures to activate.  In that case we just rolled off to see who got to go.  Personally I think that was better than the loss of flexibility of having the characters assigned to specific activation tokens.

Dave