Conan- My skirmish project- Rules available at last! (page 20)

[meninobesta]

Hello,

though about this yesterday:

When being fired at characters/minions may choose to use move dice in addition do combat dice, in order to retreat that amount of inches and make the shot more difficult, it could represent pinning the enemy

just a thought, don't know if it's a useful one... but anyway

[Golgotha]

Reading Matakishi's excellent Crom Wargame rules got me thinking...

So here with some feedback/ideas:

Fatigue/Exhaustion
If I weren't so tired opined Conan, "I'd soon make a brainless corpse out of you."

If a character uses all his dice in his dice pool (I.i: keeps no dice in reserve) in a single turn (during their initiative) then he/she/it suffers fatigue or exhaustion and so loses one dice from their dice pool akin to if it had been burnt. In this way characters (miniatures) may be forced to always keep one dice in reserve. The thinking behind this is that firstly it may slow the game down (this may sound odd given that as wargamers we tend to like to speed things up), secondly it may take out some of the heroism with the feats being performed by a character not being as incredible (a good option if using these rules perhaps for more historical like encounters), thirdly it introduces a fatigue exhaustion factor to the game which in doing so creates another tactical consideration for the player (do I expend my character this turn and lose a dice from the dice pool or should I conserve his energy for latter in the game – type questions). Alternatively this is a silly idea as the burning dice mechanism already accounts for exertion, which ultimately is fatigue and or exhaustion by another name.

Differentiation and difficulty checks for random actions
“His horned helmet was such as was worn by the golden-haired Aesir of Nordheim; his hauberk and greaves were of the finest workmanship of Koth; the fine ring-mail which sheathed his arms and legs was of Nemedia; the blade at his girdle was a great Aquilonian broadsword; and his gorgeous scarlet cloak could have been spun nowhere but in Ophir.”

One excellent aspect of the rules at the moment is the lack of mechanisms, factors and clutter - by which I mean there is very little one has to consider, par perhaps the number of dice in ones dice pool. However this does perhaps leave little scope for differentiating characters and minions. With the number of dice they are assigned being the only major difference in quality etc. The system may therefore need to account for factors such as armour, weapon type, racial characteristics, experience, traits etc. So I was thinking how best can this be achieved. One proposal is to give a modifier that can then be assigned to a dice roll so a +1 for instance added to a dice roll a 5 then becomes a 6. Here follows a few clearer examples: The Afghuli are renowned for riding and climbing so when an Afghuli is is trying to scale a battlement he would get a +1 to a dice roll (assignes 2 dice to his attempt, roles a 5 and and a 3 which is 8 plus 1 then for his racial skill and we have a total of 9 halved because he is climbing is equal to 4.5). To keep these aqdditional factors simple minions get +1 and characters get +2, using the example above then an Afghuli minion riding a horse get +1 movement but a Afghuli character would get +2. One could also add a attempt action with an assigned difficulty – at the moment the rules have dice being allocated to either combat or movement and yes magic as well but what about just random actions. Here are a few examples, a Stygian with his knowledge of arcana and spellcraft wishes to use a magic scroll he just picked up the difficulty factor is for purposes here 10 so he decides to roll only 2 dice knowing that he gets a +1 racial factor.  An Hyrkanian is sopposedly good at spoting things and thus can make a random action check to see if he spots a trap, by virtue then of being an Hyrkanian character he gets +2. Note then these bonuses are added to the total dice score not to every dice being thrown. Though one can also improve a paticular dice roll so I have a Cimmerian barbarian using a +1 magical sword in combat he rolls 2 dice one scored a 5 so he adds +1 getting a 6 and this has disastrous consequences for his enemies! See my previous post on resources which may illicit ideas on racial Hyborean characteristics. The difficulty check system I have therefore proposed works a bit differently to the “Other Tasks” in the rules whereby scores of six are required – both need playtesting I feel and I do not see any reason why both could be used difficulty for scenarios and the 6 Other tasks rule for random attempts to do things.

Mounted vs unmounted
"Not if there were three thousand desperate Hyborian horsemen fighting in a solid wedge such as I could teach them," answered Conan.

Firstly on a side note an unattended horse which a character or minion then wants to steal for himself may require a difficulty check – see the random action difficulty checks mentioned above. The rules state that “A horse being ridden may not be targeted separately except by missile fire or other distance attacks such as magic”, I am not sure I like this rule for 2 reasons namely one when using missile weapons against a mounted target I would say it is more difficult to target either rider or mount and two that in hand to hand combat it is easier to target either rider or mount. For missile and magic attacks I have a simple proposal the proverbial 50% chance to hit, so roll one dice on a 1, 2, 3 the mount is hit on a 4,5,6 the rider is hit. For hand to hand attack which ever one you like but be warned attacking the mount may expose you to a better attack from the rider as you battle with the mount it is difficult to maintain an effective guard against its rider so minus 1 dice (My character assigns 3 dice to attack your mount only 2 of those dice can then be used to defend me from your riders attacks, use coloured dice should answer you next question namely how do you know which dice are for the attack and which dice are then for the defence).

Orders
“That's where the queen's guard should have been, but they were drawn up at the foot of the palace stair, as puzzled as we, though they had come fully armed, in spite of the queen's order. “

I love the fact that because one is assigning dice to actions the miniatures then have orders which they intend to follow. This comes through for me strongly when reading the rules for example: “Conan has been speared by a guard for a total of two hits (a successful defence with a six rolled, yes Conan failed in his attack). Conan must lose two dice so the player looks at his pools. He has three dice left  in movement and four in combat. Conan was hoping to move on and attack another opponent once this one had fallen but since the situation has changed he has to re-evaluate.
He decides to lose the dice from his movement pool which means he won't be able to reach a new opponent. No matter, he has four combat dice left and, grinning wolfishly, he uses them to slaughter the guard who winged him. With his single remaining movement dice Conan slips around a corner and ends his turn.
However, the damage is done, Conan is a little weaker than he was and next turn he will have two less dice to allocate to his pools.” Similarly then that ones best intentions are not always achieved. Players must then be clear on what they wish to achieve and how many dice they will be assigning to these aspirations. Likewise I love the initiative rules and again these could be affected by the differentiation factors Conan could get a +1 to initiative rolls whereas a lumbering oaf or indecisive commander could get a – 1.
 
Shooting
"Give me a bow," requested Conan. "It's not my idea of a manly weapon, but I learned archery among the Hyrkanians, and it will go hard if I can't feather a man or so on yonder deck."

What about range? I propose the following: One a maximum range, two minus dice for ranges so minus 2 dice for long range 1 dice for medium range and no dice for short range thus someone wanting to shoot long range would need to assign atleast 3 dice. Range is thus akin to cover with dice being taken away.

General
"Stop yammering and tell me what happened!" she cried harshly.”

Thus far I like the magic, and look forward to seeing more... so I'll stop yammering...

[matakishi]

@Golgotha
I appreciate you taking the time to give me your thoughts.

Fatigue: The game is all about fatigue. The mechanics simulate the effects of fatigue on the participants already and don't need a further layer of book keeping/remembering/decision making. In fact the game has no book keeping other than the reclaiming of a spent magic dice each round and keeping score of co-operative actions (which are rare) and these will probably be changed to remove the book keeping aspects.

Players need to be concentrating on what they want to do in the turn, what their opponent may do in the turn, and how they are going to achieve their aim despite their opponents' actions. This is enough for anyone to be thinking about.

Differentiation: "The system may therefore need to account for factors such as armour, weapon type, racial characteristics, experience, traits etc." This sort of detail is covered by the dice pools. Conan has 12 dice because he's a Cimmeriean, because he's an experienced fighter, because he has the grace of a panther, because he's mean and tough. A minion has 4 dice because he isn't any of those.
Having said that, special, scenario-specific items do have a mechanic, which will be explained when I publish some example scenarios.
But...
No dice modifiers. Ever. No looking up on tables, no shuffling through a rule book during play. Players should be concentrating on what they want to do during the game, not how the rules cope with letting them do it.

Mounted: You could shoot someone's horse from under them, however it's now going to take you a minimum of three shots to do it so this will be removed since shooting has changed. A mounted figures is now a single entity for the duration of the encounter.

Orders: No dice modifiers. Conan has dice to spend on initiative if he wants to, if he wants to try and ensure a higher roll than an opponent he allocates more dice. His choice.

Range: Range is already factored in. Shooting rolls need to overcome an opponent's defence, overcome any cover and still score enough to cover the distance or they miss. Shooting is a minor part of the game and is getting as little time allocated to it as possible. Since the game is designed to be played on a 1 metre square area long range is not a factor.

Yammering: You weren't, you were making some good points but most were moving away from the underlying design ethos of the game. There is no reason for you not to include any additions you want in a game you play, especially if you feel it adds more of a Hyborean flavour to it.

Poison- General comment to others- All spiders are venomous, hideous, freaks even if they try to conceal it
There is no time in a standard encounter for a character to try to aid another in the case of a poisoned wound which is why it happens between encounters and is considered to always be successful.
A scenario may have an antidote present as stated in the rules but that's up to the writer. Encounters should generally last 4-6 turns so death by poison shouldn't be an issue.
Sudden death, however, isn't an option for a character and poison will remain doing 1 hit a turn for now.

The above seems rather negative in tone, maybe I'm tired, it's not meant to be. I do appreciate all feedback, thank you all
I'm off to photograph some figures I've painted, back soon with photos!

[Golgotha]

Not at all negative the feedback was excellent. Look forward to the pics...

[matakishi]

Bronze Age Miniature's orcs, based on a Frazetta drawing and a couple of ogres to lead them.





Big group shot on my site
http://www.matakishi.com/conan.htm

A little scenery piece. I wonder what's inside...

[Argonor]

Looks a lot like Holger Danske, that one 

Have started writing up an AAR of my Sunday game at: http://argonor-wargames.blogspot.com/2011/08/crom-rise-of-mummy-king-part-one.html

I shall post a couple of pics on my own thread, but the main action will take place on my blog, because 1) it's easier, and 2) I'm lazy, and timewise challenged 

[shadowking1957]

wonderful more insperation, i considered the rules for a devils rejects game also hehehehheheh

Tony

[matakishi]

Inside the tomb sits King Kull on his throne holding his Atlantean sword. And a few guards.





And elsewhere, Red Sonja, Bêlit and Valeria to add some much needed feminine gentleness to the proceedings.



All figures from Bronze Age Miniatures.

[shadowking1957]

You every time excell, wonderful and  superb ..........................................

[Mason]

Yet more superb goodies!

You are setting the standard for excellent work in tandem with productivity.

Love all of 'em but the King on the throne is my favourite from this batch. 

[matakishi]

Not much productivity, I'm back at work and so I've slowed down dramatically on the painting front. I'm going to spend time making some buildings for my CROM presentation game next so there probably won't be anything to see for a couple of weeks. I'm not going to post WIPs until everything's been unveiled at my party on October 1st.

[Comsquare]

Very, very nice

Simple but effective conversion on King Kull and his throne.
Did you raise the backpart of the throne?

Great job, as ever.

[matakishi]

It's not a conversion, the miniature is just as it arrived from Bronze Age.

[DeafNala]

The Orcs, Skeletons, Mysterious Cairn, &, of course, the Lovely Ladies are BEAUTIFULLY DONE in your own unique style. It's fine to see all the Bronze Age pieces;re, David is a very talented sculptor & a wonderful person to deal with.

[Comsquare]

It's not a conversion, the miniature is just as it arrived from Bronze Age.

Including the Skeleton?
The throne looks like the dwarven Kings one, thought it's not so high.