Mister Rab's chivalry project - updated 27/06/2013

[Mister Rab]

Looking forward to seeing those olley ogres finished. Your wip pic took me by surprise, didn't know they were so smallish...

I've got the first one finished and will take a side-by-side shot, hopefully tonight. The angle of the photo makes them look a little smaller than they really are, but they're not huge by any means.

[Mister Rab]

And here we are, with the first troll...






And a scale shot for Phreedh with two Black Tree Design early HYW knights from earlier in the thread. They are of a size with 80s and 90s Citadel:



I don't think I've ever painted so quickly  

[Johnno]

IIRC, the knight on the left IS 1990's Citadel... 

[Splod]

First up, some damsels that will almost certainly be in distress at some point (although I wouldn't trust the one in the red dress, she looks a little fey  )

I dunno dude, nothing against your painting. But the red one is the only one who doesn't look like a man

Gorgeous work overall though mate. Really like the ogres, didn't realise how small they were either.

[Mister Rab]

IIRC, the knight on the left IS 1990's Citadel... 

Oh yeah! I got him mixed up with the one I converted. Ooops!

But the red one is the only one who doesn't look like a man

  The blue one is a little butch. The green one looks a bit more feminine in the lead, despite my painting 

[Johnno]

Regardless of where the knights come from...your paint jobs are excellent on them.

[Mister Rab]

Thanks, Johnno 

[phreedh]

Fine stuff! Still think they're a bit too small (thin, actually), but they're really cool. Nice to see you painted the turds grey and not brown, like Funghy... =)

[Andrew May]

I just got my first of the Bob Olley trolls from RP, yours look great painted up!
They're some of my favourite minis out there. 

[Mister Rab]

I'm delighted to report that this latest painting obsession of mine has finally seen some dice and is now officially a proper Project 

I wheeled out the rules I've been simultaneously working on (currently called Quest, not very imaginative I know, but do you reckon it'll suffice?) for their first ever playtest on Thursday evening - it was the price I demanded for hosting a gaming session for a group of four decent lads in the 6th form who wanted to set up on some of the large tables we have in one of the maths classrooms for some Warmachine and 40K. After they'd finished their games, they had to play mine 

The quest the four squires had to undertake was the simple task of escorting Lady Eleanor, along with her two faithful hounds and her maidservant Ceridwin, to her wedding. The sun glinted through the trees, warming their backs and their spirits as they talked of love and honour, walking to spare their horses and to prolong the pleasure of the journey...

Then the brigands ambushed them, slaying the groom and whisking their horses away into the forest and then trying to steal away the ladies as well:



The squires hurled themselves against the cowardly ruffians...



... and made reasonably short work of them, suffering only a few flesh wounds (and some embarrassment at their comically bad swordplay).



Horseless and tired they set off into the woods to find somewhere they could stay for the night to rest, only to encounter a knight undertaking a pas d'armes - "None shall pass". Desperate to prove himself, squire Barnabus (responsible for the best one-liners of the evening, including some genuinely witty running jokes about the likely political affiliations of the bandits) took up the challenge to fight until one was knocked down. If he won, the pas d'armes knight would guide them to a nearby castle. Barnabus was promptly killed outright in a freak dice result that made me wonder if I should have some kind of divine intervention. I chose not to, partly because it seemed so Mallory-esque, but mainly to give the rules a proper test before tweaking them. Ashamed, the knight showed them the way where they were welcomed by a beautiful woman in red and feasted before retiring a little drunk to their chambers.

Awoken by screams, and finding the door of them chamber locked they armed themselves, the door was opened by Ceridwin; Eleanor had been taken. They followed the dogs who were on her scent, encountered the lady in red (cue for a song?) who explained that the castle had fallen under the control of a giant who would take any noble woman who stayed there. These women were never seen again.



Hurrying after the frantic dogs, they came face to face with the giant. Squire Eridor charged the giant, increasing his chivalry as he did so, and with astonishing dice knocked the monster off his feet with his first attack. Squire Eenit kept on after the dogs and went to break down the door that they were howling at:




Sadly for the game, the parent who was giving them lifts arrived at this point and we had to break off. 

Thoughts on the game
For a first test it weent really well. The combat system in particular went just as I hoped, with each fight bringing the risk of ignominious death, but the heroes having the slight upper hand.
I found I was horribly rusty as a DM, and made the storyline so linear as not to give much opportunity for them to wander off into the forest etc, but they hugely enjoyed themselves and want to make it a weekly event. Whiel i can't spare the time for that, I took it as an endorsement.

[Mister Rab]

Sorry for all the un- or part-painted lead in the pics, work intervened to steal my time  

The 'dogs' had to be played by a pair of unpainted old west urchins from the bottom of my case 'cos I forgot the proper ones  

The tiles are the Billiam Babble ones I mentioned earlier in the thread, including the woodland ones which he sent to me gratis when I asked if there were any wilderness tiles he'd made. Nice chap.

The dice are blank ones I put stickers on - red for attack, blue for defence. Attack have 1x 2 swords, 2x 1 sword, 2x blank and 1x skull. The defence ones are the same but with shields instead of swords.

[Furt]

The game looks great and very interesting, and I like the name Quest. 

It must be a kind of cross between RPG and skirmish game then?

The dice system sounds easy enough - what are the skulls for?

Love how you roped the students into playing your game and the fact that they enjoyed it must mean it was fun - well done.

[Mister Rab]

Thanks, Furt 

I guess it's more like an Advanced Heroquest with an RPG flavour than a skirmish - movement is done in squares rather than direct measurement etc.

Skulls are there as 'calamities' - they play little effect unless you roll more of them than swords/shields when your Attack or Defence becomes Calamitous (a strap has snapped, you dig your sword tip into the ground, you slip on something unmentionable...) and counts for naught. This also causes a drop in Renown.

Questers have Movement, Prowess, Constitution, Resilience, Chivalry and Renown characteristics. Prowess is how many Combat dice you can roll per turn. These can be allocated between Attack and Defence, and are also allocated to any of the eight surrounding spaces, with modifiers for Side and Rear facings. The aim of each squire is to gain enough Chivalry to be Knighted (and later to be admitted to an Order of Chivalry). Increasing their Renown by slaying the Bad Guys ^TM allows them to acquire Skills. Nothing groundbreaking in terms of mechanics except, I like to think, that to be unchivalrous requires a dice roll to see if it's permitted.

The rules are still very much in Alpha, never mind Beta, but if anyone would like to playtest them just PM me.

[Funghy-Fipps]

Good to see things moving apace and - wow! - actual real-life gaming with dice-and-everything taking place.  Great work on the Trolls: the reddish skin-tone works really well.  And, yes, at least yours seem to be wielding rocks and not giant lumps of excrement (thanks for the persistence, Phreedh...).  I've actually just finished some RP/Olley Ogres which I'll hopefully post up this afternoon  (if I don't have too much to drink at lunch and fall asleep...).  Still really love those tiles and I can't wait for further instalments! 

[Mister Rab]

Thanks Mr Fipps, I'm glad you like it. I look forward to seeing your ogres, even if they are delayed by a post liquid-lunch snooze 

I've got the doors all finished as well now, so they're not just lumps of mdf, the kids are keen and little do they know that the real meat of this adventure lies behind the door those dogs are barking at. Muahahahaaha!