Dux Britaniarum & Fantasy Games

[Commander Roj]

Has anyone purchased Dux Britaniarum with a view to playing some fantasy games? I am thinking about it for use with my Copplestone 15mm figures. I've heard such good things about it but I am ambivalent about Dark Ages gaming per se. While it would need some magical additions, I am thinking about a "hard" fantasy so magic would be very much at a premium, certainly not pervasive. a magic system might also fit into the existing card system very well.The Lardies campaign system is also a plus. Anyone have any thoughts?

[max]

I've used the rules for a couple of lighter fantasy games, and i noted down some ideas using the fate deck to represent spells. I would have to find them again though 

I thought that some people were working on a fantasy variant too called 'Ride to Ruin'. Linky:

http://guitarheroandy.blogspot.fr/2013/05/introducing-ride-to-ruin-first-playtest.html

[guitarheroandy]

Yeah...we were doing that. Trouble was, only me and the rule writer were really doing any playtesting, so it kinda fizzled out, as I got fed up with it, as there was nobody else to bounce ideas off other than the author and you do need more people to make playtesting work.

Also, it depends what you want. Ride To Ruin attempted to cover pretty much all GW style armies and Tolkien ones and, while it was a great start, needed some tweaks to make it work, as I felt it over complicated what is in essence a great rule set. The author would disagree, of course and he may be right. My opinion is just that...an opinion.

I personally think Dux Brit could be perfect for Tolkien style stuff, as he got most of his inspiration from Dark Age era armies - Rohan are very much like Carolingian Franks; Gondor are more of a late Norman style force with knights and such like; Dwarfs are like Anglo-Danes with all the two handed axes...

So yes. I reckon you could do it. You would need to look at the career paths for the various races and design ones to suit your chosen races from Copplestone ranges for the campaign to work  and if I were you I would certainly buy the raider supplement as the various options in there would be useful as well, both for starting army lists and campaign ideas. You would need to think about how you use magic, though. Spells would probably be best causing shock, slowing movement, etc, unless you want GW style spells like fireballs and such...

Good luck with it! 

[mcfonz]

It's a shame you couldn't find more playtesters - there is a bit of a shortage in decent, basic fantasy rules.

[Nord]

Would an online testing group help? Volunteers could go away, play a few test games, email their thoughts back to the organiser/author. That would certainly increase the ideas. But as you say, if the author likes his system as it stands, more voices from the web (who can be a pretty awkward bunch at times it has to be said) would be unlikely to help.

[Commander Roj]

Helpful contributions all. I'll have to pick it up and experiment. Not the priority project at the moment, but shaping up for 2015. Thanks.

[guitarheroandy]

Would an online testing group help? Volunteers could go away, play a few test games, email their thoughts back to the organiser/author. That would certainly increase the ideas. But as you say, if the author likes his system as it stands, more voices from the web (who can be a pretty awkward bunch at times it has to be said) would be unlikely to help.

There was an online testing group for Ride To Ruin. A number of people were initially interested, but actual playtesting was thin on the ground. The author was very keen for feedback and the games I had were decent enough, but were just missing a certain something... The author and I exchanged several emails and elements were altered/tweaked accordingly and I wouldn't want anyone to think otherwise. Apologies if I gave that impression before.

It's a shame it folded. I think part of the problem was finding willing testers who had forces for the game. At my club, probably 50% of players have fantasy armies of one sort or another but only one was up for joining the testing. That's because those gamers are dyed-in-the-wool GW Warhammer players and a very different gaming approach, albeit with the same troop types, was not what they wanted. Fair enough, I guess, but that kind of attitude limits the possibilities for playtesting considerably.

I haven't given up hope of doing something very Tolkien-specific with it myself, as I have LOTR Elf and Orc armies that I would love to use with the rules.

[Mitch K]

I too would love to try this. It's a very short leap from the "historical" Arthur to a fantasy Arthur. I've got some odd individual add-on characters who would bring in the limited magic (Merlin, Nimue) and a few orcs, trolls, giants etc would go down  a treat!

[Nord]

If you or the author ever decide to restart the playtesting process, please drop me a pm. I game once a week with a buddy, we used to play WHFB almost exclusively, but 8th edition and price rises slowly sapped our enthusiasm for it and we made the change to historic. We still play occasionally and both have huge fantasy collections - tens of thousands of points between us. So we could easily test most races, give or take one or two exceptions.

[Commander Roj]

I too would love to try this. It's a very short leap from the "historical" Arthur to a fantasy Arthur. I've got some odd individual add-on characters who would bring in the limited magic (Merlin, Nimue) and a few orcs, trolls, giants etc would go down  a treat!

I didn't really think of dong a magical Arthur, as I am in love with the Copplestone range which is more Conanesque. Still, that sounds interesting too.

[max]

There's this alwell, Dux Brit for Lord of the Rings;

http://corblogme.blogspot.fr/2013/04/dux-britanniarum-games-4-and-5.html