Some years ago I ran a pulp/colonial scenario in which the players were trying to recover a lost treasure somewhere in Africa. The idea was inspired by an old article in Battle magazine that told of a tabletop game in which each player had different objectives - instead of a battle it was a tabletop adventure. Anyway, I've run it a number of times with minor variations and it always seems to go over well.
The original concept was set in the some obscure "colonial period" - and featured several teams, each run by a player. There was an American Adventurer, some Portuguese, a British contingent with some stalwart Askari, the Germans in a Lego zeppelin, and Professor Magillicutty who had invented a mole machine to travel underground. IIRC there were also Arab Slavers to make 6 players.
So to convert this to Ancient Egypt we can have the following factions:
1) Pharaoh's expedition, sent on the mission by Pharaoh himself.
2) Queen's expedition, sent privately on behest of the Queen.
3) Tomb Robbers, a band of rogues also seeking the treasure.
4) Temple expedition, sponsored by one of the Temples.
5) A Prince or Princess who wants to grab the treasure for themselves.
Additional players can be made up by Tomb Robbers and/or rival princes or princesses.
Each expedition has a number of members:
The main character, representing the player himself. He will have a loyal companion or bodyguard and about a dozen or so minions, or "soak offs" as you might call them.
The Pharaoh's expedition should be lead by one of his counselors, with an able fighter as bodyguard. The minions will be from his Palace Guard.
The Queen's expedition will have a suitable leader and bodyguard and harem guards as minions.
The tomb robbers can use tomb robber figures, overseers, nubians and armed concubines.
The temple expedition can have some priests with Nubian mercenaries.
The princes or princess can have themselves, a companion and the female guards.
The way the game works is that each expedition is trying to cross the table to the lost temple and then return with the treasure. The table is meant to represent some wilderness region beyond the borders of the Realm. It will use both stategic and tactical movement.
The table is meant to represent a wide expanse of wilderness. It should be at least 4' x 8' but 5' x 9' is probably a bit better.
To set up the table divide it into largish squares. Say 3 or 4 rows of squares running the length of the table. The divisions should be marked out by terrain pieces so as to not destroy the look of the game. Each of these squares is divided into quarters, which can either be marked by some insignificant terrain piece or merely assumed. These large and small squares will control strategic movement and the random encounters.
About halfway along the table place a river that runs from side to side and which the players must cross to reach the destination. Naturally this river is infested with crocodiles. Feel free to add numerous crocodiles along it's banks to emphasize this point.
The temple will be on the far side of the river. Now in the original game I used a large Aztec style pyramid that stands a good 10" tall with the treasure right at the top. (In those games the treasure was a bit that came from the Lego zeppelin set and really looked the part.) For this variant you will need some sort of temple.
Another option is not to have the temple's location known but force them to find it once they are on the other side of the river.
Yet another option would be to have an underground chamber aspect to be played out on a separate adjacent table...
All rest of the terrain is just wilderness - jungle, scrub or desert as you like as long as you can work out where the squares are.
Strategic Movement - most of the time the expeditions will be moving through the wilderness to reach the temple. This is called strategic movement. If they have an encounter or are right in the same area as another expedition they may switch to tactical turns.
Move order is determined by cards. Remove a number of cards equal to players from a deck and record which belongs to each faction. Each turn the order the cards are drawn in determine the order the players move.
Movement is by the small squares. Each turn an expedition can move 1d3 small squares. This might be altered by events or magic or panic, etc.
IIRC I did not allow players to move diagonally.
Each time the expedition crosses into another large square there is a possibility of an encounter. What I had was a list of events, some of which could happen once, some multiple times and maybe some that only effected certain expeditions. Each event was given a card association and I just used the balance of the deck of card to randomly draw the events as they occurred.
Some events were essentially "nothing happens" ie. a "Flight of Birds". Others included a native village, cannibal warband, a native princess, lions, man-eating plants, etc. Some events can occur multiple times while other - like the village - only occur once. I will have to think of a list appropriate for our era...
When an event occurs the referee plays it out. Now here it is important to accept that the table is somewhat variable in ground scale. So if the village is found it is placed on the table as a small group of huts with the expedition at the edge. So altogether they probably now occupy more than a single small square which had previously represented a large area of wilderness.
Each time an encounter like this occurs there will be an interaction which could end up in combat. If so then there will be 3 rounds of tactical combat and then play moves on to the next player. Other players can move to the area and enter the fray generating another 3 rounds of combat. Otherwise the combat continues next turn or the referee might find it better to have the foe run off at that point.
One example of an encounter was a swamp. As I have two swamp terrain pieces this can occur twice in the game. When it occurs the swampy terrain is placed under the expedition. When they leave next turn or any time anyone else tries to move through that small square each figure must dice to see if they are sucked into the ooze and lost. On a '1' the figure is sucked down. The hero and significant figures can be saved by losing another. A sort of "look out, Sir" rule that warhammer players will recognize.
Similarly, when crossing the river a d6 is rolled. On a roll of '1' a figure is dragged under by a crocodile.
Well that's all for now. I can see I have a few details to work out but you can see the general idea.
Comments or suggestions welcome. I'll post a few more details later.
Howard
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April 28, 2024, 03:15:42 AM
October 18, 2006, 05:07:54 PM
