Sunday, May 31, 2020

Blundering through the Borderland- a cooperative fantasy campaign.

Blundering through the Borderland is an experimental campaign merging Nordic Weasel's Five Leagues from the Borderland  (5L) rules, with The Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare's Thud and Blunder   (TB) rules.  Five Leagues from the Borderland has a rich campaign system centered around a party of 8 adventurers clearing various threats from several villages on the border of civilization.  In between battles and roadside encounters, the characters conduct actions in the village to help them gain new skills and supplies, heal injured party members, or recruit new members.  When they go adventuring, they set out to reduce the threat levels from Outlaw activities, Border Tensions, and threats from Dark Secrets around the area.  Thud and Blunder is a straight forward, set of warband level combat with an old school feel. The rules provide numerous sample warbands, along with an easy to use system for creating original characters.  Talents, magic, and a variety of weapon choices help to provide many different options to diversify characters.  TB has 20 different scenarios and adds various complications based upon conditions or the location of the encounter.  I hope that merging these rule sets will bring the narrative strength of 5L, and the depth of character and ease of play from TB in order to create an interesting roleplay light cooperative miniatures game.

The Warband of Lena of Sodermanland:  (L to R in back)  Galfas the Bright, Cassi the hired guide, Flavius a former soldier, Grecco a hopeful youth, Samis a former militia man, and Cirandale the Elf Ranger.  Front Center (L to R) Lena Ramstrom the warband Captain, Ersik the Bold her loyal retainer. 

The Characters:  5L calls for 4 Heroes and 4 Followers.  I have tried to stay close to that intent with my TB warband.  I started with 350 points, using 337 and banking the left over 13 as Gold Marks.  TB uses points to purchase talents and gear for characters, and Reputation Points as a form of experience points.  5L uses Gold Marks to buy equipment, and the two are easy to equate.  My 4 Hero characters all have the Hero talent, and purchased 3 Hero points each.  For the Followers, I used 30 points or less and allowed them to have a single talent each.  This seemed a good approximation of the character types from 5L.

Campaign Set Up:  5L calls for choosing a region to adventure in.  This can be the Hinterlands (a lawless region on the outskirts of civilization, the Borderlands (the very edge of civilization) or the Wilderness (settlements beyond the borders of civilization).  Each area differs in the types of threat that are more prominent.  Hinterlands, for example, have more Dark Secrets than the Wilderness.  For this Campaign, I chose the Borderlands.  Next 5L randomly determines the number of villages, and the threat levels in each.  I ended up with 2 villages, Cherwic and Dunbrid, with the following threat levels:
Cherwic-  Outlaws 3, Border Tension 4, and Dark Secrets 2.  
Dunbrid-  Outlaws 2, Border Tension 2, and Dark Secrets 4
My son and I decided to clear out Dunbrid first, so our party started there.

Campaign Turn 1:  The campaign turn starts with the characters in the village doing various things before setting out on an adventure.  It starts with resolving long term healing of injured characters and a few other logistical tasks before you start the turn with the Village Event table.  Our event was an abundance of blooming herbs in the region.  These herbs can be used for healing in 5L, but I also allow them to make potions from TB.  The event would allow someone taking the Forage for Herbs action to gain extra supply.  Next in the turn is the character activities, where 2 characters can conduct business in the village.  We elected for our wizard to forage for herbs, while one of our followers worked manual labor to gain 2 more Gold Marks.  To forage, our wizard had to make a TB Destiny test to find the herbs, unfortunately he failed so he found no herbs.  Once the character activities were through, we determined the type of encounter we would have.  Using the random charts from 5L and a chart I devised to break TB scenarios down by threat type, we determined that our adventure would be to Assassinate the leader of a Cult of Night Folk to diminish the threat of Dark Secretes in the region.  For our purposes, since I only had an Orc Warband prepared, we decided that this is an Orcish cult creating havoc in the region.  Per the TB scenario, the Orcs were trying to Assassinate my leader too.  To complicate things, the battle would take place in the pitch black of night.  My party could not see to use ranged attacks, but the Orcs with Night Eyes could.


The Combat Encounter:  Assassinate the Nigh Folk Cult Leader



Lena knew from her sources that the Nigh Folk had a camp somewhere near the old ring of standing stones just south of the old mill building.  Though the moon was out earlier, the clouds moved to block the light as if it expected her party to pass through the desolate plain.  The standing stones could barely be seen in the dark, but Ersik the Bold insisted he lead the party across the plain to find their foe.  As long as their cult leader was alive, the Night Folk would be out to get Lena.  Ersik insisted she remain hear the old mill and stay out of the battle.  Stumbling across the ruins in the dark, the party discovered the Orc cultists when arrows started flying their way.  Flavius rushed ahead in the direction the shots came from, and encountered two of the Orc Archers.  The former soldier charged the nearest Orc, hoping his friends were following his lead.




Indeed, Ersik the Bold, moving slower in his medium weight armor, followed Flavius into battle in an attempt to silence the Orc ranged attacks on the party.



Lena watched, as best she could in the dark, as her warband went slowly forward, rushing from one standing stone to the next until they encountered the approaching Orcs.  She saw a flair of light as a magic dart flew past one of her men, and elsewhere, Orc arrows continued to fly, one clanking off of Ersik's shield.  Samis had darted ahead on one flank, but no one supported him and he found himself facing the Orc Shaman and a Spearman.  Cirandale had rushed out of hiding and was attempting a stealthy attack on another Orc Spearman.



Meanwhile, Grecco had gone off on the flank and found an Orc Lieutenant preparing to shoot Cassi.  He rushed in to stop her, but was felled by a vicious flick of her dagger.  Ersik and Falvius had finished off the other Orc Archers, so Ersik charged the Orc Lieutenant, while Flavius rushed towards the Orc Leader and his Spearman guard.



Cirandale took out an Orc Spearman with his Sneaky attack, but another rushed in to fight the Elf.  Cassi rushed over to help out, but the two become locked in combat, as neither side could get the advantage despite the heroes superior numbers.  (Cirandale kept missing Destiny Rolls to stay in the game after being hit.  He would spend Hero points to re-roll, and eventually went through them all and stayed down).



Ersik fought a hard back and forth battle with the Orc Lieutenant, even having to rely on Destiny to protect him when his armor failed.  The Orc was well trained in combat and her dagger flashed in the dark night, but eventually Ersik prevailed and struck home with his Long Sword, taking the Lieutenant down.



The tide was turning against the Orcs, despite the Night Eyes giving them an initial advantage.  Galifas was the target of the Orc Shaman's spells, and unable to see well enough to cast his own in return, the Elf closed the distance and fought with his Quarterstaff.  Cirandale rushed up to help, while Flavius singlehandedly fought the Orc Leader and a Spearman.  Though Flavius hit home with some blows, he could not penetrate the Orc's armor.  Cassi rushes up to help from one side, and Ersik from the other.



Flavius could not hold out until help arrived, and went down under a vicious blow from the Orc Leader's Polearm.


A fierce exchange took place as Ersik and Cassi fought the Orc Leader.  The brute's heavy armor could not be penetrated by Long Sword or arrow.  Once the Leader fell, but managed to get right back up.  The prolonged fighting took it's toll on the Orc, however, as Cassi was able to find a weak spot in his defenses, and send an arrow striking true.  The Orcs were defeated!

Aftermath:  After the battle, downed characters must roll to see if they are injured or killed.  Samis, Grecco, and Cirandale were all only knocked out per the 5L charts.  Flavius received a light wound, but was able to make a Destiny test and avoid injury.  That means that the entire warband will be available for the next fight.  Cassi the Follower was still on his feet at the end of battle, so he had the chance to gain a skill or even be promoted to hero.  His roll, however, was unsuccessful.  Per TB rules the party gained 45 reputation points (to be used as Gold Marks) reward for meeting their objective, and for the foes taken down.  The party also found some loot using the tables in 5L, a Balanced Broadsword, Throwing Knives and some form of vital information.  They also found an unusual find, bodies of the Cult's previous victims.  This comes with a reward from their families for avenging them.  Finally, the party rolled to see if they reduced the threat level, which they did, bringing the Dark Secrets threat in Dunbrid from a 4 down to a 3.

Assessment:  My initial assessment is that this mesh of the two systems works very well with a bit a tweaking here and there to make things fit.  The seamless merger of Gold Marks and Build Points really helps to keep the economic/logistic side easy.  Also, the 5L system stands mostly intact.  Any changes or adaptations made were logical for TB and also kept to the original intent.  My son thought this was a great way to quickly and easily develop a narrative based game, which is maybe the best endorsement I can give.


Sunday, May 3, 2020

Blood in Space 2nd Edition

Blood in Space is a 1-2 player game following the exploits of a small crew of adventurers as they  traverse from planet to planet, explore derelict ships, or fight Imperial forces.  It uses the same game mechanics as Blood on the Blade, which you can find in previous posts on this blog.  The game has simple, yet interesting rules, several missions and enemies, and lots of options for campaign play.  The latter includes a nice flow chart that logically sets up what the crew's next adventure will be, a mechanism that strengthens the narrative flow of your overall story.  The new 2nd Edition of Blood in Space also incorporates a randomized star ship room cards with matching terrain tiles used for playing scenarios on space ships.  You can learn more here...http://zak965.it/studium/


Now, on with the story of the crew of the Free Trader Quixote.....

Crew of the  Quixote (L to R): 
Captain Cortez-  reluctant leader of the crew, and also the ship's medic.  She is armed with a Laser Drill and a good old fashioned knife.
Maroon-  a good soldier and crewman who (for some reason) is abundantly pleased to be away from the main space lanes.  Maroon is armed with a Blaster Rifle.
Chuck-  Chuck is just Chuck.  He carries a shotgun and hopes one day to be an engineer.
"Princess" Katya- a Psyko with PSI powers.  Her LasGun has a stun option, in case she wants to play with her prey.
"Happy" Harrison-  lives up to his nickname, especially when he has something to point and fire his heavy blaster at.  When aboard ship between missions, however, Happy gets entirely too grumpy.

Mission= Exploration
Played cooperatively with my son.  The game rules handle enemy AI.

 The crew has been hired to explore a snowy region on the planet Tellos-7.  This unaffiliated planet is sparsely populated, but it's locals believe that the planet once housed an advanced alien civilization.


Cortez reads a blip on her scanner, but weather conditions foul up her readings.  She follows the signal to investigate and discovers 2 Imperial Soldiers.  Since Tellos-7 is not an Imperial planet, Cortez refuses to hand over her weapon and surrender to the soldiers. Unsurprisingly a batten ensues.


Cortez is injured in the fire fight, and falls back to treat her wounds.  Maroon and Happy step in to cover her.  With a barrage of fire, they take down the Imperial Soldiers.


Fully recovered, Cortez continues to take point as the crew approaches another fouled signal on their scanners.


Meanwhile, Princess nimbly climbs an old ruin to investigate another ghost signal.


Cortez' search reveals more Imperial Soldiers.  Maroon takes a hit, but with Happy's Heavy Blaster, they easily take the Soldiers down.


Chuck takes point following up another sensor reading, and leads the team to more Imperial Soldiers scanning the area.  What are the Imperials doing on Tellos-7?  What could they possibly be looking for?  These questions do not cross Chuck's mind.  Instead he thinks about where to point his shotgun so that he can get both targets in one shot.  He is successful in this task, even if the Imperial's armor withstands the shot. Eventually, the enemy is eliminated, but the crew of the Quixote still have no clue as to why the Imperials are here.


At the last spot on the frozen plain, Chuck discovers another pair of Imperial Soldiers.  This time, it appears that they were digging for something in the hard frosted ground. 


The Crew fans out and concentrates fire on the Imperials.  Princess attempts one of her PSI mind blasts, but only manages to give herself a head ache.  She nearly passes out from the effort, but fortunately the crew vanquishes the soldiers while she rests.  Investigating the site once the battle is done, Cortez discovers that the Imperials were digging up an alien artifact.  That means that their employer will want to send that kook of a Scientist down into the valley to search for more artifacts.  Cortez leads the way back to the ship where she will tend to Maroon's wound and prep her crew for the next mission.  This time they will be on the look out for more Imperials.

Next Mission-  Escort (Science)