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.
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.
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