Score! Pics of Some Loot From My Childhood I Found in My Parents' Basement

I interrupt this broadcast of the Ever Expanding Dungeon to bring you, Loot Found in My Parents' Basement.

Last night, after dinner, while my mom and dad played with my son, I rooted around in some boxes of my old stuff. Here is the gaming relevant haul:

AD & D Monster Cards. More importantly, proof that goblins are yellow.

Some inspiration. I'm not even sure I ever read it before.

A Groo poster. Just a little something for the man cave.

Some of my TMNT comic books.

The Ever Expanding Dungeon: Session 23 pt 2

This continues the previous Ever Expanding Dungeon post.  Session 23 was played on 10/14/13.

Scene 2, Puzzle/RP

With no time wasted, Dleggit brought the message to Sister Linkat, who knew quite well the power of White Eyes. After rounding up Manchiver, they set about formulating a plan. 

Their best option, it was decided, since none of them were particularly gifted hunters or rangers, would be to hire a tracker to follow the trail of the messenger. 

Word quickly spread among the villagers of their need and within a day they had their (1-3 M, 4-6 F) woman, Stacha the Mourning (is she a PC? 50/50,60, No), an excellent tracker of some renown in the village. Waldu was hired, the mule called forth, and the party resupplied before setting out.

The trail, despite being a day old (day 100) was still warm enough for Stacha. The tracks wound their way north into the tangled forest; to the party's west loomed the great crag that held the Ever Expanding Dungeon.

Does the setup hold? Chaos 5, 7 yes

Scene 3, Trick Setback

With no ideas, I turn to Mythic - Lie Disruption

After 2 days, suddenly the tracks Stacha had been following inconceivably split in two.

"But that's impossible!" cried Sister Linkat. 

Stacha set about trying to determine what could have caused this.

setup hold? Chaos 5, 7, yes

does she fall into a trap? 50/50 89, No. Is she attacked? 54, no

"I don't know how this has happened, but it has. I can follow either fork, but I can't tell you which is the correct one or if either is or they both are."

Sister Linkat observed a few birds tweeting overhead, and then, after a silent prayer to the Hedonistic Lumberjack, cast Speak with Animals, in hopes of getting some useful information from the feathery gossipers. She sweetened the deal with dried fruit and nuts from her rations

Do the birds cooperate? Somewhat Likely thanks to the offering.51, yes

What do they tell her? Ruin Masses - i decide this means White Eyes, who intends to do just that - had something to do with it. but what? Bestow Portal.

The cleric listened carefully as first one bird, then another, and yet another, often tripping over each other, informed her that the rider met a bearded man in a cloak here,where the trail splits. The bearded man read from a scroll and a duplicate of the horse and rider were created which rode off to the left fork.

"The cloaked man then stepped right into that large oak, while the rider rode off down the right trail."

Thanking her feathered spies, Sister Linkat relayed the tale to the rest of the party.

It was a no brainer to examine the massive oak; upon touching it, the tree dissolved and before them stood the ruins of a long abandoned keep, its large wooden door beckoning the friends of Perceval.

The Ever Expanding Dungeon: Session 23 pt 1

This is going to be a multi-part post due to time constraints, i.e. work, on my part!

Day 68 - Day 98 Mourning and rest

After the death of Perceval, the party went about dealing with the loss, each in their own ways. Sister Linkat threw herself into her work, tending to her growing flock. The villagers and the itinerant loggers alike found much comfort in her words,nearly as much as she did.With Perceval's passing she took on the guardianship of the mule - as a final act committed in Perceval’s name, the 22 gp he had on him were dedicated to its care and feeding.

Manchiver, having only briefly known Perceval, was the least affected by the loss. Because of the great suspicion under which magic is viewed since the encounter with White Eyes, the Wizard, at Sister Linkat's suggestion, Manchiver has limited his studying and practice to his room at the inn.

Dleggit was hardest hit, he blamed himself, despite Sister Linkat's attempts to argue otherwise. Sister Linkat gifted the bandolier of 5 silver daggers that Perceval wore to Dleggit. These were the daggers that Perceval donned upon the death of Malazar when he swore vengeance for the death of his friend. She had hoped he would find some motivation, some sense of strength from them, and not at the bottom of one of the many bottles he drank daily trying to forget.

[Mythic 5 room model]

Room 1 Entrance/Guardian

Oppress Liberty]

On the 31st day following Perceval's death, Dleggit, as had become his usual, sat in the tavern ordering an ale mere minutes after the rooster hailed the sun's rise. The regulas, mostly new loggers on their way to one of the camps, were there too, so, at least he didn't look terribly out of place, but he talked to no one. Ordinarily, they would clear out and he would be left alone with his thoughts, except this day he wasn't.

[For the NPC's description I used www.rpgsolo.com 's Mark's Adventure Glyphs. One was a great helm]

Seated at the end of the bar was a new face. A boisterous fellow in leather armor, covered in dust, his great helm on the bar's counter, sat and ate a bowl of gruel and biscuits. When he had finished, he washed it down with mulled wine, wiped his mouth and in a gruff voice said to the bartender, "Ya know where I can find Perceval by any chance?"

The bartender, hushed and with a note of sadness, replied, "Aye, but he has been taken to the next world."  

Dleggit downed his mug and growled, "And I never knew a braver man!"

[is the stranger a messenger? 50/50, 18, yes. Is he hear to deliver a threat? 50/50 14, yes]

The stranger offered his condolences and noted that he had a message he was to deliver to Perceval.

Deleggit offered to take the message and do whatever was needed with it. With a nod and expressing his appreciation, the stranger produced a tightly rolled parchment, handed it over and disappeared before Dleggit could finish unrolling it.

In perfectly formed letters of dried blood, it read: "Your time has come, and my revenge has too. The villagers will pay for your deeds. They shall spend eternity as slaves to Hool the Accursed. - White Eyes the Wizard."

Perceval loved this village and that was enough motivation for Dleggit to pledge to keep this threat from becoming reality.

Some Home Brewed Rules for a Generic Colonial-ish Skirmish

I've taken time the past few nights to play test some ideas I have for rules for future battles on my imaginary island of Helvetica.

My goal was to take what I liked from Soldier's Companion but mash it up with ideas from other systems to give me something that would work a little better for me. That is, something a little simpler.

Here is the result:

 Generic Skirmish Rules for Colonial-ish Games:

Celebrating the Exploits of Heroes, Military and Otherwise, in Lands Foreign and Fantastic While Glossing Over the Role of the Ordinary Person

This is, I think the 4th or 5th draft and is playable, for me, as is.

I do think I might change the Morale section to more of a G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. chaos result in the next iteration.

However, tonight I turn my attention to The Ever Expanding Dungeon and there's no telling when I'll return to modifying these rules, so, I wanted to share what I have in case anyone else finds it helpful.

By the way, the link has also been added to the downloads section.

Packing and Option Paralysis: A First World Problem

As the weekend approaches, it's time for another trip up North to visit my parents for 8 days with the Young Lord Shadowmoss in tow.

Packing for him is relatively straightforward; my parents' basement is a wonderland of toys for children up to about age 10 (for years my mom baby-sat for some friends of theirs, followed by the arrival of my niece and now the Young Lord), so he really just needs clothes, the baby monitor and a few favorite toys. The latter are, relatively speaking, easily identifiable.

I, on other hand, as usual find myself wrestling with what to bring on the "toy" front. Truly, a first-world problem.

I'll be working as usual during the day, and I'll certainly hang out with my folks (unless hockey is on - both of my parents are very into hockey - conversation is then limited to between periods) so I don't need tons of things to do.

Here are my ideas so far:

The Ever Expanding Dungeon - By this, I mean, the map, the character sheets, the D30 GM's Companion, and my booklet of my various solo systems + a printed copy of Mythic GME. Labyrinth Lord is on my Kindle, as is Mythic Variations and JF's 9Qs worksheets. One set of polyhedral dice + a d30 round this out. This is potentially multiple nights of entertainment.

Helvetica Campaign Materials - This would be the map of the island, the map of the tribal regions and my TO&E for Riesling. I spent some of my lunch time today re-working a mash-up of Soldier's Companion and G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. and have thought about bringing a small number of figures along in order to give them some play testing.

Painting supplies - I'm about 1/2 way to completing the first 15 U.S. Airborne for Flames of War from the Open Fire box. Since all the paints I'm using are Vallejo, there's little danger of them leaking in the checked luggage. My magnifying visor and some brushes would complete the setup. My concern is transporting the brushes in a way that doesn't ruin them.

Some 1/32 WWII soldiers - I suspect if I presented my dad with a German vs US skirmish of a weak platoon each, he'd probably play along despite not being a wargamer. Disposable Heroes is pretty straight forward. For solo gaming, the same figures could be used for a skirmish or a small company (2 figures per section 3 sections per platoon, 3 platoons for the company) vs. company action. In any case, I'll have to raid my niece's craft supplies to set up any kind of terrain.

My skateboard - I can't skate at night; it's black as pitch where they live once the sun is down. But, their driveway is a nice flat smooth surface and lunch time skating is always an option. The helmet and elbow pads do take up a bit of space though.

Tony Bath's Ancient Wargaming: Including Setting Up a Wargames Campaign. Given the return to Helvetica, I thought I'd browse through this to remind myself of ideas I saw that I liked and might adapt for a small solo game revolving primarily around platoons and warbands.

Most everything else - movies (samurai, war, documentaries), reading material (rules, modules books, etc.), my zine  articles - are digital and on the Kindle or on Google Docs. So they'll be coming along regardless.

Hmm. Maybe I should just bring it all?

Helvetica Campaign Update: Wherein I Name the Tribes and Determine Their Attitudes Towards Riesling

Earlier this week,  I rifled through some back issues of Lone Warrior, looking for an article on a colonial campaign I recalled reading.

The article in question, Dhunda Revisited by Kevin White, appears in issue #178. In the article, Mr. White expounds on a system wherein his country is divided into five tribal areas and how he determines their attitude toward the British, as well as the means by which those attitudes change.

There's more - it's a long article by Lone Warrior standards - including a supply mechanism, which I may or may not adopt (another article in the same issue, by George Arnold, reminded me that each of us has a different tolerance for the details included in a campaign; too many fiddly bits can sap the inspiration).

In any case, I set about creating the lizard folk tribes and their territories for the entire island. This was done by tracing the existing map and then demarcating and labeling the territories on the new map.

The names I have given below are not the tribal names in their native tongue but short hand names given by the original explorers of the island in the 1790s. The indication of Hostile, Neutral or Friendly followed by a number has to do with their current opinion of Riesling.

Northern Tribes - All formerly allied with Sauvignon-Blanc

• Slitherin - Hostile 4. The shaman of the opening conflict of this campaign was a Slitherin. Of course.
• Serpentors - Hostile 3.
• Cobra La - Neutral 3.
• Cobra Kai - Neutral 3.

Central

• Zartanians (formerly allied with Sauvignon-Blanc) - Neutral 2.
• Dragon Fist (allied with Riesling) - Friendly 4.

Southern Tribes - All allied with Riesling

• Ornithromyans - Friendly 4.
• Unch-unch-unch - Friendly 3.
• Saurons - Friendly 3.

The scale for attitude is based on Kevin White's system of card draws as follows (from most friendly, Friendly 1, to most hostile, Hostile 4):

1. Friendly 1
2. Friendly 2
3. Friendly 3
4. Friendly 4
5. Neutral 1
6. Neutral 2
7. Neutral 3
8. Neutral 4
9. Neutral 5
10. Hostile 1
11. Hostile 2
12. Hostile 3
13. Hostile 4

Major victories for the Riesling forces shift all attitudes towards Friendly, while major losses shift all attitudes towards Hostile (to quote Mr. White, "None of the tribes will want to be allied with someone perceived as weak.")  Minor victories or setbacks have little effect on the broader sentiment, but will effect the specific tribes involved.

Wheren I Finally Paint Some of My Reaper Bones Minis

The painting bug overtook me Saturday night and I finished the first 6 of my Reaper Bones KickStarter minis. Just 194 more to go.

A lot of people think goblins are green. They're wrong.

Why start with goblins and kobolds? Simple.

I have loved koblods ever since I first saw this image in the Moldvay D&D Basic book.

And it seemed to me that if they were going to fight anyone, it'd probably be goblins.

While these aren't my favorite kobold sculpts (the Splintered Light kobolds are my favorite), they will represent my favorite monsters in 28mm. I have 4 sprues of 3 for each side, which is enough for two small warbands for Song of Blades & Heroes, as well as other skirmish rules. I do plan on eventually picking up the Reaper kobold shaman and chief in metal to complete their force.

Another Page from Featherstone : The Riesling Order of Battle on Helvetica

In the first Battle for Helvetica (see the Campaigns link at the top of the blog), I had a very fluid roster of who was in charge of what. 

For this campaign to maintain control of the island, I decided to set out my officers and NCOs in advance, as per Featherstone in the Domestic Wargaming  and Personalized Wargaming chapters of Solo Wargaming and again in Personalized Wargaming in Advanced War Games: Ideas for Wargaming.

The chart was created in LibreOffice Writer, using the drawing tools. The lines appear somewhat jagged in the picture, but are not that way in the document - a result likely due to the process of converting it into an image. It took some 2  hours to create the chart itself, with most of the time figuring out how to fit it all on one .page, and another hour or so to pick all of the names. Only a small handful were identified in the previous campaign.

The names are a taken from German and Austrian (and I think one Bavarian) philosophers, scientists, mathematicians,  composers, political theorists and anarchists. 

For the organization generally speaking, I relied on the rather broad strokes painted in Soldier's Companion and some research conducted online before the start of the original campaign. If I recall, there was no Regiment No. 129 in the Prussian army of the late 19th century which is why I chose it (certainly there was no Helvetica Regiment!). As this is an Imagi-nation, I'm not going to get too worked up about how accurate I am, in any case.

You will notice (if you click the image to enlarge it and then squint a bit) that Heidegger is actually a Lt. Colonel but is referred to as Colonel. He is in fact, the Lt. Col of Regiment No. 129, but is in charge of the combined forces on the island and is thus has the responsibilities of a Colonel.

I hesitated filling in all of the names in advance but figured it would save me time later.

The only corporals (Gefreiter) not identified are those of the Helvetican Feld Kompanies. This is because this is a position held by a native lizard warrior loyal to Riesling and their names are somewhat convoluted when translated to English from their native tongue. They are often quite gruesome as well (you may recall the Sauvignon-Blanc lizard scout, "he who eats the eyes of his enemy").

I do wonder if I shouldn't make a separate blog for Helvetica and any related campaigns but I'm not sold on that idea yet.

Campaign Thoughts for Helvetica

Donald Featherstone's Solo Wargaming is among my favorite of the John Curry reprints. My copy is beat up and well worn, considering I've had it for less than 2 years. If you are not familiar with the book and you play solo wargames or even solo RPGs (there are ideas you can pilfer and tweak, if not directly apply), you should check your local library or pick up a copy.

To those familiar with Solo Wargaming, it should come as no surprise that Featherstone's chapter, "Domestic Wargaming" is among the chief inspirations for how I intend to pursue the campaign.

There's a good deal involved in approaching a campaign in this manner, in terms activity not on the tabletop. This isn't a bad thing, as it's an opportunity for some fun and creative activities. Still, it seems that there exists a general preponderance of campaigns started but not completed and I wonder if too great a space between games wasn't a factor.

Compare it, if you will, to the format I used last time, Bluebear Jeff's simple campaign format which requires minimal bookkeeping and non-game narrative, is focused on tabletop battles, one after the other, and can easily be fought to completion. Indeed, I didn't even need a map to play out the campaign, beyond the abstract map provided by Jeff. 

My map of Helvetica didn't exist until the campaign was well under way, and was made simply because I wanted to, whereas, a la Featherstone (and probably many others), it would have been necessary at the start.

My challenge is to strike a balance between a campaign that moves along at a decent clip, but, never the less, branches out a bit more in terms of these side-ventures (mapping, naming commanders and generating personalities, non-battle events, etc.)

What Worked, What Didn't: Soldier's Companion

As promised, my thoughts on Helvetican Messiah with emphasis on the Soldier's Companion rules.

What worked: 

• The scenario map in the book made setting up the table easy
• Actually, having the whole scenario setup detailed in the book made the setup easy.
• The rules cover a lot of situations, often with illustrations - what counts as a flank attack, enfilade, volley fire, etc. Although I ended up using very few of those rules, it was nice knowing they were there.
• The hit mechanic for small arms - you hit on a 6. That number is modified by a variety of factors. If the number required is greater than 6, you need a 6, and then the opposing side rolls 1d6 against the total modifiers (so if I needed an 11 to hit (+5 total modifiers), I need a 6 to hit, and then if I do roll a 6, the opposing side rolls 1d6 and saves on a roll of 1 to 5).
• Troop formations have an in-game impact in terms of melee, firing, and morale, as well as the usual movement rates. G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., which I use for the same genre, does not have this.
• Melee is opposed die rolls and the size of the difference determines the result - simple and allows multiple result states other than "winner" and "dead." Multiple attackers on a single defender, the attacker rolls for each attacker and uses the highest number rolled for determining results.
• The seize the initiative mechanic for troops laying an ambush allowed lizard warriors to make contact with the Riesling platoon without getting shot up before they could get there.
• Keeping the lizard warriors in cover meant they could use their Fieldcraft rating to avoid being hit. It proved to be quite effective at slowing their rate of attrition. I also like how Fieldcraft impacts the ability to spot a concealed unit - spotting is done at 5x the Fieldcraft rating, which came into play in the final shoot out.
• Automatic disorder for each unit involved in a melee. This just makes sense. Melee is chaotic, to think you'd maintain your line in this situation is absurd.
• My "solo AI" which was simply a d10 vs the number of lizard warriors in a unit. If the unit passed their morale check, I rolled a d10. If the result was greater ,they faded back into cover to reappear at a different point on the table. This was to give them the advantage I felt they would have in the jungles of their homeland.
• Quick ref sheets in the back of the book were handy

What didn't work:

• Initiative - Against irregulars, regular troops get +1 on the initiative roll which makes it very hard to win initiative for irregulars, at least by my dice rolling. One improbable result was that Major Carnap was able to rally his disordered and shaken platoon, reform line, and then fire upon the lizard warriors without them being able to do anything, since they were a melee weapon only sub-warband. As a solo player, the initiative system doesn't really do much for throwing wrenches in my plans if I'm running the regular troops. G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. with its unit card initiative for the win.

• Morale system - I like the morale stages and the checked result (which can be devastating) but the 2d6 check against a target number, while it worked, seemed clunkier to me than the check against figures remaining. The latter, I find, makes it more likely that units will break as they are withered away. Because casualties do not have a cumulative effect on the morale target number (at least the rules aren't written in a way that makes that clear if they do), you can (and I did) have units with 80% casualties staying on the table.

• Scaling the movement /ranges. This was my fault. The game, from what I can gather, is written for 25mm/28mm and I am using 15mm. So, I scaled the movement and shooting ranges accordingly. This was a mistake - even in G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. i tend to use the ranges as written regardless of figure scale. It wasn't game breaking, but it made things tedious.

• Slow (for me). The game is slow compared to G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. for the same number of figures/units on the board. I understand that not everyone wants to finish playing in an hour or two, but I have very little time to game and need to start and finish in a 2 hour window usually. 1 platoon and an officer (9 figures) vs 1 warband and a shaman (19 figures) took nearly 3 hours to play. Even if I subtract an hour for having to look some things up (which I do with G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. for that matter), I'd still be looking at 2 hours for a very small encounter.

• Quick ref tables for morale should really include some mention of casualties /  forced to rear (for melee) and their impact on the morale number. Also there's a +/- sign missing on the hit number modifier for targets in Column, Mass or Disorder. It seemed to me that it should be -1 (thus improving your chance to hit). 

The Verdict:

I had a great time and was really into the game, but would I use these rules again? 

Probably not - at least, not without tweaking. They were fun, but they were too slow for me. That's my deal breaker. 

So does that mean G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. for whatever the campaign holds? Maybe, maybe not. There is a lot I liked about Soldier's Companion that I'd hate to lose. 

Almost two years ago, I started mashing up G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. with some of what I had gathered from a brief skimming of Soldier's Companion. I think I may need to revisit that idea now that I've actually played the latter.

Helvetican Messiah: A Space: 1889 Soldier's Companion Session Summary

You can read the setup for the following engagement in this post.

Major Carnap, valued for his expertise in linguistics as for his military mind, was the officer tasked with travelling with Zug 13 (of Carnap's own 7th Kompanie) to find the lizard shaman attempting to foment rebellion in the northern tribes, formerly in allegiance to Sauvignon-Blanc.

They approached the first village from the south, along a "road" (not much more than a wide cart path, here and there "paved" with flat stones) constructed in an attempt to increase trade with the tribes by the Sauvignon-Blanc government, .

The police force entered the village and encountered much apathy, but no hostility nor sign of the shaman.

Choosing to avoid, for now, a point between the dense jungle to his North East and the village just beyond, Carnap led his men down the westward fork of the road. Unfortunately, this was another prime ambush location and in fact, it turned out to be just that.

A fierce battle ensued, but the well trained Riesling force repelled the attackers.

Carnap noted Feldwebel Hankel's fine accounting of himself in bringing down several of the lizard folk handily. Their numbers reduced, the attackers faded back into the dark shadows of the thick and twisted jungle.

The village to the North West proved to be unfruitful as the first. Rather than return by the road to proceed to the North East village, Carnap led his men across the brush and marsh. As they approached the third and final village, and the likely hiding place of the shaman, the platoon formed line.

This was to be of little help as the ambushing force which had earlier fled, had not done so in fear, but in an effort to regain surprise.

Again the battle was hard fought, and this time, Carnap's patrol was forced to fall back in disorder.

 However, his skill as a commander allowed him to rally his troops, advance and reform into a firing line before the lizards knew what hit them, literally. The lizard folk were shot to pieces before the few survivors disappeared again.

To the surprise of all concerned, the third village was not the hiding place of the shaman. Somewhat confounded, the march back to the fort was ordered. 

As the platoon passed the previously avoided jungle, lizard bowman unleashed a concerted attack.

Whether through the rush and excitement of battle or inability, their arrows were of no consequence and soon Carnap's men pushed the ambushers back.

The shaman present, they continued to press on after the tribesmen. Although the platoon suffered some loss (12.5% of the platoon), they routed the lizard shaman and his surviving warriors.

Because they failed to kill or capture the shaman, this counts as but a minor victory for Riesling. It remains to be told whether or not the shaman can rebuild his force and whether or not his message of revolt will spread among the northern tribes.

In the meantime, Colonel Heidegger (promoted after the final battle against Sauvignon-Blanc and the loss of Colonel Dietrech), back in his HQ at Gutenberg (see map), has received word from Major Kant, of 6th Kompanie, now stationed at the fort at Port Guillaume Le Roy, that some ranchers and farmers in the fertile grounds West of the city have been organizing resistance to Riesling's control of the island.

On top of this, the southern tribes, loyal to Riesling, have been clamoring for control of additional land to the north, at the expense of the northern tribes already there.

Heidegger has his hands full.

***
For those wanting mechanics to appear in the narrative, I will post a follow up on what worked and what didn't. - JY

Weekend Plans : May Change Without Notice

With the weekend fast approaching (but not fast enough  I thought I'd take a minute to lay out my plans.

Earlier in the week, I was set on playing the Martian Messiah scenario tonight, but I really want something more like huts for the buildings in my lizard villages. Some searching of the internet last night gave me a few ideas and so I may spend some time making a few, and play Saturday night.

Plus, I've been on a bit of a painting kick lately. 

I don't know why it took so long to see the virtues of having multiple painting projects going on simultaneously, but I finally gave it a try. I now have GNW 1/72 Sweden, WWII 15mm U.S. Airborne, WWII 1/32 Soviet infantry, and Fantasy 28mm kobolds and goblins all in various stages. 

It really helps break up the monotony of painting identical uniforms, figure after figure.

There will be reading and writing and possibly some watching of movies as well, depending on the time I have.

In the meantime, I look forward to the mail arriving today because I'm getting these:

(It's for, ahem, research for my feudal Japan game)

Preparations for the Return to Helvetica Continue

I played another quick scenario with Soldier's Companion the other night to learn the mechanics and, as hoped, missile armed irregulars can, in fact, make life difficult for imperial troops.

Bolstered by this "discovery", I feel ready to play out the scenario, Martian Messiah, from the rule book, with a few changes to fit my imaginary world and the island of Helvetica.

The setup: A lizard folk shaman has been sowing seeds of rebellion among the northern lizard folk tribes, formerly under Sauvignon -Blanc's rule. Rather than send a punitive expedition to rout out the instigator, the commander of Riesling forces on the island of Helvetica deemed it best to send a small force, a single platoon, led by an officer, with the intent to capture or kill the shaman with as little fanfare as possible. There is the ever growing concern that his message might make its way to the southern tribes and plunge the island into chaos. The clouds of war loom large over the continent, so little support would be forthcoming in the event.

Forces:
Riesling - 1 platoon + 1 officer, 9 figures total., V1 (Veteran, Fieldcraft 1)
Lizard folk - 1 warband (19 figures) split into two 9-figure sub groups +the shaman. (Experienced, Fieldcraft 3)

Of course, since this is the next chapter in a campaign (documented here, scroll down to Battle for Helvetica), I can' simply rush to the table to play.

After all, there are names to look up for the officers and ncos, a map to review, a map to re-do in Hexographer just because, considerations of how/if this will be a one-off or if it will be a prelude to a Featherstone style colonial campaign, etc.

I don't need to do all of this before the lead hits the table, but some of it might impact the "AI" for the lizard folk. So, at the rate I'm going, I hope to be ready to play by the weekend.

Space 1889: Soldier's Companion First Impressions

Actually, 1st impressions may not be wholly accurate.

 I acquired Soldier's Companion (in dead tree) a few years ago, around the same time I acquired some French Foreign Legion and Lizard Men in 15mm. I really wanted the book more for source material / campaign background ideas than for gaming and so, while i read them, it was never with the intent of actually playing the rules, either wargame or as RPG.

But, as part of the Save a Dead Tree project, I decided to spend some time with them and actually use them. 

Last night, I had a chance to break out a half-warband of lizard warriors and a squad of Prussian infantry (aka my imagi-nation of Riesling) to try out the basics of the rules.

[As an aside, it was great seeing these figures again. It has been quite some time since I brought them out last and it was a bit like going home. Victorian Sci-Fi / Darkest Africa type games were some of the first I really invested time in. For a long time, the lizard folk were my largest force]

Wow. It sucks to be irregular infantry armed only with melee weapons.

Initiative is 1d6 for each side, highest score of result + modifiers goes first. As it turns out, regular vs. irregular get a +1 bonus right off the bat. 

Only the winner of initiative does any moving - the loser can defensive fire or participate in any melee it's dragged into, but can't instigate any of its own.

In my first quick setup, the lizard folk were in the open, possibly a charge distance away - they never moved and were shot to pieces. Even with the long range penalty, they dropped like flies. Morale didn't even allow them to flee.

Speaking of morale, it's not entirely clear to me whether or not casualties count on successive morale checks or only in the turn in which they occur. As written, it sounds to me like the latter, which led to the unusual situation of 2 lizard warriors passing morale checks when a comrade was dropped.

For the second setup, I took Mr. Chadwick's advice on playing irregular's from his Designer Notes chapter, and had the lizard folk ambush the Riesling soldiers. By starting hidden, they could automatically steal the initiative.

If I am reading the rules correctly, defensive fire occurs before melee and so charging troops can be shot up at any point along their charge path. The result is that the lizard folk were stopped halfway to their objective, having failed their morale check.

Although it looked like it'd be a repeat of the first test there on out, luck was on the lizard warriors' side and they won the initiative several times - but troops that are "checked" (failed their morale) can't act in the remainder of the turn in which they are checked, or in the entire turn after, so much of those wins were negated.

I think it was in my Intro. to Philosophy class that we talked about two runners, who having run halfway to the finish line, run half of the remaining distance to reach it, and then half of that again, and so on, but never reach the end (because you can split numbers in half infinitely) - obviously physical objects can travel distances, so something is up. 

Anyway, that's how the lizard warriors advanced, never quite making it close enough to contact the European troops. And in the end, they were slaughtered.

I want to try some bow armed irregulars next, because at least they can attack from a distance.

My goal is to play the Martian Messiah scenario from the rule book, reskinned for Helvetica and then go from there for perhaps a mini-campaign.

A Look at My Project List

by jordan clarke

Other than reading a short story by J.S. Le Fanu (The Drunkard's Dream), last night was the first night in awhile where I didn't have any idea what i'd do with the free time afforded to me.

What would help, I thought, is a list of my ongoing projects and the next action (I read Getting Things Done once. The system wasn't for me, but the ideas and vocabulary stuck with me) for each.

So, I grabbed a fresh notebook and jotted down the following in no particular order (some non-hobby projects are listed since they have to be considered too):

• Japantasy RPG - read a Japanese ghost story
• The Ever Expanding Dungeon - 9Q session
• Flames of War - clip U.S. airborne figures from sprues
• Solo RPG Guide - write 500 words
• Zine issue #2 - finish write up of dungeon
• Malifuax - assemble figures
• Pacific Theater WWII - make shell craters
• Eastern Front WWII - finish painting 5 Russians previously started
• European Theater WWII - make 6 more trees
• Great Northern War - paint pants on 1 12 figure unit of Swedes
• Save a Dead Tree - finish reading Dragon #82
• Learn to Draw - draw for 20 minutes
• Certify as MCSA SQL Server 2012 - review topics covered on database test for MTA
• Return to Helvetica w/ Space 1889: Soldier's Companion - read wargame rules from The Soldier's Companion
• Sell Gaming Stuff - take pictures of items
• New Year, New (Social) Game - write Pa Ku's player to find out what they are doing during the next 6 months of game time
• Dungeon crawl for others - schedule next session with my test group

It was then a matter  of picking something based on the time available.

I ended up reading some Japanese ghost stories I found online, the relevant rules from The Soldier's Companion and I finished Dragon #82 (the section on spell research has a d100 list of book names that I will definitely want to use at some point).

Of course, that means new next actions for those projects:

• Japantasy RPG - read a Japanese ghost story (I intend to read most of those in book mentioned)
• Return to Helvetica w/ Space 1889: Soldier's Companion  - walk through a simple scenario to learn rules
• Save a Dead Tree - Read Dragon #86

As my many previous posts on my goals/plans should have taught you, it's unlikely I'll stick to this for long, but for now, I'm going to run with it.

DragonCon 2013: Gaming Pics!

While going through my phone the other day, I realized I hadn't posted the pictures I took as mementos of each game I played at DragonCon. 

So here they are without pomp or fanfare.

The all-important badge

Old School D&D:

My character sheet w/lifelike illustration

Taking "safety in numbers" a bit too far.

Notice that my character is right next to the dragon. I was blinded earlier and proceeded to use the 10' pole to guide me around. Eventually poking a sleeping white dragon.

Malifaux:

My crew of goblins

Things were going better than they looked.

Killing the golem was a bit of an error. It explodes on death, doing some serious damage.

Fate:

Gormon the Goblin Pirate and Failed Mutineer.

A photo-realistic portrait of Gormon.

Dungeon Crawl Classics:

This photo does not do justice to the awesomeness that this session was.