Seeing the Forest for the Trees

A few weeks/month ago, I stumbled on a paper craft site that had a paper evergreen tree design, designed to be printed and cut on one of those automatic doo-dads (yes, doo-dad). The pieces were then assembled - the automatic cutting doo-dad presumably makes the pieces uniform so the edges match up.

The result is something like my Seussian trees, but with a much simpler assembly.

Then, a serendipitous acquisition of a discounted pack of shades of green cardstock at Michael's set the plans in motion: i would use my mechanical cutting doo-dad, i.e. scissors, and attempt to replicate the idea.

Behold:

Dawn patrol.

Just what I wanted!

What the above picture shows is 3 different trees, made by three different methods. And I have tried many more. I'm not uber-concerned with ratty, not perfectly aligned edges (from wargaming distance they aren't noticeable) but I am looking for a faster method to make each tree, so I can really crank them out.

As an aside, the great downfall of the craft foam Seussian trees is how long they take to assemble.

One method I hit upon, that seems to work well is illustrated below:

Here is a real-life example:

 At first my plan was to use it as a simple triangle, no "boughs."

If this was a mid-century modern wargaming setup, maybe that would be fine, but to me it looked like a paper airplane on end.

So, a few snips of the mechanical cutting doo-dad and voila!

They mix in well with my craft foam trees, so I haven't lost that effort. At minimum, I'm shooting for a dozen trees, but two dozen is probably ideal. 

At 1-2 sheets of cardstock, depending on the width, I can make something like 50-100 trees, at a cost of $0.03 usd  to $0.06 usd, per tree!

World War Risus - Part II

Welcome back, soldier.

Here we're going to talk about using the cliches in a game. Think of this as a working draft, rulings not rules, etc.

(this is the second part of a mini mini- series)

Using the Cliches

General note:

In order to keep things moving, especially since I almost always play solo, rather than summing up cliche dice when they are rolled, I opted to count 5s and 6s (this idea is borrowed from Risus Skirmish, but also lines up with more traditional wargames). 

A 5 or 6 is a "success."

Let's start with the easiest use of cliches (as in, easiest for me to decide upon). Please note, this is out of order in relation to some concepts - don't worry, in the end, I'll make it all nice and neat and presentable.

Ranged Combat:

The attacker must have Line of Sight (LOS) to the target.  Units have line of site to the far side of a terrain object but not through one. Other units, friendly and non-friendly, block LOS. (Pretty much taken from Risus Skirmish, which I believe gets this from Crossfire)

Roll the Combat Effectiveness cliche (CE) of the attacker adding weapons modifier dice if any.

The target rolls their CE + cover modifier (if any) + armor modifier (if any)

Compare successes, if the defender wins or it's a tie, the target then rolls its Morale cliche:

• If no successes, it is forced back 1 move and is pinned.
• If 1 or more success it carries on normally

If the attacker has more successes, the defender loses 1 die from its CE cliche, regardless of how many successes the attacker rolled - which is pretty much inline with standard Risus.

The target then rolls its Morale cliche:

• If no successes, it loses 1 die from its Morale cliche, is forced back 1 move and is pinned.
• If 1 success, forced back 1 move and pinned.
• If 2 or more successes, carries on normally.

Shooting Modifiers (infantry):

• +1 - better weapons - MMG/Lt Mortar
• +2 - HMG, Artillery, Flame Throwers, Infantry anti-tank weapons

Defensive modfiers:

• +1 - Concealing cover - woods, rough ground 
• +2 - Heavy cover - building, ruins, thick woods, etc. 

Optional, and recommended, rules: The above work OK, but they can take some time to play out even a small combat. The rules below speed things up considerably.

If the shooting unit exceeds the target's successes by 2 or more then the target loses 2 CE dice. This makes some weapons, like HMGs and artillery, much more dangerous.

Also, one thing I've noticed in my play testing thus far has been the general lack of impact of the Morale cliche, so, if the shooting unit's total exceeds the target's successes by 2 or more then the target automatically loses 1 die from its Morale cliche (and then uses the new value to roll its Morale cliche test as above).

Melee:

****This is in need of more testing but here it is for now****

Occurs when two opposing units are in base to base contact.

In order to move into melee, the active unit must score at least one success by rolling its Morale cliche. If failed, no movement occurs and no further actions can be taken this turn.

If a unit is being charged, it also rolls its Morale cliche dice and if no success, falls back one move.

If contact is made, Treat as a normal Risus combat between two characters, using the CE cliche of both sides. There are no modifiers for cover for either side. 

The losing side is removed from the table(CE is 0. In a campaign game, there may be survivors, they may have fled, etc. In a one-off, dead dead dead.)

Wounds/Damage/Loss of Morale:

If a unit reaches a CE of 0 dice  it is no longer combat effective. It may be that everyone is dead, or just a few are, or that they're exhausted from the experience, shell shocked, etc. It is removed from the table

If a unit reaches a Morale cliche of 0, the unit will flee the field or surrender.

Cliche Dice Recovery

Unlike in Risus, units do not automatically gain all of their cliche dice back when the combat ends. This is a wargame and, generally speaking, the whole thing is a series of combats. 

CE dice represent permanent loss for the duration of the battle, with the following exception: if the winner of a melee lost any CE dice during the melee, they may regain 1 CE die at the end of the turn (as opposed to just the melee).

Morale dice can be regained if a unit leader spends an action rallying the unit. (Spends an action? You'll have to wait until next time)


Recovering Morale Dice

Roll the Leader's cliche dice, if they have any success, increase the Morale cliche by one die, not to exceed the value the unit began the battle with.

Optional rule:
Roll the Leader cliche vs the unit's Morale cliche. If the Leader cliche scores more successes, the unit gains back 1 Morale die, not to exceed the value the unit began the battle with.

Or, use the optional rule above, but allow a unit to increase its morale beyond the value it began the battle with to allow for a truly motivational leader.


Next Time, the thing that gave me fits but I think I have resolved to my satisfaction: Activation.

The Upside-Down Flintrubble Bubble Cake (Not Really)

I found myself with an abundance of packing Styrofoam (the bead-y kind, not peanuts or anything) and I knew that I would do something with it, I just didn't know what.

That was, until I saw this video from TheDungeonMasterG on making "no-trouble rubble."

He makes a pretty small disk to mount the rubble on, but he's working with 28mm minis, I'm working with 1/32 figures. So, CDs it is!

I'm clearly not done yet (painting black and grey/white dry brushing remain), but you can get the idea:

The wooden "beams" are fireplace matchstick pieces

I suppose if I was playing a Stalingrad scenario or something and snow was on the ground, these would work as is. 

In retrospect, I'm not a huge fan of the round basing for the rubble,but I have a ton of blank CDs I'll never use for anything.

World War Risus: Part 1

This was inspired by the artwork in Risus.
Impressed? You should be.
I've had NO formal art training!

I thought about buying Crossfire, or A Leader of Men, or Blitzkrieg Commander but then thought, hey wait a minute, I can just write my own game. Of course, I still might buy one or all of them when all is said and done, but it never hurts to try. 

Actually, that's not true, it can hurt a lot, but not in this particular situation.

My goal is to be able to play a platoon or company level game, but not at a 1:1 ratio - something more abstract, be it 1:3, 1:5, or 1:10, and something more about leadership, morale and training than about weapon types, armor thickness, etc.

I've long had a fascination with Risus: The Anything RPG, although I've used it rarely. Risus Skirmish has also interested me, although, that, too, has seen little use on my part. I figured now was as good a time as any to rectify the situation and the concepts from which these guidelines spring can be found in Risus.

Unlike any other system I've seen, Risus explicitly states that you can create stats for a city, a planet, a ship, a gang, a person, all using the same system. It inherently supports the idea that a character does not correspond to an individual person, which will work perfectly well with assigning stats to a section/squad of infantry or to the crews of a unit of vehicles.

The Basics:

Ground Scale: What?
Time Scale: Seriously?
Figure Scale: Whatever you want. 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, up to 1:10/12 i guess (which covers most nations, in terms of max strength of a squad/section).
Basing: Whatever makes you happy. FYI, my figures are all individually based.

The focus here is on units. I don't care how you represent them, but they should be thought of and moved as squads/sections.

Again, the idea is that this is a higher level we’re concerned with and not with what Smith is doing, or whether Wesson has the grenade or not, but whether the section is combat effective, if it’s still on the field, whether the leader is getting them to do anything, etc.

Similarly, weapon types only matter in a broad sense.

Defining Your Sections:
Because Risus is generic, and the players generate their own stats (called Cliches in Risus-speak), it accommodates whatever concepts you think define the character. In this case, what I think define a section in terms of the soldiers themselves.

Like Tunnels & Trolls, Risus has the unfortunate reputation for being "not serious", and thus only good for "not serious" things. Both are deeply wronged by that mistaken conclusion.

Still, I enjoy the sometimes goofy multi-word cliches, and so I started with cliches that were in the typical Risus mold to define the unit in game terms. 

For example: 

Veteran US MMG Section Fighting for Mom, Apple pie and Kid Brothers Everwhere(4) [in Risus, the number in parentheses indicates how many d6 are assigned to that cliche]

However, looking at that, you can see that there are multiple concepts rolled into that cliche. And that works in an RPG where you want to justify why you can use this or that cliche to do something. But a wargame, typically, has a far more limited choice of activity a character/section can engage in and situations that might be encountered.

The other issue is, in Risus, damage in combat is removed from a cliche. Taking to heart that 3 dice for a cliche indicates a professional, a single hit (which isn't necessarily a soldier killed) would immediately turn a unit into something less effective in all areas.
And, that might be true often, but it doesn't seem always true, and certainly isn't the kind of game I want to play. I rather like the idea of a shot-up but inspired unit with a strong leader that keeps fighting against impossible odds.

So, naturally, I split the concepts apart to make them more atomic:

Veteran US MMG Section(4)
By the Book NCO (3)
Fighting for Mom, Apple pie and Kid Brothers Everywhere (4)

Now, that's more like it. 

I know about the unit's leader's ability, the unit's motivation/morale and their combat ability (at this point, weapon type is wrapped up in the description of their combat training and ability, just hold your horses).

This looks a lot more like a traditional Risus character with multiple cliches, but, this is clearly more than the usual 10-dice build. I believe that when a concept ceases being useful, discard it, so I immediately dropped that convention.

It also occurred to me that I'd probably spend too much time coming up with cliches every time, so I have the following boring ones to use in a pinch (the descriptors of the dice values comes from A Leader of Men):

• Combat Effectiveness() where 2=Green, 3 = Average, 4 = Veteran, 5 = Elite, etc. This reflects the units training and combat experience and also the general combat health of the unit, and measures how well the troops can do what they are asked.It makes no mention of weapon types!
• Leadership() where 2= Poor, 3= Average, 4 = Above Average, 5=Exceptional, etc. This is simply how good the a leader is at motivating units to do something.
• Morale() where Low Morale(2), Determined(3), Aggressive(4) , Fanatic(5). Essentially this is how willing the troops are to do what they are asked.

I prefer the more light-hearted cliche descriptions, but the three boring descriptions capture what's essential and should form the basis of any wordier concepts.
Next time, I'll look at the game turn and how the cliches come into play.

TSSD US Soldier to Lead W. Britains into Battle

On Sunday, I had the brilliant idea to test the use of white glue as a primer on plastic figures, and what better place to try it than with my TSSD US infantry. I was smart and chose just one.

The undiluted glue went on easily enough, although it was a little bit of effort to get it into all of the cracks and crevices. When dry (nope, sorry, no pictures), it gave the figure a sheen of protective PVA. 

Monday night, I decided to paint the figure, start to finish. The paint went on easily and, once dry, seems to stick well. When it's wet, well, it definitely came off more easily - every time I accidentally brushed against a wet part, the paint came off right down to the PVA. 

It only took the bulk of the night to learn that lesson. But he's done now, and I'm rather happy with him. I think a protective PVA top coat is probably in order.

Here he is, with a Britain:

Are you sure this is Utah beach?

A more "serious" composition:

Only tangentially related: about two weeks ago now, I decided to switch up my setup once again. 

It will be hard to be more low budget than this: the surface is a 3' x 4' Elmer's brand tri-fold display board (corrugated cardboard), the forests are construction paper and the hills are scrap cardboard. 

Don't worry, I'm not giving up on my Seussian trees (although I may try a new paper tree), I just didn't feel like carrying them downstairs when I played this game of Nuts! 2.0:

My squad in the foreground. Russian PEFs clumped to the left. 

OK, that Russian horde looks a touch ludicrous in that little patch of forest, but it was still fun!

I realize this is very much a love it or hate it affair. 

Me? I love it!

This actually looks a lot like I had been picturing my ideal setup in my head. Not a thing realistic about it - it screams "game with toys." And that's pretty much what I've been striving for. 

The hills are what make it for me I think; they are completely absurd. I think when the trees are in place, it'll be even better.

It took me awhile to get here, but I got here!

The Dungeon Beneath Trelleborg : Session 1

The party consisted of a halfling, elf, magic-user, cleric and fighter.

The magic-user attempted to recruit some street urchins for the role of torch bearer or porter, but the offer he made was abysmal (his below average charisma didn't help) and the result was that the urchin spread the message to avoid working for this guy. 

This would prove to be unnecessary.

The party left Gorgoroth in the pre-dawn hours to make the half-day journey to Trelleborg. 

Upon arriving and doing a brief reconaissance of the only standing structure remaining, the party entered the old tower - and the magic-user promptly fell into a covered pit trap and died. (Malieger T. Borias, we hardly knew ye) The party learned a valuable lesson in caution. And then looted his body by lowering the halfling into the pit several times, leaving the body for the rats.

He was replaced by a promising fighter.

They explored much of the tower and found a trap door down into the dungeon, but opted to postpone a descent, until they had secured the tower. This lead to a brief encounter with some goblinoids, who looked a lot like this:

http://necr0w.deviantart.com/art/corpsepaint-II-129752482

The aforementioned promising fighter was run through with a yari and died before the elf had a chance to cast Sleep and take out the entire group of goblin-y creatures.

A debate ensued as to whether or not to burn them all alive while they slept wake them all and then burn one while forcing the others to watch, and other such tactical considerations. In the end, they decided to go Reservoir Dogs, sort of, and cut the ear off one of the underlings, to try and get the leader to talk, but really, he couldn't have cared less and he just laughed.

Still, he had been shamed by the encounter, and so, requested permission to die honorably by his own hand (sepuku). The party agreed, in exchange for information, and then, the information obtained, promptly left the ruins, leaving the goblinoid leader (and underlings) bound and alive, to face his shame, and whatever should come along and find them.

On the return trip, the party spotted a procession of creatures in hooded black robes headed toward the ruins. They smartly avoided any contact and made it back to the village later in the evening.

A Player's Guide to Gorgoroth

Tonight, I kick off my B/X mini-mega-dungeon campaign at a local game shop, so nearly every spare minute the past few weeks has been dedicated to preparing for it (the problem with creating a dungeon with multiple connections between different levels is that you never know where the players might end up, even in the first session, so there's a LOT of prep to do up front. Basically it's a small-scale sandbox.)

Below is the contents of a document I prepared for the players, to introduce them to the base town, located a stone's throw from the dungeon. I thought a travel guide style would be fun to attempt - I didn't want to eliminate the need for some exploration of the town/village but at the same time, i thought there were some basics the characters would have already become familiar with.

Gorgoroth

Population: 500ish

Government Officials: Sheriff Arnax and Deputy Gygenson,  by appointment of the town council

Background

Located just south of the foothills of the Towering Mountains of the Thunder Wrestler, and east of the Tanaelva River, is the quiet town of Gorgoroth. Despite being the northernmost settlement in the region, Gorgoroth regularly welcomes outsiders, who come to purchase or barter for its quality wood, sustainably harvested from the surrounding forests, and for casks of the finely crafted beers of the Haunted Keep Brewery.

Surrounded by a wooden palisade, Gorgoroth’s wattle and daub construction is supplemented by exquisite stone buildings, like Draka’s tower, the Shrine of the Punishing Ox, and the renowned Haunted Keep Brewery.

Visitors used to a certain level of sophisticated quality will find their needs best met at the Shining Sparrow bed & breakfast, in Upper Gorgoroth, while for the more budget conscious traveler, The Mournful Phoenix in lower Gorgoroth is the place to go. Your host, Burzum, and his wife Gertrude will make your stay a delight as they serve you some of the most amazing meals for little coin.

Sights to see:

Gar Draka’s tower - The beautiful stone work alone is worth the visit, but it is also home to a sage of some renown, Gar Draka. Known for his work in botanical studies, his time is quite valuable, so appointments are required and should be made with his assistants.

Shrine of the Punishing Ox - Sanctioned by the Bishop of the Cathedral of the Iron Tiger in Hedeby, the shrine is maintained by Sister Ingrid, by permanent appointment. The massive white granite statue of Lord Ox is said to grant blessings to all who pray at it.

The Ruins of Trelleborg  - Located on a rocky crag in the foothills about half-a-day away, we advise all visitors to Gorgoroth to avoid the ruins of this borderland fort at all cost, given its history of evil and the tragedy of The Last Garrison. The ruins are best viewed from a distance in bright daylight.

The Haunted Keep Brewery -Open for business year round, visitors can sample Black Dougal Stout, Gary Sent Us Pale Ale, and Silverleaf Pilsner. Nestled in a woods on Morgan’s Creek, the brewery is one of the oldest buildings in Gorgoroth.

One of those Revelations That Happen Every So Often

I posted this picture yesterday on G+ - noting that I might have a small addiction now to W. Britain figures.

Other awesomeness in the picture: a d20 stamper, Wally Simon's Solo Secrets of Wargame Design and Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad #1.

In addition to the soldiers pictured (all birthday presents), I have a US MG crew and 3 more infantry en route (also b-day gifts).

I think I am most surprised by how much I love playing even the simplest scenarios with them (I've played a few tests of some rules I'm tinkering with). 

Maybe because they were gifts? Maybe because they're Britains? Maybe because it feels like I'm tapping into the same inspiration that brought forth Little Wars?

When I began miniature gaming some 7 or so years ago, I used unpainted plastic cheap army men. This was followed by home-made 1" counters (for Adventures in Jimland), and  finally unpainted 54mm plastic cowboys and Native Americans for some 1st ed. Six Gun Sound action.

I had a blast with all of that, but I kept seeing the pictures in blogs, and TMP and other places of painted forces, so when I moved into WWII, I decided to go to 1/72, and slighlty later, for Victorian Sci-Fi, 15mm, painting the figures seemed the obvious choice,  in both cases.

It's been a love-hate relationship with painting ever since. It is, mostly, relaxing. I find it enjoyable to research uniform colors and try to come up with something close. It's satisfying to paint a complete unit and see them arrayed before me on the table. 

But it is not quick, not for me.

If miniature painting was my hobby, this would be of no concern. After all, if painting is why you are doing it, then if it takes a long time, who cares? That's the most enjoyable, fulfilling and satisfying part. When you are finished, you admire it, and then paint the next figure that strikes your fancy. 

But painting has at best only been half of the equation. For me, it's the game that matters, at least equally, and generally, more so.

(to be sure, I could break "the game" into at least three components: research, rules tinkering, and playing, but let's keep this on point)

The inevitable delay between inspiration and the time the force takes the table means a waning enthusiasm , which makes the continued painting necessary a chore, not an enjoyable respite from chores, until the enthusiasm returns. But who is to say when or if it will return?

Witness so many gamers with partially completed forces tucked away in shoeboxes for projects that might never see the light of day.

I don't know why pre-painted figures (either from the manufacturer or others) never really occurred to me. But now that I have experienced the joy of getting the mail and being able to field a painted unit that night, I will expand my pre-painted forces.

Put down your pitch forks, please, I'm not abandoning painting. 

For one, I don't want my other 1/32 figures to feel badly about themselves when fielded with the Britains! 

Second, even painted plastic isn't cheap - this is not a grand scale approach, but rather, something to increase my enjoyment of the hobby when I can take advantage of it.

And, I do enjoy painting, for all of the reasons I listed above.

But, I can field units easily this way (we only have so much time to do the things we want to, do we not?), thus allowing me to spend that time on other things - like scenery construction, rules tinkering, research, painting figures (wait? what? Yes, but I can paint less of them!) and of course, actual gaming.

How to Host a Dungeon Changed My Life

photo "borrowed" from Planet Thirteen Games.

The other day (week), I had a life-changing experience.

That sounds a little dramatic.

What I mean is, I had a paradigmatic shift in my approach to thinking about dungeon design, all thanks to How to Host a Dungeon, from Planet Thirteen.

I picked this up when I ordered The Purple Worm Graveyard because 1)it's about dungeons (duh, do you need a better reason?) and 2)it's a solitaire game. I was powerless to resist it.

In brief: the game starts with the land in a pre-dungeon state and takes it through several ages, from construction to manipulation to the arrival of The Big Bad and beyond if you desire. The resulting map and history can then be used to create a dungeon for use with your favorite RPG.

So, what exactly was so great about it?

For one, I rarely draw dungeons from the side-view (like the example of the Haunted Keep's levels in Moldvay Basic) but there is an obvious benefit for starting there - it's easy to see how the levels physically relate to each other and where the connections might be.

Second, it reaffirmed the benefit of something I've been doing lately: drawing maps on blank paper. The lines aren't perfect and the dimensions aren't precise(that can be hand waived as "settling" and such) but, importantly, it frees you from the stiff linear nature of graph paper. The resulting look can be more organic or in my case, it looks like the levels were constructed by drunken dwarves.

Finally, the game gave me a real sense of the history of the place. This is the part that really gets me excited.

Knowing why each level was constructed, it's easier for me to produce a traditional top-down map: I know what features to include on each level. I also know what may have survived from the earliest days of the dungeon, and what has likely been overlaid/built-upon/destroyed by successive generations of inhabitants. When I felt like sketching a few additional levels, i found it easy to justify their existence into the whole story.

The best part? I only completed the first two "Ages" of the dungeon and my brain was off and running! This is absolutely worth checking out if you're into solitaire games and/or dungeon settings.

Will this have any benefits at the table? I'll find out soon enough, as I'm going to be running a dungeon-based campaign (I'm calling it a "mini mega-dungeon campaign", an idea taken from Dyson's Delve) in this dungeon in less than 2 weeks.

Friday Night Tank Ambush

In an effort to bring my new panzerfaust team into the action again, I decided to play a variation of Scenario 2 from the Nuts! 2.0 rulebook:

The Soviets had to get across the board and I, playing the Germans, had orders to stop them.

I looked at the options for the original scenario and decided the Soviets would field one T-34/76 with tank riders, and then roll on the reinforcements table for their other unit - and they got a second tank.

Tank riders.

I used the small playing area again and changed movement to multiples of 5". I also couldn't find the stone walls for the farm house, so I made do with dungeon tiles:

I had my infantry laying in wait to flank the armor.

The Soviets were cautious and it took a long time for them to move up. When it came time for the first In-Sight, I decided to use the CR3 In-Sight test, rather than the Nuts! 2.0 method.

I don't know if it was me or  what, but the game never felt right. I really like CR3, so I think the mechanism is pretty sound.

In large part, i think, it was because I hadn't played the rules in awhile and had to look so many things up - especially for the armor.

There was one high point. My panzerfaust took out a tank! :

I played for well over an hour before I finally called the game - things were not going well for the Germans - what you can't see below is that the bottom T-34 had wiped out my LMG team with it's co-ax MG. A few more turns and the Soviets would make it off the table, or reinforcements could arrive, prolonging the conflict and I was out of time:

The Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything : W. Britain's Toy Soldiers!

Today, I turn 42, hence the post title. Hard to believe - in fact, it's probable that I actively resit believing it!

My girlfriend surprised me with the Wehrmacht Panzerfaust Team from W. Britain - a birthday present I was allowed to open on Friday:

I couldn't let their arrival go unheralded, but I had no scenario in mind, nor did I have any idea what rules I'd use. So, I basically played this scenario, but this time, I controlled the Germans and brought some more toys into the mix.

For rules, I used Featherstone's simple WWII rules from War Games: Battles and Manoeuvres with Model Soldiers (I have the John Curry reprint), rather than DHC7B, because I'm rusty with the latter, while the former is brain-dead simple. 

Feathersone uses 10-figure companies in the book, so, you could say that it was 1 company per side. In my head this was a platoon or company as much as it was individuals - something I think Featherstone's, and other old-school individual figure rules support, even if unintentionally.

The German OOB:
1 Kublewagen w/MG
1 Sd.Kfz. 251 w/MG + carrying one Anti-tank squad
1 10 figure unit of infantry

The Soviet OOB:
2 x T-34/76
1 10 figure unit of infantry

The kitchen table was off limits, and since the arrival of a puppy in our household a few months ago, my cat, Pumpkin, has been taking her meals on my table, so space was at a premium. I broke out two sheets of squared green poster board and squeezed it onto my table between the cat-food and the hobby supplies.

I modified the measurements in the rules to be multiples of 5" so I could use the grid to speed measuring.

Here are some pics of the battle:

This is after turn 1 I think - both sides made it onto the table.

The new guys ride in style. Jake the Dog is photo-bombing!

If it wasn't for those damn woods, the Sdk's MGs could have wiped those Ruskies from the table.

Fire fight in the Seussian Forest!

The triumph and tragedy of war.

Don't ask what my plan was with the kubelwagen was, it was't a good one. Clearly.

A rather ignominious debut for the panzerfaust crew. The grey dice represent the saving throws for the two Germans. A 5 or 6 was needed.

End of game.

It was not a good day for the Germans, to say the least.

 My plan to have the panzerfaust team flank the tanks behind a screen of infantry was an epic failure. That screen was decimated and the crew raced back to the road to disembark the transporter in hopes of getting at least one shot at the lead tank, at which point they were mowed down by some Soviet SMG-armed troops. 

In retrospect, I'm not sure why they I didn't just have them shoot from the Sd.Kfz.

On the last turn played, the transporter was the only thing in the way of the Soviet's exit - I had one infantryman left, and a lot of good he'd do me without any anti-tank weapons, so, I conceded the battle to my worthy opponent: myself.

Black Streams : Solo Heroes : A Review

Scarlet Heroes RPG by Kevin Crawford seems to be the darling Kickstarter of the OSR at the moment. And with good reason, I think: it addresses an issue that is not at all uncommon, 1 player with 1 GM.

At least, it's not all that uncommon for me; most of my RPG-life I have GM'd for one or two players. Indeed, in March, I will be running a game for one PC, and my most recent home game was just two PCs.

Now, I haven't pledged my support yet, but I've checked out Black Streams : Solo Heroes, a freebie from Mr. Crawford, and, as I understand it the concepts from it appear in Scarlet Heroes. And what concepts they are!

As promised in the copy, no change is needed to the character sheet, no change of the basic mechanics of your favorite rules set. What he changes is how you use the numbers and how damage is delivered to PCs vs how it is delivered to NPCs/Monsters - and the result is staying power for your 1st level PC even when outnumbered or the victim of poor dungeon delving skills that result in setting off traps.

I can see how this would be useful for using pre-published adventures, where adjusting the size or strength of the encounter would weaken its impact (as opposed to a GM-created adventure that takes the lone PC into account from the very beginning). It also allows for the creation of a different kind of low-level adventure.

If you are committed to the idea that the game is one of nobodies struggling and dying on their way to fame, fortune and hero status, Solo Heroes might cause you some shock.

Why?

Because, now, your 1st level PC can take on 4 skeletons at once and make a good showing of it. The PC isn't a nobody in armor, but an individual better suited to the adventuring life than that. They are a hero of sorts at the outset, in the sense that they are able to withstand blows that would kill another quite easily. For some, this is blasphemy of the highest order.

But, in a one PC game, I'm not sure this is all bad.

While I don't particularly care if a PC I'm playing bites it, character frailty at low-levels does make extended campaign play with a single PC difficult. It also makes playing a Conan or other solitary hero almost impossible. And I know that not everyone is so flippant about their character's survival.

The real benefit to using Solo Heroes, is that it doesn't increase the class abilities of the PC in any way as a side-effect of increasing PC longevity.

Your 1st level Magic-User STILL has just one first-level spell to work with that adventuring day and no more than 7 HP (in the unlikely event they get the  +3 CON bonus). Your 1st level thief is still barely more competent than the average street urchin. Your 1st level cleric has no spells (assuming you're playing B/X as written).

So, you still have the fun of leveling up and gaining power but your risk of dying before you ever see any kind of growth is mitigated. Compare that to the experience you might have if you start your PC at 4th level in order to ensure their survival in a low-level dungeon.

From a solitaire player's perspective, it allows the player to run/identify with a single character instead of having to play an entire party. In essence, it increases the opportunity for deeper role-play in a solitaire game , if that's something you desire.

So, yes, I'll be backing the Kickstarter. If you're unsure it's for you, I highly recommend downloading Solo Heroes though - it's free and usable right away.

Say What? Alignment Languages.

I've been thinking about whether or not to use alignment languages in my upcoming B/X mini mega-dungeon campaign. I mean, let's face it, they aren't listed as an optional rule, but they are among the first things dropped or forgotten.

Without doing any actual research, other than reading other blogs, it seems the alignments arise from the assumption that the game world is one that is embroiled in a struggle between the forces of Law and Chaos. All are soldiers in this great war, with the Neutral folks either being wishy-washy, fence sitters or universal harmony types. 

Alignment languages, therefore, allow those on the same side to communicate despite language barriers that arise from differences in geography, species or even plane of existence.

This is rather important when coordinating a war effort on such a grand scale.

If you're playing a fantasy war game with a little bit of role-playing, it's a nice way to justify how you can have a crazy mix of races in a single coordinated army. If you drop the war game aspect, but maintain the existence of this conflict as an important aspect of the world player characters operate in, then it is still important for the same reason.

But what if your focus is the rags-to-riches by-the-blood-on-your-sword story of individuals? There's no universal conflict in which the PCs are actors.  There is no epic struggle of Law vs. Chaos, just survival in the face of an uncaring universe.

This raises the question, why have alignments at all?

Perhaps they are residue of a previous conflict? Or maybe, more likely, as someone somewhere suggested, they are an out-of-game mechanism for a character's in-game conscience (personally, I love that justification of the alignments).

However, I suspect that most GMs don't drop alignments, only the languages.

But, the alignment languages can still be useful for the very same reason they're useful in a grand war of ideology: they remove linguistic barriers. A party of humans with average intelligence scores who know no other additional languages but have a member of each alignment can communicate with just about any intelligent (as defined in a humanocentric way) creature they meet!

Unfortunately, the details of the languages seem absurd. In particular, if you change alignments, you immediately forget the old language and know the new one. The only justification I can come up with for this is a divine intervention of some kind. And that works if your world is a battleground for the forces of Law and Chaos, because the gods probably care one way or another. 

But I'm pretty sure the gods in my game world don't give a rats butt, because the conflict ISN'T a great war, but a personal struggle. They exist, they occasionally reward their followers, but mostly they're concerned with their own goals and interests.

So, i'm torn: 

I can reject the languages wholesale, which I think takes away an opportunity for players (even if it's one they might not miss) or I can try to come up with a better mechanism to handle the effect an alignment change has on the language, because you know if I don't, it'll surely come up.

Paint Table Saturday (#2): Late Again

I didn't actually DO any painting on Saturday, although I did take this photo of what's on my table and awaiting cleanup/prep:

Zvezda Dragoons of Peter I

I plan to complete the two riders and horses on the right before the end of February, but we'll see.

On Friday night, I finished up the six Swedish infantry that were in the background last week: 

Zvezda Swedish infantry of Charles XII

FYI, my definition of "finished" does not include basing!