Well we finally got ourselves organised so that Donald could get his turn at the GM's table Sunday. He ran Flashing Blades in its original 1984 edition. Written by Mark Pettigrew, FB was published by Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU), the company responsible for, among other things, Aftermath and Bushido- 2 rpgs of which I have particulary fond memories; and Chivalry and Sorcery- a game I never played (for which much of what I've heard makes me thankful).
I've played this PC a couple of times before with Donald. But it was so long ago that all I can remember is some scrolls we had to deliever and my decision not to help out what looked like a damsel in distress because I didn't want to risk splitting the party in a game where all the other players were pretty much unknown quantities to me as roleplayers.
Oh yes, and Felix's decision to pull his pistol and open fire on some Italian border guards because no Papists were going to lay hands on a Hugenot gentleman. Y'see, PC's in FB all have some kind of secret, and Felix's is that he is a fanatical Hugenot. Which is not the most comfortable of religious persuasions to follow in 17th century catholic France at just about the time that Cromwell and his Puritain roundheads are running riot across in England.
Colourful stuff, eh?
Felix himself is a gentleman of some real charm, fair phsyique and fortune, and evident dimness. He has a passing knowledge of banking, can stay on a horse if he doesn't get too showy, and is unlikey to choose the wrong fork at a banquet, or to commit some other similarly devestating trivial social gaffe. He is a Fellow of the Club of St. George.
All in all, promising material for, well, for being some crass nobleman's smooth-talking henchman or somesuch really. Unless, that is, he chooses to apply himself and get some serious learning. Fat chance would seem to be the current state of play.
I mean, there he was, just sitting in his club, when he received a visit from his acquaintance, the good Baron Jean-Claude Tourne (pron. Tourn-ey: don't know how to do accents above e's yet)- played by Tony- on what turned out to a mission of some delicacy. Game as he is, Felix soon found himself joining the good Baron, and one Piedro Van Horstmann- played by Andy- on a secret mission on behalf of the Constable General of France.
So secret in fact, that I can say no more about it here. Sufficeth to say that Felix learned some lessons about the care and feeding of a good flunkey (not his own sadly), and might soon realise the perils and pitfalls of being just a wee bit too clever by half for one so ultimately slow on the uptake.
This session was great fun. Donald hadn't GM'ed FB since the last time I played Felix, several years ago, and was naturally a bit nervous. But he did a fine job of sitting back and letting the 3 of us enjoy getting into ever more flowerly language as we got to grips with our coarse version of 17th century life in Paris (my own model was the inimitable movie The Three Musketeers- the classic 1980's version starring, among others, Oliver Reed and Spike Milligan). He was also able to steer us back on course when we got utterly lost in our investigations, mostly I fear because I was having too much fun being Felix.
Good fun and many belly laughs were had by all. More soon I hope.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Meanwhile...
Well, my very dear friend Ros has been helping me organise an imminent very important trip abroad of late. So it was that we found ourselves yesterday at a loose end. So I dug out my copy of Cyberpunk 2020 to run her through the basics of character generation. What I was really trying to do was to show her how the game's lifepath rules generated PC's who would grace any soap opera.
Ros ended up with a very creditable nomad: Spanish, wears cammos, spike-heeled boots and shaves her head, etc, etc. By the time we'd run through the process (I was doing one too, to show her how things worked), Ros had a character that hung together nicely, and which she wanted to play. I just love it when a sequence of random selections come together!
Now I've just got to go and create a scenario for a game I've only played once, as a PC, and that over a decade ago IIRC. Oh dear, poor me... Fortunately, my own chargen gave me a media who should make an ideal NPC.
We played some Flux after that. Ros was delighted to beat me 2-1. She's beat me before, but never over a series. Her wins included one particularly evil one: with 5 keepers down, she played the 'Exchange Hands' action, to receive a 3-card hand containing 2 goals that I myself had been keen not to play because they each gave her an immediate win.
So I did the 'decent' thing, and gave her the win with the goal ('Brain, no TV') I picked up as my own draw next turn. Well, I had to get a crumb of comfort somehow or other, didn't I? Mwah hah ha, etc. ;)
Ros ended up with a very creditable nomad: Spanish, wears cammos, spike-heeled boots and shaves her head, etc, etc. By the time we'd run through the process (I was doing one too, to show her how things worked), Ros had a character that hung together nicely, and which she wanted to play. I just love it when a sequence of random selections come together!
Now I've just got to go and create a scenario for a game I've only played once, as a PC, and that over a decade ago IIRC. Oh dear, poor me... Fortunately, my own chargen gave me a media who should make an ideal NPC.
We played some Flux after that. Ros was delighted to beat me 2-1. She's beat me before, but never over a series. Her wins included one particularly evil one: with 5 keepers down, she played the 'Exchange Hands' action, to receive a 3-card hand containing 2 goals that I myself had been keen not to play because they each gave her an immediate win.
So I did the 'decent' thing, and gave her the win with the goal ('Brain, no TV') I picked up as my own draw next turn. Well, I had to get a crumb of comfort somehow or other, didn't I? Mwah hah ha, etc. ;)
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
My little Old World: In the Sewers of Middenheim #2
Reports, retorts, and last resorts
Captain Ulrich Schutzmann, Midden Marshal of the Middenheim City Watch returned to his office after seeing off his erstwhile deputy watchmen. Knowing skaven as he did, he wondered about the identity of the ratman who had escaped back into the sewers. He told himself that ultimately this didn't matter one whit.
In the end, he reminded himself, he had stuck his neck out by bringing this ragtag bunch in to apply a good old fashioned dose of brute force and ignorance to old Morten's murder. He was going to miss the old man. Greimold was sound, to be sure, but he was, well... a bit unpredictable.
Schutzmann chuckled to himself as he characterised Middenheim's new Anointed Priest of Sigmar thus. Bringing in that motely bunch had hardly seen him living up to his own reputation. Good, he thought. That would keep Greimold on his toes in his new appointment.
These musings brought the veteran back to matters at hand. He had a watch platoon to inspect for the night's patrols, and then he had a rendezvous to keep with Greimold. Buckling on his sword-belt, Schutzmann wondered if Greimold had yet found old Morten's surviving stock of Estalian port. He needed something to clear the taste of shite from his palate.
Reappearing in the streets of Middenheim in the alley in the Ulricsmund near the Morrspark from which they had made their original descent, our 5 adventurers stood for a moment, blinking as their eyes readjusted to the late afternoon's sunshine. They breathed deep of the city air, finding even its lingering whiff of death sweet after the stench of the sewers beneath their feet.
Reeking of ordure, and covered in blood and shit, the PC's decided that a bath was the first thing they needed. Siegfreid's local knowledge took the party quickly to the place they needed to go- which they reached without trouble because nobody in the street wanted to get within several yards of them. Once in the bathhouse, an aging babushka charged them a hefty price for a bath, laundry, and elementary repairs to their trail-worn and battle-torn clothing.
Thus refreshed, they decided that a report to Captain Schutzmann was their next priority. Quickly reaching the Watch headquarters at the South Gate, they gained rapid access to Schutzmann's office, where Siegfreid promptly and unceremoniously dumped his sack of skaven ears on the Midden Marshal's desk. Wrinkling his nose, Schutzmann paused to open his window and take a deep breath before sifting through Siegfreid's sack with the point of his dagger.
The party gave their report, and the 6 defenders of Middenheim talked.
After a while, Schutzmann began to look thoughtful, and the party began to realise that they still didn't know how news of the discovery of the precious icon had spread so wide: as far as they knew, only Berthold, Morten, and Athelus, a young initiate- and perhaps one or two others at the Temple of Sigmar- had known about it before the murder.
As the talk wound down Grundi returned to his desire to pursue the escaped skaven back down into the sewers. Schutzmann pointed out that some skaven nearly always escape, and even if they don't, well, there're always more where they came from. He concluded by telling the PC's that the Morten case was officially closed, although he and his associates would certainly be making what enquiries they could to pursue the loose ends.
Relieving the PC's of their now defunct warrant, he told them that they should be law-abiding and god-fearing subjects of the Empire, but that, if they should come across any information that might pertain, they shouldn't hesitate to contact him.
Mordrin asked if he could get his armour repaired. Schutzmann assented. He took the PC's to the Watch treasury, where they were rewarded with 10gc for their sterling efforts. Mordrin was taken to the armoury, where he stripped off his armour to leave it for repair, leaving him to walk the streets in naught but his underwear and cloak.
Leaving the Watch HQ, the immediate consensus was that they had to next to deliver the frame of the icon of Sigmar to Father Greimold. The dwarfs- Mordrin especially- were keen to take their news about the lost shrine to Grungni to their kin in the Wynd. But they saw the sense in the others' idea, not to mention the possibility of some small personal advantage.
As the party proceeded north up the main drag through the Merchant District, Alane noticed a familiar figure shadowing them: Beyer, first seen back in the Strutting Cock, and who had already been spotted following them once before in Middenheim. She immediately informed Siegfreid of this fact in a whisper.
Without a word Siegfreid fell behind the party and ducked into an alleyway. His absence was soon noticed by Berthold, but by this time, Siegfreid had stepped out behind Beyer, who was too wary to be caught napping.
Asking the man his business, Siegfreid was somewhat surprised when the reply came in a mixture of thieves' signs and argot: that it had fallen to Beyer- via the grapevine- to deliver a message of some import to Siegfreid and his companions.
Go on, said Siegfreid.
You know better than to ask me to speak out here in plain view about matters to be delivered like this, Beyer replied.
Over here in my office then suggested Siegfreid, indicating a nearby alleyway. This too was unsatisfactory to Beyer. Siegfreid suggested a neutral place.
The Wolf's Teeth Tavern, Southgate, this evening, replied Beyer.
Siegfreid was willing to accept this suggestion because it is the place where his old mum works. And with that Beyer turned his back and left, leaving Siegfreid to rejoin the others, where he filled them in on what had gone down.
Arriving at the temple, the players are quickly ushered into Greimold's new office- that of the late Morten, whose post Greimold now holds. Greimold too gets up to open the window and take a deep breath before sitting down again to address the party. Berthold explains what has happened, and proffers the icon's frame to Greimold, which the priest accepts gratefully.
As the conversation continues Greimold also shows a surprising degree of knowledge about certain matters for a priest of Sigmar. He tends to Mordrin's wound. In the process he discovers that the dwarf has contracted a dose of the Galloping Scumpox. He leads the party to the infirmary and leaves him to the care of young Athelus. His last words are to advise Mordrin to return on the morrow for another treatment to guarantee a cure.
By this time, hunger is the PC's main concern. Diverting only to collect some of their gear from the lodgings of the people of Untergard, they make for the Wolf's Teeth tavern. Settling in for the night they set to to a meal and a keg of ale. Meanwhile, Beyer not yet having arrived, Seigfried sits alone ready for his chat.
As the other PC's relax, Alane suddenly detects magick in the tavern room. Looking round, she sees a familiar face: one Jocelin Herzog, who Alane remembers from her magical studies back in Altdorf. Herzog is manifestly shocked and astonished to see the elf.
Shortly thereafter, Beyer arrives in the company of the rest of the crew the party remembers from their first night in the Strutting Cock. Beyer covertly signals to Siegfreid that he cannot talk just yet. Getting the message, Siegfreid heads out back to the privy. Beyer appears soon after.
Beyer passes on the message that an evil fate has befallen the Strutting Cock and the PC's friends there. His job done, the man departs, his pocket a little heavier thanks to Siegfreid. Hearing the news, the party resolve to make haste thence to save the day. They proceed to get pleasantly drunk.
Grundi rounds the night off by singing the wolf-hunting song inspired by his exploits in the Drakwald. Several of the party are impressed [as was the GM- it was highly plausible dwarfish plainsong, although thankfully Antony only recited it!] although Siegfreid notes that singing about killing wolves in the city of the White Wolf is perhaps not the best of ideas.
Related@RD/KA!
In the Sewers of Middenheim
- We strike a bum note
- #1 Fury, fear, and flying fur
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim
Captain Ulrich Schutzmann, Midden Marshal of the Middenheim City Watch returned to his office after seeing off his erstwhile deputy watchmen. Knowing skaven as he did, he wondered about the identity of the ratman who had escaped back into the sewers. He told himself that ultimately this didn't matter one whit.
In the end, he reminded himself, he had stuck his neck out by bringing this ragtag bunch in to apply a good old fashioned dose of brute force and ignorance to old Morten's murder. He was going to miss the old man. Greimold was sound, to be sure, but he was, well... a bit unpredictable.
Schutzmann chuckled to himself as he characterised Middenheim's new Anointed Priest of Sigmar thus. Bringing in that motely bunch had hardly seen him living up to his own reputation. Good, he thought. That would keep Greimold on his toes in his new appointment.
These musings brought the veteran back to matters at hand. He had a watch platoon to inspect for the night's patrols, and then he had a rendezvous to keep with Greimold. Buckling on his sword-belt, Schutzmann wondered if Greimold had yet found old Morten's surviving stock of Estalian port. He needed something to clear the taste of shite from his palate.
**********
Reappearing in the streets of Middenheim in the alley in the Ulricsmund near the Morrspark from which they had made their original descent, our 5 adventurers stood for a moment, blinking as their eyes readjusted to the late afternoon's sunshine. They breathed deep of the city air, finding even its lingering whiff of death sweet after the stench of the sewers beneath their feet.
Reeking of ordure, and covered in blood and shit, the PC's decided that a bath was the first thing they needed. Siegfreid's local knowledge took the party quickly to the place they needed to go- which they reached without trouble because nobody in the street wanted to get within several yards of them. Once in the bathhouse, an aging babushka charged them a hefty price for a bath, laundry, and elementary repairs to their trail-worn and battle-torn clothing.
Thus refreshed, they decided that a report to Captain Schutzmann was their next priority. Quickly reaching the Watch headquarters at the South Gate, they gained rapid access to Schutzmann's office, where Siegfreid promptly and unceremoniously dumped his sack of skaven ears on the Midden Marshal's desk. Wrinkling his nose, Schutzmann paused to open his window and take a deep breath before sifting through Siegfreid's sack with the point of his dagger.
The party gave their report, and the 6 defenders of Middenheim talked.
After a while, Schutzmann began to look thoughtful, and the party began to realise that they still didn't know how news of the discovery of the precious icon had spread so wide: as far as they knew, only Berthold, Morten, and Athelus, a young initiate- and perhaps one or two others at the Temple of Sigmar- had known about it before the murder.
As the talk wound down Grundi returned to his desire to pursue the escaped skaven back down into the sewers. Schutzmann pointed out that some skaven nearly always escape, and even if they don't, well, there're always more where they came from. He concluded by telling the PC's that the Morten case was officially closed, although he and his associates would certainly be making what enquiries they could to pursue the loose ends.
Relieving the PC's of their now defunct warrant, he told them that they should be law-abiding and god-fearing subjects of the Empire, but that, if they should come across any information that might pertain, they shouldn't hesitate to contact him.
Mordrin asked if he could get his armour repaired. Schutzmann assented. He took the PC's to the Watch treasury, where they were rewarded with 10gc for their sterling efforts. Mordrin was taken to the armoury, where he stripped off his armour to leave it for repair, leaving him to walk the streets in naught but his underwear and cloak.
Leaving the Watch HQ, the immediate consensus was that they had to next to deliver the frame of the icon of Sigmar to Father Greimold. The dwarfs- Mordrin especially- were keen to take their news about the lost shrine to Grungni to their kin in the Wynd. But they saw the sense in the others' idea, not to mention the possibility of some small personal advantage.
As the party proceeded north up the main drag through the Merchant District, Alane noticed a familiar figure shadowing them: Beyer, first seen back in the Strutting Cock, and who had already been spotted following them once before in Middenheim. She immediately informed Siegfreid of this fact in a whisper.
Without a word Siegfreid fell behind the party and ducked into an alleyway. His absence was soon noticed by Berthold, but by this time, Siegfreid had stepped out behind Beyer, who was too wary to be caught napping.
Asking the man his business, Siegfreid was somewhat surprised when the reply came in a mixture of thieves' signs and argot: that it had fallen to Beyer- via the grapevine- to deliver a message of some import to Siegfreid and his companions.
Go on, said Siegfreid.
You know better than to ask me to speak out here in plain view about matters to be delivered like this, Beyer replied.
Over here in my office then suggested Siegfreid, indicating a nearby alleyway. This too was unsatisfactory to Beyer. Siegfreid suggested a neutral place.
The Wolf's Teeth Tavern, Southgate, this evening, replied Beyer.
Siegfreid was willing to accept this suggestion because it is the place where his old mum works. And with that Beyer turned his back and left, leaving Siegfreid to rejoin the others, where he filled them in on what had gone down.
Arriving at the temple, the players are quickly ushered into Greimold's new office- that of the late Morten, whose post Greimold now holds. Greimold too gets up to open the window and take a deep breath before sitting down again to address the party. Berthold explains what has happened, and proffers the icon's frame to Greimold, which the priest accepts gratefully.
As the conversation continues Greimold also shows a surprising degree of knowledge about certain matters for a priest of Sigmar. He tends to Mordrin's wound. In the process he discovers that the dwarf has contracted a dose of the Galloping Scumpox. He leads the party to the infirmary and leaves him to the care of young Athelus. His last words are to advise Mordrin to return on the morrow for another treatment to guarantee a cure.
By this time, hunger is the PC's main concern. Diverting only to collect some of their gear from the lodgings of the people of Untergard, they make for the Wolf's Teeth tavern. Settling in for the night they set to to a meal and a keg of ale. Meanwhile, Beyer not yet having arrived, Seigfried sits alone ready for his chat.
As the other PC's relax, Alane suddenly detects magick in the tavern room. Looking round, she sees a familiar face: one Jocelin Herzog, who Alane remembers from her magical studies back in Altdorf. Herzog is manifestly shocked and astonished to see the elf.
Shortly thereafter, Beyer arrives in the company of the rest of the crew the party remembers from their first night in the Strutting Cock. Beyer covertly signals to Siegfreid that he cannot talk just yet. Getting the message, Siegfreid heads out back to the privy. Beyer appears soon after.
Beyer passes on the message that an evil fate has befallen the Strutting Cock and the PC's friends there. His job done, the man departs, his pocket a little heavier thanks to Siegfreid. Hearing the news, the party resolve to make haste thence to save the day. They proceed to get pleasantly drunk.
Grundi rounds the night off by singing the wolf-hunting song inspired by his exploits in the Drakwald. Several of the party are impressed [as was the GM- it was highly plausible dwarfish plainsong, although thankfully Antony only recited it!] although Siegfreid notes that singing about killing wolves in the city of the White Wolf is perhaps not the best of ideas.
Related@RD/KA!
In the Sewers of Middenheim
- We strike a bum note
- #1 Fury, fear, and flying fur
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim
Monday, September 12, 2005
My little Old World: In the Sewers of Middenheim #1
Fury, fear, and flying fur
Somewhere deep within the Fauschlag under the war-torn city of Middenheim lurks a creature, nursing a nasty burn on its back that'll keep him awake nights and won't let him sit comfortably. He broods.
Humans, dwarfs, and an elf, working together against him?! How could this be? By what dark conspiracies has the fragile alliance against the Lord of The End Times survived their brief moment's illusory respite? Why wasn't he warned? Who was responsible for sending him out against this unholy alliance? Enemies, enemies- everywhere.
Shifting to ease the pain, the creature thinks of revenge. The hairless ones might have had the best of him today, but next time he will be ready. Oh yes, he will be ready. Soon they, and all their kind will know what it means to suffer a Skaven's wrath.
It all began with a brief pause for the catching of breath and a moment's reflection. Then our brave adventurers set off in the opposite direction to that which they had first taken. This time they didn't pause or deviate for anything. Well, except when they retraced their steps and went up a side-branch to avoid another explosive cloud of gas.
Soon enough the PC's reached the sewer exit debouching to the west of Middenheim, just beside the western viaduct. Grundi tested the grate to discover that it was sound. Stood around waiting Alane noticed a small tunnel entrance by the light of the lantern she carried. Located in the wall across the effluent channel, its crude construction contrasted markedly with that of the Middenheim sewer system.
Sure enough, it was skaven sized.
Blunderbuss in hand, Grundi led the way, climbing with remarkable stealth through the tunnel entrance. Inside, finding himself in the confines of a 5' wide/high rough-hewn tunnel, he began to advance. Mordrin was next. His clambering into the tunnel entrance was marked by the harsh sound of his axehead scraping across his chainmail.
Thus it was that Grundi and the skaven sentry a few yards down the tunnel caught sight of each other simultaneously. Grundi reacted instinctively: BOOM! The earlier bitter dregs of Ulric's Fury notwithstanding, Ulric blessed Grundi's blast for the first of what was to be 4 times that afternoon. All that was left of the skaven was a head, 4 limbs, and a pile of bloody pulp that had once been a body.
Mordrin, then Alane and the rest of the party hurried to advance now that the benefit of surprise had been lost. Meanwhile Grundi calmly knelt down and began to reload his mighty weapon of destruction, unmoved even when 2 skaven clanrats appeared from around the corner ahead. Cursing the aged dwarf he'd fallen in with, Mordrin was forced to squeeze past to get at the advancing skaven, one of which was already preparing to rain a hail of slingshot at those who would dare attack Clan Eshin skaven in their very lair. A brief exchange of blows later, the 2 canny skaven fell back around the corner out of sight.
Alane, Seigfried and Berthold were following up as fast as the narrow and congested corridor allowed, Seigfreid coming to 'stand' at Mordrin's shoulder. Alane tried a couple of spells to little or no effect before the press of bodies in the narrow tunnel blocked her view.
Mordrin crept forward to stick his head round the corner, where he spied 5 skaven in a cavern beyond, and was the target of 2 slingshots for his trouble. One ricocheted off the stone wall right by the dwarf's head. He promptly ducked back out of sight.
Suddenly- blunderbuss ready once more- Grundi darted forward, threw himself back against the elbow of the corner, and BOOM! Fortune was with the dwarf: his barrage of shrapnel caught the entire group of skaven as they formed up into their defensive line. The 2 slingers were lucky- their native agility and the bodies of their kin in front of them saved them from the maelstrom of rusty nails and other scraps of metal Grundi was again turning to deadly effect.
Heedless of danger, Alane joined the 2 dwarfs to hold the line at the corner just before 3 skaven swordsmen- hurt but still on their feet- charged forward, and the action exploded into the full confusion of a swirling melee. Caught like rats in a trap, the already desperate skaven clearly held a special hatred for the elvish witch: not for the last time, when faced with a choice she was the designated target- 2 went for her while the other attacked Mordrin, who promptly broke its arm.
Meanwhile, Alane noticed a 6th skaven lurking almost out of sight behind a rocky outcrop some yards behind the vile ratmen's lines. This ratman too charged the elf.
The next thing the party knew, another skaven was down and the remaining 4 pulled back yet again, this time to form a line across the cavern, with the lurker again leading from behind. The party charged forward for the kill with malicious satisfaction.
Seigfried charged the centre, leaving his target reeling, then knocking it down, finally to chop its ratty snout off in a frenzy of blows as it lay at his feet. Berthold was soon at his side, involved in a darting exchange of blows with another ratman. Grundi swept in with his axe, which seemed to commit bloody murder with every blow he struck. And Mordrin rapidly despatched the beast whose arm already hung useless at its side, only to find himself wrestling with the lurker, who got the better of the young dwarf and nimbly nipped past him.
Guessing the skaven's intentions, Alane hit it square in the back with a firey dart to little immediate effect. Spinning round, Mordrin struck out at and missed the creature before it scurried off and out of sight round the corner. Seeing her fellows still engaged, Alane set off in hot pursuit, catching up with the by now self-evident leader of the pack beside the remains of his hapless sentry.
Back in the cavern, the skaven fighting Berthold found himself alone against 2 dwarfs and 2 humans who had, in the space of a mere minute, put paid to all his clanrat companions. He did the sensible thing, and took to his heels towards the only exit from the scene of carnage. Caught off-balance by this sudden flight, Berthold flailed wildly at the fleeing creature before pursuing as fast as his mincing legs could carry him. Mordrin soon followed up.
Alane heard the shouted warning, but was too intent on her quarry to pause. She arrived at the tunnel mouth to see the skaven wading through the stinking mire to gain a foothold on the walkway opposite. One last flaming dart launched at the fleeing creature proved futile, and he was last seen disappearing into the darkness back the way the party had come. By this time the last skaven was upon her, but this was quickly despatched when she blew its foot off with a well-aimed bolt of fire.
Mordrin, Berthold and Alane returned to the cavern to find Grundi busy reloading his blunderbuss, while Seigfreid was looting the corpses, and cutting off their ears to present to Captain Schutzmann as proof of their endeavours.
None of the party went too close to the human arm they found roasting over an open fire. Siegfried and Mordrin on the other hand went too close for comfort to the skavens' rough beds, but only Mordrin was unlucky enough to find himself suffering a plague of flea and tick bites that were to trouble him for some time to come. Berthold went to investigate the far passage exiting the cave, only to trip a crossbow trap, which luckily missed him.
More cautious now despite Grundi's constant urgings just to get on with it so that they could pursue the escaped skaven to deal with him and any more of his vile kin they could find, Seigfried led the party into the final chamber while Alane hung back to keep a wary eye open up the entry tunnel. There they found another skaven bed, which Seigfried pronounced safe, and in which they eventually found just the frame of the icon of Sigmar which Berthold had carried all the way to Middenheim from the scene of Father Dietrich's grisly death back in the Drakwald what- to the PC's- now seemed like an age ago.
They also found a statue of the dwarf god Grungni, which was instantly recognised by Mordrin, a loyal follower of this god who- along with Grundi- had prayed to Grungni for aid in their hunt for the skaven only that morning. It seemed that Grungni had not only answered their prayers, but that he had chosen them to be the instruments of the rediscovery of one of his ancient temples.
Mordrin's first instinct was to chase the humans out of this sacred place, but he eventually realised that it was too late for that. In any case, it would need to be reconsecrated after being defiled by the vile ratmen. At least, he thought, the elf hadn't come in. The enormity of this find quickly impressed itself upon Grundi, and his constant calls for haste in pursuit of the skaven fell silent. Soon discovering that the statue was carved into a natural feature of the cave itself, Mordrin decided that he had a message of great import to carry to the 'fresh' air of the blasted city above.
The party retraced their steps back to their entry point without incident.
Related@RD/KA!
In the Sewers of Middenheim
- We strike a bum note
- #2 Reports, retorts, and last resorts
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim
Somewhere deep within the Fauschlag under the war-torn city of Middenheim lurks a creature, nursing a nasty burn on its back that'll keep him awake nights and won't let him sit comfortably. He broods.
Humans, dwarfs, and an elf, working together against him?! How could this be? By what dark conspiracies has the fragile alliance against the Lord of The End Times survived their brief moment's illusory respite? Why wasn't he warned? Who was responsible for sending him out against this unholy alliance? Enemies, enemies- everywhere.
Shifting to ease the pain, the creature thinks of revenge. The hairless ones might have had the best of him today, but next time he will be ready. Oh yes, he will be ready. Soon they, and all their kind will know what it means to suffer a Skaven's wrath.
**********
It all began with a brief pause for the catching of breath and a moment's reflection. Then our brave adventurers set off in the opposite direction to that which they had first taken. This time they didn't pause or deviate for anything. Well, except when they retraced their steps and went up a side-branch to avoid another explosive cloud of gas.
Soon enough the PC's reached the sewer exit debouching to the west of Middenheim, just beside the western viaduct. Grundi tested the grate to discover that it was sound. Stood around waiting Alane noticed a small tunnel entrance by the light of the lantern she carried. Located in the wall across the effluent channel, its crude construction contrasted markedly with that of the Middenheim sewer system.
Sure enough, it was skaven sized.
Blunderbuss in hand, Grundi led the way, climbing with remarkable stealth through the tunnel entrance. Inside, finding himself in the confines of a 5' wide/high rough-hewn tunnel, he began to advance. Mordrin was next. His clambering into the tunnel entrance was marked by the harsh sound of his axehead scraping across his chainmail.
Thus it was that Grundi and the skaven sentry a few yards down the tunnel caught sight of each other simultaneously. Grundi reacted instinctively: BOOM! The earlier bitter dregs of Ulric's Fury notwithstanding, Ulric blessed Grundi's blast for the first of what was to be 4 times that afternoon. All that was left of the skaven was a head, 4 limbs, and a pile of bloody pulp that had once been a body.
Mordrin, then Alane and the rest of the party hurried to advance now that the benefit of surprise had been lost. Meanwhile Grundi calmly knelt down and began to reload his mighty weapon of destruction, unmoved even when 2 skaven clanrats appeared from around the corner ahead. Cursing the aged dwarf he'd fallen in with, Mordrin was forced to squeeze past to get at the advancing skaven, one of which was already preparing to rain a hail of slingshot at those who would dare attack Clan Eshin skaven in their very lair. A brief exchange of blows later, the 2 canny skaven fell back around the corner out of sight.
Alane, Seigfried and Berthold were following up as fast as the narrow and congested corridor allowed, Seigfreid coming to 'stand' at Mordrin's shoulder. Alane tried a couple of spells to little or no effect before the press of bodies in the narrow tunnel blocked her view.
Mordrin crept forward to stick his head round the corner, where he spied 5 skaven in a cavern beyond, and was the target of 2 slingshots for his trouble. One ricocheted off the stone wall right by the dwarf's head. He promptly ducked back out of sight.
Suddenly- blunderbuss ready once more- Grundi darted forward, threw himself back against the elbow of the corner, and BOOM! Fortune was with the dwarf: his barrage of shrapnel caught the entire group of skaven as they formed up into their defensive line. The 2 slingers were lucky- their native agility and the bodies of their kin in front of them saved them from the maelstrom of rusty nails and other scraps of metal Grundi was again turning to deadly effect.
Heedless of danger, Alane joined the 2 dwarfs to hold the line at the corner just before 3 skaven swordsmen- hurt but still on their feet- charged forward, and the action exploded into the full confusion of a swirling melee. Caught like rats in a trap, the already desperate skaven clearly held a special hatred for the elvish witch: not for the last time, when faced with a choice she was the designated target- 2 went for her while the other attacked Mordrin, who promptly broke its arm.
Meanwhile, Alane noticed a 6th skaven lurking almost out of sight behind a rocky outcrop some yards behind the vile ratmen's lines. This ratman too charged the elf.
The next thing the party knew, another skaven was down and the remaining 4 pulled back yet again, this time to form a line across the cavern, with the lurker again leading from behind. The party charged forward for the kill with malicious satisfaction.
Seigfried charged the centre, leaving his target reeling, then knocking it down, finally to chop its ratty snout off in a frenzy of blows as it lay at his feet. Berthold was soon at his side, involved in a darting exchange of blows with another ratman. Grundi swept in with his axe, which seemed to commit bloody murder with every blow he struck. And Mordrin rapidly despatched the beast whose arm already hung useless at its side, only to find himself wrestling with the lurker, who got the better of the young dwarf and nimbly nipped past him.
Guessing the skaven's intentions, Alane hit it square in the back with a firey dart to little immediate effect. Spinning round, Mordrin struck out at and missed the creature before it scurried off and out of sight round the corner. Seeing her fellows still engaged, Alane set off in hot pursuit, catching up with the by now self-evident leader of the pack beside the remains of his hapless sentry.
Back in the cavern, the skaven fighting Berthold found himself alone against 2 dwarfs and 2 humans who had, in the space of a mere minute, put paid to all his clanrat companions. He did the sensible thing, and took to his heels towards the only exit from the scene of carnage. Caught off-balance by this sudden flight, Berthold flailed wildly at the fleeing creature before pursuing as fast as his mincing legs could carry him. Mordrin soon followed up.
Alane heard the shouted warning, but was too intent on her quarry to pause. She arrived at the tunnel mouth to see the skaven wading through the stinking mire to gain a foothold on the walkway opposite. One last flaming dart launched at the fleeing creature proved futile, and he was last seen disappearing into the darkness back the way the party had come. By this time the last skaven was upon her, but this was quickly despatched when she blew its foot off with a well-aimed bolt of fire.
Mordrin, Berthold and Alane returned to the cavern to find Grundi busy reloading his blunderbuss, while Seigfreid was looting the corpses, and cutting off their ears to present to Captain Schutzmann as proof of their endeavours.
None of the party went too close to the human arm they found roasting over an open fire. Siegfried and Mordrin on the other hand went too close for comfort to the skavens' rough beds, but only Mordrin was unlucky enough to find himself suffering a plague of flea and tick bites that were to trouble him for some time to come. Berthold went to investigate the far passage exiting the cave, only to trip a crossbow trap, which luckily missed him.
More cautious now despite Grundi's constant urgings just to get on with it so that they could pursue the escaped skaven to deal with him and any more of his vile kin they could find, Seigfried led the party into the final chamber while Alane hung back to keep a wary eye open up the entry tunnel. There they found another skaven bed, which Seigfried pronounced safe, and in which they eventually found just the frame of the icon of Sigmar which Berthold had carried all the way to Middenheim from the scene of Father Dietrich's grisly death back in the Drakwald what- to the PC's- now seemed like an age ago.
They also found a statue of the dwarf god Grungni, which was instantly recognised by Mordrin, a loyal follower of this god who- along with Grundi- had prayed to Grungni for aid in their hunt for the skaven only that morning. It seemed that Grungni had not only answered their prayers, but that he had chosen them to be the instruments of the rediscovery of one of his ancient temples.
Mordrin's first instinct was to chase the humans out of this sacred place, but he eventually realised that it was too late for that. In any case, it would need to be reconsecrated after being defiled by the vile ratmen. At least, he thought, the elf hadn't come in. The enormity of this find quickly impressed itself upon Grundi, and his constant calls for haste in pursuit of the skaven fell silent. Soon discovering that the statue was carved into a natural feature of the cave itself, Mordrin decided that he had a message of great import to carry to the 'fresh' air of the blasted city above.
The party retraced their steps back to their entry point without incident.
Related@RD/KA!
In the Sewers of Middenheim
- We strike a bum note
- #2 Reports, retorts, and last resorts
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim
Sunday, September 11, 2005
In review: Darkness Rising
Darkness Rising: A Complete History of the Storm of Chaos
Phil Kelly and Anthony Reynolds
GW: Black Library
Regular readers might remember that I picked up a copy of this on a day out in my old home town of Dundee during my recent trip east. Here is the review I promised.
Darkness Rising: A Complete History of the Storm of Chaos (DR) is a background book from the BL range. Presented in the format now familiar from across the gaming industry- namely that of a pseudoreal volume from the setting it covers, at first sight DR presents a sumptuous package. Its 96 pages are laid out like those of an illuminated printed book, and are bursting with illustrations, mock letters and other clippings. These are production standards of the high quality longtime GW customers have been taking for granted for years.
But as Donald Sutherland's Vernon L. Pinkley in The Dirty Dozen said: "Very pretty, General. Very pretty. But, can they fight?"
The central conceit
As my above remarks suggest, DR is built around a central conceit by now very familiar to fans of the F&SF genres: namely the pretence that this is a real book written by an actual person in the setting the book describes. This is such a hoary old device that a review of DR must take into account the use that the book's writers make thereof, in terms of how useful the book will be to its readership.
To begin with though, the conceit is nicely set up on the book's frontspiece. The following appears under the book's title and subtitle:
Immediately then we are plunged deep into the entertaining riches of the Old World. A good start.
Meanwhile, I wonder who was first responsible for this device, and if there is a proper name for it?
Summary of contents
The contents of DR are presented in the form of "Old" Weirde's Prologue, 7 chapters, and an Epilogue. The chapters are as follows:
1. Archaon, Lord of The End Times
2. The Holy Sigmarites of the Empire
3. The Conclave of Light
4. The Eastern Front
5. The War in the North
6. The Mustering
7. The Siege of Middenheim.
There are also 67 pictures- ranging from small insets to full double-page spreads; 25 'reproduced' letters, manuscripts and other clippings; and 4 maps- for a grand total of 96 illustrations in a 96 page book. This is simply excellent.
The illustrations
As ever with GW products (and not only with GW these days), I am already familiar with some of these from the pages of White Dwarf (WD), WFRP2 product, and WFB:SoC. I would also be familiar with many more were I a player of Sabretooth Games' Warcry Warhammer CCG.
So all matters of quality aside, the question immediately arises: should DR be marked down because of this recycling of imagery? Not in the opinion of this reviewer.
I have long believed that GW essentially invented the modern British F&SF illustration industry back in the 80's, with WD, WFB, 40K, and other products. This opinion about history is not a reason for not marking down DR (or any other product from any other company for that matter) for recycling illustrations I'll readily admit. But it does point to my essential point: sheer economics.
Simply put: if GW- which both employs illustrators and commissions work if I am not mistaken; if even the mighty GW can only afford to produce so many lavishly illustrated products by recycling illustrations, then I would suggest that we face a simple reality check. Either we have fewer illustrations, all new; or we have more illustrations, some recycled. I know which option I favour.
Moreover, the issue is not just one of how many illustrations in any given product are recycled. Rather it is one of to what use all the illustrations are put. Do they serve a purpose in the given product, or don't they?
I really can't give an exhaustive account of which illustrations in DR are recycled, and which aren't. What I can do is give my impressions of their qualities, and their usefulness. As noted above, the illustrations in DR fall neatly into 3 categories: maps, ms, and pictures. I'll take each in turn.
Maps
The 4 maps in DR appear in chapters 1, 4, 6, and the Epilogue. They are all the same basic map, with the classic campaign maps' coloured arrows to depict the paths of Archaon's horde as it descended upon the Empire, and of the Empire's various defenders in their responses. This is good, because it gives a clear and concise image of the conduct of the campaign in its key phases. In other words: exactly what any reader of this book would want to know.
MS
These represent "Old" Weirde's own writings, field despatches from "the boy, Stefan" (who turns out to be "Old" Weirde's only child), and sundry other ms, clippings and letters received, collected and collated by "Old" Weirde. These are presented in a variety of styles representing different kinds of paper, calligraphic styles, and even printing on occasion.
In general, this material is used extremely well. The various ms are introduced in a timely manner, so that they amplify the thrust of the basic text. They are also from sources of a sufficient variety to add breadth and depth to the account of how Archaon's horde made its impact felt across the Old World.
My only real complaint about this material is that some of the fonts and layouts chosen are just a wee bit too difficult to read. This is not to say that these are unreadable; rather that they contrast just a touch too unfavourably with everyday printing typefaces.
Pictures
The pictures in DR fall into the following categories:
1. the forces of chaos
2. the forces of the Empire and it allies
3. the grim realities of war in the Old World
4. the horrors of the aftermath.
As I've already noted, many of these are recycled, most notably from the Warcry CCG. I reckon these are the most easy to identify, for one reason or another. Some of the illustrations are better than the others; eg. several of those that I would imagine are recycled from the CCG look a bit sketchy when reproduced on the larger scale of this book compared to the thumbnails of a playing card. That said, the overall effect of the illustrations is excellent.
The images of the forces of Chaos range from the familiar highly detailed renderings of the baroque splendour of Chaos knights; through the barbarian spikyness of the northern tribes; to the howling insanities of beastmen and other degenerate servants of the chaos gods.
Defenders of the Empire and its allies include the Emperor Karl Franz, the Grand Theogonist, and Valten among other characters; Imperial units such as Wolf Kin Skirmishers; and allies such as Brettonian knights or Kislevite Winged Lancers.
Although of variable quality as I have said, all of these pictures are highly evocative. Some- eg. the pictures of the charging Winged Lancers (p.57) and Brettonians (p.61)- are particularly striking to my eye, nicely capturing both the insane grandeur and sheer power of these mighty horsemen in the mythology of the Old World.
But it is the pictures of the grim realities and horrific aftermath of war in the Old World that really mark this book out for me. Alongside the pictures of the warped faces of chaos and the grandeur of the Imperial forces and their various allies are many pictures showing a different side to things.
These pictures show the desperate fury and sheer terror of the fighting men in the face of Archaon's horde. Pictures like that on p.87 ('The Backbone of the Empire') showing basic Imperial troopers in action, where 2 nameless infantrymen stand side-by-side in the depths of the melee, patently unable even to wonder if they will survive. Or pictures like that on p.49 ('Daemon Unleashed') which shows a giant daemon cleaving apart most of a unit of these same Imperial infantry with one sweep of its mighty sword.
Then there are pictures like that on p.15, where a small girl stands lost and alone amid the charnelhouse of a ravaged village.
I suspect it's not often that a background book like this shows the truly terrifying side of its grim subject alongside the heroic imagery, let alone the pathos of the human cost of the bloody aftermath. It might've been done before; it might've even've been done better. I don't know. I just know that I am impressed.
The writing
As I noted above: the hoary old framing device at the heart of DR is one the treatment of which ultimately makes or breaks the book. I have to say that I consider Kelly and Reynolds' handling of this to be little or nothing short of a minor triumph.
The chapters outlined above take us through the portents of impending doom; the first intimations of Archaon's assault; the first flush of what turns out to be a false dawn of victory; the formation of the defensive alliance and the muster of the defenders of the Empire; the siege of Middenheim; and the great city's eventual relief.
This narrative is all seen from the perspective of "Old" Weirde in Altdorf. Throughout his tale, Weirde digs up strange ms; weaves in letters from young Stefan and other sources; visits his favourite taverns; meets various geezers who illuminate the events unfolding elsewhere; has a ghastly encounter; and gets caught up in civil and domestic unrest. Some of this is knockabout stuff to be sure, but it is all played straight, letting the situations tell their own tales.
A personal favourite part of mine is Chapter 3. The Conclave of Light (at which the alliance against Archaon, and its strategy, was formed), and I really must quote from it at some length.
After a list of those present (which includes the highly amusing entry: "Old Weirde, dashing historian and author of this transcript."), we are treated to extracts from the Conclave's deliberations. On day 30 of the Conclave, Teclis arrives. He makes a speech in favour of a general alliance. The dwarfs there present grumble among themselves. Then:
There is so much in this text that I enjoyed that my remarks have barely scratched the surface of its delights, with the politicking and paranoia of the alliance and the Imperial muster, and in victory's aftermath left for readers to savour entirely for themselves. I must however note that one of DR's merits is that there is a real story in there too, one so real that I can say no more about it in the time-honoured tradition of not giving away spoilers.
Sufficeth to say that the story Kelly and Reynolds give us is one that I am unashamed to say that I found genuinely touching. Surprised, for sure. But unashamed.
Conclusion
All in all then, I would have to say that Darkness Rising: A Complete History of the Storm of Chaos is a superior product. It takes certain familiar devices: the framing device; the episodic narrative with diverse 'addenda'; and lots of nice pictures; and delivers a damn good read, and what must surely be a exemplar of how to do a system-less background book for a gaming setting.
Is this book indispensable on a gamer's shelf? Well, if you're a GM new to WFRP2, and you're playing in the standard post-SoC setting, I would have to say that it is. I also have WFB:SoC. This book has a lot of useful material in it for a WFRP2 GM, but DR puts you right there, in the Old World and under the clouds of the SoC and its aftermath in a way that a WFB army book never could.
And a rating? Well, despite my remarks about the varying quality of the illustrations, I would have to give it full marks, on whatever scale, because it's so damn well written and organised. Well done to all concerned. ;)
Phil Kelly and Anthony Reynolds
GW: Black Library
Regular readers might remember that I picked up a copy of this on a day out in my old home town of Dundee during my recent trip east. Here is the review I promised.
Darkness Rising: A Complete History of the Storm of Chaos (DR) is a background book from the BL range. Presented in the format now familiar from across the gaming industry- namely that of a pseudoreal volume from the setting it covers, at first sight DR presents a sumptuous package. Its 96 pages are laid out like those of an illuminated printed book, and are bursting with illustrations, mock letters and other clippings. These are production standards of the high quality longtime GW customers have been taking for granted for years.
But as Donald Sutherland's Vernon L. Pinkley in The Dirty Dozen said: "Very pretty, General. Very pretty. But, can they fight?"
The central conceit
As my above remarks suggest, DR is built around a central conceit by now very familiar to fans of the F&SF genres: namely the pretence that this is a real book written by an actual person in the setting the book describes. This is such a hoary old device that a review of DR must take into account the use that the book's writers make thereof, in terms of how useful the book will be to its readership.
To begin with though, the conceit is nicely set up on the book's frontspiece. The following appears under the book's title and subtitle:
Being a Considered Essay on the Rise of the Darkness, the Storm of Chaos and the Invasion of the Lord of The End Times
Compiled and written by Frederich "Old" Weirde of Altdorf, Noted Scholar, Professor of Esoteric Studies, Historian, Antiquarian, Fellow of the Altdorf Men's Historical Society and Connoisseur of Finest Estalian Port
With capable assistance from the boy, Stefan
A History of the Fate of the Empire of Karl Franz during the time of the Darkness Rising
Altdorf Press
Compiled and written by Frederich "Old" Weirde of Altdorf, Noted Scholar, Professor of Esoteric Studies, Historian, Antiquarian, Fellow of the Altdorf Men's Historical Society and Connoisseur of Finest Estalian Port
With capable assistance from the boy, Stefan
A History of the Fate of the Empire of Karl Franz during the time of the Darkness Rising
Altdorf Press
Immediately then we are plunged deep into the entertaining riches of the Old World. A good start.
Meanwhile, I wonder who was first responsible for this device, and if there is a proper name for it?
Summary of contents
The contents of DR are presented in the form of "Old" Weirde's Prologue, 7 chapters, and an Epilogue. The chapters are as follows:
1. Archaon, Lord of The End Times
2. The Holy Sigmarites of the Empire
3. The Conclave of Light
4. The Eastern Front
5. The War in the North
6. The Mustering
7. The Siege of Middenheim.
There are also 67 pictures- ranging from small insets to full double-page spreads; 25 'reproduced' letters, manuscripts and other clippings; and 4 maps- for a grand total of 96 illustrations in a 96 page book. This is simply excellent.
The illustrations
As ever with GW products (and not only with GW these days), I am already familiar with some of these from the pages of White Dwarf (WD), WFRP2 product, and WFB:SoC. I would also be familiar with many more were I a player of Sabretooth Games' Warcry Warhammer CCG.
So all matters of quality aside, the question immediately arises: should DR be marked down because of this recycling of imagery? Not in the opinion of this reviewer.
I have long believed that GW essentially invented the modern British F&SF illustration industry back in the 80's, with WD, WFB, 40K, and other products. This opinion about history is not a reason for not marking down DR (or any other product from any other company for that matter) for recycling illustrations I'll readily admit. But it does point to my essential point: sheer economics.
Simply put: if GW- which both employs illustrators and commissions work if I am not mistaken; if even the mighty GW can only afford to produce so many lavishly illustrated products by recycling illustrations, then I would suggest that we face a simple reality check. Either we have fewer illustrations, all new; or we have more illustrations, some recycled. I know which option I favour.
Moreover, the issue is not just one of how many illustrations in any given product are recycled. Rather it is one of to what use all the illustrations are put. Do they serve a purpose in the given product, or don't they?
I really can't give an exhaustive account of which illustrations in DR are recycled, and which aren't. What I can do is give my impressions of their qualities, and their usefulness. As noted above, the illustrations in DR fall neatly into 3 categories: maps, ms, and pictures. I'll take each in turn.
Maps
The 4 maps in DR appear in chapters 1, 4, 6, and the Epilogue. They are all the same basic map, with the classic campaign maps' coloured arrows to depict the paths of Archaon's horde as it descended upon the Empire, and of the Empire's various defenders in their responses. This is good, because it gives a clear and concise image of the conduct of the campaign in its key phases. In other words: exactly what any reader of this book would want to know.
MS
These represent "Old" Weirde's own writings, field despatches from "the boy, Stefan" (who turns out to be "Old" Weirde's only child), and sundry other ms, clippings and letters received, collected and collated by "Old" Weirde. These are presented in a variety of styles representing different kinds of paper, calligraphic styles, and even printing on occasion.
In general, this material is used extremely well. The various ms are introduced in a timely manner, so that they amplify the thrust of the basic text. They are also from sources of a sufficient variety to add breadth and depth to the account of how Archaon's horde made its impact felt across the Old World.
My only real complaint about this material is that some of the fonts and layouts chosen are just a wee bit too difficult to read. This is not to say that these are unreadable; rather that they contrast just a touch too unfavourably with everyday printing typefaces.
Pictures
The pictures in DR fall into the following categories:
1. the forces of chaos
2. the forces of the Empire and it allies
3. the grim realities of war in the Old World
4. the horrors of the aftermath.
As I've already noted, many of these are recycled, most notably from the Warcry CCG. I reckon these are the most easy to identify, for one reason or another. Some of the illustrations are better than the others; eg. several of those that I would imagine are recycled from the CCG look a bit sketchy when reproduced on the larger scale of this book compared to the thumbnails of a playing card. That said, the overall effect of the illustrations is excellent.
The images of the forces of Chaos range from the familiar highly detailed renderings of the baroque splendour of Chaos knights; through the barbarian spikyness of the northern tribes; to the howling insanities of beastmen and other degenerate servants of the chaos gods.
Defenders of the Empire and its allies include the Emperor Karl Franz, the Grand Theogonist, and Valten among other characters; Imperial units such as Wolf Kin Skirmishers; and allies such as Brettonian knights or Kislevite Winged Lancers.
Although of variable quality as I have said, all of these pictures are highly evocative. Some- eg. the pictures of the charging Winged Lancers (p.57) and Brettonians (p.61)- are particularly striking to my eye, nicely capturing both the insane grandeur and sheer power of these mighty horsemen in the mythology of the Old World.
But it is the pictures of the grim realities and horrific aftermath of war in the Old World that really mark this book out for me. Alongside the pictures of the warped faces of chaos and the grandeur of the Imperial forces and their various allies are many pictures showing a different side to things.
These pictures show the desperate fury and sheer terror of the fighting men in the face of Archaon's horde. Pictures like that on p.87 ('The Backbone of the Empire') showing basic Imperial troopers in action, where 2 nameless infantrymen stand side-by-side in the depths of the melee, patently unable even to wonder if they will survive. Or pictures like that on p.49 ('Daemon Unleashed') which shows a giant daemon cleaving apart most of a unit of these same Imperial infantry with one sweep of its mighty sword.
Then there are pictures like that on p.15, where a small girl stands lost and alone amid the charnelhouse of a ravaged village.
I suspect it's not often that a background book like this shows the truly terrifying side of its grim subject alongside the heroic imagery, let alone the pathos of the human cost of the bloody aftermath. It might've been done before; it might've even've been done better. I don't know. I just know that I am impressed.
The writing
As I noted above: the hoary old framing device at the heart of DR is one the treatment of which ultimately makes or breaks the book. I have to say that I consider Kelly and Reynolds' handling of this to be little or nothing short of a minor triumph.
The chapters outlined above take us through the portents of impending doom; the first intimations of Archaon's assault; the first flush of what turns out to be a false dawn of victory; the formation of the defensive alliance and the muster of the defenders of the Empire; the siege of Middenheim; and the great city's eventual relief.
This narrative is all seen from the perspective of "Old" Weirde in Altdorf. Throughout his tale, Weirde digs up strange ms; weaves in letters from young Stefan and other sources; visits his favourite taverns; meets various geezers who illuminate the events unfolding elsewhere; has a ghastly encounter; and gets caught up in civil and domestic unrest. Some of this is knockabout stuff to be sure, but it is all played straight, letting the situations tell their own tales.
A personal favourite part of mine is Chapter 3. The Conclave of Light (at which the alliance against Archaon, and its strategy, was formed), and I really must quote from it at some length.
After a list of those present (which includes the highly amusing entry: "Old Weirde, dashing historian and author of this transcript."), we are treated to extracts from the Conclave's deliberations. On day 30 of the Conclave, Teclis arrives. He makes a speech in favour of a general alliance. The dwarfs there present grumble among themselves. Then:
THUNGRIMSSON: Though the memories of others may grow dim with time, the dwarfs remember the wrongs done to them, and few are greater than the treachery of the Pheonix King and his beardless kin. But, before the deceit of the beard-maimers, the elves and dwarfs stood side-by-side on many occasions to face the hordes of Chaos, and put aside the differences during the time of Magnus. Though we shall never forget the wrongs they did us, we shall not let it be said of us that we would rather damn the world than listen to an elf. When the horns sound from the walls of Karaz-a-Karak, the dwarfs will heed them, and if need be, we will march at the side of the elves.Hot damn, but that sends a shiver down my spine! Gripping stuff.
KARL FRANZ: Noble Teclis, what is the answer that you bring from the Pheonix King? Will he fight with us?
TECLIS: Yes.
There is so much in this text that I enjoyed that my remarks have barely scratched the surface of its delights, with the politicking and paranoia of the alliance and the Imperial muster, and in victory's aftermath left for readers to savour entirely for themselves. I must however note that one of DR's merits is that there is a real story in there too, one so real that I can say no more about it in the time-honoured tradition of not giving away spoilers.
Sufficeth to say that the story Kelly and Reynolds give us is one that I am unashamed to say that I found genuinely touching. Surprised, for sure. But unashamed.
Conclusion
All in all then, I would have to say that Darkness Rising: A Complete History of the Storm of Chaos is a superior product. It takes certain familiar devices: the framing device; the episodic narrative with diverse 'addenda'; and lots of nice pictures; and delivers a damn good read, and what must surely be a exemplar of how to do a system-less background book for a gaming setting.
Is this book indispensable on a gamer's shelf? Well, if you're a GM new to WFRP2, and you're playing in the standard post-SoC setting, I would have to say that it is. I also have WFB:SoC. This book has a lot of useful material in it for a WFRP2 GM, but DR puts you right there, in the Old World and under the clouds of the SoC and its aftermath in a way that a WFB army book never could.
And a rating? Well, despite my remarks about the varying quality of the illustrations, I would have to give it full marks, on whatever scale, because it's so damn well written and organised. Well done to all concerned. ;)
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Four-colour friends
A recent trip to my local GW netted me a graphic compendium worth commenting on.
Tales of Hellbrandt Grimm
Michael Scanlon and the Sharp brothers
GW: Black Library
Having taken up GM'ing WFRP2 in recent months, I have decided that it's time I read a bit more widely about the background than the 7 Gotrek and Felix novels I've read. Looking at the Black Library (BL) shelf in my local GW, I saw several interesting looking omnibus editions of other well-known series of novels. Then I caught sight of this little number: a pocketbook-sized TPB anthologising stories first published in the now defunct Warhammer Monthly (WM). Result!
I remember reading the first few episodes of this story in the special 1st birthday issue of WM, the first couple of dozen of issues of which I collected. Those first issues were a real mixed bag IMO. Some of the strips were pretty good, others were really quite bad. (This opinion of mine wasn't widely shared: WM won the 'Best New Comic' award in the National Comics Awards in 1999).
The first WM monthly strip that really caught my attention was 'The Redeemer', by the legendary Pat Mills, of 2000AD and 'Judge Dredd' fame. This strip captured the full zealous insanity of the world of the Dark Millenium, which has long been my main interest in the sphere of GW ttg's. It was the first strip that I felt really achieved this, presenting the setting and its characters with the requisite whacked-out humour and proper comicbook stylings. This is hardly surprising really. 2000AD was a major influence on the GW crew that gave us WFB and 40K, so it is hardly surprising that a leading light from that classic British comic should be the first to get properly under the skin of the Dark Millenium in WM.
All the same, I can still remember the first of the 'Tales of Hellbrandt Grimm' in the 1st birthday special issue of WM given away with the White Dwarf. As with all the other Warhammer strips in WM, this had little impact on me because of my interest in 40K et al.
So it has been with some pleasure that I have been discovering what I had missed.
The first thing I liked about Tales of Hellbrandt Grimm (ToHG) was its pocketbook size. This is neat and portable, which is just nice IMO. It also reminds me of the Commando Comics I used to read as a kid: WW2 action comics published by the infamous DC Thompson, best known for The Beano, The Dandy, and the inimitable The Sunday Post.
The next thing I liked about ToHG was, well pretty much everything else. A hardbitten and ruthless- not to mention surely downright evil- mercenary, Grimm is kind of a 'man with no name' of the Warhammer Old World. Most of his adventures are recounted by some storyteller or other, most notably some 'hapless' prisoner of a dungeon.
Grim and gritty, with evocative titles like 'A Long Way of Dying', or 'Some Swift and Brutal Hand', these are classic 'sting-in-the-tail' stories that really get to the heart of the unique feel of the Warhammer Old World. Backing them up are tales of 'Liliana Falcone: Bird of Prey'- which shows the range of stories that can fit into the Old World; a taster and script for 'Wolf Country'- which would've been Grimm's experience of the Storm of Chaos event that underpins the revived WFRP setting; and a one-off crossover quirk featuring 'Inquisitor Hellbrandt Grimm'.
These stories are well written, nicely drawn, and an atmospheric evocation of the Old World just chock full of characters and plot ideas for WFRP GM's. My only complaint about it is that, in the reduction from standard comicbook to pocketbook size, the lettering has become difficult to read, to the point of almost giving this reader eyestrain.
That old fart's gripe aside, I cannot recommend Tales of Hellbrandt Grimm too highly, for lovers of comics, dark fantasy, and WFRP alike. Good reading everyone.
And yes, I know ToHG is black and white, so not strictly 4-colour. Please direct your complaints to a certain H. Grimm, esquire, care of the Black Library. ;)
Tales of Hellbrandt Grimm
Michael Scanlon and the Sharp brothers
GW: Black Library
Having taken up GM'ing WFRP2 in recent months, I have decided that it's time I read a bit more widely about the background than the 7 Gotrek and Felix novels I've read. Looking at the Black Library (BL) shelf in my local GW, I saw several interesting looking omnibus editions of other well-known series of novels. Then I caught sight of this little number: a pocketbook-sized TPB anthologising stories first published in the now defunct Warhammer Monthly (WM). Result!
I remember reading the first few episodes of this story in the special 1st birthday issue of WM, the first couple of dozen of issues of which I collected. Those first issues were a real mixed bag IMO. Some of the strips were pretty good, others were really quite bad. (This opinion of mine wasn't widely shared: WM won the 'Best New Comic' award in the National Comics Awards in 1999).
The first WM monthly strip that really caught my attention was 'The Redeemer', by the legendary Pat Mills, of 2000AD and 'Judge Dredd' fame. This strip captured the full zealous insanity of the world of the Dark Millenium, which has long been my main interest in the sphere of GW ttg's. It was the first strip that I felt really achieved this, presenting the setting and its characters with the requisite whacked-out humour and proper comicbook stylings. This is hardly surprising really. 2000AD was a major influence on the GW crew that gave us WFB and 40K, so it is hardly surprising that a leading light from that classic British comic should be the first to get properly under the skin of the Dark Millenium in WM.
All the same, I can still remember the first of the 'Tales of Hellbrandt Grimm' in the 1st birthday special issue of WM given away with the White Dwarf. As with all the other Warhammer strips in WM, this had little impact on me because of my interest in 40K et al.
So it has been with some pleasure that I have been discovering what I had missed.
The first thing I liked about Tales of Hellbrandt Grimm (ToHG) was its pocketbook size. This is neat and portable, which is just nice IMO. It also reminds me of the Commando Comics I used to read as a kid: WW2 action comics published by the infamous DC Thompson, best known for The Beano, The Dandy, and the inimitable The Sunday Post.
The next thing I liked about ToHG was, well pretty much everything else. A hardbitten and ruthless- not to mention surely downright evil- mercenary, Grimm is kind of a 'man with no name' of the Warhammer Old World. Most of his adventures are recounted by some storyteller or other, most notably some 'hapless' prisoner of a dungeon.
Grim and gritty, with evocative titles like 'A Long Way of Dying', or 'Some Swift and Brutal Hand', these are classic 'sting-in-the-tail' stories that really get to the heart of the unique feel of the Warhammer Old World. Backing them up are tales of 'Liliana Falcone: Bird of Prey'- which shows the range of stories that can fit into the Old World; a taster and script for 'Wolf Country'- which would've been Grimm's experience of the Storm of Chaos event that underpins the revived WFRP setting; and a one-off crossover quirk featuring 'Inquisitor Hellbrandt Grimm'.
These stories are well written, nicely drawn, and an atmospheric evocation of the Old World just chock full of characters and plot ideas for WFRP GM's. My only complaint about it is that, in the reduction from standard comicbook to pocketbook size, the lettering has become difficult to read, to the point of almost giving this reader eyestrain.
That old fart's gripe aside, I cannot recommend Tales of Hellbrandt Grimm too highly, for lovers of comics, dark fantasy, and WFRP alike. Good reading everyone.
And yes, I know ToHG is black and white, so not strictly 4-colour. Please direct your complaints to a certain H. Grimm, esquire, care of the Black Library. ;)
Friday, September 09, 2005
Meanwhile...
Tony came round yesterday for another session brainstorming our future roleplaying campaigns.
We're still working up the key NPC's for the new superhero campaign we want to put together. We now know who they are, and where they come from. We got as far as putting together a HERO species package deal for Tony's character.
After that, we turned to our copies of the D&D PHB and tried out rolling up a couple of characters. I'd done this once before several years ago, but this was my first go with v3.5. Tony had never seen the d20 D&D in action before. I ended up with a fairly decent fighter. Tony got a slightly less noteworthy rogue. Nostalgia buzzes aside (for Tony, it had been a long time since he had generated any kind of D&D characters at all), we both agreed that the new system looks very good.
We liked the addition of proper skills lists, which was particularly notable with the rogue, who had nearly twice as many skill points as the fighter- a nice piece of balance we thought. For my part, I was delighted to discover that a 1st level human fighter starts with 3 feats; all the more so when I saw the list of feats from which I could choose. I ended up with power attack, and 15HP- 15HP at 1st level?- woot!
Overall, we were both favourably impressed with the logic and coherence of the new core mechanics. Also, working as we were from a v3 and a v3.5 PHB, we began to get some idea of the differences between the 2 editions. Aside from the improved layout to the various character creation tables, we noticed a few small but significant changes to the skills lists. At the end of the day, on the strength of just the generation of a single character each, we both knew that we were looking forward to visiting roleplaying haunts old and new using the d20 system.
Later I passed a pleasant couple of hours watching the 1963 romantic thriller Charade, starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. The cast also features a growling Walter Matthau and the young James Coburn and George Kennedy.
This is fine wee movie. The dialogue is sharp, witty, and amusing; the plot full of neat twists that can survive multiple viewings. And no matter how soppy the romance got it didn't matter for me, because with Hepburn as the female romantic lead- in a role that would be very difficult to write today (if not outright impossible?); well, I just couldn't resist seeing her getting her happy ending, even in the face of cloying saccharine sweetness. Although, truth to tell, it's not all that bad sometimes in any case.
It was also nice watching much younger versions of movie actors I have enjoyed in many other films.
Most striking for me though probably was seeing Cary Grant playing another light action-hero. As was explained to me many years ago: although better known for his light romantic comedies, Grant was a very credible light action-hero, by virtue of his being a stage acrobat in his early career. Consider him in Hitchcock's classic North by Northwest. There is something convincing about the way he moves that- in a way similar to the young Sean Connery as James Bond- makes Grant look right for the part (though he doesn't have Connery's air of barely subdued violent menace).
These same qualities are on dsplay in Charade, especially when he's sprinting about to rescue the delightful Hepburn from peril. Watch the way he uses the objects around him, grabbing hold of railings and the like to redirect his movements say. Little touches like these mean that you can easily believe that, beneath the familiar debonair leading man who is so justly famous, there lurks a steely core that could credibly survive the classic 'ordinary people in extraordinary situations' thriller subgenre of which Charade is a fine example.
From a gamer's point-of-view? Well, there is a nice mystery plot to lift- although I would expect your average group of PC's to be the bad guys from this movie! More than that, it strikes me that this kind of light thriller is perfect fodder for a one-off or mini-series using a rules-light system. Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes (the modern-era version of the venerable Tunnels and Trolls) is a game I know was written largely for this purpose. I wonder what's been done in this vein in the subsequent 2 decades?
We're still working up the key NPC's for the new superhero campaign we want to put together. We now know who they are, and where they come from. We got as far as putting together a HERO species package deal for Tony's character.
After that, we turned to our copies of the D&D PHB and tried out rolling up a couple of characters. I'd done this once before several years ago, but this was my first go with v3.5. Tony had never seen the d20 D&D in action before. I ended up with a fairly decent fighter. Tony got a slightly less noteworthy rogue. Nostalgia buzzes aside (for Tony, it had been a long time since he had generated any kind of D&D characters at all), we both agreed that the new system looks very good.
We liked the addition of proper skills lists, which was particularly notable with the rogue, who had nearly twice as many skill points as the fighter- a nice piece of balance we thought. For my part, I was delighted to discover that a 1st level human fighter starts with 3 feats; all the more so when I saw the list of feats from which I could choose. I ended up with power attack, and 15HP- 15HP at 1st level?- woot!
Overall, we were both favourably impressed with the logic and coherence of the new core mechanics. Also, working as we were from a v3 and a v3.5 PHB, we began to get some idea of the differences between the 2 editions. Aside from the improved layout to the various character creation tables, we noticed a few small but significant changes to the skills lists. At the end of the day, on the strength of just the generation of a single character each, we both knew that we were looking forward to visiting roleplaying haunts old and new using the d20 system.
Later I passed a pleasant couple of hours watching the 1963 romantic thriller Charade, starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. The cast also features a growling Walter Matthau and the young James Coburn and George Kennedy.
This is fine wee movie. The dialogue is sharp, witty, and amusing; the plot full of neat twists that can survive multiple viewings. And no matter how soppy the romance got it didn't matter for me, because with Hepburn as the female romantic lead- in a role that would be very difficult to write today (if not outright impossible?); well, I just couldn't resist seeing her getting her happy ending, even in the face of cloying saccharine sweetness. Although, truth to tell, it's not all that bad sometimes in any case.
It was also nice watching much younger versions of movie actors I have enjoyed in many other films.
Most striking for me though probably was seeing Cary Grant playing another light action-hero. As was explained to me many years ago: although better known for his light romantic comedies, Grant was a very credible light action-hero, by virtue of his being a stage acrobat in his early career. Consider him in Hitchcock's classic North by Northwest. There is something convincing about the way he moves that- in a way similar to the young Sean Connery as James Bond- makes Grant look right for the part (though he doesn't have Connery's air of barely subdued violent menace).
These same qualities are on dsplay in Charade, especially when he's sprinting about to rescue the delightful Hepburn from peril. Watch the way he uses the objects around him, grabbing hold of railings and the like to redirect his movements say. Little touches like these mean that you can easily believe that, beneath the familiar debonair leading man who is so justly famous, there lurks a steely core that could credibly survive the classic 'ordinary people in extraordinary situations' thriller subgenre of which Charade is a fine example.
From a gamer's point-of-view? Well, there is a nice mystery plot to lift- although I would expect your average group of PC's to be the bad guys from this movie! More than that, it strikes me that this kind of light thriller is perfect fodder for a one-off or mini-series using a rules-light system. Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes (the modern-era version of the venerable Tunnels and Trolls) is a game I know was written largely for this purpose. I wonder what's been done in this vein in the subsequent 2 decades?
Thursday, September 08, 2005
A rash of enthusiasm...
... For Memoir'44
Part 2: The Elements of Fire and Movement
Basic fire and movement of tanks and infantry
Disregarding terrain effects for the moment, the basic fire and movement rules for tanks and infantry can be summed-up as follows:
All of which contrasts nicely with tanks' ability to zip around much faster, always able to bring their full firepower to bear, because they have cannons.
It is obviously technically inaccurate that there is nothing in the rules to reflect the effect of range on the accuracy of tanks' guns, but the point here is to represent the relative prowess of these 2 fundamental arms of fire and movement on the WW2 battlefield.
The smoothly modelled expression of these relative strengths is deepened by the simple fact that infantry units have 4 models, while tanks have only 3. This means that, all things being equal, it will take any unit a minimum of 2 turns of good shooting to destroy an enemy infantry unit. Tanks, on the other hand, always face the chance of being destroyed by a single good turn's shooting by any unit firing with full firepower.
In addition to this, there are 3/6 kill results on a battle dice against infantry, as opposed to 2/6 versus tanks.
So, without even considering the effects of range and cover, the basic structures of Borg's system of fire and movement give a nice feel for:
In a rule that will be familiar to grognards everywhere, if a battle at 1-hex range (a.k.a. 'close assault') results in the target hex being empty for any reason, the firing unit may advance into the vacated hex. More than that, if the advancing unit is a tank unit, it might well be able to conduct an overrun attack, which is another attack at an eligible target (which could be the same or a different unit according to circumstances).
This rule is the key to tank tactics in M44, and it is the rule which most neatly conveys how dangerous massed armour is in open country. If you can get several tank units in among the enemy, you can wreak utter havoc in no time at all. Or you can have them cut off, surrounded, and destroyed. The effects of this on play are just plain brilliant, everything would-be Rommels and Pattons could wish for.
Already then we can see that, with rules that could literally be written on the back of an envelope, Borg has given a finely nuanuced rendering of the fundamental aspects of fire and movement of tanks and infantry on the WW2 battlefield. His approach isn't to present each in painstaking detail. Instead he presents the distinguishing features of each relative to the other in a form appropriate to the fast and fluid game he wants us to play.
Terrain effects on movement
One thing that is missing from M44 is that mechanism familiar from so many other simulationist boardgames: a table of terrain effects on movement expressed in terms of various deductions from movement factors according to unit and terrain types.
M44's approach to this is much simpler. In M44, terrain typically either:
The point here is that the M44 player represents anything from a company to a divisional commander depending on the scenario, though I would suggest that most games put you in the seat of a brigade/regimental commander. What I mean to say is that, at that level of command and degree of remove from the sharp end, the tactical details of terrain effects on movement are quite irrelevant. What would be important are the general effects of the different terrain features on your manoeuvre elements. This is what the above-noted effects do: terrain either having no effect on your units; slowing them down; or really slowing them down and requiring a potentially risky approach march.
A neat feature of these rules is the effect of terrain like towns and woods. These allow any unit to enter such terrain while moving at full tilt, only to be reduced to a 1-hex/turn crawl thereafter. This gives a great feel for cover beckoning to and welcoming your units, but bogging them down thereafter.
It also has to be noted that these rules for terrain effects on movement are more or less essential in a game in which the regulation infantry move is 2 hexes. Cut it no matter how you will, traditional mechanics for dealing with this decisive feature of warfare couldn't've worked. But that's not a matter of authenticity as such, so I won't be pursuing this point here.
Terrain effects on combat
This subject falls into 3 categories:
Moving fire
The M44 rules for terrain effects on the fire of moving units are quite simple: some terrain types - eg. towns and woods- prohibit fire the same turn that a unit enters those terrain features; others - eg. hills - don't. At first sight I guess some might find this overly constraining. I know I did, at first sight. It could be argued that it allows for a measure of opportunity fire by the enemy as your units take up their firing positions. I wouldn't find this persuasive though, because the same cannot be said of moving in the open, a situation in which this kind of enemy fire would be all the more likely.
For me, this is once again all a matter of enforcing the POV offered by the cardplay command and control. The effect of these rules on play is that you typically have to plan at least 2 turns in advance to get the full effect of advancing to a covered firing position - the best such positions at least. That is:
LOS
The M44 LOS rules are a simple variant of the Squad Leader hex-centre to hex-centre rules. Most terrain features, and all units, block LOS traced through their hexes. The authenticity lies in the fact that this enforces careful disposition of your units to avoid them getting in each others' way. The simplicity lies in the fact that the short ranges over which LOS is traced mean that you can eyeball this without ever actually having to trace a line from centrepoint to centrepoint.
Cover
Though it's not unique, perhaps the most striking feature of terrain as cover in M44 is that each terrain type's cover is defined according to the firer's unit type, not the target's unit type. This is striking because it is in some sense counter-intuitive, or so it would seem from the simple fact that these rules are those which have caused the most confusion among the people I have introduced to the game. That's still not very much confusion at all, but it has been enough to be notable.
Terrain as cover in M44 takes 2 forms:
Firepower reductions can be summed up as: always a reduction of 1; unless you've got tanks firing into certain types of 'dense' terrain- eg. towns and woods- in which case it's 2.
The effect of this is to cap the basic structure of fire and movement with rules that make tanks pretty useless against those 'dense' terrain types, where their impressive 3 firepower will always be 1. Infantry, on the other hand, can close in for a respectable 2. What we have then is a smooth rendering of the reality that, in close terrain, you really need to send your infantry in to winkle out the enemy.
Add in such things as the need for infantry to close to medium range (ie. 2 hexes) to have any effect at all on units in cover, or the still juicy 2 firepower tanks enjoy against more open terrain types, eg. hills, and you can see that M44's 3 simple layers of rules: basic fire and movement, terrain effects on movement, and terrain effects on combat; all unite to give a rendering of its subject matter in which all the distinctive elements interact to give a degree of authentic detail that belies the game's simplicity.
All of which is enhanced by a degree of sheer playability which I believe is itself an aspect of the game's simulationist credentials, but that's for another day. ;)
Related@RD/KA!
- Part 1: Another hymn of praise to cardplay
- Part 3: A few little details
- Part 4: The authenticity of sheer playability
Part 2: The Elements of Fire and Movement
Basic fire and movement of tanks and infantry
Disregarding terrain effects for the moment, the basic fire and movement rules for tanks and infantry can be summed-up as follows:- Infantry can move 1 hex and fire ('battle' in Borg's terms), or 2 and not.
- Infantry firepower ('battle dice' in Borg's terms) is 3/2/1 at ranges 1/2/3, respectively.
- Tanks can move up to 3 hexes and still fire, and always with their full 3 firepower.
All of which contrasts nicely with tanks' ability to zip around much faster, always able to bring their full firepower to bear, because they have cannons.
It is obviously technically inaccurate that there is nothing in the rules to reflect the effect of range on the accuracy of tanks' guns, but the point here is to represent the relative prowess of these 2 fundamental arms of fire and movement on the WW2 battlefield.
The smoothly modelled expression of these relative strengths is deepened by the simple fact that infantry units have 4 models, while tanks have only 3. This means that, all things being equal, it will take any unit a minimum of 2 turns of good shooting to destroy an enemy infantry unit. Tanks, on the other hand, always face the chance of being destroyed by a single good turn's shooting by any unit firing with full firepower.
In addition to this, there are 3/6 kill results on a battle dice against infantry, as opposed to 2/6 versus tanks.
So, without even considering the effects of range and cover, the basic structures of Borg's system of fire and movement give a nice feel for:
- The vulnerability of the infantryman on the battlefield relative to the armoured tank;
- The survivability of infantry units, by virtue of their numbers; which tank units don't enjoy because their numbers are always smaller.
In a rule that will be familiar to grognards everywhere, if a battle at 1-hex range (a.k.a. 'close assault') results in the target hex being empty for any reason, the firing unit may advance into the vacated hex. More than that, if the advancing unit is a tank unit, it might well be able to conduct an overrun attack, which is another attack at an eligible target (which could be the same or a different unit according to circumstances).
This rule is the key to tank tactics in M44, and it is the rule which most neatly conveys how dangerous massed armour is in open country. If you can get several tank units in among the enemy, you can wreak utter havoc in no time at all. Or you can have them cut off, surrounded, and destroyed. The effects of this on play are just plain brilliant, everything would-be Rommels and Pattons could wish for.
Already then we can see that, with rules that could literally be written on the back of an envelope, Borg has given a finely nuanuced rendering of the fundamental aspects of fire and movement of tanks and infantry on the WW2 battlefield. His approach isn't to present each in painstaking detail. Instead he presents the distinguishing features of each relative to the other in a form appropriate to the fast and fluid game he wants us to play.
Terrain effects on movement
One thing that is missing from M44 is that mechanism familiar from so many other simulationist boardgames: a table of terrain effects on movement expressed in terms of various deductions from movement factors according to unit and terrain types.
M44's approach to this is much simpler. In M44, terrain typically either:
- Has no effect on movement at all, eg. hills.
- Stops further movement upon entry, eg. towns and woods.
- As above, plus you must start adjacent to the feature to enter it at all, and/or may only exit it to an adjacent hex, eg. hedgerows.
The point here is that the M44 player represents anything from a company to a divisional commander depending on the scenario, though I would suggest that most games put you in the seat of a brigade/regimental commander. What I mean to say is that, at that level of command and degree of remove from the sharp end, the tactical details of terrain effects on movement are quite irrelevant. What would be important are the general effects of the different terrain features on your manoeuvre elements. This is what the above-noted effects do: terrain either having no effect on your units; slowing them down; or really slowing them down and requiring a potentially risky approach march.
A neat feature of these rules is the effect of terrain like towns and woods. These allow any unit to enter such terrain while moving at full tilt, only to be reduced to a 1-hex/turn crawl thereafter. This gives a great feel for cover beckoning to and welcoming your units, but bogging them down thereafter.
It also has to be noted that these rules for terrain effects on movement are more or less essential in a game in which the regulation infantry move is 2 hexes. Cut it no matter how you will, traditional mechanics for dealing with this decisive feature of warfare couldn't've worked. But that's not a matter of authenticity as such, so I won't be pursuing this point here.
Terrain effects on combat
This subject falls into 3 categories:
- Moving fire.
- LOS.
- Cover.
Moving fire
The M44 rules for terrain effects on the fire of moving units are quite simple: some terrain types - eg. towns and woods- prohibit fire the same turn that a unit enters those terrain features; others - eg. hills - don't. At first sight I guess some might find this overly constraining. I know I did, at first sight. It could be argued that it allows for a measure of opportunity fire by the enemy as your units take up their firing positions. I wouldn't find this persuasive though, because the same cannot be said of moving in the open, a situation in which this kind of enemy fire would be all the more likely.
For me, this is once again all a matter of enforcing the POV offered by the cardplay command and control. The effect of these rules on play is that you typically have to plan at least 2 turns in advance to get the full effect of advancing to a covered firing position - the best such positions at least. That is:
- An order to get into position.
- Another order to open fire.
LOS
The M44 LOS rules are a simple variant of the Squad Leader hex-centre to hex-centre rules. Most terrain features, and all units, block LOS traced through their hexes. The authenticity lies in the fact that this enforces careful disposition of your units to avoid them getting in each others' way. The simplicity lies in the fact that the short ranges over which LOS is traced mean that you can eyeball this without ever actually having to trace a line from centrepoint to centrepoint.
Cover
Though it's not unique, perhaps the most striking feature of terrain as cover in M44 is that each terrain type's cover is defined according to the firer's unit type, not the target's unit type. This is striking because it is in some sense counter-intuitive, or so it would seem from the simple fact that these rules are those which have caused the most confusion among the people I have introduced to the game. That's still not very much confusion at all, but it has been enough to be notable.
Terrain as cover in M44 takes 2 forms:
- Firepower reductions.
- Ignoring the 1st flag result in combat (the flag results are retreats).
Firepower reductions can be summed up as: always a reduction of 1; unless you've got tanks firing into certain types of 'dense' terrain- eg. towns and woods- in which case it's 2.
The effect of this is to cap the basic structure of fire and movement with rules that make tanks pretty useless against those 'dense' terrain types, where their impressive 3 firepower will always be 1. Infantry, on the other hand, can close in for a respectable 2. What we have then is a smooth rendering of the reality that, in close terrain, you really need to send your infantry in to winkle out the enemy.
Add in such things as the need for infantry to close to medium range (ie. 2 hexes) to have any effect at all on units in cover, or the still juicy 2 firepower tanks enjoy against more open terrain types, eg. hills, and you can see that M44's 3 simple layers of rules: basic fire and movement, terrain effects on movement, and terrain effects on combat; all unite to give a rendering of its subject matter in which all the distinctive elements interact to give a degree of authentic detail that belies the game's simplicity.
All of which is enhanced by a degree of sheer playability which I believe is itself an aspect of the game's simulationist credentials, but that's for another day. ;)
Related@RD/KA!
- Part 1: Another hymn of praise to cardplay
- Part 3: A few little details
- Part 4: The authenticity of sheer playability
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Got game
'Gamer mauled by badger!'
A bumper week's gaming for yours truly last week. I invited a couple of other friends to the session with Antony already recounted. Neither could make it. So I was pleased when one of them got in touch to see if he could come round Friday. He could. He did.
Badger is a natural-born gamer. Roleplaying doesn't interest him in the slightest, but give him a tactical conundrum, and look out! In fact he is, in this respect, very much like his namesake: a genial appearance concealing a vicious streak (at the table I mean of course!).
So, first thing on the agenda was to try out my new freebie...
Anachronism
What can I say about this wee game, produced by TriKing? Well, I can say that it is very nicely produced; that the website is very nice (I wouldn't recommend the Flash version myself though); and that I am just so utterly impressed at their chutzpah in getting a sponsorship deal from The History Channel. How on earth did they manage this I wonder?
But what about the game itself?
It is a game of arena duelling, played on a 4x4 square-gridded arena. The rules are simple and can be picked up in 10 minutes or less. Each player has a warrior- a card that is their playing piece, which enters and moves about the arena; and 4 support cards- these can be weapons, powers, special equipment, and so on.
Apart from that each warrior has some simple stats: wounds; actions/turn; an experience rating for tie-breaking; and damage (ie. how hard they hit). Each warrior (and any weapons they might have among their support cards) also has a combat grid. This shows the 8 squares that surround the warrior, if they can attack into those squares, and what the modifier to attacks made into those squares is (combat is attacker's 2d6 plus grid mod against defender's 2d6; other modifiers from support cards might apply).
To set the game up you put your warrior in his start grid (any 1 of the 4 squares on your side of the arena), and put your 4 support cards face down from left to right. This is a key part of the game: each bout lasts 5 turns; turns 1-4 begin with a new card being revealed. Some cards have immediate and/or once only effects; some can be used essentially whenever you wish; and others can be reused but can only be used once per turn. The order in which you choose to reveal your warrior's support cards to avail yourself of their abilities is therefore crucial.
That's about it. Except: you win by having the most wounds left at the end of the game (ie. this isn't a 'reach 0 and die' game). And so off we went.
Long story short: I took Beowulf to start with against Badger's Miyamoto Musashi. Got whipped. We swapped sides and fought to a draw. Badger thought that he had won this one, but I pointed out that there are no death rules in the game, and so was able to fight him to 0 wounds for the tie. Then we mixed up the support cards to bring a bit of variation for another. Badger wins again, with Miyamoto again.
This is a really neat little game. It is fast, furious, and tactical. The range of support cards is logical (if they are obvious things like weapons) and interesting (all the other stuff). The combos they offer make for sneaky tricks and tense dice rolling both. And they certainly make you want to buy more packs, because it has to be said that the replay value of just 2 warriors with a mere 4 support cards each is about as low as it can be without being nil. Unsurprisingly TriKing offer a wide range of other warriors from the classic warrior peoples of old, some of which had Badger enthusing loudly.
If that's the good stuff, do I have any complaints? Yes. Small ones, but complaints they are nonetheless.
0-2
Memoir'44
Woot! More M44! Badger is very good at this game. AFAIK this was his introduction to wargames (as opposed to Eurogames that is). We already have an ongoing rivalry. So we both approached Friday's games ready for a hard fight, and hoping for crushing victories for the sake of maximum gloating rights.
Random selection of scenario and sides left me playing the Germans against Badger's Americans in #14: Arracourt. Lovely I thought: lots and lots of tanks (all of them in fact). Against my 8 tank and 6 infantry units Badger's Yanks had arrayed: 6 tank, 5 infantry, and 3 artillery units (ie. all of them). These last in particular could range in on my forces as soon as they crossed their start line. Two American tank units and 1 infantry unit could fire on my lads even before they moved.
I was going to have fun then, but I was going to suffer too. And I did.
For me these games were all about tank tactics. With their manoeuvrability, firepower, and the overrun rules, tanks in M44 are units that you can throw forward and use to rip great holes in your enemy's lines at a moment's notice. But these flexible armoured spearheads only work in open country, and if their attacks fail, or peter out, they can get caught in the open and destroyed equally quickly.
And that's what happened in the first game. My armoured spearhead formed up, went in, and Badger's units simply refused to die at the mopping-up stage. Units of 1 or 2 models would suffer hails of 4, 5, 6 or even more dice and just sit there, mocking me. And then he pulled out some perfect ripostes, to devestating effect.
Just after my tanks had crashed into Badger's left flank and done what they were supposed to do, I remember grinning evilly at him and pronouncing him doomed. My words proved hollow. Badger's lads held the line and pipped me at the post for final victory. I maintain that fortune favoured him overall in this game, but, well...
There was only one thing to do: try again. This time everything went right, and my tanks did their job. It was still damn close though.
1-3.
Up Front
Badger had his introduction to UF last year, winning 2 very creditable victories against me (the 2nd was all his own work btw). So I felt I had a point to prove last Friday. As ever with a beginner for an opponent, I suggested the basic Patrol, expecting Badger to plump for the Germans again.
Nope, he went for the Japanese, who have the hardest hand to master of the 5 nationalities with which I am familiar (I never did manage to get my hands on Desert War). Brave? Foolish? Time would tell. Myself, I briefly pondered taking the Russians, but no, I wanted solid and dependable firepower for the sake of a sure victory, so I took the British.
Off we went.
Badger's firebase got stuck in wire early deck 1, where they stayed for some 2 decks in all. But he cleverly advanced his manoeuvre group to range chit 3 which brought them to RR3 to my own firebase, from where they could support his hapless machine gun team. As a result of this the game went into an unexpected 2nd deck.
Having retrieved this situation, Badger then went on to throw his assault group forward for a range chit 4 positional victory. The veteran sergeant Vasey was ready for this though: I slapped down 3 movement cards to infiltrate my own 'assault' group to stave off defeat. A combination of hefty firepower from my firebase and good close combat finished off the Japanese bayonet men, and I was sure the game was in the bag at that point.
Still, the game had gone into an even more unexpected 3rd deck(?!). The finale was brutal, and colourful: a wounded Okimoto and a MG-wielding Togo did the Butch and Sundance thing, and just up and charged. Cue hail of gunfire and a broken Japanese squad.
This was a great game, full of incident and tension. Badger's instinctively smart play and coolheadedness under fire also suggests to me that a certain Mr. Lumsden might have to look to his laurels when it comes to being the king of the Japanese in UF.
Final score on the night:
2-3.
OUCH!
Final note: thanks again to Gary, from Highlander Games in Dundee for providing me with my copy of Anachronism.
A bumper week's gaming for yours truly last week. I invited a couple of other friends to the session with Antony already recounted. Neither could make it. So I was pleased when one of them got in touch to see if he could come round Friday. He could. He did.
Badger is a natural-born gamer. Roleplaying doesn't interest him in the slightest, but give him a tactical conundrum, and look out! In fact he is, in this respect, very much like his namesake: a genial appearance concealing a vicious streak (at the table I mean of course!).
So, first thing on the agenda was to try out my new freebie...
Anachronism
What can I say about this wee game, produced by TriKing? Well, I can say that it is very nicely produced; that the website is very nice (I wouldn't recommend the Flash version myself though); and that I am just so utterly impressed at their chutzpah in getting a sponsorship deal from The History Channel. How on earth did they manage this I wonder?But what about the game itself?
It is a game of arena duelling, played on a 4x4 square-gridded arena. The rules are simple and can be picked up in 10 minutes or less. Each player has a warrior- a card that is their playing piece, which enters and moves about the arena; and 4 support cards- these can be weapons, powers, special equipment, and so on.
Apart from that each warrior has some simple stats: wounds; actions/turn; an experience rating for tie-breaking; and damage (ie. how hard they hit). Each warrior (and any weapons they might have among their support cards) also has a combat grid. This shows the 8 squares that surround the warrior, if they can attack into those squares, and what the modifier to attacks made into those squares is (combat is attacker's 2d6 plus grid mod against defender's 2d6; other modifiers from support cards might apply).
To set the game up you put your warrior in his start grid (any 1 of the 4 squares on your side of the arena), and put your 4 support cards face down from left to right. This is a key part of the game: each bout lasts 5 turns; turns 1-4 begin with a new card being revealed. Some cards have immediate and/or once only effects; some can be used essentially whenever you wish; and others can be reused but can only be used once per turn. The order in which you choose to reveal your warrior's support cards to avail yourself of their abilities is therefore crucial.
That's about it. Except: you win by having the most wounds left at the end of the game (ie. this isn't a 'reach 0 and die' game). And so off we went.
Long story short: I took Beowulf to start with against Badger's Miyamoto Musashi. Got whipped. We swapped sides and fought to a draw. Badger thought that he had won this one, but I pointed out that there are no death rules in the game, and so was able to fight him to 0 wounds for the tie. Then we mixed up the support cards to bring a bit of variation for another. Badger wins again, with Miyamoto again.
This is a really neat little game. It is fast, furious, and tactical. The range of support cards is logical (if they are obvious things like weapons) and interesting (all the other stuff). The combos they offer make for sneaky tricks and tense dice rolling both. And they certainly make you want to buy more packs, because it has to be said that the replay value of just 2 warriors with a mere 4 support cards each is about as low as it can be without being nil. Unsurprisingly TriKing offer a wide range of other warriors from the classic warrior peoples of old, some of which had Badger enthusing loudly.
If that's the good stuff, do I have any complaints? Yes. Small ones, but complaints they are nonetheless.
- Some of the printing on the cards makes key stats hard to read- graphic design that is a bit too flash for its own good if you like.
- The no-death thing isn't explained. At one point in our games Badger thought I was dead and the game was over. I explained that there are no death rules in this game, so that I was still standing. We got on OK with this, but I can imagine how fraught a moment this might've been elsewhere. Not good IMO.
0-2
Memoir'44
Woot! More M44! Badger is very good at this game. AFAIK this was his introduction to wargames (as opposed to Eurogames that is). We already have an ongoing rivalry. So we both approached Friday's games ready for a hard fight, and hoping for crushing victories for the sake of maximum gloating rights.Random selection of scenario and sides left me playing the Germans against Badger's Americans in #14: Arracourt. Lovely I thought: lots and lots of tanks (all of them in fact). Against my 8 tank and 6 infantry units Badger's Yanks had arrayed: 6 tank, 5 infantry, and 3 artillery units (ie. all of them). These last in particular could range in on my forces as soon as they crossed their start line. Two American tank units and 1 infantry unit could fire on my lads even before they moved.
I was going to have fun then, but I was going to suffer too. And I did.
For me these games were all about tank tactics. With their manoeuvrability, firepower, and the overrun rules, tanks in M44 are units that you can throw forward and use to rip great holes in your enemy's lines at a moment's notice. But these flexible armoured spearheads only work in open country, and if their attacks fail, or peter out, they can get caught in the open and destroyed equally quickly.
And that's what happened in the first game. My armoured spearhead formed up, went in, and Badger's units simply refused to die at the mopping-up stage. Units of 1 or 2 models would suffer hails of 4, 5, 6 or even more dice and just sit there, mocking me. And then he pulled out some perfect ripostes, to devestating effect.
Just after my tanks had crashed into Badger's left flank and done what they were supposed to do, I remember grinning evilly at him and pronouncing him doomed. My words proved hollow. Badger's lads held the line and pipped me at the post for final victory. I maintain that fortune favoured him overall in this game, but, well...
There was only one thing to do: try again. This time everything went right, and my tanks did their job. It was still damn close though.
1-3.
Up Front
Badger had his introduction to UF last year, winning 2 very creditable victories against me (the 2nd was all his own work btw). So I felt I had a point to prove last Friday. As ever with a beginner for an opponent, I suggested the basic Patrol, expecting Badger to plump for the Germans again.Nope, he went for the Japanese, who have the hardest hand to master of the 5 nationalities with which I am familiar (I never did manage to get my hands on Desert War). Brave? Foolish? Time would tell. Myself, I briefly pondered taking the Russians, but no, I wanted solid and dependable firepower for the sake of a sure victory, so I took the British.
Off we went.
Badger's firebase got stuck in wire early deck 1, where they stayed for some 2 decks in all. But he cleverly advanced his manoeuvre group to range chit 3 which brought them to RR3 to my own firebase, from where they could support his hapless machine gun team. As a result of this the game went into an unexpected 2nd deck.
Having retrieved this situation, Badger then went on to throw his assault group forward for a range chit 4 positional victory. The veteran sergeant Vasey was ready for this though: I slapped down 3 movement cards to infiltrate my own 'assault' group to stave off defeat. A combination of hefty firepower from my firebase and good close combat finished off the Japanese bayonet men, and I was sure the game was in the bag at that point.
Still, the game had gone into an even more unexpected 3rd deck(?!). The finale was brutal, and colourful: a wounded Okimoto and a MG-wielding Togo did the Butch and Sundance thing, and just up and charged. Cue hail of gunfire and a broken Japanese squad.
This was a great game, full of incident and tension. Badger's instinctively smart play and coolheadedness under fire also suggests to me that a certain Mr. Lumsden might have to look to his laurels when it comes to being the king of the Japanese in UF.
Final score on the night:
2-3.
OUCH!
Final note: thanks again to Gary, from Highlander Games in Dundee for providing me with my copy of Anachronism.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
My little Old World
We strike a bum note
Well, it just had to happen- in fact a friend warned me that it would: sooner or later a session would fall flat, leaving most if not all of us dissatisfied and frustrated. And that's what happened Sunday last, by unanimous consensus. Striving for a note of levity as we broke up to go our separate ways on Sunday evening, I suggested that the session could be titled 'Poor Marching Ordure'. If anyone was amused they didn't show it. I guess the painful experience was just too fresh.
To tell the truth I guess I'm relieved to have got that particular moment out of the way. I mean to say, it being essentially inevitable, then the sooner we- as a group- suffered and recovered from a bad session, the better, it would seem to me. All the same, I do really rather wish that it hadn't happened Sunday past, at the climax of the Morten murder case, and during my first ever session GM'ing a party through the legendary sewers of the Empire in the Warhammer Old World.
I'm not going to bother here conducting a detailed post-mortem of all the mistakes I made. Sufficeth to say that they fell under the following categories:
1. Poor time management: having made sure that I was ready to run when my players arrived, I then forced the prompt players to wait yet another 2 hours or so for the laggards before we got rolling. I will not be repeating this mistake in future.
2. Unreflective snap judgements: when rules issues came up I didn't pause for thought in order to give a reasoned judgement; instead, I just gave snap judgements, enough of which were sufficiently poor that they could only be sustained by the worst of all possible devices: the "let's just get on with things" consensus I and the other players formed against the questioning voice.
3. Unwillingness to exploit a ready and willing suspension of disbelief and thence to do a bit of railroading about which nobody would've complained.
The upshot of all this was as follows:
1. I enabled the emergence of a degree of frustration which gave rise to a classic 'bicker-field'.
2. I forced when I shouldn't've (thus exacerbating the bicker-field) while not forcing when I could've (thus deepening the frustration, which then fed back into the bicker)
3. The players didn't get the climactic confrontation with the vile ratmen that had been so well set up by the previous 2 sessions.
Ah well. What can I say?
Well, I can say that there remain certain things that I would always have done the same. But that's neither here nor there. In the end, I had my players in the palm of my hands, and I fluffed it. It is a testament to their merits as roleplayers that they'll all be back next week to pursue the vile ratmen from pretty much exactly the point from where they had set out.
And, well, I guess I can also add that- all this tale of grief aside- the session did have its moments. I mean: Grundi did get to fire his blunderbuss with spectacular effect; and it was entertaining to see Berthold fall full length into the liquid shit of the sewer!
Related@RD/KA!
In the Sewers of Middenheim
- #1 Fury, fear, and flying fur
- #2 Reports, retorts, and last resorts
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim
Well, it just had to happen- in fact a friend warned me that it would: sooner or later a session would fall flat, leaving most if not all of us dissatisfied and frustrated. And that's what happened Sunday last, by unanimous consensus. Striving for a note of levity as we broke up to go our separate ways on Sunday evening, I suggested that the session could be titled 'Poor Marching Ordure'. If anyone was amused they didn't show it. I guess the painful experience was just too fresh.
To tell the truth I guess I'm relieved to have got that particular moment out of the way. I mean to say, it being essentially inevitable, then the sooner we- as a group- suffered and recovered from a bad session, the better, it would seem to me. All the same, I do really rather wish that it hadn't happened Sunday past, at the climax of the Morten murder case, and during my first ever session GM'ing a party through the legendary sewers of the Empire in the Warhammer Old World.
I'm not going to bother here conducting a detailed post-mortem of all the mistakes I made. Sufficeth to say that they fell under the following categories:
1. Poor time management: having made sure that I was ready to run when my players arrived, I then forced the prompt players to wait yet another 2 hours or so for the laggards before we got rolling. I will not be repeating this mistake in future.
2. Unreflective snap judgements: when rules issues came up I didn't pause for thought in order to give a reasoned judgement; instead, I just gave snap judgements, enough of which were sufficiently poor that they could only be sustained by the worst of all possible devices: the "let's just get on with things" consensus I and the other players formed against the questioning voice.
3. Unwillingness to exploit a ready and willing suspension of disbelief and thence to do a bit of railroading about which nobody would've complained.
The upshot of all this was as follows:
1. I enabled the emergence of a degree of frustration which gave rise to a classic 'bicker-field'.
2. I forced when I shouldn't've (thus exacerbating the bicker-field) while not forcing when I could've (thus deepening the frustration, which then fed back into the bicker)
3. The players didn't get the climactic confrontation with the vile ratmen that had been so well set up by the previous 2 sessions.
Ah well. What can I say?
Well, I can say that there remain certain things that I would always have done the same. But that's neither here nor there. In the end, I had my players in the palm of my hands, and I fluffed it. It is a testament to their merits as roleplayers that they'll all be back next week to pursue the vile ratmen from pretty much exactly the point from where they had set out.
And, well, I guess I can also add that- all this tale of grief aside- the session did have its moments. I mean: Grundi did get to fire his blunderbuss with spectacular effect; and it was entertaining to see Berthold fall full length into the liquid shit of the sewer!
Related@RD/KA!
In the Sewers of Middenheim
- #1 Fury, fear, and flying fur
- #2 Reports, retorts, and last resorts
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim
Monday, September 05, 2005
Incoming!
Another big day for JMcL63: RD/KA!'s first reader's letter!
Well I've finally received email comment from a reader on a previous article. This might or might not be a good thing. Eh? What I mean is that I'm not sure whether Antony's letter constitutes special pleading; a valuable different perspective on a shocking moment in my little Old World; or a step in a process of rehabilitation. Read on and decide for yourself.
And why was this? Simple: this bedraggled bunch of adventurers destroyed what authority their warrant gave them by talking all over each other and making blatantly self-contradictory statements. It was when Karl pointed this out that IIRC, Grundi's nark moved from simmer to boil.
Still, that brief exchange between Grundi and Siegfreid was a neat touch in the heat of a genuinely shocking moment.
Thanks for your comments Antony. For any other readers who would like to make their own comments, I will be trying to put up an email link just asap. In the meantime, if you don't already have my email address, you can always get through to me here
http://www.trollslayer.net/
Check out 'Authorised' (aka 'Blogslayer') or head for the forum, and you should soon enough be able to find a way of getting a message to me.
Well I've finally received email comment from a reader on a previous article. This might or might not be a good thing. Eh? What I mean is that I'm not sure whether Antony's letter constitutes special pleading; a valuable different perspective on a shocking moment in my little Old World; or a step in a process of rehabilitation. Read on and decide for yourself.
...I thought I'd give Grundis' take on the fateful smiting a harmless librarian...A reasonable enough account of the events in question I have to say. What Antony has left out though is what it was that really narked the hapless Karl (the librarian) in the first place. Or, to put it another way: why Grundi felt it needful to impose the party's authority at all.
First of all the party entered the library and Siegfried, our oftentimes talented orator, blew his fellowship roll. From Grundi's edgy (and somewhat bloodlustful) perspective the guy was all together being a narky dick. No excuse for a hardened dwarven warrior to rain down fury of course, however, Grudi was clealy being a bit of a narky dick also. He reached boiling point when his attempt to impose the parties authority by saying something along the lines of "We're here on official business and have a warrant, so it would be appreciated if you cooperate," was met with a scornful response... Grundi pented up his rage...
...Momentarily after the blast Grundi blanched! Taking just a moment to heal his victim (success, one wound healed,) [a success Grundi rarely enjoys when using his heal skill on his fellow PC's btw, chortle. JMcL63] he fled the archive, "Siegfried! Siegfried!... I've done somethign really bad Seigfried... I've done something really, really bad,"
"Just... keep... walking... and... don't... turn... round"
Uh Oh!
And why was this? Simple: this bedraggled bunch of adventurers destroyed what authority their warrant gave them by talking all over each other and making blatantly self-contradictory statements. It was when Karl pointed this out that IIRC, Grundi's nark moved from simmer to boil.
Still, that brief exchange between Grundi and Siegfreid was a neat touch in the heat of a genuinely shocking moment.
Thanks for your comments Antony. For any other readers who would like to make their own comments, I will be trying to put up an email link just asap. In the meantime, if you don't already have my email address, you can always get through to me here
http://www.trollslayer.net/
Check out 'Authorised' (aka 'Blogslayer') or head for the forum, and you should soon enough be able to find a way of getting a message to me.
A Big Day for JMcL63: next filler
Well, it was a busy week last week and I don't have the energy to get something new ready for today. So here is the report I wrote about my first ever Official GW 40K tournament. I posted this to a few efora at the time.
Following on from the roaring success of last year's first ever Scottish event, GW's Edinburgh tournament of their Conflict- Regional 2002 series was staged last Sunday, May 19th. Some 200+ assorted Warhammer and 40K players assembled to test their skills and show off their armies. Your humble scribe has attended several Games Days, but this was his first official tournament.
The first good thing about this day struck me some 45 minutes after our 7.30am departure from outside GW Glasgow- we arrived at our venue. Not having to suffer the rigours of the 24-hour redeye to B'rum for Games Day was great. I was finally able to attend a GW event feeling civilised! There followed the obligatory hanging around in droves for half an hour or so before the doors opened. Fortunately the day was fair.
Once in, we queued again to register. This, as with all the bureaucratic business of the day, was done efficiently and with no problems (for your humble scribe at least). Then we had time to take stock and look around a bit more. The Ingliston Exhibition Centre looks for all the world like an old hangar. Half of it was filled ranks of tables set out for Warhammer and 40K, some 200 in all at a guess. There were stalls for the Black Library, Forgeworld, and other GW stuff (I got myself a plastic Dreadnought, and a Forgeworld kit for the new Vindicator assault tank), and also tables set up with various games for non-competing attendees.
The 40K tables were all done out as desert boards, with minimal terrain, mostly ruins and walls with no wooded areas. Although much sparser than anything I'm familiar with from club games, this terrain did prove enough for an interesting game. I guess you can't expect lavish terrain layouts when 200 tables are being laid on. The tables were all numbered, so as the time advanced, we all headed for our allocated tables for our first of the day's three games.
My first opponent were Dark Angels in the standard table-quarter grabbing Cleanse. This was quite neat, since my DIY Penumbra's Talons are Dark Angels successors. I guess there's been a bit of a grudge since the Talons were founded in a direct response to the discovery of the Dark Angels' treachery during the Heresy. The setup established a pattern for the day: losing table edge and first turn. I was massacred to a man in a game whose 'high-point' was firing just one weapon in turn 1 (my first ever in a GW event), and missing. I was in with a shout till halfway through or so, but the dice just didn't give me what I needed to recover the situation.
Then followed Ultramarines in Take and Hold. This too was nice, seeing as how Belon (the Talons' homeworld) is located on the imperial fringes, to the 'southeast' of Ultramar. I ended up defending, and announced I was using drop pods. This meant that I started with one unit on the table, holding the objective. The rest of my army arrived as reserves in suborbital drop-pods I could place largely at will. This is the game I won. I just had to keep dropping my reserves as close to the objective as possible while keeping my opponent from advancing. I was helped by the good fortune of accidentally landing a squad right smack bang on the objective (fortunate scatter roll!). My highpoint was using my assault squad to advantage to pin down my opponent's units who might otherwise have threatened the objective.
My final game was a straight shootout based on Recon, against Blood Angels. The Talons have always been meant to be a codex (vanilla) chapter with a close combat leaning, and I've got plans to field them as Blood Angels for the sake of lots of jump-packs, so this was quite fluffy too. This game was another wipe-out, although I managed to scrape 3 points for having killed enough of the red frothers to avoid humiliating utter defeat. These were, in fact, the only 3 points my opponent lost all day. So I felt that was not bad.
So what's my verdict? Overall, I enjoyed myself in the preparation for this event, and on the day. My space marines attracted some very positive comments, and I felt that I had put on a good show. The event was well-organised, and the GW staffers worked hard to make sure that everything went smoothly. At £33 (including return fare on coach) for a day's gaming, this isn't necessarily the cheapest way to play GW games, but definitely worth it if you're a fan who'd think little or nothing of lashing out that kind of dosh for a new unit for your favourite army. If I have one complaint, then it's the choice of venue: last year's Caledonian Conflict was held in the Meadowbank stadium familiar to many veterans of the Scottish gaming scene. This was actually in Edinburgh, easily accessible for casual visitors, and close to obvious amenities. Compared to this, the Ingliston venue is inaccessible, spartan, and unappealing. I'll be back for another dose next year wherever we go though. ;)
As it turned out, I haven't been able to make a single subsequent Conflict for one reason and another. Which is a pity, since it has sinced moved to a more congenial city centre venue of the sort I'd advocated here. 2006 maybe? Fingers crossed I guess.
*************************************************
Conflict- Edinburgh 2002Following on from the roaring success of last year's first ever Scottish event, GW's Edinburgh tournament of their Conflict- Regional 2002 series was staged last Sunday, May 19th. Some 200+ assorted Warhammer and 40K players assembled to test their skills and show off their armies. Your humble scribe has attended several Games Days, but this was his first official tournament.
The first good thing about this day struck me some 45 minutes after our 7.30am departure from outside GW Glasgow- we arrived at our venue. Not having to suffer the rigours of the 24-hour redeye to B'rum for Games Day was great. I was finally able to attend a GW event feeling civilised! There followed the obligatory hanging around in droves for half an hour or so before the doors opened. Fortunately the day was fair.
Once in, we queued again to register. This, as with all the bureaucratic business of the day, was done efficiently and with no problems (for your humble scribe at least). Then we had time to take stock and look around a bit more. The Ingliston Exhibition Centre looks for all the world like an old hangar. Half of it was filled ranks of tables set out for Warhammer and 40K, some 200 in all at a guess. There were stalls for the Black Library, Forgeworld, and other GW stuff (I got myself a plastic Dreadnought, and a Forgeworld kit for the new Vindicator assault tank), and also tables set up with various games for non-competing attendees.
The 40K tables were all done out as desert boards, with minimal terrain, mostly ruins and walls with no wooded areas. Although much sparser than anything I'm familiar with from club games, this terrain did prove enough for an interesting game. I guess you can't expect lavish terrain layouts when 200 tables are being laid on. The tables were all numbered, so as the time advanced, we all headed for our allocated tables for our first of the day's three games.
My first opponent were Dark Angels in the standard table-quarter grabbing Cleanse. This was quite neat, since my DIY Penumbra's Talons are Dark Angels successors. I guess there's been a bit of a grudge since the Talons were founded in a direct response to the discovery of the Dark Angels' treachery during the Heresy. The setup established a pattern for the day: losing table edge and first turn. I was massacred to a man in a game whose 'high-point' was firing just one weapon in turn 1 (my first ever in a GW event), and missing. I was in with a shout till halfway through or so, but the dice just didn't give me what I needed to recover the situation.
Then followed Ultramarines in Take and Hold. This too was nice, seeing as how Belon (the Talons' homeworld) is located on the imperial fringes, to the 'southeast' of Ultramar. I ended up defending, and announced I was using drop pods. This meant that I started with one unit on the table, holding the objective. The rest of my army arrived as reserves in suborbital drop-pods I could place largely at will. This is the game I won. I just had to keep dropping my reserves as close to the objective as possible while keeping my opponent from advancing. I was helped by the good fortune of accidentally landing a squad right smack bang on the objective (fortunate scatter roll!). My highpoint was using my assault squad to advantage to pin down my opponent's units who might otherwise have threatened the objective.
My final game was a straight shootout based on Recon, against Blood Angels. The Talons have always been meant to be a codex (vanilla) chapter with a close combat leaning, and I've got plans to field them as Blood Angels for the sake of lots of jump-packs, so this was quite fluffy too. This game was another wipe-out, although I managed to scrape 3 points for having killed enough of the red frothers to avoid humiliating utter defeat. These were, in fact, the only 3 points my opponent lost all day. So I felt that was not bad.
So what's my verdict? Overall, I enjoyed myself in the preparation for this event, and on the day. My space marines attracted some very positive comments, and I felt that I had put on a good show. The event was well-organised, and the GW staffers worked hard to make sure that everything went smoothly. At £33 (including return fare on coach) for a day's gaming, this isn't necessarily the cheapest way to play GW games, but definitely worth it if you're a fan who'd think little or nothing of lashing out that kind of dosh for a new unit for your favourite army. If I have one complaint, then it's the choice of venue: last year's Caledonian Conflict was held in the Meadowbank stadium familiar to many veterans of the Scottish gaming scene. This was actually in Edinburgh, easily accessible for casual visitors, and close to obvious amenities. Compared to this, the Ingliston venue is inaccessible, spartan, and unappealing. I'll be back for another dose next year wherever we go though. ;)
*************************************************
My showing in this event turned out to be a lot better than those games might've led you to believe. I was 29th out of 96 overall, including 2 votes from 3 for Most Sporting Opponent (from the guys who beat me I've always imagined). No one got 3/3 on the day btw. More exciting still: my army scored 33/36 (and I didn't even make an effort for those other 3pts, which were for banners), making it first equal in a pack of 11. I was well pleased with this first outing.As it turned out, I haven't been able to make a single subsequent Conflict for one reason and another. Which is a pity, since it has sinced moved to a more congenial city centre venue of the sort I'd advocated here. 2006 maybe? Fingers crossed I guess.
Sunday, September 04, 2005
A rash of enthusiasm...
... for Memoir'44
Part 1: Another hymn of praise to cardplay
Every so often a geek comes across something big in the history of that which floats their boat, something which in some meaningful sense changes their lives: D&D; the works of Philip K. Dick; Howard Chaykin's American Flagg; Up Front; 40K and Lawrence Block's Scudder novels being significant examples of my own down the years. I guess it's not hyperbole to say that Days of Wonder's Memoir'44 has had that kind of impact on me, it being the most exciting WW2 boardgame I've played since I first encountered UF over 20 years ago.
Designed by Richard Borg from his earlier ACW game Battlecry!, the pre-release buzz for and early reviews of Memoir'44 (M44) were among the most enthusiastic I've ever seen, for any product. It got rave reviews all round (check them out on the DoW site), all of which were fully deserved, but none of which could, for all that, capture just how damn exciting this game is. I mean, I'd played it a few times before I finally got my own copy (I only had to wait a few weeks, but it seemed longer), but that first night me and an oldtime gaming buddy played it over a dozen times in a single sitting lasting well beyond sunrise.
I won't bother rehashing everyone else's positive reviews. What I'm going to try to do with this piece is to get under the skin of the system, to explain why, for all its apparent beer'n'pretzel simplicity, M44 is a simulation of some serious authenticity.
The essential authenticity of Memoir'44
To begin to pin this down, I would have to identify the following elements:
The card-driven command system
It'll come as no surprise to my regular readers that this is a part of M44 that I really like.
The definitive merit of this approach to command and control is its creation of a plausible model of the fog of war in a format that is easy to handle because it doesn't rely on cumbersome double-blind or similar rules. Cardplay command and control systems are also very good at putting the players in the head of the leader they're supposed to be, instead of creating some generic viewpoint that simply cannot relate to any single individual that could really exist.
Sure, the credibility of this kind of cardplay requires players to get their heads round a certain level of abstraction. That is to say: it entails a certain 'willing suspension of disbelief' if you are to understand it as a simulation.
This might seem an odd thing to say. 'Willing suspension of disbelief' is - after all - a term most associated with dramatic narrative, with movies in particular AFAIK. That said, even the very notion that a traditional wargame's Combat Results Table (CRT) is a plausible simulation; well, anyone who has played games using that venerable old mechanic has already enacted that same willing suspension.
This matters because of what cardplay command and control systems bring to wargames, which is the utter frustration of watching your forces just sit there and get humped because you didn't draw the right cards.
In the old counter-pushing games, this same thing could happen, if you rolled crap dice. But at least your forces could always do something, even if their efforts proved laughable. It's the sitting there like numpties... Well, frankly, it is the willing suspension entailed by the sheer frustration of this that remains at the very heart of why cardplay command and control systems might not immediately appeal to some grognards in search of a game that simulates the experience of generalship at least as well as it does the minutae of the actions of that general's armies.
To say any more on this matter at this point would be idle wittering unless it simply repeated what I've already said in this respect in my piece on Up Front.
What immediately marks M44 out from UF is that it is a company or higher level game (to UF's squad level), and that it resorts to the familiar old hexmap and counters. What Borg has achieved with this format though is really quite something. To get to the heart of the matter, I would have to say that not only does M44 recreate the immediate perspective of the commanders grappling with the uncertain disposition of their forces across the battlefield; but that he also recreates the learning curve whereby the same commanders come to grips with the capabilities of those same forces.
UF does this too to be sure. It's all a matter of just playing the game as often as possible, as ever. Borg's genius lies in the utter simplicity- not only of his game's cardplay, but also in his rendition of fire and movement and all the aspects pertaining thereto. It is to this, and to the consequent unparelleled playability- for a game with such high simulationist credentials- that I will return just as soon as I can. ;)
Related@RD/KA!
- A rash of enthusiasm for Up Front
A rash of enthusiasm for Memoir'44:
- Part 2: The Elements of Fire and Movement
- Part 3: A few little details
- Part 4: The authenticity of sheer playability
Part 1: Another hymn of praise to cardplay
Every so often a geek comes across something big in the history of that which floats their boat, something which in some meaningful sense changes their lives: D&D; the works of Philip K. Dick; Howard Chaykin's American Flagg; Up Front; 40K and Lawrence Block's Scudder novels being significant examples of my own down the years. I guess it's not hyperbole to say that Days of Wonder's Memoir'44 has had that kind of impact on me, it being the most exciting WW2 boardgame I've played since I first encountered UF over 20 years ago.
Designed by Richard Borg from his earlier ACW game Battlecry!, the pre-release buzz for and early reviews of Memoir'44 (M44) were among the most enthusiastic I've ever seen, for any product. It got rave reviews all round (check them out on the DoW site), all of which were fully deserved, but none of which could, for all that, capture just how damn exciting this game is. I mean, I'd played it a few times before I finally got my own copy (I only had to wait a few weeks, but it seemed longer), but that first night me and an oldtime gaming buddy played it over a dozen times in a single sitting lasting well beyond sunrise.
I won't bother rehashing everyone else's positive reviews. What I'm going to try to do with this piece is to get under the skin of the system, to explain why, for all its apparent beer'n'pretzel simplicity, M44 is a simulation of some serious authenticity.
The essential authenticity of Memoir'44
To begin to pin this down, I would have to identify the following elements:
- The card-driven command system
- The subtle interaction of the elements of fire and movement
- The sheer playability
The card-driven command system
It'll come as no surprise to my regular readers that this is a part of M44 that I really like.
The definitive merit of this approach to command and control is its creation of a plausible model of the fog of war in a format that is easy to handle because it doesn't rely on cumbersome double-blind or similar rules. Cardplay command and control systems are also very good at putting the players in the head of the leader they're supposed to be, instead of creating some generic viewpoint that simply cannot relate to any single individual that could really exist.
Sure, the credibility of this kind of cardplay requires players to get their heads round a certain level of abstraction. That is to say: it entails a certain 'willing suspension of disbelief' if you are to understand it as a simulation.
This might seem an odd thing to say. 'Willing suspension of disbelief' is - after all - a term most associated with dramatic narrative, with movies in particular AFAIK. That said, even the very notion that a traditional wargame's Combat Results Table (CRT) is a plausible simulation; well, anyone who has played games using that venerable old mechanic has already enacted that same willing suspension.
This matters because of what cardplay command and control systems bring to wargames, which is the utter frustration of watching your forces just sit there and get humped because you didn't draw the right cards.
In the old counter-pushing games, this same thing could happen, if you rolled crap dice. But at least your forces could always do something, even if their efforts proved laughable. It's the sitting there like numpties... Well, frankly, it is the willing suspension entailed by the sheer frustration of this that remains at the very heart of why cardplay command and control systems might not immediately appeal to some grognards in search of a game that simulates the experience of generalship at least as well as it does the minutae of the actions of that general's armies.
To say any more on this matter at this point would be idle wittering unless it simply repeated what I've already said in this respect in my piece on Up Front.
What immediately marks M44 out from UF is that it is a company or higher level game (to UF's squad level), and that it resorts to the familiar old hexmap and counters. What Borg has achieved with this format though is really quite something. To get to the heart of the matter, I would have to say that not only does M44 recreate the immediate perspective of the commanders grappling with the uncertain disposition of their forces across the battlefield; but that he also recreates the learning curve whereby the same commanders come to grips with the capabilities of those same forces.
UF does this too to be sure. It's all a matter of just playing the game as often as possible, as ever. Borg's genius lies in the utter simplicity- not only of his game's cardplay, but also in his rendition of fire and movement and all the aspects pertaining thereto. It is to this, and to the consequent unparelleled playability- for a game with such high simulationist credentials- that I will return just as soon as I can. ;)
Related@RD/KA!
- A rash of enthusiasm for Up Front
A rash of enthusiasm for Memoir'44:
- Part 2: The Elements of Fire and Movement
- Part 3: A few little details
- Part 4: The authenticity of sheer playability
Saturday, September 03, 2005
My little Old World: Grundi Smites Again #2
Bitter dregs of Ulric's Fury!
So, oaths sworn, Schutzmann takes the PC's into the basement of the Watch HQ, where the full horror of Morten's death is revealed to them. Pledging to pursue the matter to its inevitable conclusion, the PC's end up back at the warehouse where they're staying in their capacity as guards of the citizens of Untergard. They bed down for the night.
Cue an uneventful watch with the twitchy Otwin.
It all got a bit confused the next day. I was tired, the PC's insisted on splitting up all the time, and I'd fiddled with the plot:
1. with 2 dwarfs in the party and a dwarf murder victim, well I'm sure you get my drift...
2. the missing person turned out to be a member of the Untergard party- young Gismore- who hadn't returned after setting out to "get some more bread," the previous day.
Confusion led to complication. Choosing to investigate the death of Gismore, Alane and Berthold headed for the Temple of Morr, where they met mad mortician Abelard, to whom they generously paid a tidy sum for Gismore's funeral. Returning to the warehouse they confirm the bad news to Schiller. Cue weeping mother, etc. Unfortunately, when Schiller's party arrived for the dead son of Untergard, they found that he had already been buried... by a bunch of mysterious strangers who just turned up, got the job done- "no questions asked, OK...?" and left.
At first rebuffed by the dwarfs of the Engineers' Guild, Grundi and Mordrin somehow or other managed to get themselves into the position of being able to inspect the dead dwarf- in the same Temple of Morr IIRC. Unluckily the plague of disappearing corpses struck the dwarfs too. Even as they were gaining permission to conduct their morbid examination, the dead dwarf's keepers came to collect their kin for burial. All our dwarfs saw of their quarry was a funeral carriage carrying another clue into the wide blue yonder.
In the end though, the PC's found Gismore's grave, and lo and behold- Berthold recognised the symbol of the Ordo Fidelis. This led them back to Schutzmann for another briefing, from where they made their way to the scene of the murder of the unfortunate Gerhard Gismore Croen, who had fallen prey to something that had ruined his life already.
Quickly finding the sewer, the PC's took one long look down into its murky depths. It was night. They had none of the necessary equipment for the task at all. Fortune points were out or low, having been lavished on holding the investigation together. Time for bed they thought.
Even Grundi, axe-wielding maniac with a taste for Ulric's Fury and a lust for Skaven blood was content not to charge down into the depths in blind heroism. But then Grundi had at least smote with Ulric's Fury and poleaxed a young librarian of the Collegium Theologica. An unprovoked vicious attack.
Antony had been really spoiling for a fight all day, just like last week, so at some point I'd just quipped, "You can always just walk up to someone and hit them, y'know." I then forgot all about it. I never really expected that he would. Or, I mean, I never thought the mighty slayer of wolfs and mutants, righter of wrongs, defender of women and children, would work out his frustrations by cold-cocking an innocent young librarian. It's just too funny for words.
It all started off with a simple failed Gossip test. Pursuing a lead late in the day, the roll to get the information the easy way failed. The PC's had to get the information the hard way, which narked the poor librarian, who narked back. Then:
1. Grundi waits till the other PC's get out of sight...
2. "Thank you for your 'cooperation'."
3. Smack!
Just like that, just like a frustrated pig.
I gave the guy an Ag test to react and defend himself. Instead he went down KO'ed at 0 wounds as brave Grundi smote him with Ulric's Fury, just right out and punched him. Since Grundi had been sensible enough to lurk behind at that point none of the other PC's actually saw anything: although some did hear the sounds of violence; Alane did run back into the Temple of Morr (to use her healing potion on the poor sap naturally enough) after Grundi had exited; and Grundi did confess in vague terms to some great misdeed.
The talkative Antony and Grundi both were strangely quiet after that.
The other PC's started keeping their distance.
The delicious irony is that Antony had been doing really well up till then. I mean to say, the youngest and least experienced in a group of longtime gamers all much more immediately at home in the Old World than himself, he faces the problem of being the oldest character by far, and that against a true dwarf. But as they were drawn into planning their moves, he was able to develop his character's authority because he's no numpty, and a good roleplayer to boot.
I was beginning to notice how well this was working, when he went and hit someone for the sake of sheer mindless violence, pure and simple- and rolled his second Ulric's Fury! All his good work, shattered with a single moment's stupidity and 'lucky' dice.
Oh how we roasted Antony about that. How we laughed! Slayer material indeed!
Meanwhile, I wonder how our hapless heroes will fare tomorrow:
Marktag 18th Erntezeit 2522 I.C.?
Time- and the dice- will tell I guess. Mwah hah ha, etc. ;)
Related@RD/KA!
Grundi Smites Again
- #1 "You're in"
- On the perils of 'splitting the party'?
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim
EDITS (6/9/05)
1. I'd written 'Mordrin' a couple of times where I meant Grundi. This just had to be corrected.
2. GM's snafu on the dates: the next session began on Konigstag 13th, not Marktag 18th as I'd noted.
So, oaths sworn, Schutzmann takes the PC's into the basement of the Watch HQ, where the full horror of Morten's death is revealed to them. Pledging to pursue the matter to its inevitable conclusion, the PC's end up back at the warehouse where they're staying in their capacity as guards of the citizens of Untergard. They bed down for the night.
Cue an uneventful watch with the twitchy Otwin.
It all got a bit confused the next day. I was tired, the PC's insisted on splitting up all the time, and I'd fiddled with the plot:
1. with 2 dwarfs in the party and a dwarf murder victim, well I'm sure you get my drift...
2. the missing person turned out to be a member of the Untergard party- young Gismore- who hadn't returned after setting out to "get some more bread," the previous day.
Confusion led to complication. Choosing to investigate the death of Gismore, Alane and Berthold headed for the Temple of Morr, where they met mad mortician Abelard, to whom they generously paid a tidy sum for Gismore's funeral. Returning to the warehouse they confirm the bad news to Schiller. Cue weeping mother, etc. Unfortunately, when Schiller's party arrived for the dead son of Untergard, they found that he had already been buried... by a bunch of mysterious strangers who just turned up, got the job done- "no questions asked, OK...?" and left.
At first rebuffed by the dwarfs of the Engineers' Guild, Grundi and Mordrin somehow or other managed to get themselves into the position of being able to inspect the dead dwarf- in the same Temple of Morr IIRC. Unluckily the plague of disappearing corpses struck the dwarfs too. Even as they were gaining permission to conduct their morbid examination, the dead dwarf's keepers came to collect their kin for burial. All our dwarfs saw of their quarry was a funeral carriage carrying another clue into the wide blue yonder.
In the end though, the PC's found Gismore's grave, and lo and behold- Berthold recognised the symbol of the Ordo Fidelis. This led them back to Schutzmann for another briefing, from where they made their way to the scene of the murder of the unfortunate Gerhard Gismore Croen, who had fallen prey to something that had ruined his life already.
Quickly finding the sewer, the PC's took one long look down into its murky depths. It was night. They had none of the necessary equipment for the task at all. Fortune points were out or low, having been lavished on holding the investigation together. Time for bed they thought.
Even Grundi, axe-wielding maniac with a taste for Ulric's Fury and a lust for Skaven blood was content not to charge down into the depths in blind heroism. But then Grundi had at least smote with Ulric's Fury and poleaxed a young librarian of the Collegium Theologica. An unprovoked vicious attack.
Antony had been really spoiling for a fight all day, just like last week, so at some point I'd just quipped, "You can always just walk up to someone and hit them, y'know." I then forgot all about it. I never really expected that he would. Or, I mean, I never thought the mighty slayer of wolfs and mutants, righter of wrongs, defender of women and children, would work out his frustrations by cold-cocking an innocent young librarian. It's just too funny for words.
It all started off with a simple failed Gossip test. Pursuing a lead late in the day, the roll to get the information the easy way failed. The PC's had to get the information the hard way, which narked the poor librarian, who narked back. Then:
1. Grundi waits till the other PC's get out of sight...
2. "Thank you for your 'cooperation'."
3. Smack!
Just like that, just like a frustrated pig.
I gave the guy an Ag test to react and defend himself. Instead he went down KO'ed at 0 wounds as brave Grundi smote him with Ulric's Fury, just right out and punched him. Since Grundi had been sensible enough to lurk behind at that point none of the other PC's actually saw anything: although some did hear the sounds of violence; Alane did run back into the Temple of Morr (to use her healing potion on the poor sap naturally enough) after Grundi had exited; and Grundi did confess in vague terms to some great misdeed.
The talkative Antony and Grundi both were strangely quiet after that.
The other PC's started keeping their distance.
The delicious irony is that Antony had been doing really well up till then. I mean to say, the youngest and least experienced in a group of longtime gamers all much more immediately at home in the Old World than himself, he faces the problem of being the oldest character by far, and that against a true dwarf. But as they were drawn into planning their moves, he was able to develop his character's authority because he's no numpty, and a good roleplayer to boot.
I was beginning to notice how well this was working, when he went and hit someone for the sake of sheer mindless violence, pure and simple- and rolled his second Ulric's Fury! All his good work, shattered with a single moment's stupidity and 'lucky' dice.
Oh how we roasted Antony about that. How we laughed! Slayer material indeed!
Meanwhile, I wonder how our hapless heroes will fare tomorrow:
Marktag 18th Erntezeit 2522 I.C.?
Time- and the dice- will tell I guess. Mwah hah ha, etc. ;)
Related@RD/KA!
Grundi Smites Again
- #1 "You're in"
- On the perils of 'splitting the party'?
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim
EDITS (6/9/05)
1. I'd written 'Mordrin' a couple of times where I meant Grundi. This just had to be corrected.
2. GM's snafu on the dates: the next session began on Konigstag 13th, not Marktag 18th as I'd noted.
Friday, September 02, 2005
My little Old World
On the perils of 'splitting the party'?
I know I've thrown my veteran gamer status around in this blog a bit so far, but the truth is, for some half the time since my first AD&D, I've been out of touch with roleplaying. That's why I was so excited about getting this new group going with WFRP, and about the fact that yes, I can hack all this stuff.
Yet, even with a growing sense of confidence based on 7 sessions, it was with some disquiet that I witnessed the party starting to split up as soon as they hit Middenheim.
It all began with Siegfreid (IIRC), who immediately set about pursuing his own agendas- which involve trying to get back in touch with all his shady old pals. It continued when Berthold was left to fulfil Father Dietrich's dying wish himself while Mordrin went off to make contact with his brother's smuggling operation. Meantime the rest of the party were on a shopping trip that turned out to be more of a cover for Siegfried looking for a likely mark for a quick dip.
I managed to hold everything together, thanks to the simple plot and my players' essential good sense.
Then as the investigation into Father Morten's murder really took off, they went and organised a 3-way split which made perfect sense because there were 3 more murders to follow up in a plot where they were hot on the trail of Skaven, of all things. There was no way I was going to railroad them out of this, so off they went in their separate directions.
It's easy for me to say that I held everything together, but I reckon that that sequence was one of the most dynamic non-combat sequences I've GM'ed so far in this campaign. Most of the reasons why it worked weren't down to me. One of those reasons was precisely that the party split up when it was the most intelligent thing to do, risk or no risk.
I'll come back to this another time. But... that old saw about not splitting the party? Just like every single other rule in roleplaying:- system, plotting, etiquette, you name it: it's there to be broken. Just break it right is all!
Related@RD/KA!
Grundi Smites Again
- #1 "You're in"
- #2 Bitter dregs of Ulric's Fury!
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim
I know I've thrown my veteran gamer status around in this blog a bit so far, but the truth is, for some half the time since my first AD&D, I've been out of touch with roleplaying. That's why I was so excited about getting this new group going with WFRP, and about the fact that yes, I can hack all this stuff.
Yet, even with a growing sense of confidence based on 7 sessions, it was with some disquiet that I witnessed the party starting to split up as soon as they hit Middenheim.
It all began with Siegfreid (IIRC), who immediately set about pursuing his own agendas- which involve trying to get back in touch with all his shady old pals. It continued when Berthold was left to fulfil Father Dietrich's dying wish himself while Mordrin went off to make contact with his brother's smuggling operation. Meantime the rest of the party were on a shopping trip that turned out to be more of a cover for Siegfried looking for a likely mark for a quick dip.
I managed to hold everything together, thanks to the simple plot and my players' essential good sense.
Then as the investigation into Father Morten's murder really took off, they went and organised a 3-way split which made perfect sense because there were 3 more murders to follow up in a plot where they were hot on the trail of Skaven, of all things. There was no way I was going to railroad them out of this, so off they went in their separate directions.
It's easy for me to say that I held everything together, but I reckon that that sequence was one of the most dynamic non-combat sequences I've GM'ed so far in this campaign. Most of the reasons why it worked weren't down to me. One of those reasons was precisely that the party split up when it was the most intelligent thing to do, risk or no risk.
I'll come back to this another time. But... that old saw about not splitting the party? Just like every single other rule in roleplaying:- system, plotting, etiquette, you name it: it's there to be broken. Just break it right is all!
Related@RD/KA!
Grundi Smites Again
- #1 "You're in"
- #2 Bitter dregs of Ulric's Fury!
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Got game
Antony (a.k.a. Grundi) came round the other night, and we played some games. First off was a quick game of Fluxx a simple family card game of the modern school that has the most perfect set of rules I have ever seen. I've played this a couple of dozen times at most, and already I defy anyone to find a glitch. It's also one of these games that has the depth that gives great replay value, and cardplay tactics that demand real mastery.
1-0 me at that point IIRC.
Next up was Antony's introduction to Gladiator, an old school AH tacsim of the Roman arena. Antony floundered around with the pre-plotted movement notations for a wee while but began to get into the swing of things even as my Crassius Maximus was giving his Achilles the benefits of superior experience. All of which was as nothing when Achilles got through Crassius' defences and killed him outright with an instantly fatal critcial. OUCH!
1-1.
1-0 me at that point IIRC.
Next up was Antony's introduction to Gladiator, an old school AH tacsim of the Roman arena. Antony floundered around with the pre-plotted movement notations for a wee while but began to get into the swing of things even as my Crassius Maximus was giving his Achilles the benefits of superior experience. All of which was as nothing when Achilles got through Crassius' defences and killed him outright with an instantly fatal critcial. OUCH!
1-1.
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