Setting Out in Search of Adventure: Chapter 1 Fiction

Yesterday I posted the characters for the OSR-as-minis-skirmish-game I'm about to run for my wife and son.

Today I'm posting the fiction. Basically what I'll do is read it out loud, much like I'm reading a few chapters from a book, and then transitioning into the game.

Keep in mind that in terms of sophistication, this is aimed at a six year old.

Here's: Bravery & Epiphany's Very First Adventure

Here are the two main characters and their five loyal friends, ready to brave the deep dark woods.

Setting Out of in Search of Adventure

A little while ago I told my son (6 years old) and my wife to each select a miniature. The idea is that I'd stat them up and then run some OSR derived skirmish battles for them, while hopefully linking the games with a narrative of sorts.

It took me longer than I liked to stat the characters up, in part because I kept trying to get everything "just so" for my large OSR-as-a-minis-game project and developing set of homebrew rules for a potential RPG campaign. Then I stopped trying and got the stats done, which is better.

Now all we need to do is play the first game, which we'll do real soon. Like, we were going to do it today but then my wife's cousin and her family came over and I had to grill them some burgers. I also ended up having another commitment in the afternoon. So that didn't work out. Luckily, I hadn't promised anything except to myself, so I'm the only one who was disappointed.

Anyhow... my son picked an old citadel wood elf (Skarloc) with a big sword ("he must do a lot of damage") and bow ("and he can shoot"), and named him Bravery.

My beloved wife picked a Reaper mini, I think primarily because in her opinion the dress makes it the prettiest female mini I've painted. She was given the name Epiphany.

In part the abilities and so on are homebrew adaptations of a beta version of Kevin Crawford's upcoming Worlds Without Numbers. It's reasonably old school, but not quite B/X. I've also tried to put everything on the character sheet, both because it's easier for my player base to engage with and because it's less work than trying to write out the whole homebrew ruleset before we play.

My son also commented something like "imagine we had FIVE friends with us, and they got STRONGER when they work together" which I thought showed excellent early development of leadership skills. It also adds a bit more moving pieces for what is supposed to be an on-ramp to skirmish gaming, and provides an excuse for trying out some of the concepts I'm looking to develop.

I picked five viking minis (no armour) and named them Alfhild, Baggi, Eilif, Finnulf, and Klefi.

One of the concepts I'm looking at - and will be testing out in this game - is the idea that "regular troops" carry out instructions fine when near a leader. However, if left to their own devices you need a morale check to avoid them potentially showing undesirable independent initiative. It's intended to be a general rule, but in this case I've rolled it into the traits of the unit.

Next up, the narrative....

The Five Dwarves, the Mule, and the Beastman

If you go through the Beastwoods, you should expect to meet with those who dwell within. And if you do not have their permission, you could get into trouble. For example, these five Dwarves have just lost their pack mule.

Five on one should result in a Dwarf victory, even if the Beastman is much bigger. The question is, of course, how many mates does the Beastman have lurking in nearby bogs and thickets?

I've painted a few more minis. The Dwarves are new Oathmark plastics. Personally, I enjoy their pseudo-historical Dark Ages styling. The Beastman is an old Citadel mini, and the mule is an even older Citadel mini.

The Beastman takes up a tactical position with his back to a rock and some thickets. It'll be harder for the Dwarves to surround him now.

As you can see, I'm going with a mostly blue and yellow scheme for the Dwarves, but not too rigidly. I think early medieval (and early medieval type fantasy) people tended not to be too uniform in their gear. It turns out I also enjoy painting individual minis more than I enjoy painting "units", so theory and practice go together in happy unity in this case.

The Beastman agrees to trade the mule back for three bottles of strong ale and two books of poetry. In the end, no one was seriously hurt and new friendships were formed. Awh!

Fantasy Miscellanea

I also painted some fantasy minis.

First up, a Reaper Bones (first KS wave) undead thingie, an old Citadel (or Marauder) Chaos Warrior, and a Citadel Beastman.

This brings my Chaos Horde up to 5 Chaos Warriors and 3 Beastmen. It's a pretty small horde, which explains the need for undead to back them up on occasion.

The highlight here is clearly the Chaos Warrior's exposed left buttock. Chaos can be pretty wild sometimes.

Next up a Reaper earth elemental and two Celtos Gaels. The Celtos range has some women warrior in bikinis that I really like, but they are - as we say these days - a bit problematic. My current approach is to field a roughly equal number of more-or-less equally undressed male and female minis for a given faction and say that the nudity/ near nudity is a cultural thing independent of gender... but I'm having a harder time finding sexy dude warriors for some reason.

I love the face expression and dynamism of the woman warrior's pose. Her massive shield is pretty cool too. I suppose it makes sense to have a big shield if you're not wearing any armour.

Here they are facing the other way.

Finally, a fountain from the Reaper Bones first Kickstarter. I tried using clear acrylic medium and painting to suggest water with depth and I was really happy with it. Then I varnished it (matte varnish) and the water effect went all translucent grey. Maybe I'll try to fix it....

The woman is a Hasslefree mini and the trunk is from the D&D Nolzur line.

This woman's attire is a bit more historical, I think. Warmer too.

Now that I think about it, that's a pretty big chest. Like, steamer trunk sized. I wonder what's inside it?

A Small Wave of Normans

I painted some Normans. Maybe they'll fight some of the vikings or even show up in a fantasy game some time.

Five knights charging gloriously.

I'm (obviously) going for a red and white theme for these knights. The minis are the familiar (to collectors of 28mm Norman miniatures) Conquest plastics.

Five knights gloriously repositioning.

But as we all know, sometimes the Normans fought on foot. Attempting to reflect historical reality I managed to paint a small handful of Norman infantry as well.

I think the fellow in the middle is supposed to be William the Bastard, but I'm not sure. Anyhow, here he is with a few stout lads.

Still going with the red and white scheme, as you can see. If I recall correctly, they're all old Citadel historicals from the pre-slotta days. Pretty sure they're lead and everything.

Notice the distinctive shaved-back-of-the-head hairstyle which apparently was very fashionable at the time.

Old School Citadel Fantasy Minis

I've slowly been finishing some of the fantasy miniatures I've had under way. These ones are all old school Citadel miniatures (which is what Games Workshop used to call their miniature business). Some of these figures are older than several of my colleagues for sure, but I just finished painting them this week.

First off we have a rag-tag bunch in the goblinoid spectrum, arranged from smallest to largest.

A bunch of rabid redcap goblins coming straight at ya'! There's gonna be blood spilt tonight!

... or maybe they'll run away as soon as things go against them.

These orcs are from Citadel's very first foray into plastic minis. Ten each of goblins, skaven, orcs, elves, dark elves, and dwarfs. I painted these three with rpg-use in mind, intending to refer to them as "the red one", "they yellow one", and "the green one."

... and from the back. Maybe they're off looking for the goblins?

Truth be told the fellow with the sword was painted quite a while ago, though I added some more stuff to his base. The new, very pale, ogre is legit from right now. This is my first time using one of those "verdigris bronze effect" paints. Worked out okay, I think.

Party in the bush, I guess. No innuendo intended.

I've also painted a few chaos minis as well. I tend towards the bright and colourful and Slaaneshi for chaos.

Two monopose beastmen.

Look at those succulent beastman buttocks.

Two members of the Company of the Black Flower. In spite of the poetic name, they're pretty nasty. That is what those of us in the writing business call juxtaposition.

The purplish armour is contrast paint over regular silver paint. It turned out pretty good to my eye, so I might use the effect again.

... and that's all folks.

Two Vikings Freshly Painted

Not a whole lot, but two is more than zero. Just look at these pictures.

A wolf-heathen (ulfhednar) and a more regular fellow. One is old citadel (in actual 25 mm) and the other is Wargames Foundry (closer to 28 mm).

Here they are walking away. Vikings were pretty keen on finery as a way to show of social status. So far I'm mostly using dot patterns to suggest fancy embroidery. It kind of works, I think. Also, as I understand it there are no accounts of vikings disliking pink, so I use it a fair bit (it could also be faded red).

Skirmish at the Old Stable

"Did you see that sorcerous warrior taking shelter near the old stable?"

"Yes, he was covered in blood."

"And there were Elves with him. At least two of them!"

The farmers did not normally traffic with the allegedly cursed warriors of the Wizard Empire, and even less with self-evidently dangerous folks like Elves.

"They must be up to something... something not good. What should we do?"

"I say we burn the stable! Then they'll go away!"

...

This is the report of the first time I've played a minis game with my six-year-old son. He's tried his hand at painting (there's still room to grow his skills), and we've played some board games. But this is the first time playing an actual legit miniatures war game.

Before we started he exclaimed "I can't believe I get to play a grown up game!"

Battle is about to be joined.

The attackers (me) were trying to burn the barn. Every attacking figure in contact with the barn got to roll a d6. On a 6, the barn would burn down and the attackers would be victorious.

The defenders (my son) were led by an old plastic chaos warrior selected because "he has a lot of blood on him, so he must be tough". They'd win by eliminating the attackers.

The rules were basic OSR derived. Each model had the following stats (assigned by me):

• Hit points
• Movement rate in inches
• Armour class
• Attack bonus (added to d20 roll, must = AC to hit) per weapon
• Damage roll per weapon
• Range for bows

This is what the defenders' stats look like. They severely outclassed the attackers. But that's okay, since this is a narrative game.

In terms of gameplay, we used the following rules:

• Roll initiative per side each round, using a d20 (this felt tedious after a while).
• Combat is resolved simultaneously (good for less book keeping IMO).
• You cannot shoot into or out of melee.
• You cannot move away from melee once you are engaged (I think this will become a free hack thing in future iterations).

You can see how the attackers planned to - and indeed did - move as they attacked.

I don't have a lot of progress pictures as I was pretty focused on playing and explaining (and holding the "no-we-can't-arbitrarily-change-rules-or-dice-outcomes").

Our terrain rules were as follows:

• Newly ploughed field = half movement rate.
• Those big clumps of trees and = impassable.
• To cross a linear obstacle (fence, hedge) move up to it. Roll a d6. On 4+ continue movement, 3 or less you're stuck (this actually felt pretty good in gameplay).

The defenders didn't take a single point of damage. Talk about an unbalanced scenario.

I got five or six rolls to burn the barn, but it failed to ignite and the would be arsonists were mercilessly butchered one by one.

The fate of the attackers is sealed. Note how HP is correlated to shield and shirt colour for easy identification. I guess I should try to get a set of markers that match my paints.

My son was pleased with his victory, and immediately suggested "let's play again, but switch sides this time."

"Sounds good" I said, and we set about preparing for our second game of the afternoon....

The Zenobian 7th Again!

[Battle Report Directory] [Zenobian 7th Main Page]

"Alright folks, I need some volunteers," yelled SrSgt Penny. "Who's wants to get a big screw?"

"Erh, sarge, is that a trick question," asked Pte Langobard. "What kind of screw are you talking about because..."

"Because you're wondering what sort of clever joke I'm setting up, is that it? But no, Langobard, I mean that actual mission objective over there with the code name 'big screw' because that's what it looks like."

"Oh, because you see I was hoping..."

"Yes you were, but you're out of luck."

"Unidentified infantry spotted! They look like they're moving to engage!" The banter between Penny and Langobard ended abruptly as one of the spotters called out the warning.

"Looks like you luck might change Langobard, you may get screwed after all. Alright folks, pull your socks up and point your guns at the hostiles! We're not giving up our big screw without a fight."

My colleague Rodrigo and I set up on a spare table at work and over the course of several lunch breaks had the very first Kill Team game for both of us. What follows is a brief report of the action.

It's a basic 100 point get-the-opfor-objective-without-losing-control-of-your-own match. We didn't using traits, elites, or anything else fancy like that.

We went at it fairly gingerly, and to be honest we probably got a few rules wrong. In fact, I know the Zenobian 7th list wasn't 100% book legal (I think I had two of the same specialist). That's what happens when you work with Rogue Traders!

Even though I brought four plasma guns, I don't think I used them that effectively. You see the problem with shooting your fancy plasma gun at someone is that it will very likely leave you open to return fire. I didn't like that idea very much.

I put my commanding office centrally so she could affect everything, but it made her the only real target for enemy shooting. She almost got killed before she ducked back out of sight! Leading from the front is a dangerous business.

I reckon that was Pte Langobard doing the melee fighting.

The above picture perfectly illustrates the problem with shooting at people. They might shoot back! And hit! Completely unsporting, if you ask me.

Then there was the bit where I thought the central group was close enough to my home objective to claim it, but in fact they were to far away due to the height of the ruins they occupied. Oops.

I'd caused a couple of flesh wounds throughout the match, but the last round was the only time I actually downed an opponent.

In the end, I think the main difference maker was that I didn't expose all my expendable infantry to too much fire, so when it came to claim the objectives in the last turn I could just throw bodies at the problem.

Thanks for a good game Rodrigo!

Three Lists for 2020

I'm normally not one for new years resolutions so this isn't one of those. Rather, it's three separate lists.

Things I'm Pretty Sure I'll Get Around To In 2020

• Finish painting the minis for two sides of a Dragon Rampant game, and play that game with a friend.
• Play a few more games of Killteam at work.
• Buy and read Oathmark once it's out.
• Paint some more miniatures - especially Vikings, Normans, Gaels as well as small handfuls of goblins, beastmen, chaos warriors, dragon ogres and rpg specific models.
• Get my OSR derived minis rpg/ skirmish ruleset project to a state where I can playtest it, and do so. Try it out to see if I can make it scale up to early WFB sized rank and flank type games as well.

Things I Might Get Around To In 2020, If Things Work Out Right

• Play more games of Dragon Rampant in a narrative fashion, building from the one game above.
• Try out the Xenos Rampant mod fro Dragon Rampant using my 40K figures.
• Get one or more of my Viking ship models table ready.
• Paint more miniatures, of course.... looking at 40K Sisters and Imperial Guard, as well as more Elves and some 10mm fantasy.
• Maybe kitbash (and paint) an assortment of Inq 28 type minis.

Things I HAVE To Do Before Buying More Minis Of Various Sorts

This one is more important, and I'm putting it here in order to keep the twin peaks of Mt. Grey Plastic and Mt. White Metal from growing ever larger.

• No new fantasy or historical troop miniatures until I have painted at least one full force of Vikings and Normans for Saga.
• No new fantasy troop miniatures until I finish off my "almost done" High Elf army enough to field a full force for fantasy Saga and/ or Warlords of Erewhon AND I have painted a similar sized force of goblins/ monsters/ beastmen/ whatevers.
• No new MDF or other buildings until I finish off the Norman Hall and the few other Sarissa dark ages buildings I have.
• No new "oh this could make some cool terrain" purchases of bits and bobs until I complete at least three separate terrain type projects (small is okay).
• No new 40K Sisters until I've painted at least half of what I already have.
• No new 40K Tau until I've painted all the new stuff I have, and at least one unit of the ebay rescues.
• No new 40K anything else until I'm able to field two opposing Xenos Rampant forces, painted.