War of the Worlds Survivors Campaign

I belong to a monthly gaming group, four of us who have been meeting up (mostly) once a month since before Covid. Over time we have played a couple of Frostgrave campaigns, 2 or 3 Sellswords and Spellslingers campaigns and a Mutants and Death Ray Guns campaign. I fancied doing something a bit more VSF leaning, so suggested groups of survivors in the aftermath of a Martian Invasion, in the style of H G Wells.

Background, as presented to the players.

Barely a year after the First Martian Invasion, once again cylinders fell to Earth from space, this time in greater numbers in Britain, Europe, North America and Asia. In Britain the military were overwhelmed in weeks and in two months the country was totally cut off from the outside world, with no knowledge of what was happening in other countries.

It is now a year since the Second Martian Invasion, and you are part of a group of survivors eking out a precarious existence. After the first few months the Martian constructed sealed domes close to major waterways and Martian and their fighting Tripods are rarely seen away from these domes. Presumably to protect themselves from the diseases that wiped out the First Invasion. Many captured prisoners entered those domes, never to be seen again. Rumours of strange experiments abounded.

Smaller machines (christened Stalkers and Scuttlers by survivors) are despatched into the countryside to hunt down survivors. Also Shades have been released to join the hunt. Once human, perhaps the results, or the rejects, of Martian experiments, their skin has a strange blueish hue, as if their red blood had been replaced with some other fluid. They wander the countryside like mindless wild creatures who quite literally rip their victims apart and devour them.

Most recently another horror has appeared. Some sort of bizarre Martian/Human/machine hybrid, armed with a smaller version of the heat rays carried by the original Tripod fighting machines.

At your home base your group has a Marconi wireless radio apparatus, which is sometimes used to communicate with other survivors. But recently the apparatus has been receiving strange, unintelligible signals, which appear to originate from a location some 80 miles away to the southwest.

Your party have been despatched to try and locate the source of these signals and identify whether they pose a threat.  Other groups of survivors may also be aware of the signals and have sent exploring parties of their own. These parties should be regarded as rivals and potentially hostile, so treated with caution if encountered.

Campaign games will alternate between Scavenging Games, where the aim is to find useful equipment and food; and Scenario Games, which will move the players on towards the campaign’s objective.

The rules will be Ganesha Games' Mutants and Death Ray Guns, with elements from Fear and Faith and a few additional tweaks. I have added in the ability to find "salvage". This means any old, potentially useful, junk, scrap metal, flammable chemicals etc. Players can use this to try to create things like improvised body armour or explosives, in between games.

Martian robotic fighting machines, a Stalker and a Scuttler.

A Stalker with tentacles extended.

A Martian/Human hybrid machine thing.

A group of Shades.

Two survivors face a trio of Shades.

I don't think a crossbow will do much in this case!

"Come on chaps, we can easily deal with this little mechanical monstrosity!"

"I say chaps...where are you all going?"

ZOMBIE STAGECOACH

 I'd seen some batreps for various games of Zombie RV online, which had caught my attention. This is a neat little set of rules by Dave Bezio (currently available for free on Wargames vault  here)

My only problem is that, although I have a bunch of post apocalyptic gangs that would do for survivors,  I do not have any modern zombies or much suitable terrain. But I do have a load of cowboys, wild west buildings and, thanks to buying into the Zombicide Undead or Alive Kickstarter, a bunch of western zombies! So I am dialling back Zombie RV a century or so to Zombie Stagecoach! How would John Wayne have coped with that?

Kirstie came over to give the rules a try, and here is our gang of survivors.

Jack and Jill. sibling ex-stage robbers, Ol'Pete, who used to ride shotgun for Wells Fargo and El Hombre, a Mexican with his family heirloom, a big sword.

Jack, Shooter +1, pistol and a melee weapon. (Kirstie)

Jill, Thief (move silently on 4+), pistol and extra ammo. (Kirstie)

Pete, Tough (+1 to grit rolls), shotgun and melee weapon. (Me)

El Hombre, Brawler +1, melee weapon. (Me)

L-R, Jill, Jack, Ol'Pete and El Hombre.

I am using a variation of the Trailor Trash scenario in the rules. Jack and Jill's cousin Judy is hiding out on the family farm. The gang just need to find her in one of the buildings and return to the stagecoach with her, if she is alive, or kill her if she is a zombie.

This is the layout of the farm. the zombie spawn point is by the corner of the barn.

We played through this scenario twice and both time had the same result, we found Judy, unzombiefied fortunately, but lost one of the gang. We basically tried the same tactic both times. Jack and Pete moved up the middle, shooting zombies and attracting attention, whilst Jill headed for the barn and El Hombre checked out the shed and farm house (shack). Our problem was that shooting isn't very effective, you only kill zombies or a 5 or 6, or a 6 at long range, which wasn't helped by keeping running out of ammo! And we were quickly swamped by zombies. Each game we only just got away, mainly because of the difficulty the zombies had crossing the fence, they cannot climb in these rules, so had to move to the gaps to pass through.

Here are a few pictures of the games.

Every time El Hombre checked a building it had zombies in it!

So in the second game he checked through the shed's back window first.

This led to a game of chase as the zombies lumbered out the door and around the back of the building...

....El Hombre ran around the front and into the shed to search it. Then as the Zombies moved back around the front to the door, he climbed out of the window and legged it!

Another bunch of zombies spawning, this game gives you a LOT of zombies, 3 or 4 new ones every turn, plus whatever is in the buildings.

When the barn got filled with zombies, Judy, Pete and El Hombre positioned themselves at the door, so the zombies could only get at them one on one. Single zombies are not very effective in melee, they really need to gang up on survivors to be a serious threat. This was much better that the first game, when a Pete ended up surrounded by zombies and eaten!

                                       
Jill had a little problem getting to the stagecoach, but she distracted the zombies to let the rest of the gang get on the stage. They then drove the stage around and picked her up from the end of the fence before the zombies could catch up.

We had a lot of fun and the rules have some great mechanisms, for a simple set. I particularly like the way noise is handled. But we felt they were too many zombies and it was too hard to kill them. We will definitely be playing this again, but might put a few house rules into the mix. 

Ideas we discussed included:

Spawning fewer zombies each turn

Making shooting more effective, +1 at short range instead of -1 at long range

Swapping zombie push back 1-3" for a knockdown and taking their entire next turn to stand up.

We will play around with a few things and see where we go, but the essence of the rules are great and it's fun to play!!







 

Sellswords in Bogland Game 1

 Ross and Ian came over to play through the first game in my Bogland mini campaign. It was meant to be two scenarios, but they party performed so badly on the first attempt, they decided to go home and rest/heal up before making a second attempt at the game!

I took the role off GM, Ian had a Fighter, a Squire and a Ranger, Ross had a Fighter, a Magic user and an Elf archer.

The heroes(?) have undertaken a quest to seek the missing segments of a mystical necklace, stolen from the shrine of Jenny the Bog in Bogland. The full background is given here

                                        

Their sponsor/client, the King of Bogland, Bortrand, eighth of his name, and Nigle, the second of his name. Those who are both the Bringer of Peace and Bringer of War. 

The table lay out. The PCs enter from the near right corner and have to exit between the statues on the far right corner, having traversed the Misty Swamp and crossed the river at Troll Bridge. In the close left corner is the Forge of the One-Eyed Smith-God.

One-Eye at work by his forge. He has the skill to enchant weapons, but can sometimes be fickle.

In the Misty Swamp, something stirs in the watery depths.

Troll Bridge. How did such a charming rustic location gain such a name?

The First Attempt.

Not a great success story. It is best summed up by Ian's words "You have a magic user with no magic, your elf's a frog and my squire has just been killed, again! Let's leave and come back another day."

A few pictures of this disaster.

It started well enough, Ross's elf pushed forward and the rest of the party advanced more cautiously, except for Ian's squire who was somewhat laggardly in his attitude.

Reapatedly failing Activation rolls meant that lots of foes kept turning up, like these fish people...

...and this Swamp Troll.

A typical example of Ian's Activation dice rolling!

Moving in advance of the rest of the party meant that the elf got ganged up on by swamp frogs! He despatched the amphibians easily enough, but earned the ire of the Frog Master. This spirit of the bog appeared and turn the unfortunate elf into a purple frog!

Being lazy and hanging back was also no protection, as Ian's squire learned when he was attack by an irate bugbear. Some spectacularly bad combat dice and armour rolls left the poor squire out of the fight in short time!

The elf/frog at the forge of the One-Eyed Smith. 

Ross' conversation with the GM went like this:

You are now a frog!

Can I still use my bow?

No, you are a frog!

Can I talk to the smith?

Yes, he speaks elvish!

Having had to double back to help despatch the Bugbear, revive the unconscious Squire and magically heal him back to some semblance of health, after an hour of playing most of the party were back to their starting places!

Now things started getting really dangerous and the party were attacked by a troll and assorted other gribblies...including a marsh sprite. This a creatures of marsh gas, so cannot be harmed by mundane weapons and only vulnerable to magic (and fire, the marsh gas is quite flammable!).

Some of the party did manage to reach the forge and persuade the smith to enchant their weapons, but after three time he got bored with them and wandered off. It was at this point the Magic User rolled a 1 to cast a spell and lost his magical energy, and the Squire was killed for the second time by a troll, so the party decided to grab his body and leg it!

Having spent some time recuperating and healing, they returned to try and pass through the Misty Marsh a second time.

This time everything went far more according to plan. The party kept together, especially after they enter the mists, when LOS was reduced to 6", trying to keep at least one other PC in sight at all times.
                                                                                                            

                                        
They quickly encountered the Marsh Monster and killed it, searching the body revealed the first part of the mystic necklace and a magic scroll caught up in the creatures slimy hide.

                                        
When a Marsh Troll appeared, the party ganged up on the creature and again swiftly killed it. The party then paused to carry out some healing before continuing forward.

                                        
Again they were ambushed by Marsh Sprites, but now as at least half of the party had weapons that could hurt them so they were far less of a problem this time around.

                                        
As they neared Troll Bridge, Ian had a bright idea. "No one move onto the bridge until we are all in position, just in case"

A good idea, except that when Ross moved his Fighter up to the bridge first, he placed him on the edge of the bridge before anyone else arrived, "just to see if anything happened"....

                                        
....and of course, something did happen!

                                        
In the meantime something else was stirring in the mists. Bog Bodies, the spirits of drowned travellers, trapped forever in animated mud and slime.

                                       

"It's behind you!" The Elf tried shooting the Bog Bodies before it could reach the magic user, but discovered arrows do not do much to mud!

By the time the party had killed the Great Troll and dealt with the Bog Bodies, most of them were injured (again) and the Magic User and the Fighter were dead (or at least out of the fight). 

On checking the two bodies, Ross's fighter was OK, just a flesh wound (having a PC with healing +2 carry out the checks did help) and the Magic User was still alive, but comatose.

The Elf slung the Magic User over his shoulder whilst Ian's Fighter and Squire cleared the last of the foes off the bridge. The PCs just had time to search the fallen troll's body and find the second part of the necklace, before escaping off table!

A great couple of games and a lot of laughs all round!

The next adventure will explore the charmingly named Webbed Wyldwood and Giant's Lair! What could go wrong?

                                       

Sellswords & Spellslingers Campaign in Bogland

 I am planning a Sellswords and Spellslingers mini campaign, inspired by the brilliant (and weird) Boglanders created by Curtis at Ramshackle Games link

I picked up the entire range as a Kickstarter and have used some of them in different games but I thought that they deserved a setting of their very own. I'll be using some models from other manufacturers for things not covered in the Ramshackle Games range, like giants, trolls etc, but for the most part I will be using Curtis' lovely little weirdoes. 

Here is the background setting I'll be giving the players (some of it lifted from Curtis' booklet of the Boglanders).

Bogland is a strange place. A kind of low magic and the pitifully mundane are blended in the mud and grime of the bog. Some small part of Bogland exists across the planes, mostly in the land of the mortal, but a tiny part in the province of the fey, in fairyland. So, the people of Bogland too are some part of the realm of magic, yet most part mortal, and of the filth of their country.

Ruled by Bortrand, eighth of his name, and Nigle, the second of his name, the two kings who wear the crown simultaneously encompasses both the Bringer of Peace and Bringer of War. This makes the kingdom unpredictable, sometimes welcoming visitors and at other times shunning outsiders with lethal force. The King's faction, the Reds, try to follow his erratic orders but often struggle.

This unpredictability is not helped by the consort, Queen Vulpia the Cunning, The Great and Knowledgeable, She Who Reads, Patron of Bogland University.

Queen Vulpia the Cunning, who is wise and benevolent, has ruled for many years. She is part of the were-folk—part human, part animal—and leads her faction, the Blues. Though they are arrogant and insular, Vulpia strives to teach them honour and care for others.

Most Boglanders worship Sunface, Ruler of the Sky, the Bright Sun, creator of the world and of life, and Jenny of the Bog, the god of renewal and of plants, and of building, and protector of children, and the god of the dead to whom she grants a second life. The bogs of Bogland are revered by the inhabitants as sacred places. The bog is the source of food, of water, of the valuable peat that is burned and, also the place where the dead are buried. Jenny of the Bog judges the dead who are interred within the bog. If she decides they still have work left to do, then she will send their souls back to the land of the living.

Despised and feared by the more powerful states that surround it, Bogland would have been long ago wiped from existence, if it was not for the nature and difficulty of the terrain. Warlords have led armies of men, dwarves and orcs into the mists of Bogland, only to see the cream of their warriors drown in the marshes or be picked off one by one in ambush. Now the neighbouring princes try to pretend that Bogland does not exit, whilst mounting guards on their borders to fend of raiding parties from the misty bogs.

But in recent years, disturbances in the Northern Mountains have led to giants, trolls and all manner of monsters to descend into Bogland and plague the inhabitants. They desecrated the shrines, destroyed the pitiful farms and devoured the livestock (and often the farmers too). Worst of all they stole the necklace of Jenny of the Bog from her shrine. This necklace, which seems a mere bauble to the viewer, is a source of powerful magic that protected the Bogland. The necklace has been torn apart and the pieces carried off by the raiders.

King Bortrand and Nigle has offered a reward for any hero that could find the pieces and reunite the necklace. Many have sought the prize only to be crushed by giants or eaten by trolls, and on more than one occasion, executed by the Bolanders when Nigle, Bringer of War, achieved dominance over Bortrand.

 The players will be provided with a sketch map of Eastern Bogland, the places marked with a Sunface show where a piece of the necklace is thought to be found. Each table will cover two of the locations on the map. I'll post some batreps once we have played the games.

 

Assorted (Mostly) Fantasy Painting in January

 Much to my own surprise, I seem to have got a lot of painting completed this month, after a good three months of no painting Mojo!

Mostly fantasy, partly for a mini Sellswords & Spellslingers campaign I am planning for February, and partly due to getting enthused by Midgard Heroic Battles ruleset. I think it was the excitement generated by the release of Midgard that kickstarted my painting after such a long hiatus. As soon as I got my copy I started planning armies and thinking about what I needed to paint.

So what have I accomplished?

Starting off with some cheap 3d printed sci-fi drones. These had been sitting on my painting table, undercoated, for months and I decided to clear the table ready for the stuff I wanted to paint. No chucking them in a box, I had to get the finished before I could start anything else.

As Midgard Heroic Battles was the catalyst to boost my painting mojo, here are the two frost giants I painted for my Jotunheim armies, which have been sitting around for, literally, years!

And the marker for when one of them lobs a boulder around.

Some cheap 3d prints I picked up online, Mr and Mrs Hill Giant and a couple of trolls.

Some bits for my dungeon games, a horde of beetles from the Blacklist Games Fantasy Kickstarter and a couple more 3d prints and pair of rock chucking goblinesque/Trollish beasties.

And finally, some odds from the Ramshackle Games Boglanders set, a goblin guard with his pet frog and a insecty type gribbly. It was suggested that the goblin is in fact a fantasy version of me and our little dog (chihuahua/jack russell cross)! Also some markers from the set, which will find use as objective markers at some point.

Let's see if I can keep this up in February!😄