I got a bunch of my gaming buddies over for an afternoon to try out Ganesha Games' Song of Blades and Heroes fantasy rules. These have been around for many years now but, although I've played several different rules that use the SOBAH mechanisms (Fear and Faith, Mutants and Death Ray Guns etc), I'd never played the original set before now.
A couple of the players hadn't met each other before, so I thought this was a good opportunity to do some networking and introduce them. A put together a selection of 300 point warbands and allowed everyone to pick which one they wanted to use.
Kirstie chose Orcs, Mark Dwarves, Ross Wood Elves, I took Lizardmen and Ian had a mixed group of adventurers (based on our Sellswords party from pre-covid campaigning).
I stole borrowed the idea for this scenario from an absolutely superb mini campaign I had found through the Lead Adventure Forum https://necedemalis.org/hunt-for-the-barrowland-act-one/
My take on this for SOBAH is below.
CURSE OF THE BARROWLANDS
The skalds speak of the lost barrows of Sianwon in hushed tones, speaking of a kingdom long thought lost to myth. Some believe it was the place where the dream of undeath was first discovered, for from its, now-buried, sepulchres and tombs the dead first emerged to walk the earth again. Others say it is a place cursed by demons. Either way the legendary treasures rumoured to be buried there have enticed many an adventurer to risk life and soul to explore the grassy mounds. Few have returned to tell of what they found there.
Objective: To search the barrows and find as much treasure as possible.
Searching a Barrow: Once in contact with the entrance, it takes two consecutive activations to search a barrow, roll 1d6 (a barrow will only contain 1 treasure).
1= Creeping Terror, the model flees one full move away from the barrow.
2-3= Dust and Ashes, nothing but you can try again in another turn.
4-5=, a 1 or 2 value chest.
6= Ancestral Treasure, Either a 3 Loot chest of gold or a relic* (players choice).
*A magical item, counts as 2 Loot, but does not slow the bearer.
Eternal Guardians: Each time a barrow is searched roll 1d6
1-2 Nothing happens
3-5 A barrow guardian awakes, place 1 next to the entrance.
6 Two barrow guardians.
Name Q C PTS TRAITS
BARROW GUARDIAN 3+ 3 36 Undead
Carrying a treasure chest reduces the models speed by one band (Medium becomes short etc).
Ross got off to a quick start, advancing his elves across the table.
Kirstie's orcs were a bit more reticent, we said they were paddling and building sand castles on the riverbank.
Most of Ian's adventurers rushed up to the river, but the wizard and dwarf lagged behind.
My Lizardmen also spread themselves out as they advanced. mark's dwarves hardly seemed to move at all (I know they have only a short move, but even so!).
Ross' fast moving elves were the first to get into contact with a barrow.
Ignoring the two laggards at the back, Ian waded across the river, towards the nearest barrow.
Getting there ahead of my lizardmen.
The two parties clashed in a brief, inconclusive skirmish. Then Mark's dwarves attacked Ian from behind and my lizardmen took the opportunity to move on to another barrow.
As the elves had looted one barrow, after dealing with an irate guardian, and were moving on to a second, Kirstie decided to ignore the barrow and cross the river to cut off the elves' retreat. Let the elves do the hard work and mug them on the way home!
Things were getting nasty between Ian and Mark's warbands as my lizardmen quietly moved away and looted the next barrow, which didn't have any nasty surprises!
Eddie the wizard got halfway a cross the river, when the dwarf archer started shooting at him. The couple exchanged arrows and fore bolts for the next couple of turns, with inflicting serious damage.
After a few turns of combat both warbands had lost 3 of their number, both were now at half strength!
Having looted two barrows, the elves decided to head for home, only to find the orcs blocking their way.
If that wasn't bad enough, my lizardmen can charging up from the other side.
Deciding that arrows were not working, a dwarf rushed towards the wizard, intending to try splitting his head with an axe. Eddie concentrated and froze the dwarf on the spot, halting his advance (deciding that fire bolts hadn't worked, Ian decided to try a Transfix spell, which had the desired effect).
As the elves dropped under the combined assault, an orc grabbed one of the looted treasures, whilst a lizardman grabbed the other. Having lost two of their number, the lizardmen now retreated with their treasures, pursued by the orcs. Two acted as rear-guard, while the third carried off the loot.
Back in the river Eddie the wizard took careful aim and loosed a fire bolt, killing the transfixed dwarf.
Now, with only 1 character left each, Mark and Ian made a truce. With the orcs acting as a distraction, they would gang up on my treasure carrying lizardman and rob him!
Having lost a couple of orcs to my lizardmen, Kirstie decided to call off the chase an loot the final two barrows instead. The first they entered had shiny things inside, but also a guardian, which promptly laid out the first orc to rashly enter. However they ganged up on it and despatched the undead creature.
Whilst the orcs were now off looting, the other two lizardmen were able to come to their fellow's aid made short work of the two would-be robbers.
After a lot of fun, laughter and banter, aided by beer & snacks, the final result.
Ian TPK (Total Party Kill)
Mark TPK
Ross TPK
Me 4 Loot Points
Kirstie 6 Loot points
I will be trying another multi-player game of SOBAH next week, with different players. My intention is to run a campaign next year for a group of 4 of us who get together regularly once a month.
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