New Campaign Book for Sellswords and Spellslingers

 I have just submitted the final text to Ganesha Games for my new campaign book for Sellswords and Spellslingers,  "Night of the Assassins".

Obviously "Night of the Assassins" still requires work on layout and artwork before publication. As Ganesha Games has other books already under production, I do not have a timescale for publication yet, but watch this space.

I have been really pleased at the reception "Last Stand at Mistham" has received from the tabletop gaming community and would like to thank everyone for their support.

A couple of in-game photos for the upcoming book.

Trying Twisted Steampunk Skirmish

 Kirstie came over for a game last night and brought along two factions for Twisted. This is a steampunk skirmish tabletop game produced by Demented Games in Oz. https://www.dementedgames.com/

Twisted is more fantasy steampunk than the VSF I usually play, lovely looking miniatures but not to my personal taste (and a bit pricy for me). Kirstie loves painting them, I think she bought them for painting originally, then got the game.

This was only my second game, so I am still getting my head around the rules. The basic mechanisms are straight forward, characters have 2 actions per turn, move, charge, shoot, fight etc. Combats are opposed rolls, if the attacker scores higher they hit, then calculate damage according to the weapon and target's armour.  

There are added levels of complexity because each character has different weapons and special abilities, plus use of cards and Alchemancy (magic). As I play more games I will become more familiar with the best use of the various bits and bobs.

Here are a few shots of the game, I played Servants of the Engine against Kirstie's Dickensians. I got slaughtered!

VSF Shoot Out

 

Colin got over for a day of VSF today, which gave me the opportunity to put my Ottoman steam armoured car and clockwork one-man walker on the table for their first game.

A lovely little model from Ironclad.

The table layout, a peaceful scene somewhere along the Adriatic Coast.

The British medium walker stalks through the market square, while Ottoman janissaries take cover and their armoured steam car moves forward into the  bottom right of the picture. At the top right you can see an early casualty, the British armoured steam car. A lucky shot from a janissary with an arc rifle had killed both the crew.

Things start to get close up and personal. The British sergeant and a riflemen charge the Ottoman captain and a janissary. In the background the Ottoman mechanical soldier moves up in support. A bloody melee ensued with finally saw the Ottoman Captain as the last one left on his feet.

The Ottoman armoured steam car moves forward, flanked by two janissaries.

On the other side of the building, the British captain and the sapper with rocket grenades stalk the armoured vehicle. The Ottoman hashashin was lurking in the green house and sprang out, but the Captain put him down with a well-aimed pistol round to the head.

Walkers face off in the square. The Ottoman walker's arc cannon killed both the British driver and the gunner, so the engineer took the driver's seat. He charged forward to try and stamp on the Ottoman walker, but the light one-man walker was more mobile and kept evading the more lumbering British machine.

The two captains go toe to toe. Behind them a lucky shot by the British sniper has just disabled the armoured steam car's machine gun.

We called a halt at this point with an honourable draw. The British had their captain, a rifleman and a walker with a working gun, but only one crew left. The Ottomans had their captain, the light walker and an armoured car with no gun. We had been playing a last man standing game, rather than a scenario as it was the first time we had used armoured vehicles and walkers with IHMN 2ed, so it was an opportunity to get to grip with the rules.

Some More Fantasy Painting

 I've had the time to crack on with some more of the Blacklist Games Fantasy Kickstarter miniatures.

I am very pleased with how these are turning out, whilst not the best minis ever, they are mostly very usable and looking good painted up and great value for money. It is also nice to get a good selection of female characters in the mix as well.

A bandit, Vampire and female human rogue.

A bugbear and a horde of orcs, all the bad guy sword fodder come in a group of 5 of each pose. 5 is enough to be useful for most skirmish purposes, although the single pose is a a little limiting. That said, the Fantasy Set 2 Kickstarter, which I also bought into, will give me alternatives.

A horde of troglodytes.

A half-orc cleric (an interesting concept) takes on a giant spider.

Not from the Kickstarter, but something I picked up on Ebay last autumn (as you do).

Another bandit, a female half-orc rogue and an elf rogue. Why is it I seem to be painting up all the dodgier PC types first? These three will see service as assassins in the new Sellswords and Spellslingers scenario book I am currently writing.

Started painting my first Kickstarter minis

 I thought I'd better start putting some paint of the Blacklist Games minis from the Kickstarter boxes (that have been sitting on the side for a few weeks now!). I quite impressed with the plastic figures, most of them a good, usable poses and they take paint well.

First up, a troglodyte, giant worm and a gnoll 

A thief, ghoul and a construct

Dwarf wizard, inn keeper and giant rat

Finally a werewolf and a mummy.

I can see myself getting a lot of use from this set, the Dwarf wizard will be joining my Oathmark forces, the constructs will fit in nicely with my VSF stuff and the rest will get plenty of use in various Sellswords campaigns.

Just as well really, because I also bought into the Blacklist Games Fantasy 2 and Horror Kickstarters!

Sellswords and Spellslingers in Jotunheim 2

 I had the chance to fit in another game in my new Sellswords campaign, technicaly it's game three as I didn't have a camera to hand for the second game.

Book Three – Crossing the Land of the Dead

Basic Scenario: 5 XP per player plus individual XP rewards

The mystical runes gained so far have enabled the party to decipher the ancient map that leads to the Lost Horde of the Dokkalfar King. Unfortunately, it shows that the map is actually incomplete! 

On consulting a wise Seer, the party learn that there are in fact two more parts to the map. The Seer has ascertained the location of the two parts, one is in the lands of the Frost Giant, far to the North, the other is closer, in the Haunted Lands to the West. 

The party decide to travel west first. Once they have secured the map fragment they will continue beyond the Haunted Lands to the coast and find a ship to carry them north.

After many days travelling they finally enter the Haunted Lands. The area is a cursed place, the site of a war between rival Necromancers eons ago. The spirits of lost souls haunt the land, nursing a deep hatred for the living. The party must journey deep into the Haunted Lands to reach the cavern identified by the Seer.

Terrain: An area of icy wilderness with 6 randomly placed pits. PCs start along the Southern table edge.

Foes:

2 Ice Wraiths

3 hordes of 3 Draugr

Ambush: 1 Draugr emerges from the nearest pit to the active PC.

Reinforcements: 3 Draugr enter from a randon table edge.

They are at our Backs: 4 Dokkalfar enter on the Southern edge.

Traps: A pit opens at the PC’s feet. The PC falls down, hurting legs (-1” to movement until healed) if he fails a DL 10 Dodge roll. A friend can help him out or he must pass a DL 10 climbing roll. The pit will act as an ambush point.

Complications: none

Wandering Monster: enter from random table edge.

1-4 - 1 Ice Wraith

5 – Ice Troll*

6 - Ice Worm*

*Ignore these rolls if already in play.

Foes Interacting:

Undead ignore monsters and Dokkalafr (who carry talismans to protect them).

Dokkalfar and monsters will ignore each other and concentrate on the adventurers.

Dokkalfar  avoid the Undead and will not move with 4” of any undead.

Victory Conditions: Leave from the northern edge.

Other individual rewards: A PC carrying an out-of-action PC off the table gains 1 XP. Killing a Troll/Worm gains 1 XP.

 

The table, viewed from the south (the players entry point is just out of shot).

The party got off to a slow start, both Shield Maidens rushed ahead, whilst the Rune Priest and the Huscarls took a more leasurly approach (failed lots of activation rolls!)

Verborg: "Harald! Gothi! Will you two stop your posing competition and get a move on!".

They quickly attracted a lot of interest from hordes of undead. Thorbjorg the Sorceress blast a couple of the shambling corpses, but when Gothi tried to use his rune magic the gods turned their back on him (rolled a "1" for a casting roll, no more magic in this game!). Looks like Gothi is reduced to the role of healer for today.

So it was left to the Huscarls to do things the old fashoned way! By the time Torstein had chopped down the Draugr baring the party's way he was reduced to one HP. But he had a healing potion, so drinking that and a quick heal by Gothi, restored the lost HPs before he charged into another horde of Draugr.

Then a bunch of angry Dokkalfar turned up behind the party.

And an Ice Wraith moved up to block the PC's escape route.

Thorbjorg blasted the monster with her icy magic as Verborg moved up to support her and throw an axe at the foe. She hurt the undead, but it charged them before Thorbjorg could cast a second spell.

Fortunately, Greta and Harald were close enough to join in the melee. Harald cut the foe down with a mighy blow of this axe. Verborg was aware that Wraiths often accumulated interesting objects from their victims and quickly looted the remains.

At this point Greta noticed something sparkly at the base of a nearby rock and ran up the hill to retrieve it. Not the best idea with two more Ice Wraiths moving in the PC's direction, but she is impulsive!

From her vantage point she noticed a new arrival. "Ice Worm! We're getting out of here."

Yet more Dokkalfar turned up behind the PCs, so everyone turned a ran for the agreed escape point.

With an Ice Wraith in hot pursuit, Greta just made it off the table in time!

  

In fact the table was swarming with foes!

It seemed a narrow escape as we played it, with some tough fighting, but looking back only Thorstein suffered any damage (he had been reduced to 1HP again by the time he got off the table). We were lucky in that we failed a lot of activations early on, when the foes were mainly Draugr and had better dice once the stronger foes had started making an appearance. 

The PC's had picked up three useful items, a magical sword that inflicted an extra point of DAM, a potion of Spider Climbing and a Luckstone with allows the wearer to reroll any die roll, once per game.

 

 

 

Sellswords and Spellslingers in Jotunheim

 

I finally managed to get a game with a "new" project I've been working on throughout the lockdowns. It's a setting for Sellswords and Spellslingers games loosely based on Norse mythology.

I was inspired by some old Heartbreaker dwarf minis, sculpted by Phil Lewis some 30-odd years ago. I liked the character of these minis but they really didn't fit in with any dwarfs in my collection (which are very much based in Tolkien's Middle Earth). So I decided to use them as Norse Dark Elves, or Dokkalfar. I then decided to use other Phil Lewis sculpts from the same Heartbreaker range for Alfar (elves) Sveltalfar (black elves, which I am interpreting as orc/goblin types) and Draugr (undead/zombies). I have had to resort to other manufacturers for some of the characters/creatures, but the bulk are Phil's Heatbreaker sculpts.

So here is my first outing in this new world! I didn't want to make the scenarios too basic, so I created a more experienced party of heroes. They are two groups with in the part. A Rune Priest (spells: Enhance Others and Knockdown) and a Sorceress (spells: Frost Blast, Death Cloud and Teleport Friend), each accomponied by a Huscarl and a Shield Maiden (I will start naming the characters if any survive the scenario).

 

Book One - Runestones.

Experienced Scenario: 5 XP per player plus individual XP rewards

 The adventurers are tasked with obtaining 5 mystical runes, which will unlock the secret of the ancient map that leads to the Lost Horde of the Dokkalfar King. The runes were inscribed into 5 stones in an icy valley, on the edge of the Hnitbjorg (The Clashing Mountains). They were placed there by a Dokkalfar sorcerer, who cursed the stones with dark magic and raised guardians to protect them.

 On the journey the adventurers were pursued by Dokkalfar warbands, determined to keep the location of the horde a secret. To add to the danger, the valley is deep in the territory infested by Greater and Lesser Sveltalfar.

 Terrain: An area of icy wilderness with 5 standing stones, 2 on the south side of the river and 3 to the north. PCs start along the Southern table edge.

 Foes:

2 Greater Svelalfar

3 hordes of 3 Lesser Sveltalfar (1 horde has bows)

 Ambush: 1 Draugr emerges from the ground in front of the nearest stone.

 Reinforcements: 3 Lesser Sveltalfar (1-3) or 1 Greater Svelalfar (4-6)

They are at our Backs: 4 Dokkalfar enter on the Southern edge.

 Traps: No traps in this scenario.

 Complications: The first time a Complication card is drawn 1d6 skeleton archers enter from the southern edge.

 Wandering Monster: A Guardian is summoned to protect the stones. It will appear at a random stone.

1-3 - 3 Draugr

4 – Ice Troll*

5 – Snow Ogre*

6 Ice Worm*

*Ignore these rolls if already in play.

 

Foes Interacting:

Dokkalafr and summoned Guardians (Draugr etc) will ignore each other and concentrate on the adventurers.

Guardians ignore Svelalfar, who are frighted by the summoned Guardians and will not move with 4” of any guardians.

Dokkalfar and Sveltalfar will attack each other, if they are activated within 4” of the other, and fight until one side is exterminated. Each time the fight is activated, roll 1d20 for each foe in the fight, on a roll of 11+ it is killed.

 

Victory Conditions: Leave from any edge with all as many runes as possible.

Other individual rewards: A PC carrying an out-of-action PC off the table gains 1 XP. Killing a Troll/Ogre/Worm gains 1 XP.

 

  

The table after the first couple of turns. On the hill in the botton right of the picture, a Shield maiden has reached the first runestone.

A group of Draugr arrive.

A Huscarl faces down two Lesser Sveltalfar...there had been three a moment ago.

The other Huscarl finds his way to the second runestone blocked by a Greater Sveltalfar, but he takes the beast down.

More foes move across the bridge.

Yet more Druagr emerge from the ground next to a runestone.

The two Huscarls gang up on a Sveltalfar.

Bugger, now an Ice Ogre has turned up!

To speed things up the Sorceress teleports a Huscarl to the second runestone, unfortunatly he fails his constitution roll and lands in an ungainly heap.

Yet more Draugr appear behind the party along with a bunch of angry Dokkalfar.

The Rune Priest tackled a Dokkalfar.

The party reach the bridge. The Huscarl having regained his wits and read the runestone, they now have 2 of the secret runes.

But more Draugr energe.

The Rune Priest and a Huscarl hold the bridge against the Snow Ogre.

Whilst the Sorceress has Teleported the other Huscarl to the far Runestone.

An overview of the action. The Huscarl now has 2 secret runes and one of the Shield Maidens has 1.

The heroes on the bridge fell the Snow Ogre, not both have suffered injury.

More Dokkalfar join the fray.

What's that large shape running towards the bridge? It's an Snow Troll! The Sorceress finds herself surrounded by foes, but eliminates most of the with her Deathcloud (lucky she made the roll!) and a Shield maiden knocks off the last Dokkalfar with a well aimed axe.

In the meantime the Huscarl makes his way towards the next runestone, drawing the attention of a bunch of Sveltalfar.

Things are hotting up on the bridge! Sadly both the heroes fall to the claws of the Ice Troll.

The Huscarl chops his way through the Sveltalfar, but takes a wound in the process.

The Sorceress teleports a Sheild Maiden to the last runestone and she reads the secret rune.

Unfortunately an Ice Worm pops up out of the ground and promptly eats her!

At this point we decided that, sod dying heroically in a saga, the survivors were off. With half the party dead and only 3 runes (the eaten Shield maiden had read both runestones before she became lunch!) we will need to regroup, recruit and see if 3 runes are enough to move the party on ib their quest.