RPG Design: The 5 Scene Adventure

 

It has been a whle since I have talked to much about iRPG design on the site.  I have dedicated most of this year to Wargames rather than RPGs on the blog.  On the Patreon, the same is not true.  I have been dumping tons of content there in the form of One-shot outlines for various RPGs.  I always have quick ideas for RPG adventures, but the problem is that these one-shots ended up clogging my brain and making it hard to write other content!  Typically, I have no interest on expanding on these ideas into a fully-fledging, sellable product and then they end up taking up brain space and getting in the way of the projects I am working on selling!  Therefore, I tend to brain dump them out on the Patreon so maybe others can make use of them!   

If you have played Dungeons and Dragons for as long as I have.  You have been familiar with the concept of the 5-room Dungeon for a long, long time.  The idea is pretty simple, so simple that is was the foundation for an entire magazine called Dungeon magazine that was full of one-off adventures DMs could drop into their campaigns.  However, the internet machine will tell you that it was created in 2006 by a person named Johnn Four.  

Anyway, the premise is pretty simple, if you need a quick adventure you need to have 5-rooms. The first is the Entrance Guardian to explain why no one has raided this place before, second is a puzzle or riddle that can not be solved by simple combat rolls to force some lateral thinking, room three is the setback or challenge that forces them to rethink the dungeon or narrative such as a surprise twist (i.e. The real treasure is the friends we made along the way), fourth is a combat to resolve the dungeon, and the last room is a reward for getting this far.  Pretty simple stuff that most players know the story beats for but works because it is rewarding and tells a good "heroic journey" style storyline.  

However, most RPGs don't use dungeons.  I have never run into a dungeon playing Star Wars or Shadowrun.  Dungeons are specific to a certain Fantasy focused genre and perhaps even a specific game; Dungeons and Dragons.  Therefore, I like to think of the 5- Room Dungeon instead as the 5- Scenes of the session. 

The 5-Scene One-Shot

The 5-Room Dungeon is just a story-writing structure and the 5-scene One-shot is the same.  It is a structure to a game that gives satisfying results.  Instead of thinking about rooms in a dungeon, it shifts the focus to more broadly think about 5-scenes in an evening of gaming and how to move the players from the beginning to the end of the adventure in a satisfying way.  My structure is as follows: 

1. The Hook - Why are we going to see this to the end?  Here you set up the problem and the stakes.  The Hook is where the premise of the game is laid bare.  

2-4- The Adventure Path - These are scenes that get you from the Hook to the conclusion with rising tension, and not always in a linear way.  However, they are scenes that should happen for the Big Finale to make sense.  These often require clue-gathering, social skills, stealth, and other tasks to resolve the scene. 

5- Big Finale- All the other scenes lead up to this scene that resolves the Hook.  The end of this scene is the end of the One-shot.  Many times, this means combat BUT not always.  It could be resolved through other methods but this should be where the drama is.  

Super simple stuff that I often lay-out explicitly in my RPG rules such as Glittering Void, Flashlight: Tales of Terror, No Dice, and Super Sexy, Swingin' Spies.   

The Hook 

The Hook is where the gamemaster lays out the premise of the game, what the goals of the game are, and what the stakes are if the players fail.  This is the part of the game where the Characters have to decide if they are going to keep going and experience the adventure.  

The classic example is.... you all meet at the inn..... however that is a very weak hook.  Instead, you want to set-up a scene where the Characters are immediately thrown into the action and forced to work together or make a tough decision.  If as the GM you have done a good job helping players make Good Characters for the game, then taking the Hook should almost be a given.  However, avoiding down time and jumping into the action is always a good idea!  Ideally, a good Hook doesn't really give the Players a chance to derail the story, it should assume they are all ready on the ride.  This is often called an In Media Res opening.    

Here is an example, you spent the time making good characters and you know that the 3 players are a run-away heiress, her butler/father-figure, and the bodyguard they have conned into helping them.  The game starts with them holed up in a flea-bitten motel on the seedy side of town.  The Bodyguard is keeping watch out the window, when a black sedan shows up and thugs get out and go to the manager's office.  It is clear they are looking for you.  What are you going to do?

A great hook should end with the question, What are you going to do?  The answer should not be able to avoid the premise of the game.  In the example above, the three characters can not decide to try to buy a cabbage stand and start selling cabbages on the corner, because that would lead to the thugs finding them really quickly; which would still propel the adventure forward.   

The Adventure Path

This is the series of steps that lead the players logically and naturally to the Big Finale.  During this phase of the game, players should be using their character's abilities to resolve challenges and role-play.  This is where knowing the different types of scenes comes in handy!  The adventure path should be set-up to allow characters to shine!  They should help a character reveal their personality, history, and skills.  

Ideally, the scenes should be interchangeable so as the players make choices it will lead to different Adventure Path scenes but no matter what route they go, it will lead back to the Big Finale.  A good example of this is the sample adventure El Fin du Monde in the Flashlight: Tales of Terror rules.  There are a series of scenes that the players will participate in, but they branch and come back together so players do not feel overly railroaded and their choices mattered with what they know going into the Finale.  

Unlike the 5-Room Dungeon, the Adventure Path scenes are not laid-out as rigidly as the puzzle, the set-back/twist, the social scene, etc.  Each adventure will have different scene needs.  For example, a mystery needs more clue-gathering, a social adventure needs more drama building interactions, and adventure games needs action set-pieces!  These Adventure Path scenes should lead to a rising tension with the players for what the Big Finale will look and feel like.  Therefore, the Adventure Path are the connective tissue of scenes that any adventure needs to go from the Hook to the Big Finale in a logical way while building connection and tension within the game world.    

In the scenes we laid out with the run-away princess story, perhaps the adventure path would be: 

1. Hook - Avoid Daddy's searching Thugs: Action/Chase Scene

2. Plan of Escape - Meet with a contact to find a way to escape: Social Scene

3. Get Gear - In order to escape, you need certain things.  Gather them now: Acquisition Scene- Varies from Social, to Stealth, to Combat depending on how they gather the needed supplies.

4. Mommy Intervention - Mom shows up and tries to help/hinder the escape: Intrigue Scene

5. Big Finale - Daddy finds them and this leads to the final confrontation

Scenes 2,3, and 4 are focused on using other skills and revealing relationships, and story points to add to the emotional resonance and stakes of the Big Finale.  You could shift these scenes around and still have the same basic premise work.   

Big Finale

As the name implies, all the other scenes should lead up this.  In the Big Finale the players know the stakes from the Adventure Path and now have to face up to the threat and resolve the central conflict of the Hook!  When this scene is over, the game is essentially over too.  The main drama and conflict of the adventure is complete.  Often times, this will include combat BUT not all RPGs lean into this as a resolution mechanic.  It could be the Big Show, a Court room scene, an emotional heart-to-heart, or something else thematically appropriate.    

 A good Big Finale will do the following: 

- Close the main conflict introduced in the Hook 

- Leave threads open for the Players to follow if they want to go beyond the One-shot

- Leave space for Players to tell an epilogue about what happened to the Characters after the adventure IF this is a true One-shot.  

- Make people want to play again!  

Final Thoughts

This is not rocket-science or anything new.  It is story structure as old as time.  However, I have found this to be a useful way to compose an evening RPG session.  This set-up works well with 1 GM and 3-5 players and typically yields about 3-4 hours of gameplay.  I often only come to the game with a strong Hook, and let the rest evolve as play emerges, using the 5-Scene structure to help me guide the pacing and the action.  However, when it comes to the content on the Patreon I try to fill out all 5-Scenes. 

Give one of these Patreon One-shots a try, or even use the 5-Scene game structure and let me know what you think in the comments.  

Until next time! 

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On The Painting Desk: Armor Up! More Vandals!

 

Faithful readers, I continue my saga of batch-painting 60 models for my Late Roman Vandal army.  That is 40 infantry, and 10 Cavalry models being painted all.....at....once......! The progress has been steady as I crank along on this project.  Of course, over summer painting time diminished, but it is time to get back on that horse!  

We left off with all the Vandal having pants!  Therefore, today we would mostly be focused on armoring up!  However, before we got that far I needed to get the Cavalry caught up!  I could not paint their pants until their horses armored up first!  Therefore, they were a bit behind everyone else! 

Honey, have you seen my pants? 

I started by painting up the barding on the horses.  I used Hoplite Gold, Horde Bronze, Polished Silver, Broadsword Silver, and Enchanted Steel.  Pretty much each color was used on two horses.  I kind of wanted to see what the difference was in these colors for later usage too.  I also used alternating colors on their head gear versus their main bodies to give them some variety.  I left off the straps, bridle and other parts for now.  I would paint those when I did belts and such for everyone else.

Once the barding was done, the riders needed their pants!  They were the only guys without any!  I used the same basic approach of Cruasder Skin, Pallid Bone, and Holy White for leggings.  Then, the basic colors of Absolution Green, Orc Skin, Fire Giant Orange, Slaughter Red, and Highland Blue for the pants.  Then I alternated the colors up and painted their tunics too.  

The cavalry had now caught up to the infantry!  Therefore, it was time to armor up!  I looked at the horses and decided to drop Enchanted Steel and Horde Bronze from my list of armor colors for the troopers.  I stuck with Polished Silver, Broadsword Silver, Hoplite Gold.  I also added in some Runic Grey and Graveyard Grey elements as well.  

The bulk of the cavalry and heavy infantry used chain mail and helmet so these were the focus of this session.  I had used extra Gothic Elite rider heads on one of the units to represent the Elites.  These guys and the cavalry had somewhat more detailed helmets with plumes, so I gave them some extra work too.  This included using some different colors for the plumes on their helmets.  

At this point, it took some discipline to keep batch painting.  I was tempted to just split off and finish the archers and militia types.  However, I pressed onward in the batch!  I went on and painted up the weapons next.  It is always amazing how finishing the weapons can really make models look much more finished!  The bows were painted in Sand Golem, the hafts of weapons are Harden Leather or Sand Golem.  Blades were Broadsword Silver, Runic Grey, Polished Silver, with the occasional bit of Graveyard Grey.  

Hilts and Guards for the Elites were in Hoplite Bronze while the Regulars were in Polished Silver.    The keen eyed will also not that the Elite Foot also was only equipped with swords, while the regulars had some axes mixed in.  The Elites also had a standard, cloaked champion, and musician while the Regulars had a spear man for standard and a commander model.  Combined with the Goth heads, this was intended to make the Elites visually distinct on the battlefield especially from the Regulars. 

For the last step today, I went and painted all the hair for the models.  I made at least three guys in each unit have Blonde hair and one with Fire Giant Orange hair.  These are Vandal Barbarians after all!  Then I used Graveyard Grey, Dark Wood, and Sand Golem for the rest.  A few I left as simply base coated and trusted the wash would make it look like an older man's beard and hair.  

Cavalry

The last thing I had to do was paint the reins and some armor detail on the Cavalry red.  With that, the base coats for all the Vandals were done!  I split them up into groups and took pictures of each unit with their basecoats on.

Archers

  

Militia Unit

Regulars

Elites

With that, I called it a day.  All that is left now if finishing steps.  That includes a wash, basing, and shields.  Finishing may have some issues as I maybe out of Light Tone wash, almost out of moss for bases, and I did not bring enough shields for the whole army.  The rest are still at my home base!  Woops!  That will make it hard to finish these guys off!  

Until next time! 

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Wargame Design: Friction in Wargames

 

Of course, one of the seminal works about warfare came from Carl Von Clausewitz in his book “On War”.  This was written based on Von Clausewitz’ own experiences during the Napoleonic Wars and has been critical reading for those who think about Military matters ever since.  I have read it and have a copy of it on my shelf along with Jomini, Mahan, Sun Tzu, Machiavelli and many others.

There are many great quotes in the book that you have probably heard before.  One of my favorites is about Friction, and it goes something like this…..

“Everything is very simple in war, but the simplest thing is difficult. These difficulties accumulate and produce a friction, which no man can imagine exactly who has not seen war”

The idea is that Military things are hard to accomplish.  However, as you conduct operations in the field there is a “friction” that builds up and makes everything more complicated than it would normally be.  The trick for a successful commander is to be able to navigate that Friction and manage it.  Friction can be a wide variety of things and is a catch-all term for conditions that make conducting military actions increasingly difficult, from fatigue, to weather, to morale, to casualties, to logistics, to enemy action, and beyond.  It is a nice catch-all term. 

As a player, I have a preference for games that somehow allow me as the commander to have to "deal" with this growing friction. As a designer, capturing this increasing sense of building Friction is something that is fascinating, difficult, and important to me.  However, as Clausewitz points out that it can be hard to imagine.  

So, let's talk about adding "Friction" in a wargame that is fun to experience and not annoying.  

Kill Team

This Feels Good

There are a number of ways that games make players feel friction in game.  The most successful ones I have played tend to focus on the Morale Phase of the game, where Friction impacts Command and Control of your forces more than any other aspect of the game.  This often takes the form of Fatigue, Pins, and Suppression.  With such rules, the basic activities that the units partake in become more difficult or harder to accomplish.  Tasks which required no risk of failure, start to have the risk of failure.  

A great example is the game Bolt Action.  In the opening turn or two, generally speaking units are not subject to enemy fire (with exceptions) and therefore can move freely around the board with fewer limitations.  However, as they close on objectives and with the enemy forces, the volume of fire and therefore danger increases.  This takes the form of "pin markers" that the unit accrues.  These Pin Markers impact how a unit can move, shoot, or fight.  If it has too many Pins it will have to use special orders to shed these Pins, or even no longer be able to be activated.  The Player has to decide how to deal with the growing number of Pins on their units and use limited resources and time to mitigate them.  

Pin Markers like these are a great visualizations for how Friction works in many games systems, where the focus is on its impact to Command and Control.  The units can still do what they normally do, but it is harder.  

Castles in the Sky

This Burns

Then there is the type of friction that does not feel so good.  The kind that is more of a hinderance to the game.  I am not going to name names here, but there is a thin line between the good kind of Friction and the not so good kind.  At first glance, they can look very similar.  However, mechanics that require a lot of mental load on players or force reference into the rulebook is bad Friction.  

The big difference is when the Friction elements do not fit smoothly into the gameplay loop, and require the player to "do more" rather than simply limit their decision making.  Often this "doing more" takes the form of operating the game play with more tracking, more tokens, cross-reference the rules, etc.  Things like tracking every time a unit does X it causes Y Fatigue and therefore, every time a unit takes any action some sort of Friction occurs.  

Another common feature is different types of Friction that players track for different effects.  I.e. Friction from combat causes Morale issues, but Friction from moving causes Exhaustion, and Friction from using resources causes Logistics ratings to change, etc.  Good friction mechanics try to put all those factors into one abstracted mechanic.  

Often, Friction mechanics should all take effect in one of the 4Ms, for easier tracking and resolution.  Having different Friction mechanics in the different phases only works IF they can be abstracted into one simple token or measure of total Friction.  I.e. the unit gains a Pin from moving through difficult terrain, enemy shooting, units breaking nearby, charging, etc.  These are all friction that can happen in different parts of the game BUT they still fall under one simple Friction mechanic. 

All of the above cause players too much mental load and will lead to more time in the rulebook than the action on the table.  

Fury of the Northman

Effects of Friction

Ideally, Friction should force decision making.  The core of gameplay should be to have meaningful decisions.  Friction is a great method to impose consequences on player decisions and force players to manage variable performance of their units.  Friction should ideally be an escalating set of conditions to be overcome by the commander of the force.  So, how do you do this in your wargames? 

The easiest answer is.... it depends!  What period and effects you are trying to model will determine what the mechanic will look like.  However, that kind of wishy-washy, but accurate answer is not why you come to this blog!  

I think there are a few ways to manage:

1. Modifiers - The easiest way to make friction become a "universal modifier" for all checks a unit has to make as the Friction mounts.  Most games use a Target Number approach to resolving situations via mechanics.  Therefore, as Friction mounts Modifiers increase the Target Numbers of these tests.  

2. Status Effects- The units themselves move into different game states such as wavering, disrupted etc.  Each state imposes challenges or restrictions on the units.  

For example, in Wars of the Republic units go into a Wavering status that means they lose the benefit of any formation.  This can shift the tide greatly in a melee! 

3. Change of Activation- Friction causes the initiative to change between players or forces, or limits the number of activations.  This restricts the freedom of action of the commander and forces choice about who needs to do what when. 

For example, in Blood Bowl play is changed from one team to the next. 

4. Change of Phase or End Game- The growing Friction causes the game to move closer to ending, such as a Doom Clock or moves from one action phase to the next.  I.e. the Friction causes the game to shift from the movement phase into the melee phase, etc.  This shift has to happen at a time when it forces commanders to priotize actions or change their previous action sequencing.  

5. Unit Under Glass- A Unit can that hits certain friction points can no longer participate in the normal turn activation process.  It is unavailable.  Commonly in games this is seen by putting them in a "routing" state where they are moving to the board edge.  

Men of Bronze

Regaining Control

Of course, one of the key factors of adding Friction to a game is that you also need a way to mitigate it.  Once Friction starts accruing, their has to be a cost for a Commander to mitigate it and overcome it.  If you think of the examples above, how do you get a unit back into fighting shape?  How do you let them participate back in the battle fully?  What is the trade-off that a commander needs to make here in order for the unit to get back into the fight?

Friction build-up is only half the equation of successfully implementing Friction into your wargame.  The other half is giving Commanders a way to work around it.... at a cost.  That is where the meaningful choices comes into play.  If you manage it here, how does it impact the rest of the battle? 

Here is some ways I have seen it done: 

1.   Resources - The most common way I have seen is via resource management.  I.e. you have a limited number of tokens and you can use them to mitigate the impact of Friction, but there is only so many to go around.  If you spend them on X they are not available for Y.

See Fury of the Northman as a prime example of how this works.  Fury points can be used to mitigate many conditions and improve performance but they are limited to a limited number that have a number of uses.  Commanders have to choose how they use them in order to off-set Friction.  

2. Commanders - Using a physical model and distance to and from that model to help mitigate the effects of Friction.  Of Course, if you commander is at location Y he can not help units at location Z.  

Many Horse and Musket games use this approach.  Commander's Radius such as in Honours of War is a classic and common example. 

3. Board Edges - Once a Unit has hit the table edge or other distance from the battle, they can be influenced by their officers to return to the battle as normal.  However, by that time they are some distance from the action and will take time to move back into position.  

This one was common in early versions of Warhammer games, where units that hit the board edge could make a final rally check to avoid fleeing the field and return to the fight.  

4. Pauses - Units must forego other actions and instead take time to steady themselves and remove the impacts of Friction.  Of course, by standing still they can not fully participate in the game until they have regrouped.  It is a choice when to pause and when to push.  

This is the process used in Clash of Spears to reduce fatigue and other friction. 

5. Action Funnels - The actions that can be taken are reduced to a minimal amount until Friction is removed.  

The Men Who Would Be Kings has this as a component of the rules.  

Heirs to Empire: Wars of the Diadochi

Final Thoughts

Friction and how you use it is an exciting and compelling part of Wargame Design.  It can be used to added a variety of tactical and strategic choice to a game.  How you implement it depends on what you are trying to create, but Friction is an important element to any wargame design no matter where you are on the Designer's Triangle.  Do not overlook its importance as a tool as often it means the difference between a solid game and a great game.  

Until next time! 

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On The Painting Desk: Tagging some Vandals!

 

Last time On the Painting Desk..... faithful readers, you will recall that I started batch-painting an army for my latest ruleset, Barbarians at the Gates.  You will recall that this was a force of about 40 infantry and 10 cavalry (or about 60 models).  I have a larger force but this is the core for the example army from the book.  The models are from Gripping Beast that I ordered from the Michigan Toy Soldier company.  I am trying to batch paint them all together using Armypainter Speedpaints, which is something I have not done with Historicals before.  I am not sure how they will turn out compared to my other Historical minis.  

You will also recall, that I had managed to assemble them all, undercoat them, and get started on some of the basic painting over the course of a couple weekends.  Therefore, they still have a lot to go as I finish their flesh, boots, hooves, and horseflesh before calling it a weekend.  

That brings us to today!  Looking at where I started.... yikes.... there is a lot to paint still!  Let's dive in!

I decided to spend sometime working on the infantry first.  I wanted everyone to get some pants on!  That meant painting up their leggings and then their pants as needed.  For the leggings, I decided to use three colors: Crusader Skin, Hardened Leather, and Holy White.  The armored dudes all had leggings, but the unarmored only a smattering had them.  I typically gave every third mini the same color leggings.  

From there, I decided to use the primary colors on the pants.  Those were Highland Blue, Absolution Green, Orc Skin, Slaughter Red, and Fire-Giant Orange.  Two people in each unit got the same color pants.  This gave them a nice mix of colors.  Finally, everyone had some pants on! 

 This was good progress, but now I had to get everyone's tunics painted up.  For the unarmored blokes, this would be the bulk of their color scheme.  For the armored dudes, it would be their sleeves and trim under their chain shirts.  I used the same colors as I did the legs, but I also added in some other colors for the unarmored types such as Dark Wood, Malignant Green, Pallid Bone, and Holy White for more variety and some less colorful looks.  I made sure to mix it up so no one had the same color pants as their tunics.  That would be a fashion faux pas!  

I did not paint the pants on the horseman yet.  They would need to get their Horse armor sorted before I moved onto the riders.  That made them out of step with the rest of the minis getting their batch painting done.  Instead, I went back and completed the ears, as I missed them last time!  I also got the horse tails sorted out as well.  This was mostly the same colors I used on the horses themselves with some Grim Black added to the mix.  I again made sure not to double up on skin and tail colors. 

The armor on the horses and the infantry would need to be the next big painting lift.  That would be the bulk of the armored infantry and cavalry models.  However, I decided to wait on that lift until the next day.  Armor up, weapons next.  Then, I would do belts, buckles and details the following day.  Then, round it all off with washes and basing.  Shields would be another day as well.  That left me with about 4 more days of painting to do.

However, the unarmored guys were getting closed to being done than they Cavalry and Armored brothers.  Despite the bulk of them being done, they would still take the same amount of time as the rest.  Afterall, I was batch painting them.  The temptation to split them and paint them as smaller units to completion was strong now.  However, that would defeat the purpose of batch-painting!  

The end was insight for this project, but for now this was a good days work.  Time to take a break.  In theory, I think I could paint the whole army in a 7-day painting challenge if I had the week off?  That is from box to finished models.  I think that would be pushing it though. 

I think the Gripping Beast plastics are working really well for batch painting.  They do not have the same level of detail as the Victrix models, but as a mass they look really good together and they batch paint up quickly and easily.  Very satisfying kit so far.  I am looking forward to seeing them all completed.  

Until next time! 

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Review: Oathsworn: Into the Deepwoods - Shadowborn Games

 

Full Disclosure: I do not own this game.  However, I did get to play it on my journeys with a group of fellow players.  We played it enough times for me to get an understanding of the game, its world, and what it is trying to do.  Therefore, I feel like I can talk about the game with some confidence even though I have not played it all the way through and I do not own it.  

This is a 1-4 plays cooperative board game.  It has two parts to each game, the first part is a story-driven section where you make decisions and follow branching story lines based on those decisions and results of the checks and tests.  Here you collect clues, items, and allies that will come into play during phase 2 of the game.  Phase 2 of the game has your group switch into a tactile wargame on a hex grid against the big bad of the mission.  The things you collected in the early phase of the game can help you in this battle.  The various missions are linked together in an on running storyline and series of adventures that make up a campaign.  

There are a lot of elements here that will be familiar to readers of this blog.  There is the decision-making and branching story lines of RPGs.  There is the grid-based tactical combat of some tabletop wargames.  The technical term I have heard for this game is a story-based boss battler.  I tend to think of these types of "hybrid" games that use miniatures as a "Dudes on a Board" game.  

So, now that you know what this game is let's dive into the Deep Woods.  Grab you compass, collect your iron, and hold onto the wirebridge!  Here we go! 

Things I Liked

First off, this game has really top tier production values.  The story lines, the miniatures, the artwork, etc.  It is all very well-made and well-presented.  The storylines fit together nicely, the branching works well, and the world that this game inhabits feels real and lived in.  Great work on making a fantasy, horror style Hybrid game.  This game is very replayable and as a co-op game works well.  The voice acting in the app is also top tier and sets the tone well.  This is a AAA board game product and it shows how much bigger of a market board games are compared to Indie wargames and RPGs.  

The game is cooperative.  I.e. players are working together to beat the game.  This set-up works well int he story-driven segment as well as the tactical segment.  There is a wide variety of heroes to choose from and I like that they each have a difficulty rating so you know what you are getting into as you choose your avatar.  Most of what you need to play is right on the play board and then you supplement it with action and equipment cards.  

They use a blind box approach to the baddies.  Therefore, there is an element of surprise as you play the game and encounter the enemies.  Each box has a number that corresponds to the mission, so you do not know what you are going to fight until it is revealed.  It felt a bit like when you would get a cut-scene in a video game with a fun reveal moment.    

The minis for the PCs are 54mm and big with good detail and options to swap weapons and such as you gain power.  They are all pretty nice sculpts.  I think my host had splurged on the top tier content though. 

They manage to capture the feel of a horror game.  I.e. you do not really improve as you play.  Instead you are avoiding degradation more than anything else.  That also makes it interesting in that you have to make "less bad" choices as you play. 

Things I Did Not Like

Like all modern board games, this thing is way more complicated than it really needed to be.  There is a lot of different actions and cards that essentially boil down to hitting it with a stick.  The main tactics are focused on system mastery, managing your "battle flow", and knowing how the enemy AI works.  In that sense, it really almost feels more like a computer game except I am pressing all the buttons for the game to keep working.  I spent just as much time operating the game as playing it and making decisions.  

The most complicated decisions were trying to decide which RNG I wanted to use, cards or dice.  The cards allowed you to manipulate the deck while the dice allowed you to bypass some of the worse outcomes.  More important than choosing the right "card" to play from you hand was deciding which combination of RNGs you wanted to use and when.  It essentially boiled down to a game of probability manipulation and card-counting.  Again, this whole process made it feel super gamey to me.  

You would get an idea of what the enemy was going to do next, so you could then build your turn strategy cooperatively to minimize the impact of the creature's actions.  It was played off as our experience as Oathsworn fighting monsters, but ultimately it felt like another gamey element.   It the monster abilities were not revealed until they happened, then it would be much more horrific and less gamey.  

Finally, we all had a deck of cards that could be used to attack or defend.  As you used them, they dropped into a refresh pattern called a battle flow.  More powerful defense and attack took longer to refresh.  In theory, manipulating this battle flow was a big part of the tactics of the game, along with managing your pool of action points.  The tactics of the game felt more about manipulating these elements on your character card more than what was happening on the game board, such as terrain, model placement, tactical maneuver, etc.  Yeah, I was able to use LOS blocking, some kiting, etc. but ultimately it was the artificial tactics of the "battleflow" and action points that mattered more than position and maneuver.  

Meh and Other Uncertainties

The game had a nice city map that you moved around in Phase 1 and triggered story points.  There was also some time elements, as the faster you gathered clues and figured out the patterns the more cool gear you got for Phase 2.  There was also a nice double sided hex map for outside or indoor encounters.  However, all used the same.  Terrain mattered at the beginning, but most of the monsters just wrecked it instantly if they moved over it and by the end the board was mostly empty then.  

Each mission took about 2 hours to play.  1 hour for the story and 1 hour for the boss battle. However, the game seemed to have some replayability in the story segment if you decided to follow different threads or paths.  The boss battler part would be modified but what you gathered along the way.  For example, in mission two we failed a check during the story section, which allowed the boss to ambush us in the final battle and attack us first.  If we had gone a different route, we may have avoided that peril.  

The world building in the story-section is pretty solid.  I liked the idea of the Deep Woood, the wire bridges connecting the towns, the desperation to survive in a dangerous environment, and the idea of the Oathsworn.  There was a lot of world-building woven into the Fighting Fantasy section of the game, and some foreshadowing for those paying close attention. 

Final Thoughts

These types of Hybrid games are not for me personally, but I won't turn down a game of them either.  I find that with the right players, any game can be really fun.  I was a Polar Warbear in this one, and that led to some fun banter and jokes around the table.  I mean, I got to drop a Golden Compass joke!  Plus, any cooperative game always leads to a good time.  

However, I find these "hybrid" games lean to far towards "Game" rather than Simulation or Narrative on the Designer's Triangle.  I feel like the focus of these types of games becomes system mastery more than actual tactical maneuver.  It feels more like mastering the combos in an arcade beat'em up or CRPG.  The story is good, but lacks the true choice of an RPG and the combat lacks the actual tactical depth of a true wargame. Instead, the focus is on mastering the mechanics and probabilities of the game itself and that is what leads to success.           

I can see the appeal of a game like this to a lot of players, especially those who lean towards system mastery.  That seems to be a trait in board game players in general.  Me, I do not care too much about system mastery and instead lean towards spectacle.  Oathsworn has great models, but the lack of painting to manage the surprise and the "samey" battle conditions do not keep me engaged on that level even if the models are very good. 

I am glad I got to play it and will play it again, but I am in no rush to go buy it.  I would get Shadows of Brimstone before Oathsworn.

Until next time! 

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On The Painting Desk: Sacking Rome with the Vandals!

 

Faithful readers, you know that I recently closed a deal to write a new book for the Osprey Wargaming Series, Barbarians at the Gates.  As part of that process I also need 30 photographs of miniatures.  I also like to have two armies for playtesting and Demo Games.  That means, I need to paint up some models!  

These may or may not feature in the book later.  I am hoping to find some manufacturers to support me with the photos.  However, I still need some painted armies.  After thinking about it, I decided to focus on the Vandals as my Barbarian force.  Why the Vandals?  First, I have been fascinated by them as they were not 100% successful historically.  They faced a lot of set-backs and some victories in their history.  Sure they had some pretty big highs like sacking Rome and conquering North Africa but some big lows too.  I mean, they basically got expelled from Europe by other barbarian groups after they had been driven from their traditional homelands by Huns.  They also lost in Spain to the Romans.  Like I said, not always the best track record.  Sounds like my gaming history in a nutshell! 

The first step was to get a feel for what I wanted in the army.  Thankfully, I had an example Line-of-Battle for the Vandals in the draft rules.  I decided to use this as the core of my Vandal army.  This would be....

• 1 Unit of Heavy Cavalry
• 1 Unit of Elite warriors
• 1 Unit of Warriors
• 1 Unit of Militia
• 1 Unit of Archers

Of course, that would be the core of my force, but I was also going to make other units to be able to swap in and out.  That would include more of each unit type (except Cavalry) and some skirmisher units with Javelins.  

With the force selected, it was time to think about the models. I took a look at several lines and what was available to me from US distributors.  Ultimately, I decided to go with Gripping Beast plastics.  

The Goth Elites would be the main Heavy Cavalry unit, the Saxon Thegns would be the Elites and warriors, Dark Age Warriors would be the militia and skirmishers, and archers are self-explanatory.  I spent a weekend and built and spray undercoated the core of the army.  With that done, I loaded it up into my WIP box and ready for the road.  

I also built and undercoated all the archers, all the Javelin armed skirmishers, and spear-armed Militia.  However, I did not need these for the core army so left them to paint up later.  I still had enough miniatures for 2 spear-armed units of warriors that I did not get time to build.      

So, here is the core of the Vandal army.

Of course, I am going to be Batch Painting as much of this as I can all at once.  I will probably do all the infantry together.  I will be painting the cavalry on their own. Not to brag, but I tend to think I am a pretty good batch painter, but you will get to judge for yourself. 

On the next weekend, I made sure to drybrush all the minis with cheap acrylic white.  Those who know my process know that I skipped the Dark Grey wash.  This is a test to simplify my approach.  Using Speedpaints on Historical models is also a test.  I am not sure how these will turn out and how well they will fit in with my other Historicals.  

From there, I started the batch painting.  The first thing I did was to use Barbarian Flesh and paint up all the skin tones for the Vandals.  Painting has begun in earnest now.  This is real!   

After that, I picked out a few colors for footwear.  Graveyard Grey, Hardened Leather, and Dark Brown all got the nod.   All the boots got painted.  From there, is was time to make sure the horses got their feet colored too!  I made their hooves Graveyard Grey.  Then I used a variety of colors for their skin such as Hardened Leather, Dark Brown, Sand Golem, and Runic Grey.  The horses are mostly armored so only their legs, noses, tails, and ears really show.

Hard to believe, but with that my daylight for the second weekend day working on these guys was waning.  I had to pack it in for the day and do some sight-seeing!  Not great progress, but I am batch-painting 60 models, if you count the horses and riders separately.  Progress will be iterative!  

Here are some sight-seeing photos since I don't have that many miniature photos in this one.  This is Badlands National Park below.... 

Mount Rushmore.  I have been here a few times, and I always make sure I get some of the famous Thomas Jefferson ice cream when I stop by.  This was particularly fun as we had pre-planned to meet some folks here and hang out!   
   

The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota.  An active dig-site of Mammoth bones.  The area has a lot of fossils from the end of the Ice Age.  

You can see that I have had a hard time finding time to paint miniatures as I spent quality time checking out the Black Hills area of South Dakota.  There were plenty of others stops and discoveries as well.  However, not much on the gaming side of things or that would be of interest to wargamers at the moment.  

Keep in mind, there is a rather large delay between when these post on the blog and when I actually did it.  Therefore, by the time you read this I will be long gone from the area.  However, I expect I will be heading back through a few more times on my travels so let me know you favorite Black Hills related sights, and what game stores I should visit in the area!  Is there any local cons I should try to time my visit to attend?     

Until next time!  

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