Review: Victory at Sea - Warlord Games

 

I think getting these rules have been on my "To-Do" Goal list for the last 3, maybe 4 years or so.  I like Naval wargames but I am more Jutland than Midway.  Therefore, I was hesitant to pull the trigger.  Plus, I was not a huge fan of the Starter Set focusing on the Pacific Theatre, i.e. US vs Japan.  However, I heard good things about the rules and it seemed to have a pretty comprehensive list of ships from all the major nations in it.  

With the tariffs impacting Warlord imports into the US, I decided I better get a copy of the rules before "Tariff-Pricing" went into effect.  I pulled the trigger and picked up a copy from The Miniature Market out of St. Louis.  I opted to just stick with the rules for now for a couple of reasons: 

1. I wanted to see if anyone else at the True Crit Gaming Guild was interested before I dove in with two fleets. 

2. I like GHQ as they were a "local" manufacturer of Naval miniatures and I might want to build my fleets with their range instead.  Also, no "Tariff-pricing" on them either.

3. You don't need miniatures for Naval wargaming.  You can start off with top-side looking paper templates easily enough.  That is what I used to play-test Castles in the Sky and it worked great!       

4. I was not 100% sold on the scale or the basing of the Warlord range.

With all that being said I figured that a copy of the rules would be a good place to start on my journey before I dropped too much money, time, and effort into the game.  I had done a Black Seas demo back in the day and ultimately decided not to follow up on it.  I was unsure if that would be the same with this game.  

Now, let's get the Diesel's powered up, site in the guns, and raise the battle flag!  Off we go, diving into Victory at Sea.....

Things I Liked

The core rules of the game take up a brisk 18 or so pages!  That includes all segments of the Turn, Orders, Aircraft, etc.  There is plenty of white space and pictures too.  There are another 11 or so pages about setting up a game and some advanced rules for Coastal actions and Submarines too.  Therefore, it is an easy read.  The bulk of the book is very detailed ship profiles for the game and by Nation.

The game uses an alternate activation by phase.  Therefore, the player who lost initiative chooses to move a ship, then the opponent, back and forth until all ships move.  Then, you go the shooting phase with the player who won initiative shooting first and alternate shooting with all damage being resolved right away.  The game uses the following phases, Initiative, Movement, Gunnery, and End Phase. 

Light guns and AA guns are able to split their fire between targets based on the number of attack dice they have.  An interesting idea to represent their quick-fire abilities.  You do not have to fire all Torpedoes in an attack, but I am unsure of the advantage of not doing so.  There is a disadvantage in re-loading if you don't.   

Attacking is pretty straight forward.  All weapons have an attack dice.  You roll a d6 for each and look for a 4+ to hit.  However, there are modifiers for shooting such as target size, speed, and other factors that modify the dice roll result up and down.  For each hit, you roll a Damage Dice of d6 to try and equal or exceed the armor rating.  Every hit that does causes damage right away.  A Damage Dice of Nat 1 always is deflected and a Nat 6 you cause a Critical Hit. Re-roll the dice and score a 4+.  A bit clunky with a lot of dice rolling since the sample Northhampton Class- Heavy Cruiser has a broadside with 15 dice, and a closing attack dice of 12.  Then, it has an armor of 2+ so a lot of hits when it takes fire too.  However, it gets the job done and is easy to recall.     

There is a special rule for Plunging Fire that means shots at Long or Extreme range get a +1 damage for armor penetration on their dice.  The Damage Dice incentivizes staying at range, but the to hit dice incentivize getting up close and personal.  Not sure which trumps which without really getting a lot of games in!     

In the End Phase, you can try to repair Critical Damage with a Damage Control check.  Interesting, as ships take Crits in vital areas, the effects multiply upwards.  Therefore, a Crit hit in the Engine reduces speed to -1", a second hit means that a ship needs to go 3" before turning, and a third Crit in engines is another -1" speed and a +1 to Crew Crit rating.  This is a nice attritional effect to Crits.  Damage Control can reduce the number of hits in these areas by 1.  

Each ship can also issue a single Order to augment their abilities in a turn.  Each ship can do this once per turn.  I like the ability to give orders but I do not like that they are infinite.  Most of the orders have an advantage and a disadvantage for performing them.  They are declared before moving a ship.  Therefore, some counters/tracking is helpful to recall which ship has which order

There are some interesting rules for scouting that can then lean into advantages in the early game.  You secretly set aside ships and flights for scouting.  Before deploying you reveal which ships/flights are scouting.  They can not deploy with your fleet, but may rejoin in a later phase.  Each ship/flight you dedicate gives you a Scouting Point, the more Scouting Points the more potential benefits for deployment type and Initiative dice.  Clever and something I will have to think about using at some point.    

Things I Did Not Like

This game uses a turning gauge for movement.  Sadly, I have never been a fan of such things, but I see the necessity in Naval wargaming.  I just do not like them at all.  In truth, the gauge is not really needed as the ship moves forward 2 inches and can then turn up to 45 degrees.  A ship can only turn after every 2 inches movement forward.  There are no turn limits other than the Flank Speed of the ship.  There are no collisions in this game.      

During the Gunnery Phase, when a ship shoots, all damage is resolved immediately.  Therefore the impacts of shooting take effect via alternating activations instead of simultaneously.  This can lead to some gamesmanship with your shooting choices.  

Other ships do not block line of sight, so positioning of your ships does not matter all that much compared to other ships.  The maximum attack distance is 30 inches, everything beyond is considered over the horizon.  This is an interesting idea, and I wish they would have done more with it in the deployment or other parts of the game.  They do have some special rules for using observer aircraft to try to make attacks beyond the horizon, which is cool!     

Big ships can have a lot of hits in this game.  The example Northampton Class Heavy Cruiser has 23!  It can lose up to 16 before being crippled.  

I like the critical hit table except that it uses a d10 instead of a d6.  That means you need a different dice type to deal with the Crits.  Honestly, looking at the crit list, it could have been done with a d6 as well. 

There are a decent amount of special traits to try and capture the uniqueness of various ships and navy doctrines.  You will want to note this on the ship cards.      

Meh and Other Uncertainties

One of the big challenges of Naval Wargaming to me is that.... well.... not much of it actually happened.  Warships are big, expensive, and take a long time to build and man.  They are a huge investment in National resources.  Therefore, you just don't get nearly as much Naval activity as you would expect, because everyone is reluctant to be the Admiral that loses 50 year worth of work in an afternoon!  Therefore, the opening of Victory at Sea spends times talking about Naval activity in WWII and helps set the scene for your games.  I found the couple pages on French efforts to be of particular interest, as I had not heard or read much on the topic.  Of course, the bit of history they give is just a taste as whole sets of books have been written on this topic.   

There are rules for aircraft in this game, and they can play a big part of it.  They can turn as much as they wish but can never perform an order.  In addition, all aircraft are moved at the same time in the fleet.  AA guns automatically fire at any aircraft that come into range of their AA.  They come with about 4 extra pages of rules and add a lot of depth but are almost a different game from the rest of Victory at Sea.  However, that was true in the real-life application of aircraft in Naval battles too!  

Submarines are also practically a different game but are included for completeness' sake.  They have about 4 pages of added rules with three special and unique entire game scenarios for using them as well.  MTBs also have about 3 pages of rules for how to use them.  However, these are much closer to normal rules with some tweaks.  Finally, there are 4 pages of rules on shore batteries and how they work in games too.  

Unsurprisingly, in a Naval wargame they allow Pre-measuring.  That is as it should be as most ships had sophisticated ways to judge distance.  

In the pre-game, both fleets role for their Objectives.  They might not align with each other.  High Priority objectives give a bonus to total mission points, while low priority ones give a deduction to total points played.  These Objectives have different victory conditions.  In addition to these "generic" missions there are 26 historical scenarios in the book too.  

The remaining 145 pages are dedicated to fleet lists that are very detailed.  This includes the Royal Navy, The US Navy, The Marine Nationale, Kriegsmarine, The Imperial Japanese Navy, and the Regia Marina.  These lists includes ships, aircraft, Motor Boat flotillas, auxiliary ships, submarines, and national traits.  These are very well researched, detailed and complete.  I am sure there is some completionist out there that would quibble about this score or that but..... wow..... very detailed.  This is the highlight of these rules.   

Final Thoughts

The basics rules are simple enough and allow for a relatively fast-paced and thorough game.  Of course, the more points the longer to play.  Once you add in all the advanced rules and special rules then you have a very complete look at WWII Naval wargaming.  You should be able to recreate almost any action you can conceive of and use the Fleet lists, rules, and scenarios as a good guide to play it.  

There are a few minor quibbles about some of the design choices here and there, but those are edge cases more than anything else.  Overall, I can see why this is a popular set of rules for Naval wargaming the period. It covers everything you need rules-wise and stays fairly close to is Universal Mechanics throughout the game.  

Until next time!

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RPG Design - Writing One-Shot Scenarios from Other Media Sources

 

I think we have all been there.  You are the GameMaster for an upcoming RPG session and you want to deliver a fun experience for your friends and fellow players.  The clock is ticking as you only have a week to put it all together and help make the magic happen.   There is only one problem.  You have no idea on what to do!  

In order to avoid this problem, I often try to keep a short list of pre-made scenarios handy for the 2-5 times I get to GameMaster in a year.  When it is my time to shine, I will trot out the list and let the Players pick what they want me to GM.  Once I use a scenario, I start looking and working on a replacement.    

One of my biggest inspirations is other media such as televisions episodes, books, movies, artwork, or actual "real-life" events.  However, translating these into a multi-play, open-ended game can be a challenge! As discovered, they do not always translate well to the tabletop.  It can be as difficult as writing a historical scenario for a wargame, because the rules for the game can not match the sources.  As the writer, you have to make decisions and adapt your media to fit the RPG space.  It is not usually a simple 1-for-1 adaption.    

What Makes Adaptions Fail?

The number one reason that an adaption fails is because the source materials was design with one particular character and their character arc in mind.  It can not be expanded to include more than one character or characters with different arcs or motivations.  Most stories, television shows, or movies have a Point-of-View character that the audience follows.  The way this character develops is the entire point of the show.  RPGs are often an ensemble cast with a variety of characters with differing needs, wants, and arcs to accomplish.  

Secondly, most movies, TV shows, and even books follow a three act structure.  There is a beginning, a middle, and a finale.  The plot or focus on the film has certain beats that happen during each part of these three acts.  For example, the beginning will have an inciting incident to kick-off the plot where the character decides to participate in the story.  The Middle has rising action and often ends on a down/happy note depending on the ending of the story.  The Finale often is the climax of the plot and action with the main character completing their character arc and moving to an epilogue.  These nice segmentations often do not work the same in an RPG session as players are free to make their own actions and decisions.  

Thirdly, stories, movies, and books often rely on key actions or scenes to happen when they need to happen.  They run on a single rail and the character is propelled along this plot and action trajectory.  In RPGs the players themselves have the freewill to move away from the rail and do something completely different and instead of facing the challenge of a Big Bad Evil Guy, they might decide to start their own casino, or raise cabbages; therefore taking the game in an entirely different direction.  It happens.  Therefore, expecting them to "follow the storyline" doesn't make a lot of sense.  

Fourth, a story, movie, book, etc. may be really good.  However, if the players are familiar with the source it can derail the experience for them.  There is no need to "play to find out" because they think they all ready know where this is all going.  That makes it even more likely for the players to go and try to make their own fun in a scenario.      

What Makes Adaptions Work?

Despite those challenges, I still find media to be a great source of inspiration for creating great modules, short campaigns, and one-shots.  The hardest part of creating is looking at a blank page. By starting with an adaption, you bypass this problem right away.  You can start by simply recreating the Inciting Incident and build around it.  Now, you have begun and nothing makes finishing easier than starting! 

The whole point of an adaption is for the Gamemaster to see how different characters and players would react in the same situation as what you saw or read.  Sure, in the book the character did X but what will my friends do when faced with a similar dilemma?  Will they make the same decisions?  What will they say, do or feel compared to what happened on screen?  

There is very little reason that an RPG can not also use a literary structure.  It is a tried-and-true method of storytelling and a great fit for a storytelling game like RPGs. The languages and structures of storytelling also work very well for One-shots as the Gamemaster needs to keep the players moving along the continuum of opening scene, through the middle, and to the end of the session.  Many of the same tricks used in other media work well in the RPG space as well; especially for One-shots.  One-shots needs to be able to have a condensed structure for resolution in the time allotted for play.    

How Do You Bridge the Gap?

Here are some key points that I have learned in order to make a successful One-shot adapted from a book, story, TV show, or movie.  This is not an exhaustive list but enough to get your going and thinking about adapting your own favorite media into successful RPG One-shots.  

1. Deconstruct the Genre 

In this case, spend time understanding what makes the genre or type of story you are trying to tell work.  What works in one genre, does not necessarily work in another.  For example, a Western or Frontier story often focuses on choosing to do the right thing, when no one else will.  Horror stories often focus on the natural and ordinary world become twisted into something unnatural.  You have to understand what makes the genre work, so you can lean into those same factors during your One-shot.  

2. Set the Expectations for the Players

By that I mean, let them know what you have learned about the genre, tell them the setting, and give them the theme of the game before you begin.  If they still agree and have a good character they are more likely to play through from the beginning through to the finale.  

3. Make Good Characters

It is vital that the Gamemaster work closely with the players to make strong characters for the one-shot.  At this stage, the Gamemaster must ensure that the Characters have an ironclad reason or motivation to keep moving through the adventure.  This will help the Players also want to keep moving forward, even when things get hard.  Make sure the Players are crystal clear on what these motivations are before your even begin to play.  

4.  Start the Characters "In the Action"  

I typically structure my games to have a strong Inciting Incident.  This Inciting Incident assumes that the Characters are all ready engaged in the story such as they are beginning on the journey.  There is no Meet-in-a-Tavern as the Characters are swept up in the story waking from a Cryo-pod, riding in a carriage towards the abandoned castle, boarding the cruise ship to start their Love Boat cruise, etc.  Why they are there can be narrated to them later but throw the Characters into the action immediately.  There is no time for any other way to start.  

5. Use a Networked Approach

The Middle should be a series of interlocking encounters where players can decide what they want to do during any encounter, and where to go next.  However, no matter which path they take they will hit all the key scenes from the source material.  Therefore, the players are not on a railroad, but more like in a funhouse that inevitably leads them to the exit.  You can go anyway you want in the mirror maze, but eventually the scenes lead you to an exit.  This will keep the Players moving forward but not on a railroad as their choices are leading them between scenes.  

This also allows the GameMaster to control the timing of the game.  If players are running out of time to complete the One-shot, you can always cut out scenes and go straight to the Big Finish!  As a rule of thumb, most 3-4 hour games should have 1 Inciting Incident to kick-off the game, 3-5 interlocking encounters or events; and then a Big Finish.  The module may need to contain more than 3-5 interlocking scenes but only 3-5 should be playable in any One-shot.   

6. Not all Encounters are Combat

The 3-5 interlocking encounters or events should not all be combat.  Indeed, most of them should be interacting with NPCs, uncovering clues, or other set-pieces or scenes from the source material to help set-up the threat and the stakes.  These encounters or events act as the "rising action or tension" in your One-shot and will mirror the rising action or tension from your source material.  No single encounter or event in this interlocking set of scenes should reveal the bigger picture but instead should hint at the Final Scene to come.    

7. All One-shots have to end on a Bang!

The Big Finish has to be memorable and follow logically from scenes that have come before.  Thankfully, when you are adapting an existing source material, the hard work of making it all make sense has often all ready been done for you.  If you present the clues and rising tension of the source material to the players, they will probably be able to see how it all foreshadowed the "big finish" 

The most important aspect of the Big Finish is that it should be the Ah-ha moment where the Players see how what came before works together.... for the most part.  They may not have the full "For the GM" section of the module figured out, but they should be able to see enough of it.  

Typically, this climax and Big Finish involve a confrontation that is resolved by violence.  However, depending on the genre, that may not be the case.  It could be resolved by revealing the plot, a courtroom scene, or something similar.  However, it is always the catharsis or resolution of the main plot of the storyline.  I.e. the Muppets have the big show to earn money to save the theatre, the five lions can finally unite to form Voltron, or the legal team has enough evidence to confront the main antagonist and get him to reveal why he ordered the Code: Red.  It should always be a memorable scene or moment.  Thankfully, most other Media has that covered.  

8. Pacing is Everything

As the Gamemaster, it will ultimately be up to you to move Players through the One-shot from scene-to-scene.  You will decide when to trigger the Finale.  You will manage the transitions.  Keeping up a rapid pace will avoid lag time and help keep the Players in your encounter path.  Each scene should end on a cliff-hanger and decision point. 

The players should be asking, "What could this all mean?" and want to move to the next scene to find out what it all means.  Therefore, they are keeping themselves on the path of the One-shot.  If you let the pacing drop, they will stop thinking about "What could this all mean?" and start thinking about "What is happening in Social Media?"  That is death for any One-shot no matter the source material! 

Not all Media naturally lends itself to such questions at the end of a scene.  Therefore, when making an adaption, cut-out any scenes that do not end on a cliff-hanger, reveal new information, or propel the story towards the big finish.  Thankfully, most other Media will have done the hard work for you but when adapting, look for scenes that slow or drag the pace and remove them.  You can also remove most sub-plots as well, because you will not have time for them in a One-shot or the Characters will create their own anyway. 

Final Thoughts

That's it.  Pretty easy!  

Okay, it isn't but adapting something is much easier than coming up with something from nothing!  Plus, you can crib the successful elements of other works and lean into what made them successful in your own One-shot.  At the end, it is always a good idea to tell the players what the original source of your idea came from.  Then, they can investigate it and see who did it better; them or the original characters!  

You can see if I am any good at it with Sleepers in the City, Insanity at Snowden Manor, or The End of the World in the Flashlight: Tales of Terror rules.  

Well, hopefully that helps you.  Good luck Gamemastering out there.  The only way to get better at it is to do it over, and over, and over again!  Until next time! 

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Heroquest: The Fire Mage

 The Fellowship of Destiny was shattered by the Dread Wizard Wardoz.  The sole survivor, Aerlin; managed to flee.  Hope was not lost, as he and Mentor were able to gather a new band of heroes to fight the forces of Zargon.  Hope was Reborn! 

Hope Reborn was able to track down and gain vengeance for Aerlin's former friends.  They assaulted the dread wizards lair; an abandoned Border Keep.  Hope Reborn managed to face down and destroy Zargon's latest ally.  It was a difficult battle.  However, Lin-Min Maye was able to recover the Talisman of Lore from Wardoz's fiendish corpse.    

Aerlin the Wizard was joined by his new companions.  Rosemary the Fae-Druid.  Barco Hamilcar, the cousin of the fallen Magos; and part of the famous Dwarven Hamilcaroid line of heroes and royalty.  The final member was Barco's mentor and friend from the Temple of the Way; Lin-Min Maye.  

Prince Magnus, via Sir Ragnar approached Mentor for aid.  Balur the Fire Mage had been assisting the Darkfire Crag Orcs in their raids.  With Hope Reborn's success against Wardoz, Prince Magnus was eager for them to put an end to the scourge of Balur as well.  Mentor advised Aerlin that the Fire Mage was powerful, and immune to Fire Magics of all type.  Despite this, Aerlin assured his master that his band of heroes was up to the task.  

With the promise of 100 Gold Coins from the prince, Hope Reborn set-out on their journey to the Darkfire Crag in order to rid the land of yet another meddlesome wizard. 

The Quest Continues....

Welcome back faithful readers.  We are back on the Quest, and back on track with the Core quests after a short detour.  Last time, we used a home brew solo-module I came up with in order to create a new adventure for a brand-new group of heroes.  The method worked for the most part, and I was kept on my toes and unsure what I would face next.  However, the game did lack a bit of the "killer Gotcha" of a regular Heroquest game.  That was not to say it was easy though!  

With Wardoz finished and a new group of Heroes formed, we are ready to get back to the Quest.  This time, we are on Quest 8; The Fire Mage.

My band consists of Aerlin the Wizard, with the Earth, Air, and Fire spells he traditionally uses.  His fire spells will be of no use against the Fire Mage himself.  However, perhaps his minions will be just as vulnerable to them?  He managed to maintain is Wizard Cloak and Staff.  Next is Rosemary the Fae-Druid using her normal group of spells.  She also managed to snag a Heroic Brew last quest.  Then, there is the Dwarf Barco Hamilcar.  He is equipped with a Hand Axe, a looted shield, and also a newly acquired Helmet; making him the party tank and trap export.  Barco seems to have a patented method of disarming spear traps with his face!  Finally, the group is rounded out by Lin-Min Maye of the Temple of the Way and keeper of the Talisman of Lore.  She was a formidable fighter and slew many Undead abominations in the Border Keep.  

With a little re-jiggering of the roster, I am back to using the App for play.  Hopefully, I do not fall foul of more of Heroquest's tricks this time!  

Into Darkfire Crag

Hope Reborn found their way into Darkfire Crag on the hunt for Balur the Fire Mage.  They ran into Zombie guards patrolling the corridors and immediately ran into some trouble.  Barco struggled to down a fiendish beast with his Hand Axe.  It became a recurring issue in Darkfire Crag that the team did not have a strong heavy hitter against some of the more resilient foes of the dungeon.

It wasn’t long until our heroes got their first glimpse of their prey.  After a long, trapped hallway they entered a room and laid eyes on Balur behind a screen of skeleton guards.  The guards bogged down our heroes long enough for the Fire Mage to escape using his magic.  His guards put up a tough fight but eventually were slain.  Rosemary’s shapeshifter spell was soon spent for little reward.  Lin Min-May needed to rest to recharge her abilities as well. 

 

From there they delved deeper into Darkfire Crag.  There were skeleton guards that Barco and Lin Min-May managed to handle.  However, they were sorely pressed by more challenging foes.  Abominations leapt out at them from hiding places unknown and they proved to be tough nuts to crack!  Aerlin made good use of his fire spells against such foes.

 

Hope Reborn thought their efforts were in vain, as they had come to the end of the line.  However, Rosemary was able to find a secret door when they went back and retraced their route.  This led to the discovery of another.  The tricky foes had hidden their true lair deep within the bowels of another.  Devious, but Hope Reborn had discovered their secrets. 

Barco proved much more skillful at finding and disarming traps.  However, Rosemary acting as a scout did find a pit trap the hard way.  Rosemary had been battered by traps and the undead but used her magic to restore herself. 

 

Further exploration and Hope Reborn discovered Balur the Fire Mage in the central chamber.  Lin Min-May wasted no time and charged straight in.  She was a whirlwind of combat but was unable to down any of her foes.  Balur returned her attack with a maniac Firestorm spell that torched many of his undead companions and looked like it would kill the Monk.  However, she centered her Chi and used her Earth Elemental power to avoid injury.  She was not out of the woods yet. 

 

Rosmary transformed into her wolf form and tried to support her friend.  However, her abilities were not enough to overcome a zombie blocking the room.  From outside the room, Aerlin managed to use tempest to delay Balur from torching Lin Min-May.  However, she also was unable to finish him.

 

Balur slung a fireball, but the Monk managed to successfully spell break it, barely staying alive.  Barco slew the Zombie, and Aerlin rushed in and used a Genie spell to hit the Fire Mage.  However, it was Lin Min-May herself who finally put paid to the evil wizard with a flurry of blows. 

 

All seemed well, but an Abomination leapt from the shadows and attacked a weakened Lin Min-May.  Thankfully, she dodged the attack and slipped away.  Barco instead faced the beast with Rosemary’s aid.  Exhaustion caused the battle to last longer than it should but a Healing Spell from Aerlin got Lin Min-May back into the fray.  Eventually, teamwork slew the beast. 

 

Unsatisfied with the loot they had discovered, and feeling semi-confident the group pressed onward.  They would eventually find the Fire Mage’s orc allies and slay them as well.  In the process, they discovered Balur’s Magic Wand which had made him so fearful on the battlefield and some of his loot. 

 

After destroying all of the evil gang, Hope Reborn returned to the surface with Balur’s head as proof of their victory in Darkfire Crag.  As promised, Prince Magnus rewarded them for their efforts.  The trade routes around Darkfire Crag were now open once again. 

 

Final Thoughts

This group of Heroes has some decent resilience thanks to the Monk's abilities and Rosemary and Aerlin’s healing spells.  However, they really lack hitting power to take on the tougher foes, like abominations, mummies, and above.  Someone needs a battle axe!  However, the Dwarf made a good tank and trap repair man.  The Monk killed a lot of skeletons and low-level foes.  Aerlin’s spells were useful.  Rosemary was a good scout and healer, even if her shapeshifting was less than spectacular. 

 

Barco ended with a Potion of Strength, and Rosemary kept her Heroic Brew.  Aerlin also got the Wand of Magic, and decided to not take other treasure in return.  He is fairly well equipped with the Wizard Cloak, Wizard Staff, and now the Wand of Magic.  Aerlin ended with another 50 gold, Rosemary 83, Barco 98 + 20 from before gave him 118, and Lin Min-Maye- 83 as well.

 

This dungeon proved a challenge for different reasons than the Keep on the Border of the Wild Lands had.  Like I said, the method I developed to randomly build dungeons lacked some of the "killer instinct" of a regular HQ Quest.  I was skeptical if Hope Reborn had the hitting power for higher level Quests and more difficult challenges.  I guess we will find out!  

   

Until next time!

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Wargame Design: Abstraction is the Name of the Game

Recently, I reviewed Mike Hutchinson's latest game; Pacific Command.  This reminded me that Mr. Hutchinson is a master at using abstraction to focus game play on the key elements of the game that he wants to emphasize.  His abstraction technique has two parts to it: 

1. Focus on what the Game is intended to focus on

2. Reduce the energy need to complete everything else

I think he has only refined this ability as he has gone along.  I would say, it might even be considered his "signature" game design style.  This is a real skill and one of his key strengths as a designer.  Well, at least in my humble opinion.  Not all of the 4Ms.  Need to be given equal weight during a game.  

Wars of the Republic

What is Abstraction?

There has been a surprising amount of digital ink spilled on this topic.  Abstraction is surprisingly hard to pin down!  My definition of Abstraction is pretty straight forward. 

Abstraction = Reducing Complex Realities into Simple Game Procedures

For example, the process of flying an airplane is a very complex procedure involving a lot of physics and calculations.  It is so complex that I don't have the faintest idea of how it actually works.  It has a wide variety of factors involved in order to do it well and not doing it well can lead to the death of the people in the aircraft! 

We see the challenge of Abstraction when you look at many modern aircraft games.  There are complex maneuver cards, speed and altitude changes, stalling, and other complex rules.  The action that takes seconds in real-life can take half-a-day to play!  I love to play these types of rules sets because they often tax my brain tactically, but they are nothing like an actual dogfight.  These are very complex realities involved. 

Therefore, Abstraction would be taking these abstract realities and reducing them down so that the only decisions for the player are the ones the game designer intends them to make.  Taking a look at the air combat example again, Blood Red Skies abstracts most of the Physics of flying.  Instead, it focuses on decision to move your planes into a position where they can or can not shoot at the foe to reduce enemy morale.  The rest of the game is secondary to that main focus. 

Ork Fighters for Aeronautica Imperialis

Why Abstract? 

This is much easier to answer.  

Complex processes may more accurately reflect the reality of a given situation, but typically such complex procedures bog down the game, require a higher mastery of game play to execute, disrupt the pace, requires more resources, and makes a game less interesting to play.  Players spend more time operating the controls of the game than interacting with the experiences the game is trying to recreate.  This puts cognitive distance between the game and the player.  This cognitive distance is often considered to be "less fun" by large segment of wargame players.  

Of course, what is FUN is another question all together, and not easy to answer. 

Odin's Ravens

Abstraction in Wargame Design

There is a lot of debate about whether abstraction is: 

1. A compromise forced on game designers to make games playable 

2. Abstraction is the whole purpose of game design in the first place

The first argument basically believes that Wargames should be mostly simulation in nature.  They are trying to recreate a space and time as closely as possible in order to mirror the decision making of the participants.  The purpose of the game is to create an experience that can be used to teach, draw conclusions, or otherwise as a learning tool.  This approach is more commonly a mindset in "professional" wargaming community, the historical Hex-and-Counter community, and some Historical games.  

The second view is more of a gamist or narrative approach.  The focus is to create a game experience to either "find out what happens" or to entertain as a game.  In these approaches, the abstraction is necessary to make a game playable by a layman or leisurely hobbyist.  The abstraction is to allow players to resolve a scenario or game with a plausible conclusion in a timely manner.  Lessons and learnings can happen, but the focus is more on delivering an entertaining and satisfying conclusion to and for the players.  The main focus is on playability rather than completeness. 

Now, I am not doing either of these positions any justice.  Both are equally valid and useful ways to think about abstraction.  However, I have a strong bias towards the second for a simple reason, I am designing Hobby wargames with a more Gamist and Narrativist slant to them.  The Simulation is secondary for me.  

Since I lean into the second category, I tend to ABA- Always Be Abstracting.  Therefore, I am trying to create the shortest possible procedure to resolve a process in a way that I find satisfying and gets a solid result.  

Battle of Kadesh using In Strife and Conflict

Abstraction Tips and Tricks

 Here are some tips and tricks to help you think about abstraction in your game designs.  

1. Have a Point of View on how things work in your game world or historical setting.   

2. Decide which parts of your game you want to emphasize and put more rules and detail there. 

3. When you create a process to achieve a result, always try to strip it down to the fewest steps possible.            

4. At the point of emphasis, do not leave the rules flavorless.  This is the heart of your game, if it has no bite; than no one will want to play your rules.  

5. Not all processes need to be given equal weight. 

6. Just because it happened one time doesn't mean you need rules for it, focus instead on what your rules are trying to do. 

7.  Be ruthless in streamlining your game.  Kill your favorite rules. 

8. It is always easier to add complexity via Special and Advanced Rules later.  

9. Abstracted rules give your more design space if you want to expand later

I talk more about this with Mark's Game Room

Final Thoughts

To me, the difference between good wargame design and not-so-good wargame design is often determined by how well it can abstract the core concepts into playable rules.  For my money, good designers should ABA- Always Be Abstracting.  Emphasize the key aspects of the game or period and abstract the rest even further.  

Abstraction is the name of the game.  

Until next time! 

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Heroquest: The Dread Wizard Wardoz

 

The Fellowship of Destiny had been broken.  It could not be reformed.  Its pieces could not be reunified.  All that remained was the young wizard Aerlin, Mentor's own pupil.  The rest had been lost to the power of Zargon.  

Time was of the essence.  The King's former wizard Wardoz had delved too deeply into the secrets of Magic.  He had been consumed and possessed by the powers of Dread.  He was Wardoz in name only.  He was now a living husk driven only by the power of Dread.  Sir Ragnar's spies had reported that once the Fellowship had been broken, Wardoz was forced to leave his secret underground lair and he fled into an abandoned keep on the border near the Wildlands.  There his malignant power began to attract Dread followers.  He had to be destroyed before it was too late. 

Concerned by this growing evil within their lands, the Druids sent an emissary to Mentor for aid.  The fae-druid Rosemary made the long quest and Mentor quickly introduced her to Aerlin.  From there, the two began to search for new heroes to go to the borderlands.  On their journey's they met two other members willing to help. Barco Hamilcar, the cousin of Magos and one of the Hamilcaroid line; came from the halls of the Mountain dwarves.  From the east he brought his mentor and friend Lin-Min Maye from the Sacred Temple of Way.  

With four heroes, they dubber themselves "Hope Reborn".  They soon found themselves journeying to the Wildland themselves, and on a collision course with the latest threat to the Kingdom; Wardoz.  

A Quest Returned! 

Faithful readers, you will recall that the Fellowship of Destiny was broken during the quest of The Lost Wizard.  Neo-wulf, Magos Hamilcar and Alathursa of the Green were all killed and their valuable loot lost while investigating the fate of the king's wizard Wardoz.  Only the wizard escaped, and that was by the skin of his teeth! 

With three of the four party members dead, it was time to rebuild my adventuring band.  The first would have to be the only surviving member, Aerlin the Wizard.  He would retain his Wizard's Staff and Cloak.  

I wanted to add a Guardian Knight, but I do not have the rules for the model and did not want to wait to pick-up the Rise of the Dread Moon Expansion before I went back on the Quest.  Therefore, I needed to pick from my existing heroes.  I decided the Barbarian as my heavy-hitter was not working out as I had gone through two all ready!  

This time, I was going to stretch and make a Wandering Monk my main "frontline" fighter.  It is a bit of a stretch, but with the elemental powers they might be able to pull it off.  To replace the Elf, I decided to try the Druid character.  Finally, I did not have a good anti-trap model, so decided to go with the Dwarf once again.  However, this time I would use my First Light version of the model. My new band of heroes had been selected..... and I was not entirely confident they could manage it!    

Hope Reborn led by Aerlin the Wizard

Creating the Dread Wizard Wardoz' Keep

I went back and read what to do if the party fails a quest.  Oh dear!  They recommended that you make a new quest to replace it and introduce your new heroes.  However, I am playing solo using the App.  I had a few choices.  I could try to select an opening mission from First Light of a different supplement such as Kellar's Keep or Rise of the Witch Lord.  I could also try to build my own level, which would be fun; but I could not use the App to run.  I wanted to keep some element of discovery.  

Therefore, I decided to try to put together a way for me to auto-generate the dungeon to keep up the exploration and surprise.  However, I only needed it for a quick, 1-off game and not a complete quest.  Therefore, something quick and simple I could run using simple charts would be best, and allow me to help provide some of the equipment the party had lost during their failed mission.  

First, I decided that Wardoz himself would use the stats for a Dread Wizard instead of a Zombie.  For spells I would randomly draw from the Dread deck on his turn.  However, I also decided that Wardoz had recovered the Talisman of Lore and that would be a reward for the Heroes when they defeated him.  

Here is how I decided to randomly generate the dungeon: 

1. The beginning was in the center room, all corridors from the main room were blocked.  There was one door at the opposite end of the room to leave. 

2. At each room wall that a Hero could see, I would roll a combat dice.  On a skull it would have a door to the room.  I did this first in each room/hall a hero entered.   

3. I would roll for furniture with the red movement 2d6 and counted off each piece of furniture in my collection.  If I got to a number higher than the furniture there was no furniture.  I placed it where no doorways existed.  

4. For monsters, I limited myself to the Undead foes so Skellies, Zombies, Mummies, and Stone Golem Dread Warriors, and Wardoz himself.  For foes I would roll 5 combat dice, with each Skull indicating a foe.  If you scored 3+ Black Shields you encountered Wardoz and a single Stone Golem guardian.   

5. Finally, I rolled 1 combat dice per skull in step 4.  Another skull meant a skeleton, a white shield meant a Zombie, and a Black Shield meant a Mummy.  These would be placed in the room in the available squares furthest from the enemies.  

6. If the players never encountered Wardoz via rolling, the two main baddies would face them in the main stairway room before escape could be possible.  

7.  Whenever a player tried to detect traps, I rolled a Combat dice.  On a skull, there were no traps.  On a White Shield there was a spear trap, and on a Black Skull there was a Pit trap.  These traps were blocking any other exits first, and if not we randomized the position in the room with a d6 and counting squares away from the detecting hero.

8. For treasure, I decided that any chests opened we would roll a white combat dice.  On a skull it was 2d6 x10 gold,  White Shield it was armor (shield or helm player's choice), Black Shield was a Healing potion.     

9. Secret Doors would be discovered on a roll of a Black Shield and would only go to rooms without other doors. 

With this basic order of operations in place, Hope Reborn was ready to attempt to explore the Keep on the Border of the Wild Lands   

Here is how the map developed during the game: 

In Pursuit of the Dread Wizard Wardoz

Hope Reborn made the dangerous trek to the edge of the Wildlands.  There, they found the entrance into the keep and ascended the ancient, carved stairs and towards danger.  Aerlin was the leader, and he chose to be cautious.  He did not wish to see yet more companions fall.  

They moved out carefully, mindful of any of Wardoz's minions.  Barco identified a spear trap in front of the far door.  The party approach the first door and quickly discovered their first challenge!  A Mummy and two Zombies!  A battle broke out where Lin-Min May quickly proved her worth as she skillfully ducked into the room and covered the others as they fell back.  She was able to defeat the beasts.  However, her search for treasure proved costly as she took an arrow to the knee! 

The rest of the party moved on.  They quickly discovered more spear trap protected doors.  Barco disarmed two of them by taking a spear to the face!  Ouch!  Not so good at disarming these things yet! 

The group found that the Keep was now crawling with re-animated skeleton guards!  Wardoz and the power of Dread had been busy!  

Barco managed to find Wardoz' secret study.  There, Lin-Min May in a whirlwind of destruction took out three skeleton guards in a moment!  Barco and Aerlin exchanged glances as they had never seen such a display of martial prowess before.  Soon after, the Monk again impressed by taking on a Mummy single-handedly with the aid of a Courage spell and easily man-handling the horror and its escorts!  Aerlin was wondering why Mentor had kept the Warrior of the Way on the shelf prior!  

 The heroes of Hope Reborn slowly and carefully made their way through the undead infested rooms of the Keep.  They stumbled upon the Guardroom, where they bested more Skeleton and Undead guards.  However, Barco was able to find a serviceable shield and claimed it as his own.  Elsewhere, Lin-Min May discovered more monsters and spear trap protected doors.  Even Aerlin was getting in on the Skeleton busting, as his staff proved deadly at an angle against the foes.  

However, a toll was being taken on Hope Reborn.  Barco had taken injuries from terror and trap.  Lin Min May had also been injured.  Thankfully, Rosemary and Aerlin had come prepared with spells to boost their comrades!   The wizard hoped it would be enough. 

The Quest became difficult near the Keep's treasury, as monsters spilled out from nearby rooms to attack the party.  Barco managed to secure a room, while Lin Min May defended a doorway from multiple attackers.  Again, her ability to strike hard paid off against another Mummy.  Soon, the Keep appeared to be cleared, but there was no sign of Wardoz and his closest minions. 

Hope Reborn headed home, with the loot from the Treasury.  However, Barco was halted in his tracks as he went to go back up the stairwell.  In front of him was the twisted and inhumane visage of Wardoz.  Along with him were his last Stone Golem guard and a Mummy.  (This was very lucky as I used the normal random monster generation + Wardoz and his Golem and only rolled 1 additional Mummy monster).  Immediately, the Dwarf was struck by an unnatural Dread Magic-induced fear as he fell back from the Mummies' raking claws. 

Rosemary transformed herself into her Wolf form and attacked the Mummy, tearing it apart before it could finish off Barco.  However, the Stone Golem ambled forward and the two wrestled.  Aerlin's summoned a Genie to blast the Golem, causing it to reel back, but not destroy it.  It dealt a grievous blow to Barco who was barely hanging on.  Rosemary got the better of it and finally smashed the Dread Construct into small stone rocks.  Lin Min May used the chance to rush forward towards Wardoz! 

However, she was too slow as a blast of crackling lightning blasted from his fingertips.  The Monk was barely able to avoid the shot thanks to her elemental powers, but Rosemary and Aerlin were not so lucky.  They were caught in the blast!  

With a last gasp, Aerlin cast Tempest to tie up the evil wizard in a magical storm.  This gave the Heroes of Hope Reborn a few precious seconds!  Rosemary summoned a Pixie to heal Aerlin.  Lin Min May channeled her inner Chi and unleashed a beam of red-hot heat that sliced into the evil wizard, he cried out in pain as it seared him with her inner strength.  Barco, terrified; threw his axe and managed to crack the wizard in the skull, embedding it deep in his forehead.... killing him.  

The terror of Wardoz had been defeated.  He was an abject lesson to those who tried to delve too deep into Dread Magic.  The foolish often think they can learn Dread's weaknesses, or master it; but all too often fall into Dread’s corrupting grasp.  Lin Min May scooped up the Talisman of Lore from the body of the fallen monster and claimed it as her own.  

Conclusion

The severely twisted and damaged head of Wardoz was all the proof Prince Magnus and Sir Ragnar needed.  They concluded that the King's former wizard had indeed fallen and that the Heroes of Hope Reborn had put an end to his reign of terror.  They were awarded the reward.  

In addition, Rosemary had discovered a Heroic Brew in the Keep.  The group also had found 70 gold coins, a few gems, and to be combined with the 100 for the reward; and the Heroes had a solid nest egg.  Barco was also happy with the shield he had found in the Keep and kept it.

However, the respite was only temporary.  Loretome all ready foretold of the next danger to the kingdom, as the power of the Fire Wizard was growing in the mountains.  

Final Thoughts

Well, that was fun.  The dungeon generated worked well for the most part.  However, it did lack some of the "Gotcha" that Heroquest scenarios are known for.  Traps and Secret Doors were especially tough, as they only became a "thing" if searched for.  Therefore, if you never searched there would never be any.  Therefore, that part of the generator has to be re-worked.  I also need to re-work enemy placement when generated as again, it lacked some of the "gotcha" and lethality of pre-made Quests.  However, it was no push-over as Aerlin was 1 wound away from dying, Barco got down to two wounds left, and Lin Min May was at half, while Rosemary had taken 2 of 6.  By the end, I had used up all of my healing abilities and many of my spells, so I guess it turned out relatively hard.  

A note about the Monk's powers.  I played a slightly altered variant.  In my variant, the Monk had to use their activation in prayer and meditation to "re-center" and regain access to their Elemental Powers when no other Monsters were on the board. This was a good addition, as even if all the enemies were dead, the Monk had to choose between exploring further, getting treasure, or re-charging.  It forced some decision making and balanced her out a bit.  However, she seemed like a perfectly good front-liner for this dungeon! 

Until the next Quest!  I am now back on track with the original Quest Book with my new band of Heroes.  Wish them luck, because I think some of them will need it to survive!               

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