Pureblood/Stalker and some rye

I've been tired and uninspired to get any actual games in and played, but during past couple of days I got something else done to show up here.

I magnetised Pureblood Warpwolf and Warpwolf Stalker from the plastic warpwolf kit. I didn't bother with Feral, because I already have one. And I'm the type of player who rarely takes twice the same option when it costs so many army construction points!

I am very pleased with the paintjob. Though to be honest, I've been painting it and the two other models since I finished Bog Trog unit leader.

The two other models are miniatures intended for Chronicles game system. Because I finished them and wouldn't bother to take pictures of them separately, I decided to put them next to the warpwolf.

But please, don't ask why the heck I'm shooting them on a rye bread. I do not have a good answer for that. Not a bad answer either. There is no answer.

Warpwolf Stalker parts aren't finished yet, but if I'd have wanted to be painted in this picture, I would have probably had to wait for another month or so.

Well.

Here you go.

Saving Grace (Chronicles)

I've been testing Chronicles, the tabletop skirmish RPG system extensively as a solo project for a long time now, and I'm also writing an adventure book for the system. After first few overly detailed tests I haven't written anything here, because I didn't really feel I was playing the game, just testing it, alone.

However, yesterday that changed.

I played the adventure book A New Start with a friend. We both had two adventurers - my team being Zweihander with Charging Smash and Cleric with Smiting Words. My friend had Flame Wizard with Improved Fireball and Geomancer with Elemental Strike around. This was an excellent team for testing purposes - Zweihander and Geomancer being two of the newest additions to adventurer possibilities.

We played with Warmachine miniatures, though I have actually bought a couple of models to be used as adventurers later. But they will have to wait for a paintjob.

First, a thing that you cannot feel when playing as solo on Vassal, is the size of the gaming area. The size of 24" x 24" is actually excellent gaming area for a game of this size. Movement scores and "costly" running make are in good balance - smallish table size cannot be run over and across too easily.

A quick word on all scenarios played:

First Battle Scene (goblin ambush on road):
Scene was still very easy, but I still think it should be that way, because it is there to teach game rules. We decided to play enemy phases so that we discussed what is probably the best (and vaguely realistic) way for goblins to act.

Second battle scene (goblins base camp in the forest ruins):
Here we had first real challenge. A few critical hits by goblins and a couple of good Fire damage rolls from goblin shaman against Zweihander forced Cleric to go and heal him. While Cleric was healing Zweihander, goblin archers scored lucky hits to the only unengaged adventurer - Flame Wizard. He fell unconscious in the battle.

Cleric saved up skill points then to have enough for Saving Grace - an ability to prevent injuries from falling down in battle. This had the impact that Cleric could not either heal nor effectively battle the goblins. He could, however, effectively tie goblins up.

After the Battle Scene a new nice feature came up that just isn't there when testing mechanics as a solo project - trading between players.

We had decided to collect our loot separately so that my group had their own treasury and my friends group had their own. Any items found were randomised between the group, and my Zweihander made a good roll and found the Copper Amulet from this scenario. We agreed on a price and so the item was given to the spellcasters, who really needed the hit point boost.

Next, then, the Giant Centipede was a major resource depletion. We were lucky enough that no adventurer fell unconscious, but we had something like below 5 combined skill points available for whole party.

When we arrived at the underground ritual, we were swarmed by the goblins inside and on two occasions the time counter was down to only 1 turn remaining. Eventually both Flame Wizard and Geomancer were using Defense -action every round engaged by three goblins and both had only very few hit points remaining. It was "kind of" exciting, but there sure was a little problem at least in the Geomancer's melee potential. In the end, however, we finished the scenario succesfully, and even got both of the rubies out of goblins' statue. This, however, made us spent just about all remaining skill points (even when we rolled a couple of Blue Potions from treasure table).

Last Battle Scene (the goblin attack on the village) felt a little bland, still... It could be we had started losing impetus a little, since we had been playing the whole adventure book in just one go.

Goblins were still very easy, and captain from the village single-handedly killed half of the goblins, Zweihander chiming in as a good second candidate. Cleric without skillpoints and Geomancer with only a couple of skill points ran to engage archers and were then using defense -action or attacked the goblins, but that was a damn slow progress right there.

All in all, we had good time and both saw the potential in the system.

Rest of write-ups on Chronicles testing

So, I have two full tests on the first adventure of Chronicles.

Smaller one was done with 3 party members again.

This time I wanted to test a full ranged attack party with no adventurer who can survive in melee almost forever.

So, my party was:

Flame Wizard + Improved Fireball

Elf Hunter + Sword Fighter

Cleric + Smiting Words.

First scenario with basic rules:

Flame Wizard used 7 skill points in first scenario and got 26 gold.

Elf Hunter took 1 damage but didn't need to use skill points. Got 25 gold.

Cleric was damaged by 6 and used 7 skill points. Got 25 gold.

Tresure rolled was 30 gold coins. All in all, scenario was rather easy, but still the adventurers took a couple of damage.

First scenario with 1 point archers:

Flame Wizard used 4 skill points, got 15 gold and found potion of strenght.

Elf Hunter used 4 skill points, got 15 gold.

Cleric was damaged by 4 and used 4 skill points. Got 15 gold.

Attack rolls by adventurers were quite good in this game, so they didn't need to use much skill points. The one extra goblin didn't seem to make any actualy difference here.


Second scenario

Flame Wizard: 0 damage, used 5 skill points. Total gold 38, got blue potion and found copper amulet. Didn't use red potion.

Elf Hunter: 5 damage, used 3 skill points. Didn't use red potion. Got gem worth 10 gold. Total gold: 27.

Cleric: 0 damage, used 8 skill points. Didn't use red potion, total gold: 37.

Wasn't much of an effort this time, though Elf Hunter took a couple of nasty hits from goblin shaman. Good healing rolls compensated for that, though.

Second scenario with 1 point goblin archers

Flame Wizard: 1 damage, used 11 skill points. Found 10 gold gem from shaman and didn't use either red potion or potion of strenght. Total gold: 20.

Elf Hunter: 1 damage, used 3 skill points. Used Red Potion. Total gold: 25.

Cleric: 5 damage, used 9 skill points. Didn't use red potion. Found Copper Amulet. Total gold: 25.

Well, otherwise there would have been nothing exceptional here, but during one exceptional turn goblins brought the elf hunter down to only 3 hit points remaining, which was by then the closest call ever of a character death. This required for the elf hunter to run out of sight of goblins with Cleric trying to heal whatever he might.

Third Scenario (with Captain with 0-level gear)

Flame Wizard: 0 damage, used 10 skill points. Red Potion. 45 total gold. Used blue potion. Has Copper Amulet.

Elf Hunter: 6 damage, used 3 skill points. Red Potion. 44 total gold.

Cleric: 2 damage, used 9 skill points. Red Potion. 45 total gold.

Captain took 7 damage. All in all, there was no challenge to speak of even with a party who has no DEF to speak of.

Third Scenario (with Captain with 0-level gear, 1 point archers and goblin leader)

Flame Wizard: 3 damage, used 12 skill points (all!), still has potion of strenght & red potion. Total gold: 38

Elf Hunter: (I seem to have forgotten to mark damage/used skill points to my notes :/) total gold: 33.

Cleric: 7 damage, used 9 skill points. Still has red potion and copper amulet. Total gold: 33.

Captain took a beating this time, losing 12 hit points. Granted, here was a lot bad luck on adventurer's behalf, when against the odds goblins developed a knack of remaining alive with only one hit point. I was too afraid of getting anyone to actually help Captain, so there he was, stranded and alone when adventurers themselves tried to get the remaining few damages in.


Game 2:

Now I wanted to try how the game scales up with more players.

I used a party of 4, and now again without a healer.

Party included:

Flame Wizard + Swordsman of Fire (I wanted to try that, if Swordsman could actually give any bonuses worth anything.) And Very Lucky defining trait.

Elf Hunter + Sword Fighter.

Dwarf Warrior + Ancestral Armor + Very Strong defining trait.

Swordsman + Defensive Stance.

All of these meant a party of 26 points.

Scenario 1 with normal rules:

Flame Wizard: used 4 skill points. Found a gem worth 90 gold and 10 gold.

Elf Hunter: 10 damage, used 4 skill points. Got 18 gold.

Dwarf Warrior: 2 damage, used 6 skill points. Got 18 gold.

Human Swordsman: 2 damage, used 6 skill points. Had to spend 2 SP to run to go and help Elf Hunter! Found 18 gold.

Well, the only excitement here was when the poor Elf Hunter thought he could actually survive in melee when goblins scored a couple of nasty hits on the elf. It was bad choice from me to try and rush with the elf forward, when the melee monsters a little back were lucky enough to miss a couple of hits I had counted on.

I didn't actually play more than first scenario with normal rules, because I felt like I had seen enough game balance there.

Scenario 1 with 1 point goblin archers:

Flame Wizard: 2 damage, used 11 skill points. Gold: 17.

Elf Hunter: 5 damage, used 6 skill points. Found potion of strenght. Gold: 17.

Dwarf Warrior: 3 damage, used 1 skill point. Gold: 16.

Swordsman: 4 damage, used 4 skill points. Gold: 16.

With second try with a 4 member party, it felt that the difficulty raises a bit with more characters. There just isn't enough ranged attacks available to kill enough goblins so they can't effectively swamp. However, it only meant that every adventurer took a couple of damage.

Scenario 2 with 1 point goblin archers:

Flame Wizard: 1 damage, used 5 skill points. 26 gold, 2x red potions (found one extra as a treasure)

Elf Hunter: 7 damage, used 2 skill points. Potion of Strenght. Total gold: 25. Elf Hunter used the red potion.

Dwarf: 6 damage, used 2 skill points. Total gold 24. Skill points were used for running so goblin shaman wouldn't cast yet another devastating fireball!

Swordsman: 4 damage, used 1 skill points. Total gold 16. Still has red potion. Found a gem worth 40 gold, and miraculously got Copper Necklace.

Now, this scenario was a blast. It required a lot more effort now the place was swarming with goblins and it was difficult to carve a path to kill goblin shaman fast enough. This meant that both dwarf and elf had to drink their red potions not to risk anything, especially when there was no chance of rest before next fight. Difficulty seemed to be okayish.

Scenario 3 with... something completely different!

Okay, so I have been in contact with the developer and he told how he just slapped 2 skill points to every and all goblins. So before I started to write these things up I decided to play again the last scenario with this party of 4 and use following rules:

-Captain with no upgrades.
-2 point goblin archers (I thought that adding of 2 SP would make them a lot more powerful)
-Goblin Leader
-2 skill points on every goblin.

And here are the results:

Flame Wizard: 6 damage, used 8 skill points (had to run to get goblin leader into line of sight) Total gold: 34, 2x red potions

Elf Hunter: 11 damage, had to defend a few turns in melee because everyone else was too tied up to help! Used 4 skill points. Potion of Strenght. Total gold: 33.

Dwarf: Took a whopping 12 damage and used 5 skill points. Total gold: 33.

Swordsman: 6 damage, used 5 skill points. Total gold: 64. Red potion, Copper Necklace.

Captain... Captain took 17 damage. With no upgrades he was barely left alive with only 3 hit points remaining. Adding 2 skill points to every goblin had a huge impact on their effectiveness, and I feel this is the way to go, not lowering the point cost of archers. It brings a lot more choices to the game, when you can priorise your targets for example on the fact have they used their skill points or not.

This was also the first time ever I had to resort to using the Defending action in combat not to get elf hunter killed.

Some playtesting of Chronicles

I'm not exactly sure how I managed to trick myself into doing some playtesting for Chronicles tabletop RPG system.

Anyway.

I made a map in Vassal so it's fast and easy to make some practice runs of the first three scenarios.

"House Rules" I used were:

- You cannot save yourself from a critical fail with skill points.
- You cannot modify enemy rolls with skill points.
- You cannot modify damage rolls with skill points.

So, after my first run of the starting adventure I noticed that goblin archers are, well, nothing. They can punch out unexpected damage out at times, but it doesn't happen in every game. So, I made full runs of the first scenarios with groups of adventurers where in one goblin archers cost 1 point and gave 1 gold as loot.

Also, since the last scenario proved to be boring as hell and the Captain ally is way too powerful there, I did a third set of test in last scenario. There goblin archers cost 1 point and Captain has level 0 gear, but other stats remain the same.

I'll break down the scenarios to how much damage the characters had at the end of scenario and how many skill points and potions were used. Then I'll also write up each characters loot (kinda character progress), and other mentionable things.

Let's start!


First: The DPS party
Team was built for maximum damage output, as that too can often break games.

Swordsman + Offensive Stance, running/jumping as past experiences.
Dwarf Warrior + Ancestral Weapon
Cleric + Smiting Words.

Scenario 1:
Swordsman: Took 3 damage. Used 0 skill points. Gained 16 gold & Potion of Strenght.
Dwarf: Took 4 damage. Used 1 skill point. Gained 15 gold.
Cleric: Took 0 damage. Used 8 skill points. Gained 15 gold.

So, heavily armored warriors took only a couple of damage points. Cleric didn't need to heal and used Smiting Words four times with horrific results. The spell is obviously way too powerful.

Scenario 1 with 1 point goblin archers:
Swordsman: Took 0 damage. Used 0 skill points. Gained 17 gold.
Dwarf: Took 1 damage. Used 1 skill point. Gained 10 gold + gem worth 10 gold coins.
Cleric: Took 0 damage. Used 8 skill points. Gained 18 gold.

A little bit tougher fight, though statistics don't show it. Cleric had to heal twice and used smiting words three times, but this was just because goblins dared to roll like dice gods.

Scenario 2:
Swordsman: Took 5 damage. Used 0 skill points. Didn't use Red Potion that was given. Got another Potion of Strenght. Total gold: 30.
Dwarf: Took 1 damage. Used 0 skill point. Didn't use Red Potion that was given. Got gem from shaman, worth 20 gold coins. Also found the Copper Necklace. Total 15 gold.
Cleric: Took 0 damage. Used 7 skill points. Didn't use Red Potion that was given. Got Blue Potion from shaman. Total gold: 28.

Scenario 2 with 1 point archers:
Swordsman: Took 5 damage. Used 0 skill points. Total 40 gold.
Dwarf: Took 4 damage. Used 1 skill point. Didn't use Red Potion that was given. Total 43 gold.
Cleric: Took 1 damage. Used 8 skill points. Didn't use Red Potion that was given. Got gem worth 10 gold coins. Total 27 gold.

This time elite crack team didn't reach goblin shaman soon enough and it drank blue potion away. Rolled 30 gold from treasure table. Shaman was flinging spells like crazy at the Swordsman, which made the scenario somewhat interesting. Swordsman had to even use his red potion, just in case.

Scenario 3 with Captain with 0 level gear.
Swordsman: Took 2 damage. Used 0 skill points. Still has Red Potion, 2x Potion of Strenght. Total gold: 35.
Dwarf: Took 2 damage. Used 0 skill point. Still has Red Potion. Has Copper Necklace. Total 40 gold.
Cleric: Took 0 damage. Used 7 skill points. Still has Red Potion, but used Blue Potion. Total gold: 34.

There was absolutely no challenge at all. Even with lowered gear Captain takes more than 1 point of damage only if goblin rolls 6 for damage and Captain 1 for defense.

Scenario 3 with Captain with 0 level gear & goblin archers costing 1 points:
Swordsman: Took 4 damage. Used 0 skill points. Total 45 gold.
Dwarf: Took 4 damage. Used 1 skill point. Still has Red Potion. Total 48 gold.
Cleric: Took 2 damage. Used 9 skill points. Still has Red Potion and Copper Necklace. Total 42 gold.

Well, this time Captain took damage even less. Only 2 points. Still no challenge. Scenario wasn't fun to play.

Scenario 3 with Captain with 0 level gear & goblin archers costing 1 points & Goblin Leader:
As I was thinking earlier, the last scenario might need a bit more something than two types of goblins we've seen already quite a bit. I wanted to add some new type of goblin to the board, and came up with this:

Goblin Leader
Cost 2, Loot 3 gold.
FS 4/8/12, MOV 5
ATT 1, HP 7
STR: 1+1d3
DEF: 1, M.DEF: 1

Special: Other goblins gain +1 FS & +1 to their STR score in melee when within 3" of Goblin Leader.

So, what I wanted to do here was that Captain wouldn't hit goblins on 4+ and that there would be a slight chance for goblins to actually damage the Captain a bit more. So, statistics:

Swordsman: Took 5 damage. Used 0 skill points. Total 46 gold.
Dwarf: Took 6 damage. Used 2 skill point. Still has Red Potion. Total 49 gold.
Cleric: Took 1 damage. Used 9 skill points. Still has Red Potion and Copper Necklace. Total 43 gold.

Now, hear hear. Captain took a whopping 12 points of damage, but if we're completely honest, that's because adventurers this time around rolled dice like crap. Usually goblins were left alive with only 1 hit point. Captain also rolled enough of 5's, which earlier would have hit but now were a miss. I didn't use any skill points on Captain, by the way. Just to keep things interesting and to speed up decision I thought that maybe it'd be good if Allies could use skill points only for, well, skills.

But it's starting to be a little late, I need to leave the write-up for second adventuring party for a later time.

Chronicles test run

Well, now.

Since the main developer of Chronicles actually had the time and interest to dig up my little blog thingy here, it inspired me to give a solo test run of the introductory adventure. It's actually rather easy with the aid of Vassal and the Warmachine & Hordes module I already had.

So, I created a three member party with following details:

Human Flame Wizard (with Improved Fireball) & Performer
Elf Hunter (with Sword Fighter)
Human Swordsman (with Defensive Stance)

Points: 16

Oh, and here was the first "judgement call" I had to make. Defensive Stance reads "You gain +2 to your FS value when defending", but the problem is that "defending" is also a game term meaning that you make no attack and gain defense bonuses. The other choice, offensive stance, on the other hand gives +2 FS when attacking. What you should always be doing anyway. I'm quite sure that for balance reasons Defensive Stance should give +2 FS when being attacked by an enemy in melee.

Also, a word about my adventuring party. Since I dislike "autoincludes" very highly regardless of a gaming system I wanted to test out a party without a healer. If game cannot be reasonably played without a dedicated healer, something's wrong.

That's why I chose defensive stance and sword fighter with elf hunter, to give them better survivability.

Anyway.

First scenario in "A New Start" was a piece of cake.

Only Swordsman took damage (8 - and even that was a result of nasty critical hit) and flame wizard had to use 7 skill points and elf hunter 5. Treasure rolled from d6 table was 10 gold pieces.

I did this "AI" to goblins that archers always shot the nearest target and as many goblins ganged up in melee as possible against one single target, because they seemed to me like things cliché fantasy goblins would do.

I was re-reading the rules for skill points now, and noticed that even damage rolls could be modified with skill points. I don't like that at all, so I decided to skip it in this test run entirely. Modifying dice rolls is heck of a powerful ability, and at least after the first scenario modifying damage rolls seemed too big of a help for players.

Story continues to village of Alden Crossing, where flame wizard rolls 25 gold coins for him with Performer defining trait. I guess the small community hadn't seen much magic lately.

Well, then the party entered second scenario with the Goblin Shaman as a boss.

This one was actually entertaining match!

I used same AI for goblin warriors and archers, but for shaman I decided that if it could see a model with no magic defense, it would shoot at it. Otherwise just the closest target.

This time swordsman had to use healing potion (well, the goblin shaman scored a critical against him...) and still took 10 points of damage. Hunter had to spend 5 skill points and took 6 damage. Flame wizard used a whopping 11 skill points, as he needed to shoot the goblin shaman with improved fireball a lot.

Treasure rolled was a red potion, which was allocated to swordsman.

Gem that was goblin shaman's treasure was 30 coins worth. I split gold so that I randomised the one who got the gem and divided other loot with rest two party members.

The search for copper necklace I handled so that everyone rolled search & detection and the item was randomised between all who succeeded. Flame wizard got the thing, and frankly he needed it the most.

The reason why I'm randomising some of these things is that I'm not playing a role playing game here - I'm playing a tabletop game that has heavy RPG influences. Randomising acts for me as some sort of simulated selfishness and character for player characters.

Now, when I continued storyline, next scenario looked like fun as my adventuring party had used most of their resources during last fight. There was no chance to rest, it looked like.

However, it was a fast and not-so-exciting battle. Captain is way too powerful ally, since he hits goblins on 4+ and kills them if he rolls at least 2+ on 1d6. And even if he rolls 1 for damage, the goblin survives with 1 hit point only if it rolls a 3 for defense on 1d3. There was no challenge whatsoever in this battle scene. Maybe that was because Captain is actually a 13 point character, but was listed as a 5 point ally. That would have meant 4 goblin warriors more.

My suggestion here would be that this scenario has a third type of enemy and maybe a little harsher penalty for losing running/jumping check. Maybe not being able to make attacks during first turn.

Anyway, after scenario ended Elf Hunter had taken 3 damage (used one potion) and used 5 skill points. Captain had taken two damage points. Swordsman had taken six damage (used one potion) and flame wizard had used 10 skill points (had drunk the blue potion he got from last scenario's shaman boss)

After getting back to town two characters had enough gold to take advantage of Captains generous offer. Swordsman took Shield Block and Flame Wizard trained Wall of Fire.

Then adventures got a free night and feast for saving up the village. Swordsman didn't have a good nights sleep I guess, because he rolled only 3 for healing.

Next adventures would be made with a 19 point party, then.

Now, what can I say.

At least that much that the rule system has a lot of potential. There seems to be a little bit too much "kiddie gloves" built into the system, which is good enough if you aim for a survival of the characters and getting immersed in their personality and, well, playing their "role". But when you look into that with the eyes of a tabletop gamer, being able to modify damage roll after rolling the dice and being able to save yourself from a critical fail by just spending skill points does seem "too easy".

A word about Chronicles

I'm a frequent visitor to Tabletopgamingnews, because it's a handy site that gives a broad overview of what's happening in the tabletop industry.

Today I noticed an interesting project - an Open Source Skirmish RPG called Chronicles. Usually I'm not too interested in "homebrew" stuff, but this one has a lot of people involved and the possibilities Chronicles has got me intrigued.

I will be keeping an eye on this project, at least I want to see the core book II and a couple of adventure "modules" before I make up my mind if I'm totally fascinated by it or is my interest some idle curiosity.

What sparks me in Chronicles is that it combines elements of tabletop wargaming and role playing games. Battle scenes are done with the miniature scenery you've grown used to, and battles are scaled to use inches. Characters can progress, which is nice. What I'd like to see is that they could be permanently injured, too. Maybe they can if it's something Core Book II offers.

However, what I dislike is the need for a "game master". Well, rulebook stresses that you don't actually need one, but at least as-it-is the game looks ill-suited for play without the game master. Adversaries and adventures plot advancement isn't "scripted" well enough.

That can be a thing adventure "modules" correct. If the design team releases adventures that require zero GM input, this thing starts to look like a cooperative tabletop skirmish wargame with some kind of plot and character advancement, which sounds awesome in my books.

Well, these were the thoughts on this nice looking project.

Link to the homepage of the project is in the second paragraph of this post, in case someone became interested and overlooked it.