The Fighter's Dying Breath

This weekend saw our first death in our Underwatch campaign.  The group made it to the lair of the Lantern Goblin horde that has taken up residence in the city's ancient sewer network.  What they faced was a small horde worshiping a giant glowing crystal suspended in the air (The Source of the Goblin's Light!?!).  Lasbador the Wizard quickly launched a fireball into the crowd and maximized the damage.  That is a whole lot of Goblin death.  Funny thing about Latern Goblins is that when they die their "light" travels to another one of their horde to make them stronger.  This resulted in a huge amount of Lights flowing around the room and empowering the remaining dozen goblins.  One of these goblins was special.

He stood head and shoulders above the rest and had a powerful build.  In his filthy hands was a huge double bladed axe ablaze with green flames.  He let loose a terrible war cry and charged the party with his retinue of vile companions.

Our Fighter, Aubrey, charged right back.  She was determined to smash into the enemy line and give the other heroes time to destroy the crystal.  Dash the bard was right next to her side but that is beside the point.  The story today is all about Aubrey.

The two sides met in the middle of the chamber.  Aubrey and Dash being surround by the Goblins while our Druid and Wizard were going around to break/dismantle/disenchant the big glowy crystal in the center of the room.

Aubrey charged through the crowd to meet the Goblin Warlord (this title sounds appropriately bad ass doesn't it?) in combat.  She described how she would slide along the ground (not hard since she is a Halfling) and swing for the legs with Sally, her Messy, Forceful, Piercing Signature Weapon.

I can hear the epic film score chugging along in my head.  I'm ready for the slow-motion sequence of Aubrey cutting the legs right off the Goblin Warlord.  I'm ready for it! ROLL Hack & Slash!

::shooka shooka go the dice:: Aubrey gets a 6.  A Miss.

That big Axe with the green flames?  The one the Goblin Warlord has? It has Messy too.  The Goblin leaps in the air right over Aubrey's leg sweep.  He comes crashing down and the axe chops right through Aubrey's arm, taking it off at the elbow.  Aubrey is on the ground and wracked with pain. The Goblin screams triumphantly and raises his axe to finish her off.

Dash tries desperately to reach Aubrey and parry the blow.  Sounded like a Defend to me.  He rolls a 5.  Miss.  The other goblins swarm him and hold him back.

At this point I thought to myself, "Is that it?  Is Aubrey dead?  Did that arm come off and now the Goblin finishes the job?  Or did the shock of the wound really have time to set in yet?  Is there time for the bravest Halfling that every graced the City Watch to get in one last swing?  She is THE Fighter.  She's got time for one last swing of her axe.  Aubrey is THE Fighter.  I'm a fan of the characters after all.  Fighter's go down swinging.

I look to Aubrey's player and describe the Goblin's axe coming down on her.  "What do you do?" I ask.  She described how she is going to drag her axe along the groung and bring it up in a brilliant upward arc toward the Goblins face. Awesome.  Roll Hack & Slash.

She rolls.  She gets a 9.  They are both taking Damage.  What results is a simultaneous double-kill right out of a movie.  Both of the weapons strike true and do enough damage to end the life of the other in the most gruesome manner possible.  The Goblin's axe bites into Aubrey at the waist. Aubrey's blow cuts straight through the Warlords arm and buries itself in the foul creature's face.

During this chaos, the big crystal is pushed over and takes a tumble down the pit (why do the bad guys always place their McGuffins in such precarious places?).  Druid's in Bear form make short work of pushing stuff over.

Aubrey rolls Last Breath.  She gets an 8.  Death offers her a deal.  She stands before the Black Gates and talks to Death.  Death tells her that she still has much to do in the world.  He can send her back.  She just has to murder Lasbador (the party's Wizard) without hesitation when Death calls her to do so.

Without hesitation, Aubrey tells Death "NO."

This is how THE Fighter dies.  With Glory and with Honor.

Rest in Peace Aubrey.  The Underwatch will miss you.

Dungeon World: Underwatch Characters & Setting

So I finally put together a game of Dungeon World.  This was our group's first experience with any of the *World games.  Short version of the story:  It was amazing.  It simultaneously scratched the itch to run a very free form story game while supporting all the Old School D&D troupes.   The way the mechanics helped the events in the story snowball into more and more exciting scenes was great.  Enough gushing over it though.  Check out the PDF for $10.  It's well worth it.

I'm going to do some actual play reports of the game to showcase some of the fun.  Dungeon World assumes and suggests that you fill in a lot of the setting details throughout the first session of play.  The GM comes to the table with a loose idea and asks the players leading questions to fill out the rest.

We decided to form the setting a little bit before making characters since I was interesting in twisting around a few setting assumptions to incorporate a more urban environment.  I stumbled upon this post and fell in love with the idea.  So a big Thank You goes out to henrythewhite for the inspiration.  Hopefully he doesn't mind me taking his idea and running with it.

I really liked how you could do the old school "dungeons everywhere" theme and literally put a sprawling metropolis right on top.  So the adventurers would descend into the trouble levels while backstabbing nobleman made life on the surface just as dangerous.

This is the pitch I sent to my players:

In the largest and the oldest city in The World, adventure lurks around every corner. The city has been leveled and rebuilt countless times due to wars and disasters both magical and natural.. As a result the sewer system and underbelly is home to whole communities of the “lesser” members of society and ancient passages are always being uncovered from the “old times.”

The City Below has always been ignored by the City Watch. Resources are stretched to their limit patrolling the city proper. That is until now. Something has the ruling body angry. They are fed up that the Watch does nothing in the City Below. The rulers and the Captain of the Guard came to an “agreement.” Thus the Underwatch was born. No one was required to transfer to the Underwatch but each District had to find “volunteers” to make the change. The worst miscreants from the Watch have been given positions in the Underwatch. YOU are a member of the Underwatch.

Are you ready to fight your way through the crime and grime in the City Below? Are you prepared to unearth the secrets of the cities of old buried deep below the streets? Sharpen your sword. Study your spells. Your career in the Underwatch starts now.

Lucky for me they all ate it up.

So fast forward to last Saturday when we finally made the setting come to life and make some quick characters (all character creation in Dungeon World is quick.  And like most of the game, Really Awesome).

For those of you that haven't done a collaborative Setting/World building exercise as part of an RPG before, I highly recommend it.  We played a recent game of Dresden Files and had a ton of fun making the city.  Dungeon World takes a more free form approach compared to Dresden's phases.  Normally you would just start in media res in some dungeon or other dangerous situation and build the world through actual play.

I decided to combine the approaches.  I went around and asked people questions regarding THE CITY.  Once we had a solid idea of what the city was like, we jumped into the game right in the middle of the action like normal.


The first question I asked was "What's the City's name?"  The players quickly responded with "Axiom.  New Axiom, ya know, since it has been destroyed over and over.  They always call the current top side city New Axiom."

Our City was born and all the questions and answers spawned more questions and answers.  So how did The City turn out?  Let's take a look.

Welcome to New Axiom

New Axiom is a sprawling metropolis that is situated on the coast.  It is massive in scale and many of it's structures have towers or are otherwise designed to have a large vertical footprint.  The city is divided into Districts.  Each District has a Councilor that is in charge of the goings on within that district.

My players loved the idea of a City Council of sorts that ran the city.  It also opens up the path for political games between Districts.  New Axiom also has a figurehead Chancellor or Regent that is "officially" the ruler but holds no real political power.  The Districts keep their own branch of the Watch that has jurisdiction within that District.  The newest district, The Undercity, has no official Council member and the Underwatch is comprised of all the worst of the Watch from other Districts.

Through the questions and answer session regarding the city and Characters we  were able establish that there are 12 districts.  We haven't defined them all (keeping with the make maps, leave blanks principle of Dungeon World) but came up with a bulk of them.

The Districts that were mentioned:

• Magistrate: Government District.  Home to House Vansteel


• Sky: Home to House Saraphim, who control the City's Magi-Tech Airships.
  


• Garden: Home to House Highgarden, a posh "vacation" spot for nobles.  Also controls the Food production and distribution for New Axiom.


• Arcanum: Home to University Arcana.  The entire district is the campus and home to the magical scholars.  Their branch of the watch is known as the The Black Wands. Their specialty is to police their own regarding crimes of a magical nature. The players determined that Divination is illegal (punishable by death even!) and summoning is highly regulated.  Magic is still very rare and powerful but these are laws held over from an age past.


• Stonekin:  The Dwarven District.


• Northgate:  The main enterance to the city.


• Craftsmen:  Lower class workers.  High Halfling population.


• Westgate:  The entrance for the "low."  It was established that Dwarves and Humans are viewed as equals and Elves and Halflings as "lesser" races.  Elves are prejudiced against for being responsible for the destruction of the city in ages past with their misuse of magic.


• Undercity:  EVERYTHING under ground level.  It's big, dangerous and mysterious.  The first few levels are inhabited by people and after that its all buried secrets, ancient ruins and unearthed tombs.

This leaves us with 3 districts to play with as well as all the supporting details of the ones above.  Without really trying we basically built a fantasy version of Hive Primus from GW's 40K Necromunda setting.  Rival houses, buried relics, dangerous gangs living in the Undercity.  All great stuff.  We mapped out some broad stroke details and got a little more description from character backgrounds.  I feel like the there are still enough "blanks" on the map to make anything else work.

Meet the Underwatch

Lasbador Bentledon - Wizard

Lasbador is a former student of the University Arcana and quickly gained the disapproval of the Archmage.  He was quickly offered a job in the Black Wands simply to be stripped of the title and "volunteered" to the Underwatch.

Bonds:

• Aubrey will play an important role in the events to come.  I have foreseen it!


• Dash is keeping an important secret from me.


• Akajj Farstrider is woefully misinformed about the world; I will teach them all that I can

Dash Seraphim - Bard

The third son in the Sky District's Seraphim family, he decided to skip out on his "mandated" appointment to the church of Pelor.  To make matters worse he further soiled the family name by engaging in a high profile scandal with the daughter of Lucius Vansteel.  Maybe a stint in the Underwatch is exactly what he needs.

Bonds:

• This not my first adventure with Lasbador


• I sang stories of Akajj Farstrider long before I ever met them in person


• Aubrey is often the butt of my jokes


• I am writing a ballad about the adventures of Aubrey


• Lasbador trusted me with a secret


• Akajj does not trust me, and for good reason

Aubrey - Fighter

Aubrey grew up in the streets of the Craftsman district.  Being a Halfling is hard in New Axiom.  Prejudice is everywhere.  Aubrey's spirit was only strengthened through the constant adversity.  She befriended a retired war hero Gregor and became the daughter he never had.  With Gregor's axe in hand she was determined to get a position in the City Watch.  Luckily the City Watch had an opening . . .

Bonds:

• Dash owes their life, whether they admit it or not


• I have sworn to protect Lasbador


• I worry about the ability of Lasbador to survive in the Underwatch


• Akajj Farstrider is soft, but I will make them hard like me

Akajj Farstrider - Druid

Akajj Farstrider is an elf from The East.  Tales of these dark skinned elves paint them as savage and cannibalistic desert nomads.  Half of that is true.  No one is sure yet of which half that is.  Akajj traveled to New Axiom and was recruited to the Underwatch.  Press ganged really.  Either way, it is a means to the check out the rumors of an ancient forest that grows beneath the city.

Bonds:

• Lasbador smells more like prey than hunter


• The spirits spoke to me of a great danger that follows Aubrey


• I have showed Dash a secret rite of the Land

 

2012 Year in Review

The Year I Learn to Love Organized Play

I launched Bored & Sorcery 6 months ago.  I was riding a wave of inspiration to write about my hobbies and give myself a platform to speak about all the games I love.  It was a time where I was spending many more hours thinking about gaming than actually getting any time to play games.  I set out to post at least once a week (what I thought to be a moderate goal).  I kept up for a while and then Gen Con 2012 hit.

This year's Gen Con brought out a few games that have since taken up a lot of gaming time. Things took a shift and I started to spend lots of my free time gaming and was taking a break from the constant reading, analyzing and planning for games to play in the future.

The first game was Android: Netrunner.  The first of Fantasy Flight's LCGs that I really bought into.  I love the concept.  I love the mechanics.  I love to play it.  I was lucky enough to get the majority of my gaming group to take the plunge and we were soon playing as often as we could.  Much to my pleasure, this is still the trend.

With Netrunner came another first for me.  Branching out and finding a local scene for the game.  I tried a few times in the past to get involved in a game and never really found any success.  I was eager to play as much Netrunner as possible and was lucky enough to stumble on a post in the FFG Forums about a casual league starting up at Cat & Mouse Game Store here in Chicago.  I quickly recruited some of my fellow players from my circle of friends and we decided to join up.  What resulted was some of the most fun I've had in quite some time.

The store is amazing and the staff are great.  The steady group of players are top notch and a blast to play against.  I just love going there and geeking out for a Sunday afternoon.  I found that this greatly improved my game as well.  I get to play against different people with different play styles and it has helped me see some things that I may have missed otherwise.  I am also loving watching the group grow and get better at the game in general.  People trying out new factions or strategies after discussing them during a league match.  I see some real growth as a group from the frequency of play.  Players not falling for the same old tricks.  New players learning the game and keeping everyone's enthusiasm up.  It was my first real experience playing a game in it's Prime and experiencing everything that can go with a local "meta" scene.

As the first cycle of Data packs for Netrunner is starting to release, the excitement is still very high.  We are currently getting ready to hold a tournament to wrap up Season 1 of the League and then start Season 2 as the New Year gets underway.

My experience with Netrunner lead me to seek out other games too.  Instead of just looking for games that interested me and trying to sell them to my friends, I sought out games that that did that AND already had a game night or group somewhere for me to jump into.  I found a great group playing the X-Wing miniatures game at Games Plus on Monday nights.  I immediate felt welcome and have made some friends there while making "pew pew" noises and constant Lando jokes.  It has proved to be a great pick up and play game.  The pre-painted miniatures and the quick and intuitive gameplay make it truly enjoyable.  More so than I thought at first glance.  I bought into the game pretty deep and am eagerly awaiting the release of the second wave of ships.

It may sound cheesy or even strange but both of these experiences has really made me love gaming all over again.

So where do we go from here?

2013 is shaping up to be a fun year.  I've found 4 or 5 solid games that I plan on playing a ton of.  I have had some issues in the past with always searching for the next game to play.  I'm sure that will continue to some extent but my wallet will appreciate the effort of focus for once.  For the upcoming year I am going to focus on playing these games and seeing what happens.

I'm guessing you want to know what games made it on my list.  No?  Well here it is anyway.

• Android: Netrunner


• X-Wing


• Dreadball


• MERCS


• Star Wars LCG

The top 4 I am pretty sure on.  The Star Wars LCG looks really interesting to me.  I was lucky enough to get one as a gift this holiday season and am eager to try it out.  It borrows enough from a lot of games that I like and turns it into something really fun.  If nothing else, it should be a game that sees a good group of players (it's Star Wars remember) and the games look like they will go by quickly.

I already have plans to attend Adepticon 2013 and Gen Con 2013.  I might even make a trip to Fantasy Flight Game's Worlds Weekend in November as well.

What does this mean for the Blog?

This is an interesting question.  With all this gaming I should have more than enough to talk about right?  I mean with all the gaming books I still read there should be plenty of reviews going up and if the above is any indication plenty of after action reports and event coverage.

I really fell short of my goal for the first 6 months here.  I still have 6 months to go to make the first year come out right.  I want to expand my audience and take on some new perspectives too.  I'd like Bored & Sorcery to gain a voice in the scene in 2013. I know I can't do this alone.  I am going to look for some like-minded individuals to contribute on a fairly regular basis.  I will continue to look for a few authors that will have fun writing about everything and anything about gaming.

I have to do my part as well.  I'm going to go back to my original goal and try to post at least an article a week.  I feel like I am in a position to do that much easier than before.

So here is a sincere Thank You to all of you that take the time to read my ramblings.  A Thank You to all of those that have helped contribute content to this site and a Thank You to all of those that I play all of these crazy games with on a regular basis.  I'll see you all in 2013.

Night's Black Agents Review

There is no other way to start this review, so here it goes:  Night's Black Agents is something special.

 

Back At It

Yes.  I am alive.

This post is mostly for my benefit.  I let the blog get away from me for the past month or so.  I had to write something to get the ball rolling again.

I'm ready to make a concentrated effort to get things back on track here at Bored & Sorcery.  I fell off of my schedule right after Gen Con.  A project I was involved in at my job finally wrapped up last week after stealing away most of August and September.

All that means is that there is more to report on than ever.  I have been reading and digesting tons of stuff in the wake of Gen Con. Starting next week I am going to start to talk more about all my current favorites:  Iron Kingdoms RPG, Curse the Darkness, Android: Netrunner, MERCS and Dreadball.

It's a good time to be a gamer.

 

GenCon 2012 Keynote: D&D Next

So after watching the live stream of the Keynote presentation from Wizards of the Coast, I have to say that it seems like they want to move in the right direction with the future of D&D.  They hit all the right points with me.  Talking about how at the end of the day it is about the fellowship that happens at the table while playing the game and not how Saving Throws are calculated that has made D&D what it is. They want the story to come first and not the rules.  They want the DM's and Players to be at the forefront and not the Game Designers.  They admitted that the approach of designing 3rd and 4th edition was Rules First.  They want that to change.

I hope they succeed.

The real sweet news that came from the presentation was that they expect the D&D Next playtest to take two years.  Meaning we are looking at the next edition of D&D to hit around Summer 2014, just in time for the 40th Anniversary of the game.  They said in the mean time that they will be looking to get their entire back catalogue available in PDF form.  This is amazing news.  I would love to grab some of the old box sets in PDF.  Al-Qadim, I'm looking at you.

Gen Con! Gen Con! Gen Con!

Yes it is that time of year again.  The time when the board, card, war and roleplaying gamers of the world unite for one hell of a weekend in America's Midwest.  I'm talking about Gen Con Indy of course.  Every year companies hold back the best of the best and release them just in time for the convention.  Countless demos, tournaments, roleplaying sessions and LARPS will run around the clock to make up the best four days in gaming.

Unfortunately, this year Real Life got in the way.  I'll have to sit by the sidelines and watch as the rest of my gaming group basks in the glory that is Gen Con.  What I will do is try and keep up with any special announcements and news and report back with the things that really catch my eye.

Of course for those of you that are lucky enough to go, you have a metric ton of products releasing this year that look really good.  I'm going to spend some time talking about the ones that have me excited.  Be sure to check them out, get a demo in or just plain buy them! No, really.  Do it.  It might help me cope from the withdrawal.

 

Privateer Press

• The first of the two item's I'm having picked up by my personal army of Gen Con ninjas, Iron Kingdoms Roleplaying Game Core Rules is releases as the convention hall opens.  The epic setting of the widely successful Warmachine and Hordes is coming back to your RPG table in a big way and this time with a brand new rules system.  I am eager to see the rules system that Privateer Press has created.  I know there are demos and some introduction scenarios scheduled so check it out if you get the chance.  

Fantasy Flight

• Netrunner!  This is the second item I was sure to have someone pick up for me.  Fantasy Flight is bringing back Richard Garfield's famous card game back in the form of one of their Living Card Games.  Netrunner is an asymmetrical card game that has Netrunners (hackers of the future) doing battle with the Megacorporations that hold the world's power.  The rulebook is already available if you want to check out the mechanics.  The game releases Thursday when the doors open and a tournament is already planned for Friday.

• X-Wing also comes out on Thursday.  This is a tabletop war game that focuses on the space battles of Star Wars.  So far the set covers the Rebellion Era and too be honest looks quite good. I read over the rules and there is plenty to like.  Outfitting ships with upgrades and different pilots, hidden movement orders and the miniatures look pretty good too.  It reminds me of Wings of War a little bit in that regard.

MERCS Miniatures

• MERCS is a game I (hopefully) be talking more and more about as the year goes on.  It is a great looking squad-based skirmish game with some really fun mechanics.  They will have their two new MegaCons up for sale, Texico & ISS. 

Play Attention Games

• curse the darkness is a game I only recently stumbled on (full review on the way, I promise).  It was written and created by Matthew McFarland who wrote a large chunk of one of my favorite RPGs - Promethean: The Created.  This is another horror game but something that differs very much from what you might expect.  The game uses a unique card mechanic and death is extremely common and almost neccessary to achieve the groups goals.  Session prep is minimal as well, having the group come up with the intended length and setting of their story just minutes before starting to play.  The setting is great.  Truly some inspiring stuff. Very, Very Good.  It was the result of a successful Kickstarter campaign and the backers are picking up their books at the Con.  There just might be a few extras through, so if this sounds intriguing be sure to seek it out.  The PDF is already up for sale too as another option.  I figure there should be some pick up games of this going on in the Indie area.

Redbrick LCC

• Blue Planet Revised is coming out.  The "water-punk" setting is probably my favorite Sci-Fi setting and the rules are getting a slight makeover (but not a new edition, Revised is supposed to be fully compatible with v2).

Whitewolf / Onyx Path Publishing

• The BIG announcement?  There is supposed to be some kind of BIG announcement regarding the publishing end of White Wolf Games.  Some new branch called Onyx Path?  The website is up here and I'll be sure to post about the news once I get word of it.


• Mummy: The Curse is also coming out.  Some more World of Darkness is a good thing.

Well there we have it.  Those are the products I'm most excited to see come out this year.  I'm sure there are all kinds of other games that are not on my radar that are absolutely fantastic.  If you find one be sure to leave a comment below!  I'd love to hear about it.

With that I leave you to prepare for the most epic weekend in gaming.

 

Dungeon Crawl Classics #70: Jewels of the Carnifex Giveaway

So have you checked out the excellent Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG yet?  No?  DO IT!  Still Undecided? Dont' worry, I'm thinking of doing a series of articles showcasing just how much fun this game is.  It hits all of the Old School sweet spots without coming across as "just another Retro-Clone."  DCC is very much it's own beast.



Thanks to Goodman Games and DriveThruRPG I can spread the love. I'm going to give away a PDF copy of the latest Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure, Jewels of the Carnifex!

A Level 3 Adventure

At the end of a forgotten back alley, in the weird and otherworldly marketplace of faiths known as the Bazaar of the Gods, stands the ruins of a forgotten chapel. Once the cult of the Carnifex was celebrated throughout the City of a Thousand Gates. But a band of holy warriors rose against the cult of executioners and torturers, casting down her signs and scattering her devotees to the winds. The fate of the cthonic goddess, and – more importantly – her fabled jewels remains a mystery…until this night.

Set amid the sprawling decadence of Punjar, Jewels of the Carnifex offers low-level adventurers a chance to plumb the mysteries beneath the city’s soiled streets, explore forgotten crypts lavished with weird artifacts, and – for the quick and daring – claim the lost Jewels of the Carnifex!

 Entry is simple.  Just leave a comment below describing your favorite aspects of Appendix N fiction or Old School Fantasy.  The contest will remain open until Friday 8/10 - 12pm Central Time.  

At that time I will randomly draw a winner for a PDF copy of Jewels of the Carnifex!

Iron Kingdoms RPG Gains Steam

Anyone who has been following the news announcements coming out of Privateer Press for the past year knows that this product was finally finished and ready to see the light of day.  Today, it seems like this is more official than ever.  Privateer Press officially added its Iron Kingdoms Core Rules book to the Upcoming Products section of the website.

As the Summer Release (Read: Gen Con) draws near, I find myself equal parts curious and exited to see what the developers have come up with.  I'm sure many of you are aware that the Iron Kingdoms is the fictional world where the widely successful tabletop wargames Warmachines and Hordes are set.  Before that though, it was also one of the flagship third party settings for Dungeon & Dragons 3rd Edition.

My group was involved in a highly memorable Iron Kingdoms campaign using the D&D 3.5 rules.  For the most part it was a great time.  The world always felt alive and we were always one step away from political intrigue, military conflicts, memorable NPCs, and glorious amounts of Warjacks and Monsters to fight.

Mechanically though, D&D 3.5 was never the most exciting for me and it showed some of its weakness through the Iron Kingdoms setting.  Whether it was the overly-complicated mechanika crafting rules or just outlandish handling of prestige classes, each session left me liking the mechanics of the game less and less.  It felt like core concepts to the fiction, like how badass Warcasters are, were simply forced into the rules using the guidelines of D&D.  Something always felt "off."

As we all know, D&D 3.5 has gone the way of THAC0 and retired to the halls of forever where it will party hardy until it is called again for the countless Edition Wars that are bound to spring up.  And with it, IKRPG was left without a marketable system to be its backbone.

Privateer Press could have gone the way of Pathfinder and kept on chugging along with the old rules but they decided to spend the last few years making their own system.  The previews say that the mechanics were born from and heavily inspired by the system that is found in Warmachine and Hordes.

The full blurb reads as follows:

This essential full-color guide to the award-winning Iron Kingdoms setting equips you with:

• A robust, elegant rules system crafted especially for the world of the Iron Kingdoms. This system builds upon the rules foundation of the critically acclaimed WARMACHINE and HORDES miniatures games to meet the complex needs of a roleplaying game.


• Rules for character creation and advancement that let you take on the role of iconic Iron Kingdoms characters like fell callers, field mechaniks, gun mages, warcasters, and more.


• Details on diverse playable races: humans, gobbers, Iosans, Nyss, ogrun, Rhulfolk, and trollkin.


• Crafting systems that enable you to explore the mysteries of mechanika and alchemy.


• A comprehensive overview of life in the Iron Kingdoms and the history of western Immoren.

 

I think this is a really interesting choice.  First, it gives a stepping stone to all the wargamers that are familiar with the other game lines a place to start.  Second, it could easily be a fun and still very tactical system for combats and encounters.  This is something that I can really enjoy when the system is deep enough to add lots of character choice but also resolves quickly so combats don't take 4-5 hours of a session.

What will truly be interesting is if there is any cross over between the two games.  Can we stat up our characters and use them as Solo's for a friendly game of Warmachine?  Can we "borrow" some of the mechanics to bodge together some kind of "campaign" system to use for Hordes?  I could live without heavy cross over, at least at the outset.  What I really hope is that we get a system that matches the power level and feel that has become the identity of the Iron Kingdoms.

The Duke Kickstarter Coming to Close

The Duke is a game that I heard about yesterday.  Somebody pointed me in the direction of the Kickstarter so I decided to check it out.  What I found really piqued my interest.  Allow me to post the summary to give you a better idea:

 

The Duke is a dynamic, tile-based strategy game with an old-world, feudal theme. It features high-quality wooden playing pieces and an innovative mechanic. The game takes moments to learn but hours of play to master. Levy your troops and maneuver them about the game board. If you end your movement in a square occupied by an opponent's tile, you capture that tile. Capture your opponent's Duke to win!

At first glance this sounds a lot like Chess.  Which is awesome.  There is a reason Chess is still around.  It's easy to learn and offers lots of different ways to approach the game.  From what I can tell, The Duke has all of this going for it and more.

Gameplay takes place on a 6x6 square grid.  You and your opponent each place your Duke and two support pieces on the board and then game play begins.  Your turn is a simple affair: you can move one of your pieces or blind draw a tile from your supply and place it on the board adjacent to your Duke.

Easy enough.

Each piece has its movement pattern/restrictions.  Sounds like Chess again right? The twist comes from the fact that each wooden piece has two sides with two different movement patterns printed on each side.  After you move a piece you MUST flip it to the other side.  At any time you can check the other side of your own pieces but you can NOT check your opponents pieces.  This makes a huge impact on the game.  Learning and remembering what your opponent is capable of and how to respond in turn adds an enjoyable layer to the chess-like formula.

The pieces look like they are going to pretty high quality as well.  Here's a few:



The game also seems plenty expandable.  If the stretch goals of the Kickstarter are any indication, the folks over at Catalyst have plenty of ideas for expansion tiles to shake things up.  Even integrating some licensed properties like Conan and the Three Musketeers .  Yea.  Guilty.  The Conan tile really got me look into the game more.

Catalyst Game Labs have the full rulebook available for download if you want to check it out as well as a print and play version of the game.  As of this writing there is still 64 hours to go.  I figure this is more than enough time to give the game a test and see if it's worth it.

Check out the Rulebook and Print & Play Version.  If you like it you still have time to Become a Backer.

A Greeting: Of Games & Magic

I know, I know.  Your thinking that there are already plenty of gaming blogs out there.  So what are we doing to grab your attention?  Hopefully the same thing as the other guys.  Display a passion for the hobby of gaming.  A hobby that not only encourages but uses imagination as its lifeblood.  There is nothing better than cracking open a new book or game and letting your mind wander through the halls of imagination.

It's this reason that has kept me coming back to the hobby for more than 13 years.  I hope to use this space as a chance to share stories of the games we read and play.

So why the name Bored and Sorcery?