Dungeons and Dragons: In Search of the Unknown #3

Having found the allies in the Human Fighter Ahlo, and the Elven Rogue Estra, that he so desperately needed, The Forsaken journeyed to the stronghold once more to try to find the ever-elusive Bag of Devouring...

The first thing The Forsaken did on entering the catacombs was to journey to the Library to find out what was in the chest he spied. The addition of allies made short work of the Stormclaw Scorpion he found in there, though privately the hirelings felt that the use of the cleric's Avenging Flame was a little over the top. The chest turned out to contain nothing more than 15 gold pieces, but The Forsaken wasn't complaining. He'd have to pay his hirelings somehow...

The party stopped for a while in the Storeroom to make camp, and The Forsaken took some time to get to know his newfound companions. Ahlo was somewhat incredulous, but nonetheless explained that he had a background in the military, which ended in what he would only describe as 'some unpleasantness. With the commander's wife.' Since then, he's been working in a guard capacity for the River Rats. Estra, however, had only ever known the street life, and joined the River Rats through an offer of protection from the authorities in exchange for a cut of her 'takings.'

With the party fully refreshed and ready to move on, they first investigated the stronghold Kitchens. While there was nothing of particular use in the form of kitchen implements as weapons, The Forsaken nonetheless found a leather pouch containing 35gp, hidden under a pot in one of the cupboards. This day was just getting better and better. They then moved on to the dining room. The Forsaken sent Estra to scout ahead where she found a surprise...

Estra had always thought this sort of thing was just a joke, but it was true: The dining room featured a table 20 feet long with a chair at either end. I mean, why? What was the point? It's not like Roghan and Zelligar entertained much company; did they dislike each other to the degree that they refused to sit together for meals?

Rather less amusing were the two zombies that had caught sight of her, and The Forsaken was not at all pleased when Ahlo refused to go in and fight them. This left the Elf and the Revenant to do battle with the undead minions. The Forsaken took a savage mauling, but Estra came to the rescue and distracted one of the Zombies momentarily. This gave The Forsaken time to finish the one he was fighting and dispatch the other one, though he did make the mistake of invoking his Revenant power of dealing necrotic damage; there's little use in doing that if your victim is already dead! Estra took a beating as well, and although they both survived without serious injury, the Elf did not have much left in her...

In an antechamber just off the Dining Room, the party found a small amount of gold in a box. More interesting was the marble statue of the nude and extremely alluring woman in the centre of the room, though The Forsaken knew that, thinking objectively, they'd never be able to move it. The Forsaken lead his warband through the stronghold until he came upon the Mistresses Bedroom once more; he had not forgotten the Scorpion that nearly killed him and wanted to see what lay at the end of the door it was guarding...

They found what looked like the Master Bedroom, judging by the decor probably used by Roghan. But there was no time to investigate, as the room's current denizens were a pair of Gnolls, and they did not look as though they welcomed the intrusion. The Forsaken lead his party in a formation, and Ahlo did an impressive job of momentarily cowering the more feral of the two Gnolls, causing it to misjudge its actions and fall back, leaving itself open to attack. However, the fight was always going to be a challenge, and the fury of the gnolls was not to be underestimated. Estra, already exhausted from her fight with the Zombies, became seriously injured, and the Gnoll savagely tore into her once he'd smelled the blood. Estra collapsed onto the bed, weak and bleeding. The Forsaken and Ahlo made a fight of it, but the first Gnoll would not fall and the second fired arrows with worrying prescision; it was all The Forasken could do to make sure at least two people left the room alive.

Back in The Mistress's bedroom, The Forsaken and his hirelings licked their wounds, and took their rest. At some point they would have to return. But not yet...

Dungeons and Dragons: In Search of the Unknown #2

This week was supposed to kick off a new campaign starting with Keep on the Shadowfell, however with the people we were playing with more flaky than a packet of breakfast cereal the only person to actually turn up was Dave. So it was back into the Unknown once again, in search of riches, treasure and the Bag of Devouring...

The Forsaken awoke from his slumber in the wreck of the Wizard's Workroom where he had fought the gnome some time ago. Fresh and ready to begin his search for the Bag of Devouring, he first investigated the laboratory next door. He was a little surprised to discover a skeleton hanging over the far corner of it, and made a point of crushing its skull to prevent the skeleton from giving him a much larger surprise later on. The room did not at first appear to have much else to offer, apart from a small smoked-glass bottle on the table. The Forsaken had no way of knowing what was inside it, but he did not trust whatever substance lay within. His suspicions were confirmed when he hurled it against the wall, whereupon the gas issued forth; he never found out what the substance was, as he chose that moment to leave and allow time for the gas to dissapate... On returning to the room, The Forsaken found amongst other things a coffin propped up against the wall; he cracked it open to find what he recognised as an Amulet of Protection. With the memory of the battle with the Scorpion still etched in his mind, he took the amulet and continued on...

He remembered there was another secret door in the opposite side of the door and went across to investigate what the denizens of the dungeon would want to keep hidden from view. He found a simple store room with around 60 barrels full of things like meat, salt and coal. Some of the foodstuffs were a little stale but it survival became an issue, the Forsaken now knew where he could find something to eat. There was, however, one little problem...

Fearsome, if not particularly accurate...

Out of nowhere, a spider leapt at the Forsaken. Perhaps due to the surprise, the spider misjudged the attack and did not manage to do any damage to the Forsaken, who was having none of it and brought his bastard sword around for an attack. The spider suffered a substantial blow and leapt off to hide within the barrels. Not wishing to play a game of hide and seek with a creature with half his size and eight times his agility, The Forsaken stomped off to where there were no barrels in the room. The spider crawled across the barrels, lined up his attack and made a powerful leap towards the Revenant Cleric, only to have the Cleric dodge out of the way just in time and the spider slammed into the wall. A little dazed, it was unable to respond as The Forsaken cut off a couple of its legs, but it made a ferocious counter attack, biting the Revenant but never quite managing to poison him. Eventually the spider, tired from a fight it hadn't a hope of winning, was impaled by the sword, then unceremoniously scraped off.

The fight had tired The Forsaken as well, so he was pleased to find amonst the barrels a small box containing a little gold in there. He was less pleased to discover on leaving the room that a couple of barbaric humans had ambused him, after hearing the commotion with the spider in the other room. When The Forsaken, not being one to suffer fools, had satisfied himself that there was nothing helpful or even intelligent that either of these men had to say to him, he dispatched them both very quickly.

The Forsaken continued to search the dungeon. Now that the Raven Queen had given him the task of finding the Bag of Devouring, he knew he must leave no stone unturned until he found it. Returning to the bedroom he had originally slept in, he broke open some closets in there to find a substantial amount of gold that should see him proud, should he ever have cause to spend it. He happened across what appeared to be a library, which had what looked like a small chest in there. However as the library had also become home to another Stormclaw Scorpion, The Forsaken decided that if it came to it, he should hire help to clear the dungeon. This feeling was further enforced when he came across a different room where a Carrion Crawler had made its nest....

Things became more interesting for The Forsaken when he entered a room with a glowing, blue gem on a plinth. When he tried to pick it up, it became apparent that neither the gem nor the plinth was going anywhere. However, when he then left the room, he appeared to be in a completely different place. Confused, the Revenant walked along the ever-twisting corridors, and arrived at a blacksmith's forge. There was little there of value to him; the weapons there were useful but not in comparison to the bastard sword he was already using. The forge lead onto another room, which appeared to be a storage room for the fuel for the furnance in the forge. There was also a pit dug there, with an iron ring to tie a rope around, but before he could investigate further there was an interruption...

Really didn't want anyone else going in that hole...

The ghostly spirit of a fallen warrior accosted the Forsaken and began a furious assault, tearing into his undead flesh. The Revenant fought back for a while, but the insubstantial form of the ghost proved too much for him to keep up for long. Instead, he tried to find out why the ghost was attacking him, reasoning that as they were both undead, they should have a certain kinship about them...

The plan appeared to work. The ghost, for his own reasons, seemed to want to prevent anybody from going down the hole. The Forsaken informed the ghost that this would not be necessary; he was looking for The Bag of Holding and asked the ghost if he knew where it was. The ghost didn't know, but appeared satisfied that it was not the Forsaken's intention to go into the hole. With some difficulty, the ghost raised a finger, pointed at the logs and said 'over there...'

It looked like this...

The logs turned out to be concealing a magical mace. While not particularly stronger than his bastard sword, the Forsaken recognised that it had the potential to increase his output of damage, so he chose to take it and use it in the upcoming fights. However, his experience in the dungeon had convinced him that he could not complete his task alone. He decided to venture back to Fallcrest, to look for reinforcements, and he knew just where to start...

In the Lower Keys, where the River Rats group were bullying early morning traders into paying more than they should for the goods they were taking on, The Forsaken stood silently, and was eventually met by Carson, the man who'd sent him on the quest to the dungeon in the first place. After handing over the statuette of the Raven Queen as insurance, the Forsaken was instructed to return to him in the evening where Carson would provide him with some reinforcements. He needed time to search for people low-key enough so that no one would notice if they went missing and certainly couldn't accompany The Forsaken himself, but he'd find someone...

Coming next week...

Ahlo, the Human Fighter

Ezra, the Elven Rogue

Dungeons and Dragons: In Search of the Unknown #1

Narrator (DM): Matt
The Forsaken (Revenant Cleric): Dave

The tower stood on the rise of a hill beyond the Winterbole Forest. Far from the dubios protection of the Nentir Vale, along way from any of his former allies and with no reason to still be alive, the Revenant known only as The Forsaken stood in contemplation of the events that lead him to seek out the fabled stronghold...

Hitherto he had metered out a a pitiful existence in the town of Fallcrest, hiding by day and moving by night, visiting ferocious retribution on those who sought to take what was not theirs. Until one evening, he was approached by Carton from the irreputable band of miscreants, the River Rats. Carton told him of a tower, North of the Vale. Carton said that the tower, and the stronghold beneath, once belonged to great heroes of legend, Roghan the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown. He said that some years ago, the two heroes set off into the barbaric Northen lands to fight the bandits that roamed the area, and never returned. In their abandoned fortress lies riches, treasure and equipment of stupendous quality that was there for the taking. Carton demanded 20% of the total of whatever The Forsaken managed to get from there. The Revenant agreed and began his journey, knowing that a promise made did not have to be the same as a promise kept.

Nonetheless, the idea that a fortress full of gold and riches that was abandoned by heroes troubled The Forsaken. Such wealth and Fame was not given up lightly, and it was all too possible that Roghan and Zelligar were still there, waiting for someone to try to take their gold...

The Twisting Halls

Still, he had not come this far to back out now. The Forsaken found the entrance to the stronghold set in the South side of a stony hill, and made his way into the tunnel to find a wooden door. The door appeared closed, but the chips on the wood suggested someone had recently tried to make a forced entry. Undaunted, The Forsaken stepped over the threshold to find a long corridor of substantial masonry, with alcoves set into the walls at regular intervals. The Forsaken could not detect the presence of anything there, but he still moved through the hall with considerable caution. When he drew level with the alcoves, awful voices surrounded him, filling the corridors and echoing sounds of loathing and dread:

"WHO DARES ENTER THIS PLACE AND INTRUDE UPON THE SANCTITY OF ITS INHABITANTS? ONLY A FOOLHARDY EXPLORER, DOOMED TO CERTAIN DEATH! WOE TO ANYONE WHO PASS THIS PLACE - THE WRATH OF ZELLIGAR AND ROGAHN WILL BE UPON THEM!"


After recovering from this very nasty surprise, The Forsaken ventured towards the first cross section where he was met with a grisly sight - the aftermath of a battle, where at least five people died. Three of them looked like adventurers; a fighter, a wizard and a Dwarf. The other three looked like Barbarians. The Forsaken examined their bodies for any sign of life, but their essence of life had long since slipped away...

With the feeling that this meant nothing good, and perhaps a little out of his depth, The Forsaken took some time in choosing the right hand path. When he came upon another crossroads, he carried straight on to the end of the corridor where he saw two doors. Trying the first, he found it had little to offer but another corridor. Opening the second, he found himself in what appeared to be a bedroom.

The Mistress' Chamber


The Forsaken examined this room with some suspicion. Rather than the formulaic stone masonry that had done little to capture his imagination so far, this room was ornately decorated with a four-post bed, a mirror and a tapestry depicting what appeared to be the rescue of a beautiful maiden from a burning village, by a handsome and robust warrior. Embroidered in gold on the top read "Melissa, the most dearly won and greatest of all my treasures." However, the room was dusty and had obviously not been used for some time. The Forsaken tried some of the draws and closets; some were locked and he chose not to disturb the locks. Far more interesting to him was a difference in the colour of the stone on the far wall...

Proved too big a match for The Forsaken...

He decided to investigate, and found a secret door leading into a dark tunnel. It was narrow, and not long, but The Forsaken never saw what was on the other side. Running at him with a determination to defend its lair was a Stormclaw Scorpion, which lost no time in securing a grip on The Forsaken. The Revenant managed to shake him off and landed a blow on the Scorpion, using his considerable power to heal his wound. However the Scorpion's tough carapace proved too much to do any significant damage. The Scorpion made another grab, and this time The Forsaken was unable to shake it off. The Scorpion lashed out with its tail, stinging The Forsaken twice and injecting him with poison. Realising that there was no way he would survive another round with the Scorpion, The Forsaken made the wise decision to cut his losses and get away. While in the bedroom, he locked himself in and slipped into an uneasy rest, in order to get the poison out of his system...

The Wizard's Workroom


Feeling somewhat refreshed, The Revenant re-investigated the left-hand path from the original scene of the bloodbath, and found himself down a long, twisting corridor. After nearly breaking his foot trying to force open a locked door, he happened upon a junction that had a possibility of three directions. He chose to head South, and immediately noticed that there was a couple of concealed doors. After taking the left hand door, he found himself in what looked like a workroom, in some disorder. There was a mess of glass containers of chemical compounds on a desk in the middle of the room, a stone table with a lid and a table that had been kicked over.

Investigating, he found the items rather mundane; some were empty, some had crushed charcoal, and some had obsidian, but nothing of use. However, from the table that had been kicked over sprang the Workroom's current occupant - a mischievous, rude and very angry Gnome...

Small, mean and fiercely territorial...

The Gnome scurried towards The Forsaken and made an immediate attack with his War Pick. However The Forsaken was not going to be intimidated by such a ridiculous-looking creature, and called upon the power of darkness to inflict several lacerations on the Gnome. Sensing what kind of danger he was in, the Gnome faded into the shadows and scuttled away, however The Forsaken knew enough about gnomes to know that the fight was far from over. He went over to the stone table to heal his wounds, whereupon the Gnome attacked him again, this time inflicting a savage blow. The Forsaken called upon the aid of his deity, The Raven Queen, who obliged by lifting the lid from the Stone table and smashing it into the Gnome. Having already taken a ferocious slap from The Forsaken's Bastard Sword, the Gnome was exhausted but not quite out of the fight. Both sides stepped away, and The Forsaken used his reserves of strength to move out of the Gnome's range. The Gnome, not to be outdone, skipped onto the table, smashing most of the glass containers, and took a pot-shot at the Revenant with his crossbow. The shot found its mark, and The Forsaken knew he would not win the fight through inaction. He ploughed forward and lunged at the Gnome with his sword, driving it into the creatures chest. He watched, satisfied, as the life of the creature ebbed away.

There will be a price to pay...


On searching the room, The Forsaken looked inside the table with the lid now off. Inside, pinned to a bronze statuette of The Raven Queen lined with silver and copper, was a note. There was, according to the note, hidden somewhere in the stronghold the Bag of Devouring. The Forsaken was to obtain that bag, and see that it gets to Kelson in Fallcrest. And not to be too long about it either; The Raven Queen does directly control the minions of the dungeon, but she knows they were there... and that some of them had once been alive...

Join us next time for more Dungeon-Crawling Goodness!

matt

Thunderstone, 23/2/2012

Our most recent foray into the dungeons of Grimhold was a little one sided on my part but it's worth mentioning how it all went down. Udead - Doom, Enchanted and Doomnights were our enemies for this game, and the heroes were Lorigg Thieves, Redblades, Clerics and Amazons. This was an interesting set of heroes actually because they're all relatively low power, and with almost no magic power going around for the first few rounds, we were going to have to rely on wit, guile and cunning in order to secure victory in the dungeon.

We had quite a lucky draw of monsters as well in a sense, because our first few opponents were relatively low-powered. This gave me the opportunity to get into the dungeon early and rack up some kills, even though in some cases I hadn't even got a hero. (I'd got militia, but you know what I mean.) It did also mean I got some disease cards; you can't avoid it with Undead - Doom, but in the Thunderstone game you can at least get rid of that card in a round so it didn't bother me too much.
Dave hadn't cottoned on to this and spent the first few turns trying to build up some forces, so when he did eventually decide to venture into the dungeon, most of the easy monsters had gone...

We found our way blocked by a couple of high-powered monsters that needed a very strong attack before they would go down. A couple of them also had the added effect of killing one of the fighters. The obvious tactic at this point was to go into battle without a fighter - after all, it was only the Redblades that counted as fighters. However, it became apparent to me that there was no way we were going to manage this, as the thieves, clerics and archers we had left couldn't come up with a powerful enough attack. I was well ahead of Dave by then and I knew it, so I had to make an uncomfortable decision that I could afford to lose a Redblade Assassin (as good as it gets, and the top level heroes also grant victory points) to take out some of those high-powered monsters.

We also came up against a monster that could only be hurt by magic; I got around this by drawing a top level Cleric who is strong enough to use a polearm, which brings their attack power up to 6, then drawing the arcane energies card that converted all attacks with weapons into magical attacks. It was  a tricky manouvre but I'm quite pleased that I pulled it off!

Nasty little beast, this...

The other monster that gave us some grief was Blink Dog, part of the Enchanted set, that can't be attacked if any light penalty applies. I'd stocked up on torches and lanterns but this is really where the Thieves became useful, as the higher level cards come with light bonuses. That way, I managed to use a combination of Thieves and Amazons to take out the Blink Dogs. The Amazon's thing is their attacks become more powerful in the second level of the Dungeons. It doesn't really work if you don't have any light because the penalites would negate this anyway but all of the hero cards in Thunderstone are best used in combinations, and Amazons are no exception.

By the time we found the Thunderstone, it was a bit late in the day for Dave to pull it back, but fair play to him for making a fight out of it. By then, I had so many monsters that I was drawing one in almost every hand, and very few of them worked to my advantage so I found myself having to deal with this. This might have given Dave some room to rack up some points, but it was too little too late for him, as I found the Thunderstone. The final score was 54-15, so quite an easy victory for me.

That's twice I've won it now so I'm at level pegging with Dave. I think for this game, you really need to be aware of what everything does together so that you can use it to its best effectiveness. That's not easy, since it changes each time, but it's working a damn sight better than picking a strategy for the game and sticking to it (a popular wargaming effort, but it's not a wargame!) Also, it's a good idea to remember that if you can go in for an attack, it's a good idea to do it, otherwise you leave the other players open to take their own spoils!

Then again, Dave also plays Resident Evil, which works in a similar way but rewards caution to a certain extent because you don't know what you're going to be attacking from one round to the next...

31/1/2012: Aye, Dark Overlord

Hi,

So this is part of a project I'm involved with for work. This one is actually going up around one or two other blog sites that Coady Consultants use, but I thought I'd put it here anyway because it's actually quite good to see how I'm turning a very entertaining hobby in to something I can use in a professional environment. So, what we have is an introduction from John, the Head Consultant, Company Director and also my Dad, and then I'll make a few comments about what I've seen while playing the game:

John:

Our work is all about relationships, productive ones between us and our customers that often present us with an opportunity to try something that is hopefully different and memorable: we hope!

The Director of an innovatory and outward facing team from one of our major clients-a local university-was involved in a feedback exercise related to Conflict Styles. The activity was originally used with the University’s mediators and Dignity at Work Advisers. As our conversation developed the possibility of an extended Team Development Day was discussed and we are due to deliver towards the end of February 2012.

We tend to work along the (to me at any rate) pretty obvious lines that we learn better when we’re having some fun and even though it’s taken some knocks of late, the application of multiple intelligences still holds up for me. There’s a superb piece on TED and YouTube by Sir Kenneth Robinson called “Shifting the Paradigm” in which he present a cogent and enjoyable argument that we’ve tested the joy out of learning: it reminds me that there’s a range of approaches that are valid, have value beyond the event and help us to understand a little more about each other and ourselves.

So, at our next Team development Day, we are going to use a fantasy role play game that requires participants to think on their feet and shift blame: some might argue that this is and has been the primary survival tool for a successful career! Machiavelli would have “got it” straight away.
 

We’ve employed an enthusiastic game player/developer with a view to expanding the approaches we use to Team Days and other areas of our work: watch this space! So it’s now over to my elder son, Matt to talk about the specifics.

Matt: 31/1/2012: Aye, Dark Overlord at the University

This came about as an introductory session to a portion of a development day that Coady Consultants are organising at the University. My part of the day involves running this activity for the team after the lunch break, and we are having four ‘observers’ to comment on the behaviour of their colleagues during the game and to what extent they show the various skills and attitudes that would be conducive to having a good game, and also for getting on effectively in the workplace.

I’ve covered how the game works before in my gaming blog; this and the whole story for how this came about will be in a future blog about the event itself. However, for the purposes of this piece, I would like to discuss a couple of things I’ve observed as I’ve played the game.

The game works incredibly differently between different demographics. The players still have to do the same things to win (or at least, to avoid losing,) but the style of play varies hugely. I’ve noticed the following things about the people I’ve played it with:

The Family

Playing Aye, Dark Overlord! with my family was absolutely hysterical. We played it on Christmas Day in the evening and it was great fun watching everyone being the Dark Overlord; we were really playing up to the role and it was great to see how differently we all did it. Seeing my brother lost for words is a very rare occurrence and I will savour the moment for many years to come. And given the fact that there is generally – across a great many people – a certain prejudice towards the themed games I tend to play, it was great to see one that the family could pick up reasonably quickly and have a play. Great stuff.

The Club

I took it down to the Black Country Roleplaying Society where I go every Thursday, to see how the game played in its own demographic. The guys with whom I played it were all what we might consider seasoned gamers; they know how card games work and they play to win. They had the right idea, but it seemed to be less about having a laugh with it and more about making sure that they didn’t lose. It was still fun, though.

The Professionals

I won’t pretend that I didn’t approach the idea of playing a game like this with academic professionals in the middle of a working day with some trepidation. But at the University, the game actually went as well as I think anybody could have expected. We had already covered the behaviours and skills we were looking for on the day and the team were making sure of the things that were important – speaking clearly, making sure everybody got a turn and at the same time having a bit of fun with what for many of them was an unfamiliar activity! I also saw the team turn the game right around on its head, and all start working together as a team to overthrow the Dark Overlord by coming up with an explanation he had no choice but to be satisfied with. I don’t know what the team do on a day-to-day basis, but if the accommodating and collaborative style they showed here isn’t conducive to a great working environment, I don’t know what is.

So, three different groups, and almost literally three different games! One thing that didn’t change, though, was the fun. We always enjoyed it. And I’m looking forward to running the activity at the Univeristy in a few weeks’ time, to give some light relief in to what is promising to be an enlightening and very productive day for the team – and, it seems, for Coady Consultants.

Warhammer 40,000 6th Edition - Speculation and Concerns

I've been seeing a lot of chat going around recently about the possibility of Warhammer 40,000 (40K) 6th Edition coming out in the Summer. Now I've never really known what to believe about the rumours I hear about Games Workshop, because of what I know of the company and their methods I'm pretty sure most of it is just speculation. But, GW can't go for a year these days without some big release in the summer to keep their shareholders happy, and with much of 2011 being given over to some expansions to Warhammer Fantasy (not universally well-received) and Dreadfleet (I've not heard kind things said about this game from anyone other than the GW staff so far,) this year will have to be massive for them. And what could be more massive than a re-vamp of their most popular game?

I'm approaching these rumours with... some trepidation, if I'm honest. While I've been doing the hobby on and off for 13 years now, this is the first time I'll have been involved long enough to sit from one game cycle to another; that is to say play one edition of a game long enough to care if they change it to another. 40K 5th Edition came out literally 2 weeks after I started working for GW back in July 2008, and I never really played 4th so while I was aware of the changes to the rules, I didn't really appreciate how it would affect the dynamic of the game. I certainly will this time around, which brings me on to my main issue: what's wrong with the version we've got now?

Actually thinking about it there are certain areas of the game that could benefit from some attention. Here are the three changes I think should be made in 6th edition 40K:

You won't see this lot going to ground...

1) 'Go to ground' They either need to change this rule or remove it completely, because right now it's useless. Quite frankly for how often I see it used I wouldn't be surprised if even the regular gamers didn't know what it was, and I'm pretty sure I only knew because I was a member of staff and I had to. How it works is when your unit gets shot at, after the opponent has rolled to wound but before you take your armour save, you can choose to 'go to ground,' where you lie your models down on the floor and they get a 1+ bonus to their cover save, and if they don't have one they gain a 6+ cover save. All well and good, until you realise that they have to spend the following turn getting up, which means they can do NOTHING for all of your turn. With the game presumed to last 5 turns, that means your unit will be useless for 1/5 of the game. And for how much difference it usually makes, it's probably better to take the extra wounds and at least get some action out of your unit next turn.

How the rule might work a little better is if the unit CAN act in a limited manner the following turn. For example, if they want to either move or assault, or both, they have to do it as though they were moving through difficult terrain. If they want to shoot, they count as having moved, whether they have or not - so you couldn't fire heavy weapons, or a rapid fire weapon past 12''. This would ensure that they could get the benefit of an improved cover save and provide an incentive to keep them alive in the first place. I've never had the opportunity to playtest such a thing but I think it might be something for them to think about for the new edition of 40K.

2) 'Sweeping Advance' This rule has caused some controversy over the time I've been playing 40K. For the way the rule works in 5th edition, I think it works better than 4th, but there's still a way to go. In 4th edition, the loser of a close combat would take a leadership check, and there may be some modifications to this but I can't quite remember what they are now. If the unit passed, they stayed in the combat, no problem. If they failed, they would have to run 2D6'' away from their opponents. The opponents would usually then have the option of chasing them down 2D6'' or consolidating D3''. If they went with the former and rolled equal to or over the losing side's roll, they would catch the running squad and wipe them out to a man/ork/whatever. It now works a little differently in 5th, where this time if the losing squad fails their leadership test which is modified down by however much they lost the combat by, both players roll a D6 and add their initiative. If the losing side comes up with the higher result, they run off 2D6'' as before. If the winning side has the higher result, the losing side is completely wiped out. Either way, the winning side then get to consolidate D6''.

Now in some ways I like this rule, and in some ways I don't. For a start, I like that the sweeping advance rule is now based on Initiative rather than a random number on 2D6, because a hulking, stupid Ork should be easier to catch off-guard than a quick, nimble Eldar Dire Avenger. I like the fact that the winning side is no longer obliged to chase after their opponents in order to wipe them out, because that would mean they'd end up alone and unsupported ahead of their own lines. And consolidation is better now that it's D6'', because let's be honest in a game like 40K where are you going to go with D3''?

Could one of these guys take out 20 Orks? It's possible...

On the other hand there is the same problem Sweeping Advance has had since at least 3rd edition - it is perfectly possible for your 1 remaining model to completely wipe out a much larger number of models on the other side, as long as they win combat. Now, 40K doesn't purport to be all that realistic, but the idea of 1 Space Marine being able to wipe out an enitre squad of Tau to a man because he won combat and got a higher initiative roll just doesn't have that cinematic level of believability that makes the rest of the game so good to play with your imagination. Unfortunately I can't really see a way around it. Well, I guess they could change it a little bit so that the losing side takes damage relative to the amount of models left in the winning side, say, D3 unsaveable wounds per model on the winning side. But that would make the Sweeping Advance rule a lot more complex than it needs to be. So, it'll be interesting to see what, if anything, GW does with this.

3) The Starter Box: This is a bit of a funny one, and partly a reaction to the fact that I've been branching out from GW and started playing some board games and role playing games as well as wargames. Basically, what I'd like to see from the starter box is a 'Game in a Box,' that is to say that if the boxed set to 40K - currently Assault on Black Reach - is the only thing you ever buy from Games Workshop, you could still put it together and get some games in without ever having to buy expansions, or extra models, or nothing like that, which would make it a board game as well as a war game. Reason is basically it might be a little easier to get people to drop the £100+ that GW are charging for their starter bundle these days (core game, hobby starter set, can of black spray paint) if they don't then have to feel obliged to spend another £3/400 on armies/books/terrain/campaign materials/transport before it's actually going to be any good.

Not a bad set of models, but what are they fighting over?

Now looking at what they've got at the moment, GW are not all that far away from it. In the AoBR, you get 2 reasonably balanced armies, one obviously the good guys and one obviously the bad guys, that work differently enough so that you could have a different experience for playing as the other side from time to time. You get all the stuff that you need to play them - a mini-rulebook that nonetheless has all the rules, a guide to the set, some dice, templates and measuring sticks although you do make life very difficult for yourself if you don't at least invest in some extra dice. What you don't get is any scenery. Now I know scenery isn't quite as exciting as models, but it's also not an ideal situation to play the game straight out of the box if there are no buildings to occupy, no walls to duck behind, no objectives to capture. So basically, everything that's in the starter box now, with some scenery, please.

Will GW fix this for 6th edition? There's no reason why not. When questioned about the apparently high price of the boxes and the models, I can remember my former manager telling customers that they put them up at the price it costs GW to make them. If that is true and they are now selling for £60 a core boxed set that they once sold for £40, that gives them another £20's worth of tinkering to do with the boxed set that will make it a more complete experience than it is now. Of course, this is a sweeping generalisation, and I know that it's not even close to being that simple for GW, but it is a change I would like to see and they will have to work very hard to convince me that they don't have the capacity to make it.

So those are my 3 tweaks to the game that I'd put in for 6th Edition. As you can see, it's all minor, niggly stuff that I could actually sort out myself with a couple of 'house rules.' And therein lies my main concern, which is how much change are GW going to make that will warrant a new edition of the game?

If they release a game that's fundamentally similar to 5th edition but with a few tweaks to the rules, as I have described, then their currently existing fan base will find it a bit harsh to spend the £45-50 they're charging for their new rulebooks when all they actually need is a PDF updating their old ones. And since the game has not changed all that significantly since 3rd edition - you still do the same things to move, shoot and assault, the wound tables are always the same, the stat lines are always the same - that seems to be a likely course of action for GW at this point. But will it really be enough for a new edition?

The book might be impressive, but was the game any good?

However, we all know how maverick GW have been over the last couple of years, so what if they actually do go ahead and change the game completely? That's a truly terrifying prospect, since I've not heard many kind things said about the new edition of Warhammer Fantasy either, to the point where many of the 'veterans' refuse to play it, and that game saw some significant changes almost to the point where it was a completely different game. It would be horrible for the same thing to happen to 40K, since it's been an integral part of my imagination for the last 13 years. By the way I never played WHF 8th so I'm going to reserve my judgement on the game until I've actually played it. That is, if I can find anyone to play. I struggle enough with 40K and Lord of the Rings!

Of course, with GW, it's all about the recruitment. They've realised that they've got competition now, and where in the past veterans would hang on to them for life, now they'll be lucky to keep someone coming into the store for 3 years. That's how long it takes for most people to work out that everything they enjoy about the hobby, be it the painting, the gaming, the background, the modelling, whatever - everything they enjoy, they can get elsewhere, probably for higher quality if they know where to look and almost certainly for less money. So GW may still be the biggest players in town, but if they ever were the only players they're certainly not anymore, and the only way they are going to keep their business ticking over is to act like what they are; a way in to what has now become a much larger town. They have to keep a constant influx of new hobbyists coming into the shops to replace the ever-growing number of people who abandon it. So all the decisions they make are not to please veterans, it's to get more people in to it.

Thing is, I can't quite see how a new edition of 40K is going to help them with this. For someone wandering into Games Workshop for the first time wondering what the hell it all is, the concept of editions, 40K, or even wargaming, will probably be alien to them. What are they going to care what edition it is, or how the rules have changed? Sure, the release day will probably raise some eyebrows and entice a few more people into the shop to have a look, but how will it help them to recruit beyond that?

So, to sum all that up in an open message to Games Workshop: I hope you know what you're doing guys, I really do.

29/12/2011: Braggart

This is once again thanks to the guys at BCRPS, where I got into a game featuring Tony, Scott, and his step-son Josh. The thing I love about this game is simple: it's hilarious.

Knowing that Josh didn't really know how to play, I was trying to be as tactical as possible while making sure that everybody was in the runnings until the end. So while it wasn't necessarily tactically sound to use the 'Pick Pocket' card on Scott, since Tony had more cards, I chose to do so anyway because I'd been picking on Tony all the way through the game and I didn't want to bully Josh. It was particularly amusing since 3 of us, including me, bragged about rescuing the princess - only to have our claims shot down with a well-placed 'Liar!' card.

In the end, it was a draw between me and Tony - which, for how flexible the scores are, can't come up too often.

The lads at the club play this before the roleplaying games begin, and it's not looking likely that I'll have The Fakes practice on Thursday any more for a while, so there may be more of these coming up...