Vanguard: Seeking Sanctuary - Chapter 3: Nightshift

The mercenary crew were saddened by the loss of Turok, barbarian warrior of the north lands, but we all know that a long life is not likely in this line of work.

At an ancient ruin in the trees, another group of refugees from a different town has broken camp. They welcome gladly the company of our tired band, and especially their escort of armed fighters. Turns out, they had an escort of their own. However, they sustained rather heavier casualties with only one of their fighters having survived, a hook master who is more than willing to join the crew (taking on the role of rogue).

The hook master, named Thorval, had chosen to have his group camp next to the ruin, thinking it to be a more defensible position, should the occasion require. Ivor agrees and they all set up camp, unhitching the horses from the carriage and getting bedding of tree boughs sorted out.

Night falls. Elan was on watch. Her elven ears pick up sounds unfamiliar to the forest floor. But she knows these sounds; the ones that have been pursuing them. All are awoken and made ready.

Turn 1

An elite to the south and grunts from three spawn points to the north. As it is dark, vision is limited for all involved and the mercenaries circle the citizens, Emeralda buffs Katya and Elan's armour. 

The elite senses prey, Thorval is closest. The grunts move in too.

Turn 2

This grunt thinks he has a chance. He doesn't know the kind of pain Katya can inflict.

Ivor inspires Thorval and Elan, who each move to better engage the approaching hostiles.

Thorval makes an attack and retreats back to the group before the monster can retaliate. Elan makes a good shot and kills a grunt. She turns...

...and knocks down the elite. It takes more than one well placed arrow to take out an elite.

Fenrir fires at Katya's grunt and knocks it down. He also fired at the one behind the big tree to the left, but missed. (The rules are unclear about whether or not two attacks or two movements can be played on the same character activation. More thoughts at the end.) Katya dispatches it on her activation.

Look out Elan! This one shoots back!

Katya now has bigger problems!

End of turn 2, three elites crawl out of the ground.

Turn 3

Elan fires on two targets, knocks both down, but just can't find a killing shot.

Thorval is on it. "Thanks Elan!" (The red 4 is an armour buff.)

Fenrir can knock 'em down, but can't seem to land a killing shot either! Blame it on the darkness!

Katya resists the repeated advances of two unwanted creeps, but can't land a blow of her own.

Ivor confidently walks out to meet two monsters at once!

Meanwhile, with two grunts shooting at her now, Elan is knocked down!

End of Turn 3. A boss is spawned!

Turn 4

Thorval rushes over to Ivor and together they slay the elite and the grunt.

Elan gets up and dispatches one of the grunts firing at her.

Fenrir and Katya fail to make any hits and both are knocked down by their foes.

Turn 5

Ivor and Thorval kill another elite, but a boss is headed their way! In the background, Fenrir has got up, but can't clear his head enough to hit anything.

Katya gets up and retreats to a narrower pass so as to avoid getting surrounded. Emeralda hasn't been mentioned much, but it's thanks to the armour buffs and protection spells that she's been casting throughout that our heroes' lives have been spared.

One grunt tries crawling over the ruined walls and ends up falling over to the other side. It's winded, but it's where it wants to be!

Turn 6

Ivor and Thorval take out a boss! And Elan manages to knock down the elite that came after her.

Fenrir had managed to knock down a grunt, but it jumped right back up and knocked him down. The elite/grunt team knocks down Katya again!

Turn 7

Fenrir and Katya back up to their feet, Elan is holding her own. But a grunt has made it into the crowd of unarmed civilians.

Thorval had knocked over that grunt, but it got up and knocked him down almost as fast.

Elan and Fenrir down again, but miraculously, Katya stays up. And we start losing civilians.

Turn 8

So, no pictures taken during turn 8 and it's been long enough between playing and writing that I don't remember the specifics of what happened except to say that I lost some more refugees before the monsters headed back to the underground depths, but all the mercenaries survived.

And now my thoughts on doubling up same actions in one activation. 

I really couldn't figure out from the rules if this was considered legal for play or not. I didn't run into this question before because everyone wanted to always be moving to get people to the carriage (or catch up to the people and carriage). This is the first that I really felt moving some characters wasn't necessary, so if they hadn't moved, a second attack seemed a logical choice, especially for the ranged units. I don't think there was any unfair advantage to this as I was consistent across both factions, allowing monsters to double up attacks on mercs/citizens if they didn't have to move or get up.

I suppose it doesn't matter that much since I was being consistent. But then the question was whether I could have a character do two moves in a single activation. I think I did play that in the first chapter, but didn't question myself about it as I did this time around. I suppose one could look at two moves in the same activation as running instead of walking/jogging; they get somewhere faster, but they can't make an attack because they're too focused on running perhaps.

Anyway, another enjoyable session of solo skirmishing!

*The Elven Ruined Sanctuary was free when I got it, DriveThruRPG lists it as pay-what-you-want.

Painting MtG: Rhino warriors and zombies

 I painted the Rhino warriors and zombies from Arena of the Planeswalkers.

First play: How to Host a Dungeon

 Short version? This was not quite what I expected, but it was a really fun exercise!

With RPG game masters in mind, How to Host a Dungeon is more of a guided exercise in somewhat localized world-building. The manual takes you through a number of steps, called Ages (briefly described below), to end up with a populated world that has a history that can then be used in a fantasy role-playing game.

Step 1: The Primordial Age

You start with a landscape profile, which you draw on your page, either completely of your own making or patterned after a general plan randomly selected by d6 roll. Then you map seven stratigraphic layers in the underground portion, so you have eight zones of play, including the surface. Then you roll a die to decide the composition of each layer (i.e.: caves, gem deposits, subterranean biomes, and more). There is an optional feature called a Nexus, but I did not use this in my first game. The board is now ready to be populated.

For ease of keeping track, stratigraphy layers are labeled 1-8, usually with 1 being the surface and 8 the deepest layer.

Step 2: The Age of Civilization

There is a list of civilizations to choose from: aliens, dwarves, elves, demons, and magicians. Each has its own set of turn options, called a Lifecycle, that are played through until the civilization comes to an end. As you play through the Lifecycles, you will be drawing rooms and tunnels, mining resources, and keeping track of population until the fateful day of their destruction, disbanding, or disappearance.

Step 3: The Age of Monsters

Part of the print job is a pile of monster cards. Each monster has a certain way to spawn into the game and a custom Lifecycle of three possible actions: one they always do (unless it is impossible), one that is conditional (used to resolve being unable to do the first action), and a list of lesser actions from which they may choose one to perform.

Each monster gets to take a turn, with new monsters entering the fray until one of them achieves superiority through numbers or riches. Some build more rooms, others just roam what already exists. The Age ends when a monster group reaches a threshold level of population or wealth, or special condition found on their particular card (not all monsters have one).

Step 4: Age of Villainy

The monster group that triggered this age embarks on a path of villainy as a horde or an empire. Each path adds more action options to the villain monster group which they follow until they control the board in whatever way their path dictates, ending the game.

My session

Primordial Age

I rolled landscape profile 4, an up-thrust mountain where the stratigraphy is angled, such that all but one of the layers are exposed to the surface on one side of the mountain. Layer 1 (surface) rolled forest cover, layer 2 rolled a large cave that takes up most of the layer, layer 3 rolled a large cave with three distinct gemstone deposits, Layer 4 rolled a large cave with a lake in it, layer 5 rolled two small caves with water in them, layer 6 rolled a large cave with magma and a vent tunnel that goes to the surface, layer 7 rolled a fungus biome, and layer 8 rolled six gemstone deposits.

Age of Civilization

Dwarves move in, tunnelling over from the left side of my paper. They start with two living quarters and two treasure vaults (population 2, wealth 2).

They explore, finding the cave of gemstones and they build a workshop. (pop. 3, wealth 2)

Mining begins on one of the gem deposits, a drinking hall (fortification) is built. (pop. 4, wealth 3)

Mining begins on second gem deposit and a power plant is built. (pop. 5, wealth 4)

Mining begins on third gem deposit and the settlement is big enough to be called a city. It is granted the name Hulden Dur and a great room is constructed in which is carved a giant statue of the Torvund the Founder. (pop. 6, wealth 5)

With the available gems being exploited, the dwarves push deeper into the mountain, finding two more gem deposits in their exploration. A manufactory is built. (pop. 7, wealth 5)

Mining begins on the first of the newly discovered deposits and a tomb is built. (pop. 8, wealth 6)

Mining begins on second new gem deposit. An impossible engine is constructed (bonus: build an additional room). The dwarves build a magnificent imperial throne room (epic treasure). (pop. 9, wealth 7)

There's a reason it was called an impossible engine. Unstable from the day they started it, the engine was closely monitored and kept in check by the dwarves' best scientists and mechanics. They used it to infuse the most perfect of gems with magical energy. These gems were used to power tools and weapons of all kinds. It was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened. A missed flaw in a gem approved for infusion caused the gem to crack, releasing a burst of energy that damaged the machine and its controls. Unable to stop it themselves, the dwarves in the room ran, but some were not fast enough. The explosion rocked the city, destroying the nearest rooms, shock waves causing cave-ins in the further away rooms. A quarter of the population was lost, caught in the explosion or buried under the rubble.

Unable to cope with the losses, the survivors packed up their belongings and riches and left their city deserted.

Age of Monsters

Years pass. So closely together are their advents to mountain, one might say they came together. A small group builds a new settlement in the incredibly large cave. They call it Brazencragg, but they are followed by a hungry couple of dinosaurs. On the other side of the mountain, a swarm of insects finds the warmth of the vent hole and builds some caverns next to the vent tunnel, capturing some of the heat from below to help them thrive.

The dinosaurs infiltrate Brazencragg's cavern, hunting the settlers and multiplying. The sellers build a tomb, but it doubles as a fortification against future attacks. The insects delve deeper into the mountain, finding the tunnel in layer five that connects the two caves. A group of elusive humanoids called Morlons appears in layer 8.

Brazencragg is careless and loses more of its people to the dinosaurs. The Morlons build a refinery to process magma, drawing the ores and metals out of it. The bugs find and infest the ancient dwarven statue room. A giant takes residence in the fungus biome of layer 7.

The dinosaurs wipe out Brazencragg and move into the gem cavern that had been mined by the dwarves. The giant is attacked by the bugs, but kills enough of them that they retreat. Morlons move into the lowest of the dwarven mine chambers and explore into the lower gem deposits. An ogre shows up on the shores of the magma pit.

Dinos expand their territory into the dwarven chambers to look for food. Morlons expand into dwarven chambers and build a fortification, but get robbed by the ogre. The giant attempts to rout the ogre but loses. The bugs attack the ogre and he kills them all. Nomads come from the surface.

The ogre extorts the Morlons again and they retreat into their caves. Nomads move and trade with the Morlons. Dinos hunt the giant. City of Saltbury is established on the surface.

Saltbury starts to delve into the deeps, dinos hunt some of their scouts. Dinosaurs rout the ogre. Morlons refine more magma. Ogre attacks the nomads after they just built a bazaar and some are killed. A medusa shows up in a dwarven living quarters.

Saltbury builds a wall. The dinosaurs wipe out the nomads and breed triggering the end of the age and they become the villains.

Age of Villains

Saltbury allies with the Dinosaurs. Since building their wall, the city dwellers are now safe from being hunted in the depths. Saltbury is safe from the dangers below and turn their attention outward.

Medusa scouts out other rooms left by the dwarves, searching for prey and finds the Morlons. Morlons continue their magma refinement. The Ogre hunts them.

The Dinosaurs attempts to rout Medusa and fail. They breed to replace their losses and just so happen to populate a stratum layer with no other monsters in it, triggering the game-winning condition.

The final map of my first try at How to Host a Dungeon.

Thoughts

I was not expecting how things went down, as in profile-wise. Where the designer's game description says How to Host a Dungeon will generate a complete dungeon map, I was picturing a top-down view. As one can see, that is not the case. However, I see that the profile view allows for layers of elevation and I think works better playing/planning on a single sheet of paper. I have never GMed a game or created a world for one and maybe the profile is a well used method of dungeon creation among the breed (I am currently in the middle of my first D&D campaign, so very new to this) and as such, my praise here is not a surprise.

The creation steps and their changing through each age kept me engaged right up to the Age of Villains. I liked the sense of directed randomness as I rolled and drafted features and populations with the liberty to arrange how they looked as things unfolded. Interesting also was the sense of there being a central location where most of the action was taking place in a grand fight for dominance (around the Dwarven structures here) while outlying caverns housed fewer life forms that mostly just existed.

Even though I have never run a game as a GM, after playing this I feel like I'd have a leg up already creating a micro-world for some RPG campaign. There's locations with varied terrain and treasures, a history of past and current populations, each with different behaviours, localized interactions, and even some strange technologies. I feel like my map would be easy to transfer to some other game.

One thing though, I was forced to stop at the switch from Age of Monsters to Age of Villains and I had a hard time wanting to pick it up again to finish. I did finish just before writing this down, but it's been a month. Maybe I was tainted by one of the comments I read about how the commenter doesn't play the last age. Or maybe I felt the same thing they did. Maybe some combination. At any rate, I felt like the game was already won and I was just figuring out by how much. Interestingly enough, as seen above, I only played one more turn before the game ended.

One thing I would change is to use beads or tokens for population and wealth as suggested instead of using a pencil and eraser. The map would be a little cleaner for it and I might have had an easier time with tracking.

I got this title from DriveThruRPG. It was on sale when I purchased it and I forget what I paid, but to play a 2 or 3 hour epic that you have a hand in creating for less than the cost of a movie ticket (not that many of us are doing that activity right now), I feel it was a good deal. I can see myself playing/using this again sometime, probably not right away though as I've been drawn into other things, some of which will be appearing on this blog over the next few weeks.

Vanguard: Seeking Sanctuary, Chapter 2: Restlessness

Another image heavy posting today with the second chapter in the Vanguard saga.

Having escaped the city, the carriage slowed. Civilians and mercenaries alternate between walking and snatching fits of sleep inside the carriage. Morning finds them haggard and hungry. Despite the warnings from the mercenaries, the townspeople spread through the forest in search of food. Some stay along the road, others are drawn deeper into the woods, perhaps further than they ought to be...

To prep for this scenario, I gathered some paper tree kits from which I made a 'dead' tree, two large evergreens, and a log. I also happened upon eight Christmas village trees (along with two rolls of burlap the wife can use) at a thrift store. I followed the method used by YouTube channel Black Magic Craft to strip the trees of their snow flocking and stick on my own so that they don't look so blue. The hills and rock outcrops are some of the islands I made for age of sail gaming.

I started this chapter with a spawning of monsters. This time, for grunts, I also roll to see whether a ranged unit or a melee unit appears (50% chance). A boss and three grunts appear (2 ranged).

    Turn 1:

The mercenaries feel the slight rumble, then hear a familiar, unearthly cry. Two townspeople are close enough to jump on the carriage immediately. Fenrir jumps on the carriage and takes aim at a monster he can just see over some bushes. He finds some satisfaction in seeing the thing fall over (+1 to roll from proximity to Ivor).

Elan runs toward the first civilian she sees, taking a shot at the horrible creature just behind. Her shot is true, but is deflected by the armour-like shell these things have.

Emeralda, Katya, and Turok are all able to retrieve a charge to bring to the carriage.

The grunt knocked over by Fenrir's shot gets up and rushes at Katya.

A grunt claims the first of the civilians to be killed in this scenario.

Another boss and three grunts emerge from the unnatural pits.

Turn 2:

A civilian gets the carriage moving, not that the horses mind getting out of here! Emeralda and Katya get their charges aboard while Fenrir jumps off to knock down that same grunt again! Emeralda casts a buff on Fenrir's armour (+2 0n next defence roll).

The grunt that Elan had fired at charges her, but she knocks it over as she races for the civilian. Ivor steps in to take the heat off of Elan.

Two more civilians lost to enemy archers.

Ivor gets charged by the one that Elan knocked over.

Two grunts run for the carriage while a boss targets two townspeople.

After knocking over the monster he baited, Ivor joins Elan and her escortee. Turok heads for another civilian. Off camera, Emeralda casts a buff on Katya's armour (+2 on next defence roll).

A boss attacks Elan, who manages to block it.

Turok narrowly escapes an invader's shot!

A sneaking grunt...

A boss and a grunt down two more civilians!

Turn 3: 

An elite and more grunts emerge from their holes. The carriage moves close enough to Turok that he can throw the civilian up into it and run to help Elan.

Turok and Elan team up to take down a boss! Ivor ignores a grunt coming at him, yells encouragement to Elan and Turok (+1 action each), then runs off to help elsewhere.

Turok engages the grunt Ivor left while Elan delivers another civilian to the carriage. Elan then takes some shots to down a grunt.

Emeralda reaches another civilian, but can't get out of range of the nearest grunt.

Sneaky the grunt swipes at a civilian, misses.

Grunt on the right fires on the horses and misses. Fiends make their way around the rock pillars left of the carriage. One reaches Emeralda, but misses its attack. Katya runs to help her. However, three grunts in the rear catch up to the carriage. Spawned: A boss, an elite, and a grunt.

Turn 4:

Emeralda brings in another civilian. Fenrir dispatches their grunt assailant and knocks down an elite.

Elan climbs aboard an also manages to knock down one of the pursuing grunts.

And Katya runs to the aide of one of the final remaining civilians not already picked up or picked off. Turok dispatches another grunt (no picture).

The luck gods favour Turok as zero out of four shots taken at him miss and he fends off the grunt in melee. Unfortunately, a boss takes down one of the horses. 

Two of the trailing grunts also manage to get onto the carriage! Four civilians are put to the task of pulling the carriage with the horses.

Turn 5:

Fenrir knocks down a grunt on the right side of the carriage and Emeralda grabs the civilian it was attacking.

Ivor, hanging out the side door, manages to kill one of the unwanted hitchhikers and calls out to Elan and Fenrir, to get their attention to the left. They manage to knock down one grunt and kill another. Katya gets on board with the last civilian left and kills the other riding attacker.

To keep some of the pursuing enemies off the carriage's trail, Turok throws himself into their midst and though he put up a mighty defence, he is slain. If this monstrous blight can be stopped, Turok will be remembered in story and song for his bravery, strength and sacrifice.

Turn 6:

Katya jumps down with the horses to defend them, and defend them she does, as she fends off all the attacks of a boss and two elites, finally using up her armour buff. No one scores any hits. 

For some unexplainable reason, the monsters turn back and leave the fleeing carriage. 

For as bad as the rolling seemed to be for their turns, the refugee band was incredibly lucky, losing only five civilians and one mercenary. At one point my son came to watch and I let him roll for some of the encounters. He asked if I was going to play again, which I of course said yes and that he can play too, which will be great!

One thing I'm currently undecided about is what to do with the loss of Turok; whether I want to use the same figure/character in the next chapter or replace him with a new one. There's still one or perhaps two other classes I'd like to try out, so I'm leaning towards replacement. It would be more realistic, I suppose, even if realism isn't really the point of this exercise.

Anyway, another enjoyable play. Time to prep for Chapter 3. Though I might play something else before I get there.