John Wick #0

We needed a 'filler' campaign between our Dwarrowdeep campaign and our next fantasy campaign, and with John Wick Chapter 4 being released last month, I decided to run a short campaign based in the John Wick universe.

The rules I chose was Covert Ops, which is based on the same engine as the Art of Wuxia rules, which we used for our wuxia campaign last year. Covert Ops has the same kind of rules for different martial arts moves, and even rules for gun-fu, which I thought would be great for recreating the movies' feel.

We held a session zero, and the characters my players created were:

Bruce - An NYPD detective and martial artist.

Alice - An FBI agent working undercover in the Calabrian mafia in New York.

Yusof (Joseph) Farhad - A Persian-American veteran who works as a freelance hitman.

Jason - A wheelman and 'transporter'.

Mori - A Shinto priest and caretaker of the Japanese Garden in Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, a High Table sanctioned site.

Dwarrowdeep #17

In the month of Bloomingtide Lord Khundrar returned from his embassy to Orzammar. Prince Bhelen's effort to try to convince the Assembly to recognise Khundara Thaig was defeated by Lord Harrowmount, who argued that the proposal was moot as the Deep Roads between Khundara Thaig and Orzammar remained close. As a result, Lord Khundrar ordered the district of East Gate be explored and the lost route to the Deep Roads be found.

When the company of scouts sent on the mission failed to return after the appointed time, our heroes (see PC profiles here) were sent to find and recover them.

The party tracked the dwarven scouts to a royal tomb in the East Gate district, where they were besieged by darkspawn. Our heroes slew the darkspawn and freed the scouts, and learned that they were attacked by darkspawn not long after arriving, and several of their members had been captured, including Ethel, whom the party had rescued several months earlier.

Although they were weak from hunger, the scouts insisted on joining the party in finding and rescuing their compatriots. But before they could leave the tomb, a large party of darkspawn, led by an ogre, attacked them. While our heroes held the ogre off at the entrance to the tomb, several shrieks entered the tomb via a tunnel at the back of the tomb, but were held off by the dwarves.

After a hard fight, our heroes were able to slay all the darkspawn. Examining the remains, our heroes noticed that the darkspawn appeared to be smaller than the ones they had faced previously.

Led by the scouts, our heroes returned to where they were first attacked by the darkspawn, and followed tracks from there to a tunnel that led out of the halls and into natural caves.

Still following the tracks, they soon came upon darkspawn sentries guarding a small cave, where they witnessed one of the scout being dragged from within and into another tunnel. Our heroes attacked the sentries and slew them. Inside the small cave, they found some of the captured scouts, who told them that the darkspawn had held them there since their capture, but had taken them away one by one, starting with Ethel.

Sending some of the scouts to take the rescued prisoners back to the halls, our heroes ventured down the tunnel with the rest to find where the prisoners had been taken.

At last they arrived at a large cavern. At the far end of the cavern they saw a grotesque giant humanoid, which gave out a piercing shriek, and then attacked them with long tentacles that emerged from its sessile body. The creature's shriek drew darkspawn, who flooded into the cavern from other tunnels.

While the scouts held off the darkspawn, our heroes battled and eventually struck down the creature, whereupon the darkspawn fled.

Searching the floor of the cavern, our heroes found the bones of the captured scouts, their flesh gnawed off their bones.

In a small cave to the side of the cavern, they found Ethel, her face pallid and her body and limbs bloated.

She revealed that she had been force-fed darkspawn flesh, which caused her body to be corrupted and her mind to be linked to those of the darkspawn. She realised that her body was slowly being transformed into that of the creature in the cavern, which ate flesh and gave birth to darkspawn, and she begged the scouts to kill her.

The scouts were unable to bring themselves to do so, and so Boggart dealt the merciful blow.

In another cave, the scouts found juvenile darkspawn, which they put to the sword. And then they set all the darkspawn corpses on fire, and left.

Prepping and Running the Game

At 17 sessions over 7 months, this campaign was one of our longer ones. We didn't do as much domain play as I had hoped to, but I think for a megadungeon campaign it had enough elements of that to give some context for events that took place.

The session itself was straightforward, with a couple of big fights. The chief purpose of the session was to reveal the secret of how the darkspawn, well, spawned, and to give a conclusion to the whole thaig-building enterprise: with the broodmother slain, the darkspawn threat would recede for a time, perhaps enough for the dwarves to reopen the Deep Roads to Orzammar.

This was the second Greg Gillespie megadungeon I have runned. Of the two, I think Barrowmaze was the better one in terms of the premise and playability - the sheer size of Dwarrowdeep and the number of enemies made it hard for me to believe that there is any chance for the PCs to "clear" the dungeon.

Our next fantasy campaign will likely by Blood Sword, which I plan to run using the new edition of Fantasy AGE. But I do think we will return to Dragon Age in the future, perhaps after the release of the computer game later this year.

Kings of War and Battletech Alpha Strike

The dwarven convoy crosses the bridge as the goblin forces close in

We managed to get five players around the table on Sunday, with an old friend whom I haven't met or gamed with in the last 20 years joining the group. Once again it would be a double-bill afternoon.

We played a game of Kings of War using a scenario from Battlegames' Tabletop Teaser. The scenario involved the dwarves having to get a couple of cannons off the table, while three separate goblin forces came at them.

Another goblin force approaches from the other side of the river

The dwarves had the option of keeping their cannons limbered, which would allow them to move faster, or unlimbering the guns, which would give them much-needed firepower, but means much slower progress.

In our game the dwarven players decided to move most of their force to counter the larger goblin force to their left. This allowed me, commanding a goblin force to the right, to ford the river uncontested and threaten the guns.

The dwarves hold off the goblins approaching from the far bank...

The dwarves deployed their miner unit to try to fend off my goblins, but the poor dice-rolls meant the goblins were able to fight them off and continue to move towards the cannons.

(For the record the dwarven side had spectacularly poor combat dice-rolls, while the goblins had excellent morale dice-rolls.)

The dwarves were finally forced to unlimber their guns to unleash grapeshot at the approaching goblin unit, which gave them ten dice, hitting on 6s - they scored 1 hit.

but the goblins from the near bank forded the river and cut the guns off!

I feel the game gave interesting tactical choices to the dwarven players, and to a lesser extent the goblin players too. It's certainly something I will want to run again in the future.

For the second game Adrian took us through Battletech Alpha, the third version of Battletech we have tried since we started our monthly sessions.

The game was fast enough, but lacks a lot of the granularity of the "original" Battletech. Thinking of it now I feel the game was designed the way it was not because it was a good way to design a mecha game, but because it was a cut-down version of the "full-size" game, and if one didn't imagine oneself as playing a mass-combat version of Battletech, the game would be less attractive.

Me running a Mad Cat again

After playing three versions of the game, my current favourite is Destiny. But given how many models the gang have bought and will (hopefully) paint, I guess we will need to come back to Alpha Strike to make sure everyone's models have a chance to get bloodied.

Dwarrowdeep #16

The day after Captain Gauldrin was escorted back to High Gate, Bertil and Zunn received a message from Boggart asking them to return there too (see PC profiles here). Upon arrival at High Gate, they learned that Lord Durrow had died from poisoning while in custody. Together with Lorca, who had now recovered, they trio went to join Boggart, who had gone to seen Shaper Dromin to learn the cause of Lord Durrow's death... only to find him and Shaper Dromin also poisoned in the latter's office!

Bertil was able to stabilise Boggart, but unable to revive Dromin. It seemed, however, in his dying breath, Dromin had scribbled the words: "my sarcophagus" on his tabletop.

Our heroes searched Dromin's office, and found inside a secret compartment in his drawer ancient Shaperate records which documented the discovery of the red lyrium they had seen in the mines. It was recorded that the dwarves at Khundara Thaig had tried to refine the red lyrium, but exposure to the substance had caused madness in those who worked with it, and the king had given orders for the section of the mines to be sealed off and the records of the work done of red lyrium to be sealed too.

Our heroes then sought out Dromin's sarcophagus, and within it they found a letter apparently from Lord Harrowmount of Orzammar, instructing Lord Durrow to put into action the plans they had hatched together to destabilise Khundara Thaig before it can gain the recognition of the Assembly.

The party mulled over the information they had gathered, and the next day they decided to confront Captain Gauldrin with the letter they have found in the barracks which implicated his involvement in the attack by the shadow demons. Gauldrin admitted that the handwriting in the letter resembled his, but that it was a forgery made to frame him, as he would not had given any such order in writing, or that his co-conspirators would have destroyed the letter before carrying out the attack even if he had done so.

Convinced by Gauldrin, our heroes decided to follow-up on Dromin's involvement with red lyrium. They made their way to the old tomb complex, accompanied by Balkis the Junior Shaper, where they hoped to investigate the embalming rooms, to see if they could find traces of red lyrium there.

Soon after they entered the old tomb complex they were attacked by a shadow demon, whose deathly touch produced symptoms of the mysterious poison Bertil had not been able to identify. Venturing deeper into the tomb complex, they at last arrived at Dromin's resting place... to find that he had turned into an undead. Lorca was able to draw Dromin into a conversation and made the undead Shaper reveal his involvement in the chain of events: it seemed that the Shaper had come across records of red lyrium and was able to obtain some of the substance from the mines. The red lyrium allowed Dromin to communicate with demonic spirits, and he soon struck a bargain with a demon - for hidden knowledge, he would do the bidding of the demon. Sensing that Dromin was working for Lord Durrow to destabilise the thaig, the demon induced Dromin to put into action the plans to release shadow demons in the thaig, and to frame Captain Gauldrin for the attacks, and eventually arrange his own death so he can become an "immortal" undead.

After they made certain that Balkis had heard the undead's confession, our heroes leapt into attack, but as Dromin appeared to fall to their blows, his body began to shift and blur... until he assumed the form of a huge winged demon. A desperate battle ensued, and our heroes were eventually victorious. They then returned to High Gate, where Balkis reported the tale to Captain Gauldrin.

Captain Gauldrin gave orders for associates of Dromin to be hunted down and arrested, and for the curfew to be lifted. Things, it seemed, would finally return to normal in Khundara Thaig...

Prepping and Running the Game

Once again, one player (Boggart's this week) was unable to make the session, and I had to invent a reason for the character to be out of action.

The players were obviously running into a lot of dead-ends, and I was unsure how to provide them with a clue that didn't seem like a gift... and then they rolled really well on searching Dromin's office, which made me pause for a few minutes. I decided that they would find some evidence of Dromin's involvement with red lyrium. That was eventually enough for them to investigate his resting place once more, and reach the concluding scene.

I think I did not execute the module well enough to make it a satisfactory investigating experience for the players, but the tension in dwarven society brought about by the events did allow them to act heroic, which for me was worth the time we spent.

Next session should see the finale of the campaign.

Dwarrowdeep #15

It was two days after the attack of darkness on the thaig, and the curfew was still in force, which made our heroes worry when Lorca had not returned from his meeting with his Surface Dwarf merchant contact. Their fears came true when they received word that he and his contact had apparently been poisoned at a tavern, but a search of the premises revealed no trace of the poison or the perpetrator. Bertil was able to surmise that they might have been drugged by the same poison that killed the two dwarven guards; he was able to stabilise Lorca, but his contact succumbed to the poison.

That night, while Lorca laid in a coma, our heroes received a messenger from Lord Durrow, who braved the curfew to bid them and The Foxes to come to the King's Hall fully armed as soon as curfew broke. A suspicious Boggart followed the messenger back, and confirmed that he had indeed come from the King's Hall (see PC profiles here).

The next morning our heroes and The Foxes arrived at the King's Hall as requested, and learned from Lord Durrow that Captain Gauldrin had demanded he give the order for movement between the quarters of the thaig to be restricted so that an effective search for the "demon stones" could be conducted. Lord Durrow had asked to have the night to ponder the issue, and asked Captain Gauldrin to prepare the order for him to sign the next day, but he feared that the latter will force the issue with arms, and had therefore asked the party and The Foxes to help him arrest Captain Gauldrin instead.

Before the adventurers have had a chance to discuss the issue, Captain Gauldrin arrived with six armed gaurds and the order to be signed. The gathering of so many armed men in the King's Hall made the tension rise. The Foxes decided to literally sit the conflict out and sat by the side of the hall with their hands away from their weapons. Lord Durrow ordered our heroes to arrest Captain Gauldrin for treason for attempting to seize power, while Captain Gauldrin asked his men to arrest Lord Durrow for impeding investgation of the attack. Bertil and Boggart stood down, while Zunn fled with Lord Durrow deeper into the hall, and barricaded themselves inside Lord Durrow's chambers.

Boggart asked Gauldrin his plans, and the latter declared that he would close the passages between the quarters of the thaig, and have his men conduct a search of all dwellings for the demon stones or evidence of collusion with demonic forces. Boggart then offered the adventurers as independent observers to legitimise the searches, which Gauldrin accepted. Meanwhile, Lord Durrow was able to negotiate amnesty for Zunn by surrendering himself, and he was taken into custody.

The search began at the High Gate quarter, and our heroes were given permission to search the barracks. There in the chest belonging to one of the slain guards they found a letter written in Gauldrin's hand, which read:

"Execute the plan at noon on the first day of Cloudreach. Show this letter in my hand as proof of my order."

Our heroes kept the letter, but decided against revealing it to all.

The next day the search began at the Quarters quarter, where most of the populace dwelled. When some of the common folk protested against the searches, Gauldrin ordered them to be tied up and left outside their homes as an example to others who would resist.

This did not sit well with Boggart, a Ferelden Freeman, and he cut one of the dwarves free in front of Gauldrin and the guards. Seeing him do this, Zunn and Bertil followed suit. The dwarven guards looked silently at their captain as this happened, until Gauldrin announced that as the adventurers were independent observers of the search, their suggestion to free the inhabitants after their dwellings had been searched would be taken. There was a collective sigh of relief, but all the tension were too much for The Foxes, who told our heroes that they would secretly leave the thaig that day.

That night, Gauldrin asked the party to eat with him as the guards made camp at the plaza. The strain of the events of the past few days told on the captain, and he expressed his frustration at the lack of result from his search... before he fell over - their dinner had been poisoned. Our heroes too began to feel their strength ebb from their limbs...

Channeling a healing spirit, Bertil was able to purge the effect of the poison, but it was clear that the place was too dangerous. Leaving Sergeant Fimar in charge, Captain Gauldrin made his way back to High Gate, accompanied by a few guards and Boggart.

Prepping and Running the Game

The game was a natural extension from the events of the last session.

As I did not know which faction the players will side with during the first scene of the session, I could not plan the session in detail. Rather, I decided to just react to what the PCs did. This worked out well as the players rose to the occasion and did unexpected things like trying to flee with Lord Durrow and "embedding" themselves into the search process. Then as I described the scenes they asked me questions which helped me add details and vignettes, which resulted in the high point of the session (and perhaps the whole campaign) when Boggart defied Gauldrin in the presence of his men.

There was not a single combat during the session, but I think the players enjoyed the role-playing and the mystery.

Sepoys and Xenos

We had another double bill session on Sunday, with the first game being The Relief of Luckpore. I was too busy running the game and having too much fun to take photos, but fortunately my friends did.

We played a standard scenario, with the mutineers blocking the Grand Trunk Road by occupying a  village on one side of the road, while I commanded a bunch of badmash hidden behind a hill on the other side.

The British players approached the problem methodically, by first driving off the badmash, and then moving their artillery to occupy the hill, and then proceeding to bombard the village. The mutineers outnumbered the British, but with only one commander, they could not shift their forces to face the threat in time, and were soon routed.

Throughout the game we felt hampered by the command limitations imposed by the rules, which is probably realistic, and tells me that to be successful one probably has to be proactive in moving troops and applying constant pressure on the enemy. I hope to return to the rules again soon.

For the second game we played an 'Aliens'-themed scenario using the Xenos Rampant rules. The Colonial Marines had to evacuate all civilians from a settlement that has been invaded by xenos, and had 12 activations to do so before it would be nuked from orbit. I placed nine buildings on the table, and randomly decided what was found inside each building by using cards to represent civilians, aliens, and "empty"; in addition, one card represented the alien queen.

The Marines players (who played the British in our first game) once again approached the problem methodically, moving their heavy weapon to cover the main avenue of approach, and then moving their squads in mutually supporting positions.

Nevertheless, the aliens were too powerful in melee, with the Queen being almost invulnerable. The Marines lost more than half their strength, and the Queen was killed only when she charged the heavy weapon. The Marines retreated with two units of civilians and three activations to spare, but left three buildings unexplored - one of which turned out to contain civilians - and gaining a narrow victory.

Although I was a playtester for a few of the Rampant series of rules, this was the first time I played a full game against other players. The game was quick because we had only two troop types on each side, and the aliens had no ranged attack capability. The card placement mechanic gave the game an unpredictability that made it exciting for both sides.

The next wargaming session is scheduled for March, when we plan to play a Kings of War game. We are also planning to play Space Hulk, and a home-mod version of Gaslands featuring Orks and kitbashed Ork Trukks in the future. Stay tuned.

Dwarrowdeep #14

As the wealth of the thaig grows, so did its fame, and Lord Khundra was invited back to Orzammar as a guest of Prince Bhelen to once more plead his case for recognition by the kingdom. In anticipation of arrival of more settlers, Lord Khundra had ordered that the offices of the thaig be moved into the High Gate district, the work of which was left to Herald Lord Durrow, who was made regent in his absence.

It was a week after his departure that our heroes (see PC profiles here) witness a strange darkness envelop the main square at High Gate, which the torches could not penertrate. Lighting his Veilfire lantern, Bertil could see a shadowy form looming over a fallen child. The party sprang into action and attacked the shadow, who was soon joined by two more of its ilk. But our heroes prevailed, and when the last shadow fell, light returned, and they saw two more children on the ground, pale and near death. Bertil healed the children, and afterwards the party was summoned to meet Lord Durrow, when they learned that two other similar attacks occurred in the other districts at the same time: one was fended off by The Foxes, the Orlesian mercenaries, and the other by Zunn and the dwarven guards. Two dead dwarven guards were found at the attack where Zunn was at, and Zunn himself barely survived, and was much weakened by the draining touch of the shadows.

At all three scenes, broken red gems were found on the ground - gems which Zunn recognised to be the same as the cursed rubies which he pried out of the eyes of a demonic statue in the lyrium mines.

In the wake of the attack, Guard Captain Galdrin proposed that a lock-down be imposed, and that the power to search all dwellings be granted to the guards, but Lord Durrow agreed only to a curfew.

With Lord Durrow's assent, Bertil, Boggart, and Lorca decided to travel bck to the lyrium mines to find more clues. At the docks, they learned that the guards had lost a boat a week prior. Just before they set off, they were joined by Balkis, an apprentice Shaper, who was assigned to record their deeds as his prentice-piece.

The four then rowed the boat across the underground lake, piloted by Boggart, who skillfully steer the boat out of a whirlpool, and gained himself the epithet of 'the Mariner'.

Arriving at the dock at the lyrium mine, they found the missing guard boat, with guard provisions inside, but no oars. Retracing their steps, they found evidence that someone had spent considerable labour in establishing access to the mines, clearing cave-ins and repairing bridges. Following their trail, they entered the tunnels of the lyrium mines, where they were attacked by darkspawn, which they routed after a hard fight.

Here, in the mine chamber they found the dead bodies of two dwarven guards. There were mining tools next to the bodies, and in their packs our heroes found a few of the cursed gems. There were no wounds on the bodies of the guards, and Bertil did not sense the touch of the shadows on them, leading him to suspect poisoning as the cause of their deaths.

Venturing a little deeper into the mine, they came across veins of lyrium, as well as what appeared to be a red form of lyrium. Our heroes dragged the bodies of the dwarven guards back to the docks, and then returned to High Gate, where they reported their findings to Lord Durrow.

Afterwards, our heroes visited Guard Sergeant Fimar, where they learned that the two dead guards found at the mine had gone missing a week ago, with no apparent reason.

Our heroes then went to the thaig's tomb, where with Shaper Dromin's permission, they examined the bodies of the two guards found dead at the attack, and Bertil determined that they too did not bear the touch of the shadows and could have died from poisoning instead...

Prepping and Running the Game

The idea for this arc of the campaign came from a trio of scenarios by AAW Games, the first of which is Dark Days in Stoneholme. I had to of course change several details about the plot, but by coincidence the "dark-heart rubies" in the module matched the "cursed rubies" which I rolled up as loot in an earlier session, and which I have had difficulty finding a call-back to. This set up the lyrium mines as a location that we had to revisit, and of course the discovery of red lyrium, which will tie in with the final arc of the campaign.

My players are generally not good at mystery scenarios, and I suppose this one isn't too easy for them either. They have given me no indication of whom they suspect to the mastermind behind all the attacks and deaths, which means the next session is wide open and will be difficult for me to prep for.

Chariots and Cars

Adrian, FG and I met up for the first of what we hope to be a monthly wargaming session today. My plan for these monthly sessions is to run two multi-player games each time.

The first game we played was the new edition of Tribal. I set up two sides, each with one Warlord and three units, and it was a straight-up fight.

FG's warlord made an impetuous charge into the enemy line, and while he scattered the enemy marksmen unit, he was in turn charged by Adrian's warlord and was killed.

For the second game we played a three-player game of Gaslands. My buggy took some damage early in the game, but soon took the lead while Adrian and FG's cars got into a ramming contest.

I maintained the lead until I made a mistake and approached the third gate on the wrong side and had to slow down, allowing FG's car to close the gap.

In the final turns of the game Adrian gave up trying to win the race and instead came after my car.

Literally just one move away from the finishing line my buggy was rammed and flipped into the gantry, wrecking the vehicle while FG's car limped to a win.

As with the previous sessions it was a blast, and we are planning to play again in the future, hopefully with more players and vehicles.

The next session is scheduled in three weeks, when we hope to try out Xenos Rampant (which I was a playtester for) and The Relief of Luckpore.

Dystopian Wars East India Merchant Company Naval Battle Group

A few weeks ago my friend Dave was at a flea market and he saw a box of the old Dystopian Wars East India Merchant Company Naval Battle Group going for S$5. I was not even aware that this faction existed, but it was too good a bargain to pass up, and I asked him to help me grab it. It turned out the previous owner had already primed and magnetised most of the models, so it was a quick job to get the lot (minus the airship, which I still haven't decided if I will paint) painted.

The models have the aesthetics of the old edition of Dystopian Wars, which I much prefer to the more modern look of the current edition. I decided to lean into the "just put buildings on a hull" aesthetics by painting the ships in the "black and white houses" theme.

Example of a Black and White House in Singapore

The black and white houses are a relic of the colonial era - although there are modern houses built in the style too - and I thought it would be a nice in-joke for our group. They also bear some resemblance to the "dazzle camouflage" used during WW1.

Ottoman and East India Company ships clash in the Arabian Sea

The acquisition of the box set also prompted me to finish painting the tiny flyer tokens for my Ottoman fleet, make a few more islands, and to finally buy a sea mat - in this case a piece of quilt fabric from a craft store, which wasn't exactly cheap, but affordable compared to the price of a dedicated wargaming mat. The mat and islands will also prove useful for Thalassa, a set of rules for trireme warfare that comes with the January 2023 issue of Wargames Illustrated, which I have ordered.

The arrival of the East India Company ships has also prompted FG to restart his work on the French, and Adrian on his Prussians. This also shift our theatre of conflict from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arabian Sea.

I have also revised the set of rules I have been tinkering with for this period, and if things go according to plan we will be having a naval bash n April.

Dwarrowdeep #13

Our heroes were having their midday meal at the Quarters District one Drakonis day when they were summoned to Gund Felek, which in those days was not yet occupied. The Foxes - an adventuring band from Orlais - had apparently triggered some sort of arcane ward while exploring the district, and become frozen.

Our heroes (see PC profiles here) were unable to to disable the ward and free The Foxes, but with the light from their veilfire lantern they were able to see a the magical glyph that surrounded the Orlesians, and a warning written in Elvish: Here are our leaders Falos and Harel entombed. Begone lest you disturb their rest.

Zunn surmised that the ward was left behind by the Dalish elves perhaps five centuries ago, and that for it to be still active it must be connected to an artefact of great power. Sure enough, the light of the lantern revealed an arcane thread on the floor leading from the glyph to deeper into Gund Felek.

Following the arcane thread, our heroes found it led to a set of stone doors with the relief of a dwarven warrior upon it. Written under the image were the words, in dwarven runes: Emulate the Paragon. Taking the words literally, Lorca imitated the pose of the dwarven warrior, and the doors opened.

The doors opened into a large hall of many pillars. The arcane thread on the floor led to another door on the far wall. When our heroes crossed the threshold, the door closed behind them, and once more they saw the warning in Elvish written on the floor. Our heroes ignored the warning and stepped forward, whereupon the ethereal forms of two elven warriors sprung forth from the arcane line; simultaneously, two of the pillars began to shift and take on the form of giant dwarven warriors, and the four began to attack them.

For a while it seemed our heroes would fall to the combined attacks, until Zunn came upon a pedestal in a corner of the hall where a glowing blue orb was ensconced. Zunn lifted the orb, and the dwarven warriors froze, and the others were soon able to despatch the elven warriors.

Proceeding beyond the door in the far wall, our heroes entered into a tomb where they found sarcophagus of the paragon and his wife. The arcane thread on the ground led to a large standing mirror at the end of the room. Shining the light of their lantern onto the mirror, our heroes saw several glowing spots on the top of the mirror's frame that Bertil recognised as a constellation which the Avvar used for navigation by night. Judging that the hour when the constellation would rise in the horizon was near, our heroes waited. When the hour arrived, the mirror's surface began to shimmer, and it soon became a portal that led into a cave.

Passing through the mirror, Boggart entered into the cave. Here, upon stone plinth, he found the remains of two elves, which the inscriptions upon the plinth told were Falos and Harel. One of the elves was still clad in a mail shirt made of Red Steel, which indicated that he was an Arcane Warrior. Zunn claimed the mail shirt as his heritage.

When Boggart attempted to explore beyond the cave, he drew the attention of a blighted bear, and was forced to retreat back through the mirror. The bear followed the party back to the mirror, but was unable to pass through. Our heroes allowed the bear to destroy the mirror, whereupon the portal was closed, and the arcane thread leading from it vanished.

Returning to where they left The Foxes, the found the Orlesians sitting down to a dinner of roasted chicken, which they offered to share with their saviours.

Prepping and Running the Game

This scenario was cobbled together using a few puzzles and encounters from various GM guides I have accumulated over the years. The chief goal was to allow Zunn to get the Red Steel armour, which will allow him to take advantage of his Arcane Warrior specialisation.

I felt that this and the previous few sessions have been a little disjointed, and I asked my players at the end of the session what they would like the direction of the campaign to be, and one of them suggested some political intrigue.

We have a break of three weeks between sessions, which will give me some time to prepare for the next arc of the campaign.

Dwarrowdeep #12

Prepping and Running the Game

This session was mostly role-playing, with just one single combat, so I have decided to skip right to the commentary.

I based the session off the adventure Under Dovla Mountain, found in The Malady Chronicles compilation.

With the coming of spring, more immigrants - both the casteless Dusters and dwarves from the craftsmen caste - from Orzammar have arrived.

Our session began with the PCs being asked to investigate the death of a dwarf from the miner caste in the Ore District. The Ore District had been retaken from the Darkspawn recently, but due (ostensibly) to a lack of skilled miners, mining had not begun at a large scale; at the current moment only a single mixed crew, comprising of members of the miner-caste House Oskar and members of the Duster clan Fingal were working there, with the former providing the expertise, and the latter supplementing the manpower.

When they arrived at the site, our PCs (Bertil, Lorca, Varosh (formerly Dave the Dwarf) and Zunn) found that the dwarves had not been mining, but were in fact excavating a large relief that was believed to be a portal to the buried treasures of an ancient dwarf king. A week ago, Rhinn Oskar, son of the head of House Oskar, had fallen off a scaffolding to his death. Bollol Fingal, a young dwarf from the Duster clan, was the belayer for Rhinn, and although the incident was accepted by all as an accident, there was an underlying resentment among the Oskars, particularly in Rhinn's two sisters.

I had meant this to be a chiefly role-playing session, aimed at exploring the dwarven caste system, and their relationship with outsiders; Vorash was a Duster, while Lorca was raised by dwarves, and was together with Bertil and Zunn greatly respected by the dwarves of the thaig. I had hoped that they will use their standing to reconcile the two families.

However, my players thought this was a murder mystery session, proceeded to grill the dwarves from Clan Fingal, alienating them and eventually causing a public falling out. Soon afterwards a blighted giant worm attack caused a cave-in and cut the community off from the rest of the thaig, and an infectious disease struck the community, quickly incapacitating most of the members and making self-rescue impossible.

When it seemed liked the two families would both die out without reconciling, the head of the House Oskar asked the PCs if they would help. It was Varosh who proposed they did so over ale, and so Oskar broke out the good ale that he had reserved for celebrating the completion of their work, and invited the Fingal Clan to join them.

The community was eventually rescued by the next supply convoy coming from the main thaig.

This was not a "successful" adventure or session, but I think I could have steered the players better, but I have since come to accept the outcome as being thematic to the Dragon Age setting. Heroes sometimes make the wrong choice and others suffer the consequences. Perhaps it showed the players that although their characters were respected in the thaig, as humans and elves they will still be viewed as outsiders.

Battletech: Clan Invasion Expansion Box Set

First painted figures for the year.

A few weeks ago FG passed me the models from the Battletech Clan Invasion box set because I wanted to paint up a Madcat. Over the long weekend I decided I would try to paint up the remainder of the box since I have chosen a relatively easy paint scheme. This is the result.

I don't know what the names of the mechs are, or how many points they represent in the game - we are looking at at least three versions of the Battletech game now - but hopefully they will see some action soon regardless.

2022 in Review and Looking Ahead

We've had a pretty good year in terms of gaming this year, with 28 sessions of RPG (across four campaigns and four one-shots), and four session of wargames.

The biggest change in my gaming calendar is my decision to schedule one week per month to a wargaming session on Sunday in lieu of an RPG session on the Monday after; prepping and hosting for both types of games takes a lot of time, so it is not viable for me to do both back-to-back. 

The decision to schedule regular wargames is prompted partly by the acquisition of a few sets of new rules which I have made over the past few months, some of which are shown above. Like many wargamers (including all the other guys in my group) I own several sets of painted armies, most of them for both sides, but the lack of time has prevented me from playing with all of them. In the recent years I have moved away from more complex rules to simpler ones, with easy-to-remember mechanics, and also towards rules with a grid-based mechanic, which simplifies scenario design, terrain-placement, as well as actual play. Playing games with shorter play-time also allows us to play two different games during a single afternoon and allow the other guys to run the games they like to play.

Of course, RPGs will continue to constitute the majority of my gaming.

I expect to run the Dwarrowdeep campaign into March, ending with the PCs at level 8 (and the Master level of their respective specialisations). In April and May I hope to run a short Covert Ops campaign in the wake of the John Wick movie. After that I am looking at a few options, the choice of which will depend on whether the Blood Sword kickstarter delivers as planned, or whether Green Ronin will release any module for their The Expanse line - if neither of those things happen we will probably play another season of our Savage Gamma World campaign.

Of course, there is always the possibility of a new set of rules or figures coming into the picture unexpectedly as with the previous years. And one thing that FG and I have an eye on in the horizon is the release of Quar by Wargames Atlantic.

I wish you and your family the best in the coming year.

Everything I painted this Year

 28mm Historical

28mm Fantasy

20mm Sci-fi

15mm Historical

10mm Historical

6mm Sci-fi

1/1200 Sci-fi

Dwarrowdeep #11

In the month of Guardian, after the spring equinox, more migrants arrived from Orzammar, drawn by news of the thaig's success. Among them was Dave, formerly a petty thief in Dust Town, who now joined our heroes on their venture (see PC profiles here).

The latest venture took Bertil, Boggart, Dave, and Zunn back to the Foundry district, where scouts have found what they believed to be the resting place of King Khertil, who had the title of Paragon, but was more commonly called 'the Paranoid' behind his back. Records recovered from the halls had indicated that the king was a skilled craftsman and inventor, but in his later years had become paranoid and fearful of his tomb being plundered. As such, he gave orders for him and his family to be buried in a tomb protected by various traps - unfortunately, the records did not speak of what these traps were, or how they might be overcomed. The scouts had reported pooling of water outside the door of the tomb, and fearing that the water may damage the treasures within, Lord Khundra had ordered our heroes to enter the tomb and recover the famed weapon and armour of King Khertil.

The party was able to find the stone doors of the tomb following the directions given by the scouts, but when they arrived they could not find a means to open the door. While the party searched the surrounding areas for a means to open the doors, they were attacked by darkspawn, which they repelled. Finally, Zunn was able to unlock the doors by means of a magnet he had found in a forge in an earlier venture, and the party entered the tomb before more darkspawn arrived.

Inside, the party found themselves in a large hall, in the middle of which stood a statue of King Khertil. The King wore armour, but his hands were empty. Behind the statue were a set of double doors that were locked. On the left and right were corridors that led deeper into the tomb complex.

Our heroes examined the statue, and found that the arms of the statue pivoted at the shoulder joints. The hands were made open, as if to receive a weapon and a shield. Surmising that the proper item had to be placed in the hands to open the doors, our heroes proceeded down the passage to the right to see if they might find the items.

The corridor led to an antechamber, in which the party found jars of sweet-smelling oils upon stone benches. Proceeding to the room beyond they found themselves in another hall, this one containing several sarcophagi. on the wall above one ornate sarcophagus they saw a golden shield. The inscriptions upon the sarcophagus indicated that the sarcophagus held the remains of Khertil's queen.

When our heroes lifted the shield from the bracket that held it, there was a grinding sound as the door to the hall became locked, and the ceiling began to descend. Our heroes desperately sought a means to stop the lowering ceiling, but to no avail. Finally, Dave the dwarf threw off the lid to one of the sarcophagi, and leapt inside. The others quickly followed his example. The ceiling continued to descend, but as they came to the level of the sarcophagi, the stone blocks that made up the ceiling directly above the sarcophagi separated and stopped short of the sarcophagi, while the other parts went past the sarcophagi and crushed the lids that our heroes had thrown off. After a few minutes, the ceiling began to lift, and our heroes quickly made their escape.

They returned to the first hall, and took the passage to the left. The corridor led to a small chamber, which was bare except for a pedestal, upon which stood a stone bowl. An inscription on the pedestal read: Those who are loyal to the king will drink to his honour.

Zunn, ever confident, filled the bowl with wine he had brought, lifted it, and drank, but nothing happened. When he returned the bowl to the pedestal, however, it began to fill with mead. Zunn once more lifted the bowl, and drank the mead. As he once more returned the bowl to its place, he saw the outline of a door on the wall to his left - it was a hidden door.

Passing through the secret door, our heroes came upon a set of stone doors that opened into a mead hall with a stone throne at the far end. Upon the seat of the throne was a magnificent golden axe. Wary once more of traps, our heroes tied a rope around the shaft of the axe, exited the room, and then tried to drag it out. But the door slammed shut, breaking the rope, and the sound of stone shifting could be heard behind the doors. When the sound stopped and the doors could be open again, our heroes found the axe once more upon the throne, with the rope still tied to the shaft.

Our heroes reattached the rope, and this time they jammed the stone doors with a spear that Zunn had with him. Once more they dragged the axe off the throne, and once more the doors tried to close by themselves, but were prevented from doing so by the spear. As the axe clattered along the stone floor, the stones on the walls on the sides peeled off and took the forms of warriors, who moved to grab the axe. But our heroes were faster, and just as the axe cleared the threshold of the hall, the spear broke and the doors closed before the guardians.

Returning tot he first hall, our heroes placed the axe and shield in the hands of the statue. The arms of the statue shifted to the weight of the axe and shield, and when they had settled a click was heard, and the doors behind the statue were unlocked.

Passing through the doors, our heroes found themselves in a cavern divided by a chasm 40 feet wide, A narrow stone bridge with no parapet spanned the chasm.

Wary of more traps, but unable to discern any, the party decided that Boggart would tie a rope around his waist and try to dash across the bridge. As he did so, he found that the bridge rotated upon itself, and he was thrown off, and would have fallen to his death if not for the rope he tied around himself.

Now aware of the danger, Boggart was able to make his way across the bridge more slowly, and tie the rope to the other end, which the rest of the party then used to keep their balance as they also crossed over.

Beyond the bridge our party came upon another set of doors. Wary of more traps, Bertil remained behind as the others opened the doors and entered the burial chamber of King Khertil. A pair of large cisterns in the form of stone urns stood on either side of the door. In the far end of the chamber was a platform that rose six feet above the floor, and upon the platform laid a sarcophagus and two stone chests.

As our heroes crossed the chamber to climb onto the platform, Boggart noticed the presence of what he thought was fine sand on the floor.

The party opened one of the treasure chest, and found within it various trinkets and devices, the purpose of which were not immediately obvious. Simultaneously, the doors to the chamber slammed shut, and our heroes heard a gurgling sound as water began to overflow from the cistern onto the floor.

As the water level began to rise our heroes sought to find a means to stop the water flowing, including opening the king's sarcophagus, but found nothing besides his remains, clad in golden armour. Outside, Bertil likewise could find no means to open the doors. In panic, Dave the dwarf jumped off the platform onto the floor, hoping to reach the doors, but found his soles stuck to the ground, and had to be pulled to safety by the others. The water continued to rise, but mercifully when it reached the level of the platform it began to recede.

When the water had ebbed, the doors unlocked, and our heroes made their way back with their packs laden with the treasures they have recovered.

Prepping and Running the Game

This adventure was based loosely on another one of Nerzugal's scenarios. As there was no Warrior PCs in the session, I thought a trap-based, Indiana Jones style dungeon was a suitable challenge to my players.

Once again I prepped for the session on the day itself, and I used an older edition of Tome of Adventure Design to design the traps, adapting them to the features in the maps which I use.

Gaslands Gates

I can't remember exactly how it happened, but recently Adrian expressed an interest in Gaslands, and I passed him the rules and the sprue of bits from Northstar, and now he has decided to build a war rig.

I decided I would make some terrain for the game, and so I made a few race gates using materials I had lying around.

Specifically, I used the plastic frame from these mini-whiteboards I bought; these were the cheapest and easiest way to get the ultra-thin steel sheets I wanted to line the plastic trays for my figures with magnetised bases. I broke the frames apart to get at the sheet; the cardboard lining was easy to recycle, but I had no idea what to do with the plastic frames then, and thought it would be wasteful to throw them away.

Fortunately, they were easy to re-purpose as building materials for the gates. I cut them into size, glued them to some resin bases I had, and sprayed them with a coat of black and then grey paint.

The signages were printed on paper, glued to PVC sheets, and then hot-glued to the frame. I based their design on the infamous Electronic Road Pricing gantries.

There are still some frames left over, and I think I might make some crash barriers with them later.

Dwarrowdeep #10

In the month of Wintermarch Bertil's teacher Elorn, the augur of Red Lion Hold, came to the thaig to seek his aid. Along with Boggart and Zunn (see PC profiles here), they traveled to a hovel where Elron sometimes sued for his rituals, a half a day's distance away.

Here, Elorn explained that Owyn, the thane of the hold, had begun behaving erratically a few months ago, become more suspicious and paranoid. He had accused several of his men of treachery, and threatened them with exile. His behavior was causing concern among the people of the hold, and Elorn feared that if word spread to the neighbouring holds, this may be perceived as a weakness and prompt an attack on the hold.

Through his rituals, Elorn had learned that Owyn's mind had been influenced by a demon in his dreams, and that to rid him of the demon, someone would have to travel into the Fade to destroy the demon. He proposed to send Bertil and his companions into the Fade by means of a ritual, while he would watch over them and return them to the realm of the waking if there were signs of trouble. Our heroes agreed to undertake the mission, and after imbibing a potion Elorn had prepared, they immediately fell asleep...

And woke up to find themselves in a cell inside a cave, without their equipment. Through the bars of their cells they could see that there were many other cells along the sides of the corridor outside their cell, but they could not see the faces of the people inside those cells. In the distance they could hear the sobbing of a man.

Boggart broke the party out of the cell, and they followed the sound of the sobbing to a cell, within which they found a disheveled Owyn cowering in the corner. There were bars over the cell, but there was no door. The party called out to Owyn, but he did not reply. Instead, a disembodied voice taunted them for attempting to save him. The bars over the other cells melted away, and they grey, faceless prisoners within moved towards our heroes (who suddenly found themselves with their equipment on them) and attacked them.

Our heroes made short work of the attackers, but when they had despatched the last of them, they were blinded by a bright light which caused them to shield their eyes...

When they opened their eyes, they found themselves inside a small room. On one wall of the room was a portal that led to a hill in springtime; on the opposite wall was a portal that led to Red Lion Hold, but in the midst of winter. In three of the corners of the room were pedestals, upon which laid a stone miniature of a bear, a hawk, and an otter.

Our heroes each took one of the miniature, and stepped through the portal that led to the hill in springtime... and found themselves transformed into the animals whose miniature they took! They realised that despite their animal form, they could still communicate with each other telepathically. They explored the hill, and found a pond at its top, inside which was a catfish who wore a pendant with an emerald figurine around its neck. In the side of the hill there was a hole, inside which was a snake that similarly wore a figurine around its neck. Finally, in a burrow at the base of a tree was a fox that also wore an emerald figurine around its neck.

By each of themselves our heroes were not able to catch the animals, whose figurines they surmised were what they needed to proceed to the other portal, but by co-operation, they were able to one by one catch the creatures, and recover the figurines. With the emerald figurines in their jaws, our heroes stepped back into the portal, and found themselves restored to their forms.

They now passed through the other portal, to find themselves before Red Lion hold, which was under attack from another Avvar hold. A bereskarn, a Blight-tainted bear, was charging towards the gate, and in its path was a young Owyn, who stood frozen in fear. Our heroes sprang to Owyn's rescue, and after a hard fight slew the beast. They then turned to encourage Owyn, but as their backs were turned the bereskarn rose again, and attacked them from behind. Caught unaware, our heroes thought themselves doomed...

But they awoke to find themselves once more in Elorn's hovel. Learning that they had failed in their quest, Elorn began to question them, eager to find out with whom the fault laid. Zunn, in panic, pointed to Bertil. Elorn grew stern, and said that with the demon now forewarned, they could not hope to save Owyn through the Fade, but to preserve the hold they would have to kill Owyn so another strong warrior could take over the hold, and as Bertil was the cause of the failure, the task fell upon him.

Bertil baulked at the idea, and said that Elorn had taught him to use his gift to heal people and not harm them, and so the Elorn before them could not be the real Elorn.

At this Elorn began to laugh, as his form shifted to that of a demon, and the hovel transformed into a hellscape of darkness and lava. Although weakened from their earlier battle, our heroes were able to destroy the demon, and as the last blow of their weapons fell, they found themselves once more in Elorn's hovel, but this time for real.

Prepping and Running the Game

The premise for this session was based on the one-shot adventure Descent into Dream from Nerzugal's Dungeon Master Toolkit 2, which is a treasure trove of adventures, puzzles, and bestiary, and what's more, available as a 'pay what you want pdf' now. The scene where the PCs were turned into animals came from a puzzle in Nerzugal's Game Master Toolkit, which again is available as 'pay what you want'. Both are excellent products, and I just learned that the 3rd and 4th instalments are also on sale now, and I will be buying them.

For this session I tried the GMing advice of not prepping too early, and only started prepping on the same day as the session. It was in some way liberating to put together an adventure using ideas from pdfs of adventures and random tables I already own, if a little stressful.

Napoleonics and Battletech Destiny

The Austrian cavalry take the heights north of Aspern, while simultaneously the Grenzers advance towards the orchard west of the town.

Desperate fight for the heights.

Mecha mayhem!

Yesterday Rick brought along the 15mm Austrians that he had bought literally ten years ago for their first game ever. While we own a French, an Anglo-Allied, and an Austrian army between us, we have seldom played Napoleonics as all the rules we have tried before we too labourious to prep for and play; systems like Age of Eagles required special labels for the command base of every unit on the table, the application of which already take up a chunk of time.

When Rick mooted the idea of playing a game, I revisited the To the Last Gaiter Button rules for FPW, and decided to give them another go. Looking at the distances and ground scales, I realised that the game could easily translate to Napoleonics by halving the scale and making one unit a battalion; better yet, by seeing the number of bases as a representation of the Combat Effectiveness of the unit and not the number of troops in the unit, it made it easier to translate historical orders of battle to game.

At this scale we could only play games with one or two divisions aside, for the our scenario I decided to depict only one part of a larger battle, in this case the Austrian attack on Aspern, pitting 11 battalions of infantry, four double-squadrons of light cavalry, and three foot batteries (each of 2 bases) against seven battalions of infantry, three double-squadrons of light cavalry, and one foot battery of the French. Unbeknownst (but suspected) by the Austrian players, the French would be reinforced in the middle of the battle by two double-squadrons of heavy cavalry.

The game uses a grid-based movement, and the players were initially a little surprised by the short movement and "shooting" ranges for infantry, but they pretty soon warmed up to it and realised that the limited movement meant that once a formation is committed to a particular axis of attack, it would be difficult to change one's plans. This was made worse by the fact that the game had a running clock: the Austrian had to capture the whole of Aspen (represented as two grids in our scenario) by 30 on the clock for a victory, and to capture the road leading from the south into Aspern for a major victory. At the start of each turn each side rolled a d6, with the side rolling higher choosing whether to move first but let the other side choose which of the scores to add to the game clock, or letting the opponent move first and choosing which score to add instead.

In our game the battle centred on two actions: an artillery bombardment followed by an infantry assault from the west and the north of Aspern, and a fight for the heights north of Aspern. Our game actually ended more or less as the historical battle did at the end of day 1, with the Austrians controlling half of Aspern and the French still keeping the road south open.

For our second game we played Battletech Destiny, which as I understand it is not a set of wargame rules, but a mash-up of the combat rules from the Mechwarrior: Destiny RPG and Battletech Alpha Strike rules.

I enjoyed the more streamlined combat resolution of the game, but perversely I would have preferred to keep the fiddly hex movement and facing of Battletech Classic.

Our group will be trying out the Alpha Strike rules in the future too, so stay tuned.