Mordheim lends itself very well to storytelling in the tabletop, particularly due to the unpredictability of the dice rolls, the Serious Injuries, the random events, as well as the Exploration rolls. These are provided by the ruleset itself, and while they are quite good at spontaneously generating story elements for a warband and its warriors, they may start to lose steam as some results start to become repetitive, or not offering players enough choice (something essential in roleplay).
The other source of great storytelling elements emerges while playing the battle itself: the varied abilities that are given to warriors and how players use them, the way each warrior is modeled on the miniature (sometimes very humorously) but especially through of the tactical use of scenery. These are all under the control of players, and where a lot of the character of the warbands can be brought out. The latter example is especially evocative, where players move about, jump, hide or shoot from cover, in ways that remind us of Wild West movies, Pirates of the Caribbean or assassins in a thriller movie. Instant story out of thin air, before the players even realize what their actions are leading their warriors to do.
All of these can be successfully recreated during a game, but it all depends on the setup and a little bit of background to set the tone.
This is where narrative scenarios come in: the many scenarios for Mordheim that have been released, mainly through Town Cryer and Fanatic magazine/Online, but more recently through large-scale community projects, like the much acclaimed Border Town Burning and the "in-progress" Mutiny in Marienburg.
In the course of the "Empire Burning" (proper name pending) Mordheim Campaign I am organizing, we have gone through several popular scenarios for the game, released in the past. Many of them requires tweaks and fixes, in order for the rules to become clear and the game be fair, but still true to the story concept set by the scenario.
Below are a few golden moments that we managed to create so far. It should be known that, along with evocative scenarios rules and objectives, terrain and scenery are essential to create the right atmosphere.
Mule Train by Robert Walker, in Town Cryer no.14
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| An Ogre successfully and speedily leads a mule through the ruins (difficult terrain), owing to its above-average Movement speed. Clever use of cover and misdirection saw its warband lead most of its pack animals across the table and out of the enemies hands. We streamlined the wording on the objective rules, as well as exactly how the mules behave when led, bringing them more in line with the general 'Mounted Animals' rules from Empire in Flames. Still, the rules for mules meant they were extremely skittish and still prone to run away from combat, causing a sense of urgency during the chase. |
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| As a ghoul approaches, ready to claim one of the mules, the Ogre player tactically decides his gnoblar 'snaps' and panics, poking the mule's rear with the sharp stuff he's holding, causing the mule (as per the rules) to run away from any "combat" it is involved in, in the opposite direction. Result: the mule runs off the table, and away from the other warband's hands. |
River Watch by Nick Kyme, in Fanatic Magazine 09
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| A Middenheimer warband has been hired to man a watchtower. As per the rules, the sentries are moving about, randomly controlled by either player, to represent them searching the premises, while the enemy skulks closer, undetected due to the 'night-time' limited line of sight rule in this scenario. We decreased the amount rolled for of how far the line of sight was for this scenario, to allow some chance of the attackers to skulk a bit closer before being detected (otherwise these special rules would play very little impact on the scenario). A series of unlucky rolls allowed the enemy player to force the Middenheimer Captain to cross the bridge, "because he heard some strange noise". Needless to say, he was promptly ambushed and charged by the Vampire lying in wait (on the lower right corner). |
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| Fittingly enough, the Undead player had amassed a good number of zombies at this point, so the scenario became a veritable march of the dead on the chokepoint at the bridge. And the Middenheimer player had decided to NOT spend his gold on guns and crossbows... The fight was a vicious push to break the blockade, and allow the Undead Heroes passage to the other side of the table (and thus win the scenario). It should be noted that buying a rowboat (which is included in the Empire in Flames rules), to cross the river at a point away from the watchtower and under the cover of darkness (ie. lack of line-of-sight), was indeed considered by the Undead warband at some point, but dropped due to lack of gold. But totally doable (again, increase in choices increases roleplayability of a warband). |
The Lost Mines of Khrazi Drudd
by the Nemesis Crown Mordheim Development Team
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| Good application of old boardgame terrain (circa 1994), as well as the more modern Terraclips modular terrain, allowed us to make a table worthy of the lost halls, sewers and underground ruins of the dwarves. 'The Lost Mines' scenario calls for a setup of several 'dungeon-like' rooms, assembled in advance (not randomly generated), with multiple entrances from the table edges, and warbands are deployed scattered among these several entrances. Here we see a Clan Eshin contingent making its way through the convoluted paths to ambush another warband. All the while sending its expendable Giant Rats ahead to trigger any traps. Images of giant mousetraps came to mind while playing. |
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| The rules for ''The Lost Mines' included randomly determined wandering monsters, revealed whenever a model would approach one of many markers scattered throughout the table. This created great moments of tension, where players would be reluctant to approach a marker, afraid that a Troll could pop out from around the corner (which could just as well be a spider crawling up their legs). We did increase the number of markers in relation to the number of players, to make it more interesting. But because the objectives were otherwise "run around the mines and slaughter your opponents", we decided to spice it up a bit: we made use of Werekin's great "Subterranean events" table from the "Burrow Town Collapsing" scenario, with a few modifications. This was rolled whenever a model would enter a new room, and could add significantly more danger to the adventure, or (as illustrated above) lead the warband to a hidden stash of goods and treasure. Fittingly, this Bretonnian warband ended up finding a Holy Relic among the goods recovered, "a long-lost heirloom of Quenelles", they said. Which meant that now the warband benefit from its 'Protection of the Lady' rule automatically every battle (as they succeeded their first Leadesrhip save due to the Relic). Great stuff. |
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| The addition of good scenery props cannot be underestimated. Even Legos will do. As the skaven prowling in the sewers found themselves several kegs of gunpowder, a shooting showdown with the Bretonnians in the adjacent hall forced them to take cover behind the very cargo they had acquired! As they moved their portable barricade around (thankfully safe from exploding, due to Bretonnians not using gunpowder weapons), a nice shooting position was set up for the Jezzail Sniper Hired Sword, creating a great shoot-out scene that saw several man-at-arms dead (dead! by serious injury later) due to a double-richocheting slingshot from a lucky verminkin. |
I hope you can see how quickly this skirmish tabletop game becomes a great storytelling medium, especially when ran within a campaign like we are doing. Stories literally are created out of thin air while we are playing. The perfect blend of tabletop gaming and roleplay.
Because the way we generate the scenario restricts which warbands can take part and in which role (attacker/defender), this ensures that each warband always fits the part in any given scenario, seamlessly woven into the story of that scenario. Example: watchtower sentries must always be non-evil warbands, raiders of villages must always be non-good players, Merchant warbands gain extra Campaign points by playing 'Mule Train' type scenarios, and so on.
More playtesting and stories to come!
Feel free to leave comments if you have tried these scenarios.
