Mordheim Roleplay part 4 - Personality and Social Exchanges

Finally, after more than a year, I finally got this out. It has been sitting on my hard drive half-finished for too long.
The Gods bless Yuletide and giving us peasants a break from work, so I can have more time to write rules :)

Previous Mordheim RPG posts:
Post: Intro and analysis
Post: Basic Rules
Post: summary of possible Careers and their special rules (work in progress)

Well met, folks, and I'm happy to show you this so you can hopefully put it to use.
This Part 2 or Mordheim Roleplay rules presents players and GMs the ability to turn the Leadership characteristic (a very one-dimensional representation of a character's mental ability) into a series of mental characteristics. The diverse combination of mental characteristics defines the personality of the character, and GMs will be able to use them as a vehicle for storytelling, and also as a roleplay challenge for players.

Mordheim Roleplay part 2 - Personality and Social Interactions (click to download)

In true Mordheim style, who wouldn't wish to see a party of adventurers trying to hold their Dwarf Slayer back from a fight with the Count's guards, and the player controlling the Slayer (who also DOESN'T want to fight the guards!) miserably fails its Self-Control test and all hell breaks loose.

There are seven Mental characteristics that make up a character's personality:
Generosity, Forgiveness, Humility, Self-Control, Free-Spirit, Logic, Willpower.

Personality tests are taken whenever a character would presumably do or say something against their personality. They are 2D6 characteristics tests against the Mental characteristic in question (much like a Leadership test). If the player fails the roll, they cannot help but act according to the character's personality.

Social Exchanges: The rules also show how engage in arguments with NPCs, where players use arguments in order to test the NPC's Mental characteristic most likely to give them a positive result. Depending on the arguments, the Mental characteristic they target and the NPC own Personality, the GM may allow bonuses or penalties. This encourages players to engage in roleplay and real argumentation, which itself feeds the game mechanics.

It should be noted that generating the Personality of a character is something that a players must be comfortable with: this system is meant as a guideline and a roleplay challenge, and no player should be stuck playing a character with a personality they don't enjoy.
I hope you enjoy it, and it can be of use after spending so long in the making.
I certainly cannot claim to have truly come up with this system myself, as it was heavily influenced by the Pendragon Roleplaying Game's Personality system. But to my mind I believe it is a good addition to Mordheim RPG, as it puts fate (once more) in the hands of the dice, much to of the dismay of the players, but also helps brings the characters to life. This has the added benefit of allowing beginners to the roleplay genre to take cues on how to act their character from the Mental characteristics it possesses.

NEXT: expanded Skill lists for different Careers (bussiness skills, social skills, exploration skills, etc).

Roll high and prosper!

'The Enemy Within' narrative campaign - new Objectives!

Hello folks!! 
My job has sucked me down a (metaphorical) hole for the past months, so my game-design time has been limited to scrawling on my notebook during my commute! I've also been working on something else Mordheim-related... hehe Soon to be posted.
But today I'm bringing out finally more material for The Enemy Within. A lot of other material is almost ready as well, but I still have to spit-shine it and make it nice before upload.

Warband Plots - The Power Behind the Throne & The Host of Horrors (click to download)

These are actually some of the more complicated Objectives, especially "Power Behind the Throne". This Plot shines when there are at least 2 other warbands that are part of the Factions of the Empire (ie. not savage or chaotic warbands). They thrive on manipulation of the other warbands, and with their ability to bail any model our of jail through bribery the other warbands will soon be in their debt. The more non-savage warbands there are, the more leverage this warband gains (as more warbands suffer from being thrown in jail).

"The Host of Horrors" is a more resource-management Plot, where the goal is to amass as much wyrdstone as possible, and use it to experiment on captives or to discover if they have magical properties. Because several experiments will result in failure, the warband must invest significantly in Exploration skills to find more wyrdstone, and because appraising shards carries a cost, they also need extra financial aids to offset the money spent. Nobody said building an army of super-soldiers was cheap!

Mordheim RPG part 3- an update: Careers & new skill lists?

Did you think I had forgotten about this?
Aaha, no sir ;)
While I've been trying to wrangle the rules to make sure the system can provide a good "social mechanics" interaction, I came across a resource right there hidden in the game, ripe for the picking: Careers!!

For those who are familiar with Warhammer Fantasy RolePlay (WFRP), each character's advancement is tied to learning the skills and talents of their 'Career'.
A career is anything from a rat-catcher to an acolyte, a burgher, a political agitator, a watchman, a noble or a roguish con-man (but mostly rat-catchers and agitators!). The greatest thing about this system is that is puts players in the lives and professions of their characters, and their life skills (such as they are) is what they have to use to muddle through the politics and social mores of the Old World, while trying to uncover evil plots and make a bit of coin.
Thus, to my mind, WFRP ends up becoming "Sword-and-Sorcery meets Snatch" (the Guy Ritchie movie), with the poor characters (average joes) coming up with all sorts of shenanigans that regular people would have to resolve plots that go way over their heads.



The Mordheim ruleset lends itself very well to this sort of dark humour hilarity, of poorly trained underdogs having at it to the best of their abilities. Mordheim gives us already a wealth of careers we can work with: all the Hero and Henchman stats and special abilities, as well as the skill lists they have access to. Zealots, Ruffians, Petty Thieves, Hucksters, Sewer Jacks, etc.

There are many special abilities from warbands, specific models or Hired Swords, which define very well specific careers and profession, which can be put together into their own skill lists. The several market-associated skills of the Arabyan Merchant and the criminal skills of warbands like the Ostland Bandits and Mobsmen fit very well together into a progression tree or skills with pre-requisites.

Here you can find a thorough list of all model stats and special abilities from GW-released warbands and other warbands that have been created by the Mordheim gaming community. I deliberately left out many of the warband leaders (as their stats are often too high), savage models (orcs, beastmen, skaven) and those associated with lands outside the Empire, as the RPG is intended to, like WFRP, be focused in the lands of men with players following typical professions.

List of Mordheim model stats and special rules (click to download)

I will be creating a re-structured set of skill lists, so any one character with the right choice of skills can eventually become a Merchant, a Warrior-priest or a Thief.
All based on existing Mordheim skills and special abilities.


"But Nuno!" I hear you say, "What's the point of adapting Mordheim to all of this, if I could just play WFRP, where all the rules are made already? Why are you wasting your time?"
And the answer is, first of all I enjoy creating things :) But I don't do it for its own sake: I have a good reason to need this done. Creating something for the sake of it is good Dev training, but is mostly only useful for me, not much for others who may have no need for new rules.
From my ~11 years of experience as a Games Master running things like Dungeons&Dragons and Pathfinder, it's because the rules are too much work. I'm serious: the amount of bookkeeping I'd have to do for Hit Points, and the endless +1 modifiers, for all the NPCs and monsters running around the table, drove me crazy... despite me knowing the rules by heart, and being quite organized. It really tired me out.
WFRP has much of the same amount of detail, especially in combat rules. And it's exactly the combat system that grinds most RPGs to a halt (not all! but most). Don't get me wrong, I like the combat rules, but always felt that the amount of rules detail jarred a lot against the flow of the story... and combat would take hours, even when players are diligent and quick on their rolling.
And is exactly the simplicity of Mordheim stats that appeals to me. 
I've come to believe that to satisfy my thirst for skirmish combat, I have games like Mordheim (where the rules are even simpler and to be honest, more simulationist). On the other hand, if I want a proper RPG story-based experience, I will turn to a less combat-heavy, more skill and social-oriented RPG. Two different experiences for two different needs. 

And I believe that the simple stats system of Mordheim can (surprisingly!) help me run a simpler, streamlined version of a Warhammer RPG, without me having to fuss over a lot of calculations and modifiers and whatnot. And I can create special rules and new NPCs much more easily for it too, instead of having to layer careers on top of careers and racial templates, etc.
Everything is much easier with Mordheim :) And that's exactly what I need, so I'll make it happen.

Sorry this rules-system has been slow to come out, but real-life-work commitments have been eating most of my time (and still are!) and I have other Mordheim-related projects on the go too. It's all coming along, don't worry, these things should take their time. 
Creative work can be a bit tiring from time to time, so having a bit of variety in what you develop is good to keep things fresh and flowing. 
Don't lose hope: projects won't be left to gather dust forever, sometimes you get your best ideas for a project while working on another completely different one!

Roll high and prosper!

 

The Enemy Within - a narrative Mordheim campaign

This is the first draft material for "The Enemy Within" campaign for Mordheim Empire in Flames.
This post includes an overview and details about the campaign, and rules for the Campaign Turn and Mission Generation, Exploration tables and Encampment rules, as well as a few new Scenarios and a description of what Objectives will be available.

Here it is finally, some *actually new* material for Mordheim.

This campaign has been my effort to expand 'The Empire in Flames' setting for Mordheim into a fully-fledged narrative campaign, following in the footsteps of Border Town Burning and Mutiny and Marienburg (currently still in production).
Our previous campaign in the Empire, "Empire Burning", allowed me to fully test this campaign system, and the diversity in scenarios together with the interaction with Objectives worked really well (pending a few optimizations).

I chose to focus on the famous Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay campaign 'The Enemy Within', acclaimed for its roleplay challenges of intrigue, investigation and political turmoil. This has led to me going into a more in-depth exploration of the old modules for 1st Edition Warhammer Roleplay, as well as 2nd edition modules, and gathering information from a few Black Library novels. And oh boy, the fun you can bring to Mordheim...
The amount of research I had to do surprised me, as the more I delved into the background and stories in those modules and books, the more I wanted to convey that feeling of cloak-and-dagger adventure, out-of nowhere backstabbing betrayals and political power play, and the more I had to research.

So without further ado, this is what you can expect from the campaign :

Overview:

"The Enemy Within" is a Mordheim campaign set in the Empire of Sigmar, expanded from the rules and scenarios set out in the "Empire in Flames" campaign setting.
The campaign takes direct inspiration from the much-acclaimed Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 6-book campaign "The Enemy Within", which set a standard for intrigue and diplomacy in many other fantasy roleplay games for the following decades.
It will involve travels through the wilderness while avoiding bands of mutants and beastmen, boat travels down the Reik, raiding on merchant escorts, exploration of forgotten dwarf mines, and attacks on outlying farms and ferries. In addition, it features investigations on cultist's hideouts, arrest of outlaws conspiring with heretic warbands, busting criminals out of jail, the search for a warpstone meteorite, warbands which are trying to use wyrdstone dust to create super-soldier mutants, and infiltrations on sigmarite vaults to steal Nagash's crown of Sorcery. And of course, cultists! Cultists everywhere!
New objectives include the manipulation of Factions against each other for attain political control of a province, gathering arcane books and artefacts for a ritual to damn the whole region (either by opening a portal to the Warp or raising countless legions of the dead), acquiring a warpstone meteorite to infect all the springwaters of the province with Chaos taint, or leveraging local military power to attain glory and fame.

The campaign follows the same structure featured in Border Town Burning and Mutiny in Marienburg, but includes a much wider variety of scenarios (players will never get bored!). In addition, many existing scenarios have been revised to make the rules more consistent and adapted to the campaign.

Lots of Narrative scenarios

NEW! (Download the campaign scenario list - draft)
NEW! (Download some of the new Scenarios - draft)
The campaign includes a large list of narrative scenarios, focused in the plains, forests and villages/towns of the Empire. Great emphasis is put on random NPCs and monsters which can appear during a battle, as they can be influenced by the warbands but also the current state of political Enmity between the provinces. An Empire plunged into high levels of sectarian violence has less Watch Patrols around and more refugees in transit (so criminals and raiders can move more easily and kidnap more people).
Each scenario has been adapted so that each player's role fits a specific warband's alignment and goals. This ensures that each warband engages the scenario with a narrative-based objective: The Wardens will always play the role of protecting civilians, The Raiders will always be on the wrong side of the law and attacking settlements, etc.Furthermore, scenarios in this campaign have Experience goals that are focused on the objective that each warband is trying to accomplish. This means that not all scenarios will grant Experience for taking enemy models Out of Action, especially those that rely on capturing objects or moving stealthily across the table. This reinforces and rewards players to engage in the goal of the scenario and aim for tactics of minimal risk and maximum efficiency, as pragmatic real-life military units would.

Objectives

The Campaign features 8 new objectives, with the additional return of a community favorite. Several of these involve interaction with Locations, specific scenario objectives and Organizations to be accomplished, making decisions in the post-game phase almost as important as winning battles.

- The Wardens

Vigilant militias, watch detachments and "adventurers" (ie. thugs) hired by the local law enforcement, these bands roam the countryside apprehending bandits, rooting out conspiracies and protecting the common folk. Oftentimes, their subtle investigations may be the sole line of defense uncovering criminal and military plots against the rightful officials of the land.

- The Zealots

Religion is always a powerful force in the Empire, and in times such as these it is the rallying flag which men of courage and determination (and some with no small amount of insanity) march under to cleanse the evils of mutation and heresy from the community. Often they are grassroots movements, from one of the many religious cults of the Empire, which gather popular support around a prophet or saintly figure. And, if they survive the perils they throw themselves into, eventually official sanction from their church to persecute heretics, mutants and deviants wherever they may find them.

- The Sellswords

Officially sanctioned militias or small private platoons, warbands often associate themselves with those in power, who can propel them to further victories and thus increase their reputation. Whether through crushing the enemies of civilization and vanquishing their lairs, or eliminating their patron's foes on a neighbouring province (or even switching patrons for a more profitable one!), Sellswords are in it for themselves, the outfit's glory and the highest bidder.

- The Seekers

A recurrence of "The Lure of Fortune" Objective from Border Town Burning, these are traders of specialty goods, treasure seekers or collectors of rare objects. Seekers roam the Empire plying their trade, exploring forgotten routes and getting local market contacts, in search of those ever so rare commodities to then sell in lands outside the Empire, playing political factions against each other for leverage in their dealings.

- The Body Traders

A variant of The Seekers Objective, these are smugglers of captives and the dispossessed, profiting in slaves from within the underworld of the Empire, and feeding the machine of war that festers at the fringes of the Empire.

- The Power Behind the Throne

The corridors of power are riddled with powermongers, manipulators and of course, cultists. What they all have in common is their tactics: some of their members are well connected and can pull strings to put other groups at odds with each other, while the rest of their armed thugs instigate provincial border wars they can exploit, and coordinate other dissident groups to cause further unrest. All for the grand power grab to seize control of the Province.

- The Cabal

There is no shortage of illegal magic-users, chaos-worshipping cultists and aspiring necromancers hiding away from the eyes of the law, stealthily courting the underground markets for scraps or forbidden lore, or digging up old graveyard and ruins in search of tainted heirlooms. Are they preparing for some foul necromantic ritual to seal away the power of the Gods throughout the land? Or to summon the physical presence of a Greater Daemon to the world?

- The Raiders 

The borders and wild forests of the Empire teem with those would undo it: the Norsemen, the Orcs & Goblin hordes, the herds of Beastmen, and even the bands of mutants fugitive from the eyes of the law and church. These malcontents, anarchists and savages seek every opportunity to sneak close to civilized lands, to snatch away their people and raid their possesions for all they are worth.

- The Host of Horrors

Among those who seek domination over the lands of the Empire, some have decidedly a more scientific approach, one involving the wellspring of power that is Dark Magic. The substance know as warpstone (or wyrdstone among the common folk) can act as a catalyst for all sorts of wondrous (and horrific) effects on living subjects, harbouring the potential to raise a force of deadly super-soldiers and monsters in a fraction of the time it would take to raise a conventional military outfit. While the most well-known to make use of such tactics are the rat-men, their application is not lost on the many chaos warbands and cults, as well as some of the more creative necromancers.

Exploration and Encampments

NEW! (Download Exploration tables & Encampments rules)
The campaign features revamped Explorations tables, expanded from The Empire in Flames to include the new Objectives and the Enmity system, and few more surprises here and there.
A new feature, that has already been hinted at during the development of Mutiny in Marienburg, is the opportunity of warbands to acquire Encampments.
Originally designed by Steve "Grafix" Gibbs, Steven Hambrook and Nick Kyme, these add a lot of narrative and customization to a warband.
Once a warband finds one and decides to settle, they may gain bonuses (or penalties!) depending on the type of site. The simplest Encampments, such as Houses and Ruins, are easy to find in Exploration, and there is little risk that other warband will find it (there are so many more like it!). But the best potential lairs, such as the Catacombs of the UnderTown or the Barracks, require higher rolls, but there is more likelihood to actually find it belongs to another warband, if they have already claimed it. Often, such lairs are in a state of disrepair, and require significant effort from the warband to rebuild it.
Settling on an Encampment is relevant, as being selected as an opponent in Ambush Scenarios without one carries a high risk that the warband will be caught off-guard around their campfires (the "Camp Assault" scenario) and may be robbed blind. Having an Encampment not only changes the scenario to a more defensible position (the "Encampment Raid" scenario), but enables the warband to improve the site with barricades, pallisades, kennels & stables, traps, secret tunnels, you name it.

NEW! Locations

First introduced in Mutiny in Marienburg, Locations can be visited by Heroes during the post-battle phase instead of searching for a Rare item, to re-supply, investigate, search for special items or to gain the support of Organizations. These allow warbands to pursue non-combat goals and sneaky strategies, which can translate into very unpredictable campaign outcomes, as well as obtaining important achievements that contribute to their Objectives.
Count on seeing trips to the surgeon and prayer shrines, a small stop by a a local tavern (where all sorts of trouble can happen) or a search by the Black Market or tainted goods. For those who rather avoid the eyes of civilization, there is a whole slew of other places they can visit, such as abandoned mines where traces of warpstone may still be found, a quick raid on a defenceless farm or wagon, to grab slaves or supplies, or even a visit to an unholy shrine to pray for "blessings".
Many of these locations are not without their degree of risk (as the locals may not take kindly to the Hero's face or manners, for one reason or another), but the potential rewards are worth the attempt.

NEW! Enmity in the Empire

(Download Enmity Campaign levels - draft)
Each warband that is following one of the Lawful or Neutral Objectives (The Wardens, The Zealots, The Sellswords or The Seekers) will be automaticaly affiliated with a Province of the Empire. And from there comes a big source of conflict and grief: a central core of the campaign narrative is that warband actions may indirectly (or direct but unintentionally!) cause Provinces to develop Enmity towards each other, and force the warbands to stick with their side while the hostilities increase. This can break alliances between warbands, and increase the level of unrest in the Empire which drains resources from the Watch, militias and military patrols, (affecting their random appearances during battles and in Exploration) substituting them with refugees from the growing civil conflict.

NEW! Organizations 

Organizations are entities which warbands can enter a contract with, gaining some form of support while having to either pay some cost or keep winning particular missions to keep that support. The aid Organizations can provide is extremely varied, from discounts on specific items or services (such as wyrdstone appraisal or surgery) to greater access to missions (and challenging first) and other special campaign effects. Often such contracts will make a Dramatis Personae join the warband as an overseer and liaison. For some Organizations, failure to keep up with the costs of belonging to it may even result in retaliation, and assassins coming after your warband.

*************************************
 (page layout design originally by Cianty and Werekin, and all the other talented collaborators who put together Border Town Burning)

And this is it for now. This has been the last ~1,5 years of work and optimization, and now is coming together into something concrete.
There is more stuff that is still not yet ready for upload and is very much in drafty format, but I am working on it to get them out soon.
Comments, feedback, inflamatory remarks, etc all welcome.

Cultists!! Cultists everywhere!!!!

Anyone can be a mutant!!!

muhahaha!! 

Mordheim resources update: Settings & Narrative Campaigns

If you haven't noticed, I have been continuously updating the "Mordheim resources & supplements" page for the past months (it just doesn't show up in the posts section).

Sure you can find all these things out there on the internet, but if you just want a good browse to decide which setting to throw your gaming group into, this may be useful for you as all supplements are organized and listed, with additional advice and how to adapt it to your needs.

As of today, it now lists:
- Mordheim base rulebook
- Mordheim universal rules supplements
- Mordheim "City of the Damned" setting supplements
- Empire in Flames Campaign Setting
- Border Town Burning Narrative Campaign
- Sartosa - the Pirate Isle Campaign Setting & Campaign system
- Lustria - Cities of Gold Campaign setting
- Khemri - Land of the Dead Campaign setting

Coming soon:
- Relics of the Crusades Narrative Campaign
- Sylvania Campaign setting
- Vampire Hunters Narrative Cooperative Campaign*
- Kharak Azgal Campaign Setting
- Albion - the Misty Isle Campaign setting

*A special mention for Vampire Hunters is required, as only recently (the shame!) did I found out about it.
This a cooperative campaign where several warbands gather to defend a town from the predations of a Vampire Lord (played by a Campaign Master). Very extensive design went into this, and combines very clever boardgame elements in a very simple way.

Warhammer Warbands & 'Freeform Movement': playtesting

In this post I will tell about my attempts at bringing a type of Age-of-Sigmar-like Freeform Movement into Warhammer 8th Edition rules, in the context of the Warbands rules. 
It looks very promising and close to what I've been striving for.

Previously I have discussed and tested some rules for Freeform Movement (part1, part 2, part 3), which was inspired by the unit movement mechanics present in Age of Sigmar. Being very honest, this type of unit movement was not really an innovation of Age of Sigmar: this was mostly how Skirmishers moved in 6th and 7th Edition, which was scrapped in 8th edition in favour of quadrangular units of spread-out models. The innovation that Age of Sigmar brought to it, however, was one of the great cinematic mechanics or Warhammer 40K: Pile-in.

I attempted before to introduce these Freeform Movement rules in regular Warhammer 8thEd games, and I quickly managed to slow down the game: Pile In and Retreating from Combat was great but moving large units with a fully dynamic shape was a bit of a nightmare, regardless of how useful it was tactically (dissected here). So I decided to tackle this last problem twofold: narrow down the size of the units on the table, and reduce the freeform-type movement only to Skirmishers, Fast Cavalry and units in 'Loose Formation' (a rules variant that allows nonskirmishers greater movement flexibility at the cost of Combat Resolution bonuses).

How to do this? The perfect tool already existed: Warbands.
Warhammer Warbands games are smaller-scale Warhammer games (100-499 pts), following essentially all the same rules, but allows for minimum units sizes to go below the listed value in the armybook. This allows for a greater variety of unit types to be fielded while still keeping the game small and the table less cluttered with models.
And what do you know: we found that mixing normal ranked-up units and others with high movement flexibility led to a very very interesting and tactical game.

- New roles for your good ol' units: The terrain could be explored better and many average units now gained great tactical value, as they were better able to position themselves to counter-charge (or Pile-in), and explore new battle roles as harassers or very strong strike forces where before this could only be performed by Skirmishers or Fast Cavalry. A unit in the right place (even if not a powerful one) can make much more of a difference. In this way, one can maximize the value of small-sized units which previously had to be taken in very large numbers to be in any way effective, as strategic movement now becomes much more important.

- Chained combats and combined arms strategies: because the Pile-In rule allows units within 3" of an enemy to immediately get engaged in combat, this makes combined arms defensive formations very interesting (if you charge a unit you must fight the surrounding ones). Therefore, engaging in combat and managing unit coordination becomes far more interesting than it ever was, with many more possible combinations. It also makes for massive cluster combats to get triggered very quickly, with all units entangled in the middle, and possibly leading to quicker combats and games (which I think we all are fond of).

Coordinated unit formations can advance and concentrate on enemies using Pile In, enhancing creativity in defensive strategies.

- Baiting and Retreating even better: Given that units can elect to retreat from close combat, this allows for better control of which units are commited to which fights, and allows very interesting shenanigans in controlling the battlefield. Of course, ordering a retreat is not without its risks, as the units must immediately test to Rally to see if they reorder their line or keep running. 

- Harassers become more true to form: Even better, units that before would anyway serve in harasser roles (because there was never any point to ranking them) but did NOT have the Skirmisher or Fast Cavalry rule can now benefit from the same movement flexibility. They only miss out on using Unit Standards, and the -1 to be Hit with rannged weapons (Skirmishers) or the Vanguard rule (Fast Cavalry). We are talking about things like Chaos Warhounds and Dire Wolves, who simply 'feel' like they should have been skirmishers.

Dire Wolves adopt Loose Formation to cut around terrain more easily.

- Small Elite shock troops for guerilla fighting: thanks to the Warbands rules, units composed of elite or expensive models could be now taken in small sizes (therefore more affordable), and when maneuvered correctly, say as an opportunist flanker, became very very usable assets when before they had to be taken in large numbers to have a decent cost-benefit out of them. Even better, they can be used as strike forces against enemy Commanders or wizards, as their small unit size can allow them to squeeze past bigger units and not expose themselves to a charge, and use the terrain to block any pursuit by larger units.

- Large lumbering but very steady units: Conversely, keeping one or two larger units of ranked troops added a large punch (due to the large number of Combat Resolution bonuses they can use) and provided a strong army center as they would almost always benefit from Steadfast. Even (or especially) cheap Core troops are really effective at this, as larger units can be fielded for less points. The contrast in maneuvering speed between them and 'Loose Formation' units also made the game look more realistic, as the large ranked unit slowly swivels around to face its threat, while small contigents of models jump around the battlefield, taking cover and trying to reach the enemy's backline.

Cheap core troops are very useful in large numbers against even powerful models, thanks to their ability to remain Steadfast and concentrate Combat Resolution bonuses from ranks and Standards.

 - Shooting becomes more important: with more small units to shot at, some of which possibly containing higher-points models, the chance of eliminating entire units quickly with ranged shooting becomes much more appetizing and feasible. With the added ability to explore complex battlefields, units can achieve better positioning to shoot and even embark on forward strikes to eliminate warmachines, but also have to account for...

- Better cover: with added movement flexibility and ability to explore terrain better comes the chance to set up more complex batttlefields, which provide more tactical choices for moving through cover (and avoid enemy fire) and blocking your opponent's charges.

Explore all the nooks and crannies of the battlefield by moving with Loose Formation.

- Adaptable to Warhammer Army games: Needless to say, these rules are also very easily applied to small-scale Warhammer games (500-1000 points), only forfeiting the Warbands-only rule to take ultra-small units (3-8 models, depending on listed minimum size). And because unit positioning is more elevant now, the games becomes more balanced at that scale than they used to, because more units on the table can control more of the board than before (due to their higher freedom of movement). It also used to be the case that certain units, if taken in lower points games, would have an overpowering effect on the whole game; or vice versa, in that certain armies could really only become effective at higher points levels because their units were not well-rounded enough (so they had to take many different types to deal with every threat) or because they needed certain costly synergies to make the army work. With added movement flexibility, the underdogs now have more strategic options to chose from, and therefore this is something that should appeal to the more tactical-minded players too 

- Flexible Squeezing: this is something I proposed in a previous post, as a compromise to getting rid of my rules for full flexible movement for large units, and still allowing them some ease of movement around terrain. This rule was inspired by the Kings of War ruleset, where units ignore impassable or blocking terrain while turning or pivoting, as long as they finish the movement at least 1" away from it. A great and simple idea, that can make wonders when fiddling around with large units around nasty special-effects terrain or just simply blocking terrain.

So there you have it. These 4 rules, especially in the context of the Warbands rules, work wonders.
- Pile-In
- Loose Formation
- Retreat from Combat
- Flexible Squeezing (see above)

Try them out (together or just one or two) and see how you like them. I would suggest ~300 points in a Warbands game (not too much, not too little).

Phew! Done. Now to put this together into a proper rules document I can upload...

Roll high and prosper!

Empire Burning: campaign finale and lessons learned

It has been too long without an update here. Moving countries and starting a new job, and no internet at home, does take a toll on one's ability to keep updating things regularly. Getting internet set up in Europe is so much easier (and cheaper)!

I'm sharing today some images of our campaign finale, and how we managed to deliver a fair entertainment, as well as a chance for the campaign win for everyone involved, even though many were very far behind in the Campaign Points score.We loosely based the scenario rules on the great "Colony of Plenty" scenario from Mutiny in Marienburg (in development), with its multiple objectives, hostage-taking and monster bonanza!

The Fallen Cathedral where the last Artefacts were hidden: everyone had a chance at the final prize.

The "Empire Burning" campaign was our group's field-test, at 6's2Hit wargaming shop and cafe, of the framework that I put together for an Empire in Flames campaign. It built very much on the framework set out in the Border Town Burning and Mutiny in Marienburg campaigns (all credit to their authors is due), but drew on a large number of scenarios, released over time in Town Cryer and a few others. It used very much the same campaign Objectives as Border Town Burning, with a few adaptations (as those objectives are already quite generic).

Sisters of Sigmar confront the heretics guarding the vaults holding the Artefacts.

Dangerous monsters lurk in the vaults. The Undead warband disturbs a particularly large one: a slumbering cave Giant!!

Dwarf Treasure Hunters following the 'The Lure of Fortune' Objective drive their armored "trade" wagon onwards, filled with valuable trade goods, on their last stretch to victory.

More monsters hiding in the vaults!! A dangerous Cockatrice flits about, turning warriors here and there to stone.

The horde of Night Goblins, following 'The Scourge of the Realm', tramples across the landscape nabbing Artefacts from the tombs as leverage to attract their rivals, the Marauders of Chaos.

The final victors and last warband standing: the Nurgle Hung Marauders of Chaos. Their leader obtains all the 4 four Chaos Artefacts, ascending as a Daemon Prince, and wins the campaign.

Things we learned:

- Objectives create story and emotional investment.
Linking the theme of a warband with actual objectives to fulfill and themed rewards created a great motivation that kept players engaged in a long-running campaign. Although the length of the campaign was believed to be too long by our group, the presence of objectives changes a simple league-battles group, which has only the accumulation of XP and loot as an objective (and therefore has a large chance to become boring), into something much more entertaining and with roleplaying/narrative value.

- Not all warbands can leverage well particular Objectives available to them. 
This is a bit of a thorny issue, as some warband types were much more suited to fulfill certain CP(campaign point)-granting "tasks" of some Objectives than others. Some of this should be discussed beforehand, in as impartial and non-competitive way as possible (to prevent future arguments), and either include some small changes in the Objective rules or choose another option.

- Objectives can have very different progression speeds. 
Objectives vary a lot in how you can implement their progression. Those that depend on obtaining specific objects (such as Artifacts, in The Celestial Protectorate and The Scion of Chaos) have a huge bottleneck in their progression because they cannot succeed if they do not obtain them, while those that do not even need to interact with other warbands (The Lure of Fortune) have more independence in controlling their progression. Sometimes, Objective achievements make the fulfillement of their CP-granting "tasks" easier (such as 'The Damned shall Burn' gaining bonuses and defenses against the warbands whose defeat will grant them CPs), while for other warbands (such as the 'Scion of Chaos' not gaining any bonuses to find the Artefacts) their task of fulfilling their objectives is not helped in the least by their Achievements.

- A portion of scenarios (~30%?) MUST include material rewards.
While progressing through the campaign, we noticed that monetary rewards from scenarios were not being enough for some warbands, while for others they were quite good. This was caused mostly by scenarios that had a winner-takes-all condition, where the surviving warband at the end could scoop up all the remaining treasure that hadn't been yet picked up. We fine-tuned it so that warbands that lose while some of its warriors are still carrying treasure will keep it as long as they are outside of charge range when they rout. This solved some problems, but not all. The remaining problem was still caused by some multi-player scenarios with large rewards for the winner, and also because many of our scenarios in our long list did not include material rewards, especially items that the warbands could use or sell (making skills that deal with making money from selling equipment relatively useless).
This imbalance can cause some warbands to fall behind in power-level even if they are winning the right scenarios for their campaign progression.

- Remember, lots of cover! 
Scenarios in the "open" wilderness may make players inclined to set up terrain more sparsely than they would otherwise in urban or forest terrain. This is a big problem, especially when shooty warbands are involved, and it took us a while to understand this was a source of the problem. Even in plains terrain, there are lots of scenery pieces one can use, especially lots of hills (with gentle slopes) and shrubs, which create a more organic-looking environment and break line of sight sufficiently to re-balance Mordheim gameplay.

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The campaign also had us asking several questions, and how many other different ways one can play Mordheim:
- Can you play Mordheim cooperatively, against a set of rules and tables rather than another player or Games Master?
- Can you use the Mordheim rules as a GM-run RPG? (this I have discussed previously)
- Can you use Mordheim as a one-shot boardgame-like event, for ease of play with a larger demographic?

I have covered a few of these in previous posts, and will do so more in the future, as I think the game system is so flexible that it can be taken in many different directions.

I think there is growing interest in Mordheim again in gaming communities, maybe partially due to the Mordheim videogame, but also due to the ease of play and getting into the game.
I will be exploring these possibilities in the future, so we can bring this game to more people and share the enjoyment of (affordable!) narrative miniature wargaming.

PS: this hat is a joke ;) I support in no way the presidential candidate who popularized this hat. Thank John Oliver for this idea.

"The RuleHammer": a checklist compilation of rules patches & house rules

As some might feel I haven't dropped enough Warhammer Fantasy content recently (which is true), I felt it was time to just compile this version and send it out.

The RuleHammer: a rules patch compilation. (click to download) 
New versions of the file will be updated over time. Check back to see which version is available for download.

The "RuleHammer" is a compilation of house rules and rules patches, many of which have been discussed previously in this blog, and also from other alternate sources of inspiration.

What it is: the list contains small rules changes, trying to resolve some remaining problems of the Warhammer Fantasy 8th Edition ruleset, in the simplest way possible, and without changing too many things. While this may lead to significant differences in gameplay (hopefully for the better), the document is meant to be as easy to incorporate as possible by players who already have a good grasp of the rules.

What it aims to achieve: to fix some of the rules inconsistencies, imbalances and general problems reported by the gaming community. In addition, some changes were introduced to inject a bit of "simulationism" or "realism" (oh, that loaded concept...) which some felt was missing in some aspects of the game. This is Warhammer Narratives after all.
The overall approach was to keep the game as faithful to the original ruleset as possible, without interfering with the rules players were used to, and simply changing individual single points, one at a time.

How to use it: go over the list, point by point, and agree with your opponent or gaming group which rules changes you want to use. Tick the boxes for those you wish to incorporate, and make sure everyone has a copy of the document with those choices.

This document is not meant to supplant or compete with other community-based projects, such as 'The 9th Age' or '9th Edition'. Rather, I hope to give a resource to players who were looking for something a bit less "chunky" than a completely redesigned ruleset, and give them flexibility over what they want to incorporate.

There you go, Community. Enjoy.
Hope people can make good use out of it.
All feedback is welcome.

PS: I know there is interest in Warhammer Fantasy Campaign rules. Im still working on expanding the base rules from 'Blood in the Badlands' with material from 'The General's Compendium': lots of random tables, veteran units and captured Heroes!

The Narrator has moved to Boston!!

I have left the 'Auld Reeky' city of Edinburgh, and carried all my crap across the atlantic to Boston, US.

I wish to give my heartfelt thanks to the folks over at 6s2Hit wargaming shop & cafe, who so graciously hosted all our Mordheim events and campaigning in Edinburgh, and provided all the tabletop scenery support one could hope for.

Congratulations to Kenny for putting together such a fine business, and together with Wayne and Tyler for making it so approachable and easygoing place to game, eat and just hang out.

Kenny (far left) and Wayne (far right).

Tyler

I will soon attack the local places, to gather around other Warhammer Fantasy gamers and raise an all-new Mordheim Campaign group from scratch.
Watch out, Compleat Strategist, Pandemonium Games and Hobby Bunker, I'm coming for you!

Mordheim Campaign: a playtest to "The Enemy Within"

Today I will show you a few snapshots and experiences from our Mordheim campaign, which has been running for the past year, in the hope to pass on some useful advice.

Roughly a year ago, I managed to spark interest among some Warhammer Fantasy gamers here in Edinburgh to start a Mordheim campaign. Throughout that period, a group of 5 swelled to 10, with a few others more interested, such that we didn't have any more space to cater. Even now, every two months or so another person manifests interest. The low barrier to entry (15-20 models required) and the flexibility of the system added to its allure, and our constant presence at the local venue and the amazing terrain at the table also drew a lot of attention.

To get this thing going properly, I decided to use the 'Empire in Flames' setting as the place for our campaign (with the fields and villages of the Empire as our stomping grounds). But I wanted the campaign to provide the players with a good dose of story for their warbands, so I introduced the innovations from"Border Town Burning" and "Mutiny in Marienburg".
So I cooked up a mashup of Empire in Flames together with Border Town Burning as a campaign framework, and injected loads of great Town Cryer scenarios that really bring life to the game. Thus, we started our fledgling campaign, Empire Burning: The End Times. (yes, it is a ridiculous title).

We are based at 6's2Hit, the local wargaming shop & venue, also now a cafe, which has become one of the best places to play wargames here in Edinburgh. Above you can see some of the tables we set up, thanks to their great and generous terrain collection, with also good use of my Terraclips modular dungeon scenery.

We had a wealth of warbands, and we explored also all of the different Objectives introduced in Border Town Burning and some from Mutiny in Marienburg.
Throughout this period, we substantially tweaked some fine points in the Mordheim rules, to address many of the imbalances people have cried out about over the years. We wanted everyone to have a good experience, and tidied several rules that the designers could themselves certainly have addressed. The fruits of our labour have been uploaded here: Mordheim Compendium - The Edinburgh Revision.
Thanks to these changes, people are now equipping their warriors with armor, no longer always giving two weapons to them, experienced warriors can parry better, and many other little things. Overall everyone has welcomed the changes, as they make the game flow smoother and fall less into powergaming builds.
I should note that our changes always try to be as little intrusive and complex as possible: we don't want to reinvent a game, we want to patch it up on the few holes it has, to the benefit of everyone. Nobody wins if the game ends up becoming unrecognizable to veteran players.

An interesting thing that happens in Narrative Mordheim campaigns is how the Objectives interact with the Scenario rewards, Exploration results and the special abilities of some warbands. Sometimes with very unpredictable and dire consequences, so be on the lookout.
One of these was the combination of the Ogre Maneaters warband and "The Body Trade" Objective (from MiM). To cater to the Body Trade objective in this campaign, we introduced a few scenarios where the winning warband could acquire captives. The Ogre player snatched a few stragglers through exploration and through scenarios, gobbled them up (thus raising the Ogres' Experience), and soon he had a veritable fighting force to contend against, and their Objective now granted them the ability to capture enemy warriors during combat. This caused a very quick increase in their Campaign Points (CPs) and more victims to increase their Experience, much to our worry!
Perhaps it was just a fluke in our campaign, but eventually we did have to carefully tweak the wording of the "Slaver" ability in the "Body Traders" Objective, to ensure that the player could not just simply capture enemies non-stop with his one all-powerful leader, and continually rack up CPs.

Narrative campaigns also provide great backdrop for alliances and backstabbings, which happened every now and again. Former enemies were forced to ally because they were faced against too powerful of an opposition (although still nurturing thoughts of betrayal). And certain individuals become infamous among the players, such as the Pestilence caster Marauder Seer (who would poison a quarter of a warband each
 time his spell was unleashed) or the magic-carpet riding Dwarf Noble with his missile weapons.

However, it's good to be on the lookout for multiplayer scenarios which allow allied players to share the reward: in some scenarios warbands can themselves ally against an NPC monster, and then share its hoard (and thus there are no warbands competing on the table at the end). Such scenarios must ensure that at least 3 players are present at the beginning, otherwise there is no way to prevent both players from taking advantage of the rules (as they are no longer competing with each other, only against "the rules of the scenario").
Another important point about Scenarios is "winner-takes-all" types of scenario, especially multiplayer ones. Sometimes only one winner is intended and the reward is meant to be large (these scenarios should be used more seldomly, more relegated to Special scenarios). Other times, multiplayer scenarios where 3 or more warbands should  have secured objective items around the table end with many of these items still unclaimed (and thus the winner takes them all): these scenarios seem harmless at first but many force the losing warbands to drop every objective item they are carrying, while the winner gets to earn all other unclaimed items. This can lead to large imbalances, so either make sure losers still get to carry something home (if they are not within charge distance of an enemy when they Rout) and don't put down too many of these objectives per scenario.

We also optimized a way to generate matches and determine scenarios, so that it could accommodate several players meeting for games separately instead of having to meet all together in one day to decide opponents.
We are still tweaking it as we go: for a long time the system favoured the underdog, which was not a problem, until it became clear that the warbands further ahead in CPs simply could not choose beneficial scenarios for them because they never go to pick one.
Now there is a chance that the challenged warband gets to instead pick the scenario.
The balance to strike is between fairness on a game-by-game basis, overall game balance and just players having fun each round.

But perhaps the most important thing we found about Mordheim Narrative Campaigns is: how long should they be?
Our own was running at the speed of a game turn every two weeks (give or take a few holiday periods), and we got 20 turns done so far. We are all either professionals or graduate students, so our schedules are pretty full to arrange a game every week.

Belandysh the Cursed Champion
of Tchar, riding his mutant
steed Tol'Agath

Certain scenarios granted CPs bonuses to certain Objectives if the warband wins it, so there was an extra boost that sped up the campaign, depending if the right warbands won the right scenarios: I added this in specifically, which would mean our campaign would progress more quickly. Because of the Border Town Burning specific objectives,the campaign revolved much around the four Chaos Artifacts. These were damn hard to find, so until they were there was a long, long crawl in terms of Campaign Points for several Objectives, while others surged ahead at high speed (those which DIDN'T need Chaos Artifacts to gain their CPs). This is something to bear in mind when playing Border Town Burning as well.

The thing to be careful of is how long people are willing to invest. Wargamers generally are interested in shorter, few-months long campaigns, while they paint up their warband and any other accessories they might acquire, before joining a different campaign (of the same game or another). Roleplayers might be interested in campaigns lasting a year or two, where there are more stories unfolding with each game. Of course most people fall somewhere between these two extremes, and the frequency of game turns will also make a lot of difference.
It is possible that a bit of liberal and careful boosts to everyone's CPs now and again, or throwing in campaign Items (like Chaos artefacts) at a set turn number, may help propel things forward.

Finally, after stress-testing and optimizing so many scenarios and Objectives this past year, I will pull all of this together to craft a proper, final version of the Empire in Flames campaign, "The Enemy Within". It will focus on village-raiding and hostage-taking (of imperial nobility), with the possibility of manipulating imperial politics so that warbands are thrown into opposition. All the while leaving the way open to invaders and conquerors.

Hope we have helped, and possibly inspired someone else to organize their own campaign, or just pick up Border Town Burning and run it from there.

Stay tuned for more developments!
Roll high and prosper!