Family gaming: The Rescue of Edwin

With some time on my hands (and trying to keep the kids occupied), I organised a more complicated version of our family gaming, in that the kids chose their own adventuring parties, with different characteristics for different races and a more in-depth combat sequence.
Basically their hero (a model representing them) had superior stats that were representative of their character. Ie youngest son was a Fighter, so had better combat stats, but was small so had the ability to dodge 1 attack. Eldest wanted to be a sorceress so had access to more spells but had weaker stats. The equipment and magic was based upon Heroquest cards, all dice rolls on 2d6, heroes could take any two actions (from movement, to conversing, to searching, to spell casting) and all others had one action. Their retinue were made up of 1 human, 1 dwarf, 1 barbarian, 1 attack animal and 1 pack animal (purely because these were the only models painted!) Each of which had slightly different characteristics. Some pictures may help explain. The enlisting of an adventuring party:

The adventuring sheets (I miss a photocopier!) 

Here are the chosen adventuring parties with heros:

Eldest daughters, mostly female group. 

Middle daughters group, she was desperate to get the white horse and the witch! 

Youngest sons party, keen on swords, muscle and treasure hunting! 

So the scenario of the game:

The three children had been isolating at home, the parents had gone shopping for food, so would be a long time queuing. The kids played hide and seek and the youngest hid in an old wardrobe in his parents room, squishing in amongst the coats, onesies and musty cardigans that hadn't been worn in an age. He could hear his sisters getting closer and as the wardrobe door opened he leaned fully against the back of the wardrobe hoping to not be found. Expecting resistance, he was surprised to fall out through the back of the wardrobe... The girls knew he was in there, they had heard him wriggling around. They opened the door and rummaged inside, but he could not be found, so they emptied out the entire clothing range but there was nothing. The eldest had read the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe recently, so checked the back, wooden panels and her hand disappeared through! She called her sister and they both tentatively squished through, calling out for their brother.... 

All three were greeted by a bald man in what looked like bathrobes. In a quiet voice he told them that he was Bayaz, the Mage and he had called them forth in a time of need. His son, Edwin, had been captured in the town of Rensburg, a town where night had permanently descended and a suffocating fog remained. The residents had locked themselves away, scared of the rumours and noises of the night. The brave adventurers were to enlist a team and go find the boy. 

So with the scenario set and the parties chosen, we began with all parties setting up along a table edge:

And then we were off, rolling a D6 to see who went first... 

Exploring the caravan, the sorceress found some gold, a potion and an orb. She looked into the orb and saw the crying face of a boy. When she returned her gaze she was surrounded by three ghosts. 

The young warrior led his party across the rickety Bridge. The clumsy barbarian made a racket and a swarm of bats flew out from beneath, swarming our hero. A few swings of his flail scared them away! 

The girls tried talking to the ghosts, with little response, until the sorceress held up the orb to them and the face of the boy appeared. The ghosts wailed and drifted towards one of the houses on the town square 

The boy searched the towns statue, reading the inscription on the plinth. As he did so the words lit up and a hole appeared. He put his hand in, took a wound but found a powerful potion of strength. Unfortunately the statue came alive and attacked!

The parties converged on the house marked by the ghosts, knocking on the door (so polite!) but awakening the undead - zombies! 

Having disposed of the bats and the living/unliving statue, the youngest approached a small cottage. Not knocking, but bursting straight in he saw a wardrobe and a pile of swords. The wardrobe offered up some chainmail and gold pieces whilst the swords became animated in the hands of some skeeltons - fight! 

Lack of photos here. But the boy Edwin was found in the house and coaxed out after fighting some more undead. Inexplicably my daughter, slightly peeved that she hadn't found Edwin first, cast a lightning storm on the ghosts. They attacked back and recruited some skeleton warriors. The fighting saw my daughter lose both her beloved wolf and her beautiful pony!

A quick look into the orb of clairvoyance showed a portal opening by the towns fountain, quick run and get out of here! Game over and tidy away! 

Family Gaming in Hauntsville

Kids imaginations never fail to entertain me, so I devised a very simple rule set for them to play with some models and some scenery. Too many rules constraints their imaginations so we played very much in the spirit of an RPG with some Mordheim and WFB mechanisms thrown in. Quite simply, they could do what they liked! The only restrictions were movement; 4" for humans and dwarves, 3" for the undead (apart from the Necromancer). Models could take two actions, but never the same two, the only exception being move and move (sprint) - which the undead could not do. Examples of the two actions might be: move and search, climb and shoot, fight and move, spellcast and communicate etc.

Dwarves and Humans (including Necromancers) hit on 3+ and wounded on 4+ (shooting and fighting). Undead (4+ and 5+). A model in cover got a saving throw depending on the type of cover. Skeletons were also armoured so had a 5+ save including a magic ward.

Each warband had a leader and second in command. One of which had to be a fighter and one a spellcaster. The fighters increased their hit and wound by +1 and had a save of 4+. Spellcasters could cast any spell they imagined, the difficulty (determined by me) affecting the difficulty of the dice roll. For example a simple flight or fireball spell might be a 5+. A destroy building a 10+. 

And that was it and even then I changed some rules as we played to help them engage with the game and do as they wanted with their warbands.

 So my 13 year old daughter, seven year old son and I went treasure hunting in a village named (by them) Hauntsville.

Three warbands were on offer, Undead, Humans and Dwarfs. My son was desperate to play the undead and my daughter wanted to play with the human heroes. I was left (but quite happy) with the Dwarfs. 

The Undead (my sons)

The Human Heroes (my daughters)

The Dwarves (dads)

I set up the village using my scenery and gave them a bit of background information:

The village of Hauntsville had been long abandoned by it's inhabitants. Stories of unparalled riches combined with tales of never-returning adventurers were told by neighbouring villages and spread through to larger communities. It was therefore inevitable that more professional adventurers would band together for safety in numbers and descend upon the ghost town looking for that treasure to fill their bags and pockets.

We set up along different edges, diced off for who would go first each turn and decided how many miniatures we wanted to bring on each turn.

My son went first and advanced all his skeletons forward in a long line. I went second and moved my Dwarf scouts forward towards the town center, taking out a skeleton with a well aimed crossbow shot. My daughter than came on and charged my dwarves with a successful Charge! spell (9+)!

A slightly rueful smile as my other dwarves back away and my leader knocks out one of her humans! (I decided at this stage that death after wounding was too harsh - therefore after a successful hit and wound the model was killed on a 5/6, knocked out on a 3/4 (recovers on subsequent turns on a roll of a 4+. 3+ etc) or lightly wounded on a 1/2 (-1 to movement and +/- to hit/hitting etc)

My dwarven boar then charges into the skeletons, taking one down

Before all the other undead gather and close in, eventually killing the tusked mascot. Some more skeletons fall to crossbow bolts and I decide at this point that I have run out of quarrels as my son is not enjoying removing so many skeletons to shooting. I remind him that he can raise the dead and he does, successfully passing his spell test and bringing 3 zombies back.

From the town center and in retaliation, my dwarves cast fireball and return those 3 zombies to the dead undead.

Meanwhile, my daughter has seen the folly in attacking the dwarves and decides to use one of her actions to communicate between her leader and mine, brokering a peace deal. We agree and concentrate our combined forces on the growing undead menace. My son (slightly surprisingly) relishes this!

A massive melee ensues, the action so frenetic that I can barely focus my camera

My daughters humans then decide to break off from the engagement and start searching for treasure in the houses and in particular in the graveyard. Searches were successful on a roll of a 7+ and D6 x 10 gold were found and kept a track of. My daughter was very successful gaining around a 100gp! My son's undead wanted some of this and broke off their engagement with the dwarves and also started searching! He got about 60gp and some new zombies from the graveyard! 

Her barbarian is still knocked out!

All combats are now off  (apart from a couple of skeletons who clearly want to cause more carnage) and everyone goes off searching. I think the wifes shout of "dinner's nearly ready" sped up the game to a conclusion!

The humans continue their successful search for treasure, with the occasional attack by a creature of the undead.

A mad dash for the only building not to be searched, the human second in command gets their first using her sprint, but is then caught, attacked and slain by a wandering skeleton! The dwarf wizard closes in  and destroys the skeleton with a slay undead spell. He then hoovers up the last of the gold coins before dinner is served. 

We tally up the gold coins (humans easily have the most), although the undead have swollen their warband significantly. For our next game I will write up ways that each warband can spend their coinage to improve their warband (extra members, weapons, equipment etc).

It was a fun couple of hours for sure.

Part 4. The Story of the Adventures of Roi; a pleasant yet introverted, middle-aged Dwarf who is not intrepid but who has to overcome his fears to begin an unwanted life as an Adventurer.

Kharmur walked away slowly, deciding to head to the Spotted Dog Inn for a drink and hopefully some information on Roi's whereabouts. He'd only walked a few paces when he heard the patter of footsteps and panting of breath behind him; Kharmur instinctively knew that this was Barri, the would be thief. He was right. "Oi, I need a drink too, heading for the Inn?" came the gruff voice of Barri. Kharmur, turned slowly and replied with a a nod and an "Aye". "I could do with some company and some help if truth be told". They walked together towards the Inn, Kharmur explaining the kidnapping of Roi to Barri with the occasional interjection, question and exclamation. Barri was in, he wanted some Adventure. Kharmur inwardly sighed, adventure at their age, look where it has got Roi.

The Spotted Dog was not as bustling as usual:

Kharmur placed his blunderbuss over his shoulder (it is often deemed quite aggressive to walk in with it shouldered and aimed) and took in the clientele. There seemed to be more bar staff than clients, a couple of Nobles talking loudly and waving their hands around, a mysterious man in blue in the corner and a couple of drunk dwarfs at the bar. Barri was already talking to the one who appreared to be in some sort of military uniform. The other dwarf was leaning on his axe asleep, snoring obviously drunk. Kharmur approached the Dwarfs and Barri introduced him to Lorri and Radi.

Lorri had recently deserted from a neighbouring militia's crossbow unit and had sought sanctuary here with his brother Radi (the sleeping drunken dwarf). Barri retold the tale of Roi's disappearance to the attentive Lorri who stroked his beard intermittently during the monologue. He asked a few questions about Roi's appearance and looked thoughtful. At the end of the tale he said: "Hmm. A fellow by that very description was seem by me earlier today. It looked as if he was being frogmarched in here by some thugs, but when I saw him I couldn't be sure if he was with them or not. I'll ask the bar man."

The barman initially looked non-plussed yet a little unsettled by the questions. He became more and more agitated by the persistence of Lorri's questioning. Eventually he said; "Look, I haven't worked here long and I need this job, but there's been some dodgy activity going on. I think the boss is running some sort of smuggling den, there's a door in the corner there that's always locked and used by a few characters who never drink here. They look shifty. In fact this is the sort of time they can be seen coming and going especially when it's not very busy".

Lorri ordered a round of drinks and they found a table to sit at, trying not to look too hard at the aforementioned door. Radi was propped up on a chair, mumbling in his sleep. They all nursed their beers and shared a few tales of adventuring between them. An hour or so later the mysterious man in the corner made his move towards the door having checked that no-one was watching him. For a split second he fumbled for his key in his pocket and this gave the three dwarfs enough time to make their move. Barri surprisingly was first, followed by Kharmur and Lorri and they pushed aside the man and bundled inside the room. Radi, now awake from his snooze, knocked the man out with one punch to the head and wandered in as they all regained their footing. They were greeted by three men in a small room; a cook, a cultist and a tall robed figure. 

 They all faced each other weighing up their options before "Hello" said Radi who then charged in with his axe aloft. The Cultist squealed, the robed man looked agog and it was only the Cook who looked in any way ready to defend himself. He walked toward the running dwarf with his cleavers shielding his chest. A clash of steel rang around the small room which sparked the others into action. The cultist tried to create as much distance between himself and the dwarfs and as he did so he revealed Roi bound and gagged in the corner. Kharmur ran towards him as a grappling hook and quiver were launched over his shoulder pinning the robed guy to the wall. The duelling pair in the middle of the room danced in a clockwise direction, occasionally striking the other's defence tentatively. But the Cook was looking to escape and had turned his foe around so the he, in his white chefs garb was now closest to the door. He backed through it at the same time as the cultist made a dash for it too. The door was slammed and locked, leaving all the dwarfs with the robed man, who sounded as if he was whimpering. Radi rummaged through some of the chests, filling his pockets with coins. Kharmur untied his bound friend Roi and embraced him. Lorri grabbed the front of the robe of the mumbling man and told him to quit his jibbering. He didn't so Lorri thrust a dagger to the man's neck. "Stop your whining, tell us why you took our brethren and I'll spare your life". The man's whimpering became higher in pitch as the dagger point was pressed firmly closer to his neck. "Tell us now or it's......." And then like that he was gone, just his robe left pinned to the wall by Lorri's quiver (the grappling hook has of course missed by some distance). "Sneaky magic" grumbled Barri.

Part 2. The Story of the Adventures of Roi; a pleasant yet introverted, middle-aged Dwarf who is not intrepid but who has to overcome his fears to begin an unwanted life as an Adventurer.

Part 2. The Story of the Adventures of Roi; a pleasant yet introverted, middle-aged Dwarf who is not intrepid but who has to overcome his fears to begin an unwanted life as an Adventurer.

Having almost turned back, his sudden fearlessness evaporating as he crossed the town's edge bridge, Roi steeled himself once more to go out and adventure. He thought of the death of his family and those faceless green beasts that had murdered them in their sleep. Again, it wasn't a hatred towards them, more of a mild curiosity. Could they be reasoned with? What were their motives? Having thought about the retaliatory raids conducted by the Town Guard, Roi wondered whether there really was much of a difference between his ilk and theirs anyway. It was with these thoughts, absorbing Roi's attentions as he walked past the stone bridge and into the darkening valley, that he was suddenly aware of a high-pitched chittering noise.

At first he dismissed it as some wild animal snuffling around in the bushes, but soon the same sound was in stereo. He paused and felt the weight of his mace in his right hand and brought his shield to bear forward in his left. The chittering escalated to a kind of squealing, not a frightening noise in itself but more so when replicated. It felt like the creatures making the noise were almost building themselves into a frenzy, trying to reach a crescendo. All of a sudden the noise stopped. The silence oppressive. Roi was motionless. Then from amongst the gorse Roi spotted the glinting red eyes, pointy ears of a little greenskinned creature. It emerged, tentatively, with a rusty spear lowered in his direction and started to make some guttural noises interspersed with a weak, hacking cough. Roi turned fractionally towards it and both stood facing each other, now in silence. From his left side he heard twigs cracking and out emerged another one of these goblins, a rusted club held in two hands. Again the pause from the creature, it didn't want to come too close. Roi felt slightly emboldened, not brave, his knees were shaking and he was tempted to start to walk backwards towards the safety of the other side of the bridge. But he was rooted to the spot. Perhaps this was mistaken for steadfast bravery by the little green, pointy eared creatures. Just as Roi was starting to think about approaching the goblin with the club (he was slightly nearer and seemed more timid) the whistling sound of an arrow flew behind him, not particularly close. Keeping an eye on the two goblins already in front of him, Roi slowly turned his head to his right to see another scrawny goblin fiddling with his short bow, reloading again but making a hash of it, all fingers and thumbs. Roi felt a complete abstraction of the scene and was amazed the he had not run, screamed or pissed himself. Yet. The goblin with the spear took two steps towards Roi, who lowered his weapon, as if to invite him on further. He could hear the deep, jagged breaths of the goblin and the slimy mucus travelling up between it's throat and mouth. He was desperate for the goblin to spit it out. His senses seemed alive, he felt alert and for the first time, perhaps ever, Roi smiled a smile that emanated from deep inside his being.

At that very moment, the loudest "bang" Roi had ever heard, broke the tableau and shattered his moment of clarity. A smouldering mess remained from where the spear armed goblin had once stood and Roi was quick to notice that scuttering feet and wailing screams broke from where the two other greenskins had once stood. A familiar, affable chortle sounded from behind him and Roi needed not to turn to face the laugh, knowing full well that his friend Kharmur was there, blunderbuss in his hands. When Roi did turn he watched Kharmur's smile dissipate. Perhaps his friend was expecting a warmer welcome from Roi, or perhaps Kharmur noticed a slight change in Roi's demeanour; he was after all slightly upset that the moment had been taken from him. Roi quickly gathered himself and approached his old friend with an embrace and a thanks, but that moment between them had been real and would not be discussed. They spoke now as normally as they could, Roi thanking his friend and Kharmur murmuring there being no need.

It was again unspoken that Roi now had a companion; he knew that no matter what he said, Kharmur was here for the journey.