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Thursday 27 December 2018

Happy Birthday Blog and Welcome to Thanda the Grim.



It's my Blogs Birthday Today. Please don't sing Happy Birthday :)

I know I should have a birthday cake but I'm a little short on time and as usual with Birthdays I'm last minute so anyone reading this please bear with me. I'm also not going to waste your valuable time with my thoughts on the last year's blogging experience or what I've got lined up in the future, there's others that do that far more eloquently than I can.

Now that's out of the way a bit of a departure for me, I have a game to post but wanted to do an introduction to the characters first. Last year I had a couple of games of Frostgrave with two other old people and as usual I didn't much like the rules but really like the concept, it reminded me of Rune Quest, another game I didn't much like the rules for. Both of them have in common the fact that they are set in a fantasy world using swords and sorcery and I've always liked the genre, in particular Robert Howards Conan stories and the more grown up (in my opinion) David Gemmell books.

This sort of ties up with what I tried to do with the Horror games, using my existing rules and introducing concepts lifted from elsewhere, like terrifying gaze, fear, terror cards and frightening events that sort of thing.
So it's a small step to bring in some form of magic or spell casting into the same rules, again much of it lifted from elsewhere but I think I've incorporated it fairly seamlessly and I played an initial game that I was well pleased with.

So without further ado I would like to introduce my gang of badass adventurers and I don't suppose anyone will be too surprised that they are all badass women.


THE SORCERESS

Thanda The Grim is my Sorceress of little renown, she completed her apprenticeship 25 years ago, when she was first painted and has not been heard of since. Never been on the table, she will be a little nervous in such exalted company but I’m sure she will prove her worth.

Armed with a steely grim glare, said to turn lesser mortals to a quivering lump of jelly, or on a really grumpy day - to stone. She carries a carved rune staff of power and an ivory handled sacrificial knife (unused). She will be leading my ill assorted rogues.



THE APPRENTICE

Rufina Grey Eye has been Thandra’s Apprentice for 25 years when she also was first painted. She has practiced Thanda's Grim Gaze but so far only achieved the sobriquet of Grey Eye.

Armed with a commanding right hand, known to subdue dogs, cats and small vermin, she is hoping to extend this to larger animals and maybe even to humans, certainly simple minded ones. She also has a red handled sacrificial knife (unused) but no staff of power - yet.




THE WIZARD

Bergeris Luoll – A Wizard from the Central Land of Merde, a land of fire and flame.
She has practiced magic for a long time but only just succeeded in becoming skilled enough to strike out on her own. She is skilled in runes and languages and can cast spells reading from a parchment, but these are usually not as effective as the Five special spells she has memorized and used often.

Her short wand is stout and sturdy, it has been used to knock down anyone she has failed to reduce by magic, unfortunately there have been too many of the later, but she is improving slowly. As her master said – slow and sure – stay alive.

THE THIEVES

Tina The Swift – Small and exquisite, Tina makes you want to protect her. You pull her close to look after her, only later when your money is gone do you wonder if maybe she could have taken it, but no that couldn’t be – she is too fragile, too trusting, too helpless, and you are too much of a fool.

One of the greatest thieves of her age. No one believes she is capable of such deeds but therein lays her strength.
Swift as a striking snake, daring as a mongoose, bold as a tiger.

 Armed only with a knife and her lock picks, she is a dangerous adversary – don’t underestimate this one.

Signy Freyasdotter – From the far north where the wind and the ice hold fast, pale as death, wild as a Falcon, Signy learned to survive by stealing what she needed. Her parents were killed by frost giants, her family scattered, she had to survive alone, men only seemed to want one thing from the young girl.

She keeps a small sharp and very deadly knife hidden in a leather sheath under her blouse, close to hand if needed but it is her skill at moving silently, gaining the trust of the most boorish guard, speed that a rattlesnake would admire that keep her alive.

Akira – A minstrel of some repute, she plays the lute like an angel, with long slender fingers for plucking strings and manipulating lock picks just as easily. No treasure box is safe from her skills.

Her parents toured with a small band of players, they passed on to her their knowledge of juggling, high wire, gymnastics and sleight of hand. She became a master in her own right but left the roving players for a more profitable and exciting game of her own. She carries a sharp pointed sword with which she is as much a master as with the lute.


THE ADVENTURERS



Helgi the Lean is an adventuress born and bred. Slim and athletic she is unfortunately no picture having sustained a disfiguring scar on her face in a sword fight when she was a teenager.

She carries a sword and wears a leather jerkin for protection. Smart and street wise she has brains if not beauty, is a skilled pickpocket and sword fighter.

For quieter evenings out she has a small leather bag filled with lead shot, one blow from this will spoil your evening big time.


Patricia of Selby – a smart cookie long time friend of Helgi, and Sandra they have been in some scrapes together and survived them all.
She has an aristocratic bearing and commands respect from most men and women.

She tends to use her sword a bit like a club, never having really understood what the pointy end is for, but usually her commanding ways will see her through most troubles and if not there is always Helgi and Sandra.


Sandra the Dancer – Beautiful and fast, fights like a dancer with grace and poise. Will use her dagger and sword at the same time, in an ambidextrous ballet of death.

As charismatic as she is beautiful, fighting is always a last resort because she will usually be able to talk her way through most trouble that comes her way.

Like Helgi – for those quiet times she also carries a leather pouch full of lead shot, one blow to the head usually settles any disagreements.

The rest of the gang will be along shortly.

In the mean time if you're still here - thanks for reading.





20 comments:

  1. Great collection of Adventurer's and wizards John, really like the fact that you haven't been put off by rulesets and instead adapted your own to suit the games you want to play

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    1. Dave I'm not much for Rule Sets and don't have a big collection, I tend to find that the basics - Fighting, Shooting, Moving, can be handled pretty much by something simple, it's the specifics that are interesting so Sorcery in this case. I don't want it to over power the game but to have some unusual impact, you will see what I mean when I get the AAR up.

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  2. It probably won't surprise you at all to hear that I love them all. It is very hard for me to pick out one favourite but I can narrow it down to three - Rufina, Akira and Sandra. I could see all of these working well with the O.L.D. rules that are produced by EN Publishing for their WOIN range of RPGs. No, I'm not trying to influence you into purchasing them, I'm simply making an observation. Suffice to say, I'm immensely looking forward to reading a lot more about them. An all female crew is my idea of a great party!

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    1. Bryan I think you've picked my 3 favourites as well. These sorts of figures will work well with almost any sword fighting, close combat style of skirmish rules. I'm never quite sure about ranged weapons though, they can unbalance a game.
      I read in Frostgrave that you need plenty of terrain to reduce the effect of shooting. For me that has to be wrong or historically everyone would have been equipped with a bow, the basic mechanics need to be adjusted to give the game balance, not rely on terrain.
      I'd be interested to hear how you think it would work in O.L.D.?

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    2. What immediately struck me in these being a good fit for the O.L.D. rules is that they all have well rounded backgrounds. Given the fact that the WOIN rules are based on a character progressing through various career choices you could have a lot of fun matching the characters to the careers you think are most relevant. Secondly, the WOIN rules are designed for a GM who likes a sandbox setting to create the world he wants. Yes, you can convert an existing setting (Frostgrave, for example) but I think you'd have far more fun creating your own setting, much as I did for my "The Ace of Spades Campaign" which takes elements from 3 RPGs but mixes them up to create something unique. O.L.D. has all the rules you'd need for a fantasy setting.

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    3. Thanks for your thoughts Bryan, I don't recollect you doing a game using O.L.D. although my memory is shot. Hopefully you will get round to one and I can see how it works in practice.
      Much like yourself I've always enjoyed creating a background for my figures, I had loads of fun with character generation with the Rune Quest rules each one was an A4 sheet!

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  3. A year following your excellent blog! Just goes to show that time really does fly when you're enjoying yourself :-)
    Happy Birthday VWB, and here's to many more!

    Once again you've preempted one of my own upcoming posts - this time with your introduction of some swords and sorcery. We had a "beer and pretzels" D&D session over the run up to Christmas, and I managed to take a few photo's with the intention of writing it up as part of my 'Dark Conspiracy' fantasy campaign once the Witchfinder game is finished :-)

    The gaggle of gals look great and I'm looking forward to reading their exploits (and of course, seeing how you run your game adaptations).

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    1. You are more than kind Greg, I've had some of these figures skulking around for a long time without being used much. I did run a series of games using the Runequest rules quite a few years ago and still have many of the game notes from them.
      Looking forward to seeing your take on S and S.
      Cheers

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  4. At last the mystery is revealed I remember Thanda popping up on my reading list awhile back John only to vanish like a thief in the night :)

    I play Frostgraved when it was first released in a one day tournament (the only time I ever played it) but while I liked the concept of it the rules didn't grab me.

    Well its a Birthday so on behalf for Nickel & Dime Production's we offer our best wishes to Vagabond Studio's & hope there will be many more to come :)

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    1. Cheers Frank, yes I hit the wrong button and released the AAR but it was still in it's infancy but I couldn't figure how to call it back, hey ho.

      I agree about the rules but there is a lot in the book to get ideas flowing and a studio with your skills should be able to make some blockbusters from this.

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    2. The only problem is John I gave away the book plus one of the campaign books I got for winning the event :( so I'll just let your studio's have the field for this one :)

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    3. You won the event! You know I always had you down as a power gamer. ;)

      It's good to know I won't have any competition from N&D means I don't have to pay the cast big bucks ;)
      Cheers

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  5. Great stuff John! A big congrats on the blog birthday 🙂 Thanks again for the package, it was pretty incredible and fitting it arrived on Christmas Eve!

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    1. Excellent Ivor, I'm pleased you got it and just in time for Christmas, Serendipity or what.
      Cheers

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  6. A rather late congratulations.
    Here's to many more exciting posts! Cheers!

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  7. Thanks Joakim, I'm just about up to date with everything.

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  8. WHat a great collection of Adventuresses !
    In a perverse way, I'm pleased I'm not the only one that has painted minis that have never seen the light of day on a table (I have entire Armies in a similar situation).
    Thanda is great, with probably the most detailing tohave painted too!

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  9. Hi Joe, the very first proper wargame I had was on my first visit the Sheffield Wargames Club and a very nice chap called Martin let me command a regiment of ECW Foot and one of Dragoons, I proceeded to get the Dragoons destroyed and the Foot were hanging on by the skin of their teeth. One of my most memorable fights if not the most successful.

    Anyway I was smitten with the idea of an ECW army and over the following year I painted 3 foot regiments, one Dragoon and one Halberd regiment plus 2 Regiments of horse. We started a Wargames Club in Rotherham my home town then and no one wanted to play ECW and so to this day they are sat in the drawer pining away and have never been on the table. Minifigs, in block colours, gloss varnish, what is now referred to as old school, why I don't know, it's the only school I went to. I still love them but I'm almost certain I will never get them on the table.
    I imagine we all have figures like that.

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    1. Strangely enough my first game at another club was am ECW one at Southampton, with Donald Featherstone. I commaned aregiment of Royalisy (boo, hiss) horse and threw a double one on their first dice roll for Morale. To recover/rally fromt this setbackI thjrew anotherdoubleone and they disappeared of the board never to be seen again.
      My own ECW army was sold many years ago just over a thousand figures, but did have plenty of use.

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    2. Ahh that Donald Featherstone has a lot to answer for. I remember his first book very well, used his rules until I decided I knew better and them spent years dealing with the complexity of WRG and Newbury Rules before giving up on it all and now I'm back to a slightly more complex version of Featherstone rules.
      What goes around comes around. :)

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