Frostgrave – Anticipation

Officially, it is still about three weeks until the release of Frostgrave: Fantasy Wargames in the Frozen City, but I suspect people are going to get their hands on it much sooner than that. I know the Nickstarter is hoping to start shipping the week after next, and undoubtedly copies will start getting out to people early – they always do.

This is great; I know a lot of people are really looking forward to getting the game, reading the rules, and giving it a try. The response to the Nickstarter has been overwhelming. It’s nearly hit £38,000 worth of pre-sales. The discussion about Frostgrave on the Lead Adventure forum has carried on for nearly 700 posts, while the Dakka Dakka forum has another 300. There are over 200 members of the Frostgrave Facebook group!

Amazing. I’ve written several books, but never before has anything I’ve written been ‘anticipated’.

 

However, what for everyone else is anticipation is for me trepidation. While the early reviews for the game have been positive, it is going to be the wargaming public that gets the final verdict. Will people want to pick up their dice and play the game? I suppose I will know soon... 

In the end, I wrote Frostgrave because it is the kind of wargame that I wanted to play, a game with a narrow focus (like the exploration of a lost city), but with huge variety. I wanted a wargame that was similar to the role-playing games of my youth, where I could construct my character, my wizard, just the way I wanted him. I wanted a game with lots of different spells and lots of different magic items. I wanted lots of monsters. Even if they weren’t necessarily integral to the game, I wanted to be able to use all of those miniatures I had bought and painted just because they were cool. I wanted a game that encouraged me to tell stories, that felt like my miniatures were ‘adventuring’ instead of just lining up for battle. I wanted a game where I could play a heroic wizard supported by shining knights, or an evil necromancer and his band of grave-robbers, or anything in-between.

This style of more ‘open-ended’ miniatures gaming might not be to everyone’s taste, but it is certainly to mine. I just hope, that when the game is judged, it will be judged in the spirit it was written.

Now, back to writing that supplement – hydras, Frostgrave definitely needs hydras...

Frostgrave - The Hunt for the Golem

It wasn't my original intention to become directly involved with the Frostgrave Nickstarter campaign, but there has been so much excitement, and so many people are supporting the game already, that I guess I just got caught up in all the fun. I told Osprey and Northstar that if the Nickstarter hit £30,000, then I would contribute a new mini-campaign that I had been working on as one of the spend-goal giveaways.

Well, for those keeping score, the Nickstarter passed £30k sometime this weekend! So, it looks like most of the backers will be receiving Frostgrave: The Hunt for the Golem as a free PDF. The campaign consists of three linked scenarios involving a rogue construct from the earliest days of Frostgrave's history. Along with the scenarios, some fluff, and the new monster, there are also a few new treasures that can be discovered during the campaign that will be especially interesting to wizards who like to make their own constructs.

I finished writing the campaign over the weekend. I just need to do some editing before I send it off to Osprey.

In other Frostgrave news, I painted up my first official plastic Frostgrave soldier. I went with a basic thug, because you are always going to need a few. I gave him the axe, because it looks tough, and then I gave him a swag bag. Well, that's what I'm calling it anyway. It's my favourite piece on the sprue, just a sack that can be thrown over the shoulder. Not only does this give something for the thug to carry in his off-hand, thus explaining why he only carries an hand weapon, but fits well with how I usually use my thugs during the game. Their job is basically to grab the loot and get out of there, while my better soldiers and spellcasters do the real fighting.

Anyway, I just want to thank everyone who has supported the game so far, and I hope they enjoy the new mini-campaign!

40 Reasons My Life Has Been Great!

I am a year shy of forty, and, as far as I know, in perfect health. If I’m lucky, I’ll live for another forty years, maybe more. There are numerous experience I would still like to have and adventures I’d like to undertake. Yet, if I had to check-out tomorrow, I don’t think I could really complain too much. You see, I’ve had a pretty darn good life so far. In fact, sometimes, when I’m feeling down, which I do far more than I should, I think it is necessary to remind myself just how good it has been. So here is a reminder to myself. A list, hastily scribbled and in no hierarchy, of 40 reasons why my life has been great!

1. I am a citizen of two counties.

2. I have written six books that have seen publication.
3. I knew all four of my grandparents and three of my great-grandparents.
4. I grew up in a mansion, even though my parents were poor.
5. I attended a good grade-school, a good high school, and a great university.
6. I married Stephanie Bell.
7. I have travelled in fourteen different countries on three continents.
8. My baby daughter is healthy and happy.
9. I have been to five Major League baseball stadiums and seven Minor League.
10. I have hiked into the Grand Canyon.

11. I have been sprayed by the water of Victoria Falls.
12. I have ventured into the Skojan Caves.

13. I have worked under many kind and generous bosses.
14. I have attended Dragoncon, Pulpcon, Historicon, Salute and Spiel.
15. I have cycled over 10,000 miles in the last six years.
16. My father read me The Lord of the Rings (several times!).

17. I have lived in two unique cities: Washington D.C. and Oxford U.K.
18. I have never been truly hungry nor feared eviction.
19. I have stood in an ancient burial mound and camped in a ruined castle.
20. I have seen elephants, lions, giraffes, and zebras in the wild.
21. I have seen Tom Petty, Robert Earl Keen, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Bob Seger, The Oyster Band, Mark Knopfler, and Steve Earle in concert.
22. My mother taught me to be a writer.
23. I have been a spectator at two Olympic Games.

24. I have walked in an on-coming hurricane, stumbled up the stairs in an earthquake, and stood near a fence that was struck by lightning.
25. I have hiked to the top of several mountains.
26. I have read hundreds, maybe thousands, of books.

27. I have toured the British Museum, the Louvre, and the Met.
28. I have stood in the graveyard of my ancestors.
29. I have seen plays in the West End and on Broadway.

30. I have played the stock market, bought a house, and battled out of debt.
31. I have two sisters, a niece, four nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, and God parents.
32. I have climbed into a frozen waterfall.
33. I spent countless hours in a dingy basement store, playing games with friends who made me laugh until I hurt.

34. I have seen the peak of Mount Olympus hanging in the sky.
35. I have stood on Chimney Rock, slid down Sliding Rock, and felt the wind at Blowing Rock.
36. I have crawled into a cavern too small to sit up in.
37. I have starred in amateur plays.

38. I have gotten into a tug-o-war with a wild baboon... and won!
39. I have taken ferries across the English channel and the Irish Sea.

40. I have been a member of a garage band, a softball team, and a ghost-hunting group.

Not bad, not bad at all! 

I not only really enjoyed making this list, but I think it has been good for my mental well being. I would suggest everyone do something similar. In fact, I challenge my fellow bloggers to make their own lists! And if you do, let me know, I'd been interested to see what you write.

Frostgrave Soldiers: Size Comparison Shot

Being an author has a few advantages. Last week, I got my hands on one of the plastic Frostgrave Soldiers test sprues. I know a lot of people have been asking how these plastic figures compare to other figures on the market. Well, here's a quick size comparison shot I set up. So, from left to right:

Perry's Sudanese, Gripping Beast Dark Age Warrior, Frostgrave Soldier, GW Lord of the Rings, Frostgrave Soldier, Fireforge plastic, Frostgrave metal thief.

Frostgrave Review

Here's the first independent review of Frostgrave that I have seen. It's pretty thorough, so if you are looking for my information on the game, I suggest checking it out.

http://thegaragegamers.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/frostgrave-fantasy-wargames-in-frozen_25.html

Frostgrave Battle Report (Bloody Thursday)

There is a rule somewhere that says a creator will never win at his own game, but I get ahead of myself...

Having just created Sancrief and his warband, I wanted to give him a try out, so I arranged a quick lunch-time game with Phil. We only had a small table to play on, but it gave us a nearly 3' x 3' board. Frostgrave can basically be played on any size table. Smaller boards mean quicker, more violent games. Larger tables give more time for manoeuvre and spell casting.

Before the game officially started, Sancrief attempted to roll for an Illusionary Soldier. The spell has a base casting number of 12, and because it is from an aligned school, it is two harder for him. So, he needed a 14 on a d20. As it is an Out-of-Game spell, he gets one shot to roll for it before the game. He rolled a 6, so no illusionary support this time.

The board was set up for a standard game. Phil and I took turns placing six treasures on the board, then we diced for who would start on which side of the table. During set up, I divided my team into three groups. Sancrief, the knight, the warhound, and a thug, would advance up the centre right. His apprentice Vorana, along with the tracker, the thief, and another thug would move up the left. Finally, the lone archer would climb the tall ruins in the corner to get a good field of fire.

Sancrief and his men spy a pile of ancient books frozen into the ground and make a run for them.

The game began quietly. We rolled for initiative, which I won. I began by moving my wizard and the three men near him. Sancrief attempted to cast a Shield spell, but failed. Lo Shen, that dastardly wizard, also advanced with his men. He cast a Summon Demon spell, and with a puff of brimstone, an imp appeared in the form of a floating ragman.

After both of our wizards had moved, it was time for the apprentices to go. Vorana left the thief to collect a pile of scrolls while she took the rest of the men towards a treasure chest. She also attempted to cast a Shield spell and failed (foreshadowing?). Phil's apprentice then activated. He lead his men creeping around the ruins hoping to ambush Sancrief. His crossbowman drew first blood, taking a shot at the knight. The crossbowman has a basic Shoot of +2. So he rolls a d20 and adds 2. In this case he rolled a 12 for a total of 14. In defence, the knight rolls and adds his fight of +4. He rolled a 3 for a total of 7. Since the crossbowman beat the knight's score, he got a hit. However, his total roll of 14 was only one higher than the knights armour of 13, so he did only a single point of damage. Taking the knight from 12 to 11 health.

With the apprentices done, all of the remaining soldiers moved. My archer climbed up to his perch, a few of Phil's guys advanced around the edges, and the imp charged straight across the field towards thief.

Phil won the initiative on the second turn, which turned out to be bad news for me. My archer, up in the ruins, suddenly realized that if he could see everybody, they could also see him. Lo Shen cast a bone dart spell (this actually requires two rolls, one to cast the spell, and if that works, he makes a shooting attack at +5). The bone dart found its mark, doing 8 points of damage, taking the archer down to 2 health. He did haven't to worry long about the wound, however, as a second later, a crossbow bolt slammed into him, sending him tumbling to his doom.

Loosing the archer was tough, but I wasn't worried. As the turn passed over to my wizard, Sancrief cast a Mind Control spell and took command of one of Phil's crossbowmen. Feel confident, Sancrief then sent his warhound scampering across the board to intercept the imp charging down his thief. As it turned out, this would be a major tactical blunder.

As the turn passed to Phil's apprentice, he cast a Leap spell* on the mind controlled crossbowman, which sent him hurtling over some terrain and temporarily removed him from the situation. Then he ordered all of his men to rush my wizard. While the knight bravely intercepted one, the other charged through the gap left by the absent warhound and got into combat with Sancrief. Normally, a wizard should be able to take on a thug, but the dice were on Phil's side and Sancrief was beat down.

Things were a little better on the other flank. My apprentice cast Telekinesis (she actually failed the roll by two, but 'empowered' the spell by spending two of her own health to make the spell succeed). With this spell, she floated the treasure chest into the waiting arms of a thug. Then she turned around to help the thief in case the imp got passed the warhound.

As it turned out, the imp rolled right over the warhound...

And straight into Vorana. Again, an apprentice should at least be able to hold her own against an imp for a turn or two, but it was not to be. The imp tore right through her. (Ironically, she would have survived the first round if she hadn't spent the two health casting Telekinesis.)

Having lost my wizard and apprentice, the rest of my gang decided to make a run for it with whatever treasure they could manage. Vorana's sacrifice had at least allowed the thief to escape with one treasure.

The thug, who had the treasure chest, was gunned down by another crossbow bolt, while my tracker exchanged ineffectual bow shots with an enemy ranger. I got a little smile when Lo Shen tried to cast a bone dart at the tracker, but failed so badly that he actually did a point of damage to himself).

The knight couldn't run. He was pinned down by the apprentice, a crossbowman and a couple of thugs. He fought valiantly for a couple of turns, killing one and wounding another, but in the end, sheer weight of numbers dragged him down.

Meanwhile, my thug who was attempting to escape with the pile of books, was gunned down by a Bone Dart from Lo Shen.

My only minor victory came when my tracker managed to get off the board with the treasure chest, just before the blood-crazed imp could catch him.

So, all and all, a pretty terrible start to the adventuring career of Sancrief. His warband did make it off with a pair of treasures, but those were the only two figures who made it off the board! On the other side, only a single casualty had been inflicted, the thug taken down by the knight.

In the post game, I rolled for each of the casualties. Thankfully, Sancrief and Vorana both escaped with only minor wounds. In worse news, the knight was badly wounded and would have to miss the next game, while the two thugs were dead (the former actually hurts worse than the latter).

Sancrief picked up 120 Experience (20 for casting spells, 100 for the two treasures recovered), so he gained one level and had 20 experience left over. He used the level to increase his Fight score by 1, so hopefully he'll hold his own a little better next time.

When they finally got a chance to look at their loot, the surviving members of the warband discovered that they had found 70gc, three magic scrolls, and a magic dagger that does plus one damage. The gold will replace the thugs with a little left over. The dagger was given to the thief as that's his weapon of choice. The three scrolls turned out to contain the spells: Curse, Raise Zombie, and Banish.

Man... that Banish scroll would have been great to get rid of that stupid imp. Sancrief decided to keep the Raise Zombie and Banish scrolls, but sold the Curse to get a bit of much needed cash...

* We later realized we played the Leap spell wrong as the player controlling the model (me) should have decided where he moved and not the casting wizard. He should have used a spell like Push or Transpose to achieve a similar effect. Still, it made for a great moment in the game, so no regrets.

Sancrief - Wizard of Frostgrave

So with the launch of the Frostgrave Nickstarter and the receipt of my own copy of the book, I have been inspired to create a new wizard and chart his journey in the ruins of the Frozen City.

Sancrief is the last member of the Brothers of the Rose, an ancient order of Thamaturges. I decided go with a Thamaturge because I believe they are the most difficult type of wizard to play. Most of their spells are defensive, which can be really useful, but it's tough to win a game of Frostgrave with defense alone. Still, with the proper handling, I think they can be powerful characters.

Since all wizards start the game with the same stat line (although this can change quickly with experience) the main decision the players have to make is what spells to give their wizards. All wizards start with 8 spells. Three of those spells must come from their own school of magic. So, looking over the Thamaturge spells, I started by taking the school's only offensive spell - Blinding Light. While this spell can't actual hurt or kill anyone, it can render them ineffective and vulnerable at least for a time. I then took Shield because wizards are a little short in the armour department. Finally, I selected Dispell, because it is just fun to irritate other players by cancelling out their spells.

With my Thamaturge spells chosen, I then needed to pick one spell from each of the aligned schools of magic, in this case Soothsayer, Sigilist, and Illusionist. These spells would be a bit more difficult to cast, but only -2 on a d20. From the Soothsayer school I took Mindcontrol. I'd need a 14 to cast it, but if it works, I can take control of an enemy soldier. From the Sigilist school I took Explosive Rune, which essentially lets me place landmines on the board. From the Illusionist school, I selected Illusionary Soldier. This spell is actually cast before the game, and if successful, I get to add a 'sort of' soldier to my warband.

My last two spells had to come from any of the five schools of magic that are neutral to Thamaturges. I'd be at -4 on these, so it was better to look for ones that are generally easy to cast. So, I took Fog from the Witch school, which is good for blocking line of sight and Telekinesis from the Enchanter school, which allows me to move treasure about.

So, with my 8 spells selected, my only other decision for Sancrief is what kind of weapon to arm him with. A wizard can have either a staff or a hand weapon for free, anything else he has to buy with his starting gold. Since my miniature is equipped with a staff, I decided to stay with that.

With Sancrief ready to roll, he needed to round up a warband to accompany him into the ruins. So, using his 500gc, he started by hiring Vorana as his apprentice for 200gc. An apprentice knows all of the same spells as her wizard, but has a tougher time casting them. They can be equipped with any weapon in the same way as the wizard. The miniature has a mace, so I decided to go with the free hand weapon.

For the rest of his warband, Sancrief hired a Knight (100gc) a tracker (80gc) an Archer (50gc) two Thugs (20gc each) a Thief (20gc) and warhound (10gc). These give him 7 soldiers (one short of the maximum), but uses up all of his starting gold.

Sancrief is ready to enter the ruins! (Hopefully I'll have a report of his first adventure up in the next day or so).

The figures for Sancrief and Vorana are both from Reaper Miniatures. The warband will be made up of figures from a variety of manufacturers...I'm kind of holding out for the new plastics!