D&D Old School RPG Fantasy Vikings Project: Creating Characters

As announced on the 'link-holder-page' I am working on getting some Old School Dungeons & Dragons going with my daughters.

I am creating a Fantasy Vikings setting, using as much historical stuff I can, while maintaining the structure and diversity of the D&D setting.

I let the girls roll 4 dice for each Ability (removing the lowest result), and roll 3 sets of Abilities. Then, based on the results, they could decide which profile they wanted, and which Class to play (they could choose from the 4 Human Classes).

Lea rolled quite well on her first profile, and ended up chosing to create a Magic-User. In this setting, she'll be the apprentice of the village's Vǫlva.

When adjusting Intelligence, I allowed her to raise it to 19; although this is technically not permitted by the rules, I have done so in the past, and it doesn't upset balance (especially not when done for a weak Class like the Magic-User). She'll have a +4 adjustment, and +20% xp, thus probably being able to level up not too long after Anna's Shieldmaiden Fighter Character.

The girls ar filling in Character Sheets (and drawing Characters).
Note that Anna, to the right, is wearing her medieval linen dresses
(she does that a lot)!

I also allow magic-users to wear light leather armour, and, as this is a Viking setting, she was allowed to have a bow. I may allow non-magical one-handed swords/axes, too (Gandalf, after all, wielded Glamdring to great effect).

Anna rolled less well, but she ended up with a manageable +1 Fighter, so should be able to protect her younger sister from intrusive monsters.

As both my daughters are young (11 and 8), and completely new to role-playing, I let their characters start with a full Hit Point dice (+ bonus) worth of Hit Points PLUS a roll+bonus. They need some staying power, and as GM I can do what ever I want ;o)

Tomorrow, we'll choose some appropriate names for the characters, and find some nice minis to represent them on the table (oh, yes, there WILL be minis!).

D&D Attack Wing: Dragons of the Spanish Main

Afternoon the 29th of December we started a game that had to wait until morning the 31st for its conclusion.

I broke out the 3x3 table I painted up for Pirates of the Spanish Main some years ago, and also dug out the box with the game components.

So, instead of using ships to collect gold, we played D&D-AW with a few homebrewed rules:

• The first dragon to hoard 10 points of treasure on its home island is the winner.
• Dragons can pick up and/or release treasure as an action when on the ground.
• Dragons may release treasure as an action when swooping over an island, needing 1 hit on a roll with 2 dice for the treasure to land safely (otherwise it lands in the water and is lost).
• Dragons may release treasure as an action when flying over an island, needing 1 hit on a roll of 1 die for the treasure to land safely (see above).
• Dragons may steal treasure from other dragons' islands.

And, one more rule we agreed on near the end of the game:

• Dragons may try to pick up treasure as an action when swooping over an island, needing 1 hit on a roll of 1 die to succeed.

Dragons grabbing gold

And carrying it home

Eshaedra decided to go picking Galadaeros' basket

Which resulted in the two dragons being locked in combat for a couple of turns
(both failed to choose maneuvrers sufficient for moving clear of the other).

Of course, Eshaedra (my dragon) was the only one to take damage.

In the meantime, Balagos kept harvesting gold.

And finally the two others broke free

And Ashaedra steals some gold from Galadaeros.
Note that the rules state that if any part of a model's base extends over the edge of the board,
anytime during a movement, it must be removed from play;
we ruled that as long as a dragon ends in a position where it can stand firmly without support, it's good to go.

Galadaeros decided to return the favour.

This was a breath attack, using +1 die for being at range 4 (special Ashaedra skill).
I roll teribly.
1 hit was easily deflected by Galadaeros' armour.

Ashaedra, realizing that Balagos had amassed quite a hoard by now,
decided to drop her payload and go for Balagos' island.

I misjudged the distance for this move...

...forcing me to make a RED maneuver, meaning that I wouldn't be able to pick any gold from the island
(even if I landed, I wouldn't be able to execute a green maneuver to get rid of the Exhaustion-counter).

Bites were exchanged.

Tail lash

Trying to get in position for a second attempt

Here's another one of my fantastic attack rolls. There's FOUR hit results on each die...

Got mauled again. One more point of damage, and it's goodbye, Ashaedra...

Which happened right next turn. Only 2 dragons left in the archipelago.
Lea is calculating the correct approach to her island.

And Galadaeros lands the final gold to claim victory!

The game is much more interesting with the full rules. Not because of the extra abilities (although the breath attacks are a nice feature), but because the armour actually deflects a lot of damage, giving the dragons more freedom to act.

Also, the 3 height levels (fly, swoop, ground) add a lot to the game (and were fully exploited for this set-up).

The learning curve from the quick-start rules to the full rules is pretty steep; there's a lot of extra stuff to remember, and I decided to introduce one upgrade card at a time (this time going for the breath attacks).

The game is also more fun with a scenario/some objectives added  just duking it out for 'last man standing' isn't really very rewarding; the rule book contains some 'adventures', but I think that coming up with interesting scenarios is going to be the main corner-stone for this to become a game that we play regularly (my girls like to play it, no doubt, but if they are to maintain interest in it, I think I'll have to keep thinking up new plots).

Does the game work?

Yes, certainly! I think the nature of it being a fame set in the D&D universe made the designers add a tiny bit too high level of complexity in order to catch the feel of the original; we tried to set up for a standard 3-player game, and there was no way we would have been able to juggle all those upgrades.

That being said, I think most seasoned role-players will have a blast playing the game, because of the high level of customizability.

Did I get value for money?

Absolutely! We have many hours of gaming time yet to be had from just the contents of the basic set alone, and then there's a whole world of expansions to be explored, too.

D&D Attack Wing - Second Game, Almost Quick Start Rules

Just after playing the first game, we immediately staged a three-way game, as Anna also wanted to play.

We somehow had the movement initiative upside down, so the Lvl 10 Copper Dragon Galadaeros moved first all the time, while the Lvl 8 Red Dragon Balagos moved last.

We were well into the third game before I realized the mistake, but I'll see to that we get it right from now on!

The Dragons start circling each other

Ashaedra just manages to avoid Balagos' bite

Balagos and Galadaeros exchange bites

Ashaedra fails to notice that Balagos just made a wingabout...

...and gets caught between a rock and a hard place...

...sending her spinning towards the ground.

Balagos starts chasing Galadaeros...

...tailing him closely...

...almost losing him...

...but finally catching up, delivering the killing blow.

As mentioned in my previous post on this subject, combat in the Quick-Start rules is very brutal, and as demonstrated, getting caught in cross-fire is a very bad thing.

Under the full rules, Ashaedra might easily have survived getting caught between the two others, but the simple rules should probably not be used as we did for games ivolving more than 2 Dragons, as it is far too easy to gang up and quickly dispatch an opponent.

We are in the middle of a game of treasure hoarding that I hope we can conclude tomorrow (otherwise we'll have to scrap it, as the dining table is reserved for tomorrow eve's feast).

BioCorp Buccaneers: The Team is Growing

A little 'family photo'. The 3rd Striker is WIP at the moment, but I hope to finish him today, and then it is time to get the two Guards done...

D&D Attack Wing - First Game, Quick Start Rules

Turn 1: Both dragons haste forward.

Yesterday, my youngest daughter, Lea, and I broke out the dragons using the Quick-Start rules (except we allowed tail attacks to speed up the proceedings. My eldest offspring was too busy devouring some fantasy novel, so we had the dining table to ourselves.

The starter box contains 3 dragons, blue, red, and copper, and for both there is a named/unique/character, and a generic version (represented by a card, just like the pilot cards in the X-Wing game).

Turn 2: Balagos banks to the right

For the Quick-Start game, the characters Eshaedra (blue) and Balagos (red) are used, without any upgrades. This means no breath attacks, as they are not part of the basic creatures.

Normally, under these rules, the dragons would be able to use their Bite attack only, but as mentioned, we decided to allow the Tail attack (to the rear), as it would mean that you couldn't kill the opponent off by tailing her.

We quickly started circling each other, and my greater experience from playing X-Wing and Star Trek: Attack Wing meant that I got into attack position rather early.

Turn 2: Eshaedra makes a wingabout

Maneuvering the dragons with the rulers feels a lot like real flying creatures circling and swooping while trying to lash out at each other.

Lea didn't quite master the maneuvering part right away, as the large bases of the dragons (they are the size of big X-Wing ship bases like the Millennium Falcon, etc.) means that the moves become a bit longer than immediately obvious from the length of the rulers, but after a few turns she got the hang of it.

The Quick-Start rules do not use the Armour rules, so the Dragons have hit points equal to their Health + Armor values.

Turn 3:
Balagos turns left, while Eshaedra
flyes slowly forward and Bites him in the flank

Thus, victory must go to whomever gets the most attacks to bear - as there is no counter measures, other than the sparse Agility rolls (1 or 2), combat is very lethal.

As can be seen from the pictures, I anticipated most of Lea's moves, and thus I dealt a lot more damage than she did.

In the end, though, the outcome was decided by Balagos accidentially leaving the table (one could argue that he fled the scene being one hit away from getting downed).

Anna finished her book while Lea and I were playing, and she joined us at the table, bringing cookies and clementines to the fray.

Lea wanted a rematch right away, so we organized a 3-Dragon match, using the Quick-Start rules once more. I shall post a write-up tomorrow, if I find the time for it (we have a 3rd game going on, featuring islands and gold, but more of that on a later occation).

Turn 4:
Flying close, the two Dragons angrily snarl and Bite.
Note the 5 Damage cards by now received by Balagos,
and the single one by Eshaedra.

Turn 5:
Balagos flies straight ahead, while Eshaedra makes a wingabout,
and gets a free Bite attack against Balagos' other flank.
Next move saw Balagos in a position where leaving the table was unavoidable, thus ending the game.