Specific Settings Vs. Generic Fantasy

When I was a kid, I saw advertisements for Runequest in Dragon Magazine, and reviews of Runequest material, and it all seemed to revolve around cults. At that time in my life, cults were shadowy, dark organizations that were best avoided. And then there were ducks. Overall, it seemed a game and setting that I'd rather pass on. Many years of seeing more about Glorantha as a setting, working in a game store and reading a lot of the source material, and taking time to really think about it and put it all together led me to an intense desire to not only play in Glorantha, but push the weird to it's limit. My aldryami are not elves with an affinity for trees, mine are trees in human form. My goblins are not just akin to fungus, they are actual mushroom people. And historical bronze age weapons and armor are being used, as much as possible.

Runequest ad from way back in 1981!

Which is what I have been pursuing with this project, Five Leagues In Glorantha. Because many of the differences between Glorantha and a generic medieval fantasy setting are visual (and a lot is also social, but that doesn't show up as much in a wargame,) I have had a great time building, converting, and painting my miniatures and terrain. Let me tell you, Glorantha is a blast and the scenarios write themselves after the framework is rolled up. Using the Lunar Empire's invasion of Heortland in 1617 is a wonderful way to tie a lot of elements together on the tabletop. And the constant threat of Chaos lurking in the back, broo and mutants and cultists, is a perfect opportunity to pull out all those old miniatures again.

But a specific setting can also be a bit limiting. Nordic Weasel Games has a couple of expansions for Five Leagues From The Borderlands that simply do not fit well into the mystique of Glorantha. The Goblin Hills is exactly what it sounds like, a small campaign about stemming a goblin invasion. While it could be tailored to Glorantha with a little work, the idea of "normal" fantasy goblins has a certain appeal as well. A recent release (as of this writing) is The Old Kin, which is kind of the classic lizardman-culture-predates-humanity trope that permeates a lot of fantasy literature and settings. Not just lizardmen, but also easily encompasses fishmen and frogmen. I love fishmen and frogmen! Deep Ones from the Cthulhu Mythos! But, not a big part of the Glorantha setting. Again, I could make it work with a little tweaking. But I really like both of these supplements as written, and I have the urge to use them as they are.

Ral Parha Elf Swordsman, Before And After

Another interesting thing about a bronze age fantasy setting with a lot of unique races and cultures is that, while there are a lot of opportunities to go full weird and have a great time with the theme, there is not much chance to include other things. For example, I recently found one of my earliest miniature purchases, an old Ral Partha Elf sculpted by Tom Meier (and surprisingly still available) which was in terrible condition. So I stripped the paint, and gave him a colorful facelift in line with my modern miniatures. But, he's not something I would expect to see in Glorantha. I mean, I could use him, but he doesn't fit the setting in my head.

Dammit Moody!

And then, on Facebook, my friend Moody shared these guys. He is also a Gloranthaphile like me, but he has a lot of other interests as well. And now I want these miniatures. And I want to use them. Here at home in solo skirmish games. But they simply do not fit into Glorantha.

So what's a guy to do? I am just going to have to start a second Five Leagues From The Borderlands campaign, done as a generic fantasy setting. I'll use the new rules from The Old Kin, and have steel weapons and armor, and elves, and goblins, and ogres... basically a side trip for when I want to do the stuff not normally available in Glorantha. It will never eclipse my beloved ducks, I am sure, but it is definitely on my radar as something to plan now.

The Lair Of The Manticore

Another Sunday night, another adventure for the fearless friends of Anasdiazi's Raft!

The village of Garakt was having a bit of a bad time of it; a few farmhands had been seized by a flying creature while working the fields! There was certainly extra work available on the farms, but Our Heroes had other plans. The first stop was the town healer, to get Puddles back up on his feet and ready for action. He promptly went fishing, caught four big fish, and sold them in town for a total of 6 gold coins. Anasdiazi himself followed up a rumor and managed to find Pariwan Keetslander in the local tavern. After some discussion and a small transfer of gold, Pariwan was hired to join the Raft. And although Holy water and traps were freshly available for sale, they were passed up to buy Pariwan a nice suit of partial armor.

Meet the new kids: Mawat and Pariwan Keetslander

While the Former Soldier and the priest of Humakt were still recovering (seriously, is that priest ALWAYS injured?) the rest of the raft went out adventuring again. They found blood and the remains of the missing farmhands, and nearby they found the lair of a Manticore. Clearly this was the beast that had been terrorizing Garakt!

Silly cat is silly

There was a brief delay of the encounter, as a Giant Mythic Godsland Housecat investigated the Manticore's lair. Once it had satisfied it's curiosity, the Spirit moved on.

The Raft moves in on the Manticore

The Raft attacked in four separate groups, Oasasya handling archery from the left flank, Puddles and one of the Hired Guides on the right flank, Anasdiazi and Quackmore rolling on the left, and Mawat, Pariwan, and the other Hired Guide running in on the right.

Arrows in the Manticore not shown

The archery proved almost entirely useless. The rest of the Raft advanced hastily, and the Manticore moved towards Mawat and Pariwan.

Pariwan and the Hired Guide are gone

While the archers continued their inabilty to harm the beast, Mawat scored first blood. Pariwan followed her lead, and was quickly struck down for his efforts. The Hired Guide had a similar fate. Anasdiazi and Quackmore were unsuccessful in harming it either.

Why isn't it dieing?

While the archers were hitting the Manticore, none could penetrate it's scaly hide. With a quarter of the Raft out of action, it was up to Anasdiazi to turn the tide of this battle.  He managed to injure it, causing it to lash out and knock himself, Mawat, and Quackmore back a bit.

Oasasya kills the beast!

As Anasdiazi and Quackmore were regrouping, and Mawat was staring down the maw of the beast, Oasasya finally found his mark and a well-placed arrow slew the terror.

The Raft gained 9 gold coins, 3 Story Points, an Icon (useful when gaining a blessing from a Village Priest,) a potion of Winter Flask (which allows an improved profile after three campaign turns sleeping, but might also kill Our Hero,) and a scroll of Sparrow's Flight. Scrolls are neat because they teach a character a spell, in this case to allow a friendly character to make a bonus shooting attack. The scroll is "one use" to learn the spell, but I will need to email the Rulesgiver to find out if the spell is a permanent once-a-game ability, or the spell is one use only as well. The Dark Secrets Threat rating was reduced by one as well.

When it came to the casualties, Pariwan Keetslander was lightly injured and will need to spend two campaign turns recovering. The Hired Guide, however, died (dammit! that was a nice conversion and paint job!)

The Manticore had a Toughness of 5 and ignored Wounds, so it was only taking damage on a roll of 6. This made for a bit of a problem, as it was very hard to injure. The Raft is getting big, and brought six Heroes to bear, with a variety of skills and weapons. If they had been at the same disposition as at the start of the campaign, it might have ended much more tragically for Our Heroes.

EDIT/UPDATE: I have received word from the Rulesgiver that once a Spell is learned from a Scroll, it becomes a once per game ability for the character that learned it.

Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.

Interlude: Gangs Of Tatooine

In addition to my love of "Five Leagues From The Borderlands," I am a fan of the parent system "Five Parsecs From Home." It is a science-fiction solo miniatures wargame that has spawned three add-ons: "Salvage Crew," "Gang Warfare," and "Bug Hunt." All three of the additional games are compatible with the base system and each other. It's quite an elegant system.

But before we get too involved with my current project, a little history is in order. The original "Five Parsecs From Home" was the science-fiction supplement for FiveCore, and was designed as a two player game with a reasonable solo play adaption. I really love FiveCore, and I played a couple of games of Five Parsecs as well. Mostly I was playing WWII with it, set in Manchuria in early 1945 and following a small group of chinese bandits trying to survive a crossfire between the japanese and the russians. Then I wanted to play british vs. germans in 1941 North Africa; I bought some stuff, started working on it, and then got wrapped up in other projects.

FiveCore WWII game set in Manchuria

Somewhere in there, a second edition of Five Parsecs was released, designed for solo play. I was pretty excited until I realized that it wasn't FiveCore Solo, it was a whole new game system. And so I put it away; later "Five Leagues From The Borderlands" was released using the same core rules, so I tried that out and it was pretty good. I spent some time playing it (and "Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago," and "Rangers Of The Shadowdeep.")

Recently, I started again with Five Leagues second edition (mostly what this blog is about) and my mind wandered back to "Five Parsecs: Gang Warfare." I had been playing the first edition of Five Parsecs from Home as Star Wars, following a small gang in some remote town on Tatooine. And I figured it's about time I started playing again.

FiveCore Five Parsecs Star Wars game in progress

Quite a while ago, years ago really, my friend Brian handed off a large quantity of the collectible WOTC plastic Star Wars miniatures. I was pulling from this cache to provide my forces; I liked the Star Wars setting, but I wanted something lower in power than the Jedi Order vs. the Sith and all that. Essentially, street fighting between regular guys. FiveCore was perfect for that, and the Five Parsecs from Home expansion was even more perfect. So I played a couple of games of Gangs of Tatooine, and moved on to other projects.

So now I am feeling that "Gangs of  Tatooine" itch again, this time for the new Five Parsecs: Gang Warfare. I still have all my old Tatooine terrain, I still have all my notes on the old gang (the Gamos Krayt Crew, to be specific,) and I have not just the core Gang Warfare rules, but a bunch of nifty extras I have acquired over time, because Ivan is a prolific writer. So there is really no way around it: I am just going to have to create a new gang on Tatooine using the new rules. Maybe I'll introduce them to you soon.

A bit of my Tatooine terrain; I have more, but never took pictures.

"Five Parsecs From Home" and it's expansions, including "Gang Warfare," can be found here.

Sleazy Slavers Savaged

Sunday night saw another exciting adventure for Anasdiazi's Raft!

Upon returning to Garakt, our humble Raft returned the body of the slain Former Soldier to his family. Word of the man's death spread through the little village, and before long they had acquired a bit of an ill reputation around town. No one seemed willing to casually socialize. The town healer was still willing to ply his business, however, and managed to get Quackmore back on his feet. Anasdiazi was delighted to see his loyal retainer up and about again. With Puddles recuperating, Oasasya took the liberty of going fishing, and managed to catch a couple of fish worth three gold coins back in Garakt. While he was at the fishing hole, one of the local farmers approached. She was very grumpy about the poor treatment the Raft was getting in the village, and donated a set of rations for the group. Back in town, a young durulz named Mataw approached Anasdiazi and offered to join them. She was big for a duck, and had a fine weapon and her own armor already. Our Hero gladly accepted her into the ranks. Around this time, it became known that there was some important information circulating about town for the right price, but he disregarded this, preparing to move out on patrol again.

Leaving Puddles and the priest of Humakt behind as they were recuperating, the Raft set out on another regular patrol. Shortly after leaving Garakt, they met an old friend of Anasdiazi's, who offered to smooth things out back in town for them. A favor like that would be very handy right about now! Later in the day, the Raft found a new problem: a group of humans with chains and manacles, clearly slavers with ill intent looking for fresh people to steal and sell. They appeared to be negotiating with some manner of a Chaos follower. There was naught to do but attack!

Would you believe the Raft was able to Sieze The Initiative for a third turn in a row? Believe it! In that pre-game phase, Oasasya picked off one of the slavers with a well aimed bow shot. Speaking of whom, Oasasya was the workhorse of this encounter, killing three out of the five slavers. The durulz Hired Guide with the axe killed another, and the last ran away. Mataw, the new girl, was felled by a counterattack by one of the slavers on her initial charge!

Oasasya was also the one who lowered the Chaos Champion's Toughness from 7 to 6, allowing the fiend to be killed by Anasdiazi.

Both Quackmore and Mataw went out of action, but both were merely knocked out. The Former Soldier was quite injured and will require three Campaign Turns of recovery.

They found a sack of valuables containing a repair kit, and recovered a helmet and a war hammer, both of which were gifted to Mataw.

The power of archery was apparent in this game. Oasasya was the MVP this time around, kinding of making up for going out of action a couple of times before. This was also the first time using a Toughness 7+ guy on the board. It was looking a little scary for a couple of turns, but Oasasya's amazing dice rolls saved the day. The Raft now has FIVE Heroes, and I am looking to recruit at least one more. Upkeep will be getting a little expansive soon, but I'm sure it's nothing that can't be handled...

It will be a little longer between games this time, as I want to convert and paint a new model for Mataw. But I'm sure I will find other things that are relveant to post in the meantime.

Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.

The Rulesgiver Speaks!

I had some rules questions about Five Leagues From The Borderlands, and so I decided to email Ivan Sorensen, the genius behind Nordic Weasel Games.

My email to him read:

"Hi, Ivan

You know me as El Conejo Malo on your blog, Coyotepunc on The Wargames Website, and Conejo Kruger on FaceBook.

Regarding the “Creatures Most Vile” section of the Five Leagues From The Borderlands 2nd Edition rulebook (page 142,) I have a question.

Does killing one of these “strange, vile, and dangerous creatures” affect any of the threat ratings of the village our warband is protecting?

I am finally getting around to playing a bit, and I will need to know this soon. As my campaign is set in Glorantha, I kind of imagine all those horrors being somehow related to Chaos and thus on the "Dark Secrets" spectrum.

Thank you,

- Harry"

I have corresponded with him before, and he is usually pretty prompt in his replies. This one came less than 24 hours later:

"Cheers friend.

My assumption with “Monsters” is that they are outside the eco-system of hazards. The outlaws certainly keep away and the assorted cults and fanatics can’t control them, so no.

THAT BEING SAID, if they are Gloranthan chaos creepy crawlies, I’d do something like roll a D6 + the Monster Point value of the monster. On a 6+, it removed a point of Threat."

Notice that he called me "friend." That's right, the Rulesgiver considers me a friend. Satisfying Sunday, indeed!

He then followed up with a second email reading:

"To compensate for the broo or whatever having these sorts of creatures in their arsenal, raise all Dark Secrets by +1 when creating the campaign region."

And this is what I love about Ivan. He explains that his first impulse is to just say no, and then he decides to throw me a fish and come up with a ruling for it anyway. And then he goes ahead and adds a bit more for my specific campaign setting. Granted, his old email was runequester@ so he probably has more than a working familiarity with the Glorantha setting, but I still appreciate the effort.

Thus, the ruling can be written as follows:

When a Monster is defeated, roll a d6 + the Monster Point value. On a 6+, a point of Dark Secrets threat is removed. To compensate for the Dark powers having these creatures in their arsenal, raise all Dark Secrets by + when creating the Campaign Region.

So, I am off to raise all the Dark Secrets threat levels by one.

Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.

Fighting Tribal Nomads And Taking Their Stuff

And so our band of merry adventurers went back to Garakt and licked their wounds. Quackmore was down for the count and would be recovering for a while. Even worse was the priest of Humakt, who was alive but still out cold. The durulz guide that had been hired, the one with the axe, looked like he would be up soon. Puddles went fishing but had no luck at all. Anasdiazi met a wandering merchant who had a bottle of Red Duck and a fine suit of partial armor for sale, but Our Hero declined both. Instead he bought some common armor for Duckworth and one of the former soldiers. Oasasya met a messenger, and while the interaction was polite, nothing came of it.





Anasdiazi gathered up everyone who was well enough to walk, and left with Puddles, Oasasya, the two ex-soldiers, and the local durulz guide with the bow. The recent push by the Lunar Empire into Heortland had disrupted the lives of everyone in the area, and now there were roaming bands of soldiers, bandits, and others making life less than safe for everyone in Garakt. The adventurers went out on patrol, and soon found an encampment of Orlanthi nomads, most likely pushed out of Dragon Pass by the war. The Orlanthi had a reputation for killing first and not asking questions later. Anasdiazi wanted to get everyone together for a closer look, but then the unthinkable happened: they got too close and were spotted! Knowing they couldn't outrun the Orlanthi, the Raft sprung into action against them...





The first turn went really well for the Raft; a well-placed shot by Puddles knocked out the enemy leader during the "Seize The initiative" phase. This is the second game in a row that the Raft has seized the initiative, and this time it paid off nicely.





In total, the archery skills of the Raft killed off a full third of the opposition by the end of the first turn. At the same time, they had lost none of their own and were looking forward to a quick fight to get rid of the pesky nomads.





However, it was not meant to be. Oasasya, the Aldryami, was wounded by an enemy archer and succumbed to the wound after he fired his final shot. After a brief melee, two more nomads were disposed of, one dispatched directly and the other of his wounds after his final swing.





Anasdiazi went after one of the nomad archers, wounded him, and the archer died of hos wounds after firong a parting shot. One of the Former Soldiers was badly wounded by the remaining spear-armed nomad. Puddles and the Hired Guide traded ineffectual shots with the other nomad archer.





Things began to look bad for the Raft; Anasdiazi was unable to kill the next archer he engaged, the injured Former Soldier went out of action from his wounds, the Hired Guide was still unable to hit the last nomad archer, and there was still a nomad with a spear facing off against the other Former Soldier. It would seem that their luck had run out!





And then the luck turned again. Anasdiazi finally managed to draw blood on the archer he was battling, the Former Soldier gutted the spear-wielding nomad in a counter-attack and then moved to support the Hired Guide, and more arrows were shot ineffectually.






The Hired Guide STILL could not shoot the remaining nomad! The Former Soldier engaged him, and both were wounded after their exchange. Anasdiazi was hurrying to help, and while fast for a durulz, he still was not close enough to attack.





The Hired Guide, annoyed at his own lack of marksmanship (marksduckship?) decided to engage the last nomad. he was rewarded with a bleeding wound of his own, but then that same nomad succumbed to his own wounds and collapsed in a heap of bloody robes. The Raft had secured the safety of Garakt again, but the cost remained to be seen.


After the game, injuries, loot, and advancement were determined. The Former Soldier died. Puddles was lightly injured and would spend two campaign turns recovering. Oasasya died, but with his point of Luck he was able to ignore this injury and remained in fighting shape. The Raft was able to loot two Basic weapons, a Bastard sword, and a piece of Silver Jewelry. Anasdiazi gained +1 to his Combat Ability, Puddles added +1 to his Agility, and Oasasya gained +1 Will. The surviving Former Soldier added +1 Combat Ability. And the Border Tensions threat to Garakt was lowered by 1.


This particular episode showcased the Wound mechanic in a particularly bloody way. It seemed as if more people went out of action from failing their wound rolls than from actual combat. And the initial few volleys of arrows were deadly to the nomads as well. Hopefully the next outing of Anasdiazi's Raft will yield some better loot...


Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.

Five Leagues Relaunched! Part Two

It's been quite a week. The upstairs lady broke her hot water heater early Wednesday morning, which had the usual effect of flooding my home. I had to take Wednesday and Thursday off work to deal with the insurance and fixing people, and even a half day Friday. But to celebrate some progress in the repairs, I decided I had waited long enough to re-launch my Runequest-themed "Five Leagues From The Borderlands" solo campaign. I decided to play through my first campaign turn on Friday night. 

Our Adventurers started in the town of Garakt, nestled in a valley of Heortland. Garakt has been disturbed by the invasion of Heortland by the Lunar Empire, resulting in threatening Border Tensions. These Border Tensions have in turn sparked some Outlaw activity, and underneath all of it there are Dark Secrets bubbling in the background.

As they prepared to patrol the area around Garakt to protect this village from any outside threats, they noticed that the law was cracking down. there would be no opportunities for gambling in the taverns now! Instead, Quackmore helped the farmers and earned two gold coins. Puddles went fishing and caught a couple of small fish, but nothing worth selling. And, as they were preparing to leave the town, they were approached by a priest of Humakt wishing to travel with them,

As the day wore on and twilight was approaching, the group began to look for a suitable campsite. In a clearing, they came upon a group of Night Folk, hardened killers stalking the countryside. Anasdiazi and his companions sprang into action against these villains, they were exactly the sort of threat the Raft was trying to eliminate!

It was pretty much a run-at-each-other-and-fight kind of affair, but the three adventurers with bows took out three of the bad guys early on. 

And it was a good thing, too! These villains were as tough as nails. Five out of nine of the Raft went out of action while taking down the seven bad guys.

Although they were wounded, everyone survived. No one succumbed to their injuries... this time.

Quackmore, one of the hired guides (my most recently painted duck,) and the priest will all be out a few game turns recovering from their injuries.

Which is a bit of bad news, because while the rest of the gang went out patroling a few days later, they stumbled upon a tribal nomad camp....

...to be continued.

This was actually a tough fight. The leader of the killers was really powerful, and in the end he expired from failing his "wound" roll (because Anasdiazi managed to stick a sword into himy once.) None of the other bad guys failed their wound roll, but I would have lost Anasdiazi that way if he hadn't used his point of Will. The archers really evened the odds, taking out a couple of the enemy before everyone else closed for combat. Of them, only Oasasya went down once she was in melee. She learned an important lesson about getting too close (trying to get that 3+ shot when within 6" of a target!) 

I had a great time, and am really looking forward to the next time I can play with myself this way!

Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.

Five Leagues Relaunched!

Once upon a time, I fell in love with the FiveCore rules from Nordic Weasel Games. They were designed for sci-fi and modern warfare, and I played a lot of WWII and Star Trek with them. But I really wanted a fantasy version. To a certain extent, that was addressed in the third edition, but it wasn't quite right. And then "Five Leagues From The Borderlands" was released, a fantasy game designed to be played solo. Exactly what I was looking for! Except it wasn't FiveCore. It was built on the engine of  the second edition of "Five Parsecs From Home," which was designed as a solo sci-fi game but was clearly not the FiveCore I knew and loved.

But I gave it a try. And it was GREAT! I played around with it a bit, I re-skinned the encounter tables for the Glorantha setting of the Runequest game. I put together a warband around a core of durulz (durulz is the name of the duck race, and yes, ducks are a character race in Runequest as well as an imaginative bit of Gloranthan lore.) I even cobbled together some monster rules for fighting bigger opponents. And then the unthinkable happened. A second edition was released! NOOOOOOOO!!! But I took a look at it, re-skinned it for Glorantha again, and re-tooled my warband so I was ready to play. I chose "Adventure Level" of difficulty because it is a more casual game than the other difficulties.

Above, the core of the adventurers (Heroes, in game terms) are Anasdiazi, a duck warrior and my Avatar; Duckworth, his loyal retainer; Puddles, a duck archer of untested quality, and Oasasya, an Aldryami archer (in Glorantha, the Aldryami elves are actually tree people in the literal sense, so I decided to take it one step further.) Together, they are Anasdiazi's Raft (a raft being a group of ducks.)

They are accompanied by two humans who are both former soldiers, and two hired durulz guides, one armed with a bow. As they are Followers, and not Heroes, they do not have their own names yet.

I have set my little campaign in Heortland, which is southwest of Dragon Pass in Sartar, The campaign will center around saving four villages from a variety of threats. There is Harankos, Garakt, Berstavalb, and Oraskat. Berstavalb is "counting as" Hillshire Vale in Micro-Pack 2, and Oraskat is "counting as" Broadhill from Micro-Pack 3.

Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.