Four More Against Darkness

I've been having fun with Ganesha Games's latest rules - Four Against Darkness (which I described a couple of week ago). Since then, I've posted a couple of adventures (like this one) on my Tales of the Templars blog.

Of course, being cursed with GADD (gamer's attention deficit disorder) I cannot envision myself being content with adventures in a single genre. Fortunately, I experienced some inspiration from the Rincon de Slorm blog where there is posted a sci-fi themed dungeon crawl using the 4AD rules. Slorm's variant is cleverly simple; keep the rules as is but just change the names of classes and monsters to fit the theme. Even I can do that!

Way back in January, my excursion into skirmish gaming began with a vision - pulp adventures in my 1930s-style, imaginary world of Aetheria. Nothing materialized with this setting because I never found paper miniatures that I liked. Well 4AD has given me the opportunity for a pulp-era dungeon-crawl. To that end, I give you Dirk Daring and his Thrilling Adventures in Aetheria!

Game Notes
Like Slorm, I did not change the rules; I just changed names to fit the theme. Hobgoblins became Imperial Guardsmen, a small dragon became a Dragon-class exoskeleton complete with flame-thrower, and various vermin became guard dogs. Their game stats remained the same.

I did something similar with the classes. Dirk (warrior) became a soldier while Boomer (wizard with fireball spells) became a demolitions expert. I didn't come up with new, formal class names for Sally and Fifi (halfling and elf respectively) but in my mind they were a mechanic sidekick and a secret agent.

I did make some tweaks. Because I could not see pulp-era heroes carrying shields, they lost the defensive benefit. I compensated with extra bandages (healing). For those characters who could use light armor, I assumed they had leather jackets that provided some protection.

Anyway, not only did I enjoy the game, I had fun coming up with pulp-themed translations of the monsters and treasures. As a final note, I think that my experiment showcases the versatility of 4AD and why it has quickly become one of my favorite games.