2020 in Review

Generally put, 2020 sucked. But gaming provided a welcome diversion

2020's Top 5

I decided to do something a little different this year and list my 5 most viewed posts.

#5 = MicroBattle Enhancements wherein I discuss the latest version of MicroBattle, featuring the advantage system. I also have a few shots of my 3mm generic battle box.

#4 =Tweedle's Tale wherein I create a character for use with the Swords and Six-Siders RPG.

#3 = RPG Design - Which Dice? wherein I ponder switching to a D12 for my home brew RPG.

#2 = Grom the Goblin Hero wherein I weave the tale of Grom, the goblin warrior who slew a barbarian. The game began as an experiment with a homebrew system that ended when the hero was cut down by a goblin. I then turned the tale around and narrated it from the point of view of the goblin.

#1 = Quest RPG wherein I share my impressions of the Quest RPG. Eventually, I decided against using it. Ironically, it did not feel granular enough in some areas but in others it was too much (e.g. it uses feats)

Interesting that most of those deal with roleplaying.

2020's Trend

I started the year on a skirmish kick. Here I experimented with some slap-together wooden figures.

I then began dabbling with MicroBattle, a set of quick play rules that I developed in 2019. Here I have a go at Micro Marathon.

I went back to skirmish when I discovered a homebrew set called Age of Heroes, which was posted on Lead Adventure Forum. I enjoyed them thoroughly and even adapted them for tank skirmishes.

I then began work on a homebrew light RPG. The tale of Grom (above) was one of my experiments.

Since August, my gaming has been either one of two types:

• Experiments with my MicroBattle rules, or
• Experiments with RPGs (primarily my homebrew rules but I dabbled with Swords & Six-Siders)

Recently, I rather combined the two, using the same base mechanics for both. And this is where my gaming stands as we head into 2021. All in all, an interesting year gaming-wise, at least as far as rules experiments go. Looking forward to more development of MicroBattle next year.

Prognostication Review

Finally, I like to review my prognostications from January to see how well I predicted the future. Let's take a look.

• Skirmish / RPG boxes - while I had my 3mm figures stored in pencil boxes, I did not have any skirmish or RPG stuff so organized. I have since ditched the pencil boxes, but I have adopted a variety of other boxes for all my gaming needs
• Consolidation - As planned, I moved my RPG reports to this blog. Ironically, this has provided a substantial amount of material for this blog in 2020, as I have posted a lot about experiments with a homebrew RPG.
• Fewer Posts - I suspected that I would post less in 2020 but it turns out I posted a bit more. Part of that is due to the consolidation of blogs I mentioned above.
• Indecision - yeah, I really did not stick to a single period during the year. However, as I mentioned above, there ended up being a distinct theme - my work on my MicroBattle rules. The interesting thing about MicroBattle is that it is generic, allowing me to jump around between periods without issue.

Of course, I would never have predicted COVID. Ironically, that really did not affect my gaming given that I play solo extensively.

So there's my 2020 gaming year in a nutshell.

The Final Encounter

Following their battle with the giant scorpion, Gregor and Belle continue their journey across the desert.

Rules commentary will be in italics.

A Discovery!

As the proceed on their journey, they spot something on the horizon. At first they think it is the mountain where Herman the hermit lives. But as they approach, they see that it is too regular. It is the ruins of some ancient tomb or temple!

Once again I rolled on the Encounter chart to see what the party comes across. I rolled another Discovery. The last time I rolled a Discovery I had no way of knowing what it entailed. So this time I created a quick Discovery chart. It is not overly detailed but it gives a way to jog my imagination.

• A bane is some bad occurrence not connected with a combat encounter. In the desert it could be something like a sandstorm or the party runs out of water. 
• A prize is a treasure or other valuable item. Note that is may be protected! 
• A wonder is some kind of remarkable feature that is not necessarily dangerous. 
• A clue is some information that will aid the party.
• A boon is some helpful occurrence. For example, in the desert they may meet a merchant caravan that can provide supplies or aid.

For this encounter, I rolled 3 - Wonder. Immediately, I had this idea of a long-lost pyramid. I then decided to see of this was true, with a 4+ indicating that it was. A roll of 6 indicated that it was indeed a lost structure.

Gregor suggests that they investigate but Belle reminds him that they need to deliver the message. They camp for the night, and Belle heals Gregor's wound.

I did not bother rolling because Belle had not called upon divine favor since the prior battle. It seemed extremely likely that she should succeed.

The Hermitage

After some more trekking, they spot the hermit's mountain. As they approach the entrance to the cave where Herman lives, a beast suddenly jumps out. It looks like a winged lion with a human-like face and spiked tail.

"A manticore!" cries out Belle.

It shoots its spikes at the party. Gregor leaps in front and uses his shield to block the spikes. It then swoops upon them. They swing their weapons but miss.

Note - I won't be doing a roll by roll explanation of this combat like I did with the scorpion.

It makes a second pass and Belle strikes it with her staff, wounding it. It lashes at her with its great claws, ripping into her flesh.

It pursues her, snapping with its fangs but she jumps out of the way.

I made a slight change to the combat rules. Baddies never roll for attacks. Instead, the target of their attack rolls to see if it can make the enemy miss. If the PC fails, then he/she can roll to resist damage. It's good that I made this change, because I kept rolling 5s and 6s for defense when the manticore attacked. Imagine if those had been attack rolls!

Then she hits it again. It seems un-phased (she scored a hit but it resisted damage).

Gregor leaps into the fray and slashes the monstrosity. It turns on him but misses. This gives Belle a perfect chance to attack. Her staff cracks against its skull! It swoons momentarily, then turns back on her.

Now Gregor attacks. He stabs his sword deep into the manticore's chest. The creature dies.

Aftermath

The heroes rush into the hermit's cave. They see the destruction wrought by the manticore, but no hermit! As they are searching, they hear creaking. A trap door opens up.

"Is it safe?" asks a wizened figure.

"It is, the monster is slain." answers Gregor.

The figure nods and sighs. "Pity, what an interesting specimen. Ah well, it could not be helped."

After some prodding they find that this is indeed the hermit. They deliver their message and complete their quest.

The End

And now I think I shall leave the saga of Gregor and Belle. I have too many characters and need to focus on one set. But never fear, I am not done with MicroBattle quests!

Merry Christmas!

 May the peace of Christ be upon you.

I invite you to visit my Paladin's Quest LARP blog for a few thoughts on the holiday.

The Scorpion's Sting

 I had a brief opportunity for gaming this morning, so I decided to continue Gregor and Belle's adventure.

As Gregor and Belle tramp through the desert, two giant scorpions pop up from behind a sand dune.

Let's take a detailed look at the combat process.

Round 1

Initiative

The scorpions roll higher so they go first.

I then rolled to see if they surprised the heroes. I gave it 50/50 odds (surprised on 3 or less). No surprise.

Ranged Attacks

The scorpions do not have ranged attacks.

The heroes do not have ranged weapons. However, Belle decides to call upon divine aid (i.e. a clerical spell). I do not have a set spell list; instead I take a free form approach. I decide that Belle is calling upon divine aid to drive away the scorpions. This sounds like a ranged attack to me so she can act.

• First, she must check to see if she gets the "spell" off. I give her neutral odds (4+). She rolls a 4 and just manages to catch the attention of Daeus, her deity.
• Now she must determine the impact. I treat this as a normal attack on the scorpions. She would typically be disadvantaged against scorpions because they are a higher level so she needs a 5. She rolls a 6 and 3.
• I decide that the successful roll manages to drive off one scorpion

Melee

The remaining scorpion charges into battle. I roll randomly to see who it attacks - it's Gregor. This is fine because I wanted Gregor to shield Belle.

• The scorpion has an advantage over Gregor (higher level). However, Gregor's shield brings this back down to neutral. The scorpion needs a 4+ and rolls a 2. A miss!

Note - I made a change to the rules. Now a defender's shield causes a disadvantage to the attacker's roll instead of adding to the defense roll. While it makes more intuitive sense to me, I'm not sure if I like this change; I'll experiment some more.

Now Gregor counterattacks.

• He starts as disadvantaged but gets an advantage due to his warrior training (i.e. class bonus). This ends up as neutral so he needs a 4+. He rolls a 5; a hit!
• The scorpion defends. It needs a 4+ but rolls a 3. It is wounded. It can only take 2 wounds so is in a bit of trouble!

Morale

I should have made a morale roll to see if the wounded scorpion fled but I forgot. Let's just say that it passed.

Round 2

Initiative

Both sides roll a 4. I have a rule I call "Dynamic" that lets player characters to act first on a tied initiative roll. The heroes act first.

Ranged Attacks

Belle decides not to risk calling on Daeus this time so she rushes into melee. Therefore, there are no ranged attacks.

Melee

The heroes attack.

• Gregor still needs a 4+. Belle does not have a class bonus so she needs a 5+ (she is disadvantaged because the monster is higher level). They roll 5 and 2. One hit!
• The scorpion defends, again needing 4+. It rolls a 6 so the hit does nothing (its chitinous exoskeleton repels the attack).

Now it's the scorpion's turn. A random roll determines that it attacks Gregor.

• It needs a 4+ and rolls a 6. Gregor is hit.
• He now defends. Due to his light armor, he needs a 4+ to resist damage. He rolls a 1 so takes a wound.
• But the scorpion has poison. Off the cuff, I decide that Gregor needs to make a Constitution save or else take more damage. I give him even odds (4+) but he rolls a 2. He takes a second wound!

Gregor has lost 2 of his 4 hit points so he is badly wounded.

Round 3

Initiative

The scorpion wins 5-4. It goes first.

Ranged Attacks

None

Melee

I randomly determine who gets attacked and it is Belle, which is what I wanted. I imagine that Belle would try to shield her wounded comrade. 

Note - A new rule just dawned on me. When one character tries to shield another, I should increase the odds of the shielding character to get attacked.

The scorpion attacks.

• It has an advantage vs. Belle (3+ to hit) but rolls a 2. Belle manages to dodge the attacks

The heroes counter

• They still need a 4 and 5 to hit. They roll 5 and 6. Both hit!
• The scorpion defends. It needs a 4+ but rolls a 3 and 2. It takes 2 wounds and drops dead!

Aftermath

The battle is over with our heroes victorious. However, Gregor is badly wounded. Time to invoke another rule called Rally. After a fight, PCs can try to rally their strength and recover a wound. Gregor needs a 4+ and succeeds. He goes back up to 3 hit points.

Next, Belle tries to heal Gregor. She has already called upon Daeus in this encounter so I decree that a second calling will be done at a disadvantage (5+). She rolls a 2 so Daeus does not answer her prayer this time.

After a rest, our heroes resume their trek.

What happens next? Tune in next time!

Gregor and Belle's First Quest

 Last time, I set up a quest as an example of my MicroBattle light RPG variant. My two heroes, Gregor the paladin and Belle the priest have been tasked with delivering a message to a hermit deep in the desert.

The Journey Begins

I pulled out a flip mat, a marker, some meeples, and some dice. On the left of the flip mat, I began mapping the path through the desert, with a black meeple showing where the heroes are. I'm essentially running it like a hex crawl.

I'm using the right side as a battle board. You can see that in area 1, the heroes have encountered 4 enemies. 

I determined this with the following charts:

First I roll on this chart (I skipped the area roll because it is a wilderness adventure).

I rolled a 5 so then I rolled on this chart.

And ended with with 4 weaker creatures. What are they specifically? I don't know; I'll just make something up. How about starving hyenas? Sure, why not.

I could create some tables to tell me exactly what gets encountered, but I'm being lazy here.

Battle!

I roll a D6 for each side to determine initiative. The hyenas roll a 6 and the heroes a 3. The hyenas attack!

There are two attacking each character. However, to make the game more pulpy (in that the heroes can easily defeat hordes of mooks), I have a special rule:

• Hollywood Bad Guys - only one mook attacks a hero per turn. Additional mooks provide an advantage to the roll

The target number is based on a comparison of levels. The hyenas are lower level (weaker) so start at a disadvantage (need a 5+ to hit). By outnumbering each hero, the hyenas also gain an advantage, lowering the target number to 4+. They miss Belle but hit Gregor!

However, Gregor has a chance to defend against the hit. His light armor gives him standard odds (4+) but his shield provides an advantage. He needs to roll a 3+ to avoid the hit. He rolls a 6! Hyena teeth grate against his armor but do not penetrate.

Now the heroes attack. Both are higher level so both are advantaged (need a 3+). A 4 and a 5. Two hits!

The hyenas try to defend, but they need a 6. They both fail so are wounded. They can only take 1 wound each, so both die.

This triggers another rule:

• Slay On! - after killing an enemy, a hero may attack again.

This time, only Gregor attacks again. He hits again but this time the hyena defends (rolls a 6).

However, with half their number dead, the hyenas must roll morale. They fail, so they break and run. 

Our heroes have survived their first encounter!

Keep On Trucking

Belle and Gregor continue their journey. At their next waypoint (2), I roll a discovery. I haven't created a chart for this yet and nothing came to mind, so I don't know what it is. I did roll to see if it was good or bad - a 6, which to me is good! I assume they discover some clue that will aid them in a future encounter.

The next two points (3 and 4) are uneventful. This brings them to the 5th point.

By the way, this photo shows how I determined the path. I assume that there are 3 possible exits (diagonal left, diagonal right, or straight). I then rolled a D6, with a 4+ indicating a path. I generally read the dice in the order of red, white, and blue. So you can see in this instance there is only a path to the left.

I then roll for an encounter and get 2 stronger monsters (the table above should read D3 / party). What are they? I don't know - let's say they are giant scorpions!

As Gregor and Belle tramp through the desert, two giant scorpions pop up from behind a sand dune.

What happens next? Stay tuned for the next installment!

Questing with MicroBattle

Previously, I posted a short adventure wherein I used a variant of my MicroBattle rules. One reader asked about the rules so I thought I'd play an adventure and provide running commentary.

Character Creation

My goal is to create an extremely rules light experience, so that I don't have track a lot of information. As you see, I decided to keep characters very simple.

1. What profession is the character? I leave this very free-form, so that the rules can be used for any genre. When performing a task, a character's profession will give an advantage if it logically applies. For example, a thief will have an advantage when picking a lock.
2. What level is the character? Levels run from 1 (novice) to 5 (master). Naturally, I start characters at level 1. This will determine his/her expertise in the profession. A master thief will pick locks easier than a novice.
3. Does the character have any traits? These would be abilities outside of a profession or any flaws. I kept this simple:
1. Roll a D6. Add a boon (positive trait) on a 6 or a bane (negative trait) on a 1
2. Roll a D6, indicating the D&D attribute affected. 1 = Strength, 2 = Intelligence, etc.
4. How many wounds can a character take? Characters start at 4 wounds.

That's it. I do not bother with equipment; I just assume that the character has the standard equipment for his/her profession. Similarly, I don't have spell lists but just create spells in an ad hoc fashion. We'll see how that works soon.

For this adventure, I created two characters - Gregor a paladin and Belle a priest. They both start at level 1 and 4 wounds.

Gregor did not have a special trait, but Belle rolled a 6 and a 1. I interpret this to mean that she has exceptional strength for a cleric.

Note that it took longer to describe the process than it was to create my characters.

Adventure Creation

There are quite a few resources for creating adventure ideas but I decided to make a simpler, more generic version. It is not as specific as other randomizers, but it does provide a spark to my imagination.

When I rolled on the tables, I came up with Traverse Person Castle.

• Traverse means that the party has to cross something - essentially go from one end to another to reach their goal.
• Person doesn't seem to fit with Traverse. How can you travel across someone? So I interpret it to mean that they are travelling to find someone.
• Castle seems kind of dull to traverse. It could work but it wasn't clicking for me so I rolled again and got Desert. This is better.

The Quest

Gregor and Belle are novice members of the Temple. They have been assigned a quest to deliver a message to Herman, a hermit that lives deep in the desert.

Next time - The Adventure Begins!

I'll begin walking through their adventure

RPG-ish

 I wanted some RPG action but was too lazy to prepare a proper dungeon. I decided to wing it, using my generic rules with meeple figures and a dungeon I drew out on a flip mat.

An adventuring party consisting of a ranger (green), knight (gray), cleric (blue), and wizard (yellow) enter the dungeon. They are immediately attacked by orcs. The ranger shoots one down before the sides come to grips.

In the battle, the knight and cleric takes wounds.

In the next corridor, they encounter a horde of goblins. Fortunately, the tight quarters of the corridor prevent the party from being swarmed.

The knight is wounded but the cleric heals him.

Two more orcs. The ranger shoots one down then stabs the other.

Next they encounter an ogre. They hit it multiple times but it seems to absorb their blows.

The ranger is wounded and swaps places with the cleric. This allows the cleric to melee the creature while the ranger uses his bow. Alas, the cleric is also wounded and has to heal. The knight takes the brunt of the attacks and also needs to be healed. Shooting mundane and magical missiles, the ranger and wizard wound the ogre. The cleric finally delivers the killing blow.

Without any more heals, the party decides to exit the dungeon.

Gwindor's Charge

 I finally managed to squeeze in the scenario I attempted last week. I moved to my desk (with the battlefield on my laptop) in the hopes that Onyx would not notice what I was doing. It was also cool enough to leave the patio door open, so Onyx was distracted by the outdoors.

I took the scenario from an article in issue 436 (August 2019) of Miniature Wargames. It represents the opening of the Battle of the Unnumbered Tears from J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion. The elves (blue) with a contingent of men (red) face off against Morgoth's orc hordes.

Witnessing the execution of his brother, Gwindor leads his elven cavalry in a berserk charge of the orc command.

The rest of the army follows. Despite taking casualties, Gwindor sweeps away the orc command.

Fingon's cavalry and Hurin's Men of Dor Lomin (right) overrun the orc skirmishers on the hill.

Gwindor and some elven spears charge off the field (they exit the board) while Fingon and Hurin destroy some orc warriors.

But the orcs take revenge and wipe out a band of elves.

Their victory is short-lived, and they get cut down. The path is open to the very gates of Morgoth's stronghold.

Battle Notes

For this scenario, I gave definite advantages to the elves to reflect their ardor (inspired by Gwindor's charge):

• The elves did not have to roll activation; instead each unit could act each turn. In contrast, the orcs rolled activation to simulate their surprise. 
• In addition, I considered the elves as advantaged when making saves while the orcs were neutral. 

I also accidentally disadvantaged the orcs; they were supposed to get reinforcements (a la the horde rule from HoTT), but I forgot until midway through the battle. Even then, they rolled horribly for reinforcements. Not surprisingly, the elves ran roughshod over them. (but wait until the next scenario)!

I used my latest generic universal rules. The key mechanic is what I am calling the Resolution (Res) Test. Roll a D6 and cross-reference vs. the following chart to determine success.

• Major Disadvantage         6+
• Disadvantage                    5+
• Neutral                             4+
• Advantage                        3+
• Major Advantage             2+

What make the rules successful for me is that I don't bother with a bunch of modifiers; I just eyeball the situation and determine a status. It's quick (albeit probably only suitable for solo gaming).

I did make a change on the fly. Initially, I planned to roll activation for each unit separately, but it bogged down the game. I ended up using the Squad Hammer activation rule (roll 2D6 and take the highest).