Ser Killian On Hiatus

After last week's musings about my dungeon crawl rules, I decided to put Kilian's story on hiatus.

Killian (left) with Haiden his squire, Nashad the man-at-arms, and Martin his priest.
I imagine Haiden as a bit older, but otherwise Chat GPT did a good job.

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Killian's Story

Killian's story ended nicely when I completed the Dragon of Icespire Keep module. He defeated the titular dragon, built a church in Phandelin, and brought peace to the region.

I enjoyed the climax so much I decided to continue with the sequel module, Storm Lord's Wrath (SLW). I played the first adventure then stopped.

A New Strategy

I have some ideas for tweaks to my Micro Dungeon rules. I think it will be best to test them with new characters. But first, I wanted to finish SLW.

Problems Arise

Last weekend, I pulled up SLW and began prepping the remaining adventures. This involves translating D&D encounters into my rules. Sometimes, I need to add encounters because the published adventures are pretty slim and also include social encounters, which I drop.

As I worked through the module, I encountered some problems.

• Multiple main quests - in SLW, you face the minions of TWO evil priests. Couldn't they just focus on one? I considered dropping one main quest and just completing the other. That would give me some closure.
• Stupid side quests - there are some side quests that have no bearing whatsoever on the main story. I want to finish Killian's story quickly, therefore I won't bother with these.
• The Big Bosses aren't here - this is the big issue. The confrontations with the evil priests aren't in this module. There are two more modules! I did not realize this when I bought SLW. I thought it would be like Dragon of Icespire Keep, in which the main quest is completely in the module. But no, they want to string me along. I am not buying another modern D&D module.

Because of these problems, especially the last one, I'm done with SLW.

What Next for Killian?

I'm leaving Killian at the start of a story. I feel like I need closure. Perhaps I will create my own story where he fights one of the evil priests.

BUT, that is a bit of work. I think I will put Killian on hiatus and start new characters.

Protecting Pearl

A few years ago, I did a mini Pearl Harbor campaign using my Micro Battle air combat rules. It's on my old blog so I decided to start fresh, with a slightly different scenario,

The Dogfight

It is the morning of December 7th, 1941. Lt. William Crow and Lt. Rex Raven, based at Hickam Field, get the alarm. Enemy forces inbound! They scramble for their P-40s and take off.

They engage 3 Val dive bombers (gray) escorted by a Zero (red)

The Zero gets on Crowe's (Green 1) tail. He takes damage. Meanwhile, Raven gets behind the Vals (left).

Raven damages a Val. It breaks off its attack. 

Crowe manages to slip the Zero. He and Raven get behind two Vals. Rat-tat-tat. BOOM!

Both Vals go up in flames.

The Zero stays in the fight, targeting Crowe. Evasive maneuvers! The Zero misses.

Raven comes to the rescue and damages the Zero.

There is more circling and missed shots. Finally, the Zero, running out of fuel, abandons the fight.

Crowe and Val have saved Hickam Field!

What's Next?

I have one more scenario - protect the battleships! I haven't played it but will post it when I do.

In future years, I don't want to keep repeating Pearl Harbor scenarios. Maybe I'll designate December 7th as Air War in the Pacific day and do further battles (Coral Sea, Midway, etc.). Crowe and Raven will be the stars; I guess they'll transfer to the Navy.

Saladin Sallies

I decided to start a Crusader-themed campaign for Dominion of.

Saladin sallies across the border into the Crusader States. His army (blue) consists of 2 units of Mameluks (elite horse archers), a unit of Turkoman horse archers, foot archers, and spears.

The Crusaders defend with crossbows (in the town), 2 units of knights, and 3 spears.

In the initial attack (not pictured because for some reason blogger is not uploading it), the Crusaders lose some knights and spears. Knights and spears fill in the gaps.

The reserve knights charge the Turkoman horse archers. A rain of arrows wipes them out.

Some of the Mameluks recklessly charge the town. The crossbowmen shoot them down. But Saladin's archers take out the spears on the right.

This opens up the Crusader flank. The archers hit the center spears.

The Crusader crossbowmen are bottled up in the town. Game over, Saladin has won. But for the sake of narrartive.

Saladin's forces prepare to storm the town.

What happens next? Stay tuned!

Shipbuilding

With time on my hands over the extended weekend, I found my thoughts turning to gaming. But not in any systematic way - just a bunch of random thoughts.

This random thought came courtesy of Bob Cordery, Arthur Harman, and Mark Cordone. Recently, Mr. Cordery and Mr. Harman edited and released the latest compendium for the Portable Wargame.

In it, Mr, Cordone provides an ancient naval variant of the Dominion of series. I decided to give it another run (this variant was initially posted on the Portable Wargame Facebook page. I previously posted about it).

I played a game of it, liked it, but did not like my current counters.

He is a picture from my August battle.

I don't know why I don't like the squares. They just seem bulkier.

Anyway, I decided to rectify the situation. I created two new types of counters: line abreast and line ahead.

I plan to use the line abreast for ancient warfare and line ahead for age of sail to modern. I have two fleets of each (red and green).

As you'll notice, I have 3 types of counters. Dominion of the Oar and Spear has 4 types of naval squadrons, plus a bonus for large ships. I may need some additional markers to indicate the types. I will likely designate the small ships as ambushers. I need to think about the rest of the markers.

Getting Tripped Up

I'm typing this on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I have nothing to do and nowhere to go (no Black Friday sales for me). I should be playing a game, but I feel like I'm getting tripped up.

Image created by ChatGPT

After months away from it, I suddenly have an urge to dungeon crawl. Yet I am reluctant to pull out my dungeon crawl rules.

What's wrong?

The Basic Concept?

No, I think my basic concept is sound. With my Micro Dungeon rules, the chance to hit is based on the relative combat skill, not what armor the target wears.

Think about this scenario. A level 1 fighter in plate armor vs an unarmored level 10 fighter. According to the BECMI attack tables, the level 1 fighter as a 55% chance of hitting the level 10, and the level 10 has the same odds of hitting the level 1.

At a glance, this is counterintuitive. The level 10 should be more capable of hitting the level 1. I am reminded of this scene.

I know there are other factors at work - getting through the armor and the level 10's higher hp. Still ...

In Micro Dungeon, I switched things around. The chance to hit depends on relative skill. The level 10 is far more likely to hit. I changed armor so it reduces damage rather than affecting the chance to hit. In general, I think it works.

But

So what went wrong? I'm not sure, it's been so long since I played Micro Dungeon. I think I may have had an issue that plagues D&D - power creep. My characters, now at 6th level, have enough hp that it takes a while to whittle them down, and that also applies to their enemies. Perhaps hp should not increase.

What Else?

I'd like Micro Dungeon to be easier to pick up and play. To do that, though, I need a complete list of monsters. I'd like to create an easy conversion from D&D to MD but I never got around to it.

So What Now?

Well, instead of playing games, I am revisiting my Micro Dungeon rules and pondering changes to make the game easier. Stay tuned for my thoughts.

The Turkey Fights Back

Well, I never got around to printing the counters for my silly Thanksgiving project. I decided to play the game anyway using generic counters and a little imagination.

Background

The native Wampanoag peoples warn the Pilgrims that there are dark things in the forest. Inhuman things. Dangerous things.

The Pilgrims (bottom) send out an expedition. It consists of 2 cavalry, skirmishers, and line infantry.

Suddenly, out of the forest, a frightening army emerges. It consists of potato people infantry, corn shooters, dire turkeys (represented by a cavalry counter), and pumpkin chuckers (green counter).

The chuckers lob their pumpkins at the right flank cavalry, spooking it (downgraded to unreliable status).

The dire turkeys (center) charge. The skirmishers unleash a ragged volley then flee. The left flank cavalry charges the corn shooters, who shoot them down.

The potato infantry attacks the Pilgrim's spooked cavalry. The cavalry flees. Meanwhile, the Pilgrim reserve infantry advances. In the center, the Pilgrims slay the dire turkeys. But they take grievous casualties and can no longer fight.

This leaves one unit of Pilgrim infantry. They wisely retreat from the battlefield.

NOTES

• I probably should have used the Pike & Shot rules, but I used my generic horse & musket rules instead. Still a fun game.

Happy Thanksgiving

On this day, we pause to give thanks to the Lord for his blessings.

I am especially thankful for the miracle he performed for our cat Fuzz. Earlier this year, she was desperately ill in Intensive Care. The vet did not think she would make it.

Driving home, this song came on the radio - Desperate by Jamie Macdonald. 

The lyrics perfectly expressed what I was feeling. “Oh God, I'm desperate. Down on my knees, Send help from heaven, 'Cause that's what I need.” I sang along, desperately praying to the Lord to save Fuzz.

The next song was Don’t Stop Praying by Matthew West.

One line really struck me. “Don't stop believing, 'Cause mountains move with just a little faith.”

A few days later, Fuzz was home and on the road to recovery.

By the way, this is a little meme we created starring Fuzz.

(In reality, the pictures were taken when we first adopted this hungry street cat and then several months later).