More Snorin

The Adventures of Snorin the Dwarf

Previously, we met Snorin the dwarf. A young dwarf lord, he is in charge of a scouting party that patrols the dwarven mines. On his first patrol, he ran into a band of goblins and defeated them.

Once again, we find Snorin on patrol.

Set Up

Snorin's patrol starts from the bottom edge. It consists of (clockwise from top left)

• Snorin - a captain
• A bannerman
• An archer
• A regular soldier

Captains and bannermen have advantages in combat.

The patrol is returning from its mission when it runs into a band of goblins.

Note: I am short of goblins so I am using some pig-faced orcs. I treated them as goblins for the battle.

Snorin's party must breakthrough the enemy and escape from the top edge.

The Skirmish

The soldier advances up the middle as a diversion while Snorin leads a flanking maneuver to the right.

The soldier wounds a goblin.

The flankers kill 2 goblins.

The patrol makes progress to the exit.

As Snorin drives off a goblin, the soldier gets surrounded.

He falls to the goblin.

Snorin and the bannerman run off another goblin. The last goblin warrior and the shaman hang back, allowing Snorin's command to escape.

Victory for Snorin.

Aftermath

I'd like to create a campaign framework where Snorin and his party advance with successful missions. I don't have anything specific yet.

I did roll to determine the fate of the lost soldier. I rolled a 6, which I interpret to mean that they were able to rescue and revive him.

Another One Bites the Dust

After my initial success at Demonslayer, I decided to press on with a campaign. Roderick continues his adventures, but I reset the game somewhat. I bumped Roderick's hp back to max, chose a new starting point, and pressed on.

This turned out to be a short adventure.

Rod started at the star and ended at the shield
Crosses are places he visited

Here is Roderick's diary of encounters.

As you can see, he met a demon lord on turn 7. This time, it is Maldrath, the Soul Reaper

But Roderick has an advantage. He wields a magic sword that he acquired from a skeletal knight. This sword slices easily through Maldrath's shadowy form. The demon lord bellows in rage as Roderick successfully strikes again and again. Meanwhile, Roderick easily dances away from Maldrath's scythe. Until Roderick grows careless. Maldrath slashes and wounds Roderick. Worse than that, Roderick feels his willpower fading. He needs to end this battle. He charges and lunges. His blade pierces the demon lord's chest. With a wail, Madrath disintegrates into nothingness.

Roderick has killed another demon lord. But now he carries a scar - his Will is permanently lowered by a point. 

Thank You

Thank you veterans for your service to our nation. God bless you.

Roderick Victorious

I continued with my Demonslayer campaign. After some more wandering, I had the opportunity to summon a Demon Lord. I decided to chance it, and end the campaign for good or ill.

Roderick vs. the Demon Queen

Roderick began having ghostly visions. Using his knowledge gained from his adventures, he was able to challenge the demon lords. I used clues to cause a demon to appear.

Suddenly, Inthara, Queen of Flames, appeared.

Image created using Gencraft

Roderick attacked using his new axe. He managed to inflict a number of wounds upon Inthara. However, the heat of the flames that surrounded her threatened to overwhelm him. Then she managed strike him with her burning staff. Roderick was close to death. But he took a mighty swing, and chopped off her head!

Game Notes

This was an incredibly tense battle. 

• Roderick (Rod) used all his healing potions prior to the battle, but he still was down to 24 hp. Inthara started with 26 hp.
• Inthara had the chance of doing up to 6 hp of damage per turn - 4 from attacks and 2 from heat damage. Rod only had an axe that did 3 hp.
• Nevertheless, things started well. Rod managed to get in a bunch of hits while avoiding damage.
• But then the heat began to takes its toll, slowly whittling away his hp.
• Finally, both were down to 2 hp. Rod got first attack, and hit! Down went Inthara!

What Next?

• The rules state that you can play an ongoing campaign, keeping your character and going after the remaining demons.
• However, Rod's down to 2 hp. Should I reset the game? Rod won't last long otherwise.

Straying Instead of Slaying

I've been playing Demonslayer when I have spare moments. As I predicted, it's a neat little filler game when I don't want to set up something formal.

I like that the rules are simple and straightforward. Encounters are incredibly easy to adjudicate. I can usually complete one in a minute or so.

My First Campaign (So Far)

I created a hero named Roderick. He has Intelligence 9, Dexterity 8, Might and Will 7, and 4 Charisma (on 2D6).

Here is Roderick's progress so far.

I started at the red star and have visited the locations marked with a black X. The shield represents Roderick's current position.

Here is the log of his encounters. You can see it's quite a varied list.

But I Have A Quibble

When don't I? I have completed a lot of encounters, but I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere. I'm straying but not slaying.

As you can see, I've gotten over 30 encounters under my belt, 25 of which are set encounters. That means that I have finished about a quarter of the set encounters. Yet I am not any stronger than I was to start. In fact, I'm weaker because I've lost a lot of hit points. Sure, I have some healing, but I want to save that until I meet a demon lord. In the interim, I can't find a town to heal and sell some of my spoils. I recently managed to find a slightly stronger weapon. It doesn't seem enough.

Given that there are 6 demon lords, I figured I'd level up enough to confront one after exploring about 1/6th of the map. That hasn't happened. Perhaps I haven't hit the right places yet. I'll keep going but I am getting a little frustrated.

Snorin's Tale

Prelude

After my first arena battle, I mentioned that I was thinking of doing a skirmish campaign set in a dwarf-goblin war. Well, the campaign has begun.

I don't have enough goblins printed, so I decided to press some orcs into service.

The Story

Snorin is a young dwarf noble. Recently, the elders have given him charge of a squad of troops to patrol the dwarf mines.

Snorin receives word that a mining detail has gone missing. He leads his squad to investigate.

Setup

I'm using my arena as a chamber. Snorin's squad enters from the bottom. Snorin (upper left dwarf) is accompanied by 2 soldiers and an archer.

They spot 3 goblins in the chamber. Two more goblins and an orc are hidden behind a wall (I'm using one of my hills as the wall).

The Battle

One of the goblins rushes the party. He does not last long.

Snorin takes on the goblin leader (middle left).

The goblin leader dies. But the goblin shaman (upper right) keeps the rest fighting. 

The orc wounds a dwarf warrior. Snorin kills the goblin archer.

The dwarf soldier counterattacks the orc, wounding it.

Then the dwarf archer kills the orc.

At this point, the goblin shaman weaves a mist that allows it and the remaining goblin grunt to escape.

Victory for Snorin's first skirmish!

Demonslayer

Just in time for Halloween, Ganesha Games has released a fantasy game about hunting down and destroying demons.

Synopsis

Ganesha Games describes Demonslayer as "a retro-fueled, sword and sorcery hex-map game for a single player. All you need is the rulebook, the map, and two six-sided dice. Will you be the one to slay the demons, or will you fall victim to the shadows?"

As described, this is a hex crawl game, reminiscent of the classic Barbarian Prince. Here is a sample of the board. The numbers represent encounters. You can also run into random encounters in the unmarked hexes.

This is a rules light game. Your character has 5 abilities. They start at 4 and you have 15 additional points to allocate among them. Your Might and Will score determine your hit points. You start with a hand weapon and off you go. Task resolution, including combat, is simple - roll under the relevant ability.

Your goal is to track down and destroy one of the demon lords plaguing the land. To do it, you wander around the map visiting encounter sites. You can gain experience, gold, luck, equipment, and clues from your encounters. But you can also take wounds - ouch!

Your character starts with a lot of HP but gets whittled down slowly over time. You need to find the demon or find healing before you run out.

My Thoughts

I started a game and have played out a dozen encounters so far. I enjoy playing out a few encounters at a time, then setting it aside for a later time. I put the map, rules, and character sheet on the computer so I don't have to fiddle with physical components other than dice (which I keep on my desk). This makes it a great filler game. Have a few spare moments for gaming? Play out a few encounters of Demonslayer.

If I were to go physical, I would mark my progress on the map using a pen or pencil. That way, I could quickly pull it out or put it away.

I'm not sure how long it will take to finish a game. I'll let you know when I get there. I'm curious how much replay value there is. Ultimately, you'll learn where the encounters are located and can cherry pick your way around them.

Nevertheless, I think this is definitely worth the $5 price. I've been wanting a quick game for spare moments. Demonslayer fills that need.