This week has been an odd one, I ended up with a rather all consuming digression of the Blasted Planets variety. Namely once I mentioned the rules in a previous post, I set about rewriting and reformatting the entirety of the Blasted Planets system. I then proceeded to write lists for the system and bought the necessary miniatures for a game. So my desk is currently covered in Wargames Atlantic Lizardmen… this in a week I had intended to nail down the scenarios for Chob-Noggoth.
So that distraction aside, what are my thoughts on wargaming scenarios… well as always the Rule of Carnage podcast has an excellent episode on designing Wargaming Scenarios:
My scenario designing in the past has been somewhat erratic, on the whole I’ve tried to not have scenarios for Deathzap, as I’m trying to develop something like actual history for the setting, and so battles are usually a smaller part of a much larger scenario, taking ground from an enemy force is really what the point of most of those games is. In reality I probably fall foul of pitching too evenly matched forces against each other, something which shouldn’t happen (at least not all that often). I have played with scenarios in the past though, Deathzap 1 has a few standard ones.
I think my favourite scenario I ever put to paper was for War of the Hominids, as the scenario was sort of built into the rules. I realise now I never posted the full rules here… so if you want a game of angry monkey men fighting each other, here you go:
W.O.T.H (War of the Hominids)
A game of pre-human warfare…
Each tribe should have 6 Hominids, five Grunts and a Chief. You’ll also need a tape measure, some D6s and some tokens to depict ‘Blood’. You then require 6 pieces of terrain a few inches wide each. The game is played on a 2’x2’ board referred to as ‘the battlefield’.
SETUP
Place the terrain evenly across the battlefield, with each at least a few inches apart, and number each one 1-6. Player’s roll off, then starting with the higher roller, each player in turn selects one of their Hominids and rolls a die and places that Hominid within, on or in contact with that item. If the item rolled has an enemy in or in contact with it already, reroll the die. Once all Hominids are placed the game can begin.
SCENARIO
Both sides start with 10 Guts points. The first player to have 0 Guts loses. Guts can be lost as follows:
- Chief dies = -D6 Guts.
- Grunt dies = -D3 Guts.
- For each terrain piece that your hominids started the game in contact with, that an enemy gets in contact with = -1 Guts (each terrain piece can only be scored once per game).
THE GAME
The game is played in turns, players roll off to determine who goes first. Each of a player’s turns has 4 phases:
1- ENRAGE 2- LOB 3- RUSH! 4- SCRAP
1- ENRAGE
Give one of your Hominids a Blood token. Blood tokens boost your Hominids actions, but also bring them closer to death.
2- LOB
During your Lob phase each of your Hominids can Lob a rock at the enemy. Select an enemy and roll a D6, add the number of any Blood tokens on the Lobber, and a further 1 if they are a Chief. If the result rolled is 6 or greater then a hit has been scored. Natural 1s always count as misses. A Natural 2 also counts as a miss if the target Hominid is not entirely visible to the thrower.
3- RUSH!
During the Rush! phase you can move each of your Hominids up to 6”, +1” per Blood token a Hominid has.
4- SCRAP
If any of your Hominids are in base to base contact with an enemy then they can scrap. Roll a die for each Hominid adding the value of any Blood tokens they have. Adding another 1 for a Chief. The lower roller is hit. In the case of a tie, both are hit.
Where multiple Hominids are in base to base contact with enemies, in your turn you determine the order the Scraps are resolved in, and each Hominid suffers a -1 modifier per additional Scrap.
RESOLVING HITS
When a Hominid is hit they can make a saving throw, roll a D6 adding any Blood tokens, on a 7 or higher the hit is stopped and the result below is applied, and on a 6 or less it is not, and the Hominid suffers damage. A natural 1 always counts as a failure.
7 Block: The hit is stopped and you can choose to add a blood token to the Hominid that blocked the hit, or to the attacker.
8 Dodge: The hit is stopped and the Hominid that dodged the hit can move up to 3”.
9 Counter: The hit is stopped, and the attacker (or thrown Hominid) is hit with no save allowed.
10+ Super Counter: The hit is stopped, and the attacker is killed. Roll a die, on a 1-3 the attacker is Dead, on a 4-6 they are Butchered (see DAMAGE below).
DAMAGE
Roll 2D6 on the table below whenever a Hominid suffers damage to see its effect:
2 Slumped: Remove all Blood tokens on the Hominid.
3 Pushed: The Hominid gains a Blood token and can be moved up to 3” by the player causing the damage.
4 Thrown: The Hominid gains a Blood token and the player causing the damage can move the Hominid up to 3”. If the Hominid moves into any other Hominids they are hit and make saving throws.
5 Discombobulated: The Hominid gains a Blood token and their side loses 1 Guts.
6 Enraged: The Hominid gains D3 Blood tokens.
7 Dead: The Hominid is killed, remove them from play. Their closest ally gains a blood token.
8 Butchered: The Hominid is killed in such a violent, over the top way that all of the killed hominid’s allies gain a Blood token.
9 Discombobulated: The Hominid gains a Blood token and their side loses 1 Guts.
10 Confused: The Hominid gains a Blood token and now mistakes all enemies for allies and all allies for enemies. They switch sides, but cost both sides Guts when killed.
11 Berserk: The Hominid is killed, and each enemy within 6” gains a Blood token.
12 Explodes: The Hominid is killed, and each Hominid within 6” gains a Blood token.
ACCUMULATED BLOOD
Once a Grunt has 3 Blood tokens, or a Chief 4, each time they gain an additional Blood token roll on the table below and resolve the effect immediately:
1 Cool Off: Remove all Blood tokens from the Hominid.
2+3 Burn Out: The Hominid is killed, remove them from play.
4+5 Berserk: The Hominid is killed, and each enemy within 6” gains a Blood token.
6 Explodes: The Hominid is killed, and each Hominid within 6” gains a Blood token.
I remember some rather humorous games involving multiple exploding hominids. I’m not entirely sure how historically accurate that would be though…
A thing I really liked about W.O.T.H was that it never needed the notorious turn limit, as things always escalated and resolved themselves quickly. It’s got a sort of random turn limit built into the core of the system that never needs to be dictated. You never have that arbitrary stopping point.
So maybe that’s the sort of thing I’m after for Chob-Noggoth, not your usual roll a D6 for a random scenario when you play a game, but have the system have it all built in and games burn themselves out in a reasonable amount of time before things become stagnant and overstay their welcome.
My ‘up and at em’ games have so far been a lot of fun, with things to-ing and fro-ing nicely, and keeping me guessing despite playing solo.
A scenario is also a good opportunity to get in some world building. What after all are my gangs of weirdos fighting over? Is it as simple as territory, loot or pride? Could it be more strange and esoteric than that? They certainly look like the sorts of weirdos that would be fighting for bizarre reasons – who has the biggest hat? Who has the stinkiest breath? Who has the longest toes, or can carry out the most effective email scam?
Deathzap 