40K Friday - Old School 40K

I came across this while organizing my 40K stuff. It's pretty old, I believe it's from the original Space Marine Paint Set from the late 80's. Anyway, let's explore:

Introduction - where they mention a much more complete guide that you can purchase at your FLGS - and a Blood Angel. Look, white undercoating! Still a better choice than black when you plan to paint red or yellow  marines!

Space Wolves and ... Salamanders? You know when they showed up in the 3rd Edition Armageddon codex I really did not remember them from earlier versions but hey - here they are! This is a time where the Dark Angels were still black, so the sammies filled the slot of "green marines" I suppose. Still white undercoating here though I would use black for gray marines and maybe even for the green.

Look, an early example of weathering! We're still in the Rogue Trader days here and you saw a lot more of this kind of thing than you would when we hit 2nd edition, though it has come back around since. We see our first black undercoat here and it makes some sense for blue.

That's about half of this little book and probably enough to pore over for one post  - I will post the rest up later.

Old School Champions - Adventurers Club #5

Well we have our first non-Champions cover, though it certainly could be a Champions cover. There's some good stuff in this one:

• Editorial: this is Aaron Allston's first full issue as editor
• News: Enemies III is out, the 3rd edition boxed set is coming out (it is not called 3rd edition at this point though, just "the new boxed set"), Super-Agents and Lands of Mystery are coming soon, and PRIMUS and DEMON and a ref screen are in layout
• The Name Fantasy Hero Something Else contest, held in advance of the release of Fantasy Hero, has ended and the winner was "Adventure Eternal" - hmmm. Glad they didn't use that. Runners up were "Gateway to Adventure (sounds more like a campaign set than the game itself) and Epic Adventure (generic!). 
• Letter-writers are still talking smack to Foxbat and it's still a little funny to read them 3 decades later.

The first big article this time is "Refereeing Champions Disadvantages" and it's a very solid article, even today. One thing I've noticed in games that have been around awhile (from Champions to 40K) is that a lot of "how to" articles assume the reader knows The Basics and a whole lot of Generally Accepted Truths that guide one on how the game should be played. The problem is that outside of D&D and Pathfinder, not a lot of games spend time explaining this in an easily understood way (i.e. not a wall of text and not in a separate rulebook) so these things may not be as easy to pick up as they ought to be. This article covers the main disadvantages in Hero System in a great way from a DM's perspective. It spends a lot of time on killing attacks and codes and how to handle the interaction of those things in the game. It's a solid article and I think it's worth reading today.

Next up is a short article on the military in Hero terms. This includes stats for soldiers, weapons, and vehicles like the Abrams and Bradley - and the Sgt. York air defense gun, which in the Champions universe might have been wildly successful but in the real world was not. It also covers the "Modern Jeep" which you may know as the Humvee. It's always fun to run across little things like this. 

There's a short article on Impossible Crimes which is really aimed more at modern or espionage type games. This is not really my thing so I'll just mention it and move on.

Then we get to The Hawkes Phantom, the cover-mentioned adventure for Justice Inc. by Aaron Allston. For those of you wondering about that name (I know I was) Hawkes is a city and the Phantom is a masked criminal. As you might expect form Mr. Allston, it's a very complete adventure - a decently sized list of characters with notes on each, some good maps, a newspaper operation written up in some detail, and a villain's plot spelled out so that your players can discover and attempt to thwart it. There's even the potential for a train chase, which is not something you see in many adventures. I am not really a 20's-30's gangbusters type guy, but with some upscaling this could be turned into a Champions adventure pretty easily I think. Another plus: there are no aliens, or known supervillains, or mutated animals involved - just a good old cape-wearing human.

As you can see, the picture above is "Fire Goat"

The flaming goat actually has an interesting backstory, sort of a cross between TMNT and Hellboy, before either of those two things were around. He's a genetics experiment that is the object of a devil-worshipping cult's magical ritual. The no talking thing could make for an interesting player challenge outside of the normal mechanics of the game. I have mixed feelings on it - in the right mood I can see trying to mimic a grunting goat superhero as being a lot of fun for the DM, in another mood it could be annoying and frustrating and get in the way of the rest of the game. His multipower is basically "magic spells" so he's pretty flexible. I see this character as the core of a nice little arc where the heroes encounter/find/rescue him, try to figure out what he is, and then help fend off the attacks of his hunteds and maybe help him find some peace. Mechanically he's not all that tough or powerful but he could be fun to run story-wise. Also, Incapable of Speech means you don't have to listen to his Obsession with Environmentalism.

Wrapping up we have reviews of The Armory (it did exist!) and Marvel Super Heroes (kinda funny to read now) some notes on infiltration in Espionage, then we get the somewhat-famous conversion guide for converting MSH characters to Champions.

Now this is very much a loose guide, though it does involve numbers, but there are few games as different in approach mechanically as MSH and Hero, so a lot of the Champions stuff is interpolated from MSH numbers. There are multiple disclaimers, and the author (George Mac Donald himself) notes that you're getting a picture of a character filtered thru Marvel Universe, MSH, and Champions -to me it makes a lot more sense to just sit down and work it out yourself but in the 80's a lot of us were very concerned with getting those numbers "correct", so if you could point to a system that you used to quantify the unquantifiable you were far more legit than someone who was just winging it. If you are contemplating doing this sort of thing it might be worth a look to see how this one worked, but I don't know if it's any less work than doing it yourself. Plus if you want a baseline there are many many writeups of Marvel characters in pretty much every Supers RPG system online now and these have the double virtues of a) having been reviewed by other obsessive fans and b) giving you someone else to blame if the character sucks or the mechanics are bad. I'd call that a win.

So there's issue 5, a solid, solid issue for Champions fans - then and now. 

D&D 4: Heroes of Shadow Review

It's a shame that some of the best work in 4th edition came in its last year of life. The three books titled Players Option: Heroes of something something are good examples of taking the framework established in the Player's Handbook series and bending them to accommodate more diverse concepts and options. I didn't deal with them much in the previous campaign but some of their material has begun to show up in my current game and I thought I would take a look at each one.

The Shadow book came out in April of 2011 and focuses on the darker side of the character spectrum:

• Class-wise we get the Executioner Assassin which looks a lot like an AD&D assassin - death attack, lots of poison usage and general sneakiness. This one is classed as a Martial and Shadow Striker, demonstrating some diversity in powers.
• Blackguard Paladin is present to cover all of those players who just can't play the good guy but want all the nifty powers - call it a fallen paladin, an anti-paladin, whichever - it's the "evil" paladin option. This one is a Divine Striker, though most of its powers include the Shadow keyword. It follows the Essentials paladin format of choosing (in this case) between two "vices" to guide power selection.
• Then we get the interesting (and somewhat controversial in 4E circles) class of Vampire, a Shadow Striker. This one is somewhat controversial because each level of the class has typically a single power choice at each level. There are some options when it comes to utility powers. This is pretty restrictive when compared to things like a wizard or a fighter but it does mean that the class stays very true to the concept. The only real downside is if your party had two players wanting to play the class - there will be a lot of overlap. That said, this is really just a more severe case of an existing problem as it could happen with any class. There are two "Bloodline" options at paragon and you can pick pretty much any Epic destiny so as the game advances this should be less of an issue.
• We also get the Binder Warlock, which is an Arcane Controller as opposed to the Striker role of the original Warlock, and it has a lot of movement (push/pull/slow) and zone effects in its powers.  With two Pact options, the fluff & the mechanic that makes a Warlock a Warlock, there is some power diversity here but not a ton as there is really only one power choice per pact per level, so two Star Pact Binder Warlocks in the same party are going to have a ton of overlap.  There are also some new powers for standard Warlocks and a new pact for Essentials Hexblades.
• There is a new domain for the Essentials Cleric, the Death Domain, and some new powers for standard clerics, all shadow/evil/darkside focused
• There are new wizard powers and two new schools for the Essentials Mage - Necromancy and Nethermancy.

The main complaint with some of these class options is the lack of choices at each level when it comes to powers. As I mentioned with the the vampire I think this kind of thing is overstated as I have only rarely seen two characters of the same class in one campaign, let alone the same build/pact/school/style, and even in that odd case you have race, theme, background, paragon path, and epic destiny to diversify. Compare this with AD&D fighters where they were pretty much the same other than weapon usage, which was largely determined by what magic items they had found in their adventuring careers - it's an order of magnitude of difference.

New races include:

• Revenant - basically it's the Crow: dead character comes back to life for some purpose, typically revenge. It's not my cup of tea but if you look at it like the Harrowed in Deadlands then it becomes more interesting. It's something that could happen to a character during a campaign, which also makes it more interesting than dwarf-sub-type-sixteen.
• Shade - this is fine for the Realms where Shades are a big player but I'm not sure it's super-useful anywhere else. You're a humanoid creature of shadow and have some abilities related to that. Again, not my thing but it could appeal to the die-hard sneaky type player.
• Vryloka - not a great name IMO but this is Vampire-as-race, as opposed to the Vampire-as-class option above. The fluff is basically humans descended from vampire-like ancestors but the mechanics fit a flat-out vampirish character too. They're flavorful and could fit in to any campaign if the DM is allowing that kind of thing. 

Beyond this there are 10 Paragon Paths and 4 Epic Destinies plus some shadow-themed feats. There is also a lot of background material on how different races and classes might be drawn to the power of shadow and lots of ways to give PC's a hook into the themes of the book - darkness, death, undeath, and walking the line between good and evil.

This is also a book where the attempts to bring back some of the old school D&D flavor , which  showed up in the Essentials players' books, flares right up too - Anti-Paladins and Assassins chief among them. However this does not constrain the book by any means, with Vampires and  Revenants broadening the definition of what a character can be.

Some perspective: When this book was released there was a fair amount of controversy, so I went back and read some reviews from that time. Some stuff was too powerful! Some stuff was too weak! Sometimes it was the same stuff! It was an Essentials book in disguise (4.5!) - remember when that mattered? What a difference a year can make.

Specific experience - Lady Blacksteel has been playing a Vampire in my current campaign and she has thoroughly enjoyed it. She likes the image and the concept and she likes the powers. She's not into the mechanics of the game as much as some so it's not like she's going to go research optimized builds online - this means the lack of power options doesn't bother her. She played a wizard in the previous campaign and at times the number of options available was a little overwhelming to the less fanatical player so this is actually a feature and not a bug to her. Don't get me wrong, she likes to play and likes to do well in the game, but she's not all that interested in all the out-of-game overhead like leveling up and tracking food and that kind of thing. To her the game is all about what's happening right now and not really about what paragon path she could take in six months, and the Vampire is interesting enough in play to work well for her. The original design notes can be viewed here - reading them after writing this just confirms what I had been thinking.

M&M Anniversary Edition

Looks like they're doing a special 10th anniversary edition of Mutants and Masterminds:

Kickstarter (of course) is here

Now I like M&M, I like Supers gaming, and there are some interesting stretch goals (though I am not impressed by the copy of 1st edition as one pledge bonus) and I thought I would share. Aside from this there a ton of RPG kickstarter projects out there - the news section of ENWorld on any given day seems to be filled with them - and I wanted anyone who cares to know that I'm not going to mention all of the ones I see or am even halfway interested in. I will only be mentioning the ones that are really relevant to the things I talk about on the blog - stuff like Stark City for Icons and this super-golden edition of M&M. I think the only downside to the 2012 kickstarter invasion of the RPG world is that everyone thinks they have a funding-worthy project, making it hard to keep up with the things that interest me amidst the avalanche of announcements.

Also - yes, the Power Profiles series (above) continues and is still quite handy, especially for newer players and some tricky concepts.

Motivational Monday

Overreaction Wednesday - Empty Rooms, Styles, and Substances

There was some discussion on a megadungeon-in-development last week. I mostly missed it because I don't spend much time on OSR sites or blogs anymore (other than Grognardia and Jeff's place) because though I feel a kinship with most of the people who write about it, I don't feel like I'm really a part of it - so, no OSR logo on the blog, no reviews of OSR products - you get the picture. Anyway, I was a latecomer to the hubbub so I got to page thru the full discussion and it's a little funny. Now I don't know Joe or any of the other players in the discussion but I may quote some of them below. Some thoughts:

One, I don't think anyone should be surprised at the nature of an old-school megadungeon, especially one written by someone who has a very popular OSR-themed blog and especially especially one that has been written about on that blog pretty extensively. I haven't read it but it sounds exactly like the kind of thing discussed in the AD&D DMG - for those of us who were playing and reading Dragon back then I don't think there was anything described that sounded out of place. Maybe Joe wasn't playing back then, or maybe he's just not interested in playing the game as-it-was-back-then today. There's nothing wrong with that.

Two, the debate expanded into other megadungeons, DM creativity, and the role of published adventures. The OSR has a weird relationship with published adventures: so many of the people touting the old-school are big on the do-it-yourself nature of the early rules that I'm surprised there is so much interest in someone else's work (Gygax/Arneson excepted), especially at a price, when it could easily be done for free with random tables and some borrowed maps. The free exchange of adventures and rules ideas is clearly accepted but I'm still surprised that so many people were willing to pony up for it. Similarly, I often get a sense that there is a disdain for published adventures among much of the OSR, but for some reason megadungeons have escaped this - at least until now. It's a weird thing, as in my opinion the older adventures serve as a touchstone for a lot of us whether it's the Caves of Chaos or the Giants - you can bet if two old D&D players meet up sooner or later the mad hermit or the big green mouth or the giant crab in the bubble are going to come up. They are part of a big shared experience, but there's a weird thing there with some people who just don't like published adventure material and it makes me think that this would be the least profitable or popular kind of product among old-schoolers - but apparently not. Notably, Joe mentions that he was not a backer in the kickstarter - that sounds to me like the system worked as intended, so everyone should be happy.

Three, the conversation also went into styles of play, and I think that's the biggest thing I wanted to note. It's been assumed to some degree (and I know I have done it before) that there is a set style of play that is Old School - resource management, exploration, and somewhat fragile characters, often in a sandbox, and typically in a lower level or grittier style than in newer RPG's. That may not be the case as much anymore. There may be a fair number of people that have been introduced or re-introduced to D&D style gaming via the OSR that have not been playing truly old school adventures - it's hard for an experienced DM to completely wash away the last 20 years of game time if they've been playing a variety of games over the years. Maybe a by-the-book old school dungeon just is not their thing, even if they've been using old school rules. Here's a quote from Joe:

Here's the thing--as a player, I want my character to kick some ass, be awesome, and have a tale to tell back at the tavern so he can get some action with the serving wenches.  You know, Conan, or Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser style.  That to me is the motivation to play an adventurer.

See that sounds a lot like the kind of thing that people complained about with 4th edition - that it caters to the "I want action now" crowd etc. who don't get what old school adventuring is all about. Now I'm not making the complete jump that people who dislike Dwimmermount should go buy a 4th edition PHB, but I'm leaning towards the idea that style of play may be more important than the rules for most people. Maybe, just maybe, some people have tried old-school dungeoneering and decided that it wasn't their cup of tea, leading to new approaches in new editions of D&D and other D&D-like games. For a lot of players, they will have a lot of fun with the same DM and group of fellow players regardless of the rules system in use, and they will happily change games multiple times over the years while staying with the same group and enjoying almost all of it. The exceptions may largely be driven by when something tries to enforce a style of play that the group does not like - like an old-school megadungeon. It's hard to be awesome when there's not that much to react against, whether you're an ace-kicker or a talker. If you're an explorer-type though, I suspect it would be right up your alley.

For example, I know my current group of players would never go for the Goodman Games RPG. Sure, rolling up a bunch of nobodies and seeing who survives to make it to 1st level could be fun once or twice but pretty soon it's going to get tedious. Similarly, old school AD&D would not be a sustainable campaign (even if I think it would be fun) because they don't want to spend their fun time on that kind of resource management and with that level of character fragility. They want action and interaction and a little exploration along the way. Now you can focus on that in any game, really, but it's easier to manage a group when there is mechanical support for it within the game. For us, 3rd & 4th edition D&D, Savage Worlds, and the boatload of Supers games I talk about on this blog do it right. Despite that mechanical preference and that style preference, I still see a lot of good material in  old adventures so I do a lot of conversion work in my campaigns, especially my D&D campaigns, because it's the best of both worlds - I get atmospheric descriptions (in some cases), a setting I am familiar with (in most cases), decades of supplemental material (internet!) and I get the benefit of the mechanics that support the way my players like to play now. 

Maybe Dwimmermount just needs some conversion notes to multiple editions and several different games. I think both 4E and Hero system and even Savage Worlds could benefit from a mega-dungeon option for a campaign. Think of the Traveller conversion - "Endless Tunnels of the Ancients". For Warhammer it wouldn't matter because everyone would be dead, mutated, or insane by level 3, but that doesn't mean that it's a concept unworthy of exploration!

That's probably enough on the topic. I just thought it was noteworthy that in this case the substance is the style - and I expect that it will come up again. Discussions on D&D Next are touching on a lot of similar ground though mainly regarding rules mechanics and not setting - yet.

Old School Champions - Adventurers Club #4

Adventurers Club #4 - That's a strong cover, very much in the style of the era's Champions and comic book cover art. The artist is Mike Witherby, who I don't remember being a big player in Champions art but maybe I will discover that to be wrong as we continue with the series. He also did the cover to #2 but I like this piece a lot more.

The editorials and news mention that this issue is late, they've been finishing up Justice Inc. and Champions III, and they are working on Fantasy Hero - and still looking for another name for it, having just wrapped up a contest for fan suggestions on a name. Also, Aaron Allston is taking over as editor, so it will be interesting to see where things go after this issue. They're also working on Primus and Demon, the GM screen, and Enemies III,

I like that logo!

Other news includes the mention of the Superworld Companion, the release of Marvel Super Heroes, and the upcoming releases of Golden Heroes, Heroes Unlimited, and DC Heroes! You think we have a lot of Superhero games now? 1984 wasn't too bad either. Also: Maybe someone could have tried a name that didn't include "hero".

In the letters section, well, Foxbat was killed off in Champions III so there's a transition here, but no lack of trash talking him from before the news was out.

I thought this ad was interesting - I suppose this would be Cubicle 7 or Green Ronin now. Also, "Barbara Cartland"?  I don't think I've ever seen a copy of that one.

• The crook this month is Volcano - he's pretty routine as far as a volcano-themed blaster type of character
• Covert Action notes that Espionage is being changed to Danger International and has some notes on what happens when a mission fails and on enforcing disadvantages in play like distinctive looks and age - it's decent material even now
• Mr. Allston has an article on horror in Champions and he has some good notes though some of them boil down to  "don't use a lot of your regular characters".
• One very interesting article is "The Gilt Complex" which is a setup for overpowered combat monster characters with a villain team that looks tough but is easily killed by high powered attacks. Take a look:

Look, I've discovered 4th-edition-style minions in a 1984 Champions product! This is the best evidence for functional time travel yet! I suspect if something like this came out in a company publication today it would be quite controversial. In the example one of the players has a character with a 100 Strength and he does a haymaker on Goldmind - and pushes it. With 32 dice rolled for one good punch you can imagine the carnage. This team is a set-up designed to teach out-of-control characters a lesson, but it seems way too heavy-handed to me. There's a discussion on how players should show restraint and appropriate levels of power and damage, but I have to wonder about the kind of campaign that would have to be running to where this is an appropriate development. If a PC has been beating on super-bads with a 100 Str for a while with no consequences, why should they suddenly be punished for max-punching yet another costumed criminal? I'm not completely opposed to this kind of thing, I just think there are better ways to handle it.

Does anyone remember seeing this product? Did it exist? 

The big adventure this month is pictured on the cover and deals with a mysterious meteorite that falls to earth in Iceland. It's a pretty open scenario with some nice maps, some new stats for a few NPC's and a new organization. It's the best one since the first one and I think it would make for a good evening's play. Like all the best adventures it's easily modified and there is plenty of room for consequences for the future. One other note: If you're a DC fan it looks a lot like the DC Heroes adventure Fire and Ice. That one was published two years later but they do have similar themes. Some conversion work could lead to a nice campaign arc involving stuff from space crashing into arctic environments.

Next week: Number 5!

Better-Late-Than_Never Motivational Monday

40K Friday - The Big Yellow Hammer Drops!

Over the holiday weekend we played a big game of 40K Sixth edition where I took on Apprentice Red and Apprentice Blaster. There's a bit of a story to it, so bear with me for a paragraph or two.

First, it's difficult to surprise boys who live in the same house when it comes to gaming stuff as they are all over anything that comes into the house. It's also difficult to prep without them knowing that something is up, especially when it comes to a miniatures game where there's painting and gluing and just a lot of activity to get something new ready to go. So I did something new - I bought someone else's painted army. I've picked up a few painted vehicles and things for the boys to help them get farther along in their army construction, but I haven't done it for any of my armies thus far. Also, I don't always play with a fully painted army but it is my preference when possible. Finally, scanning the electrons of ebay and the local scene, "painted" is often the same or less cost as "new on sprue" which means it doesn't cost anything extra and it saves a great deal of time - as long as it fits in with what you already have. So, I found an army I liked, one I had contemplated running in the past, and I bought it.

Next, having acquired the weapon, I set a time for the match roughly two weeks out - then I started trash talking them.If you have teenage boys you probably know how it is, but listening to the kids opine on everything under the sun, and 40K in particular, given their limited experience (in everything) can get a little old. I normally try to stay out of their expert discussions and declarations - or at most try to point out that they may not have considered all of the information -  but this time was different. This time I told them when, how many points, and that I was going to crush them both. I also told them they'd be facing space marines, but I didn't get into specifics. They immediately responded with counter-talk, asking what they would get if they won. The game was on.

So the army came and I worked up my list in secret. It's a Deathwing terminator army painted up as Imperial Fists. I think of it as pre-heresy Fists for those of you into 40K lore, since they were the hammer unit during the great crusade, I think it's reasonable to assume that would look something like a Deathwing army. Even though it's "more marines" it's different from the armies I already have so it should be fun. Also, technically it's  a "Doublewing" army as the rest of it is Ravenwing bikes and speeders but the Termies are the focus of the army.

There were some trash-talk flare-ups as the days went by so when the day came everyone was fired up and ready to go. Lady Blacksteel and Apprentice Twilight were out for most of the day so it was just the boys and our dice. As I pulled terminator after terminator out of the box there was some discussion on the opposing sideline but if anything the trash talk increased - "Those don't scare me" was uttered at least twice. Heh.

One thing I am not really liking about 6th edition is the terrain setup section of the rules. We've done it a few times now and this kind of table is the result - lots of stuff clustered near one edge with a big no-man's land in the middle. We're probably going to go with a narrative approach or a "both setup then roll for side choice" approach to avoid this. It didn't matter a ton to me because my bikes and speeders are pretty fast and most of my army is going to deep strike in anyway, but it looks bad.

On the near end Red's Necrons are all clustered up, while Blaster's Space Wolves are at the other end. There are roughly two objectives on the Apprentice half, two on my half, and one towards the middle.

Those Borg cubes are the objective markers. I plan to park and shoot the two Predators, one bike squadron will destroy the monolith (melta-melta-multi-melta) the other will head for the Land Raider (full of Wolfguard BTW) and the speeders (Typhoons & Multi-meltas) will go wherever they can do the most good.

Waiting aboard the battle-barge...

End of Turn 1 - they have blown up the near Predator but I've landed 3 squads near objectives and I have a plan.

End of Apprentice Turn 2 - they have shot up a few termies but one of the Necron wraiths (center, near the monolith) ate a Krak missile when they charged and croaked before he could get into melee.

End of Deathwing Turn 2 - The wraiths are dead from Thunderhammer disease, one bike squadron has been shot up good but the other has destroyed the monolith! There is a pretty hairy firefight going on around that lower objective so I dropped two more squads in near it. There are Long Fangs sitting in that bunker in the upper right, happily blasting away with missile launchers, while a squad of Grey Hunters sits on an objective at the far top right as the Land Raider and the Dreadnought advance.

There are a lot of Necrons in that ruin but I believe we can handle it.

Death of a monolith

End of Apprentice Turn 3 - The Deathwing Command Squad led by Belial, Master of the Deathwing, meets the Wolf Guard, led by Logan Grimnar! Shots are fired and the fight is on!

End of Deathwing Turn 3 - Belial is down! That'll teach me to challenge a Chapter Master with a mere Company Master! In the meantime the other termies smack each other around, the Necron Scarabs bog the bikes down, and ferocious Necron shooting has thinned out another termie squad (Rapid Fire - it's New and Improved!). They blew up the other predator too, so this hasn't been a great turn for Yellow but I'm not in a terrible position.

End of game - On turn 4 the speeders blow up the Land Raider and the Dreadnought, Deathwing reinforcements charge into the Command Squad fight and kill every Wolf Guard but Logan. One battered termie squad charges into the scarab fight, kills them all, and free the bikes. The long fangs die to massed Cyclone Missile fire. Then on Turn 5 the last unit of Necron warriors at the bottom there breaks and runs leaving the Imperial Fists in control of the two middle objectives and the Apprentices concede.

Observations:

• A 2500 point games takes some time, especially when you're still new to the rules. This was about a 6-hour event though it must be said we took a lot of breaks between turns.
• I was always an Assault Cannon guy before when it came to Terminator armament choices - no longer! Having 6 Cyclone launchers on the board was nasty, especially when it was backed up with 3 Typhoons - that's 18 missile shots a turn - lots of frag templates were piled on those Necron warriors and they had a hard time with it.
• I was worried about having too much melta (both bike squadrons including both attack bikes and all 3 speeders) but with a monolith and a land raider on the table it was a game-changer. 
• There is definitely a momentum thing with this army - teleporting in and not being able to assault means that you get to spend a turn weathering the storm, but when you do hit you hit hard. They boys were very cocky on turns 1-2 then 3 calmed them down then on 4 as I was smashing space wolves they got very quiet. I think this is a win-it-in-the-later-turns-army though more games will give me more insight into this.
• Speeders can last quite a while when there are tanks and terminators on the board to worry about.

The boys eventually recovered from their morale failure and talked about the next game. Blaster thinks he might want some bikes for his wolves, and that he needs to get his Thunderwolf Cavalry finished up. Red wants some more Necron vehicles and to roll better. I'm thinking we will probably try some smaller point games next.

Back to D&D: Noble Houses of Impiltur

With the D&D game firing back up this weekend I thought I would share something I emailed to my players a few months back in an attempt to hook them into the world a little bit more- after all, it's hard to reclaim a legacy if you don't know what that legacy is! Please note that all of this is (to use some good English phrasing) Dreadfully Non-Canon when it comes to the published Realms material...

Some of you have asked for some background on the situation or the noble houses in Impiltur to tie your characters into the setting a little more tightly. I had a rough sketch worked out but it was pretty bare bones and was a little too warhammer/game of thrones than I would like, so I've gone with another inspiration this time and I'm just going to pretend that earlier version didn't happen. If you're interested, take a look below and see what you like and we can retcon any decisions made previously. There aren't any numbers here and no hard rules - I just want each one to have its own flavor. Every house has some fighters and paladins and clerics and wizards, but the stuff below is what they are known for.

Noble Houses of Impiltur

House Orlanth: Leaders & Adventurers – In D&D terms, most sons of Orlanth are Fighters, Paladins, or Warlords with a fair number of Bards. Favored gods are Torm and the Red Knight with occasional bows to Akadi the air god. The best at warfare, strategy, and tactics and have the most men under arms of any house of the realm. Big on questing, with small bands of knights and retainers heading off on new quests every season, many of them to reclaim or restore the lost areas within Impiltur itself with a goal of strengthening the realm. They have interests all over the realm and tend to be most aware of the realm as a whole. Willing to work with every house but Lhankor is very different to them and the house they understand the least. Also known for the best tournaments in the land.
Favors Martial and Divine.
Signature Skills: Athletics, Diplomacy

House Humakt: Guardians of the Realm – Most are Slayers, Knights, or Avengers with a fair number of Warpriests. Favored gods are Kelemvor and Tempus. Most knowledgeable about Orcus and the undead and have been very active in the past in stopping those forces all over the Bloodstone Lands. Makeup is similar to Orlanth but grimmer and with less celebrating. Very suspicious of House Zoran, but not as antagonistic as might be expected. Many outposts set up as watchtowers over places of evil and their quests tend to be recovering and storing evil artifacts to keep them out of enemy hands. Tend to be most aware of rising threats to the realm. Often work with Yelmalio to team up against a threat.
Favors Martial and Divine. If you want a unit to hold a pass to the last man, a unit of House Humakt is your best bet.
Signature Skills: Intimidate, Dungeoneering

House Issaries: Explorers & Traders – Typical leaders of the house are Rogues, Bards, or Sorcerers. Favored gods are, Waukeen and Tymora with a nod to Istishia the water god. Mainly concentrated in the cities of the realm (especially New Sarshel) with connections in all of the ports of the Sea of Fallen Stars. Quests for this house tend to be trading expeditions and attempts to discover something new or rediscover something lost. Tend to be most aware of what's going on in other lands. Often work with Lhankor to research old legends, prophecies, or maps. They also have fought many pirates and creatures from beneath the sea and are quite knowledgeable about the undersea races. Dragons are also a familiar foe to them, on both land and sea. Also, they throw the best parties.
Favors Martial and Arcane.
Signature Skills: Bluff, Streetwise

House Lhankor: Sages & Mages – House leaders tend to be Wizards, Warlocks, Invokers, Swordmages, or Bladesingers. Favored gods are Oghma and Gond. This is a smaller house but one that is respected by all others for their knowledge and their magical might. Tend to be most aware of planar activities, prophecies, and legends. Quests are often undertaken to recover lost knowledge or to locate a rare magical item or artifact.
Favors Arcane and Divine with some Psionic.
Signature Skills: Arcana, History

House Yelmalio: Justice, Honor, and the Light - House leaders tend to be Clerics, Paladins, and Invokers. Favored gods are Amaunator and Bahamut. A widespread house that takes a very active role in the everyday running of the realm, sometimes to the annoyance of the other houses. Members are staunch foes of the undead, dragons, demons, and humanoids that threaten the realm – they will fight any evil. Very distrustful of House Zoran. Quests are typically to track down a wanted criminal or renegade, or to wipe out a den of evil. They have also been sending expeditions into Vaasa, the land of the old witch-king, to explore for new threats and to spread the worship of their gods. If you need someone to lead a glorious charge into battle against long odds then a unit from House Yelmalio is an excellent choice - and odds are that they would have volunteered anyway,
Favors Divine.
Signature Skills: Insight, Religion

House Chalanna: The Forest House – Sons of Chauntea tend to be Rangers and Druids. Favored gods include Chauntea and Mielikki. This is a more rural house that tends to view natural cycles and traditions as best. The authority on the forested areas of the realm and the creatures that live in them and the hunting of all types of creatures. They also have extensive knowledge of healing, both natural and magical. Tend to be most aware of the state of nature in the realm and the balance or anything that has disturbed it. Much like Orlanth their quests and their focus tend to be inside the realm, restoring damaged places and helping the natural recovery of things.
Favors Martial and Primal.
Signature Skills: Heal, Nature

House Zoran: House of Shadows – Fighters, Rogues, Rangers. this house is not afraid to use methods other than open conflict to preserve the realm. While somewhat disliked by the other houses, they have always done their duty when called upon. Their quests tend to be to eliminate hidden threats, capture and interrogate enemies, and to stop evil before it can take root. Most knowledgeable about the Underdark and the Shadowfell. Also tend to be aware of criminal activity and underground threats. Mainly concentrated in the coastal cities (mainly Lyrabar) but are rumored to have agents everywhere.
Favors Martial, Arcane, and Shadow.
Signature Skills: Stealth, Thievery

Bonus House:

Clan Stormbull (Dwarves): Berserkers against evil – this clan claims Clanggeddin Silverbeard as their patron and takes a special interest in the fight against evil chaos on the surface of the world. They tend to be closely associated with House Orlanth and have fought beside them many times. Dwelling in the Earthspur mountains they know that their fates are tied to that of Impiltur and see it as an obligation to help their neighbors whenever possible. With their natural skill, the aid of their war god, and the power of the spirits of the land they succeed more often than not.
Favors Martial, Divine, Primal
Signature Skills: Endurance, Intimidate