A Mouse Guard and Torchbearer Primer

Recently I've been listening to the Reckless Dice podcast as they have played a few sessions of Mouse Guard and it reminded me again of how difficult some of the concepts of the game can be. Especially for players used to a more traditional roleplaying format. My immediate thought was to offer some advice about certain things to think about and what stumbling blocks to avoid and share them with the Reckless Dice crew, but I realized that writing something like a primer and share here would probably be more useful for more people (including my own players).

In the following text I will mainly talk about Mouse Guard (or MG), as it is the basis for Torchbearer as well and they are similar in most core aspects. They do differ in some key points though, but instead of inserting those differences in the running text I'll try to collect them at the end in a Torchbearer section. I won't explain the game, as in how the rules work, I'll simply try to give advice on how to interact with those rules and how to play to make the most of them.

I am also aiming this text at players new to the system and who are not really used to these kind of character and narrative focused games. Of course, I hope the advice might be helpful for the rest of you as well. Of course, these are just my personal opinions on the game and how to make it run well, don't take it as Luke's gospel. :)

General Advice

Depending on the system and the players a Session Zero isn't always necessary, but in this case I really think you should try to start off with one. Use it to talk about the setting, the system and to make characters. There's going to be a lot of questions about the unfamiliar parts of the game but since you are all new I don't think it's productive to get bogged down trying to explain all of it in detail. Try to focus on the core of the game.

Do talk about how MG is tighly character focused and although there are quite a bit of rules it is also very narrativistic. In my experience this is the biggest stumbling block for players coming from a traditional rpg background. While we call it ROLEplaying I think many, perhaps most, players tend to end up playing a fantasy version of themselves. I don't mean this in an elitist way where I think this is a bad way of playing - it's not - but it usually doesn't gel with how Mouse Guard was designed.

So let's talk about this. The core of MG are the Beliefs, Instincts, Traits (aka BITs) and Goals. The entire game revolves around these concepts and if they don't click it can grind to a halt (how are you liking those... wheel metaphors, eh?). In traditional games we're used to having rules for physical actions in the game such as swinging a sword or climbing a cliff. Rules for things like persuasion and deceit is very common as well, although such things can also be governed purely through roleplay and GM fiat. What we almost never see are rules for how you should play your character - as in how she would act in certain situations.

In Mouse Guard there are rules for how you should play your character and the system of rewards hinges on you following those rules. This can feel very alien to some players, and paradoxically make it hard for them to know how to act. In the traditional sense of "playing yourself" there's virtually no filter between the players thoughts and actions and the characters thoughts and actions - you often react to what the GM describes the same way you, the player, would react. Having to reroute that process through the BITs of your character can feel cumbersome and be a barrier to what some call "immersion".

What I have found can help players kind of reframe this in their minds is using the director metaphor. Instead of thinking about your character as you, think of her as a character in a tv series you're directing, or a book you're writing. It is still very much your character, but it's easier to get into the habit of thinking about how would she react in this situation, rather than how would I react. Once you've shifted to this perspective you'll find yourself looking to your character's Belief and Traits more often to help you decide on how you should proceed.

With this new habit you are ready to really let the characters free. The game sings when you start to discover the story through the characters actions, which are based on their BITs. You should never feel constrained by "the story" or what you think you (the players) should be doing, or what you think the GM has in store for you. Just act on your Belief and the story will burst forth!

This includes not being afraid to go against the other players. If your characters Belief or Goal clashes with another characters, then some PvP might be in order. A passionate argument among friends can be the highlight of the session and the system is built to make this both possible and fun.

Alright, so we've talked about the importance of character and assuming a kind of director stance. What's another great stumbling block? Fear of failure. Through traditional rpgs we've been conditioned to think of failures as the worst possible outcome. We do everything in our might to stack the odds in our favour since failing usually means a null result or a negative result. Sometimes it can even mean the end of the adventure! Mouse Guard flips this all on its head and embraces failure as the catalyst of change and character growth!

When a character fails a roll the GM can either let her succeed anyway, but give her a negative condition, like Angry or Injured, or he can invoke a twist. A twist changes the fiction in some way that propells the story forward. If you're trying to find the path to Sprucetuck but fail, the GM could either let you succeed but say that you are now Thirsty and Hungry from the trek, or he could say that you've actually wandered too far and find yourself in weasel territory. Or it could be something completely unrelated to the actual pathfinding roll, like a sudden thunderstorm or a couple of crows taking interest in the shiny swords of the guardmice.

Twists can often lead to other twists that become adventures in their own right and it is this in combination with the characters' BITs that create the larger story. So failures are fun! They make unexpected things happen and they test the mettle of your character! Additionally they are required to advance your character's skills and abilities - yes, without failing a bunch of rolls you will never get better. Here's an important part where Traits come in, but I'll cover that below.

Stumbling block number three is the GM and Players turn structure and earning Checks. This sounds weirder than it is, but it's pretty much just the regular cycle of most roleplaying games as you move from action scenes to downtime and then back to the action again. The big difference here is Checks, which you must try to collect during the GM's turn to be able to do stuff during the Players' turn. The tricky part about Checks is connected to fear of failure that I mentioned above - to get them you have to affect your character negatively through her Traits. This also ties into the fact that you have to fail to advance your skills, so you now have two big fat rewards for failing!

The Player turn usually comes naturally once the patroll is out of immediate danger and have at least a few checks between them. It might read as very structured and constrained, but I've found that it simply comes organically through the story. If the guardmice have managed to persevere through what you threw at them and find themselves in a natural lull where they're safe from harm, a player turn is probably in order. The suggested two obstacles during the GM's turn is a good benchmark, but more likely than not those will have grown in different directions thanks to twists during play.

Ok, I think that covers the big concepts and themes that are unfamiliar. Let's talk about more concrete actual play advice, bullet point style.

Player Advice

• Belief, Instinct, Traits, Goal. Keep going back to those and you shouldn't have much trouble.
• Your Belief might be the most important part of your Character, so give it some thought.
• Also, don't be afraid to change your Belief it you find that it doesn't come into play, or your character has changed.
• Is the test practically impossible? Use a Trait against you and throw the test! That's like a free Check and a fail for advancement all in one.
• Think of the GM's turn as your character being on the job, and the Players' turn as leisure time to recover or tie up loose ends.
• Embrace failure! There's very little that will actually kill you. Twists are how the story evolves. If you never fail it would make for a pretty flat session.
• Describe to live! Visualising your characters actions as if you were directing a movie can be a great way to really breath life into the scene. Describe what it looks like!
• Don't fish for "irrelevant" rolls. During the GM's turn, focus on the task at hand. You can roll for Cartography or Smithing in the Players' turn (if you have the checks).
• Do make Checks a priority! Always keep your Traits in mind for when they could trip you up and earn you Checks.

Game Master Advice

• Have a sheet with the characters' BITs in front of you. Try to challenge all of them, but Beliefs and Goals in particular. 
• Keep harping about how they can (and should!) use Traits against themselves to earn Checks. This is such a crucial mechanic to grasp, but very unintuitive for traditional players. If you know you're playing several sessions you can simply not remind them about it during the first GM turn and then talk about it in the Players' turn as they're experiencing a distinct lack of Checks.
• Only roll when it matters. In traditional games you tend to reach for the dice at pretty much every turn. In MG you can let a lot of things slide by simply saying yes and moving on. Rule of thumb: if you can't think of a good potential twist, it's probably better not to make it a test.
• Keep the pressure on the characters. Don't make it easy for them, make sure to beat them down so they have the opportunity to persevere through hardship, which will let them grow. 
• Feel free to prep a bit beforehand, but don't get constrained by it. MG can be an almost zero prepp game, with just a bare bones adventure outline. You could map out the adventure as well, with a pass/fail branching structure, but even if you do you'll more than likely find yourself off-path sooner rather than later.
• Just be sure to have the story go where the characers take it rather than the other way around.
• Don't house rule. This can be tempting when you're first learning the game and are struggling with the unfamiliar mechanics. Try to resist the urge to house rule stuff.
• Twists and imposing conditions are great tools for managing the flow of the story. Being able to simply allow a character to succeed (but with a Condition) and move on creates a great deal of flexibility.
• If you're unsure about what Ob to set, lean towards making it harder for the characters. Don't coddle them and remember that twists are when the game comes alive! A patrol with only successfull rolls is a pretty boring one. 

Let's wrap up before this becomes too long winded. I think most of the really important advice is here, although I haven't mentioned Conflicts. They can also be a stumbling block and are probably the most "gamey" part of Mouse Guard, but at the same time are often incredibly tense and can make for great cinematic moments! I don't cover Conflicts here as I've already written an article on my thoughs on the system: Conflicts in Torchbearer and Mouse Guard. Please have a look at it. And before we say goodbye completely, some words on what has been called Advanced Mouse Guard.

Torchbearer

Many of the systems are the same in Torchbearer as in Mouse Guard, however the emphasis change. BITs are still a core component but they get to share the spotlight with sheer survival. While death is fairly rare in Mouse Guard it is a constant companion in Torchbearer. Beliefs, Goals and Traits work pretty much the same, but usually won't drive the narrative quite as strongly as in Mouse Guard - probably because there's this overarching goal/belief of all characters to simply survive and dig enough gold out of the much to make ends meat when back in civilization.

This does not mean BITs aren't important. In some ways they're even more important! In Torchbearer you can't make camp (ie take a player turn) without having earned at least one Check first. Instincts also change to become a kind of automatic action that doesn't take up precious time, which is very powerful and need to be utilised fully to survive.

There's also The Grind where the characters slowly become weaker unless they take time to eat and drink properly. This together with dwindling resources of light and rations makes Torchbearer a game about pressure and hard choices. There's a constant threath of physical debilitation combined with a thread of encroaching doom as the torches start to run out. Yet you can't give in to the pressure until you have enough loot to at least re-equip in the next town you come across. So to that end, is it worth it to ditch two torches to make room for a gold necklace? As you can imagine choices underground in Torchbearer usually hits the first principle of survival first and then filters through the character's BITs and Goal. 

To really drive this feeling of muddy despair home the GM needs to be merciless when it comes to The Grind and sticking it to the characters. While Mouse Guard should have the characters persevere and grow through moral choices the murder hobos of Torchbearer grow as they emerge from a crevace in the ground, covered in mud and blood, with a rusty knife still sticking poking into the back but with a bag of coins in a death grip in one hand!

Is that it? I think that might be it. For now anyway. Naturally all this thinking about Mouse Guard has made me decide to run a few sessions with a new group. We're aiming for 3-5 sessions and my goal is to be able to make time for a winter phase as well. First session in a couple of weeks. Please feel free to add your own advice, or point out where you disagree with me, in the comments.

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On Solo, Rogue One and The Last Jedi

On the 23rd I went to see Solo: A Star Wars Story, and I think it's the most enjoyable since the original trilogy! Unfortunately it was only me and five other people on the nine o'clock at premiere day. Hopefully this will change.

But let's go back for a bit. Let's talk about what's happened since The Force Awakens - a movie I quite liked. First there was Rogue One and this one I was looking forward to more than TFA, as the first stand alone film promising very little in the ways of light sabers but a lot in terms of gritty Star Wars reality. It delivered on both of these (with a small exception at the end) and it seems many people love the movie for that reason alone. I really liked it after the first (and second) viewings in the theater, but now that it's out on Netflix I feel it's a bit of a slog. It looks great, and it's well acted but the story isn't quite there. The visuals and world building are excellent and for the most part I like the plot. But the story feels flat and there's practically no character development among the ensemble cast. Even Jyn Erso herself, who I from the previews thought would be very much of the rebellious anti-hero in the vein of ANH Han Solo, turns out to be an all around good person from the start, and there's nary any growth to her character.

However, what Rogue One did well was immerse us in the sights and sounds of the Star Wars galaxy. Everything looked the part and generally the references were where they should be and not overdone. The film got away with the slightly lacklustre story thanks to its great immersive qualities - it was easy to suspend your disbelief because everything just felt right! That feeling of being a part of the world unfolding on screen, or at least wanting to be a part of it was very strong.

Then we had The Last Jedi which to me felt like a negative copy of Rogue One. Instead of having lacklustre story with great plot we got a fantastic story with an at times silly plot. And just to define terms: simply speaking, the story is what happens in the movie (The Resistance is chased by the First Order, Rey talks to Luke about the force) while plot is how it happens (the chase is a slow mosey through space, Luke is grumpy and milks sea... creatures). I really do think the story is spectacular in TLJ - the way the tables keeps getting turned, while still following a strict internal logic, the way it has this laser sharp focus on failure and the way it tells us that being the dashing hero who's always charging into danger isn't the actual way forward. I loved all the WTF moments and revelled in how it deconstructs Star Wars.

What did leave me a bit cold though, was the more abstract and impressionistic approach to the setting of Star Wars and the visuals in general. As I mentioned above all Star Wars films so far has gone out of their way to try and portray a "realistic" or, perhaps more correctly, logically consistent universe. It's been made to feel like a real place where people live on their lives and while fantastical things happen all the time it has this grungy sense of place and heft to it.

Rian Johnson, as he's decided to do with most of the Star Wars tropes, decided to go in a different direction. The grunge is still there as a facade, but the rule of cool or perhaps rule of what's visually striking is king in TLJ and makes short work of petty things like percieved "realism" or internal consistency. I have no problem at all with this in film making in general - examples of movies where this is used to great effect are Zhang Yimou's Hero or The House of Flying Daggers, or almost any other wuxia film for that matter. When the martial artists there dance on water, or the Imperial Army fires enough arrows to completely blanket a wall, we see it as beautiful artistic expressions, not necessarily an actual portrayal of reality.

As it happens I came across this article talking about cinematic influcences on TLJ, and it mentions how Rian Johnson was inspired by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

And yet, with all its hokum force mumbo-jumbo, Star Wars has rarely gone down that road. The closest probably being the cave on Dagobah. In TLJ we have another cave and it's muuuuch trippier! Which I loved by the way. For me the core problem (if that's what it is) with TLJ comes from these expectations of having a real feeling plot, not one that is visually beautiful but not really sensible. Had Rian done this for one of the stand alone movies I would simply have cheered as I do love how he breaks with so many conventions. However, doing it as part of a trilogy, this trilogy, makes it feel slightly weird. A bit like how Alien: Ressurrection felt so out of place with the first three movies because Jeunet simply did his own impressionistic thing, when the earlier movies had already set up our expectations for the setting in general.

Now, I still really like TLJ, but the artistic choices, in the context of the larger trilogy, did bother me. Perhaps exasperated by having a roleplayers mindset and looking at movies like rpg settings. In the end it's far from ruining my enjoyment of the story, and enjoy it I did, but it makes the movie stand out as slightly odd. It really made me look forward to Rian's own trilogy though - as I think this kind of thing would could be awesome when we're all onboard from the start. Imagine a Star Wars wuxia!

Ok, on to Solo! With all that's happened during production it was easy to imagine that it would be a trainwreck. Perhaps it's simply Ron Howards great skill of navigating the maelstrom of a chaotic production with a steady hand, or perhaps the movie actually did improve through the iterations of hands that moulded it. It doesn't really matter because what came out the other end is pure Star Wars! Like the coaxium of the movie the Star Wars feeling has been refined to its essence and liberally sprinkled over the entire movie, with some extra dashes whenever Lando is around.

We have the lived in universe we've always loved, being what it is, but also adding to it. At times substantially! There are many references to more or less well known Star Wars lore but it's done well and the connections feel genuine. The visual design is absolutely spot on and I think it captures the lawless heist+noir feel very well. The story is generally familiar for those of us with knowledge of the EU, but there are many changes and mostly for the good. The characters are all fleshed out with their own motivations and drives. There's real character development and everyone acts according to their own internal logic. Even

Alden Ehrenreich is good throughout and even manages a few uncannily Ford-like deliveries here and there. Emilia Clarke, who I haven't been very impressed by earlier, makes a great Qi'ra who is very much her own character. Woody Harrelson is excellent as Becket, but we pretty much knew that, it's the kind of character that's made for him! I was of course most excited to see Donald Glover as Lando. It seemed like an inspired casting choice when I first heard about it, and he certainly steals every scene he's in. I just kept thinking that we need Lando: A Star Wars Story like, now!

Enfys Nest quickly climbed the ladde to become one of my favourite new SW characters. 

I also want to mention the visual design as it's phenomenal throughout! I immediately went out and ordered a copy of Art of Solo since I enjoyed both the character and setting designs of the movie so much. Again it finds a nice balance between the almost too drab and gritty rebels fighting on Scarif and the über stylized Praetorian Guards.

Solo manages to combine the world building of Rogue One with the storytelling of The Last Jedi. Together with good main character chemistry and a small army of interesting side characters the movie is thoroughly enjoyable!

While I do hope Disney will use the Anthology series to push the envelope on what Star Wars is and can be (again, Wuxia Star Wars now please!), and Solo is very much in the middle of the road, with hands at ten and two, it is simply so well crafted that it's impossibe not to grin throughout it.

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Future - 2018

Having looked back at the past year, it's time to gaze ahead and try to make out what games are hiding in the mists of tomorrow. Like last year, I'm going to try and think about which games I own that I really want to hit the table, and not just new, seductive titles.

Board Games

Ok, so let's start out with something new. At the moment there aren't that many must-get titles for 2018, but there are a couple for sure. One of those is Aristeia from Corvus Belli. CB is not well known in the board game world, as they're makers of the fantastic skirmish miniatures game Infinity. Aristeia takes place in the same world but not on the battlefield... but in the arena! Inspired by MOBAs such as League of Legends and DOTA 2 each player controls a team of four aristos (fighters) on a hexagonal arena called the hexadrome. You have a number of general cards and then each characters has special cards of their own you can add and you score by entering special zones. It's card driven area control combined with tactical combat and it seems like loads of fun!

It has a number of similarities to GW's recent title Shadespire, which is also card driven and objective focused. Shadespire seems a little simpler and faster, but the general idea is very similar. What draws me to Aristeia over Shadespire is the slightly deeper gameplay, the world of Infinity, the colourfull characters (it is very Overwatch inspired!) and the fact that you can pick and mix aristos freely - there are no set factions you have to adhere to. Oh, and it helps that two of my friends have already picked it up.

Let's mix it up with a game I already own - The Expanse from Wizkids. I got to try it out at a recent game day here in Tokyo and it is a great game! A nice mix of Twilight Struggle and COIN mechanics with a space theme makes for an extremely tight game where every turn is fraught with difficult decisions. From what I've experienced and read so far UN (Earth) seems to be the strongest faction right now, and I'm wondering if this is by design or simply because the game is new and strategies are still being developed. I'm kind of leaning toward the former, in that I could easily see UN being the "default winner" if the other three factions don't at least try to keep them in check. Either way, I'm really eager to get this to the table soon as I feel it could become one of my staples. Just need to be sure to keep a brisk pace as it is easy to let time fly as you think about where to put that final cube...

Finally we have something both old and new - Triplanetary, originally from 1973(!) is getting a Kickstarter campaign that is ongoing right now. This is a game I've read about and thought about maybe trying to print my own copy of, but never got around to. It's basically a vector movement space combat toolbox allowing you to play anything from a (literal) race in space to pirate hunts in the asteroid belt to alien invasions of the solar system! It uses simple vector movement on a hex map where you draw your course with a dry-erase marker. There are rules for reaction mass expenditure and refueling, combat, nukes, bogey ships, bases etc.

reprint thanks to a

While vector movement with counters on a hex map might sound like a headache, the game is surprisingly rules light and most of the scenarios (there are eight in the original game) have only two or three ships per player. Steve Jackson has said that there will be a few tweaks, mostly to the combat rules, but for the most part it will be identical to the original (and the original rules will be included as well). There will be an additional campaign mode though, which is new and sounds like it could be fun but maybe long. This is the kind of release that really makes me excited - a really old but solid game that is finally being made available again should be reason enough, but then it's about realistic space warfare and has a this amazing old school science fiction vibe to it that I can't help but love!


When it comes to new games I would also like to try Jordan Draper's new Tokyo Series that is currently being Kickstarted. Jidohanbaiki looks like a nice toolbox of quick filler games of all kinds and Tokyo Metro immediately got my blood pumping just looking at that awesome route map! I also have Empires of the Void II and Bios: Megafauna 2 which are both currently or soon shipping so more new stuff to look forward to! Turning to my current collection of games I would really like to play more Roll for the Galaxy (because it's always quick and always fun!), Leaving Earth (beacuse SPACE!), Myth (since it seems like it might still be alive!), Troyes (because it's the best euro with dice!),  Claustrophobia (because it's the new Space Hulk!) and A Few Acres of Snow (because it's the best deck builder!)... among others...

Roleplaying Games

There are always way too many awesome roleplaying games for me to ever have the time to read, let alone play! Even with all the board games that are produced these days I usually get more fire up by a cool looking rpg, even when the chances of playing a board game is much higher. Still when it comes to actualy play, our Jovian Chronicles campaign will likely be my top pick for years to come, as I'm pretty sure it'll take that long to complete and I refuse to let it just dissolve. I'm currently experimenting with Roll20, both to be able to play with my friends in Sweden here from Japan, but also to make it easier for us to get a game together even when we're in the same city.

Besides Jovian Chronicles I have my usual suspects of Torchbearer, Mutant: Year Zero and The One Ring waiting on the sidelines. They might pop up at any point, but since you already know that let's talk about which other games I've got a particular hankering for.

Something horrible! I read Dread ages ago, and Ten Candles about a year ago, but I still haven't played either of them. Although I used to play a lot of Call of Cthulhu and Kult back in the day I've never really been all that much into the horror aspect. Or I should say, the scary aspect of them. I love creating the creepy stories, but just like reading a Lovecraft story isn't really scary the games never reallt invoked fear at at. Which is of course extremely hard to do anyway, and frankly I don't think Dread or Ten Candles will do it either. However, they both use interesting ways to make the players tense and I would love to see how they actually work at the table. Since they require little prep and are built as one-offs this should really be doable during 2018.

Something cyberpunky! I think space and cyberpunk are my two favourite settings and recently I've been on a bit of a retro cyberpunk binge. The classic setting is really played out today since so much of it has either come true, or not, and the parts that are left aren't really enough to stand on their own legs. So either you try to update your cyberpunk, which can work - the new Deus Ex games are good examples of this I think - or you lean into the feel of it and see it as an alternative future rather than our future. As for specific games I'm thinking TechNoir used with FFG's Android setting or combining the mechanics of Brad Murray's Hollowpoint with the setting of Ray Winniger's (under appreciated) Underground.

TechNoir + Android seems like a perfect fit to me as both game and setting lean heavily into the noir trope. While technology and punks are part of both of them in the end it comes down to people and their actions and interactions. TechNoir even has a cool system for getting hackers into the game (as opposed to doing their own thing separate from the group) which I think would work well with the Netrunner part of the Android setting. With the announcement of the Terrinoth module for FFG's Genesys rpg system I'm expecting an Android version further down the road, but I think I actually prefer a different system.

Hollowpoint + Underground might require a bit more work but it feels like it would fit. In Hollowpoint each player is an über-competent badass agent that is way above us ordinary mortals. These agents are forced to work together to perform a task and usually does it through violence and mayhem. It sounds quite a bit like Underground where you're playing these super powered war veterans trying to clean up a dystopian USA. Or at least, it's close enough that you could tweak it to work. I see three main points that would need to be worked out: 1) Hollowpoint is mainly a one-off game, 2) You would need a system for the player characters mental status (they're semi-psychotic killing machines after all), and 3) There needs to be a system for changing your environment (block/city/state/country/world) as you play. Will keep this idea in the cogitator tank to see what pops out.

Something fantastic! Besides Torchbearer I haven't played or GM'd any fantasy games (does Mouse Guard count? Nah!) since we wrapped up our WFRP3 campaign in 2011 and I do feel the itch to swing a sword again. So besides my staples of Torchbearer/Burning Wheel and The One Ring, what else do we have that looks interesting? I think the big elephant in the room is Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition from Cubicle 7. I've written about it here on the blog before and for me it's the big rpg release of 2018. Forbidden Lands from Fria Ligan is a close second though. I like most of what I saw in the alpha and I have the feeling that it could easily become my go-to game for semi-generic fantasy (the setting is actually quite unique in many ways, but you know, orcs/elves/dwarves).


This is by no means the only roleplaying games I would like to play, but certainly the ones at the top of my mind at the moment. We'll see what 2018 actually brings...

Miniature Games

Eightfold Path champion for The Legend of Fabled Realms.

If there's one genre of tabletop games where I really have no need to invest into new titles it's the miniature games. With time for painting and modelling lacking and the extra investment required to actually play a game it's actually kind of weird that I'm still clinging to them. On the other hand, I love the hobby aspect, which works as a kind of meditation for me, and when it does come together it's almost always a lot of fun! I will try to focus on what I already have, but there are at least one (or two) new games that I'm getting into.

As always Infinity is at the top of the list, and I don't expect this to change pretty much ever. During 2017 I made great strides in actually getting terrain enough to have a table of my own. Currently it consists of two Red Veil sets and a number of terrain pieces from Systema, Zen Terrain and Art of War with objectives from MicroArt Studios. Most of the scatter terrain is mostly painted so playing smaller battes using them and the Red Veil terrain works well. Next steps is painting the larger structures. Sooner or later I will need a way to make a proper 120x120 table though as I'm currently limited to 90cm in length. My Yu Jing are growing as well and last year I got my first sectorial army as I invested in some Corregidor - I could only resist those Geckos for so long.

Let's keep the skirmish angle going and have a look at... Necromunda! Yes, you read that right, I am going back to GW for a bit. I've read mostly positive things about the new version and the minis we've seen so far look kind of cool. Still, I won't be getting any of the gangs we've seen so far (although doing shaved heads on a gang of Escher and painting them like Imperator Furiosa does seem like fun!) as my favourites have always been Cawdor and Delaque. Before we get any of them though, it seems like we'll be getting the Genestealer Cult! I was tempted when GW first released the new cult minis and being able to actually use them in game seals the deal for me. I don't know if I will get the actual Necromunda boxed game, but I will absolutely put together a cult so I can play it!

The third skirmish game I'm getting into in 2018 is the upcoming Legends of Fabled Realms from 4Ground that was funded through kickstarter last spring. Gorgeous minis, a cool backstory and rules that kind of feels like fantasy Infinity made it very hard to resist, even though I tried! In the end me and my buddy Anders jumped in with both feet and we're looking forward to the release in (hopefully) September. The big reason I felt it was manegeable was of course the skirmish aspect. Only having to paint ten-ish minis is workable. The more I see and read about it the better it sounds and it's going to be fun to paint something else than scifi soldiers and space ships!

Speaking of space ships there will be space gaming in 2018 for sure! Jovian Chronicles/Jovian Wars/Lightning Strike takes top priority as we'll use the minis for the rpg campaign as well. You can also play complete games with quite few figures and I have more than enough to field two fleets which means I can simply pull it out and play with friends I invite home. Of course Dropfleet Commander is the other space game I have in mind, but since I'm reliant on someone else to at least build a fleet before I can play it I'm not sure when it will actually see play. It'll be interesting to see what TTCombat does with it in 2018 - hopefully they can breath life into it and Dropzone Commander.

Other games that might see play and/or a paint brush is Test of Honour, Dust Warfare, 15mm scifi, Heavy Gear and Rogue Stars. But really, considering the games I've mentioned above and the large amount of miniature board games I have I would be surprised if I had the time for these as well.


Quite a few repeats from years past, which I suppose is only natural as you find games you love, but there will be quite a few new acquaintances as well. At this very moment as I sit here and type this the game at the top of my mind stack is actually the 37 year old Triplanetary. Hopefully it's as much fun as I think...

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Past - 2017

Damn, that was fast! Another year of lots of stuff happening, and also a few games played. In this post I will talk about what games I played (and didn't play) and generally how my gaming year of 2017 went. In the next post I will talk about what I'm looking forward to or hope to play in 2018.

Let's have a look...

Board Games

There haven't been anything like our Imperial Assault campaign in 2016 (that long ago?!) so the curve of played games is a lot flatter. Still, the top place actually goes to Android: Netrunner! All the matches were against my old friend Fredrik who I started introducing the game to in September. Since then he bought his own core set and we've started using Jinteki.net as well. It's been a while now since our last game, so it's probably time for more! It really is such a great game and definitely the one LCG I would keep if I had to make a choice.

Next up is the little gem Bios: Genesis, actually up one step from third place in 2016! The big secret is of course enjoyable solo play and me playing a lot during spring. It did hit the table again here in Japan a week ago, with the full four players. This was also fun, but it did take a long time. The great part was all the parasites flying around and being absorbed. Unfortunately it ended up a bit lopsided with one player getting two macroorganisms and and the other three getting almost nothing.

Third place is actually a three-way split between Neanderthal, MERCS: Recon and Terraforming Mars so... bonus tripple feature I guess! I got Terraforming Mars
as a birthday gift last year but didn't get to play it until this year, and am thusfar undefeated. Hehe! I love the theme and I think the game looks pretty nice, the mechanics are clever and it's just a very smooth ride. What does bother me somewhat is how long it takes to play (2.5 hours being our fastest) and that it can sometimes be a bit too smooth. There are rarely actual hard decisions, as most of the time the most obvious move is apparent to you. You just keep arranging your cards in order of which to play first. Don't get me wrong, I like it, but am perhaps not as enamoured as the rest of the community.

MERCS: Recon is very Megacon Games-y; the balance can be totally off and sometimes you're caught off guard by some rules interaction that means you loose the game by no fault of your own. However, it always tells a cool story and it is fun while loosing as well (certainly a worthy attribute for a board game!). In one of the games we decided to try out the Lost Margin Raiders, who are a third party force of raiders just hellbent on killing both corporate SecFor and the Mercs. At first they added a bit of extra colour, but soon we realized how powerful they were and as they just kept coming we were wiped off the board. We lost horribly, but it made for some greate scenes and it was easy to visualize it as one of those desperate action movie sequences where the badass special forces gets taken out by a low tech enemy. Great game that really need some paint!

I've actually only played Neanderthal with other players once, the rest of the times have been solo outings. It's very similar to Greenland, but I find the theme more interesting. At first it can seem chaotic and random (as is often the case with Phil Eklund's games) but as you learn more about how things work you realize that you can often, if not control, at least ride out the chaos to make your tribe flourish survive. I think this might be my favourite tiny Eklund game to pull out and run solo. While I've played Bios: Genesis more, I think I like Neanderthal better. Very eager to get my hands on Bios: Megafauna 2 that have been delayed untul February-ish. Also, there will be a kickstarter for new editions of Neanderthal and Greenland now in January and at $45 for both games there's really no reason not to back!

Looking at what board games I actually played compared to which ones I was eager to play it kind of lines up fairly well. I haven't played First Martians, and I'm kind of hesitant to get it after reading many of the reviews. But I have at least played a game of New Angeles and Andean Abyss, also Bios: Megafauna 2 isn't too far off (although it didn't make the 2017 mark). This year has seen a great increase in quick filler and kids games to play with my spawn and other people not well-versed in board games. Stuff like Kingdomino, Deep Sea Adventure, Happy Salmon, Tok-Tok Woodman and Spooky Stairs. Some other "proper" games that have seen play are Pax Pamir (Phil Eklund tightened up), Roll for the Galaxy (love it!), Star Wars: Rebellion (thematic, tense, long, awesome) and Trains: Rising Sun (my love for trains rekindled when movign to Japan).

Roleplaying Games

Again, not very much roleplaying going on. I've written at length about our Jovian Chronicles campaign that is ongoing, but at a very leisurely pace, with part one being here. Which reminds me that I have yet to type out part five, the latest in the series. as I'm in Japan right now play has halted although I'm hopefull that we'll be able to play over the net using Roll20 or simply using hangouts. We'll lose the board and tactical bits if we end up not using Roll20, but better that than not playing at all. It's a bit ironic now that I've got the new, absolutely gorgeous, minis from the Jovian Wars kickstarter but eh, whatchagonnado?

Arriving in Japan I actually got to meet some folks who were starting a short Blades in the Dark-campaign and I immediately joined up as the Whisperer Tocker Slade. It has been great fun exploring a new system with people that I don't really know (and who didn't really know each other when we started out) and I think we're starting to get the hang of it. I missed out on the last session but am looking forward to the next in January(?). I have plans for a new heist...

While there's been no more proper roleplaying sessions my friend Jacob did start ramping up Tales from the Loop which we will also play online, soon. I hope. As always there are rpg books being read of course, and with the Infinity roleplaying game finally being sent out to backers (although I went the PDF rout) I thought I might read it and post my thoughts as I go. It's a thick tome though, so don't expect it to go fast. I also started reading Mutant: Elysium first, which is about a third of the text but packs a great amount of game in those pages, and I will write about it soon. It won't be out in English for a while so this might be a good preview for the non-Swedish speakers out there (ie, the rest of the world).

Again, what I actually played lined up pretty well with what I was hoping to play. No Torchbearer or WFRP4, but since the latter was delayed until 2018 I'm fine with that. And Torchbearer will simply continue to float on my want-to-play-list.

Miniature Games

A few games of Infinity as me and Claes played through the Red Veil intro campaign, but nothing else I'm afraid. I'm still waiting for my friends to put together Dropfleet or Dropzone forces to play those and I didn't manage to play Lightning Strike or Jovian Wars before I left for Japan. Arguably you could say that some of our Jovian Chronicles sessions have been almost pure miniature gaming, but still, in the end I'm only going to count Infinity. Of course, I'm not too sad about it as Infinity is such a great game and always fun to play. If I can continue to get at least a few games of Infinity played each year I'll be a happy gamer.

A bit of a disconnect compared to games I wanted to play, especially I feel that still no Dropfleet is a bit of a blow. No games of Rogue Stars either, even though we don't even need to paint minis or build scenery for it. Weird. Anyway, me and Anders did back The Legends of Fabled Realms last year, which is looking better and better each time I see or read about it, and the new Necromunda has actually made me take a close look at a GW game in... more than a decade! Test of Hounour is also up there as a potential interest, but more about all these potential candidates in the Future post next year. ;)


Hmm... was that it? I think that was it. There's never enough games played, when you look back at the year, but at the same time there are usually more than you remember. So all in all another good year of gaming! Talk to you soon again in the Future post.

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Forbidden Lands Alpha PDF - First Impressions

The other day Fria Ligan, aka Free League Publishing, released the Swedish alpha PDF to backers of their upcoming retro fantasy game Forbidden Lands. Of course the English version should be available soon as well. Still as the game draws heavily from the art of Nils Gulliksson, who was the illustrator of Swedish rpgs in the eighties and nineties, as well as some general themes and vibes from those games it just feels right for me to read it in Swedish. Also, my thoughts and impressions of the alpha pdf might tide over non-Swedish speaking backers until the English PDF is out.

Full disclosure, I'm friends with a couple of the guys at Fria Ligan and I've heard about some of the development of Forbidden Lands, but this is the first time I've actually read anything from it. I'll strive to be as unbiased as possible. :)

The alpha weighs in at 186 pages and is comprised of most of the Rules/Player book with some parts from the Campaign/GM book added as well. I won't go through in detail simply what's in the book as that will be known to all in just a week or two, but rather what is different from earlier Fria Ligan games using the Mutant: Year Zero engine and what I think of the additions and changes.

But first, a few words on how it looks. This is an alpha so I'm sure many things will change. However, Gullikssons images are central to the game and since they're all in black and white the game had to be in black and white. I really don't see any other way of doing the art justice as having the rest of the book in colour would just make the images look off and colouring them now would be... an abomination! So what we have is a very old school looking book, which for me personally is just as evocative and inspiring than any of Fria Ligan's earlier, full colour books. In a way maybe even more so! On the other hand I've seen a couple of people react negatively at how "simple" the book looks. Of course, this is still an alpha, but I don't see the look changing too much now.

Anyone who has played Mutant or Coriolis will be instantly familiar with the rules and character creation, although there are a number of large and small differences in Forbidden lands. You choose your stock first, with all the regular fantasy races represented, but also wolf people and orcs. Then your profession, giving you access to certain skills and your second talent (the first came from your stock). When choosing your profession you also choose your point of Pride and your Dark Secret. The former can give you a bonus once per session while the latter is more meant as GM fodder. You also create relations to the other characters and receive your trappings, as in Mutant.

Speaking of trappings, one addition here that I really like is the concept of resource dice for

consumables like food, arrows and torches. They work by dice denomiation with a D12 being the most plentiful and a D4 the least. Whenever you use the item you roll the die and if it comes up a 1 or 2 it is downgraded to the next lower denomination - 12-10-8-6-4 - or simply running out if your rolled a 1 or 2 on a D4. I love these kinds of abstract resource management mechanics as they both make it easier to keep track of your stuff and, more importantly, bring fun and drama to the game! It's more fun to run out of something when you least expect it.

During character creation you also get to set your starting Reputation, higher the older you are. And it will be an important stat as you adventure through the lands. People might have heard of you or your group of adventurers and decide to help your hinder you, or simply seek you out for help with some crazy quest.

Skills are for the most part unchanged. What is new are Artefact dice which you can receive from really powerful objects. Skill rolls are always made with D6 in this system, but Artefact dice allow you to upgrade dice to higher denominations, but still count anything six or higher as a success, or even multiple successes! So a legendary sword would allow you a D12 with 12 counting as four successes. Neat!

Here is also where your Pride comes in. You can use it once per session in a situation where your Pride would matter, after pushing your roll you get to add a D12 to the roll. But if you still fail you have to erase your pride and choose a new one later. So if my Pride was "I can shoot the ring out of an elf's ear at 40 paces" I could use it when attacking with my bow. Personally I think this sounds like a fun little detail to add to your character but would much prefer something with more of a mechanical anchor, like an Aspect in FATE or a Belief in Burning Wheel. Hopefully it gets expanded upon before release. Again, this is an alpha. :)

Talents are basically analogous to your mutations in MYZ and you fuel them by using Power Points that you get when pushing yourself while rolling for skills. This is the core mechanic of this rules engine and it works beautifully from a systems perspective, although I can sometimes feel there's a disconnect when trying to explain how it works when trying to explain why the Halfling suddenly can't escape his enemies just because he didn't push himself hard enough when trying to climb a tree earlier. Mind you, this is a very, very minor quibble as it simply works so well in play. Power Points are also used by wizards to cast spells, which I have some thoughts about, but more on that below.

Generally Talents fit well with the stock or profession that gives them and are generally not as powerful as Mutations in MYZ, which would be more akin to magic in Forbidden Lands.

Combat and injuries are similar to earlier games in the series, although melee has been expanded on quite a bit. There are now different attacks like Swipe and Thrust as well as different ways of defending, like Parry and Avoid with different bonuses or penalties being given as a result of which weapon is being used with which attack and which defence is being used. Weapons also have a number of special charactersistics, like Edge or Point or Blunt that interact in combat in different ways. For example, it's easier to Avoid a Swipe and Parry a Thrust than the other way around.

Crits are handled slightly differently in that you get an automatic critical damage when your Strength goes to zero and you are broken. There are a number of very retro feeling (in a good way!) crit tables that you get to roll on to see what kind of injury you've sustained and how it will hamper you during healing.

There is also a secondary, advanced, combat mode where you use cards to battle it out with your opponent. Basically each of you play two cards (one per long/short action) face down on the table and then flip them over one at a time. The cards are fairly broad, so the Attack card allows you to either Swipe or Thrust and the Prepare card allows you three different actions. It's a little bit like a mix between regular combat and the "advanced rock-paper-scissors" of Tochbearer and Mouse Guard (which I like very much!). It seems interesting, although my first thought is that I would probably limit it to one-on-one melees. It's not as elegant as in Torchbearer but on the other hand also much less abstract. Really need to try it out to see how it actually feels in play.

Magic works similarly to Talents but spells are generally more powerfull. There are some general spells but most are school specific with four belonging to traditional magic and three being druidic magic. There are three levels of spells and you can actually cast magic from a higher level than you know, but at greater risk. You don't roll for casting spells like you do with Skills, you always pass, but you do need to roll to see how it goes and spells can potentially blow up and become more powerfull or miscast and have nasty side effects, sometimes both at the same time. The more Power Points you feed a spell with the larger the chance/risk of something unforeseen happening.

As I mentioned above I kind of wonder how well the Power Points will work when you use them for

wizardry as well. I thought maybe that Wizards would have some special Talent to allow them to generate Power Points without pushing their skills rolls, but this doesn't seem to be the case. I might just be overthinking it but my spontaneous reaction has me wondering if a wizard will have enough Power Points to cast spells enough to feel "fun". Especially considering you can't roll for and push your actual spellcasting. Well, this is one of those things that will shake out when actually playing the game. Generally I think the magic rules work well and can make for fun little surpises, but I also think there's room for both more personality to the magic (as it feels quite generic right now) as well as more fun ways to interact with magic. I have a feeling this will turn up in a proper magic expansion down the road though.

Travel gets its own section, which should come as no surprise seeing this game has its roots in hexcrawls of old! The system used here is somewhat similar to the one introduced in The One Ring mixed with what we've seen in Mutant: Year Zero - each person has a role during travel and need to roll to fullfill that role. It is a bit more detailed and less abstract (and no corruption roles, obviously) with each day being split into four time slots and characters choosing travel roles for each slot. So you could decided that everyone marches during the morning and day, then making camp and hunting during the evening and sleeping and keeping watch during the night. If you fail your roll there are of course consequences that you roll for on a chart, again similar to TOR.

I think more games should have rules for journeys so I'm very happy to see more of it here. At first glance like this, it seems to me like the journeys here will be more focused and more personal than in The One Ring where they can sometimes be boiled down to a long series of dice rolls. You can cover six hexes (60km) when riding normally, and potentially 120km if you really push yourselves and your animals through the night. That is quite far, about a fourth of the map. I really like this travel system and look forward to experiencing it in play!

The bestiary contains a selection of what we'll see in the finished game and you can find most of the standard fantasy critters here. Each monster has a chart with different kinds of attacks that the GM can choose from or roll for. I find stuff like this great both for world bulding and simply as a nice fallback for GMs. Having just a stat line can sometimes lead to the "well, it tries to bite you again" thing which can make combat boring. Having harpies that heckle the heroes, or rip at their eyes, or simply poop on them gives much more tone and drama to a scene instead of just having them "swipe with their claws", yet again. Good stuff!

Finally we have one of the three adventure sites from the Campaign book. It's called Vädersten (Weatherstone) in Swedish but that might be something else after translation of course. I won't spoil anything as I hope people get to play it and report back to Fria Ligan what they thought. But overall I think it's a nice introduction to the world, with many retro call backs, but also some more modern twists that you would normally not see in actual old games. There's a ruin, promises of richess and a rival adventuring group thrown into the mix. Hopefully I can try ut out myself, in which case I will of course report my thoughts.


That was actually a lot more detail than I had intended to write! I hope you found it worthwile. There are many OSR games out there and even more gams that simply try to capture that vibe, both in English and Swedish. I've read quite a few of them and played a couple, but besides Torchbearer none of them have really caught my full interest. And the thing with Torchbearer is that it is a very specific kind of experience that simply won't work for some players. Forbidden Lands has that dungeon crawling, murder hobo-ing feel to it, but with a much lighter system under the hood. The kind of system that anyone would enjoy.

I have a feeling it could easily become my go to no-prepp fantasy game whenever I want a less focused experience than say, Torchbearer or WFRP. And I mean less focused as in easier to get into and with room for almost anything.

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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Retrospective

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay through the ages...

With news finally starting to trickle out from Cubicle 7 about the upcoming 4th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay I've been thinking back a lot on my relationship with the game. I got into the miniatures end of Warhammer, 40k and their sister games back in the late eighties and even though I knew about the rpg end of Warhammer it seemed odd to me. Did you play an orc warboss on a wyvern or a high elf white lion?

Several years later I came across a used copy of the 1st edition rulebook, when I worked part time in

a game store, and since it was cheap I thought "let's have a look". And well... a completely new side of Warhammer presented itself to me. Up until this time my main interest had been Epic, Necromunda, Space Hulk and Blood Bowl. While I had collected a small, rag-tag chaos army my real interest didn't really lie on the battlefield but rather in the more personal skirmishes (well, epic was en exception of course!). Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay finally showed me that personal, and real, side of the Warhammer world that had been missing from the tabletop game.

I started going back through old copies of White Dwarf to read all those WFRP articles that I had just skipped in years past. I tried to pick up as many books for the game I could find, although they started running dry right about then. What I really wanted to get my hands on was, of course, The Enemy Within - the greatest campaign ever written, according to some. It proved a daunting task so when Hogshead came in and started reprinting the old books and adding new ones to the lineup I decided it was time to actually play the game.

With me as the GM and two old friends and two newer ones we started playing The Oldenhammer Contract from the 1st edition rulebook. A few months ago I came across my old notes and charactar sheets from this game, and while I don't remember the names of the characters off-hand (and the sheets are back in Sweden) the group consisted of a halfling tomb robber, a human hunter from Middenheim, an elf wizard's apprentice and a human noble (I think). The Oldenhammer Contrat lead into Mistaken Identity and Shadows over Bögenhafen. The group did ok, but in the end actually failed the adventure, leading to some interesting and long-lasting consequences.

We continued with Death on the Reik (the module that I personally was most looking forward to run!) but only got about a third of the way through it before life happened. One of the players moved abroad for a bit and I changed jobs, meaning I didn't work with two of the players anymore. In the end we never picked it up again, although I know exaclty where we left off and still have the sheets. We could, potentially, pick up just where we left it. Especially considering it was a pretty good cliffhanger with the entire party having fallen prey to a sneaky ghoul!

I'm not sure how many sessions we played, but this was back when no one really had any commitments and I know we played a lot so perhaps 15-ish or so? One of the best "late" roleplaying memories for me mostly thanks to the great adventure material. While the rules could be odd now and then it didn't matter when the adventures and setting were so good!

Hogshead continued to re-release old material and made new stuff as well, which I managed to mostly gobble up, but in the end they ran out of steam before they had a chance to publish the re-worked Empire in Flames. Damn! Still, they had a good run!

Then, in 2005, Black Industries released the second edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay -

probably the most popular iteration so far. It updated the rules, mostly for the better, and released a number of cool sourcebooks like Sigmar's Heirs and the Tomes of Corruption/Salvation. Something I wasn't all that keen on was the move to an Old Worlde more in keeping with the tabletop game. The cover art took a hit as well, becoming much more heroic and tabletop-ish. Both understandable moves from GW's part, but it made the setting a bit more plain. Or at least, it would have if we had followed it closely. I ran more of a 1st ed. style game anyway when we played.

And play we did! For the life of me I can't remember any of the characters, or even who exactly played, but we started with Through the Drakwald from the core book, which lead to the first part of the new campaign; Ashes of Middenheim. We played through it and had fun, although it didn't blow us away like The Enemy Within had done. It's certainly not a bad adventure, but neither is it a great one. The feeling I got was that Graeme Davis, who wrote it, was instructed to include as many different facets of the Warhammer world as possible in Ashes of Middenheim, as it would probably the one adventure all WFRP2 players bought and needed to introduce the setting to new players. It's an understandable approach, but one that rarely works (and will show up again in WFRP3).

As I flip through the adventure now I think it would have worked much better as more of a slow burn, with smaller adventures interspersed between the main chapters. I of course still have the old Middenheim book for 1st edition that could have been used for all kinds of cool stuff. Well, now-me is a better GM than past-me I suppose.

Having finished Ashes of Middenheim (with the heroes being successfull this time) we didn't feel any particular need to rush into part two, Spires of Altdorf, so instead I decided to run some of the updated first edition adventures from Plundered Vaults. Rough Night at the Three Feathers was my original, almost instinctive choice, as it is such a legendary adventure, but after reading Sing for your Supper I simply couldn't resist running that. This felt much more like the WFRP we know and loved and I remember the entire group having great fun with this adventure! Which was a good thing as it would be the last WFRP play for about five years.

Sing for your supper...

This was before I started logging plays so I don't know how many sessions we played but seeing as Ashes of Middenheim has eight parts I think ten sessions at the very least, probably more like 15. Looking back at it now I'm surprised we managed to get through all of Ashes of Middenheim and one more adventure, seeing as they were released in early 2005 and I moved to Tokyo in October that year. Again, times were simpler then I suppose.

During the first couple of years in Japan I didn't do any analogue gaming, but as the craving started I did manage to run some Dark Heresy games (where you could already see the WFRP rules engine starting to creak), and when the 3rd edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay was announced by FFG in 2009 I was eager to dive back into the Old World!

An Eye for an Eye!

This more or less coincided with us moving back to Sweden in 2010 and almost immediately I was planning a 3rd edition campaign with my old group. By now I had started logging games on BGG and started writing session reports on this here blog, so for anyone curious about our adventures in Stromdorf just go back and read! We started with the introduction scenario A Day Late and a Shilling Short, continued with the An Eye for an Eye (a really atmospheric little adventure!) and then straight into The Gathering Storm. Unfortunately the final third of the campaign didn't get proper session reports. I would go back and write them now if only I could remember the details, it's somewhat hazy. However, I intend to at least do a kind of wrap up of the campaign and my thoughts on it.

Suffice to say, we really liked what FFG did with the new system, at first. There were some quirks,

like going abstract with combat, but not entirely, which lead to some odd moments, but overall the chits and cards and dice really worked for us! The actions were fun, the magic system had a cool push-you-luck mechanic to it and the bits did help. Until they didn't. My problem with the format wasn't the bits and cards themselves but the pure amount of them!

If FFG had realeased the core box with bits and cards and then had a mixed line of books with optional card/bits to buy I think we would have continued playing WFRP3. What ended up happening was that every release for the game came with more cards and bits. And not more as in "add these new injury cards to the injury deck" but as in new types of cards and bits. This made the game bloat enormously and by the end of our campaign I simply felt drained as a GM simply by setting up and just keeping track of all. That. Stuff.

This bloat combined with the kind of mediocrity of The Gathering Storm actually killed WFRP for me for a bit. In fact, it killed roleplaying or at least game mastering for me for about a year. When I felt ready to get stuck back in I kind of overcompensated and only felt interested in small and tight games like Diaspora or Mouse Guard that didn't rely on large amounts of GM preparation. I still think it's a real shame WFRP3 ended up the way it did. The core system is good and spawned a lot of fun stories. As I went back now and read through the old session reports I was reminded of how much fun we had with it! Just look at how popular their Star Wars line of games is, and that is pretty much the same rules but with all the cards as optional extras.

I also think that FFG managed to find a pretty good middle ground between the original 1st edition feel and some of the more tabletop connected stuff of 2nd edition. The art was generally better, although I missed a lot of the, less polished, but more atmospheric art of 1st edition. All in all we played 13 sessions of WFRP3 which makes for about 40-45 sessions of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay in all it's different iterations, so far. My years of running Call of Cthulhu might come close to that number of sessions, but I still think WFRP holds the top spot as my most Game Mastered roleplaying game!

Which reminds me that there's been one player who's been a constant presence during all 45(ish) of these sessions and that's my old high school friend Anders. Come to think of it, he's probably my oldest friend that I still hang out with. Ha! While it migh have happened I can't recall him ever missing a session of our Warhammer adventures, which is pretty impressive all things considered. Here's a cheers for Anders and hopefully our continued adventures in WFRP4!

So... speaking of the 4th edition... let's segway into that. Last week we started hearing about some of the plans for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition by Cubicle 7, and I'm getting that jittery feeling I had both back in 2004, when 2nd ed was announced, an in 2009, when 3rd was announced! We will actually get two games, one set in the classic (now exploded!) Old World and one in the Age of Sigmar setting. However, as I don't really know much, or have much interest in, the latter I will focus on the former.

The covers for the boxed starter set and core rulebook. I love how the first shows the heroes casually laughing it up (and a ratcatcher with a wanted sign?) while the others shows them in full melee but at the same location. Great stuff! Also, check out how well the new cover lines up with the original - the guys behind Zweihänder made a comparison. 

C7 says the tone will be similar to the 1st edition, even the new cover invokes the original in a nice way, with rules based on the 2nd edition. To be perfectly honest I was hoping for more of a from the ground up re-imagening of the rules, but at the same time I can't blame them for making what is probably the smarter business decision - everyone seems to love the 2nd ed rules. I think they're fine but showing their age, and not in a good way. Still they did postpone it about six months (it was originally slated for release this year) to keep finagling the rules, which is a very good thing to me.

What is even more interesting is that, even though C7 first said they weren't interested in rehashing old material, they are going to release a special director's cut, anniversary edition of The Enemy Within! While I generally agree with not rehashing old stuff, some games and supplements are exceptions - WFRP and CoC spring to mind. Especially since players have been clamouring for a reprint of TEW since 2005 and that FFGs version really was a different campaign with similar themes.

As implied by the director's cut comment, the reprint will feature updated and or added content, which, I imagine, will most likely concern the last two parts of the campaign that are generally considered much weaker than parts one to three. Overall I'm very excited for these news. Generally because Cubicle 7 makes extremely well written and atmosphericgames, such as The One Ring, and specifically because I would like to continue The Enemy Within some day. As I mentioned above we could just pick up where we left off, although I think we might as well play from the beginning as I think most of the plot has been clouded by foggy memories by now.

Whatever happens I'd be happy just getting another 15 sessions worth of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay to log and chronicle!

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