Games

Version 1.0.2 of the Blood in Space rules released.

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I’ve just uploaded on Wargame Vault version 1.0.2 of the rules for Blood in Space: a lot of (minor) fixes and clarifications. It looks like I’ve missed several copy/paste errors while trying to keep the game engine aligned with Blood on the Blade – sorry about that. You should receive a note from the system with the updated files very soon.

In the meantime, a few  BoTB players asked me how to use the BoTB content in the BiS universe: only a couple of notes are required

  • All BoTB weapons and armours are considered as “Primitive” in BiS
  • BoTB scenarios and Enemies can be easily re-used, represting the engagment of your Crew on a low-tech / Feudal planet.
  • The Pit Scenario can be used to represent a storyline where the players (or just a few of them) have been captured on such a Planet and condamned to the Gladiatorial games.

As usual, let me know your comments, suggestions and critics.

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Blood in Space now available!

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Blood in Space has finally been relased! My newest ruleset of solitaire skirmish is now available here on Wargame Vault.

Blood in Space is a micro but complete set of rules for solitaire or co-op skirmish game, set on a sci-fi background. “Micro” refers to the small set of rules, the small time required to complete one game session and the small number of miniatures required (4-10 figures being a common range).

The game includes eleven Scenarios covering iconic sci-fi scenes like exploring the planet surface, attacking an enemy base, searching an abandoned starship, freeing prisoners. Event markers placed on the Map will create the needed Fog of War and randomize the placement of enemies, events and of course loot! Terrain rules allow to quickly create different planetary conditions.

Scenarios can be played individually or as part of a Campaign game: in this case a flowchart will (randomly) determine the next mission; as an example, after a “Exploration” mission a bad roll could send your characters on the “Ambush” scenario. Characters on a Campaign will be able to improve their characteristics, but with the improvement of the Reputation Level of your Crew, your enemies will also become stronger.

Activation of units (friendly and enemies) is managed with a pool of activation markers, but you can never be sure that every unit will be activated. When an “Enemy” marker is drawn by the pool you will roll on the ENEMY ACTIVATION table in the current Scenario to determine the unit to activate and its orders.

CONTENTS

  • Game Rules
  • 11 Scenarios
  • 9 Enemy Sheets (39 different adversaries)
  • 1 Character sheet
  • 4 Table sheets
  • 1 Campaign Roster
  • 1 Campaign Sheet
  • 48 markers

Get your copy Blood in Space and let me know your comments! More (free) components will be published here in the next days so stay tuned.

Game Aids

Paper miniatures and top-down tokens.

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I admit it, I’m very bad in painting miniatures: for this reason normally I play with “raw” miniatures taken from my library of games (like Descent).

An alternative is the use of paper miniatures: you can find tons of such a miniatures on the web (for example in Wargame Vault under the category “Miniatures”); just print them and you’re army is ready in minutes (well, you also probaly need to attach them to a thick paper and prepare a solid base). I often use paper miniatures like the ones produced by Darkfast, definitely good in quality and with a great price.

http://www.wargamevault.com/product/118585/Darkfast-Classic-…

If you prefer the top-down view (this makes *much* easier to prepare the terrain), the only option I’ve found are the tokens used with applications like roll20, like those available here in Rpg Now:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/217641/Fantasy-Tokens-Set-3-Cl…

The limit is that those tokens are normally not intended for printing, but if you find figures with at least a size of 300×300 pixels you can create a top-down miniature of 1″ good enough to be printed and used for play.

For top-down token I can surely suggest to look at Devin’s Token Site

https://immortalnights.com/tokensite/

they have very good tokens that you can also print. The Free pack (20 sets of miniatures) includes probably 90% of what you need. Recommended (here below a sample)

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BoTB moves to the future: a small preview

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The next title in the “Blood on..” series will be Blood on the Space: the Sci-Fi background has been requested by a lot of players of BoTB and is also one of my all-time favourites of course (being one of the Star Wars kids).

The jump into the future required some changes to the BoTB engine but the core mechanics are still there: let’s have a look a some of the main elements introduced.

  • A new action is available for the PCs to represent an overwatch stance of the characters: rapid fire weapons make possible to break the standard sequence of play interrupting the enemy actions.
  • Terrain is now generated using some specialized tables instead being included in the Mission setup: this increases the replay value of each scenario and makes possible to easiliy introduce different planetary conditions (desert, jungle)
  • Indoor scenarios are included in the core rules: exploration of abandoned (?) starships is a must for any Sci-Fi game
  • The Pit scenario has been replaced by the Hunt: to gain Reputation Points you will now need to hunt the most dangerous species of the galaxy.
  • A simple money system has been introduced to manage the purchase of special equipment pieces
  • Equipment has now an Availability trait: Common items are always available, Military equipment is only available for Military contracts and Expensive items require the use of the new money.
  • Equipment now includes also special resources (grenades, medikits..) that can be equipped by your characters.
  • Weapon traits have been expanded to include different types of damage (sonic, flame, stun), to improve the tactical options

Here below the WIP cover of the new title:

Blood on the Space will be available in Wargame Vault in the first week of April.

Let me know your comments/suggestions as usual.

Blood on the Blade

Second scenario for the Ghost Temple campaign, with new NPCs

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The second scenario for the Ghost Temple campaign is now available: the White Apes are attacking your camp during the night and you must defend it!

Ghost Temple Scenario 2 – Night Attack

An updated sheet for the Jungle Denizens is also available (required to play Scenario 2), including an expanded section for the White Apes.

Ghost Temple Enemies – ver 1.1

And finally, four NPCs are also available: in the Ghost Temple campaign you cannot use the standard rules for recruitment (Chapter 5.6 of the rules) but you can instead select one of the available NPCs as a new warband member.

Ghost Temple Campaign NPCs

Blood on the Blade

A new Exotic Weapon, the Grapnel

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While completing the second scenario for the Ghost Temple Campaign, I’ve also created several additional components required to provide the right flavour to the Campaign: as an anticipation you can find here a new Exotic Weapon, the Grapnel.

The Grapel can be used both in Melee and as a Missile weapon at short range, but there’s always some risk of getting embedded when attacking. Still, it was impossible for me to visualize a crew of pirates, pardon sailors, without a grapnel!

Exotic weapons – Grapnel

Let me know your comments as usual.

Blood on the Blade

The Ghost Temple: the first Living Campaign for BoTB

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Today starts the release of the first Living Campaign for BoTB, titled “The Ghost Temple”.

A Living Campaign is a series of linked Scenarios with a background story connecting them: it’s “living” since the Campaign content will be released incrementally, instead of a complete package, making possible for the players to directly influence it. New Scenarios, Enemies and special rules will be released in the next days, so as usual stay tuned…

The Story So Far…

You’re warband has been engaged to search for a long lost temple in the Green Islands: in the last months several sailors confirmed the sightning of the temple’s pinnacles on a large island in the North East of the Endless Ocean, but nobody dared to approach it due to the strong currents and the large reef around it.

Still, several merchants are sure that hidden treasures are waiting in this temple, and with the help of their money arranged two ships and found a captain willing to risk. Your warband was selected to participate to this expedition: your patrons gave you one Loot in advance as payment for the initial expenses (you can spend it using the standard rules) and so you’ve prepared your equipment and started this new adventure.

Everything was fine for the first three weeks, until you finally reached the sight of the island: here, while looking for a safe approach to the cost, an innatural, devastating wind smashed your ship against the rocks surrounding the cost. The other ship suffered a worse fate, slammed directly into the jungle that nearly touches the ocean waters. How is possible? The weather was clear… Magic ? There’s no time to debate about it: you reach the coast and start assembling a camp with the other survivors; most of the equipment was on the ship hurled on the jungle so you now need to search for some of the crates to ensure your survival.

You can now start your campaign: the first scenario and the sheet with the first new enemies is available here below. Enjoy the game and let me know your comments!

Scenario 1: Shipwreck!

New Enemy Sheet: White Apes.

 

Blood on the Blade

Rainy day in BoTB

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Rainy day here in Milan today, so during the quick lunch break, while looking at the windows, I’ve wrote down some ideas to introduce weather conditions in BoTB. Here you are.

Weather conditions (Optional Rule)

At the beginning of a new Mission roll 1d6: on a result of (1-5) weather is Clear, while on a result of (6) weather is Rain.

At the end of each turn roll 1d6 to check if the weather is changing:

Weather Roll
(1) Weather is Clear
(2-5) Weather is Rain
(6) Weather is Heavy Rain

Weather Effects

Clear:
no effects.
-1 to the next Weather Roll

Rain:
-1 MP to human/humanoid characters
-1 DRM to Ranged attacks

Heavy Rain:
-1 MP to human/humanoid characters
-2 DRM to Ranged attacks
Visibility limited to 8 MP
+1 to the next Weather Roll

So, do you find this rule interesting ? What about additional conditions (dawn, fog..) ? Let me know if you want to see those rules expanded.

Blood on the Blade, Games

New Enemy for Blood on the Blade: Araknos (Spiders)

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Spiders (especially the big ones) are key characters of every fantasy story: now, finally, you can introduce them in your Blood on the Blade games. In reality the Yellow Stripe Spiders made a first appearance in the Blood on the Dungeon expansion but a full enemy sheet was missing. One characteristic of the encounters with the Araknos is the presence of hatching areas, zones where the spiders can spawn at the end of each turn: your charactes will need to destroy those areas spilling/breaking a flasks of oil and then ignite them.

The Araknos will also introduce the special attack “Posion“, that will be probably introduced in the advanced rules. Poison damage is described with two values TN and DMG, for example Poison(8,1D).
Any Unit damaged by a Poison attack, in addition to the standard damage must immediately execute a CON(TN) check. If this check is Failed then the Unit suffers the damage specified.

The Enemy sheet for the Araknos is available here.

I’m planning to insert this Enemy Sheet in the BoTB package as soon as I got enough feedback from the player community, so don’t be shy and let me know what you think!