A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 7: Action Tables

Good morning. Thanks to everyone who came and saw us at Attack! Devizes at the weekend, we had some good games and unleashed a lot of terror upon the Mortal Realm! Another look inside the pages of Secrets of Shandisholm today, this time we're talking about Action tables...

 

Let's get down to it then, what Actions can I spend my Stamina on?
There are 6 tables of Actions in the book: Movement, Relational, Shooting, Grappling, Instinctive Reactions and Fateweaver Actions. Movement, as you'd expect, covers walking, jumping, climbing, sprinting etc. Relational is to do with interacting with other models and the board, speaking, coercing, investigating, operating machinery (although there's not much in the way of machinery in the lowland forests!). Shooting covers loading, aiming and shooting itself. Grappling is a bit more complicated, there are Grapple Reactions you can make if you see someone charging at you and Grapple Actions you can perform if you win the fight. The better you do in the fight the more options you have. Fateweaver Actions are like spells which can be cast by characters whose profiles list them as Fateweavers. Instinctive Reactions are Actions which can be performed in response to something else happening, for instance being shot at or targeted with a Confuse Fateweaver Action.

Shooting and Grappling must be quite interesting without dice rolls.
Shooting is based on Accuracy, if your Perception is good and you're steady under pressure you have a better chance of hitting the target. This is modified by what else has happened, so your accuracy decreases if you've moved as well, and decreases further if your target is moving fast for example. You can boost your accuracy by performing Aim actions before shooting. Once you've calculated your Shooting Range by following the easy calculator on the Shooting page you measure that distance in inches. If you can reach the target you've hit, otherwise it's a miss. So there's a combination of being able to accurately guess distances and plan ahead so that your Actions and those of the target give you the maximum chance of hitting. Hit models are knocked back and must take an Instinctive Reaction as well as sustaining damage. Being hit by a missile weapon isn't as lethal as being pounded in a Grapple, but it seriously affects your ability to make the most of your next Activation, especially if you've run out of Stamina and have to Fall Prone.

And Grappling?
Grappling is a bit more complicated. Planning the attack is important as if the fight goes badly for you it can get serious very quickly. First you initiate the Grapple. This is essentially a charge, but if your opponent can see you coming they get to react which can make a substantial difference to the outcome of the fight- so a stealthy approach is often best. Next you calculate Grapple score. This is based on the model's Finesse (Strength plus Agility) but is modified by circumstances, for instance if a model's Centre Front Line isn't touching their opponent's base it means their opponent has managed to move to the side of them (Wide Spacing them) and their ability to defend and strike back is reduced. Each model's remaining Stamina is added to their Grapple score as all efforts are committed to fighting for their lives and if the initiating model managed to launch their attack unseen they can add the Stamina spent initiating to their score as well. Again, there's a handy calculator for working this out. The model with the highest Grapple score wins and the amount they win by determines how many of the Grapple Actions they can choose from. These include hitting your opponent and knocking them to floor, but also more subtle tactical moves like pushing them backwards, Wide Spacing them and using the advantage to escape from the fight. Different weapons and skills also give special abilities in a fight or reduce the cost of Grapple Actions. For example a model with a spear can keep an opponent at a 1" distance, preventing their blows from landing as long as they keep winning rounds of combat.

How can you swing a fight in your favour if things are going badly?
It's difficult, as it would be if you've misjudged your opponent. There are ways though. Having support is crucial, if there's a friend to step in and help you out they'll almost always swing the balance, it's really hard to fight two opponents at once (but a shield helps). There really is no substitute for planning the attack carefully. If you can finish a fight in one round and get away that's the best situation, if the fight continues into the next turn and your opponent has a chance to respond and get help into the Grapple then things can get messy. At the start of each successive round of Grappling (the start of every Game Turn) models have a chance to Break Off and escape from Grapples, so if all else fails you can run away. But whether you escape unharmed or not depends on how fast you are and how strong your Decisiveness is.

What are these 'Maximum Values' which crop up on the Action pages?
Maximum Values are a safeguard against ridiculous stats. They don't often come into play, but just sometimes you get a model whose stats are unbalanced to the extent they are able to do things they wouldn't reasonably be able to. For instance, models with very high Courage but low Agility could still move long distances since Movement Actions are based on Dexterity, a combination of Agility and Courage. The Maximum Move Value prevents this by limiting a model's movement to four times its Agility, no matter how brave a model is if it isn't agile as well it can't move fast. Effectiveness of Grappling is constrained by a Maximum Value based on Strength, no matter how quick a model is weak blows won't be effective. That's why most of the Grapple modifiers modify your opponent's score down, not yours up. Maximum Shooting Range is decided by Perception and Maximum Charisma by Wisdom. Every core stat except Courage therefore governs abilities on one Action table, which balances the effect Courage has of increasing both Stamina and Decisiveness concurrently.

The Fateweaving table is unique to this book?
Yes. Fateweaving's great fun, I recommend warbands/adventuring parties always have a Fateweaver of some kind! They really do give you the edge if you can position them right, keep them safe and have them store up enough Stamina.

So Stamina stacks does it?
Not usually, but Fateweavers have a special Gather ability which means they can save Stamina between turns for the purposes of casting more potent spells.

How do you become a Fateweaver?
We'll look at that in the next section, Skills and Items. Stay tuned!

A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 7: Action Tables

A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 6: The Rules

Alrighty then, let's get down to how this thing works...

We're about a third of the way through the book now, and we've just hit the rules section. Is there a reason you put it together so it takes so long to get to how to play the game?
Absolutely, several in fact. First and foremost it's because this is envisioned as a sourcebook, not a rulebook. We've included the SystemMech rules in it so that it is a complete game in its own right, but the emphasis is on exploring the world and the creatures that inhabit it. That can be used as the background for any game system, not just for SystemMech. In fact, the rules section begins with a way of importing characters into SystemMech from other game systems and for converting the stats given in the book for use in other popular game systems. Secondly the rules themselves are just there to support the stories as they unfold on the tabletop. The narrative always takes precedent and so it made sense to start by introducing the narrative rather than the rules. Lastly it's because the middle of the book is easy to find so you can locate the rules section quickly when playing. There are also reference tables at the back.

How like other games is SystemMech? And how is it different?
It's similar to many tabletop miniatures games in that you have models representing the characters and they are moved around on the table by measuring distances in inches. There's shooting and combat, staples of pretty much all tabletop games. The crucial differences are that SystemMech uses no dice rolls or card draws to determine success. You won't be asked to roll to hit or draw to see what happens. Instead your models can perform a range of Actions which stack and combine with the Actions of other models and the situation on the tabletop to determine their success. Whilst shooting and combat are present they aren't always the best choices, combat is particularly lethal if things don't go your way. Models can coerce, charm and intimidate enemy models to gain advantages and control over them, and order friendly models to perform Actions out of the normal turn order. It's a bit like playing chess, you need to think a few turns ahead to plan strategy.

Sounds complicated.
Not really. Most of the rules section consists of Action tables, the core principles of the game only takes up a couple of pages. As I say, it's narrative-driven, so planning ahead is only a must if you're bothered about strategy.

What are the core principles then?
There's Perception- that's what your models can see/sense around them. Each model has a Perception Range ( circular area centred on their base) and a Field of Vision (an arc in front of them), anything in those areas can be Perceived and have Actions targeted at it (so long as it isn't obscured by terrain). Then there are the 5 core Statistics each character has: wisdom, perception, courage, agility and strength. These combine to give secondary stats which affect the game, for instance a character's Decisiveness (when they Activate in a turn) is based on wisdom+perception+courage. Their Stamina (how much they can do in a turn) is based on courage+agility+strength. Shooting range draws on Accuracy, which is courage+perception (how well the model can see and how steady they are under pressure) etc. They also have Endurance, which is how much damage they can sustain. That's pretty much it, with elaboration and clarification, except for the one definite legal restriction- no pre-measuring!

 

What sort of size games are the rules designed for?
I guess you'd call them Skirmish or Warband games. Half a dozen or so figures per side. Of course, you can go RPG style and have one character each in a party of adventurers with a GM or you can play like any other skirmish game, one player's band against another. The scenarios in the book are mostly for a 4x4' board and last 60-90 minutes.

Not mass-combat then?
By all means put as many models on the table as you like! But it's a question of how many profiles you can keep track of. If they're all the same probably no difficulty in having 20 or so models on a side. There are plans to build a mass-combat system into SystemMech in the near future, but that's not really what this sourcebook is aimed at.

And SystemMech is available apart from The Woods?
Yes. It's available to download free from the Oakbound website. SystemMech itself is a blank game system which can be imported into any world you like and customised to suit. For instance, we're currently doing starter boxes of SystemMech with the Legends of British Steampunk background and will be picking up Factious Waste, our dystopian near-future world, as soon as time allows.

It's also registered Creative Commons.
Yes it is. That means you can download, copy, distribute it, use it in your non-commercial publications as you like. It's a very granular system with lots of space for creativity and customisation so we'd like to see as many people using it in different ways as possible. The only thing we ask is that if you're wanting to use it in a publication or event you'll be charging for you contact us about a small license fee beforehand, just so we don't lose out and can keep putting out in depth sourcebooks like this one!

A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 6: The Rules

A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 5: The Bestiary- Animals

We looked at 'folk' on Monday, now we're looking at 'animals', what's the fundamental difference?
Folk are controlled by players, the players have full control over what their characters will do. Animals are controlled by characters, so the player who owns the relevant Wrangler or Packmaster figure dictates their actions. If that character goes unconscious or leaves the board (or the animals are uncontrolled for any other reason) they revert to Instinctive Behaviour which is listed under each profile.

There are quite a few animals listed here, how are they used in games?
They can be ridden by characters- all animals are potential mounts although the riding model must be able to reasonably do so. They may also be 'willing' or 'reluctant' to be ridden by certain character types which affects how easy they are to control. Animals are also useful to specific characters, for instance the Draoi can have a Raven familiar and cast Fateweaving from either their viewpoint or that of the Raven. In design the animals were grouped into three categories: Strong animals, Fast animals and Spotting animals (those with good Perception). Of course, some are mainly included for use in scenarios. Protecting a flock of sheep or trying to sneak past the lair of a bear for example.

Are they all familiar animals?
There's a section of Animals of the Mortal Realm, animals we'd be familiar with (badgers, bears, deer, foxes, crows etc.), and a section on Animals of Other Realms, stranger creatures that have been brought (or found their way) into the Mortal Realm. That includes the Eanabuis, the butcher birds of the Coral knights, Whist Hounds, Water Leapers etc. There's also a page of Sidhe Animals, these are the Faerie equivalents of the Mortal Animals, identical in every way except that most are wiser and/or capable of things Mortal Animals aren't, such as speaking.

What do badgers do?
Gotta love badgers... they don't do an awful lot to be honest, but they are strong for their size and the Pixies like to ride them. They share the badgers' sets quite often.

A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 5: The Bestiary- Animals

A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 4: The Bestiary

Good afternoon all, start of a new week. Today we're looking at the next big chunk of Secrets of Shandisholm, the Almanac and Bestiary which contains background and rules for over 50 different creatures. Some natural, some less so...

This section takes up a big chunk of the book, what kind of creatures are there here?
The section is split into two, the 'almanac' which has what you might call 'races' of intelligent creatures and the bestiary which has a selection of animals. Some of the creatures in the almanac will be familiar: Leprechauns, Kelpies, Pixies etc. Some are more obscure such as the Fodden, Bauchan and Glaistig. We'll talk about the animals in the next post.

How are the pages organised?
Generally each creature has its own page. The type of creature is listed at the top, followed by a description of its features and character. If there are special rules pertaining to it these are described underneath. There's an illustration of each creature, one of three symbols showing whether it belongs to the class of Woodfolk, Fenfolk or Hillfolk and a stat diagram showing its Wisdom, Perception, Courage, Agility, Strength and Endurance.

Is there a marked difference between the Woodfolk, Fenfolk and Hillfolk?
It's more a guide to where you're likely to encounter them, but the types of folk do have their own characteristics which reflect their environment. For instance the Fenfolk tend to be morose and introverted, Hillfolk are eerie and mystical and Woodfolk are attuned to the natural world.

Are there stock special rules which get applied or are they unique to each creature type?
There's a mix. Things like Aura of Fear (which prevents models from approaching unless they have a high Courage stat) crop up quite frequently, but they get modified by the creature's own stats so some are much scarier than others. Then there are creature-specific abilities like being Pixie-Lead or the irritating habit groups of Boggarts have. They all Activate together and can pool their collective Staminas to perform Fateweaver Actions, so a large group of Boggarts can be a tricky proposition to deal with.

Do all creatures of one type have the same statistics?
As stock, yes. But they can be customised. For example there's a case where a game calls for a Chief Yaltog (weasel-like nomadic creatures who are a bit of a bully), he has the same stock profile as a Yaltog but an extra point of Wisdom. There's a section in the Storyteller's guide later in the book on creating player characters from these creatures as well.

So these are normally encountered as NPCs are they?
Depends how you want to use them. A party of player characters will normally be a group of Tuatha, Fae or Myeri, or a mixture of the three. A game might pit those characters against some creatures from the Bestiary or a GM might introduce creatures into a game where two parties of characters are playing against each other. There's no reason a party couldn't include creatures from the Bestiary as they are, the character creation rules are just there to allow for more customisation if required.

Do you have a favourite?
Nuckelavee! Haha, no actually my favourite creature type is the Bugul. It's a sad little creature which lives in the forests. Bugul have a beautiful singing voice but are physically the most repulsive beings ever to have existed. They have tiny wings and sing of their dreams of soaring care-free through the open skies... it's a sad thing.

A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 4: The Bestiary