A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 12: Reek of the Fens

 



And that wraps it up for our look through Secrets of Shandisholm, thanks for joining us...

 

Wait a minute. You haven't told us anything about this adventure yet.

Well I don't want to spoil the surprises for when people play it.

 

You can't just skip over this last section, there must be something you can say about it.

All right then. Let's talk about characters. The Reek of the Fens has four main characters, Tuatha from Shandisholm. Of course you can make up your own, these are just examples. Because it's designed to introduce the game dynamics we've got one character who's brave, one who's perceptive, one who's wise and one who's agile. There's a shooting character, a herbalist, a geomancer and the group has a spear and a lantern so they're a well-rounded group.

 

You mentioned Cynefridd last time, she's the group leader?

Yes, the daughter of Harri Howl the chief. She's accompanied by Braden, a loyal friend who dreams of joining the tribe's hunters. They've persuaded Ifan, the village's champion archer and trusted by the Howl family, to accompany them and as they are leaving they find themselves being followed by Callmauwr, a strange and reclusive child with an obsession for scrawling patterns. These four make up the main group. They can be played all by one player or split between 2-4 players with a GM controlling the other characters they encounter.

 

What kind of things do they come across?

The adventure uses the scenarios from the previous section, with a list of models involved and any special conditions and objectives specific to this adventure. There's a Fae chase, some mischievous Pixies, saving a lone homestead from a Spriggan raid, being stalked by a supernatural being, breaking into a camp to retrieve a stolen object, trying to win the confidence of a troupe of Yaltogs...

 

And a special scenario?

Rescue at Mael Fen, the climactic attempt to retrieve Cynefridd's brother from the hands of his captors... or is it? This is quite a complex board setup on a 4' by 6' board, but can be played as two linked scenarios if your table isn't big enough. We've played it with the mountain trail represented by some string laid out across the tabletop and it worked just fine. Of course, we'd love to see pictures if you go the whole hog and make terrain for it!

 

Any news on when Secrets of Shandisholm will be available?

We're expecting delivery next week. The pre-orders are still available at oakbound.co.uk (in The Woods and SystemMech sections) and will be until Monday 8th August, so you've got just over a week to grab a copy at the special discount price. The first two miniatures boxes should be available from the 8th, a Spriggan Band and the Myeri Clan. They're on their way from the casters and the box wraps are being printed at this moment. As soon as I have them I'll get some pictures up.

A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 12: Reek of the Fens

A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 11: Scenarios

 

Game time! Tell us about these scenarios then, any general guidelines?

There are eight different scenarios in this section, but of course they're just examples and ideas. Players are encouraged to come up with their own scenarios and we'll be releasing a lot more in the future. All but one of the scenarios takes place on a 4' square board and will last around 60-90 minutes. The Chase has a bigger board at 6' by 4'. All the scenarios have conditions which end the game, but if none of them are met they all last a maximum of 12 Game Turns. Of course you can keep on playing if you wish, but 12 turns gives a good length and degree of challenge.

 

How are the scenarios laid out?

Each scenario has a title, a bit of flavour text describing a situation which might fit the scenario, objectives for two sides, special rules and conditions, a map showing sample board layouts and deployment zones etc. and some suggestions for how you might use the scenario in a narrative.

 

There don't seem to be any force lists for either side.

No, it's players/GM's choice. we've given an idea of what forces you might use, but play them a couple of times and you'll get a sense of what size/type of forces are appropriate. They'll be very dependent on how you're using the scenario, what characters are involved in the narrative and what models you have to hand. If you want a tricky situation for the characters to encounter ramp up their adversaries. The sample adventure gives a good idea of how these scenarios can be adapted for different situations.

What have we got then?
There's the usual tabletop staples- the one where the monster is hunting you, the one where you have to retrieve an object, the one where you have to reach a feature on the board and trigger an event... Then there are some quite different situations such as trying to steal an opponent's livestock, a hunt, burning down a settlement and trying to turn a village against one another.

What if more than two players are playing?
The scenarios are listed as having a 'Side A' and 'Side B', there's nothing to say that more than one player can't be on each side. We have some scenarios for more players, these will be released over the next year in one form or another.

Set the scene then, where are we off to for our first adventure?
It begins, unsurprisingly, in Shandisholm, a village in tumult following the disappearance of the chief's infant son. Whilst the village elders debate and organise the chief's daughter takes it upon herself to set out with a few friends to look for her brother...

A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 11: Scenarios

A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 10: Modelling

We're into the final week of looking through the pages of Secrets of Shandisholm, but it includes some of the most exciting stuff for me, the modelling articles and narratives. We're keeping the pre-order prices up on the website for the first week in August to give people who are waiting to get paid a chance to join in. Heard from the printers last week that all's going well, the books should be arriving from them any time in the next fortnight.

Modelling pages! That's great to see, not much attention paid to that in many game rulebooks.
Tell me about it, but I think it's what the hobby's all about. Creating these amazing worlds not just in your head but in 3 dimensions in front of you. The glorious feeling of knowing you made all of it!

Assuming you can make glorious terrain of course, some of us just don't have the time, patience, skill or budget for that.
Terrain-making doesn't have to be hard, expensive or that time-consuming, that's part of the purpose of these pages. Most of the materials we've used are cheap and easily available, and the techniques are quite easy to get good results with.

Or you could just go and buy ready-made terrain.
You could, but where's the fun in that I say! And it almost certainly isn't cheaper...

What's in the modelling section then, is it just terrain?
No, there is quite a bit of terrain stuff- modelling round houses, realistic trees, cheap solutions for nice-looking hedges and walls, and a look at the modular terrain we made to test and play The Woods on. If you were at Attack! Devizes last weekend you probably saw our board going through its paces. The modelling pages explain how to make everything on there. We've also got a section on how I go about sculpting miniatures, with a step-by-step look at sculpting Harri Howl, Toisech of Shandisholm, and some pages looking at the diverse array of miniatures available to choose from. I'm especially excited about the painting tutorial which the amazing David Stafford (aka Mr Saturday's Mumblings) has put together. Mr Saturday's Mumblings really inspired me to begin blogging almost 5 years ago, and without that there would almost certainly be no Oakbound Studio now.

You mentioned the miniatures ranges available, does that just cover Oakbound?
It's never been my intention for Oakbound to try and compete with all the other brilliant small miniature companies around. I'm far more interested in working in harmony, so if there's a miniature out there which fits the world/creature/theme I'm working on with Oakbound I like to point people to it. If nothing else it saves me having to sculpt another one! Warlord Games and Gripping Beast have been brilliant about allowing me to use their Dark Age/Celtic miniatures in this publication. Dark Sword, Troll Outpost, Wargames Foundry and Krakon Games also have excellent and compatible miniatures in their ranges.

So we've explored the world, learnt the rules, found some miniatures to use and built a nice gaming board, now do we play some games?
Absolutely! High time we looked at some scenarios...!

A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 10: Modelling

A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 9: Storytelling

We're over halfway through Secrets of Shandisholm now, and with only a week left to get those pre-orders in and save 33% off the retail price! So let's crack on with today's pages, the Storyteller's guide...

What does a game of The Woods actually look like then?
A good question. Very variable is the answer. It depends what kind if game you want to play and what suits the situation and number of players. Sometimes it plays like a game of Mordheim or Malifaux, two warbands fighting it out across the table with a player controlling each. Other times it's more like D&D, with players controlling a character each against a GM who runs the NPCs. Between those two extremes there are lots of possibilities, the Storyteller's guide begins by suggesting some different setups. We'll look at particular scenarios next Wednesday, but they'll generally involve retrieving something, getting somewhere, attacking something or protecting something. Fairly standard tabletop situations, but going straight in for the kill isn't usually the best way of achieving the goal.

Is the Storyteller's guide like the GM section?
Pretty much, although you don't need to have a GM to play. The guide discusses the benefits of a GM and the aspects they can bring to the game. It then describes some ways of making game environments more in-depth which can be applied whether or not you have a GM. This includes things like varying the difficulty of Actions, playing very small games or much larger games, secret agendas, creating narrative campaigns, seeing Skills as more than adjustments to the rules, building characters from the folk listed in the bestiary and taking games out of the Mortal Realm and into other weird and wonderful realms. There's a bit on game balance for people who worry about that kind of thing and the all-important Rule of Cool.

What's the Rule of Cool?
If something wouldn't normally succeed, but it would be amazing for the narrative if it did then the Rule of Cool says it somehow succeeds.

Doesn't that mean players can do what they like?
It's an attitude thing, which is central to SystemMech and The Woods. If you're interested in competitive play, tournament-type stuff concerned with the perfect force and intricate tactics then you CAN play SystemMech that way... but to get the most out of the story-lead elements you really need to be playing with people who are working together to create the world. That doesn't mean there's no competition, but it means that winning and losing become relative terms since the narrative is the goal. If there's difference of opinion which needs solving there are two guidelines- the GM is always right, and if you don't have GM toss a coin to decide.

I look forward to seeing the scenarios next week, what else have we still got to cover?
There's a decent chunk of modelling and painting articles, including an excellent Tiarna painting tutorial with Mr Saturday (Dave Stafford) whose blog inspired me to start this one in the first place. Then there are the scenarios, then there's a complete adventure "Reek of the Fens" which combines them together in a narrative campaign. That's Monday, Wednesday and Friday next week sorted.

A look inside Secrets of Shandisholm- part 9: Storytelling