A Tom Talk. Shadows in the Weald

Today we have a guest blog from the editor of Yaah! Magazine, Tom Russell. Below he writes about the exciting game he designed for Yaah! Magazine issue #5. Take it away, Tom. 

In my editorial for the fifth issue of Yaah!, I touched on the genesis of Shadows in the Weald - short version, Mark asked me to do a sci-fi or fantasy game, and so I did - and some of my influences, particularly Fritz Leiber (or some of the feel of Leiber, anyway, because he was certainly more of a swords-and-sorcery guy who wouldn't be caught dead cavorting with elves, orcs, et cetera). Rather than rehash that in this space, I thought I'd get into some of the nitty-gritty about the how game plays.

So: it's a fantasy skirmish combat game in which each player controls a Party of Characters, which fall into two types. Heroes are the stars of the show, each with different stats and abilities summarized on a Hero Card, while Hirelings are largely sword-, arrow-, and spell-fodder. Hirelings give special Buffs, both positive and negative, to adjacent Heroes. A scenario, called a Match, usually plays in 45 minutes to an hour, and the object generally is to eliminate x number of Heroes on the opposing side.

In a Round of play, each Hero is going to get a turn, in which they can move, fight, cast spells, and pick up loot. Attacks are made by rolling a certain number of eight-sided dice and comparing it to the target's AC. Hirelings have pretty low AC ratings, but it takes two successful hits to knock 'em out of the game. Heroes have higher ACs, and a certain number of Hearts - between two and four. Each hit does a half-heart of damage, and when a Hero is out of Hearts, they're toast.

There are Melee Attacks (for when you want to get up close and personal) and there are Ranged Attacks (for when you don't). A Hero making either of these attacks rolls dice equal to their Melee or Ranged Combat Factors, respectively, as modified by stuff like nearby Hirelings, special loot, and Line of Sight. Some Heroes are good at Melee and bad at Ranged: for example, our orc, Drar, rolls 3 in Melee and 0 in Ranged. (There's a "Hail Mary" Rule that lets Characters with a natural or modified RCF of zero roll one die and cross their fingers.) And then some are good at Ranged but bad at Melee, and others equally good at both, though not as good at either as our specialists.

Heroes also get Opportunity Attacks and Bonus Attacks. In both cases, they roll two dice - no more, no less. Opportunity Attacks are triggered when adjacent enemies try to move out of their way, while Bonus Attacks are triggered by certain events. For example, our elf, Luriel, gets a Bonus Attack against an adjacent target when she hits another target in Ranged: she's one of those agile, acrobatic, flipping-around, arrows-and-knives sort of gals.

In addition to their Bonus Attacks, Heroes also get a Special Ability (which is active all the time), a Defeat Ability (which activates when they bite the dust), and an Initiative Ability (which activates when they're first or last in the round, depending on the character). The interaction of these abilities and the various character stats in many ways form the heart of the game, so let's go in for a blow-by-blow.

DRAR ORKSCROWN

Like I said before, he's a heavy hitter, with an MCF of 3. If he goes last in the round, he gets +2 to his MCF, which is massive. He's also hard to hit, big scary muscle-y guy that he is: attackers get a minus-one to their MCF when they attack him, and he has a natural AC of 6. His Bonus Attack is triggered when someone hits him with an Opportunity Attack, so you just might want to let him go on along his way. For all these reasons, plus his three Hearts, Drar has a lot of staying power on the battlefield. Note, however, that he's really built for Melee. None of these bonuses or abilities trigger with Ranged Attacks.

LURIEL TRUESHOT

As you would expect from a shooty-woodsy-elfy lady, Luriel is really built for Ranged Combat, with 3 RCF. When she's attacking in Ranged, the target's AC is also reduced by one - which means she has a fifty-fifty chance of hitting good ol' Drar. She gets plus-one to her RCF when she goes first in a round, and with a Movement of six, she's fifty percent faster than our Orc-friend. She also has three Hearts, but with a lower AC herself, she doesn't fare well in melee combat without some support or protection.

SHKN OF KORDUN

Speaking of support, Shkn is built for protecting other members of the party. His Special Ability is that enemy Characters trigger an Opportunity Attack not only when they move away from him, but whenever they move into one of the eight squares next to him, too. Position him just right and he'll provide effective cover for more fragile characters. With four Hearts and his special ability, he's hard to take down in Melee. On the other hand, he has an MCF of 2 - good, but not great - so you don't want him tangling one-on-one with Drar when the other's slinging a handful of dice. True to his defensive nature, his Initiative Ability is a plus-one to his AC when he goes First in the Round.

TYNE

Our sneaky rogue-y character, Tyne is effective in Melee and Ranged, rolling two dice either way. Her special ability is that she never triggers Opportunity Attacks, never-ever, which can make her an effective counter to Shkn. Mostly however you'll want to stick to Ranged Attacks, for two reasons. One, her Bonus Attack when she hits in Ranged is to attack another enemy with a Far (Ranged) Attack. Two, she only has two Hearts to her name, and an AC of only "4", making her pretty fragile. To compensate for this, she can disregard hits during Rounds where she's Last in the turn order.

HANOOK GOBSPRINCE

Speaking of fragile, Hanook also has only two Hearts and an AC of "4". But as befits a dodgy, crafty goblin, he's very difficult to hit: his special ability is to always disregard one hit from every Melee attack. Equip him with some Dodgeboots (disregard another hit) and a Ring of Regen (regain a half-heart every Round) and he'll stick around a little longer. If he's unfortunate enough to go Last in the Round and serve as everyone's punching bag, his Initiative Ability lets him regain a full Heart.

MAROKATH DWARFHAMIR

At first glance, with an MCF of "1", and an RCF of zilch, Marokath looks like he got the, ahem, short end of the stick. But that's before his Special Ability comes into play: Marokath's Melee attacks against Heroes score a full Heart of damage when they hit. So he's rolling less dice, but his attacks are more effective. But wait, doesn't Hanook just shrug off the first hit in Melee, and doesn't that mean that if Marokath hits him, it won't do any damage? Yes, but then there's Marokath's Bonus Attack, which triggers when Marokath scores a hit in Melee, and like all Bonus Attacks, he gets to roll two of those bad boys. Now, even when it's against adjacent targets, a Bonus Attack isn't a Melee Attack in game terms: which means that Marokath only does a Half-Heart of Damage, and which also means that Hanook can't disregard those hits. Marokath has an AC of "6", and gives a plus-one to MCF for all friendly Heroes when he goes Last. If Marokath does go down for the count, chances are he's going to take someone with him: his Defeat Ability is to make one final Melee Attack at two dice (so each can take out a full Heart), which will trigger another Bonus Attack at two dice (hits scoring a Half-Heart of Damage each).

MOUSE THE WIZARD

Our last two Heroes are our Magic Users. Instead of a Special Ability, they have a number of spells. Mouse's are mainly defensive or evasive: Bamf to teleport, Shield to raise AC, Heal to regain Hearts. Her two offensive spells are Light, which kills Zombie hirelings, and Fire, which is a fairly standard sort of ranged attack. Magic in the game is interesting: casting spells requires the expenditure of Hearts. Mouse only has 3 Hearts herself, and her AC isn't great (4), which makes sense for a support-class sort of character. She regains 2 Hearts at the end of every Round if she goes Last, but obviously you don't have to over-do it with the high-power spells.

GAMMON THE DREAD

Man, this guy. Our evil (or just misunderstood?) Necromancer also has Fire and Shield in his arsenal, just like Mouse, plus he has Freeze (denying adjacent Heroes a turn this Round), Fog (no visibility for ranged attacks), and Raise (summoning Zombies). He has four Hearts, enabling him to rattle off these high-power spells. If he hits in Melee, his Bonus "Attack" is an additional spell. His Initiative Ability? When he comes up Last in the turn order, he goes First instead. In my book, that's called cheating, sir. Wotta jerk.

The Hirelings are just as diverse, but I think that's a topic of discussion for another blogpost.