That which CREEPS through the night.....

.....is often otherwise known to me as INSPIRATION.

As previously mentioned I've just started running a Mordheim wilderness campaign at the Enfield Gamers otherwise known as The Grimoire of Grunwald (page plug).

With six gaming nights on the slate at just over 3 hours of actual gaming time each night I've used a slightly alternative format.

The first game of the night is a standard one on one using one of the many GW published scenarios. Once completed the warbands tally experience gained, but DON'T make advance rolls, roll injuries sustained and make their exploration rolls, just noting what they scavange but NOT trading anything in, buying , recruiting etc.

I see this as representing the warbands being out and about around Grunburg and doing their thing, mainly to each other.

The second game of the night is an Oddleg written multi-player "pit-fight" style encounter hosted back in Grunburg's keep by THE COUNT (mysterious jingle). Each warband enters a number of fighters upto a maximum rating, to keep the games fast and frantic, with double experience and extra loot on offer, to accelerate advancement over the six sessions. There's even some, rudimentary, first aid on offer to encourage a heroic combat or two!

After the pit fight total experience is tallied and advancements are rolled along with pit fight injuries. Any further exploration is rolled at which point total shards are traded in and people can go recruiting / shopping. To me this represents the warbands rolling back into town, getting their gladiator bit on and then resting up with their loot. Each game night is roughly a week of "adventuring".

As such we're going to get through quite a few scenarios and I've been looking out for ideas. One of the boys, Ed, pointed me to Tabletop Geeks Mordheim downloads section which is packed to the rafters. I shall be abusing the work printer sometime soon!

....

All of this feeds into ideas for St Peytersburg / Zombie Village. TGN also pointed me toward Dashing Dice Games' upcoming release Witchfinder General as another POTENTIAL ruleset. I also really lie the idea of releasing it at sundown on Halloween. Class touch!

As much as I like Fear and Faith / Drums and Shakos I was having trouble working out where / how I'd recreate Sleepy Hollow, which is my aim. I like a lot of the basic mechanics, especially rolling for number of actions as I feel it adds more tension a lot easier. Mordheim feels like it will deal with the supernatural so much better and the campaign system is an added bonus BUT it could be a lot more predictable.

While I'm running the campaign I'm going to work up a Mordheim version of St Peytersburg and play through a few scenarios, solo if necessary (eeek!). I can always try a few ideas out in the pit-fights! I shall report back.

Ah the power of the GM, how easily it can be abused ;) Bwaa ha ha ha haaa haaa haaaaaaaa!!!