Magic and Heroes
Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 10:43 pm
It has been bothering me for a while that it is so difficult to introduce Magic, and/or the effects of Heroes into the game.
We had discussed it earlier, with Heroes being either Commanders with specific capabilities beyond that of a normal Commander, the ability to lead one specific unit, and no others, fighting in the front rank, yet still able to exercise leadership over that unit. Or simply individual stands, representing the Hero and any retinue or entourage that may accompany him/her, with the ability to counter or commit certain feats.
I can't recall all of the things we had come up with at the time, but I will look them up to come up with some sort of coherent document.
But...
A thought occurred to me while reading through a set of Unpublished rules, written by Frank Chadwick, which were supposed to have been published by The Foundry, called Ancient Conquest.
The game has several aspects similar to FoG, namely the various capabilities that are similar (same number of armor types, most of the same weapon capabilities, but more types of "training" - Drilled, Levy, Flexible, Impetuous, Professional). And it's leaders were individually based.
But Ancient Conquest had a component that lent itself to Fantasy Warfare quite readily.
It had something called "Oracle Cards," each of which allowed a player to perform some action, or force the opponent to perform (or fail to perform) an action, or that had effects that covered the entire game board.
Each player began to the game with as many Oracle Cards as he had Commanders, and each turn he would draw a new Oracle Card, and discard any cards in excess of the number of Commanders currently in his army.
Oracle Cards could be played at any time. So a player who had four commanders could, in principle, play all four of his Oracle cards at once, but then it would take him at least four turns to regain a full set of Oracle Cards.
This might be an excellent may to deal with Heroes and Magicians.
Each Hero or Magician would get anywhere from one to four oracle cards (either drawn randomly from a deck, or specifically provided for that character). Obviously, there are many ways to set up this system so that it is both balanced and can be tailored to the specific worlds or universes in which a Fantasy Game takes place.
For instance, Hyboria, and the world of Conan would have Oracle Cards that allowed Heroes, such as Conan, to go on a mad frenzy, getting mad bonuses for combat and moral/cohesion tests, or they could be horrific spell cards for magicians.
In the world of Melnibonë, you could have cards for Elric using Stormbringer to suck vital life-force from enemies, and thus gain the ability to hold more Oracle Cards. Conversely, elric could wind up being drained ans sickly, giving him fewer Oracle Cards until he got into Combat to suck souls.
In the world of A Song of Fire and Ice (I can't remember what it's called.... I don't really like George RR Martin), you could have card to represent heroic or treacherous deeds.
AND....
Of course, there is Middle-earth, where you have the Istarí, capable of subtle magics (each one focused upon a different type of effect). Gandalf, for instance, tends to strengthen men's resolve and give hope, he is capable of turning The Shadow (the fear caused by Nazgûl, for instance) back on itself, he is capable of leading men to heroic deeds.
Aragorn is capable of similar things, plus being powerful in combat. Boromir is a leader of men who would get men to fight to the last man for him. Faramir would inspire similar things, but he is more intelligent and capable of using strategems to engage in Ambushes, trick maneuvers to fool an enemy, and horrifically complex maneuvers to get into the battle where least expected.
Bëornings: Turn into Bears, put the fear of Eru into Orcs. Summon Animals to their aid or assistance.
The Nazgûl: Fear, fear, Fear, and fear... And making the Orcs fear more for their lives if they ran away than if they lost to an enemy and were killed (more swiftly and far less painfully). They could also move quickly across a battlefield by means of shedding their outer garments and traveling solely as a Wraith.
And so on....
It would make for an easy mechanism that could be used both to balance games when there are unequal sides, and it would be a great mechanism for adding some randomness to what would otherwise be not much different battles than your typical Historical Battles.
MB
We had discussed it earlier, with Heroes being either Commanders with specific capabilities beyond that of a normal Commander, the ability to lead one specific unit, and no others, fighting in the front rank, yet still able to exercise leadership over that unit. Or simply individual stands, representing the Hero and any retinue or entourage that may accompany him/her, with the ability to counter or commit certain feats.
I can't recall all of the things we had come up with at the time, but I will look them up to come up with some sort of coherent document.
But...
A thought occurred to me while reading through a set of Unpublished rules, written by Frank Chadwick, which were supposed to have been published by The Foundry, called Ancient Conquest.
The game has several aspects similar to FoG, namely the various capabilities that are similar (same number of armor types, most of the same weapon capabilities, but more types of "training" - Drilled, Levy, Flexible, Impetuous, Professional). And it's leaders were individually based.
But Ancient Conquest had a component that lent itself to Fantasy Warfare quite readily.
It had something called "Oracle Cards," each of which allowed a player to perform some action, or force the opponent to perform (or fail to perform) an action, or that had effects that covered the entire game board.
Each player began to the game with as many Oracle Cards as he had Commanders, and each turn he would draw a new Oracle Card, and discard any cards in excess of the number of Commanders currently in his army.
Oracle Cards could be played at any time. So a player who had four commanders could, in principle, play all four of his Oracle cards at once, but then it would take him at least four turns to regain a full set of Oracle Cards.
This might be an excellent may to deal with Heroes and Magicians.
Each Hero or Magician would get anywhere from one to four oracle cards (either drawn randomly from a deck, or specifically provided for that character). Obviously, there are many ways to set up this system so that it is both balanced and can be tailored to the specific worlds or universes in which a Fantasy Game takes place.
For instance, Hyboria, and the world of Conan would have Oracle Cards that allowed Heroes, such as Conan, to go on a mad frenzy, getting mad bonuses for combat and moral/cohesion tests, or they could be horrific spell cards for magicians.
In the world of Melnibonë, you could have cards for Elric using Stormbringer to suck vital life-force from enemies, and thus gain the ability to hold more Oracle Cards. Conversely, elric could wind up being drained ans sickly, giving him fewer Oracle Cards until he got into Combat to suck souls.
In the world of A Song of Fire and Ice (I can't remember what it's called.... I don't really like George RR Martin), you could have card to represent heroic or treacherous deeds.
AND....
Of course, there is Middle-earth, where you have the Istarí, capable of subtle magics (each one focused upon a different type of effect). Gandalf, for instance, tends to strengthen men's resolve and give hope, he is capable of turning The Shadow (the fear caused by Nazgûl, for instance) back on itself, he is capable of leading men to heroic deeds.
Aragorn is capable of similar things, plus being powerful in combat. Boromir is a leader of men who would get men to fight to the last man for him. Faramir would inspire similar things, but he is more intelligent and capable of using strategems to engage in Ambushes, trick maneuvers to fool an enemy, and horrifically complex maneuvers to get into the battle where least expected.
Bëornings: Turn into Bears, put the fear of Eru into Orcs. Summon Animals to their aid or assistance.
The Nazgûl: Fear, fear, Fear, and fear... And making the Orcs fear more for their lives if they ran away than if they lost to an enemy and were killed (more swiftly and far less painfully). They could also move quickly across a battlefield by means of shedding their outer garments and traveling solely as a Wraith.
And so on....
It would make for an easy mechanism that could be used both to balance games when there are unequal sides, and it would be a great mechanism for adding some randomness to what would otherwise be not much different battles than your typical Historical Battles.
MB