From the Journal of Josephine Maxwell January 21st, 1876
The shaman said we must earn the right the keep the land. He said "all the oaths must be honored". I fell asleep with my dog next to me. I told them to tell me everything that happened.
January 22nd, 1876
The men said the shaman had pulled a spear out of a tree made of blue fire. They had a spear. Jakey said the tree "felt young, like it was about to be born". He said it seemed like it needed to be buried someplace. Jakey insisted that he had to take the spear to Ms. Holmes.
After a meeting with Ms. Holmes that didn't go well, Jakey agreed to take the spear to the tree in the mire. He says he thinks the spear is a bomb of "good vibes".
January 23rd, 1876
Ben Alden says that he has seen long-eared little creatures scaring his children.
We decided to go out to the evil tree with the spear. On the way we found the wagon of the snake oil salesman. When we get near the swamp, we hear someone yell for help and see the salesman chasing something around the brush.
The men in the group, led by Jakey Wales, insist taht they will go on to the tree and refuse to help the man.
Jakey, Juan and Ignacio headed into the swamp. They see crazy things.
The salesman walked up behind me and asked if I had seen his horses. He watched the men in the swamp for a while, then screamed and flew into the air after them. Shackleford shot at him, and he fell into the water. I went toward the creature while the men continued to the tree.
Jakey climbed the tree to stab the spear into it. Juan and Ignacio climb up to help. Together, they drive the spear into the heart of the tree. Suddenly, all the evil energy went out of the tree. It wisped like black tendrils into the air, to be chased off by what looked like birds.
The water starts to swish around with the roots and the living tendrils spreading from the spear. The men get back across the mire safely.
When we get back to town, I head out to Ben Alden's farm and check on them. Ben said that he knew which way that the creatures came from.
January 24th, 1876
The next morning, Ben came to town and told us he found where the little creatures live. We went with Ben to go find the creatures. He said they live in a cave near his property.
We found a lot of footprints at the mouth of the cave that looked like the prints we saw before at Johnny Chu's house. We went in the cave and through a narrow passageway into a large cavern. We saw some odd creatures and they caused us to exhibit some weird behaviors.
9:25pm
After a huge ordeal with the creatures making us run around the cave, Jakey Wales ran away back out of the tunnel. I threw a rock and hit one of the creatures, and it popped like a balloon.
Today, we are going to talk about next season's structure, and especially the new game we've nested with Dungeons & Dragons. We're excited about Frostgrave, and with good reason. Now, this isn't a Rulebook Rumination for the book (though I will provide one next season after we put it through it's paces). Instead, this is a look at the game and how we're making it fit what we want, rather than (for example) NOT making it into something we want.
The last few years we've introduced a fair number of new games, looking for the je ne sais quois that would land a game or setting (or even just a model line) a permanent place on the Wargate's schedule. We found we enjoyed all of these games, but enthusiasm for many of them has waned off. Either they don't have a project lead to run a nested RPG, they weren't quite robust enough to carry a season by themselves, or maybe it suffered a worse fate - it suddenly strikes as silly to be married to another IP after the GW fiasco a couple of years ago.
To this end we've managed to put the focus on three main setting milieu, and the move to a three season year to accommodate longer campaigns. While Dungeons & Dragons has fine pedigree as an RPG, there really isn't a competitive system to allow us to fight the kinds of battles we want to. D&D Attack Wing provides a great system for fantastic battles between all sorts of strange creatures, it fills a niche all it's own.
So, if D&D Attack Wing is "quick-play / high-magic"...what else do we want? We want what we previously had, the "two-party" split we've been doing for years between small-scale skirmish games for warbands, and larger-scale battle game for armies. In both cases, dragons and beholders need to be included (at some point).
We decided to forgo larger battles between armies (for now) until we find a rule system we want to double down on, and in order to decide that we'll probably have to have some group test games with Kings of War and Hail Caesar! before we really decide to go with one or the other. Time will tell, and we're not too worried about this for the moment. What was clear at the time we made this year's seasonal plans is that there was a obvious heavyweight contender for the skirmish game slot, and it was a brand new Osprey publication.
The plastic miniature sets helped convince us.
"We are here for the (adventure) party."
So, specifically, why Frostgrave? With all the other games out there, what about this set us on the course we're on? Well, as mentioned earlier this is not a Rulebook Rumination, so I won't discuss rules or the physical books themselves until later in Season 2. All that jazz isn't so important right now, because the specific reason we decided on this game wasn't just the simple (yet wonderfully robust and elegant) ruleset. Rather, it was the very obvious tone of the background material and units presented. You see, although Frostgrave has a setting...it's not well described and exists mostly as flavor. So, since we have hundreds of models for this sort of game we had no need to buy anything new but the rules.
I don't understand the mentality we used to have. ONLY these models and ONLY these rules and ONLY this company and ONLY (blah blah blah). I can only say we were young, and naive. Chained to our own lack of imagination, we wound up with what basically amounts to hundreds of the same model and games that turned into PAY2WIN nightmares. Those days are long gone (as we have been frequently saying of late). With a fresh perspective and refined experience, we have set about making next season an exemplar of how our schedule will work and incorporate games.
Turn Dead for what?!
The strongest imagery that sets it apart is that it's cold. So, we ditched that entirely and moved it to the Forgotten Realms. Since Dungeons & Dragons 5e material is focusing on the Sword Coast, if we travel a little farther north we'll find a frozen land similar to the one in Frostgrave. Not that your tabletop terrain needs to reflect that coldness, as there's not any "main" rules that govern, say...freezing to death.
With that in mind, there is almost unlimited room for expansion, even just to tackle the basics of a fantasy world - what with all the various elves and goblins and what-have-you's infesting what we might refer to as "places of adventure". We've bandied around how this could be done so that it suits our collection and preferences...but Osprey is on the ball with the expansions.
In a few years, if this game gets continual support from the publisher...it could be very meaty indeed. Already, there is one expansion book, Thaw of the Lich Lord, and it will feature prominently during this year's campaign. We'll review that one with the rulebook next season, and it really sets the bar high.
Exciting times!
Obviously, one of the main things missing is a preponderance of monsters you can have in your warband. There is a bestiary and monsters, sure...but (save for some spells) they are mostly NPC style hazards. Our players want to be the monsters. All kinds of monsters...to a point appropriate for a skirmish game. Hopefully, Osprey will keep up their releases for this. To that end, we hope you decide to check out the game,as there are PLENTY of reasons to do so.
"Those are NOT rats."
This June there will be a new expansion taking the game even further. Titled Into the Breeding Pits, it promises us adventure in a dungeon style environment. We've done this sort of thing with wargames before, but it may be interesting to see a competitive take on it. I'm especially interested in how the dungeons will be set-up, both in terms of actual terrain pieces we may require AND in terms of how each scenario may be set up.
In any case, it will provide us with more tools and examples to use. This year we won't be expanding the game with Wargate rules...but 2017 may see us looking into taking the game in unexpected directions. Don't expect dragons on the battlefield (save for, perhaps, special occasions) but there are dozens of fantasy style monsters we can port as both wizards and their henchmen.
Sandgrave, anyone? Adventure among the sandy ruins of a desert empire. Watery Grave, where ships are involved. I could go on with settings that could easily be attached, but let's not forget monsters, new magic and all the other sorts of material we are used to. In fact, we may start porting our favorite material from other skirmish games to satisfy our need for an all-encompassing ruleset that we are free to use our collection with.
Did I mention plastic gnolls releasing with Into the Breeding Pits? I love me some gnolls, so I'm interested to see how they fit into the current ruleset. Maybe they'll give us a gnoll wizard. Maybe I'll use a gnoll model and call it an Illusionist. Either way, the current Frostgrave models are fantastic multi-part plastics and as far as I can tell this will be the first ever such box filled with gnolls. Good ol' gnolls. I love me some gnolls.
Gnolls - because Hyena Men under your city is worse than Rat Men.
If you're into this sort of game, you won't be doing yourself a disservice to pick up a copy of Frostgrave. The price point is A NEW STANDARD for the industry. The main hardback will cost about $20 USD at full retail, and the expansions seem to weigh in between $13 and $18. The box sets are around $27 USD, and a two-pack of metal wizards (should you need them) will cost $10-14 USD depending on where you purchase them. Of course, that's retail - we paid $17 for the main rulebook and a paltry $8 for Lich Lord. That's serious value, and I think that will prove one of the best investments we've ever made during the inaugural season coming up.
So, the only thing left for a distinguished and accomplished Gatekeeper like yourself to do is pick a wizard school and build a warband from the hundreds of models we have in cases - or if you want something different just build a new model. We're going to be painting our warbands for a feature next season as well on Project Days, and with a model count of less than 10 initially this should be an easy exercise for the group and let us show off the newer camera.
Get with the Project Coordinator to setup your warband any time before Season 2 begins on May 1st. The campaign season is already planned, and the timeline of scenarios and special events is the most robust one that has been rolled out in a long while. Frostgrave will also be the first game on the schedule to include a "campaign day" - a new style event where the focus will be on a special set of linked scenarios for the entire wargames session (prior to RPG's in the evening).
In addition, there are some more surprises we are developing that are going to return our campaign seasons to serious order, including bringing back some old Wargate traditions. It's taken us a long time to work out this new plan, but compared to the old GW-centric model of our club, our new itinerary is superior in every way. We're very pleased with how it's working out, and excitement over the new game and the implications it delivers is reaching a fever pitch.
So sharpen your dirk and carefully prepare your spells, Gatekeepers. Frostgrave, the Frozen City, awaits. It's time to get ready...
These sessions were originally recorded 3/20, 3/27 and 4/3/2016. February 28th From the Journal of Josephine Maxwell January 19th, 1876
Two men from the survey parties came back to Smokefall. They said that their friend had been gutted by an indian man who came out of the woods and into their camp.
We went to go see the place where it happened and the only evidence was a pool of blood. It was next to an old, dead tree that my companions know to be a death locus.
Around the locus was a swamp. I walked into the water and called out to the spirits and a dead body rose out of the water and told me to go back. As we were leaving, a Dark Thing flew over and an indian man appeared by the old tree. He told us to leave this place.
That night, one of the surveyors ran into town, saying he saw the dead man, Sal Meany, following him. No one else saw this. Jakey Wales stayed out and saw Sal later. Sal turned into an owl-creature and flew into the night.
January 20th, 1876
When we woke up it seemed to be a normal day. That morning, we met at the Yellow Rose and hada conversation about how we should proceed. We decided to investigate the tree once more.
While at the tree we couldn't seem to make it through the mire to tree.
On the way back, I noticed Juan staring at me. When I looked back I noticed he wasn't there. I could tell something creepy was following us back to town.
January 21st, 1876
The next morning a man named John Skinner arrived in town. The whole group seemed to know him. He brought a large amount of skins and meats with him.
At the Yellow Rose, we caught him up on what has been going on in town.
The Doc went to the carpenter and commissioned a small boat to be able to get to the tree in the swamp. Also, he reports people have gotten upset stomachs from the Snake Oil.
The survey men said they saw Sal (the dead man) and he is trying to kill them.
I went to go talk with Ms. Holmes. She suggested that we find out what sort of entity we are dealing with. Jakey then went to go talk with Ms. Holmes.
We see a man watching the sheriff and the surveyors from across the street. We went to go see if we could find the man that we saw out the window. He had disappeared into the shadows.
Later, a man came to tell us he saw a large fire outside of town. We investigated, and saw a man dancing a Native American ritual dance. There were drums and flutes playing, but he was the only person there.
Jake and Juan started dancing with the man. I walked up and sat down with my whiskey and watched.
Faces started to appear in the fire. Then the men sat down in a triangular pattern around the fire.
The Doc and Sheriff came to sit with me. They sat with John Skinner on stones that were around the fire - stones that bore their names.
