No Oath, No Spell (Session 7)

February 21st, 6:17pm

From the Journal of Josephine Maxwell
January 7th, 1876

The people in our group gathered in the Yellow Rose to talk.  Rusty and Johnny Chu told us about the shiny little metal people.

January 9th, 1876

A man called Bass Reeves came into town.  I met him at the Yellow Rose.  He asked about one of the men that came through with the dynamite.  He said one of the men, Tom Rib, stole the dynamite.

We went to the house where Tom Rib and his men disappeared to investigate.  The house was empty.  There were tiny odd tracks all around the house.

Bass Reeves asked about our town.  He tells us that he will be back once a month, then left.

Two of Johnny Chu's family came into town.  A waitress and a prep cook.

A man named Barry Sanders came to tell Johnny Chu that he had also seen the little silver people.  The man said he had the little people terrorizing his children at night.

We let Barry Sanders stay in the Land Office that night while we went out to his ranch.  We went to the ranch and that night the Doc saw one of the little people, and we followed it.

The little person climbed up a tree and then a light shone on the tree.  The creature disappeared.  After the light went out, the tree was discolored and turned white.  The snow around the tree melted.

9:40pm

January 10th, 1876

The next morning in town, the Sanders family report that they slept better than they have in weeks.  The men that were watching in town said they saw strange lights go over the town while we were gone.

Juan was told that his goats had been running around all night.  Three of them died.  Juan decided to start hobbling and putting the goats in the barn at night.

There was other weird animal behavior reported.  The cows were all staring due North.

Dungeons & Dragons & Miniatures

For the past few years, the Wargate hasn't done much with miniatures.  In the heyday of Games Workshop's rule, games were going all the time and projects marched out with due speed and reverence.  Since then, we've tried lots of different games, each one of them requiring the normal buy-ins, considerations and other investment we put into our games.  Sadly, though they are great fun, other than Flames of War very few of these games have had all that we demanded from it.

What exactly have we been looking for?  It's not like Ronin sucks as a game...far from it.  In a word, immersion.  The 'nested' effect of the games we had played previously provided a common backstop for everyone to inhabit, and create that shared narrative we enjoyed so much.  However, intellectual properties being what they are, the game companies that have provided us with so much fun over the years became inimical to said 'fun'.  I'm happy to report that we bucked that trend.

So we've set some long term plans into motion that's going to bring the focus back to miniatures.  We've talked about our plans for Dungeons & Dragons before, but things are heating up as we close in on Season 2.  So it's time to get real, as it were...and put the rules where our collective mouths are.


Frostgrave will start in Season 2 alongside Dungeons & Dragons Attack Wing.  These, like the others we've had lately, will be linked (at least in setting) to our RPG game.  All the rules and the campaigns will be discussed when the season begins, because that's not what this article is about.

What I'd like to address instead is how this has opened up our selection of models to include pretty much anything and everything we want.  For our new fantasy battles, we'll be using the myriad worlds of D&D...including, if we wish, homebrew games.  At first I was skeptical about this, but I realized something -  D&D was essentially just a battle game.  Sure, it's got a lot more depth now...but that's how it started.

We now have the ability to literally create any army and run it in a battle game...literally anything.  Derro, yuan-ti...whatever.  However, the army still has to be built.  Style choices still have to be made.  For example, most of our orcs going forward will be Mantic Orcs painted grey, and a few bright green Pathfinder minis.  To that end, we've finally finished organizing most of the fantasy / medieval models into the system we now use.  Once you get used to the new categories, it should be very easy to find exactly the soldiers or monsters you want.

We'll also be taking this time to go about updating the gallery with an ACTUAL gallery consisting of shots from our current collection...probably as we do each unit's rules.  This gives us a great opportunity go back to our collection and really get some use out of our new photography equipment.  The goal here will be to get each painted miniature on the site, creating a reference point for our game masters to see each model available in the collection!  We can finally get this blog back on track for being a great place to see miniatures.

I also want to mention, our club has great rules writers.  As of now, the Wargate's ruleset for these miniature games will be the ONLY one we need concern ourselves with, as we are our own 'general assembly' as it were and support ourselves.  We'll be making all our rules addendums for the various games we use available online (hopefully in pdf format once most are done) as Kings of War and Hail Caesar! will need certain unit's information.  The final number of lists and force selections will be as numerous as our miniature boxes...

We have such freedom now to game as we wish without being on a rulebook treadmill.  My own enthusiasm for miniature gaming and the hobby in general has burned bright since this new revelation.  We are taking responsibility for the rules that are used at our tables, and will be a proper steward for fun and games.  Certainly, we can't go back to the way it was before.

D&D has been the cornerstone of this club since it's beginnings more than 20 years ago, so let this be a lesson to all of us.  Remember not to overlook resources that may have been there all along.  Anyway...don't let IP and product brand loyalty get you down.  There are alternatives.  Do your own game.  Use whatever is at hand, and don't get discouraged.

No Oath, No Spell (Sessions 5 & 6)

These sessions were originally recorded 01/31 and 02/07/2016.

Jan. 31st, 6:57pm

From the Journal of Josephine Maxwell
December 23rd, 1875

We left the Yellow Rose with the men after the leader pulled out some dynamite.  The men still insisted they were going to take the injured man.



Jakey Wales pulled out his gun and the men grabbed Juan as a hostage.  Juan attempted to get away with a punch to one man's face.

The man shot at Juan and grazed his head.  The men tried to run around the Doc's office and Juan followed.  They shot Juan and he collapsed to the ground.

The Doc ran out to help Juan and Jakey Wales shot back at the men.  Rusty Shackleford shot one of the three men from inside the building, and that man fell.  The sheriff came out and shot the leader down.  Then Jakey shot the last man after I walked into the church.

8:07pm

After all the men were shot, we took everyone into the Doc's office.  Two of the men were taken to jail, two were taken to the chapel.

Feb. 7th

December 24th, 1875

The blizzard had picked up.  We got the feeling that the storm would go on for a while.  After a day we began to check to make sure all the people in town were all right.

December 25th

We brought Granny Crocker into town.  We also decided to check on the rest of the people outside of town.  The three men from out of town seem to have disappeared.  All of their belongings were left, and the horses were left and had frozen to death.

6:28pm

December 31st, 1875

The newcomer to town, Johnny Chu, went out to find that Algernon Dike had built a fence right against Johnny's house.  We had a town meeting and agreed that he had to move the fence back.

January 2nd, 1876

Wire arrived from Ft. Grant:  "Rep FMM will soon arrive to survey the grounds."

A young sick girl was brought into town by her parents.  She continued to get more sick over the next few days.  She had a red dot under each of her shoulder blades.

In the Doc's office over the night, the Doc saw the girl with a person standing over her int he middle of the night.  The person had a weird glow around him.  The Doc threw his coffee pot at the man and it deflected off the person and landed upright on the floor.

The Doc grabbed the strange intruder, but then felt calm.  The person disappeared after proclaiming that the girl was hurting.  The weird light seemed to glow around the girl.

The stranger disappeared, but the girl's spots seemed to be getting better.

The papers saying the FMM survey party was going to be there soon arrived.

Mr. Bloch returned to town to talk about surveying.  We let them know where they could survey, and I told them not to go past the river and not to go near Round Bend.

January 3rd, 1876

The sick girl with the red dots seemed to be getting better.  She went home with her parents.

January 6th, 1876

Rusty Shackleford heard footsteps on top of his house and then tapped the ceiling with a broom.  He then heard a tap back on his roof, then looked out to see a light float down off the house, then head into town.

Johnny Chu heard a glass break in the kitchen of his house and saw, just below the window, a small creature with long ears.  He reached down and grabbed it.  It was textured like metal.

The things floated away and ran off to the woods.