Gothic Horror: The Woods of Little Germantown

Howdie.

I recently ran a Gothic Horror scenario, The Woods of Little Germantown.  At a time after the French and Indian War, but before the American War of Independence, something has been silently stalking the inhabitants of the frontier near Little Germantown.  Not just the European settlers, even the Iroquois have been affected.  Their leaders recognize that this evil was brought with the Europeans, but they are not directly responsible for it.... their families have fallen prey too.

The 4 players ran 3 small parties of Iroquois and 1 small party of French Courier du Bois.  I am inclined to include the natives as more active participants on the frontier, rather than just one more backdrop feature.

The players game cooperatively (they are not allowed to attack each other directly) to solve the mystery of this scenario.  They may help each other by teaming up on foes and creatures, but are not required too.  But each player is trying to win the game for themselves.

Mists cover the land... a river bisects the region.... rocky hillocks loom... and beyond, an ancient cemetery amidst crumbling walls.

Early in the game, an encounter proved to be a small party of charmed Colonial militia who promptly fired upon an Indian party.  The Indians did their best to avoid this party rather than try to eliminate it.

The parties began to solve various mysteries, earning points and gaining knowledge about the task at hand.  Players collected clues to weapons and methods to make solving future mysteries easier.

Shortly after discovering clues amidst harvested crops (somewhat odd to find in a deserted wilderness), they were suddenly attacked by a huge brown bear.  Two Courier du Bois were mauled to death before the beast was brought down.



Other parties crossed the river.  The hapless Courier du Bois improved their luck when they came across a small patrol of British regulars.  It was discovered (with some mutual effort) that they were all looking to put an end to the evil.  The regulars agreed to cooperate with the Frenchmen.

Elsewhere, a lonely grave at the top of one hillock was searched (for a nice group of VP), while the other was found to be the home of a tribe of ghouls!












Finally, enough mysteries had been solved that the mists receded from the land, revealing.... a disheveled hovel, home to an Ancient Witch and her Green Hag sister!






A pack of wolves was sent towards an Indian band, and they rended a pair before they were all slain.








The Ancient Witch attempted Arise! amidst the graveyard, but was only able to summon a single skeleton.












The Green Hag was forced to engage in melee combat, killing a few Indians before being finally killed herself.

With her sister dead, her magic found wanting, and many of her servants killed, the Ancient Witch mistakenly committed herself to melee combat also.  She took a toll on the Indians, but just could not compete with this band's leader.... by a clue found earlier, he had been able to search the witch hovel and discover a magic weapon particularly potent against witches.  The magicked weapon made short work of the crone, ending her reign of terror forever......?

Thanks, the game went quite well, and looking forward to more like it.

Big Trouble in Little Germantown

Howdie.  Shortly before Fall In I finally managed a small Colonial Horror game at our local gaming spot, the Comic Store West.  The rules as written parallel Where Heroes Dare, but with a different emphasis on abilities and characteristics.  My first tested scenario, Big Trouble in Little Germantown, was written as a combat and goal game, pretty straightforward, meant to test these skills and traits.

As usual, I forgot my camera, and, as usual, Dieter managed to photograph a few things.  The board is set with terrain and mysteries locations (places to search and solve), and is themed in the 1750-60's.  There were four adversarial parties, the local militia backed by Scottish Highlanders, an Iroqouis raiding party, a band of witches, and the King of the Pumpkin Patch and his ghoul retinue.

It seems, one Thomas Orhme, a feared necromancer, once ruled this valley until his grisly death at the hands of his neighbors.  60 years later, the valley was resettled.... much to the woe of the settlers!  The race is on to reclaim, or, finally destroy, the legacy of Orhme...

Each party was given personal objectives.  Dieter chose the colonists, Yabu chose the Indians, Al chose the Pumpkin, and that left me with the witches.  The Indians scored additional points for the deaths of the colonists (as they intended to reclaim this territory), the Pumpkin King and Ghouls scored points for killing, well, anyone else, the Witches scored points for casting magic, and the colonists scored points for the death of the Witches.  Each party also had an additional, random task to complete.  For the Indians, this ended up being collecting harvest items (vegetables, and such)... luckily enough for Dieter, the colonists drew "burn the meeting house down", a task they set to promptly...

The colonists not only managed to burn down the meeting house, but were successful in killing a number of opposing models.  My witches, on the other hand, had a heck of a time.  They very rarely succeeded in casting magic though the Green Hag did manage to use Arise to summon undead amidst the graveyard (the below picture is of the graveyard, but not of the undead... notice the gnarled hand of the Pumpkin King... and Jay Strongbow collecting harvest goods in the background)...

The Indians quickly searched a cave near the stream, and ransacked the house on the hill.... before finishing off my Green Hag at the site of the lonely grave....

... and for the witches, it was hardly a moment too soon, given their horrid luck.  The Puumpkin King remained standing, though his ghouls (who became encumbered by the poltergeist of Orhme early in the game) were cut down with very little effort.  The Indians scored some points, and at least had some presence on the table at the end of the game.

The clear victor were the colonists and their Scottish saviors.  Not only did they collect the most mysteries, finding the means to dispel Orhme once and for all, they scored big with the wiping out of the witches, and their burning of the meeting house.  Sometimes you have to destroy that which you love, in order to save it.... ???

Once again, my thanks for the inspiration provided by the excellent blog Geektactica, and for the players willing to try out my still somewhat rough system.  Tastes good,  needs more salt :)  Once the game play is ironed out, I can move on to the more challenging task of game narrative... but that is a blog for another time...

King of the Pumpkin Patch

... the Red Executioner, and a Coven Full of Witches. 

You painted an oven full of witches? 

A coven of witches, not an oven!

Part of the madness of my Horror project is that it has three distinct "scenes"...  I want to game 18th century Colonial America, established with the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the Salem Witch trials, and other period bumps in the night.  I also want to game late 19th century Gothic European style Horror, this being Dracula, Werewolves, and mad abominations.  Finally, I want to game the 1920's-1940's HP Lovecraft style Horror, the Things That Should Not Be.

All of the miniatures I select will fit into one of these three scenes.  For the Colonial America Horror, I have plenty of 28mm FIW and AWI miniatures to start me out.  Otherwise, there is plenty of work to do.  Last week, I painted three Ghouls, which conveniently can fit into all three of the scenes.  I ordered a few West Wind Gothic Horror packs, and a Blue Moon werewolf set.  Previously, I scoured my collection for miniatures that would fit into at least one of the three horror scenes, and have managed to paint up  a few more, and relocate several previously painted miniatures. 

The following seven miniatures were all part of a large personal collection of a local gamer I purchased years ago.  I sold off various elements of the collection, but certain miniatures stuck out, and I put them aside in case I could find a proper use for them.  Had a little time today, so managed to paint all seven.

These first three are "Bill Wavesword", the King of the Pumpkin Patch, and the Red Executioner. These being, an old OOP Citadel ghost (Travelling Players era), a model that looks like a Jack O Lantern's revenge (someone chime in if you know where this came from), and a Reaper miniature of a headsmen.  Bill Wavesword I painted quickly in an unoriginal but still effective way, making him look ethereal and non-threatening.  He could potentially fit in all three scenes.  The King on the other hand, looks all about the menace, and is going to be strictly limited to Colonial America.  Its a nice figure, the colors don't show very well in the photo.  For the executioner, I decided on dark brown flesh, and red leather instead of the typical pasty white skin and black leather.  This way, he can be fielded as a cult bravo, an exotic executioner, or even possibly a good guy monster hunter.  I think he could fit into the 1920's Horror scene, or as a Pulp character.

And here we have the Coven Full of Witches, also scrounged from that collection.  I am fairly certain these are West Wind's Storybook Witches.  They will definitely only fit into the Colonial America Horror scene... but, I like these old gals a lot.  They have character by the cauldron full.  I like the small details, like the spell components and pet cat (painted cream, as a black cat would blend in too much).  I did paint the witches with a base of Payne's Grey (being a very dark bluish grey), which doesn't come through the photo very well.  They look good in person.  Solid black from a distance doesn't look like anything.  My kids will love these, by the way.

The following 5 miniatures are all ones I previously painted for Fantasy gaming.  I decided to try to fit them into the Horror project.  The first two are a "spook" from RAFM and a Wraith from Reaper, definitely see a difference in style.  They will work as ghosts or other spirits, potentially in all three scenes.

 The last batch are three Reaper miniatures, a Green or Swamp Hag, Jean Du'Champ (I think?) Werewolf, and a Battle Nun Superior.  These remind me that in the old days, when I had more time, I could paint fairly well.  The Green Hag works as a more feral witch, she has potential for all three scenes, but more likely for the Colonial America or Gothic European.  The werewolf works anywhere.  The thing is, this model is much much smaller and finer detailed than the Blue Moon ones I ordered, I am looking at this model as a potential good guy shape shifter... we'll see.  And the Battle Nun is just a cool miniature.  Her weapons and armor are all Fantasy, but she has potential too, as a good guy monster hunter or Pulp heroine.

 So, the madness grows... Cold Wars is next weekend, we'll be attending.  Afterwards, I 'd like to get back to the Iran Iraq War project, but will continue to work in painting Horror figures as a break.  It's been fun so far.