Is it that time of year already?

I have been thinking of a wish list for what I would like Saint Nicholas to bring me.... since I am a scratch builder I am liking things like wooden crafting sticks,dowels anything balsa or basswood would be great! One can never have too many exacto blades! Or cutting disks for a dremel tool. Superglues and wood glues are also very high on my list. I use Valejo mini paint and usually I like the drab military like colorschemes. Currently I am in love with anything Frostgrave! As far as minis go I like em all! Steampunk,fantasy, Pulp! I dont really game any of the World Wars tho. So thats it! Santa if you can hear me please take a look and see what you can whip up!
                                                                                                    Thank You
                                                                                                           Your Friend,
                                                                                                                               Mike

There is a new lizard wizard in town!

The city was almost silent,only the dripping of melting ice and the occasional foot fall shuffling thru snow could be heard. Hashtis the wizard motioned his warband forward......

His reptilian senses alert and far reaching he spied about the ruins. With a look to his apprentice they set their well trained plans into motion.

Glennary the treasure hunter and Farkwa the thief silently moved forward.The wizard distrusted most humans. He had good reason too. However these few men he had hired owed him big. Truth be told they owed there very lives to him. He knew these two would protect his right flank and he hoped they would discover some treasure.

The apprentice Lash moved his section forward. The knight Sir Galabad and his trusty man at arms Septus were ever alert for trouble.

Gard the Marksman took up a fine position on the ruined battlements. His skillful eyes searching for a target. He knew he would not have to wait long.

"There! Movement! What manner of creatures were these? No matter they would have to be dealt with.

He watched and waited for them to come into range. He wouldn't have to wait long. They seemed to be everywhere!

An apprentice darts into site for a second and is then swallowed up buy the enormity of the ruined city.

This was no normal wandering scavenger group! A barbarian and two trained war dogs meant serious trouble. The assassin breathed deeply. "It was going to be a long day!"

Hashtis sends the other treasure hunter, the dark skinned Bula Ki to investigate the street corner. He is warned to stay under cover. Alas the treasure hunter exposes himself and is fried for his troubles!

One of the mouselings spies something glittery and ascends the walkway cautiously!

Yet another team climbs the stairs in search of even more loot.

There wizard and his bodyguard!

The team led by the apprentice Lash finds themselves confronted by the mouling wizard and his knightly friend. Septus charged the magical minion hissing in his reptilian fury!

HAving seized the treasure the female mouseling drags her prize down slowly!

Yet another pile of riches falls into the hands of these greedy mammalians.

The archer Ashlap is accosted by the barbarian and his backup! Ashlap holds his own inflicting a grievous wound on the barbarian.

Success! Farkwa seizes a treasure after a perilous climb to the top of the tower.

Peering over the edge he sees Hashtis use his magic to move other treasure into the waiting hands of his troops.

Add another one to the count!

Ashap still lives after killing the barbarian he only has the backup to contend with.

After killing the mouseling knight the apprentice and his own knight give chase to the wizardly mouse who uses magic to Leap away!

Hashtis watches as the last treasure is taken from the battlefield. He signals a withdrawal and counts his losses. He lost both of his humans. No great loss there. It will cost him gold to replace them but after all they are expendable. He retrieved three piles of treasure so all in all it was a good day. Now back to his base in the library to count it!

The Thing About Bling....

I saw an excellent posting from Adam Carriere and Fencing Frog Gaming Adventures that really sent my mind to thinking! (I know BAD idea!) The post talked about ways to address the acquisition of magic items,spells and potions! I thought it was well thought out and very thought provoking. In case you missed it I copied and pasted it here: This was inspired by a post on the Lead Adventure Forum and I wanted to see what you you guys think of this. I don't think the official way of doing it is bad but this approach might give us more flavor. The Idea: Limit the Purchase of Magic Items Rational: It seems odd that people go crawling around a ruined city risking life and limb when anything you can find there can be bought for cold hard cash. The group will have to determine for it self exactly what is available to buy but here are my suggestions: Potion: all potion except for Elixir of Life should be available for purchase as all can be created by the spell Brew Potion presumably there are witches and other wizards who make their living brewing and selling them to their more adventurous brethren. Elixir of Life of life cannot be produced with Brew Potion so presumably the secret has been lost and the only way to get it is to find it in some long dead wizards potion cellar. Scrolls and Grimoires: All of these should be available by the same rational as that governing potions above, the can be produced by known spells so it stands to reason that someone out there is going to produce them. Weapons and Armor: any Weapon providing a +1 to fight should be available as should any armor or shield providing a +1 to armor should be available as they can be produce using spells from the Enchanter list. Rings and Cloaks of protection, and any weapon or armor with an enchantment of greater than +1 should not be available for purchase as they cannot be produce with a know spell. Magic Items: None of these should be available for general purchase as there are no know spells to produce them clearly they are great artifacts left over from the old days. If a player has an item he doesn't want say a staff of casting for a spell he doesn't have or doesn't use he or she can sell it (as per the book) and it would then be available to other players for purchase (at the price indicated in the book). As I pointed out the player must weight the value of cash over the risk of giving an advantage to an opponent Objections: Someone will have to do the record keeping, good luck could give a player a special item that no one can match because they don't roll it up on the treasure table. Also the logic I have applied above may go out the window as more supplements (and spells) appear. I don't have a problem with the official approach just thought this might be more interesting. I liked it and it got me thinking about bookkeeping and ways to minimize what for some is a tedious job. GREAT READ Adam! So I had a thought. What is the ONLY things available are the actual items that get sold back out of game? It would cut down tremendously on the availability of stuff. It would make witches, enchanters and sigilsts who could sell off unused products a bit more interesting. At the beginning of a campaign of course no one would really sell anything that was helpful to their cause but that unused potion or scroll could be a handy way to increase a Warbands cash flow. Magic items are ...well first of all Adam had the right of it. The magics used to create them are lost to time. Personally I think having only twenty to choose from is a PITA and very restricting but I get it. At some point game balance is paramount. But this idea clearly has room to grow.

A simple tower for Frostgrave!

A Noob gets in her first campaign game!

My friend Sandy played her first campaign game for Frostgrave! In Frostgrave the D20 can be a fickle bitch! I had just played my first game the night before and had been decimated by one of the other campaign teams. (Thanks Dave! Next time could you use some lube?) My warband was depleted to the point of despair! I had to play this game without my apprentice since he was recovering from one of Dave;s men at arms introducing him to his axe! So I was down to bare bones warband wise. I had gotten some middling treasure money wise. (40gc) BUT I picked up two magic items! A Staff of Power (3) and a pair of Boots of Speed! I did not want to sell off my magic items but....facing a fresh warband with some thieves and my Siglist wizard did not enthuse me much! So I kept the Staff of Power and sold the Boots! The proceeds allowed me to semi replenish my gang and go into the game with something that resembled hope!

This was the board layout at the start. It was not as crowded as I would have liked but for the first game it was okay. 

So here is my warband such as it was at the start. My surviving thief " Jacob" from my first debacle and his trusty hound "Puggsly" take the left flank. My center consisted of my Wizard Akili and her shooters. There was Benjamin the crossbowman,another survivor, and two new archers! My replacement pool at the unemployment office had slim pickings!I got an elf named"Queren"and a halfling named "Bushwack Bill". To my right was the remainder of the "new guys". A human female thief  named "Insig" and another halfling rogue named "Waylay Willie". 

Here is the opposition. On my left were her man at arms and her apprentice. Her center consisted of a thief and a thug. She hadn't given them names as of then but as the game went on she started to.

To my right was her main force of heavies. She had her wizard and the fierce and capable barbarian! She also had her archer, which she named "Army Archer". I guess naming mouselings can be a rough job? She also had a thug there. The cool thing about mouselings is that they come in so many different styles. I found them adorable. Her barbarian had caused me much consternation in our practice games and I had him and his BIG axe on my mind right from the start!

As per our "Homebrew Campaign rules" we rolled for wandering monsters! So...To my immediate right sat a Snow Troll and a bear! There were practically right on my ass! I was like well this is gonna be a short game! I mean how much worse could it get right? I was sooooo wrong! It got much worse when the worm showed up! All on my side!

So as I nearly crapped my draws and laughed! Three bad monsters two to my right and one to my left! A lot of health to chp down for literally no gain! Things looked bleak indeed. 

On her side she ended up with two ghouls! I was like "Really???" So the game commenced. I won initiative and got things rolling. The treasure seemed to be spread out in a line almost thru the center of the board. As it turned out she was closer and since I had to maintain a small profile to stay out of LOS from the wandering monsters she was on the first treasure token almost immediately.

Things looked bleak for my Sigilist but then something happened that I did not expect. I took my head out of my ass and used it. My go to spell had been "Push" I used it all the time! It is really one of her only spells that can affect someone. I looked and saw her two guys advancing and I cast "Blinding Light" on her barbarian! It was a gamble and it worked! So he was blind and slowed. I then concentrated on getting my own treasure.

Sandy cast "Fleet Feet" on her barbarian and the next turn began. Of course my luck still stunk up the place and her barbarian used a WILL roll to throw off the "Blinding Light"! They were at the first treasure!

Meanwhile on my side of the board my two thieves played hide and seek with the Snow Troll. My female decided to lure old Snowy away and using the fact that they are slow drew him off. "Waylay" managed to get the treasure unmolested.

My crossbowman got to his treasure also but drew the unwanted attention of the bear AND the troll! I wasn't worried about the thief because she could out run him but the crossbowman with the treasure was gonna be interesting.

My thief attempted to attack her thief and clip the treasure! Um...did not go the way I hoped! Her thief had an easy time dispatching mine and was the victor!

Ya it looked bad for my guys when the bear decided to go for the crossbowman! However Akili was there with a push spell to keep him at bay!

Fortunately the Worm had not seen any of my guys yet and decided to move towards the center of the board. 

Sandy had her apprentice and a warhound waiting for it!

Queren the elven archer covered Jacob the thief as he approached the treasure sitting on top of the pylon. Its not in the picture but that worm is just off to the left and he looked hungry! Jacob was more than a bit concerned but performed admirably!

By this point in the game Sandy had removed three treasure tokens and was smelling blood in the water! I managed to get one off and I guessed I could get the second off. I thought of relinquishing the field but I decided to stick it out and try my luck! I wanted that third token and I wasn't giving up. The problem was that I couldn't see anything while I was there hiding so I once again used my head and cast "Wizard Eye"! Nice pic if you ask me.

Now I could see the whole field! SO the game continued onward!

The Worm bypassed my thief as he had no LOS and went straight for Sandy's Wizard! However...her barbarian was also there! A battle royale ensued and in the end the worm was dog food! That little barbarian is a handful. She got some good rolls but he showed his quality!

This battle consumed Sandy while I managed to get the last treasure token.

So in the end it was a draw. Much better than I thought and I got some nice stuff. When a game is new it is so much fun to look at your items and ponder the many options you have. I really like this game and I hope it will continue to evolve and get even better.

Frostgrave! At the Gates of something really special!

Last but not least the finishing touches on some more Frostgrave terrain. I say last but I know I will make more!