Hail and Greetings once again! It's been a while, hasn't it?
Managed to run my first large-scale game of Mage Knight, using a modified ruleset:
Conquest-level build total and turn amounts (1,200 points, 3 actions per turn without Command, 4 plus rolls with Command).
Victory points instead of objectives (didn't matter much anyway).
Nexus-era Special Abilities Card, but no proficiencies yet.
It actually went rather well, and we all learned a few things. A lot is because the last time I was into this game, between normal player attrition and the 2.0 debacle, leaving just one other player besides myself involved on the local level. This would result in a lot of situations, rules, and even certain abilities just not getting used all that much. For example, I learned that RAW (rules as written), Terrify actually works on multi-dial figures, so my trundling engine of steampunk death was too afraid to ram a big lizard. We all decided that it was just too funny to overrule at the time (and we can't get a cooperative copy of the unified rules documents, yay for old files) and let that stand.
If we're fortunate, we'll have even bigger and better games on the way. I already have 52 different Domain cards (so most if not all of them) and I'd like to introduce proficiencies and items into the game. I don't remember off hand, but I got the distinct impression that items plus Nexus figures equal meat-mulching agro-combine of death. Between that and finding players that like playing 'bad guys' like the Dark Crusaders and high end Mage Spawn has turned out to be quite refreshing. All Your Clicky Base All Belong To Us!
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Monday, January 22, 2018
It's Time For An Overhaul
Hail and Greetings once again!
It's good to get back into the swing of things. At last one of the new players in my Mage Knight group has gone out and gotten their hands on some serious new goodies to play with. Since a lot of the new figures are from the 2.0 edition of the game, it's finally time to bring the 'new' ruleset into things.
For the moment, I plan to keep things in a transitional phase. 2.0 is a much more complex beast than the original Rebellion/Unlimited era. We've agreed to keep things going mostly under the old rules, with the 2.0 rules being introduced gradually, and reworking or houseruling things as we go along. For the next few games, we will use the 2.0 special ability set, plus subfactions and Dark Riders mounted units. I'm planning on adding proficiencies and domains as soon as possible, since I have all the domains we need already and then some (yay 52 domain cards for me) and proficiencies are good right out of the gate anyway. Constructed terrain would be allowed, but we don't have any to work with yet.
Items, Relics, and Spellbooks/Spells are going to stay off the table for the moment, for the simple reason that none of us have any to work with yet (I have two spellbooks but no spells, while else nobody has anything else). Simply put, I'm willing enough, and the group would probably love it, but you gotta have the stuff, and while going out and nabbing the Galeshi Sunsword, Pain, and all the other old favorites to play Stomp the Scrub would be fun, I want everybody to have fun.
Adventuring Company cards are in a similar boat; no bucks, no Buck Rogers. We'll get there eventually.
On the other side of the coin, some houserules are going to be in effect, with the agreement of the group. Right now we're going to use the old version of Necromancy (pick an eliminated figure, set to start, roll a d6 set them to that many damage clicks, zombies and skeletons don't need to roll).
The other big change from the standard is what I call the "successor state" rule. Simply put, any pre 2.0 faction that was succeeded with a 2.0 equivalent will be considered as part of the newer faction. So:
Atlantis Guild count as Atlantean Empire
Black Powder Rebels count as Black Powder Revolutionaries
Elemental League count as Elemental Freeholds
Necropolis Sect count as Dark Crusaders
Knights Immortal count as Elven Lords
Orc Raiders count as Orc Khans.
Draconum, Shyft, Solonavi, Mage Spawn, and Apocalypse didn't upgrade per se so they're alright, thought the 2.0 Shyft rules for Mage Spawn will be effect whenever (again) we have some Shyft to work with. Heroes never transitioned to 2.0, so any single faction Heroes still only count as Heroes. Dual faction figures 'upgrade' for both factions (i.e. a Fuser Orc is now a Black Powder Revolutionary/Orc Khans figure). The whole idea is to let us mix-and-match figures from old sets and see what happens. When I actually ran official games way back when, we used this rule later on never had many hiccups, so hopefully it'll work out well.
More rule stuff is incoming, along with some scenario ideas and a revival of my 'final' campaign before the game died: The Siege of Fort Nerdicus!
It's good to get back into the swing of things. At last one of the new players in my Mage Knight group has gone out and gotten their hands on some serious new goodies to play with. Since a lot of the new figures are from the 2.0 edition of the game, it's finally time to bring the 'new' ruleset into things.
For the moment, I plan to keep things in a transitional phase. 2.0 is a much more complex beast than the original Rebellion/Unlimited era. We've agreed to keep things going mostly under the old rules, with the 2.0 rules being introduced gradually, and reworking or houseruling things as we go along. For the next few games, we will use the 2.0 special ability set, plus subfactions and Dark Riders mounted units. I'm planning on adding proficiencies and domains as soon as possible, since I have all the domains we need already and then some (yay 52 domain cards for me) and proficiencies are good right out of the gate anyway. Constructed terrain would be allowed, but we don't have any to work with yet.
Items, Relics, and Spellbooks/Spells are going to stay off the table for the moment, for the simple reason that none of us have any to work with yet (I have two spellbooks but no spells, while else nobody has anything else). Simply put, I'm willing enough, and the group would probably love it, but you gotta have the stuff, and while going out and nabbing the Galeshi Sunsword, Pain, and all the other old favorites to play Stomp the Scrub would be fun, I want everybody to have fun.
Adventuring Company cards are in a similar boat; no bucks, no Buck Rogers. We'll get there eventually.
On the other side of the coin, some houserules are going to be in effect, with the agreement of the group. Right now we're going to use the old version of Necromancy (pick an eliminated figure, set to start, roll a d6 set them to that many damage clicks, zombies and skeletons don't need to roll).
The other big change from the standard is what I call the "successor state" rule. Simply put, any pre 2.0 faction that was succeeded with a 2.0 equivalent will be considered as part of the newer faction. So:
Atlantis Guild count as Atlantean Empire
Black Powder Rebels count as Black Powder Revolutionaries
Elemental League count as Elemental Freeholds
Necropolis Sect count as Dark Crusaders
Knights Immortal count as Elven Lords
Orc Raiders count as Orc Khans.
Draconum, Shyft, Solonavi, Mage Spawn, and Apocalypse didn't upgrade per se so they're alright, thought the 2.0 Shyft rules for Mage Spawn will be effect whenever (again) we have some Shyft to work with. Heroes never transitioned to 2.0, so any single faction Heroes still only count as Heroes. Dual faction figures 'upgrade' for both factions (i.e. a Fuser Orc is now a Black Powder Revolutionary/Orc Khans figure). The whole idea is to let us mix-and-match figures from old sets and see what happens. When I actually ran official games way back when, we used this rule later on never had many hiccups, so hopefully it'll work out well.
More rule stuff is incoming, along with some scenario ideas and a revival of my 'final' campaign before the game died: The Siege of Fort Nerdicus!
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