Stuff

Based on the 5150:NB rules...

STUFF

Stuff is how we track what a character has, loses, acquires, etc. during their campaign. What is Stuff?

Stuff is anything that the character can use at any time during the game.

Here are examples of various items of Stuff.

• Weapon.
• Armour.
• Backpack.
• Rope.
• Horse.
• Lantern.
• Wagon.
• Mirror
• Flask of Oil
• Holy Symbol

LIST OF ITEMS

Any list of Items included in Warrior Heroes would be incomplete. There are just too many Items in the world right now let alone in the future. Here's how you can create your Item for use in Warrior Heroes:

• Decide what the Stuff is.
• Decide how it works in real and apply it in game terms.
• That's it.

HOW DO YOU GET STUFF?

You get Stuff in a variety of ways. They are:

• At the start of the campaign each Star receives three items of Stuff per point of Social Standing.
• When recruiting your first group you will receive one item of Stuff for each member you do not recruit.
• Once a month a character gains one item of Stuff.
• You can find them or take them from characters while on an Encounter
• You can trade in one item of Stuff for one that can be saved.
• You can receive Stuff as wages or gifts from other characters.

I'm sure by now some of you resourceful players are thinking of ways to bend the rules to your benefit. Good job! Because the life expectancy in Warrior Heroes is pretty short so enjoy it while you can. Hey, did we mention that the game play is the thing?

HOW DO YOU LOSE ITEMS?

Easy come easy go, here's how you lose Items.

• Someone takes them from you during an Encounter.
• Someone robs your Home (page, 85) while you're gone or even there.
• You get legal troubles and have to give away some of your Items.
• You give them freely to another character.
• Or the big one…you get killed.

WHAT CAN I CARRY?

How many Items can a character carry? That depends on the Item. Items are either used with one hand or two hands.

• Items used with one hand count as one Item for carrying purposes.
• Items used with two hands count as two Items for carrying purposes.
• Characters can carry twice their Rep in Items with the following notes:
• Clothing does not count against carrying limits (armour does!).
• Packs or duffle bags can hold Items equal to twice the character's Rep. The pack or duffle bag will count as two Items.
• A sack or belt pouch can carry Items equal to the character's Rep. The sack or pouch will count as one Item.
• If the Item can carry you, such as a beast of burden, it does not count against the number of Items you can carry and can carry a lot of Items. How many is for you to decide. Just remember that if you lose your vehicle you lose the Items that were inside it.

Over time you can acquire as many Items as you want but you cannot carry them all so choose your Items wisely before each Encounter.

Ailech Harbour - Narrative

This scenario didn't go as well for the heroes!
Properly rolled PEF's (rather than the discretion I'd been using), PEF's set up appropriate distances from the good guy deployment (i.e. even though the table was set up as 6' x 4', I deployed the PEF's properly in a 3' x 3' grid).
There was more on the table than there should have been (I deployed more Black Moon Incarnate demons than I would in a three thousand point Warhammer game), but the heroes warbands together totalled 39 CV!
It didn't help that they effectively activated all the PEF's at once, rather than getting into the enemy and trying to eliminate one PEF before any others got the chance. It also didn't help that their reinforcements didn't turn up, but I got two (which I rolled at 20 CV, i.e. 50% effect rather than rolling). In retrospect I should have brought them on as PEF's and then rolled them up properly, rather than just put them on the table.
In all honesty, it was partly my fault for letting the parties get so powerful (i.e. not kicking ass and taking names earlier) so creating a situation where 130 CV of bad guys was randomly generated and partly the heroes' fault for not getting stuck in quickly enough to eliminate opposition before it got unmanageable.
Even in the aftermath, it's still likely that four or five players are still going to generate around 30 CV without including their stars (which is another 30 CV). I suppose we need to come up with a solution.
We could split the campaign again, but that would mean that scheduling games is harder. That said, if the Northern Group made capturing Menglad their aim, while the Southern Group maintained the objective of retaking Ailech. Anyone could run a Quest campaign, following the rules in the book exactly, and as the stats for the object of each quest are already made up...
We could reboot the campaign, with the current crop of heroes being lost in the Western Mountains and their warbands captured or killed in the city and a new crop of heroes created from the refugees in Fluchtdorf. Even with a reboot though, with 5 or 6 players, even though it is fun, the bad guys rapidly become unmanageable for the referee.
We could just carry on. If I enforce the rules about advancement and on table death properly and generate forces that match the good guy CV, warband and star attrition is going to cut into numbers eventually.
Finally, I could remove Free Will. Without Free Will, bad guys get the charge more often and good guys can't force bad guys to rout so easily. If I removed free will then I wouldn't roll for size of PEF. Each PEF would be 100%. That would mean that the heroes wouldn't be facing down 150% worth of PEF on occasion but also wouldn't be meeting 600% of PEF! As a guide, Sokol Keep (the first game I properly rolled PEF's) had a 200% - 1 CV PEF roll and the Harbour had a 250% PEF roll (both before reinforcements).
I suppose it's over to the other players...

Assault on Sokol Keep - Commentary

Good game, good game. It was alright. I have discovered that my random generation of PEFs does matter. I got a massive number of Petty Demons (5 or 6) having changed from the Demon cult list when I rolled a lot of possessed mages and thought that wouldn't be fair. The large number of actual demons rather than horde or winged men, worked both ways. If there had been no good guy casters there may have been problems with three blasts a turn tearing into them. With the casters though I lost control of one of my petty demons and my minor demon when he came on the board.
I also realised that while bad guys took their crisis tests, the good guys didn't. Not once, even though there were maybe half dozen OOFs and ODs. Oddly, the players always remember that bad guys need to take crisis tests but conveniently forget their own...
I also think I may have done the Banish Demon spell wrong. I'm fairly certain we used the result of the spell on the Test of Wills when we should have rolled separately. So the good guys were getting bonus dice by caballing the test of wills.
I've also worked out why it is so easy for the good guys. They're not facing anything like enough bad guys. I randomly generated the PEFs for four Raid scenarios. I randomly determined the Force Composition and How Many Of Them? using the tables on page 54. This assumed the eight stars (I forgot Danny) and the available force at the beginning of Sokol Keep (roughly 84 CV for the good guys). A couple of the random rolls were CCA and CCB. There was only one CBA. All assumed there were no reinforcement PEFs. The results were as follows:

Summary	Raid 1	Raid 2	Raid 3	Raid 4
Archers	6	19	33	47
Goblins	6	10	17	27
Ogres	4	4	5	6
Riders	9	8	13	20
Black Moon Goblins	4	4	11	16
Chariot	5	8	10	11

I don't have any chariots and even at the best price would never have 11! Normally I would have around the forces available in Raid 2, but several of them would be tied up in reinforcements and so may never see the table. Patently though, I'm not putting enough bad guys on the table (that said for most encounter forces I don't have enough bad guys...)

Assault on Sokol Keep

The fight back begins here...
As the heroes try to locate the dwarven survivors in the ruins below the Western mountains, their brave warbands have been recruited by Baron von Zarovich to undertake a daring commando mission to the Keep. The Keep has been identified as the source of the vile magic that generates the insidious enchantment that infects the waters around Ailech harbour, preventing the Silver Elf fleet from retaking the harbour. Ensorcellments have been used to protect the small boats the warbands will use to approach the island, but these could wear off at any time so time is of the essence. If victory proves difficult then the warriors must make their way off the island before the magic fails.
Landing at several points along the western and southern coats of the island, the warbands make good use of the available cover to approach the walls of the Keep. There appears to be little in the way of guards and the gates of the Keep are wide open. Having opted to land at dawn, it is not long before the intrepid warriors are spotted by the two demons looking out across the mist shrouded shoreline and a brief exchange of missiles ensues. Several arrows clatter harmlessly from the walls of the Keep, while a massive fireball explodes, thankfully some distance from the nearest attackers.
Realising that magic could be a solution rather than a problem, the Black Moon Elf enchantress and the Borderer sorcerer combine forces to attempt to bind one of the demons to their combined mental might. The unholy alliance narrowly fails to bend the demon's will on the first attempt, but on the second succeeds and drives the controlled demon to attack the other demon on the wall. This proves to be a short affair and the controlled demon starts to rain fireballs into the Keep's courtyard scattering some of the defenders and forcing the leader of the demonic host into the cover of one of the buildings. Taking advantage several groups of warriors rushed to the gates of the Keep but across the bridge to the city came a hulking monstrosity, a minor demon of hideous visage, summoned from the deepest of the Pits. As it rushed across the bridge the valiant, but outclassed, defenders attempted to put up some sort of defence. Several fell before it's rampage and missile fire seemed to have little or no effect on it's blasphemous hide.
Once again the cabal of enchantress and sorcerer cast their diabolic glamour and once again managed to bend the will of another of the Pit's inhabitants to the devices of the attackers. Swiftly controlling the demon into attacking the Keep, the cabal managed to unearth the demonic host. A flurry of demonic fire took it's toll, killing a vile demonic beast, but also felling the controlled minor demon. The petty demon which had originally fallen to the power of the cabal's magic was sucked into the warp by the vagaries of the enchantments of the Black Moon. All turned on quickly dispatching the remaining demons in the Keep, locating and controlling the Orb of Diametric Fulmination and sealing the gates as rapidly as possible. A solid line of archers fired seemingly endlessly into the mass of demons, accomplishing the first task. Several warriors attempted to harness the power of the Orb, but only the pure nature of the Silver Elf was capable of stopping it's vile magic, thus achieving the second. Finally, a party of brave warriors secured the gate against an advancing party of demonic reinforcements thus achieving the last.
Victory is assured. The forces of the Red Sun can triumph and more importantly, the retaking of Ailech, surely the first step in containing the Black Moon insurrection that has gripped southern Altengard, can begin...

As an aside, Greencloak's frère d'armes has recovered the "Orb of Converse Execration". This item has the effect of adding +3 REP to a caster's attempts to cast either a Curse or Remove Curse spell.

Prelude... Additional commentary

The Prelude... encounters are over, the good guys from the south have met the good guys from the north and so the circle is complete.
The last game was good, still way too much stuff on the table though. Tne heroes are very reticent  still and don't seem keen to skirmish unless they have a unit of troops around them. I had a fair number of troops (but actually not as many as I should have had based on the dice rolls, but once I got to 70-odd CV...) and it got very untidy very quickly. I think I will roll up forces and then assign them to PEFs/Bodies rather than use the tables. In theory I could have had in excess of 140 CV which might work in Big Battles but would have been undoable in WHAA.
I need to take the initiative more often. In the last couple of encounters, when the good guys dithered and I just went hell for leather, much death and destruction ensued (on both sides). In the last encounter, when I let the good guys on the western side of the river go two knights decimated my warband. Bad guys have got to get stuck in.
Rules-wise, bad guys took more crisis tests, and more importantly correctly took crisis tests. Good guys less so (even though there were at least four OOFs/ODs). It's amazing how often the good guys remember that crisis test need to be taken when a bad guy gets hurt!
PEFs in line of sight aren't PEFs, they're bodies of troops, so they don't need to be hidden, and more importantly don't need to move randomly!
I've generated or lifted from the last encounter the personal warbands/comitatus of the main bad guys (the lich, the demon, the goblin, the wraith and the vampire) and from now on these will form the core of any encounters.
I've added the AC rule to the house rules page and updated some of the skills. See this post, House Rules, and this post, WHAA Skills, respectively.

Kronin's Lament

(Again lifted bodily from Dave's email and used with o permission whatsoever...)
Gurhin, King of the Grey Peak sat brooding. News had just reached him that Kronin the Barbarian had sung his deathsong just outside Ailech‏. The Trollhunter had been unbeatable in his trade but this had been a tale of woe from the beginning.
Kronin’s comrade, the healer, had sent word of his end. The band were part of a mixed band of warriors withdrawing from the ruins of Ailech. Kronin had lost most of his band in this adventure and was depressed about his loss of reputation. In the end he had stood as the rearguard before being buried under a tide of Undead warriors. This action allowed most of his comrades to fight their way to safety although both the Men & Elves were much reduced.
For the time being Dokk the healer and Throrin the berserker remained in the group though they would be hard pressed to rebuild their band in such a place, not many dwarves dwelt in that region.
Gurhin made his decision; he needed to know more of these far off events. He must send a team of his own to gather information in case the last 2 dwarves perished.
Working in her herb garden Gudrun though of Dokk and hoped the amulet she had given him continued to offer him the protection of her ancestors.

Prelude: Across the Redwake

After a cold night camped in what little cover was available, the refugees from Ailech have awoken in hostile territory close to the Erwach Bridge intending to break through the Goblin patrols to get to Fluchtdorf. The greatest fear is that the Undead will continue their pursuit and catch the fleeing refugees before they can cross the bridge. Meanwhile, word has reached Fluchtdorf and the local Baron, von Zarovich, has sent out a force to help the refugees across the Redwake River.  Belinus mac Gadeon and his Seniirans had headed north to find another crossing fearing that overnight the opposition guarding the bridge may have become overwhelming.
The heroes set out for the bridge but were noticed by a goblin patrol off to their left. Swift action by Bishop Guire's borderers and Greencloak's elves, dealt a critical blow to almost all of the patrol while the rest of the heroes forces pushed on. Critically a force that was suspected to be close to the bridge proved to be a false alarm and Altengard horns could be heard from the other side of the bridge. Hoping against hope the heroes realised that reinforcements had arrived. True enough, Altengard barony forces and some Borderers were marching eastward towards the bridge.
Hopes were quickly dashed though as from the east following the trail the heroes had taken the previous day another force of Undead (this time led by the Wraith, Azalin Ebonhaunter). A large force of infantry appeared hot on the heroes heels, while across the river a wraith scout found the flank of the Altengard reinforcements.
Again the heroes dithered and again the heroes were forced on to the defensive. With goblins ahead of them and skeletons behind things were looking grim and the fighting became more and more intense. After dealing with the wraith the Borderers and their Altengard allies pressed on towards the bridge, intercepting a large body of Goblin infantry along the way. The fighting became tense. A handful of elves and Throrin the berserk engaged the remaining goblins on the eastern side of the river. This patrol  led by Rug Longtooth himself also had an ogre and some Black Moon goblins. The ogre got lucky against Throrin and laid him low which immediately resulted in a panicky attempt to get him clear before he got trampled under the feet of the relentless tide of greenskins. Meanwhile on the eastern ridge the Undead came on without their wraith leader in a slow but purposeful march held up only by the weakened Kronin and some of Guire's light troops. Their fate was to be no less than that of the wounded berserk. Kronin was cruelly stabbed and hacked by the scythes and pole-arms of the vicious undead, while the last of Guire's borderers was left bleeding in the dust. On the western side of the river, the Altengard reinforcements were driving back both the goblin patrol and the force of ogres guarding the bridge. Looking up, the beleaguered heroes realised the path to the bridge was clear and gathering up what injured they could, they made a dash for the bridge and safety. Greencloak's elves and Lord Erkenfried were caught at the lip of the bridge, and the elven archer bravely gave his life to help Erkenfried escape.
Escape had come at a cost though. Kronin was dead, Greencloak's elven band was seriously depleted and only a handful of Guire's borderers still lived. Fluchtdorf lay over the next rise and perhaps Baron von Zarovich could assist with reinforcements...