Friday 15 March 2013

Oldhammer Scenarios Part 2: Could we create our own McDeath, Orc's Drift or Lichemaster?

Welcome back to the discussion. In my last post I stated that I had more to say about this issue and I even have a couple of synopsis for possible Scenario Packs to work on in the future.

So here goes...

Imagine painting lots of these? Certainly something very different from the Oldhammer norm. 
The Seventh Samurai 

Following on from the '80s tradition of drawing inspiration from a combination of history and popular culture, this idea would draw on the cinematic masterpiece The Seven Samurai as well as Japanese and Chinese history and folklore. Using the published contingent list from Warhammer Armies as a basis, we could develop the rules for the armies of Nippon and Cathay and use Aly Morrison's Samurai range (recently re-released by the Foundry) as the basis of the models.

The plot could concern a goblinoid assault on a province near the Great Wall of Cathay. A select group of samurai are sent to galvanize the local population into action. They are drawn into a conflict that escalates as they discover that a hobgoblin warlord, leading the greenskin forces, has joined forces with a mysterious necromancer to break through the Great Wall, and enter Cathay. As the conflict escalates from skirmish to large scale battle, it emerges that the greenskin/undead force has been displaced by the growing threat of a full scale chaos incursion. Can the Samurai save enough of the local forces to successfully withstand a terrifying siege or will they need to do the unthinkable, and ally themselves with the forces of evil against a far darker peril?
How would a largely human army, lead by a high level character with magical weapons,  manage against the Greater Daemon of Nurgle?
Plague Daemon, The Ignorant Armies or..?

Using a period GW novel, create a series of games and scenarios based on the background and plot. After all, the characters are already designed and their a plenty of key moments that can be developed into games. Plague Daemon contains everything from small scale skirmishes and alluded to larger battles. Perfect for developing a series of linked games. Players could play individual characters during a larger scale battle, with secret objectives and plenty of unexpected twists. This option, particularly, has a rich vein to mine.

Well, hopefully that will have got your creative juices flowing... Have you anything further to add to my two suggestions, or do you have other, more exciting concepts?

Orlygg


8 comments:

  1. I really like your Seven Samurai suggestion and this could form the basis for a great narrative campaign (at least 3 linked battles I should think). The dilemma facing the samura in the face of a chaos incursion is great!

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  2. I also liked the concept of a campaign based on Plague Daemon. But please, please don't use the WFRP stats of the main characters as the basis for the "high level heroes". A soldier and two wizards' apprentices (without even a single battle magic spell to their name) against a Plague Daemon? Hah! A single nurgling would be too big a challenge. Of course, if the characters started off as three normal humans in the first game, and gained 5 levels every game they survived after that, then by scenario five the surviving characters might, MIGHT have a chance against one of old Father Nurgle's favorite sons.

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  3. This is actually a great way to "organically" expand the WFB3 material. I'd much prefer a campaign pack set in Cathay than, say, a full-blown Cathay supplement. It's a common urge among fans to fill in all the holes left in the source material, when in reality it is because we only ever got rich narrative glimpses into the broader Warhammer setting that we became so hooked in the first place. The story sounds excellent, and will keep the spark of imagination alive while providing a solid campaign experience. I'd say start up a Google Docs file and we can start outlining the plot, slotting in characters and figuring it out : )

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  4. Try a BLOOD forum vote, a consensus among forum goers would reflect trends and tastes in the community as a whole. Seven samurai sounds like an obvious win but might need some rules tweaks to work.

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  5. Magnificent Sven anyone?!

    Joking aside I do like the Cathay aspect of your suggestion - you just need hordes of Hobgoblins to oppose them.

    Plague Demon has to be my favourite Warhammer novel to date though - it would be great to game it.

    Inspired by the likes of Orcs Drift and McDeath I also had a go at Oldhammering some other classic films and moments in history a while back - Oldhammer scenarios

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  6. I'm sure I read a Seven Samurai senario way back but with bretonian knights. Course it could just have been one of our daft games from way back in the past.

    We did talk about novel scenarios before and that's why we looked into making BLOOD, the thought of losing so much hard work due to a CD order had some people worried.

    However all that said I'm game, I quite like the idea of drawing up some old school bamboo peasant huts, fences, that sort of thing. You'd have to look to say the perry twins for armed Japanese peasants!

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  7. I am glad there are many interested parties in creating new material for Third Edition. The future looks to be quite exciting. I think we won't need to worry about C&D issues if we keep things free, which I feel is an important part of the Oldhammer Ethos.

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  8. Another good source for samurai rules is the warhammer ancients samurai army list.

    The battles below might serve as good inspiration for campaigns, though perhaps they need warhammer puns for names
    Waterloo (empire handgunners in squares)
    Khyber Pass
    Thermopylae (scenarios about securing the goat path and rallying friends, rebuilding the redoubt at the pass, waves of attackers, maybe end with the battle of marathon depending how long they hold out)
    American revolution? (bunker hill, fort Ticonderoga, etc)
    Odyssey (Norse raid on Albion and the trip back?)
    Landings at Galipoli
    Battle of dublin with Strongbow
    Spanish American War- battle of San Juan hill
    Bolshevik revolution from the perspective of the Kronstad sailors (Kislev peasant revolution, and have it ruthlessly put down by winged lancers... lots of room for intrigue and false alliances)
    Marco Polo expedition?
    Lewis and Clark (Dark elves exploring west Naggaroth?)

    Star wars a New Hope (perhaps set in war of beard or sundering? baggage train raid -people with plans escape down river to village find a hermity mage and plucky farmer boy. Find ferry smuggler to take up river, get captured, save princess, fight bigger battle)... wouldn't be hard to convert the whole trilogy :P

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