Hyborian Wars!

Hyborian Wars Map, by RSI

This map is from a PBEM game run by Reality Simulations Inc (RSI). I'm not certain if they are still running games, but I found it Here via this site.

Even if they are not still running, the map is of interest as is the zipped "Set up" file for all the 36 "Player Kingdoms". This lists the starting forces and characters, along with their abilities and the composition of  the starting armies. The troop ratings are very generic - ie. Missile ability: POOR, Melee ability: EXCELLENT, Morale: ADEQUATE, etc. The cost to maintain the troops is given in similar fashion with Amazonian Javelin troops having LOW maintenance costs whereas those of the Black Dragons are VERY HIGH.

It is of interest to me for several reasons:

1) I have always enjoyed and admired Tony Bath's Hyboria Campaign as chronicled in "Battle" and later "Military Modelling". I have his book "How to Run a Wargames Campaign" but have never yet run a Hyborian campaign myself.

2) The map could be used for a "Barbarians of Lemuria" campaign.

3) The map has far eastern nations and so the "Garden of Kama" setting might be introduced into the game.

Look Wot I Found....

Found these in the mall yesterday.

I will have to build some sort of howdah, or maybe a throne to go on top of that walking gargoyle contraption/statue.

The skull will be a perfect centerpiece for an evil temple.

Sword & Silk: "Swords of the Four Winds"

Eleven tales of swords and sorcery set in the ancient East!

http://hariragat.blogspot.ca/

The Garden of Kama Interpreted...

Way back in February of this year I did a rough outline of the Garden of Kama - I mean, really rough!

Here are those same nations again with the Fortune Deck applied. I rolled 3d6, the first two to determine the card and the third to determine whether it was "reversed" or not. I rolled each heading in order and took the rolls I got - no Fudging! I haven't filled in the interpretations yet but I see some interesting possibilities. 

Aoa  

Past                 4-2-3   Nature – Life Energy

Present           1-5-5   The Defender(R) – Peril

Future             5-1-5   The Satyr(R) – Moderation

Virtue              6-2-3   Trickery – Deceit

Fault                5-6-2   Striking the Dragon’s Tail – Underestimating the Challenge

Fate                 4-5-2   The Phoenix – Rebirth

Interpretation: ???

Ologog

Past                 2-2-1   The Eagle – The Mind Prevails

Present           5-2-5   The Smith(R) – Evil Effort

Future             1-3-2   The Creator – Nurture

Virtue              3-2-1   The Hermit - Wisdom

Fault                2-3-4   Fearing Shadows(R) – Recognizing Safety

Fate                 6-2-1   Trickery – Deceit

Interpretation: ???

Kamjola

Past                 2-3-6   Fearing Shadows(R) – Recognizing Safety

Present           4-6-6   The Priestess(R) – Impracticality

Future             2-2-4   The Eagle(R) – Thoughtlessness

Virtue             4-4-6   The Peasant(R) – Lack of Vision

Fault                2-1-6   Drowning in Armour(R) – True Prudence

Fate                 5-2-1   The Smith – Productivity

Interpretation: ???

Champakou

Past                 3-6-5   Law(R) – Treachery

Present           4-5-4   The Phoenix(R) – Destruction

Future             2-6-4   The Fool(R) – Lack of Connection

Virtue              1-6-5   The Dragon(R) – Blind Fury

Fault                4-5-3   The Phoenix – Rebirth

Fate                 4-5-4   The Phoenix(R) – Destruction

Interpretation: ???

Mara

Past                 3-3-5   Inspiration(R) – Lack of Imagination

Present           4-5-1   The Phoenix – Rebirth

Future             2-1-4   Drowning in Armour(R) – True Prudence

Virtue              4-5-3   The Phoenix – Rebirth

Fault                6-6-1   Summer – Energy

Fate                 3-5-1   Knowledge – Truth

Interpretation: ???

Easterlings (Panam)

Past                 5-3-6   The Soldier(R) – Blind Obedience

Present           6-5-1   Winter – Maturity

Future             4-5-1   The Phoenix – Rebirth

Virtue             1-2-5   The Cockatrice(R) – Recovery

Fault                2-3-3   Fearing Shadows(R) – Recognizing Safety

Fate                 1-5-3   The Defender – Safety

Interpretation: ???

Koreans (Jong Yu)

Past                 2-3-5   Fearing Shadows(R) – Recognizing Safety

Present           6-1-4   Summer(R) – Exhaustion

Future             5-4-5   Sowing Stones(R) – Ceasing Fruitless Labour

Virtue             2-4-3   Fertility – Growth

Fault                5-2-2   The Smith – Productivity

Fate                 5-1-6   The Satyr(R) – Moderation

Interpretation: ???

Lohwand

Past                 3-2-5   The Hermit(R) – Isolation

Present           4-3-4   Overlooking the Diamond(R) – Recognizing Opportunity

Future             2-2-2   The Eagle – The Mind Prevails

Virtue              6-6-2   The Usurper – At War

Fault                1-4-1   Death – Change

Fate                 4-5-5   The Phoenix(R) – Destruction

Interpretation: ???

Also, I've just noticed that I left one nation out...have to correct that tomorrow!

Using the Everway Fortune Deck with Wargames Campaigns

I collect roleplaying games and one of those I picked up many moons ago was "Everway" by Jonathan Tweet. The cool thing about this game was the "Fortune Deck" a set of 36 cards based - I understand - on the "Major Arcana" of Tarot cards.

The list of cards is shown below. I found this list online and have reproduced it here as I found it. Not sure what the "correspondences" are all  about. I haven't found a use for them yet.

The important bit for me, and the way I have used the deck in the past, all has to do with the card subject or theme and its meaning. I used to use the card deck itself, but when I started thinking about it again I found mine had gone astray. Then today I realized that since there were 36 cards I could easily use dice to get the same results I used to from drawing the cards. Not as pretty, but very functional.

What follows is a system for fleshing out various characteristics in a campaign. Have a look at the card list and the meaning of each card. And also the meaning of the card if "reversed".

The notes explain how it works.

The Everway Fortune Deck

D66	Card	Meaning/Reversed	Correspondences
1-1	Autumn	Plenty/Want	earth, Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
1-2	The Cockatrice	Corruption/Recovery	earth and water
1-3	The Creator	Nurture/Abandonment	earth, water, the moon
1-4	Death	Change/Stasis	water
1-5	The Defender	Safety/Peril	air, fire, the sun
1-6	The Dragon	Cunning/Blind Fury	earth, air
2-1	Drowning in Armor	Protective Measures Turn Dangerous/ True Prudence	air (negative)
2-2	The Eagle	The Mind Prevails/Thoughtlessness	air
2-3	Fearing Shadows	Unnecessary Fear/Recognizing Safety	fire (negative)
2-4	Fertility	Growth/Decline	water and earth
2-5	The Fish	The Soul Prevails/Shallowness	water
2-6	The Fool	Freedom/Lack of Connection	the sun
3-1	The Griffin	Valour/Cowardice	fire and air
3-2	The Hermit	Wisdom/Isolation	Mercury
3-3	Inspiration	Creativity/Lack of Imagination	water and fire
3-4	The King	Authority/Tyranny	Jupiter
3-5	Knowledge	Truth/Falsehood	air
3-6	Law	Order/Treachery	air and earth
4-1	The Lion	The Body Prevails/Weakness	earth and fire
4-2	Nature	Life Energy/Energy Sapped	earth
4-3	Overlooking the Diamond	Missing Opportunity/Recognizing Opportunity	water (negative)
4-4	The Peasant	Simple Strength/Lack of Vision	Venus
4-5	The Phoenix	Rebirth/Destruction	water and fire
4-6	The Priestess	Understanding Mysteries/Impracticality	the moon
5-1	The Satyr	Indulgence/Moderation	fire and earth
5-2	The Smith	Productivity/Evil Effort	Mars
5-3	The Soldier	Duty/Blind Obedience	Saturn
5-4	Sowing Stones	Fruitless Labor/Ceasing Fruitless Labour	earth (negative)
5-5	Spring	New Growth/Stagnation	air, Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
5-6	Striking the Dragon's Tail	Underestimating the Challenge/Recognizing the Larger Problem	all four elements
6-1	Summer	Energy/Exhaustion	fire, Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
6-2	Trickery	Deceit/Subterfuge Revealed	fire and air
6-3	The Unicorn	Purity/Temptation	air and water
6-4	War	Great Effort/Effort Misspent	fire
6-5	Winter	Maturity/Inexperience	water, Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
6-6	The Usurper	At War/Civil War	conflict

Notes:

1)      The Usurper is my own interpretation for use in the campaign.

2)      D66 – Roll two six sided dice one after the other to determine the card result. Or roll two different coloured dice together, with one die as the “ones” and the other as the “tens”.

3)      Results cannot be duplicated for a given entity. Re-roll duplicate results.

4)      Each result can be either normal or “reversed”, giving an alternate meaning. Roll a third six sided die for each result: 1-3 = Normal 4-6 = Reversed.

5)      List source: http://www.highclearing.com/amberway2/fortunedeck2.html

6)      The Fortune Deck is used to establish the campaign background in very general terms. 

7)      All significant entities in the campaign should have a card result rolled for each of the following categories: Past, Present, Future, Virtue, Fault, and Fate.

8)      The Past, Present and Future results serve to describe the overall tone for each of those time periods for each entity.

9)      The Virtue and Fault results describe strong characteristics about the entity.

10)  The Fate result describes the end result for the entity in very general terms.

11)  Example:

Kingdom of Olokand

Past: 3-1 = The Griffin, Valour

Present: 4-2, reversed = Nature, Energy Sapped

Future: 2-6 = The Fool, Freedom

Virtue: 5-2 = The Smith, Productivity

Fault: 3-4, reversed = The King, Tyranny

Fate: 6-2 = Trickery, Deceit

Result: The Kingdom of Olokand has long stood as a bulwark against the forces of darkness. Its people are strong, brave and industrious but the long struggle has left the nation spent and the coffers empty. The current ruler is a ruthless tyrant who is squeezing the people dry. In the future a rival within his court will rebel and release the people from his oppression.

Sporewood Expands!

The latest Kickstarter from Acheson Creations finished the other day, and part of the rewards were that spiffy Mushroom Forest shown above. Fourteen pieces for $50 seemed like an OK deal to me so I dived in for four!

Added to the mushrooms I already have from Acheson Creations my Sporewood should cover most of the table! :-)

I also picked up this nifty bridge for dungeon adventurers to fight their way across, or defend against unspeakable evils! IIRC the piece is 19" long.

Basic Khmer Spearmen Commissioned

I've commissioned some basic 28mm Khmer spearmen based upon the illustrations from the "Armies of Angkor" book. I also commissioned female versions to serve as the Amazon factions in the Garden of Kama setting.

Survived Historicon 2013!

One of my prize purchases in the Flea Market (and I had a bunch) was a collection of Wargamer's Digest magazines that I picked up for only $15. These can normally be had as singles for $1 each so figure I got them for about half price (or maybe a little better - haven't done a total count yet.) The set included issue 1 (yay!) but also issue 7 - May 1974.

The main significance of this issue for me, is that it includes the following article by the great EGG himself!

Here we have it - a contemporary description of the dawn of D&D - not one recounted years later. 

This is the week I'm having...

Favourite Beer Ad...

And I don't even drink beer!

Fields of Corn and Rye...

Two Lancers de Berg make their way through fields of "corn"(wheat) or rye.

12" x 12" "Artificial Grass" mats found at the local Dollarama (@ $2)

Suitable for Quatre Bras, perhaps?

S is for Scauweg

Three Scauweg, shown with Bronze Age Miniatures Dead Earth figures

The Scauweg are fantasy monsters available from Slap Miniatures:

"The Scauweg is intended to be the antithesis to the heroic and pure stereotype of fantasy beasts such as gryphons, unicorns and the like.

Despite its appearance being reminiscent of a scavenger, scauwegs will hunt their prey providing they are in packs, making use of their razor sharp claws and beaks.

Although intended for a fantasy setting, we think these beasts would make great mutants in a post -apocalyptic setting as well."

They are quite large models, as can be seen here comparing them with a couple of Bronze Age Miniatures' new Dead Earth figures.

They are large enough almost to act as mounts...

R is for Resolute

 Hal Foster's Prince Valiant (June 19, 1938)

res·o·lute

Adjective

Admirably purposeful, determined, and unwavering.

Synonyms:

determined - firm - decided - resolved - decisive

Q is for Quantum...

According to Wikipedia (so it must be true!) a quantum "is the minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction."

Example: this post, as an effort to catch up with my "Blogging A to Z" Challenge. ;-)

Now you understand the meaning of the title of the second Daniel Craig Bond movie: "Quantum of Solace."

P is for Pessimist!

For them that think I might not get back in the "Blogging A to Z" thing...

O is for Optimist!

That is, whoever thought I would be able to keep up with this "Blogging A to Z" stuff!

N is for Nagasaki

M is for Madknight

Troll Mantis Rider.

Madknight Miniatures, that is! Madknight are manufacturers of 28mm figures for Greg Stafford's Glorantha setting. You remember Runequest, right? Well, these are the figures you want!

They have a Kickstarter coming up in May and Andrew has kindly given me permission to preview some of the miniatures it will be featuring:

Agrimori (aka "the Men-and-a-Half") Pikemen.

Various...

Hell Sisters, with Chaos Creatures behind.

All painted by Roy Duffy

L is for Lemuria...

 ...well, Barbarians of Lemuria anyway.

Barbarians of Lemuria is a neat little role-playing game that allows one to play the likes of Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja, Kull, Throngar, etc. Or Sinbad, for that matter. It is rules-lite (which I like) and the magic system allows for player input without (it seems) much opportunity for abuse. I haven't entirely decided whether to use the setting described in the game or do one of my own. I'm teetering - it's about 60/40 now, in favour of the setting in the rules.

Tweaked, of course. :-)

K is for the Garden of Kama

All work on the Garden seems to have ground to a halt. I am waiting...waiting for resin hulls of the galleys and canoes to send to sculptors; waiting for those with sculptors to get worked on; waiting for Mara to be cast up and mailed to me, waiting for the first figures to be sculpted (they are in the queue), waiting, waiting, waiting... *sigh* ;-)

J is for Jefferies Tubes

I was wracking my brain for a "J" topic and the only thing I could think of was "Jefferies Tubes". As any Star Trek fan should know these are the narrow access tunnels in the starships. As the wiki article mentions, they are named after the designer of the original Enterprise, Matt Jefferies.

I'm an equal opportunity geek, however, so J is also for Jedi Mind Tricks... :-)

I is for Indus Miniatures

Indus Miniatures is a small company producing excellent 28mm figures of the Wars in India during the period 1500-1800. Pictured above are Rajputs (top) and Indian Religious Men (below.) Both images are copyrighted Indus Miniatures and owned by them.

This month is Indus Miniatures 2nd anniversary and to celebrate Ashok is offering 20% off all codes.

H is for Halle Berry

Is it possible to have too much of Halle Berry?

No, I didn't think so either! ;-)

G is for Gringo 40's

28mm Mayan Warriors, sculpted by Mr. Judd

Gringo 40's is a company that until recently specialized in 40mm figures, covering American and Mexican conflicts such as the Alamo. Recently, however, he has branched out into 28mm figures with a new range of Meso-Americans and their Conquistador foes. On the Meso-American side he has started with some mighty fine Mayans, some of which can be seen above.

These are a "must buy" as far as I am concerned!

The photos are from the Gringo 40's website and all copyrights are owned by him.

F is for Fantastic Worlds

Fantastic Worlds is a miniatures skirmish game of retro-sci/fi adventure. The publisher is Rattrap Productions and it is part of a series of games using the same basic mechanisms. The games are set in different eras allowing one to play Gangster pulp-era games, Weird WW2 or even visit Conan the Barbarian's Hyboria.

A good friend of nibe rubs a retro-sci/fi campaign using these rules. Captain Zap Adams and his fearless crew battle the minions of Drang the Dreadful! Will the Rebellion survive! Tune in next week... ;-)