Kestrel Langstaff

A Strongheart halfling in the Forgotten Realms, Kestrel is a dashing swashbuckler, rogue, and ladies' man. Not bad for someone 42 inches tall.

STR 12

DEX 18

CON 14

INT 14

WIS 8

CHA 14

Rogue 1 (using feats instead of Sneak Attack dice)

Swashbuckler 3

Flaw: Shaky

Feats: Weapon Finesse, Combat Reflexes, Deft Opportunist, Daredevil Acrobat, Two Weapon Fighting

	masterwork silver dagger
	darkwood buckler
	masterwork cold iron rapier
	mithril shirt whip
	climber's kit, small
	rope, hemp, 50ft
	2 x small mirror
	flint & steel
	signal whistle
	chalk bag, 20 sticks
	ropes for binding, etc
	mandolin, masterwork
	thieves tools, masterwork
	clothing and jewelry
	Crystal of Least Return
	Belt of Healing
	5 x blessed bandage
	2x oil of magic weapon
	2x potion of CLW
	Heward's Haversack
	foodstuffs
	complete spice rack
	books and sheet music

Battletech

Got the Battletech 25th anniversary boxed set. That means I now have a game in which 30ft tall robots sprint (or plod) across the landscape, blazing away at each other with incredible weapons from ridiculously short ranges and still missing. This is implausible but still curiously satisfying...

Mythic Game Master Emulator

The Mythic GM Emulator is intended to let people play roleplaying games without preparation. The theory is that when you discover something, it doesn't matter whether the thing was already there because a scenario writer put it there, or whether you made it up on the spot. You are in essence acting as the scenario writer as you go along.

The way this works is that you start a scene, keeping track of the characters involved and their objectives. Decide what would be a logical next step or information you need, pose it as a "yes/no" question, and roll the dice. You may get an Exceptional Yes, a Yes, a No, or an Exceptional No; in addition, the dice may tell you that the scene is Altered or Interrupted.

For instance, your Noir Detective bursts into the gangster safe house. You decide it would be reasonable to ask "Are there gangsters here?" and roll the dice; your answer may be:

• Exceptional Yes: a lot of them
• Yes: one or two
• No: not at the moment
• Exceptional No: the place has been cleaned out

An Alteration might be that you meet a woman who is looking for one of the gangsters. Perhaps she's trying to serve a warrant on him; perhaps she's the gunman's wife and is worried about him. And an Interruption would be something unrelated: there's a report of zombies at Maple and Third Street, perhaps, or Nazi goons attack as you're clearing the gang's hideout.

There's a list of keywords to help jog your imagination when you're trying to decide what the Alterations and Interrupts might be.

The key parts of this are the concept, plus the Fate Chart which gives your die roll results, and the key words; you shouldn't need to refer to the book during play.


It's a $6.95 PDF, which I think is worth it.

Piquet's campaign game Theater of War

Santa Clarita Wargamer: Review:

The post is worth reading for more detail of how the system works--he uses an ACW campaign as an example but you could equally well use medieval, or WW2.

Summary
Theater of War lets you run a campaign, organize the armies, generate the battlefields, and keep track of victory. Like most Piquet-based systems, the sequence decks generate a lot of uncertainty about what the future holds for your little Battle Groups.
You might want your BG to move into the light terrain outside Frederick, Maryland, but until you get that Light Terrain Move card, it's not going to happen for you. Just like in real historical campaigns, your armies and subordinate generals don't always react right away to your orders and desires.
Do you concentrate on marching your armies to execute your masterplan or try to build up your hand to improve the Battle cards you have available in case Stonewall Jackson is lurking in ambush behind that mountain range? Is that Battle Group in front of you a screening force or the Army of the Potomac on the move?
Even if you're not a Piquet player, the cards supplied with the rules allow you to customize each campaign deck to reflect the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing forces. With some tweaking, TOW can be modified to give you an excellent campaign system.
If you are a Piquet player, the rules allow you to fight campaigns with any army from any Piquet supplement you own. This is a must-have for the Piquet library.
The production values are decent. Some of the type is a little small and you won't see any interior color pictures, but the book is jammed full of typo-free tables, charts, and rules. There are some black and white photos of nicely painted miniatures. The package includes sample battle maps, campaign maps, and sheets of Campaign Sequence cards you need to cut out to play with.

Solo resources

From the Solo Wargamer

Rollica by Vassal

Final position of the game we started last night. The French started off with nine units and have lost four, with two of the five survivors down to one block each. The Brits have lost two units; they have a couple others which are down to one block, but the damaged units have pulled back and I can't finish them off. So right now it's Brits 4, French 2, with five needed to win; the Portuguese on the left can advance and take an objective hex and there's really nothing I can do to stop them. My strategy was to pull back behind the hill and force the Brits to get to melee range, where the French bayonets have an advantage. I think my error was to be too aggressive, sending my cavalry out to try to catch the enemy guns and such. If I'd just stayed back and patiently burned cards without moving, perhaps I'd have done better.

C&C by Vassal

Josh and I started our first play-by-Vassal game of C&C Napoleonics, going with the first scenario. Thus far the French have burned lots of useless cards, pulled back from their ridge, and expended most of their cavalry to no effect. The British are, slowly, advancing.