Saturn’s biggest moon, Titan, is one of the most fascinating places in our solar system. With its thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere and surface lakes of liquid methane and ethane, Titan presents an eerie yet captivating world that starkly contrasts with our own. The Cassini-Huygens mission unveiled its complex weather system and revealed landscapes eerily similar to Earth’s, with vast dunes, river channels, and possible cryovolcanoes. NASA’s Dragonfly mission is set to return to Titan in 2034. But until then, much of this world remains shrouded in mystery.

This mixture of fact and mystery makes Titan a brilliantly flavourful sandbox for a futuristic sci-fi setting. Imagine if human colonisation led to a booming hydrocarbon industry that (quite literally) fuelled man’s exploration beyond the boundaries of the Kuiper Belt. And then, as these space capitalism narratives generally do, it all gets torn apart by corporate entities and warring factions. What remains is… a brilliant place to get your miniatures on the tabletop and roll some dice.

The Factions

Based on my own miniature collection, here are the initial factions who’ll be shooting it out under rust-coloured skies.

The Ethane Frontier Corporation: One of the major players in the Titan Hydrocarbon Industry and the only company to survive the war. They fight to clear out or eliminate all other factions from the region. Typically, they use a mixture of androids and mercenary companies to do their fighting.

The People’s Government of Red Mars: Communist Mars has the biggest human population in the solar system, and the government will do anything in its power to secure Titan’s hydrocarbon infrastructure and resources.

Titan’s Remaining Human Survivors: Millions of people still live on Titan, ranging from former industry workers and their families to criminal gangs and maddened cultists.

Creatures of Space: From the walking dead to the creatures of the warp, it isn’t just humans fighting it out on Titan. All other monsters and horrors are welcome here.

The Battle for Kraken Coast Hydrocarbon Refinery

We played out the Data Drip scenario from the brilliant Sci-Fi Skirmish Scenarios book.

A Martin Heavy Trooper opens fire on an Ethane Frontier Corporation Android.

The Gasmen: A mercenary company hired by the Ethane Frontier Corporation.

Martian troopers guard a data portal in the Kraken Coast Hydrocarbon Refinery.

There will be more coverage of this game in an upcoming episode of the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast.

A recent conversation with Mike Hutchinson on the subject of Chess 28 had me revisiting a recurring ambition: to create a “wargame in a tin”.

It was the thought of a grid-based system like a chessboard that stirred some ideas in my mind.

Now, I know, crucially, you can’t put a chessboard in a tin, (not unless it is a very big tin), but this was enough to get me started with a basic framework.

To back up a little, my daughter is the proud owner of a Farm in a Tin. Each time we’re out at dinner, the table becomes an agricultural utopia with little wooden sheep and cows grazing happily on the set’s felt mat. As I’m sitting there (usually on my 3rd or 4th pint), I start to think to myself, “Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a wargame in a tin?”

But I’m no game designer. I had no idea where to start. What I did have, though, were some core criteria:

• Minimal components
• Minimal dice rolling
• No bookkeeping
• A healthy balance of luck and skill
• Infinite setup and scenario possibilities

That’s a lot to ask from one small tin. But, the thought of using a chessboard for a game other than chess had me reaching for the ubiquitous “Chess & Drafts” set in the cupboard. I had just recently painted up a set of single-figure trays from Warbases, and numbered each of them, so the game suddenly took shape in my head.

• Each player has six miniatures, numbered 1-6.
• On your turn, you roll two D6. One is the “Activation dice”, the other is the “Action dice”.
• The Activation dice tells you which of your miniatures to activate.
• The Action dice tells you how many action points they have, either to move or shoot.
• For example, if you roll a four, you can move two, shoot two, or move one, shoot three. Or, just move four.
• Shooting results in an immediate kill – there are no saving rolls.
• For each miniature you lose, you get a +1 to your Activation dice in your next turn.

That last addition was brought in to keep the game competitive to the end. Thematically, this could be depleted forces getting more and more desperate, powerful, or dangerous. Tactically, it means you want to avoid having any of your own guys too close together – the enemy’s last man standing can do a tonne of damage if they roll a six with a +5 modifier!

Some blocking terrain (the wee one’s wooden blocks) made it more interesting, and meant that no two games ever had to be the same. Then (and still thinking, “I’ll never fit this chessboard in a tin!”), I bought some plastic graph template sheets and cut them up into handy “dungeon tiles”.

I got some 10mm figures from Pendraken to form the two rival warbands. They are mounted on 15mm x 15mm bases.

Finally, I cut up and glued some felt to the inside of a tobacco tin. This will be especially handy for silent dice rolling in public places and generally not annoying anyone. I’ll just need some bubble wrap in there to stop the pieces ratting about during transportation. I’m also looking into magnetising the bottom of the bases.

So there you have it, my very own “wargame in a tin” – Space Saverz. Sci-fi, space and all that, combined with… well, saving space. You get the idea.

I’ve been thinking about ways to incorporate the flavour, narrative, and cooperative fun of a game like Rangers of Shadow Deep into mass fantasy battles. Here, instead of playing against one another, two players can take charge of one army against an opposing force controlled by the game’s “AI”.

Most rulesets usually have their own solo modes built in now, and this isn’t an attempt to write a new game. My thinking here was literally to create a set of event cards that could be drawn between each turn and work with pretty much any system, from Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Kings of War to Hobgoblin, Oathmark, and Mayhem.

If you’re playing a game that doesn’t have any solo rules, then John Lambshead has come up with a cool system in his Sci-Fi Skirmish Scenarios book that I think could be adapted well to the movement of regiments. This involves rolling for each unit before it moves.

1. they panic and move backwards
2. they stop and move into any nearby cover
3. they move straight down the table
4. they move down the table at 45 degrees right
5. they move down the table at 45 degrees left
6. they charge anyone within charge range

More explanation is given by John in his book (which I’d highly recommend), but this offers a really good starting point if we want to avoid a wall of troops moving towards our own in an entirely predictable and methodical fashion.

This, combined with the following event deck, could bring in a whole new level of chaos, unpredictability, and challenge to a solo or co-op mass battle. In order for it to work, you’d just need to assign a number to each unit, then have a dice on hand to roll and see which unit is going to be affected.

Solo/Co-op Rank & Flank Battle Game Event Deck

At the beginning of each turn, draw one card.

1. Missing Orders

Confusion reigns as orders fail to reach a unit on the battlefield.

“Where are our orders? We’re stranded out here!”

Effect: Roll to determine which friendly unit is affected. This unit must miss its next turn and cannot move, attack, or perform any actions. If applicable to your game-specific system (GSS), it may still defend itself if it is being attacked.

2. Frenzied Unit

One of your units becomes frenzied and uncontrollable, fighting with reckless abandon.

“Madness has taken them! They charge with no regard for strategy!”

Effect: Roll to determine which friendly unit is affected. This unit remains under your control but follows the AI system’s actions for the opposing army for the next two turns.

3. Blocked Horn

The commander’s musician’s horn is blocked with mud, requiring immediate assistance.

“Blast it! The horn is useless. Get someone here to clean it!”

Effect: The nearest unengaged friendly unit to the command group must move towards the command unit and spend one turn in base contact, unable to perform any other actions until the next turn.

Yes, this is a bit of a farcical one, but it riffs off the “incompetent leaders” theme that often forms the basis of Joe Abercrombie’s stories.

4. Ranged Ambush

An unseen force launches a ranged attack from off the table.

“Arrows from nowhere! Take cover!”

Effect: Roll to determine which friendly unit is affected. This unit suffers a ranged attack with damage determined by your Game Specific System (GSS).

5. Panic

Panic spreads through a unit, causing them to flee from the nearest enemy.

“Panic has seized them! They’re running for their lives!”

Effect: Roll to determine which friendly unit is affected. This unit spends the next two turns moving directly away from the nearest enemy unit and cannot attack.

6. Supply Line Shortage

A disruption in the supply line means no ammunition for ranged units.

“We’re out of arrows! Hold your fire and prepare for melee!”

Effect: All friendly ranged units cannot fire this turn but can still move and engage in melee combat.

7. Animosity

Tensions flare between two friendly units, forcing them to stay apart.

“Keep them separated, or they’ll be at each other’s throats!”

Effect: Roll to determine which two friendly units are affected. These units must remain at least 20 inches apart for the rest of the game.

8. Targeted

The enemy focuses all its efforts on a single unit.

“All enemy eyes are on us! Hold the line!”

Effect: Roll to determine which friendly unit is affected. All enemy forces target this unit exclusively for the next two turns.

9. Terrified Horses

An unseen force terrifies all horses on the battlefield.

“The horses are spooked! They’re bolting in all directions!”

Effect: All friendly cavalry units move in random directions this turn. Roll for each unit to determine their movement.

10. Misinformation

False orders cause confusion, leading to a unified but misguided movement.

“We’ve been misled! Everyone, move out!”

Effect: All friendly units must move in the same randomly selected direction this turn, regardless of their current situation.

11. Halted Movement

The commander calls for an immediate halt to reassess the battle strategy due to new intelligence received.

“Hold your positions! We need to rethink our strategy.”

Effect: No friendly units may move this turn, except those already under another effect. Units can still shoot and engage in combat.

12. Inspired

A heroic deed or rallying cry inspires a unit to greater feats of strength.

“For glory and honour! Forward, brave warriors!”

Effect: Roll to determine which friendly unit is affected. This unit receives a significant boost to its combat effectiveness for the remainder of the game.

13. Enemy Reinforcements

The most recently defeated enemy unit returns to the battlefield.

“There’s more of them on the horizon!”

The most recently defeated enemy unit is restored to the table as reinforcements, deployed at the enemy’s table edge.

14. Drunkenness

A unit is found drinking on duty, impairing their abilities.

“They’re drunk! They’ll be useless in this state!”

Effect: Roll to determine which friendly unit is affected. This unit’s stats are reduced for the remainder of the game.

15. Primary Objective

A critical order is received to eliminate a specific enemy unit at all costs.

“That unit must fall! All efforts on them!”

Effect: Roll to determine which enemy unit is the target. This unit becomes the player’s primary objective until it is defeated.

16. Friendly Reinforcements

The most recently defeated friendly unit returns to the battlefield.

“Reinforcements have arrived! We’re not done yet!”

Effect: The most recently defeated friendly unit is restored to the table as reinforcements, deployed at your table edge.

17. Impending Doom

A report indicates enemy reinforcements approaching from behind.

“Enemy reinforcements from the rear! We need to fall back!”

Effect: All friendly units must now attempt to escape off the (randomly determined) top left or right corner of the table.

18. Out of Ammo

Supplies run out, and no more ranged attacks can be made.

“No more arrows! We’ll have to fight up close!”

Effect: No friendly units can make ranged attacks for the rest of the game. They can still move and engage in melee combat.

19. Out of Water

A lack of water causes fatigue and lowers effectiveness.

“We’re out of water! The troops are exhausted!”

Effect: All friendly units suffer a reduction in their overall abilities/stats for the remainder of the game.

20. Friendly Fire

Confusion leads a ranged unit to accidentally fire upon allies.

“Hold your fire! That’s our own men!”

Effect: Roll to determine which friendly ranged unit is affected. This unit fires at the nearest friendly unit, causing damage as determined by your GSS.

21. Old Comrades

A soldier spots an old comrade among the enemy ranks, leading to an unexpected truce.

“Is that you, old friend? We can’t fight each other!”

Effect: Roll to determine which friendly unit and which enemy unit are affected. Both units refuse to fight one another for the remainder of the game and cannot engage in combat against each other.

22. Corruption and Betrayal

One of your units turns traitor, joining the enemy ranks.

“Treachery! They’ve turned against us!”

Effect: Roll to determine which friendly unit is affected. This unit immediately becomes an enemy unit and will be controlled by the AI system for the opposition for the remainder of the game.

23. Offer of Alliance

A cunning offer persuades an enemy unit to defect and fight for your cause.

“Gold and promises sway even the staunchest of foes!”

Effect: Roll to determine which enemy unit is affected. This unit immediately switches sides and becomes a friendly unit, under your control, for the remainder of the game.

24. Scouting Report

A scout brings vital information about enemy positions.

“We have the intel we need. Let’s use it wisely.”

Effect: You may reposition one friendly unit or gain a strategic advantage as determined by your Game Specific System (GSS).

25. The Soldiers Due

Thanks to Cam in our Discord community for this one!

The army’s pay has been in arrears for months. Any time they defeat an enemy unit, they pause to loot the corpses.

“Now let’s see what he’s got in his pockets, shall we?”

Effect: After defeating an enemy unit roll a 1D6.

1-3: The victorious unit misses its next turn as it stops to thoroughly search the defeated unit for coins and valuables. They may defend themselves if attacked.

4-6: The defeated unit was well-heeled! The attacking unit gets double movement next turn as they rush forward to see if more loot is to be had.

26. Encirclement Fear

Paranoia sets in as rumours of enemy reinforcements arriving from all sides spread through the ranks.

“They’re surrounding us! Stay close and hold together!”

Effect: All friendly units must group together and remain within 30 inches (adjust relevant to your preferred scale) of one another for the remainder of the game. Units outside this radius must move to join the group immediately. This excludes units already under another effect.

27. Stray Puppy

A stray puppy wanders onto the battlefield, causing a temporary ceasefire as everyone tries to ensure its safety.

“Hold your fire! There’s a puppy on the field!”

Effect: All combat ceases for this turn as units ensure the puppy’s safety. No units can engage in melee or ranged attacks, but they can still manoeuvre. Combat resumes once the puppy is safely out of sight.

28. Discordant Melody

The enemy’s musicians play a horrendously out-of-tune cover of “Mustang Sally,” disrupting your forces’ focus.

“What is that noise?! Make it stop!”

Effect: All friendly ranged attacks must now be directed at the enemy command group until they are eliminated. Units without ranged attacks are not affected by this event.

With thanks to the almost biblical-sounding quartet of Ed, Mark, Luke, and Jason for putting this post together.

“HOW IT ALL CAME TO BE…” – THE PREAMBLE

Just after Christmas, several members of the Bedroom Battlefields hobby community decided that it would be brilliant to put on a big multi-player game of Warhammer – the kind of thing that would look right at home in the pages of White Dwarf, back in the golden age!

A central location was chosen, with the majority of the interest parties being based in the UK, and community member Mark managed to hire his local village hall at bargain-basement prices – less than the price of a box of Age of Sigmar golden space marines for the whole day 😉.

Jason, Knocker-down of Internal Walls, answered the call to be the ultimate Games Master; not only providing two HUGE 8,000+ point Empire and Orc & Goblin Armies but also enough terrain to fill a 15’ x 6’ table!

Not content with providing sufficient 28mm miniatures and terrain to open his own GW shop, Jason also devised and prepared a fantastic baggage train ambush scenario, ‘Through the Barrow Downs’, that was full of fantasy flavour and fun surprises – all using the fast-moving Warhammer Fantasy Battle 6th Edition rules.

With the date set to Saturday 13^th April, two more community members, Luke and Ed, jumped on board, travelling to Staffordshire from Yorkshire and Sussex for nine hours of pure retro Warhammer goodness. A day fueled by nostalgia, enthusiasm, packed lunches, some very nice alcohol-free Cava, (courtesy of resident sommelier Ed), and a multi-pack of Frazzles (which GM Jason requested on his rider).

“…AND HOW IT CAME TO PASS” – THE BATTLE REPORT BY JASON STOCKWELL

Entering the Barrow Downs…

Forward scout parties had discovered evidence of massed goblinoids on the main path. They estimated numbers in excess of one thousand… 

Engineering guild representatives decided to seek an alternate path through the Barrow Downs. Advance scouting parties were sent out to explore the possible paths and establish their threat levels. Many parties did not return. 

Of those that did, reports were made of large, heavily armoured Orcs in massed ranks advancing over the slopes. One long-disused path through the old river valley was estimated to have the least concentration of these foul creatures. But the guild must advance now as the Orc scouting forces had spotted the Empire scouts and had surely reported back. Who knows how many would concentrate their numbers, descending on these valleys in the days ahead? The guild scouts had not completed their work, but time was against the marching column, and a decision had to be made!

Once the column had reached the head of the old river valley, it was suddenly apparent that something crucial had been missed from the initial assessments; in the base of the valley, the river had dried up into a stinking marshy swamp. Fortunately, the bridge was still in place, but the orcs had started to crest the neighbouring hills. There was only one choice that could be made; the guild must dash to the opposite ravine and reach open country at the foot of the dwarf holds. 

With Sigmar’s will, the guild could only hope they could do so before reinforcements arrived.

Objective for the Orcs: capture supply wagons and gun limbers. 

Objective for the Empire: deny the enemy supply wagons or get them off the board at the north end of the road for victory. 

As a pre-game setup we randomly drew out some magic items from the 4th edition magic set, this magic set was the best magic system GW ever produced (in Jason’s opinion) and works brilliantly in other editions too. It was also used to draw for the wizards’ spells. Two commanders per side donned their hats of office and decided on their colleges of magic. Each side had a Level 4 magic user and a Level 2. 

Neither side knew what magic the other had until the game revealed it to them during play. Using the old power card system created a great sense of a game-within-a-game with some proper moments of tension waiting for reveals and lots of ‘should I do this now or not’ moments thrown in.

Magical highlights included: 

• Double bluffs on power card betting to destroy enemy spells.
• Whole units being rendered immobile through ice storms.
• A thoroughly luckless boyar suspended in mid air for three turns!! He watched his unit of winged hussars run around like headless chickens and get cut down before he was released to run about, narrowly avoiding massed goblin artillery which missed him!
• The giant Cromwell steam tank being raised in the air and held there by the very same spell!

The Empire deployment was predetermined; the Orcs could pick and choose where to send their troops in the respective deployment zones. Tactics would shift radically depending on Orc commanders’ choices. 

Other pregame moves included secret recorded deployment of scouts; where were they!?!? Oh bloody hell, they were hidden on the rocks at the end of the paths!!

After deployment, outriders got some free manoeuvres to put pressure on straight away. The warg outriders lept towards the mid-column, forcing a response immediately in turn one. The engineer guild outriders sped forward in the hope of bloodying the orcs’ noses and stemming the tide long enough for the head of the column to get off the bridge and make a proper show of itself. 

The wargs did their job perfectly; the Empire minced towards the enemy and missed every shot for two turns in their wild-eyed panic at finding they were utterly useless in real battle. They should have stayed at home for their sakes and, more importantly, for the sake of their comrades’ morale. It was pathetic watching them fail in such a mediocre fashion. They later died out of hand.

But not to worry! The orcs had decided they hated themselves, and a round of terrible animosity rolls (cheers, Luke!) had the effect of showing us one unit of Uruk-hai really disliked the pikes in front of them. They killed the whole regiment to an orc. 👍

Lee, the giant, bravely died on a steam tank and, in his death throes, fell on it to damage its hull quite disastrously. 

The head of the column had largely collapsed by Turn 4, but no wagons had been captured. Plenty had been blown up by misfire rolls or by enemy artillery. The only chance for the orcs to gain victory was to capture one of the central war wagons. Enter the valiant Hussite hero, known here as Stalwart Stan, who thoroughly saved the day by being the most impossible nut to crack against a horde of black orcs. Completely improbable defence was made!

In other news, a load of spiders had found the empire surprise of a howitzer hidden in a supply wagon, manned by two arachnophobic halflings!

The rear of the Empire column had finally started to catch up when two things happened: the night goblin reinforcements arrived. Took a look. And half of them ran away! 🤷🏻‍♂️

The night goblin reinforcements were just about to lure the Empire to turn and face them. BUT! As the Empire came about, the Stargate activated and some strange looking fellows arrived with magic staffs and blasted molten fire upon everyone in sight!

Finally, alas, the elven host sent to scout out this unusual orc activity by their high elven master, stumbled across the beleaguered Empire column too late to aid any victory. 

The result was an inconclusive engagement; neither side gained victory, neither side lost everything. The first big engagement of the Wizard’s War has concluded. The dwarfs are unsure if business with the Empire can be as reliable as it once was.

The Orcs had proven their capabilities in war, now the continued advance into the Count’s border territories can begin. Three areas are now under threat from orcish invasion, 

• The Norscan sea ports at the river mouth were relied upon for fishing, which fed the populace of the northwestern plains. 

• The dwarf mines of Mount Zee-Da-Guld, responsible for the stable imperial mint. Losing this would force the count to dangerously destabilise his currency and many peasants could starve in the resulting inflation. Not to mention the loss in trade from the very miffed dwarfs who expect their mine protected by the counts forces!

• The sacred Temple of Amon Hen is at risk of falling to enemy hands. Such a wealth of ancient artefacts and power would surely be a boon to any necromancer wishing to rob the graves of millennia in the temple crypts. Rumours of armies buried alive long ago exist around that holy place’s history. 

To be continued…

“WENT THE DAY WELL?” – REFLECTIONS FROM THE PARTICIPANTS

Jason, Empire co-commander, said, “The scenario turned out very well. It had a few options of tactics for both sides and would allow us to replay it and get a very different game each time. I would try to link up the Empire forces next time, and use the wagons as defensive points to rally around. Weaken the Orc forces then attempt a breakout manoeuvre later in the game to dash a supply wagon or two to the finish line. I found the game thoroughly enjoyable and flowed really well, it was great to meet chaps who like to game narratively and it made it a winning experience of a tabletop battle spectacle for me. I look forward to the next engagement in our tale! The roll out mats from Lidl recommended by Dr Spork are a winner! We used only 5 in this game to make a 6×15 foot board. A 6th mat exists which would give us a 6×18 foot table but we would need more players for that!😉. Finally, sorry I ate all the Frazzles, chaps. They were lovely though!”

Luke, Orc co-warlord, said, “I came to this game not knowing much about Warhammer 6th edition, I haven’t played in years and my hobby time is aimed more toward the collecting and painting side, so I was a little apprehensive about joining a massive game like this! Thankfully Jason was a great teacher/Games Master and pointed us all in the right direction. My first impression of the table was that it was so massive that we wouldn’t have enough men to fill it, but on cue jason produced box after box of stacked units (on movement trays for our convenience!).  Ed and I worked together on the side of destruction with an army of Orcs & Goblins. Ed was a great player and a quality team mate, we talked through the options on deployment and his familiarity with the game’s principles really helped me immerse myself in the game. The game was thoroughly enjoyable and watching our miniature army perform pitched battles against the backdrop of an expansive and visually appealing gaming table really made it something special. Some of the highlights (or lowlights!) of the game for me was when the orcs managed to charge their own unit of pikemen (and wipe them out) in a badly rolled moment of animosity; when a stone thrower misfired and all the crew were tragically lost; and then near the end when one of the objective wagons looked like it it could be rallied and potentially give the imperial army a victory point,  Ed’s trebuchet performed a superb shot across the table and destroyed it in its thundering tracks. Well, ‘if we can’t have it, no one can!’. Overall it was a great experience with a great group of people, thank you Mark and Jason for inviting me, and I’m really looking forward to the next one!”

Ed, Orc co-warlord, said, “What a fantastic day of gaming. My first time playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle and we went straight to a roughly 8k point massive battle. Thankfully with Jason’s calm and helpful guidance and knowledge of 6th ed WFB the whole day was a breeze. Once the board was built and the armies prepared the teams were chosen. Luke and I both wanted to play the Horde and ambush those measly little hummies! The animosity between the orcs was on display early on as they broke ranks and killed each other before a move could be made. Whilst this internal animosity was prevalent on the table it never came between the players, who all added moments to the battle with the choices they made and the spirit in which they played the game. I learnt the importance of positioning units in the game, that movement can make or break a battle plan before contact with the enemy, that the magic system in 4th edition rocks and that a well timed use of an artefact can turn back even the greatest knights in the realm. I look forward to the next opportunity to play with Jason, Mark and Luke, who all brimmed with enthusiasm for the hobby and were great fun to spend the day with. Sorry I had to cut and run at the end, next time I promised I will stay and help pack up!”

Mark, Empire co-commander, said, “Well. What an amazing experience! This was my first time playing Warhammer for over 30 years, and quite possibly my first time playing by anything close to the rules! Great fun was had by all, and the visual spectacle of this amazing game is going to lodge in my memory for years to come. Who said big games are dead?!”

Through this site and the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast, I’ve had the privilege to interview some of the industry’s household names. During these interviews, I’ve used some recurring questions, one of which was:

Tell me about a particularly satisfying mechanic you’ve either created yourself, or came across whilst playing someone else’s game.

As you can imagine, it’s thrown up some interesting replies. This post is intended to document them all in one place. It features responses from Gav Thorpe, Andy Chambers, Tuomas Pirinen, Jervis Johnson, Alessio Cavatore, and Joe McCullough.

Alessio Cavatore

In terms of somebody else’s, it was Massimo Toriani who showed this game that he designed, and he was using D10 as scatter dice. All the other polyhedrons are platonic, so they are symmetrical. There is no direction in any way. There’s no arrow, no verse this way or that way. But the D10 is not a platonic solid; it’s artificially made to be ten-faced, but it is not. It definitely has an arrow shape. Each face of the ten faces is an arrow and has a number in it. So it was just like, well, you don’t need scatter dice and distance, et cetera. You just roll a D10, and that tells you distance and range in the same roll. And I was like, oh, my God. Yes, of course. Why didn’t we think of this? So, since then, I have done that as well in games I design, and, yeah, it just works. It’s so obvious.

As for my mechanics, the drawing of the action dice from the bag in Bolt Action, because of the dynamic that creates for the game on the other end. Of course, I hesitate to say that’s a mechanic I created, because drawing chits has been done before. I kind of added the fact that the dice actually have the orders, and therefore, you can then use the same thing you use for the drawing as the marker on the unit. So that kind of does a few jobs together. But, yeah, writing the game and sticking to that logic was cool.

But again, I don’t think it’s as original as perhaps when I invented the rattling gun. The mechanic for the rattling gun, which, as far as my mentors tell me, they hadn’t seen it before. That’s a good thing because, normally, I go, “I have this great idea. It’s completely new”. And Rick goes, “Well, that was done in 1976 in this game.” I was like, oh, it’s not new, right? But this one, now, they went, oh, wow, that’s a cute little mechanic that we never seen. It’s fun.

Basically. Is it like a minigun – a Gatling gun. It’s a rattling gun because it’s a Skaven weapon. But it is the mechanic where you roll a dice, and that’s the number of shots, and then you can stop safely, just basically cranking, doing one turn to the crank. Or you can go, no, let’s have two turns. And so you roll two dice, adding them together, so more hits. However, if you ever roll a double, then something goes wrong, and there’s a chart of wacky nastiness that happens. So basically you can roll maybe up to six dice. If you’re incredibly lucky, you don’t get any doubles, but there is a point where you go, “Statistically, I should stop, but maybe I need one more crank, one turn to this.” That is fun because it kind of challenges your greed towards the potential punishment if you go wrong.

Full interview with Alessio Cavatore

Gav Thorpe

My favourite mechanic is when Jervis created the blocking dice for Blood Bowl. It took a really complicated game with lots of sets of tables and looking things up and modifiers and stuff, and turned it into a really simple roll, one, two, or three of these dice, and then depending on how you roll, something happens. And it was so streamlined and so simple and made the game so much more playable. Yeah, it was just genius. That’s been one of my favourite mechanics, I think, of anything.

And because it was a physical thing as well, it was the idea that we can do stuff with dice. They don’t have to just be D6s. They don’t have to have equal weighting between the six roll results, and actually rolling multiple dice and picking one, not necessarily having to add them all together or all that kind of stuff. Third Edition Blood Bowl is just a beautiful piece of games engineering based around those very simple mechanics. And I loved it when it came out. I loved playing it

in terms of mechanics myself, I suppose when I did Inquisitor. It’s very narrative, and what you do is you nominate what your character is going to do, what you want them to do. You, rather than having a set of action points to spend, then you just go through and do them, you say, “Oh, well, they want to run over here. They’re going to hide behind a barrel, and then they’re going to shoot at that sort of like cultist over there.” And then you roll a bunch of dice, depending on their speed. And each four plus actually allows you to have part of that action. So what you’re doing is you’re never quite sure exactly how much of your intended actions you get to actually resolve. So there’s always a tension between trying to do stuff and playing it cautious. People have spoken to me and said that – that it’s kind of quite core to the game, and that’s one of the things that makes it fun. Again, that plays back into the Blood Bowl idea of the turnover, the idea of the failure.

I think, for me, narrative comes from unpredictability. Sometimes, the things we remember most about the games are the things that we didn’t expect to happen. When units charge in and crush that goblin unit and run them down, you go, “Well, that’s what they were supposed to do.” But when the goblins charge in and crush the knights and run them down, that’s a story. And the same time when your dwarf general flees, or the thing goes bad (or particularly well), that will be remembered.

Full interview with Gav Thorpe

Jervis Johnson

One mechanic I came across recently and really like is used in a series of games called Table Battles, published by a small company called Hollandspiele. The games recreate various famous battles from history and use cards to represent the major formations of each army.

In your turn, you roll six dice, and then allocate them out to cards in your army; each card needs certain combination of dice to be able to carry out an action. So one card might need a pair of 5s to attack, while another might need you to place a 4, a 5 and a 6 on the card, and so on. Any dice that are placed on a card can’t be rolled again until they are used, so the dice are a limited resource, and you need to think hard about where to place them. At the start of your turn, before you roll the dice, you can carry out an action you have set up with your earlier dice rolls.

What I especially like about this mechanic is that sometimes, when you attack, you will force your opponent to make a reaction, and this will stop them from carrying out their action in their next turn (they are reacting to your attack rather than unleashing their own). These simple mechanics do a lot to represent command and control issues, and they also capture the idea of one side gaining the momentum in a battle, which is something I have read about in lots of historical accounts but very rarely seen recreated in a game.

Full interview with Jervis Johnson

Andy Chambers

I’m going to nominate myself for this one, actually. The blast marker mechanic that we introduced in Epic initially, I think. There’s just something about having little explosion markers next to a unit. It’s another stage of damage at its heart, but it’s not removing models; it’s just showing that they’re kind of being suppressed under fire, that sort of a thing. And it’s been used in quite a few different game systems since then. I’ve used it a few times myself, and it’s a good mechanic. It’s a useful tool to have when you’re designing a game, to have that other stage of damage which isn’t actually killing things or knocking off hit points per se, basically like a temporary damage source which suppresses them or whatever. So, conceptually, I think that’s a good one.

The other one I’d nominate is the system that I use in Blood Red Skies for doing three-dimensional combat because that’s a World War II fighter combat game which doesn’t use altitude or anything like that. It uses what I call the advantage system, meaning we don’t care about how high up you are. Basically, it’s like, are you at an advantage relative to the fight? Are you neutral relative to the fight? Or are you disadvantaged relative to the fight?

Being advantaged means that you have more options. Basically, being disadvantaged means you have less, and it’s only if you’re disadvantaged, you’re actually in danger of being shot down. Until that point, you’re just ducking and diving along with everybody else. But in a disadvantaged state, that’s where you’re most vulnerable as well. So again, it’s a way of almost combining damage with other factors at the same time, without it actually being damaged to the unit. So I think that’s another particularly kind of interesting example of almost the same again, if you go on a very meta-level conceptual design mechanic applied in a different way.

Full interview with Andy Chambers

Tuomas Pirinen

There are a ton of great game mechanics I admire, but I’m going to use my own – Mordheim‘s exploration roll. This gives you your income, the ability to modify through the metagame, and helps you to find unusual places. You only need to get a handful of dice, roll that, and all of that happens from there.

Full interview with Tuomas Pirinen

Rick Priestley

I thought the turn over mechanic in Blood Bowl was an interesting way to sequence a game, and I took the idea and adapted it to my Warmaster system. So, to activate a unit you rolled dice to give an order; if successful you continued to move and order units, but if you failed, it’s turn over. It’s interesting because you have to decide which things to move first and which to leave until last and risk not being able to move at all. I later adapted the same mechanic to Black Powder and Hail Caesar for Warlord Games, so it’s had a good run!

Another mechanic that I’ve always thought would be interesting to adapt is the combat mechanism in a game called Warlord. Warlord is a game of nuclear warfare published in the 70s and later re-boxed and marketed by Games Workshop as Apocalypse. Anyway, it works like this:

When making an attack you take a dice and secretly select a number by hiding it behind your palm, you can only choose a number up to the total number of pieces you are attacking with. Your opponent guesses what number you have chosen, and if correct, you lose that number of pieces, if incorrect, your opponent loses one of their own pieces.

The attacker can stop at any point if things are not going well. Assuming things do go well, once an attacker removes the opponent’s last piece, you get to move into the space and take it over, but the number of pieces you move in has to be the number you last selected. Thus, the initial attacks can be random, although choosing a high value risks losing a high number of pieces, which encourages you to choose a low value… but your opponent knows this… and you know that they know… and so on.

When it comes to your last attack, the fact that you take the space with the number of pieces nominated means you want to choose as high a value as possible… but your opponent knows this… and you know that they know… and so on. I just like the element of double guessing and the potential for a lucky guess to unravel an attack.

Full interview with Rick Priestley

Joe McCullough

There are so many, as far as I’m concerned, because, for me, every aspect of a game can have unique and elegant mechanics.

So, like, movement. In most games, movement is a very set kind of thing. You can move your guy six inches. If you are doing a unit, you can move it, and you can make one manoeuvre with it; that’s absolutely fine, but there’s nothing amazing or elegant about it. And then you see something like X-Wing, the miniatures game that has this incredible movement mechanic where you have the secret little spinner, where you decide what move your ship is going to make, and everyone does that for all their ships. And then you reveal it, and they all just go everywhere in a way that fantastically recaptures the look and feel of the movies. And that’s just movement.

My all-time favourite game mechanic is the combat mechanic in a game called Silent Death, which it’s about space fighters shooting it out. Every gun system in the game rolls three dice, and two of those dice are determined by what that gun system is, and one of those dice is determined by the gunner. Like the gunner’s skill, you might have a gun skill, but a gunner with a D8. So you roll two D6 and a D8. And what’s really beautiful about it is you roll those three dice and add them together to see if you hit. But then you look at the dice a different way to determine how much damage is done. So a gun might have a damage level of medium. So you’d roll the three dice, and you’d find the medium die, and that would be the damage done.

And that idea of one die roll serving multiple functions has been hugely influential to me. Obviously, you see it in basically all my games. So Frostgrave has that same idea of making one die roll determine who wins and how much damage is done. And Silver Bayonet has that as well.

So, yeah, that’s a biggie. But there are just so many. I love the way power works in Marvel Crisis Protocol. I love how, as things happen through the game and as a figure gets hit, it can actually gain power. And thus, by having something bad happen to it, it is also given the potential to do more things. And that’s just a beautifully elegant balancing mechanism within the game. But also, again, it really captures the flavour of what they were trying to mimic in that game of superheroes beating each other up. And in all honesty, I could just go on and on. These things are like little bits of art to me, so I do collect them.

Full interview with Joe McCullough

What’s your favourite miniature gaming mechanic? Leave a voicemail and let me know. It might make it onto a future episode of the podcast!

How can a “one mini each” pub table game keep things dynamic, and not regress into a sterile dice rolling exercise?

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I’ve always been fascinated with the question of “How small could this be?” when it comes to miniature games. In particular, I like the idea of a system where both players control a single miniature each. The reasons for this would need to fit your own preferred sandbox, but an obvious setting would be some sort of gladiatorial or arena combat.

Anyway, the problem, as far as I can see it, with 1v1 games (with the essential caveat that I’m not a games designer) is that the miniatures could simply become an aesthetic, rather than an integral part of the game. If you think about it, it’s likely that they’ll either both find static positions to take cover and shoot from, or, get into hand-to-hand and remain there. In both examples, these become dice-rolling exercises rather than dynamic tabletop experiences.

After a while, I stopped giving the idea any more thought. Then, I had a bit of an out-the-blue lightbulb moment when reading John Lamshead’s brilliant Sci-Fi Skirmish Scenarios.

In the book, John details a scenario where two warbands are trying to catch a drone. The drone is controlled by the game’s AI and is essentially bouncing around like a tennis ball, rebounding off the edges of the table, mat, or playing area.

I thought it was a nice idea, and that there was potential for a mechanic like this to exist that would actually do harm to the miniatures. For example, could it be a drone with whirring blades, a ball of malevolent magic, or some sort of slaver with a range weapon taking aim for a pop at a combatant?

Immediately, this would solve the problem of players keeping their minis in the same place. Their miniatures would need to stay mobile and break from bouts of melee combat regularly to risk being killed. From a cinematic point of view, you might also see a stronger or healthier character trying to hold an opponent in place to use this non-player weapon against them.

As discussed in my musings (ramblings?) on narrative solo and co-op wargaming, fighting the conditions, table, or game can often throw up more interesting situations than a “kill all the other guys” approach.

Back to this concept, though, it’s not necessarily about having whatever tennis ball-style weapon that fits your setting bouncing around the table. It’s about both players having a reason not to stay in one place for long. And that could apply to the entire playing area.

Maybe the arena is built on some sort of irradiated ground, electrically charged sheeting, or enchanted with a dark and cruel magic. Whatever the reason, it might mean that miniatures remaining static for more than one turn take an attack roll at the level of a low or medium-strength weapon. Maybe they wouldn’t simply be hurt, either – what if they were blasted off in a random direction (and range) using a D20 as a scatter dice?

Once you start to give it some thought, there are so many ways turn a low model count game into something dynamic, frantic, and cinematic. It could even work as a solo game using one single miniature.

I’m writing about this idea while fresh in my head and purely from a “this could be fun to try” perspective. For all I know, such mechanics or systems might already exist in games I haven’t encountered before. And, if that’s the case, I’d love to hear more about them!

Feedback on Single Miniature & Arena Combat Game Ideas

Some feedback from the Discord community.

Dr Spork said, “My mind was drawn to thinking about Robot wars. The randomly activated hazards and the house robots make things more interesting than one on one battles.
Another aspect to consider is giving the combatants extra options/skills that provide some tactical options outside the simple punch or shoot. D&D has a bunch of stuff like this that could be cribbed to make the combat a bit more varied. Grappling, pushing opponents back, rapid fire pinning them down, that sort of stuff.”

Gibby said, “One ruleset for this that I found to be really clever is Red Sand, Blue Sky by 2 Hour Wargames. It’s a game about Roman Gladiators (complete with a campaign about being a Lanista and running a gladiator school, and a campaign where you play as a gladiator trying to survive to retirement). The coolest mechanic in it was each combatant begins with a certain number of dice, which are used to throw attacks or pull off various tricks and such. Thing is if you ever run out of dice, then your character is exhausted and drops to their knees, there to be at the mercy of the crowd (or Emperor). Plus, you could do stuff like kick sand into your opponent’s eyes and such.”

And William said, “Maybe Melee or it’s supplement ‘Wizard’? They are hex-based games with an emphasis on duelling”

Our recent survey asked which game or ruleset you spent the most time playing, planning for, or thinking about in 2023.

On the plus side, there were no patterns, which shows the diverse tastes of the community. On the downside, this makes it difficult to create any sort of meaningful headline or write-up around.

That said, folks were keen to get a flavour of the outcome, so I did what any lazy content creator would do and pumped the raw data into ChatGPT. Here’s what it came up with. (excuse any factual errors, which ChatGPT is always so keen to point out that it regularly makes)

Tabletop Triumphs and Miniature Marvels: A Year in Review and Anticipation for 2024

Introduction: As we bid farewell to the gaming adventures of 2023, let’s take a moment to reflect on the myriad tabletop games and miniature delights that captivated hobbyists throughout the year. From the battlefields of Warhammer to the creative chaos of Gaslands, the community shared their gaming triumphs and miniature marvels. In this blog post, we’ll explore the most played games, favored miniatures, and the highly anticipated releases that promise to shape the tabletop landscape in 2024.

Tabletop Triumphs: Most Played Games of 2023

1. Warhammer, Gaslands, 40k 2nd Ed: The triumvirate of Warhammer 6th edition, Gaslands, and 40k 2nd Edition dominated the gaming tables, offering diverse settings and strategic challenges.

2. Rebels and Patriots: Daniel Mersey’s Rebels and Patriots, part of the Rampant series, led players through historical conflicts, proving that the allure of historical wargaming remains strong.

3. Rogue Trader Supplements and More: Rogue Trader supplements, including Waargh the Orks and Freebooterz, captured the hearts of enthusiasts exploring the rich lore of Warhammer 40k.

4. Frostgrave, Dragon Rampant: Fantasy skirmishes thrived with Frostgrave and Dragon Rampant, providing immersive adventures in magical realms.

5. Stargrave, Necromunda: Space mercenaries and gritty gang wars were brought to life with Stargrave and Necromunda, offering players thrilling narratives in unique settings.

Honorable Mentions:

Several games received honorable mentions, from the quirky Space Weirdos to the classic Kill Team and the narrative richness of Rangers of Shadow Deep.

Miniature Marvels: Most Enjoyed Miniatures of 2023

1. Warlord Games, Gripping Beast: Warlord Games and Gripping Beast led the charge in providing top-notch miniatures for historical gaming enthusiasts.

2. Ramshackle Games, Warmonger/Wargames Foundry: Ramshackle Games’ imaginative creations and the vast range of wonders from Warmonger/Wargames Foundry captured the imagination of miniature painters.

3. Etsy 3D Prints, Stargrave: The accessibility of Etsy 3D prints and the thematic richness of Stargrave miniatures made them favorites among hobbyists.

4. Wyrd, Mezgike Miniatures, Oathsworn Miniatures: In the fantasy realm, Wyrd, Mezgike Miniatures, and Oathsworn Miniatures stood out for their exceptional designs.

Honorable Mentions:

Old School Miniatures, Anvil Industries, and Games Workshop’s classic models earned honorable mentions for their enduring appeal.

Anticipating 2024: Games and Rulesets to Watch

1. Hail Caesar: Hail Caesar promises to transport gamers to historical battlefields, offering a fresh perspective on ancient warfare.

2. Forager and Squad Weirdos: Forager, a Napoleonic skirmish game, and the anticipated Squad Weirdos are set to bring exciting new dynamics to the tabletop.

3. Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader, 1st Edition: A nostalgic journey awaits as Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader, 1st Edition, makes a triumphant return, inviting players to rediscover the roots of the iconic universe.

4. Dungeon Saga Origins and Full Spectrum Dominance: Dungeon Saga Origins brings new adventures to the tabletop, while Full Spectrum Dominance promises intense and immersive gameplay.

Honorable Mentions:

Outsiders/Notorious expansion, Frostgrave, Space Weirdos, and 15mm Pony Wars are among the eagerly awaited releases that promise to make 2024 a thrilling year for tabletop enthusiasts.

Conclusion: As we step into the unknown realms of 2024, the tabletop gaming community remains vibrant, fueled by the passion for strategic challenges, immersive narratives, and stunning miniatures. Whether you’re a seasoned wargamer or a newcomer to the hobby, the diverse array of games and miniatures ensures there’s something for everyone. Here’s to another year of epic battles, creative painting, and the joy of rolling those dice in the pursuit of tabletop triumphs!

The following scenario has been created for Song of Blades & Heroes, though it can be easily tweaked to fit any skirmish gaming system.

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The aim is to take on the role of a Chaos sorcerer who roams a small village, attempting to recruit as many allies as possible before a band of bounty hunters arrive to take him dead or alive.

As Thul’garr the Eldrich, a tentacle-faced servant of chaos, and his formidable bodyguard, Jarek the Damned, descended upon the remote hamlet of Middensbury, the forces of corruption drew nigh, veiled by the fading light of day.

Pursued by relentless bounty hunters, Thul’garr and Jarek had sought refuge in this unsuspecting outpost on the edge of the Empire. Their pursuers, driven by vengeance, gold, and the desire to extinguish the sinister influence Thul’garr embodied, drew closer with each passing day.

Thul’garr, a master of manipulation and cunning, had a plan as simple as it was sinister. He intended to exploit the villagers, to bind them unwittingly to his nefarious cause, using his dark, corrupted magic. In the throes of chaos, they would become both a shield and a weapon against his relentless pursuers.

Yet Thul’garr knew of a witch hunter’s presence in this region—a relentless and deadly foe dedicated to quelling chaos. Caution was his ally.

As twilight settled over the rustic roofs of the Middensbury hovels, the stage was set for a dark and insidious transformation. Thul’garr the Eldrich had arrived, ready to whisper forbidden incantations and weave the threads of corruption into the very soul of the settlement. Villagers went about their business, oblivious to the horrors that drew closer, the very essence of chaos beginning to infest their souls.

Under the guise of a charismatic leader, Thul’garr extolled the virtues of chaos and its transformative power. His words would sway some, whilst others would prove strong enough to resist. Maybe even to fight back.

But with each step, Thul’garr whispered the promise of power and the temptation of chaos. The air in Middensbury crackled with unspoken promise, as the dark priest extended his influence. And as the bounty hunters closed in on the village, Middensbury’s fate hung in the balance between chaos and order.

Chaos Player Objectives

• Try to convert as many allies as possible in six turns before the bounty hunters arrive.
• Watch out for the undercover witch hunter.
• Dark magic makes Thul’garr and Jarek appear normal to the villagers unless they become hostile to the pair.
• Hostile villagers will turn any other villagers within 6” hostile, too.

Converting Allies

1. Move into range of any villager and spend an action to attempt a conversion.
2. First, draw from a deck of villager cards. If you draw the joker, this villager is the undercover witch hunter and is now hostile. See suggested witch hunter rules below.
3. If any other card is drawn, roll to proceed with the spell.
4. Villagers have varying conversion difficulty. Roll a D20 and compare it with their split number. For example, 10/15.
5. On a roll of 1 to 9, Thul’garr has failed, and the villager is now hostile.
6. On a roll of 10 to 14, the spell is unstable, and you should roll on the Unstable Magic Conversion Table.
7. On a roll of 15-20, the spell is a full success, and the villager is now under Thul’garr’s control until they are killed. 

Unstable Magic Conversion Table (D20)

1, 2 – Villager Dies: The villager succumbs to the chaos or the stress of the situation and dies.

3, 4 – Villager Becomes Hostile: The villager’s encounter with chaos has driven them into a frenzy, and they become hostile to everyone, including your characters and other villagers.

5, 6 – Temporary Conversion: The villager converts to your side but only for a limited duration, lasting for D4 turns. Use their newfound allegiance wisely.

7, 8 – Villager Transforms into a Rat: The villager undergoes a bizarre transformation, turning into a rat. You gain control of this peculiar rat, which may have its uses in the future. One time outcome, re-roll this result in future.

9, 10 – Villager Transforms into a Chaos Spawn: The chaos taint within the villager fully emerges, transforming them into a chaos spawn under your control. Roll a D6 to determine the spawn’s Quality and another D6 to determine its Combat rating. One time outcome, re-roll this result in future.

11, 12 – Villager Enters a Trance: The villager enters a mysterious trance, revealing vital information about the situation or the surrounding area. They share this crucial knowledge with your characters before passing away. Reduce bounty hunters by D4. One time outcome, re-roll this result in future.

13 to 18 – Villager Fully Converts: The villager undergoes a moment of intense mental deliberation and fully converts to your side, becoming a valuable addition to your warband.

19, 20 – Villager Opens a Chaos Portal: In a chaotic twist, the villager somehow becomes a portal to the Realm of Chaos, inadvertently unleashing a greater daemon. Control the daemon, but be wary of its formidable powers. Pass a Quality test each turn, or the daemon will be hostile to the Chaos player. One time outcome, re-roll this result in future.

The Witch Hunter

There’s a possibility Thul’garr will attempt to convert a villager who’s an undercover witch hunter. Should this happen, here are some options for the impact on the game.

1. Reduce the number of turns until the bounty hunters arrive.
2. Increase the number of bounty hunters.
3. Turn another D6 number of villagers hostile to Thul’garr and Jarek.
4. Reduce Thul’garr’s stats or abilities.
5. Increase difficulty of conversion stats for all.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for improving this scenario, please let me know in the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast Discord Community!

Solo wargaming has been on my mind a lot recently. Playing with or against friends has so many obvious benefits and there’s no need to go into them here. But family, work, and a lack of human opponents can really limit your opportunities to roll some dice.

I’m not a vastly experienced wargamer. In fact, the range of games I’ve played is probably quite limited compared to most others. But, for what it’s worth, I consider Joe McCullough’s Rangers of Shadow Deep the gold standard of solo and co-op narrative wargaming. I also see his Perilous Dark book (predominantly created around Frostgrave) as something of a Bible in this area.

As much as I enjoy Joe’s games, I’m always keen to try out others, and my latest points of interest have been Brutal Quest and Planet 28, two titles by Mammoth Miniatures.

With an enjoyable solo sci-fi game of Planet 28 already under my belt, I’m now in the process of planning a narrative solo campaign for its fantasy alternative, Brutal Quest. I wanted to draw heavily from Rangers of Shadow Deep and Perilous Dark to make this complex, immersive, and challenging, even without the involvement of another human player.

With that in mind, I’ve gone about putting together this solo and co-op narrative campaigns guide. And, though it’s based around Brutal Quest, it’s easily transferable to any other gaming system.

Related reading: Random events for solo/co-op rank and flank battles.

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I’ve also spent the past few months tinkering with AI. I know some folks are, at best, suspicious of such technology, but, in my opinion, it has a lot of great potential to enhance solo and co-op narrative wargaming campaigns. I think you can liken AI to magic in any fantasy story – too much of it can be overwhelming, but, when used acutely and wisely, it offers a lot of benefits and advantages.

That said, I’m not someone who wants to bring the digital world into my analogue hobby, so I’d never be looking to use AI during my games. This is more about crafting ideas and narratives in the preparation and planning stages.

I also acknowledge that AI has its flaws. Every output it generates must come from somewhere, and there’s always a very real risk of plagiarism. Not that this guide is intended as a product for sale. It’s just something I’ve been putting together anyway as I plan my own narrative campaign.

I figured that others might enjoy and benefit from it, too, so I’m publishing it in the hope that it might help you add a few extra dimensions to your solo and co-op games. If you’d like to chat more about it offer any feedback, suggestions, or pointers, please join the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Discord, which is a brilliant community of enthusiastic and friendly hobbyists.  

For now, though, let’s crack on with building this campaign…

My Campaign Narrative

So, to my story, then. I’ll be setting it in the Warhammer World where I’ll aim to take a traditional RPG-style party of four (sorcerer, barbarian, dwarf, and ranger) on a journey from The Dark Lands, North through the World’s Edge Mountains, skirting around the edge of The Empire, and onwards to the Realm of Chaos itself.

They are in pursuit of an antagonist, and they’re not your typical band of do-gooder heroes.

• Zargul Fireweaver, a Hobgoblin Shaman
• Drakar Bloodtracker, a Hobgoblin Ranger
• Courtney Lovecraft, a Mutant Barbarian
• Xarzul Twobeards, a two-headed Chaos Dwarf

The antagonist is another Chaos Dwarf by the name of Balrik Flameforged, the estranged cousin of Twobeards, who betrayed an imprisoned him in The Dark Lands. The other three are also former prisoners and slaves of Flameforged, and each has their own personal desire for vengeance.

The campaign will pit the party against a diverse range of opponents in a wide variety of environments. There’s a real risk in situations like this where you feel like you’re repeating the exact same game only with a different set of miniatures and terrain on the table. This guide is an attempt to avoid that.

When creating examples for each of the sections in this guide, I’m going to use a scenario where the party face-off against Festerblade Rotsworn’s Nurgle worshipping warband. This includes Festerblade himself, a Chaos Warrior called Brother Rust, a daemon called Festemus, a Best of Nurgle called Festergrub, multiple bases of Nurglings, and several Plaguebearers.

Cards & Random Roll Tables

Cards and tables will play an integral role in this narrative campaign. I know these aren’t unique to Rangers of Shadow Deep and Frostgrave, but to me, they’re standout factors in both games. These can be used for anything, from treasure and clues, to plot points and major events.

Having a standard deck of cards where each card is assigned to a particular random event can keep games fresh and unique. And, having more cards than there are turns, means you don’t know exactly what’s going to be drawn or included.

With that all said, let’s kick on towards part one where we’ll look at scenarios and mission objectives in solo, co-op, and narrative wargaming campaigns.

Scenario & Mission Objectives

If you’re playing a solo or co-op game, then you won’t get a lot of mileage out of filling the table up with baddies and trying to kill them. Instead, think about what your characters need to achieve. The baddies or monsters are still there to try and stop them. But killing them all probably isn’t the big-picture goal.

In Perilous Dark, Joe McCullough uses the example of characters trying to destroy a statue, and coming up with some potential reasons for why said statue needs to be destroyed. He also talks about missions where players are tasked with collecting a certain number of artefacts or items.

Here, it can be as simple as looking at your terrain and miniature collection, deciding what you want to put on the table, and then creating a story (and objective) from that.

Narratives That Go Beyond Combat

Taking to AI for a moment, here are some examples of objectives that go beyond trying to out-kill a bunch of NPCs.

Retrieve the Artifact: Your party must secure a valuable artifact hidden on the battlefield and successfully escape with it.

Hold the Line: Defend a specific area or objective for a set number of rounds against waves of enemies to win.

Infiltration: Infiltrate the enemy camp, gather intelligence, and escape without being detected.

Sabotage: Destroy a critical enemy structure or weapon within a limited number of turns.

Rescue Mission: Locate and rescue a captive ally or important NPC while fending off enemy forces.

Race to the Finish: Your party must reach a specific location on the battlefield before the enemy does.

Diplomatic Solution: Negotiate with a neutral faction on the battlefield to gain their support or cooperation.

Escort Duty: Safely escort a vulnerable NPC or convoy from one side of the battlefield to the other.

Protect the VIP: Defend a high-value target within your party from assassination attempts.

Survival Challenge: Outlast a continuous onslaught of enemies for a specific duration without losing all party members.

Of course, these can offer a lot more fun (and meaning) when they are a small part of a bigger narrative campaign. For example, my own warband are trying to track down and kill the antagonist Balrik Flameforged. Therefore, each battle they fight should tie into that wider story.

Scenario Objectives & Outcomes

Going back to AI, I told it all about Festerblade Rotsworn’s Nurgle worshipping warband my party of antiheroes will be up against, as well as the general setting and layout of my terrain. I can then ask it to come up with some potential victory conditions.

Here’s what it offered me:

Claim the Moldering Banner: Festerblade Rotsworn’s banner, crafted from flayed human flesh, is a gruesome symbol of power. Your heroes believe that capturing this gruesome symbol could lead to clues about Balrik’s whereabouts.

Harness Nurgle’s Corruption: As your party pursues Balrik, they discover that he’s been tampering with the forces of Nurgle. Completing forbidden rituals or manipulating the taint’s energy can provide your heroes with the unholy strength needed to confront him. These rituals might uncover secrets related to Balrik’s plans.

Exploit the Valuable Captive: Rotsworn’s warband holds a captive who may hold knowledge of Balrik’s whereabouts. Your goal is to rescue this hostage and exploit their knowledge or worth to your advantage. Victory involves securing their cooperation or extracting valuable information.

Plunder the Plaguebearer Nests: Plaguebearer nests conceal tainted relics and artifacts. Your heroes must locate and loot these nests, seizing any valuable items for their gain. Winning requires plundering all the plaguebearer nests.

Disrupt the Chaos Portal: Rotsworn’s warband is attempting to open a rift to the Realm of Chaos in an effort to aid Balrik Flameforged’s escape. Reach the portal’s location and perform sinister rituals to bend its power to your will. Victory involves establishing mastery over the portal.

Seize the Forbidden Relic: A powerful relic hidden in the desolate terrain beckons your heroes. They believe that possessing this artifact could give them an advantage in the hunt for their nemesis.

Survive the Plague Wind: A noxious Plague Wind is sweeping across the battlefield, carrying deadly diseases. Your objective is to survive a set number of turns while dealing with the effects of the Plague Wind. You win by keeping all your heroes alive until the end.

I can then choose the one that appeals the most and dig for some more details about what success (or failure) could look like in this encounter. Let’s opt for “Exploit the Valuable Captive”.

“Your party has learned that Rotsworn’s warband holds a captive of significant value, whether it be a skilled artisan, a spy with crucial information, or someone with connections to your primary target, Balrik Flameforged. Your goal is to rescue this hostage and exploit their knowledge or worth to your advantage. Victory involves securing their cooperation or extracting valuable information.”

Potential Victory Conditions

Rescue and Extraction: The primary condition for victory is successfully rescuing the valuable captive from the clutches of Rotsworn’s warband. To achieve this, your warband must reach the location where the captive is held, confront any guards or obstacles, and escort the hostage to safety. Victory is yours if the captive is safely extracted by the end of the game.

Secure Cooperation: In addition to rescuing the captive, another path to victory is gaining their cooperation. This could involve persuading, convincing, or even intimidating the hostage into willingly aiding your warband. Victory is achieved if, by the end of the game, the captive is cooperative and provides valuable information, assistance, or services that will aid your campaign.

Interrogation and Intelligence: If your warband successfully captures and interrogates the valuable captive, you may obtain essential intelligence or secrets that can be used to your advantage in your quest to track down Balrik Flameforged. Victory is achieved if your warband successfully interrogates the captive and acquires valuable information.

Evasion and Escape: If Rotsworn’s warband becomes overwhelmed or incapacitated, and your warband manages to escape the battlefield with the valuable captive, it’s considered a victory. This outcome acknowledges that Rotsworn’s warband’s power and control over the hostage have been broken.

Limit Nurgle Influence: If your warband can disrupt Nurgle-themed rituals, actions, or spells aimed at corrupting or manipulating the captive, you may hinder Rotsworn’s warband’s influence over the hostage. Achieving a certain number of disruptions within the game may lead to victory, as it demonstrates your warband’s ability to protect the captive.

Clue Markers & Plot Points

In Perilous Dark, Joe McCullough talks a fair bit about treasure tokens and clue markers that can further an investigation, as well as a narrative. Let’s look at how such plot points might look within the “Exploit the Valuable Captive” scenario.

Captive’s Journal: Your party finds a bloodstained journal near a clue marker. It belongs to the captive and contains cryptic notes about Balrik Flameforged’s recent activities and connections to a hidden artifact. The journal hints at the artifact’s location.

Hidden Chamber: Investigating a clue marker reveals a concealed chamber beneath the battlefield. Inside, your party discovers an ancient tome filled with forbidden rituals. The captive’s knowledge of these dark arts could be exploited to your advantage.

Secret Meeting: A clue marker leads your party to a location where members of Rotsworn’s warband held a clandestine meeting. Intercepted documents detail a plan to ally with a different chaos faction, revealing potential weaknesses in the Rotsworn’s warband’s defenses.

Enchanted Shackles: Your characters find a set of peculiar shackles near a clue marker. These enchanted restraints were used to hold the captive. Upon inspection, your party realizes that these shackles could be repurposed to restrain a powerful enemy in the future.

Cryptic Map: Your party uncovers a torn map that seems to point to a hidden cache of valuable items. The captive’s information confirms that these items are essential for your campaign against Balrik Flameforged.

Traitorous Note: A note found at a clue marker suggests that a member of Rotsworn’s warband might be willing to betray their leader in exchange for safety. This information could be used to sow discord within the enemy ranks.

Random Event Cards

Now, we can add further flavour to the narrative and challenge to the gameplay with some random event cards.

Foul Stench: A putrid cloud of noxious gas engulfs the battlefield. All characters, including your own, suffer a -1 penalty to their Attack and Agility for the next turn as they struggle to endure the foul odor.

Pestilent Aura: Rotsworn’s warband’s presence exudes an aura of pestilence. Characters within 10cm of any Plaguebearer or Festemus must pass a Psyche test at the start of their turn or suffer 1 damage. Rotsworn’s warband members are immune to this effect.

Swarm of Nurglings: A horde of Nurglings erupts from the ground at a clue marker, obstructing your path. To pass, a character must defeat the Nurglings in combat. Victory allows you to proceed, but defeat results in a -1 Agility penalty.

Brother Rust’s Vengeance: Brother Rust, the Chaos Warrior, seeks vengeance against one of your characters. Randomly select a character; they are targeted by Brother Rust during his next activation, ignoring other targets if possible.

Festemus’ Pestilence: Festemus, the Daemon, releases a burst of pestilential energy. All characters within 10cm of Festemus must pass a Psyche test or become diseased, suffering -1 Agility until cured.

Nurgle’s Resilience: Rotsworn’s resilience is bolstered. All Nurgle followers gain +1 Melee for the next turn, making them even more challenging to defeat.

Plague Wind: A noxious cloud of pestilence sweeps across the battlefield. All characters must make a (P) roll. Failure results in suffering 1 damage for each point below the target number. Nurgle followers are immune.

Rotten Ground: The ground becomes treacherous as it turns to rot and decay. All characters moving through or standing on open ground suffer a -1 (A) penalty for one turn.

Nurgle’s Resilience: The Plaguebearers’ bodies become more resilient. They each gain +1 to their armor rolls for the next turn.

Plaguebearer Regeneration: Plaguebearers exhibit their unnatural vitality, restoring lost wounds. All Plaguebearers recover 1D6 lost hit points.

Nurgle’s Blessing: Nurgle’s blessings bring despair to your warband. One random player-controlled character must make a break test. Failure results in that character losing 1 action point on their next turn.

Epidemic Outbreak: Nurgle’s diseases spread rapidly. Each character within 10cm of a Plaguebearer must make a break test. Failure results in suffering 1 damage for each point failed. Nurgle followers are immune.

Character Dynamics & Development

For any story to live and breathe on the tabletop, we need to see our miniatures as characters, rather than something akin to chess pieces. Being on the same side doesn’t guarantee that your characters get on. Some might even hate each other and see their alliance as nothing more than a temporary necessity. 

We can also use random events to give clues about a character’s backstory, or to add or limit certain character effects. 

A concept I’m drawn to, though, is one of individual personal objectives that exist alongside the overall scenario objective. Let’s dig up some options from our AI gaming buddy.

Personal Objectives

Zargul Fireweaver (Hobgoblin Shaman)

Blightbearer’s Curse: Zargul aims to weaken Rotsworn’s warband by placing a curse on one of the Plaguebearers, sapping its strength. His objective is to cast a debilitating curse on a Plaguebearer during the battle.

Drakar Bloodtracker (Hobgoblin Ranger)

Secure the Escape Route: Drakar is tasked with ensuring the group’s safe escape after extracting the captive. His objective is to locate and secure a viable escape route marked by a clue marker.

Courtney Lovecraft (Mutant Barbarian)

Engage Festemus in Battle: Courtney wishes to challenge Festemus, the Daemon, in combat to prove her strength. Her objective is to engage Festemus in melee combat and emerge victorious.

Xarzul Twobeards (Two-Headed Chaos Dwarf)

Gather Intelligence on Balrik: Xarzul seeks information on Balrik’s whereabouts and weaknesses. His objective is to gather intelligence from a clue marker regarding Balrik Flameforged’s location.

Internal Warband Dynamics

Now, let’s generate a character dynamics table that you can roll on, prior to playing a particular scenario.

Bitter Rivalry: Two characters in your warband have a long-standing feud. They refuse to work together and receive a -2 penalty to skill rolls when they are within 5cm of each other.

Unlikely Allies: Two characters who previously disliked each other have found common ground during a recent mission. They now receive a +2 bonus to skill rolls when they are within 5cm of each other.

Mentorship: One character takes another under their wing, providing guidance and training. The mentee may reroll one failed skill roll per turn while within 5cm of the mentor.

Hidden Affection: Two characters in your warband have developed romantic feelings for each other but are keeping it secret. If they fight alongside each other, they gain a +1 bonus to skill rolls.

Frenemies: Two characters have a love-hate relationship, often bickering but still working together effectively. They may reroll one failed skill roll per turn while within 5cm of each other.

Grudge: One character holds a grudge against another for a past mistake. When within 5cm of the target of their anger, they receive a +1 bonus to skill rolls but suffer a -1 penalty to (P) rolls.

Loyalty Test: A charismatic character challenges the loyalty of their comrades. All characters must make a (P) roll. Those who fail receive a -2 penalty to all skill rolls for the next turn.

Estranged Friends: Two characters who were once close friends have drifted apart. When they fight alongside each other, they suffer a -2 penalty to skill rolls.

Sacrifice: One character is willing to sacrifice themselves to save another. If they are in combat together, they can use their actions to protect the other character, but they cannot attack or move.

Sibling Rivalry: Two siblings in your warband are highly competitive. When they fight together, they gain a +2 bonus to (A) rolls but a -2 penalty to (P) rolls.

Shared Tragedy: Two characters share a painful past event that has brought them closer. If one of them is injured, the other gains a +2 bonus to skill rolls until the end of the turn.

Old Friends: Two characters have been friends for a long time. When they fight together, they gain a +1 bonus to all skill rolls and may share an action once per game.

Secret Admirer: One character secretly admires another from afar. If they are in combat together, they gain a +1 bonus to skill rolls, but the admired character has no knowledge of the admirer’s feelings.

Sibling Protection: An older sibling is highly protective of their younger sibling. They may use one of their actions each turn to protect the younger sibling, granting them a +1 bonus to (A) and (M) rolls.

Revenge Pact: Two characters have sworn vengeance against a common enemy. When they fight that enemy together, they gain a +2 bonus to skill rolls and may reroll one failed skill roll each.

Unwavering Loyalty: One character is unwaveringly loyal to another. If the loyal character is within 5cm of their chosen ally, they may use one of their actions to reroll a failed skill roll for that ally.

Jealousy: One character is envious of another’s success. When the successful character gains a reward, the jealous character must pass a (P) roll or become distracted, receiving a -2 penalty to skill rolls for one turn.

War Stories: Two characters enjoy sharing tales of their past exploits. When they’re near each other, they gain a +1 bonus to (P) rolls and a +1 bonus to break tests.

Ongoing Character Development

When playing a campaign, you’re going to want these dynamics carry over and evolve from game to game. It’s a good idea to implement a campaign system that tracks character development, interactions, and storylines. Here are some ideas:

Campaign Record Sheet: Create a campaign record sheet where players can track their warband’s progress, character relationships, and significant events. Include sections for each character’s name, traits, abilities, and any notable relationships.

Character Advancement: Characters should gain experience points (XP) or campaign points (CP) based on their performance in each game. These points can be used to improve skills, acquire new traits, or deepen relationships.

Relationship Points: Introduce a mechanic for tracking relationship points between characters. Positive interactions and teamwork during games can earn relationship points, while negative interactions or betrayals can lead to lost points.

Character Bonds: Encourage players to develop character bonds by creating backstory connections. For example, two characters might be childhood friends, siblings, rivals, or sworn protectors of each other. These bonds can provide bonuses or special abilities when characters are together.

Evolve Relationships: Allow character relationships to evolve over the course of the campaign. For instance, a rivalry might turn into mutual respect, or a secret admirer might eventually reveal their feelings. Let players role-play these changes during games.

Campaign Events: Introduce campaign-specific events or scenarios that focus on character development and relationships. For example, a scenario could revolve around resolving a conflict between two characters or helping two characters become closer friends.

Narrative Consequences: Make the narrative consequences of relationships more apparent. For instance, if two characters have a strong friendship, they might gain additional bravery or synergy during games. Conversely, a broken relationship could lead to penalties.

Character Arcs: Develop character arcs based on their relationships and backstories. Characters can have personal goals related to their connections with other members of the warband. Completing these goals can lead to character growth.

Events and Choices: Incorporate choices and events that impact character relationships. For example, a critical decision in one game might determine whether a rivalry intensifies or resolves in the next game.

Campaign Storyline: Weave an overarching campaign storyline that integrates character relationships and personal goals. Make sure that the narrative reflects the evolving dynamics within the warband.

Campaign Events Log: Keep a log of significant campaign events, including character interactions, rivalries, alliances, and any major storyline developments.

Relationship points

I liked the suggestion of creating a Relationship Points (RP) mechanic for narrative campaigns. This definitely has the potential to add depth and storytelling opportunities to our games.

I decided to ask the AI for a guide on how to implement and use an RP system in narrative campaigns:

Define the Purpose of Relationship Points

Determine what RP will represent in your campaign. RP can signify various aspects of character relationships, such as trust, friendship, rivalry, or even romantic interest. Decide whether RP will be a measure of positive or negative interactions between characters.

Establish Starting RP

At the beginning of the campaign, assign starting RP values to characters based on their backstories, bonds, or pre-existing relationships. This sets the foundation for how characters feel about each other at the campaign’s outset.

Determine RP Gain and Loss Conditions

Clearly define the conditions under which characters can gain or lose RP. Consider the following factors:

Successful teamwork and cooperation: Characters gain RP when they collaborate effectively during games.

Saving or protecting another character: Award RP for acts of selflessness or heroism.

Achieving shared objectives: Characters earn RP when they work together to accomplish goals.

Personal quests or favors: Completing a mission or assisting another character in their personal quest may result in RP gain.

Set RP Thresholds

Determine RP thresholds that trigger specific effects or consequences in the campaign. For example:

Crossing a certain RP threshold might solidify a friendship or create a lasting rivalry.

High RP between characters can unlock special abilities, bonuses, or unique scenarios.

Low RP might lead to distrust, conflicts, or personal quests to mend relationships.

Track RP

Create a campaign record sheet or digital tool to track RP between characters.

Implement RP Consequences

As RP values change, introduce consequences that reflect the evolving dynamics between characters. These can include:

Bonuses or penalties to skill rolls or combat effectiveness based on RP.

Personal quests or character-specific scenarios triggered by RP thresholds.

Role-played reactions and dialogue between characters during games.

Opportunities for characters to resolve conflicts or deepen their bonds in-game.

Campaign Progression

Let RP influence the overall campaign progression. For example, RP milestones could unlock new story elements, alter alliances within the warband, or affect the warband’s reputation in the game world.

Adapt and Evolve

Be flexible with your RP system. Allow it to evolve organically as characters grow and develop.

Implementing an RP mechanic in your narrative campaign adds a layer of storytelling and character development to your games. It encourages you to invest in their characters’ relationships and creates memorable, narrative-driven experiences.

Gaining or Losing Relationship Points

Continuing on with the Relationship Points system, here are some more in-depth examples of how a character may gain or lose them.

Gaining RP:

Rescuing a Teammate: A character saves another character from certain danger during a game, earning gratitude and trust. +2 RP.

Effective Teamwork: Characters consistently work together efficiently during battles and challenges. +1 RP per successful cooperation.

Completing a Personal Quest Together: Two characters assist each other in achieving their personal quests, deepening their bond. +3 RP.

Gift-Giving: One character gives another a thoughtful gift between games, symbolizing their friendship. +2 RP.

Losing RP:

Betrayal: A character betrays the trust of another by stealing, lying, or endangering them during a game. -3 RP.

Conflict and Disagreements: Characters frequently argue or disagree without resolving their issues. -1 RP per unresolved conflict.

Failure to Protect: A character fails to protect another during a dangerous situation, leading to resentment. -2 RP.

Selfish Actions: A character consistently prioritizes their own interests over the group’s well-being, leading to mistrust. -2 RP.

Failure to Fulfill Promises: A character repeatedly fails to follow through on promises or commitments made to another character. -2 RP.

Time limitation

Given enough time, a human player will usually get the better of their NPC opponents. So bringing in some time constraints is another dynamic we can add to the mix to keep things challenging and interesting.

Keeping in theme with this guide, we want to have some narrative reasons for time constraints. You can limit yourself to six or eight turns, but what’s the in-story reason for that hard stop? Not only that, but how can each turn be more challenging than the last, priming us for a frantic and desperate finish? Here are some examples designed for the Festerblade Rotsworn scenario:

Captive’s Degeneration: The captive’s condition deteriorates rapidly due to their exposure to foul energies. Your party must secure their cooperation or extract vital information within a set number of turns before the captive succumbs to the corruption. To make it more challenging, every few turns, the captive’s health worsens, reducing their ability to provide information effectively.

Festering Rift: A temporal rift has opened nearby, causing erratic time fluctuations. Every few turns, there’s a chance for a time warp event to occur. During these events, the scenario clock advances by two turns, forcing your party to expedite their objectives. Additionally, with each time warp, the battlefield becomes increasingly unstable, making movement and actions more challenging.

Festerblade’s Ritual: Festerblade Rotsworn is preparing a dark ritual with the potential to unleash a cataclysmic plague. Your party must complete their objectives and escape before Festerblade’s ritual is completed. Each turn, roll a dice, and if you roll a certain number, the ritual advances, increasing the urgency. As the ritual progresses, the battlefield becomes corrupted, making it harder for your party to move and act.

Nurgling Infestation: The nurglings accompanying Rotsworn’s warband are multiplying rapidly and spreading throughout the area. Your party must achieve their objectives within a limited number of turns before the nurglings become overwhelming. To make it more challenging, the nurglings’ numbers grow each turn, hindering your party’s actions and mobility.

Noxious Fog: A toxic, time-altering fog envelopes the battlefield. This fog will lift in a fixed number of turns, but until it does, your party is unable to achieve their objectives. To escalate the challenge, as the fog persists, it releases poisonous spores that damage and hinder your party, making each turn more perilous.

Enemy Effects or Generation

It’s likely that you’ll start any scenario with a set amount of NPC enemies on the table. The danger of more arriving will keep things challenging, interesting, and add to the time-sensitive nature of your mission.

Spawn points are a popular and easy way to do this. Clue or event markers might also reveal enemies as opposed to information or loot. Here are some ideas for bolstering the ranks of Festerblade Rotsworn’s warband:

Reinforcement Wave: At the start of every second or third turn, a reinforcement wave of Nurgle’s minions arrives from a specific edge of the battlefield. This could represent additional Plaguebearers, Nurglings, or other corrupted beings drawn to the conflict.

Summoning Circle: There’s a large summoning circle at the center of the battlefield. At the end of each turn, there’s a chance that Rotsworn’s  warband uses their dark rituals to summon more daemonic reinforcements. Roll a dice; on a specific result, new enemies appear at the summoning circle.

Corrupted Ground: Designate certain areas of the battlefield as corrupted ground. At the end of each turn, any unclaimed corrupted ground has a chance of spawning Nurglings or other foul creatures. Your party can purify or claim these areas to prevent further spawns.

Festerblade’s Standard: Festerblade Rotsworn carries a standard made of flayed human flesh. As long as he’s on the battlefield, the standard emits waves of dark energy that periodically summon additional Plaguebearers to his side. To stop this, your party must defeat Festerblade or capture the standard.

Captive’s Suffering: As the captive’s condition deteriorates, their suffering attracts the attention of Nurgle’s followers. At the end of each turn, there’s a chance that enemy reinforcements, eager to witness the captive’s torment, appear near their location. Speed up your efforts to rescue the hostage to prevent more enemy arrivals.

Noxious Eruptions: Mark specific terrain features as Noxious Eruption zones. At random intervals, these zones release bursts of toxic gas, spawning Nurglings or other minor daemonic entities. Your party can disable these zones or avoid them to prevent further spawns.

Rotting Remains: Scatter the battlefield with rotting corpse markers. At the end of each turn, there’s a chance that these corpses attract scavengers, which may include Plaguebearers or Nurglings. Your party can destroy the markers to deter scavengers from gathering.

Festemus’ Influence: Festemus, the daemon in the Rotsworn’s warband, exudes an aura that corrupts the area around him. At the end of each turn, this corruption has a chance of spawning additional Nurglings. Your party can confront Festemus to disrupt his corrupting influence.

Traps

It isn’t just living enemies who can hurt or kill your characters. Traps can be even more brutal in some instances. Here are some examples for my Nurgle warband encounter:

Toxic Fumes: Characters entering a cloud of toxic fumes must roll a D6. On a roll of 1-2, they take 1D6 damage from inhaling poisonous gases.

Blighted Puddles: Characters stepping into blighted puddles must roll a D6. On a roll of 1-3, they take 1D4 damage as their skin burns from corrosive liquid.

Nurgling Ambush: Characters ambushed by hidden Nurglings suffer 1D8 damage from their surprise attack.

Quicksand: Characters moving through a patch of quicksand must roll a D6. On a roll of 1, they get stuck and take 1D6 damage from the struggle.

Pestilent Fog: Characters passing through a pestilent fog bank must roll a D6. On a roll of 1-3, they become sickened, suffering a -1 penalty to all actions and skills for 1D4 turns.

Obstacles

Whilst traps can injure or even kill your characters, certain obstacles can slow them down, hinder their progress, and bog them down in some pretty grave situations:

Fetid Swamp: A deep and stinking swamp restricts movement. Characters must roll a D6 when entering the swamp. On a roll of 1-2, they become stuck and can only move half their normal distance for the next turn.

Contaminated Pools: Pools of foul, contaminated water hinder characters’ vision. Any character in or adjacent to these pools has their line of sight reduced to 5 cm, making ranged attacks less effective.

Nurgle’s Plague Totems: Enormous totems covered in grotesque Nurglings emit an aura that reduces characters’ agility by 2 cm if they end their turn within 10 cm of a totem. Destroying the totem removes this effect.

Pestilent Grounds: Certain areas of the battlefield are covered in pestilent ground. Characters moving through these areas must roll a D6. On a roll of 1-3, they become sickened, suffering a -1 penalty to all actions and skills for 1 turn.

Toxic Vapors: Noxious vapors rise from vents in the ground, obscuring vision and making it difficult to breathe. Any character in the path of these vents suffers a -1 penalty to agility and shooting actions for 1 turn.

Nurgle’s Bloated Corpses: Corpse-filled craters litter the battlefield. Characters moving through or near these craters risk disturbing the bloated corpses, releasing toxic gases that cause sickness (-1 penalty to skills and actions) for 1 turn.

Churning Miasma: A thick, churning miasma drifts across parts of the battlefield. Any character within it has their movement reduced by 2 cm and gains a -1 penalty to ranged attacks due to poor visibility.

Swarms of Flies: Swarms of plague flies cloud specific areas. Characters within the swarm are distracted, suffering a -1 penalty to ranged attacks and perception checks.

Weather & Conditions

Two final factors that can liven up solo or co-op games and create a memorable story are weather and conditions. In my opinion, these should only be used once per game, as the risk of dramatic changes from one turn to the next could get a bit silly. With that in mind, I’ll likely add one weather or condition card to my event deck, then roll on the following table if I draw one out during the game.

Clear Skies: The sun shines brightly, and the skies are clear. All ranged attacks gain a +1 bonus to hit.

Heavy Rain: A torrential downpour makes movement difficult. All characters’ speed is reduced by 3cm. Ranged attacks have a -2 penalty to hit.

Thick Fog: A dense fog rolls in, limiting visibility. All ranged attacks beyond 10cm suffer a -3 penalty to hit. Characters may not make shooting actions beyond 20cm.

Blinding Snowstorm: A fierce snowstorm engulfs the battlefield. All ranged attacks suffer a -2 penalty to hit. Characters must make a (A) roll to navigate through the blizzard; failure results in them being disoriented for one turn.

Gale Force Winds: Powerful winds sweep across the battlefield. All ranged attacks suffer a -1 penalty to hit, and any flying characters or creatures are grounded for one turn.

Eerie Silence: An unsettling silence falls over the battlefield. All characters’ skills are reduced by 1 for one turn as they feel an eerie presence.

Electromagnetic Storm: A strange storm disrupts technology and magic. All characters’ abilities and spells require a successful (P) roll to activate. Failed rolls result in the loss of an action.

Swampy Terrain: The ground becomes a treacherous swamp. All characters’ speed is reduced by 4cm, and movement through swampy terrain requires a (A) roll to avoid getting stuck.

Mystic Aura: A mystical aura surrounds the battlefield. All characters gain a +1 bonus to (P) rolls for spells, abilities, and break tests for one turn.

Supernatural Eclipse: A rare supernatural eclipse darkens the sky. All characters’ abilities and spells cost one less action point to use during the turn.

Winds of Magic: A surge of magical energy fills the air. All spellcasters gain a +2 bonus to (P) rolls for spells with no risk of mind death for failed rolls.

Volcanic Ash Cloud: A volcanic eruption blankets the battlefield in ash and darkness. All ranged attacks suffer a -3 penalty to hit, and all characters take 1 damage at the start of their turn from inhaling ash.

Swarm of Insects: A massive swarm of biting insects descends upon the battlefield. All characters suffer a -2 penalty to (A) rolls and a -1 penalty to (P) rolls for spells and abilities for one turn.

Earthquake: The ground trembles and shakes violently. All characters must make an immediate (A) roll or be knocked prone, losing their action for the turn. Terrain features may collapse, creating new obstacles.

Aurora Borealis: A dazzling display of colorful lights fills the night sky. All characters gain a +2 bonus to (P) rolls for spells and abilities for one turn, and ranged attacks receive a +1 bonus to hit.

I also recently generated these weather and condition events for games in the Chaos wastes and Cosmic Horror HP Lovecraft-style settings. As you can imagine, they stretch a bit more into the realms of the fantastical.

Summary: Solo, Co-op, & Narrative Wargaming Campaigns

As I mentioned at the start, I’m using Brutal Quest as my game system of choice, but this is all easily transferable to any other miniature wargame in any other genre.

I know there’s a tonne of info in this guide: all of it is hypothetical and designed to get your creative juices flowing. I also don’t advise trying to cram all of it into a single game at once, I think that might become a bit overwhelming. I intend to cherry pick bits and pieces at a time, testing them out as I go. But the game still needs room to breathe, and there’s a definite risk you can overdo all of this if you’re not careful.

If you try anything here out, adapt it for your own narratives, or have suggestions or feedback, please join the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast Discord, which is a brilliant community of enthusiastic and friendly hobbyists. It’d be great to see you in there!