Missing Scout Party

This is our first attempt at using the Nightwatch fantasy rules for a game. Nightwatch is from the same author as Hardwired (which we've been playing a lot recently). Nightwatch employs very similar mechanics to Hardwired but is obviously designed for the Fantasy genre.

 

There is a campaign defined in the book, but we decided to try an introductory game first. We rolled a d10 for the mission type and got a 'Scout' mission. To add a bit of flavour, I used this card from a recent Kickstarter.

 

A scroll has been posted on a noticeboard in the town square.

Our pact (group of characters) decided to investigate. The pact comprised of Gandwarf (Mancer e.g. Wizard), Freddo the Halfling (Alchemist), Legolan (Tracker) and Gimme (Blades).

 

Our pact arrived at the last reported site of the missing foresters.  Being a 'Scout' mission we had to scout out the four corners of the table (in our case, the four tokens).

Characters get 3 actions (success is +4 on a d6, d8 & d10) plus a free movement action. Enemies deploy at the end of the turn at one of four deployment points.

Gandwarf decided to head towards one of  tokens the furthest away. Passing all his actions, he moved a massive 24" across the table.

Freddo headed to the nearest objective and successfully investigated it.

"I have spells and shit!"

At the end of Turn 1, the enemies deployed. Bad dice rolling led to them all deploying nearest to Gandwarf.

Gandwarf cast 'Superior Arcane Evasion' on himself. This allowed him to teleport 6" away. He then used his remaining actions to cast multiple 'Superior Mage Bolts' to eliminate the zombies.

Elsewhere, Freddo engaged the remaining zombie in melee, striking him down with his blade and Legolan investigated another objective.

At the end of Turn 2, more zombies appeared. This time some deployed near Legolan and promptly engaged him in melee. Unfortunately, Legolan suffered a wound in the fight.

Gimme made it to another objective, whilst more zombies attacked Gandwarf.

At the start of Turn 3, Freddo grabbed the last remaining objective. So strictly speaking, we had achieved the goal of the Scout mission. Job done.

Feeling somewhat unsatisfied and having time, we then decided that we had to get the Pact back to their starting point.

Gandwarf and Legolan managed to eliminate more zombies. Gimme, having the most to move headed off, only to roll badly and end up not to far away from an enemy deployment point.

Sure enough, at the end of the turn, more zombies deployed within movement range of Gimme. The dwarf warrior was in trouble.

"Uh oh"

At the beginning of Turn 4, seeing the trouble that Gimme was in, both Gandwarf and Freddo sped to his rescue.

Having fought off the first round of zombies, Gimme then faced another 3 zombies.

At the end of Turn 4, more zombies spawned and Freddo found himself in trouble.

In Turn 5 and the zombies started to swarm around Freddo and Gandwarf. With Legolan standing on the sidelines, shooting and missing, it was time for Gandwarf to step up!

In the best Sir Ian McKellen voice, Gandwarf started throwing 'Mage Bolts' and 'Elemental Fury' on the encroaching zombies and skeletons.

Gimme was still in trouble though!

In turn 6, Gandwarf managed to rescue the dwarf warrior from his plight.

As the Pact withdrew to the exit point, both Gandwarf and Freddo used their respective skills to provide a smokescreen.

The camp is overrun

So, officially the game finished in Turn 3, when the fourth and final objective token was investigated. However, the real fun was had when decided to extend the scenario. Lots of close fights between our Pact and the enemy. Gandwarf did suitably wizardly type things and surprisingly Legolan and Gimme proved to be very ineffectual.

Gandwarf managed to cast 7 spells and Freddo used 7 of his 13 alchemical items.

Freddo just pipped Gandwarf in the killing stakes. The Halfling killed 14 enemies, Gandwarf killed 13 enemies, Legolan killed 5 and Gimme killed 4.

Returning to the Mercado, those kills translated into 39 silver for Gandwarf, 42 silver for Freddo, 15 for Legolan and 12 for Gimme. Additionally, the Pact retrieved the artefact Osric's Rage. This was promptly sold for silver coinage.

The Pact purchased 3 Tokens from the Mercado, giving the 'Token of Sagacity' to Gandwarf, 'Token of Guile' to Gimme and 'Token of Protection' to Legolan. Additionally, 2 d8 hirelings (1 Melee & 1 Ranged) were hired. This left 174 silver in the Pact purse.