Zornhau Forums

I have been publicly designing my setting, factions and the adventure in another thread. While it has been fun and useful (and I will continue to do so as things progress) I would also like to hear what kind of stories the rest of you have been planning to tell using Band of Bastards. In case of devs, what kind of games you have played with these rules?

I'm not sure - I'd actually like to run something along the lines of age of sail piracy, but I'm not sure if this game is likely to support ship to ship combat, or even how it would.

Actually, I do have an idea - this probably isn't the thread for it, so I'll create a new one in the rules board...

Like I wrote in that other thread, naval combat might feature later on in my game, too. As I am watching Black Sails (season 2) as soon as the new episode is released I, too am pretty stoked about pirates games.

Confession:
After the beta nonsense is resolved and we're in a more or less final build of the game, I fully intend to start a new home campaign based in Age of Sail shenanigans. I've got a pirate fetish twenty-years running. And yes, I liked Black Sails.

I suspect even if the "official" naval rules are a supplement, I'll be musing on my own experiences and concoctions here and on my blog when the time comes.

Oh, nice... Three requests for the naval rules. Better make that four...

higgins wrote:Oh, nice... Three requests for the naval rules. Better make that four...

Ships seem to be fairly popular. Fortunately, I don't think it would take a whole lot in terms of rules.

The basic dynamic of ship combat is "who has a better position on whom" which we actually model fairly well already between our Full Contest and Skirmish systems. The thing that would take some doing is creating proper Codices to model and create different ships, which is less of an issue of mechanics as much as it is research.

I could theoretically create a Codex for it tonight, but without the research, the results generated would be arbitrary and a-historical. If we are putting our name on a ship system, we want to take the time to research and do it properly.

Marras wrote:I have been publicly designing my setting, factions and the adventure in another thread. While it has been fun and useful (and I will continue to do so as things progress) I would also like to hear what kind of stories the rest of you have been planning to tell using Band of Bastards. In case of devs, what kind of games you have played with these rules?

Double-posting like a bastard, mostly because I realized that we've turned this into a discussion of "how awesome are ships" rather than even approaching the answer to this question. Since I don't want to let the original topic be subverted and buried, I'm boldly reposting.

Higgins and I did a ton of play-by-post combat testing on a private forum we set up long before we set any of this up. It wound up forming the basis of an impromptu play-by-post thing, where certain recurring example characters have come from. Jaff the Knave being among them.

I know Mr. Higgins actually wound up initially testing much of the rules by playing a Fallout-style post apocalyptic future campaign, of all things. If our ranged combat and skirmishing system feels like there's a tactical aspect, that's probably part of why. Much of that was designed from the ground up to be compatible with "but what if I want to use assault rifles?"

My own experiments have been in a 9th century viking setting, a proper renaissance "den of thieves" setup, and probably most amusing - trying to run an old AD&D module with our rules. It turns out a handful of kobolds are terrifying when you're playing a system where a single spear thrust can be your end. Having actually played that very module a few years prior with a D&D group, it was really interesting to see how different the players had to approach things using 'Bastards instead of AD&D.

That said, I yield the floor to the original question: what do you guys plan to run?

That's why I created a separate thread for it .

Funnily enough, if you play them intelligently, kobolds are pretty damn scary in AD&D too...

Agamemnon wrote:Higgins actually wound up initially testing much of the rules by playing a Fallout-style post apocalyptic future campaign, of all things.

Well, yes, I was about to confess that here, haha. Incidentally, it means that our modern firearm rules are pretty squared away. We've yet to outline a product to use them in though.

higgins wrote:

Agamemnon wrote:Higgins actually wound up initially testing much of the rules by playing a Fallout-style post apocalyptic future campaign, of all things.

Well, yes, I was about to confess that here, haha. Incidentally, it means that our modern firearm rules are pretty squared away. We've yet to outline a product to use them in though.

A 1940s gangster supplement, perhaps?

hector wrote:

higgins wrote:

Agamemnon wrote:Higgins actually wound up initially testing much of the rules by playing a Fallout-style post apocalyptic future campaign, of all things.

Well, yes, I was about to confess that here, haha. Incidentally, it means that our modern firearm rules are pretty squared away. We've yet to outline a product to use them in though.

A 1940s gangster supplement, perhaps?

I'm weirdly tempted towards writing a western, myself. Though if the purpose of the supplement is to provide a template for modern firearms we should probably set it in a place where full auto and three round burst is a thing.

Western works - the band might get the opportunity to steal a gatling gun from somewhere ...

Sounds interesting, thanks for sharing!

Compatibility with modern firearms is a really big plus in my books

I have a bit weird relationship with westerns as I like many western movies but for some reason I don't know how to run a western game.

If you are not willing to go for full modern/near future setting then maybe just prior WWI like in Corto Maltese stories.

Marras wrote: ... maybe just prior WWI like in Corto Maltese stories.

Seems that every time I look here, I find something that I need to go and investigate...

Arrow Odd wrote:

Marras wrote: ... maybe just prior WWI like in Corto Maltese stories.

Seems that every time I look here, I find something that I need to go and investigate...

This forum does seem to be a haven of eclectic resources.