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    Frostgrave: Perilous Dark
    Frostgrave: Perilous Dark
    Frostgrave: Perilous Dark
    Ebook153 pages1 hour

    Frostgrave: Perilous Dark

    By Joseph A. McCullough, Dmitry Burmak and Kate Burmak

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    About this ebook

    There are many tales of the Frozen City, and not all of them tell of battles between rival wizards. Often, the greatest adventures are those that pit a wizard and his trusty warband against the myriad perils found amidst the ruins of Felstad.

    This new supplement for Frostgrave presents rules for playing solo and cooperative games in which the focus shifts from the feuds of wizards to exploring the city, unlocking its mysteries… and surviving what is discovered. With guidelines for scaling game difficulty, dungeon crawls, monster generation, and more, as well as ten scenarios demonstrating these options, this volume offers players everything they need to venture alone – or with allies – into Frostgrave.

    Why should wizards fight amongst themselves? There is plenty of treasure for all and the Frozen City is enemy enough!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateOct 31, 2019
    ISBN9781472834607
    Frostgrave: Perilous Dark
    Author

    Joseph A. McCullough

    Joseph A. McCullough's first brush with writing for games was as co-author of The Grey Mountains supplement for the Middle-Earth Role-Playing Game, and he has remained passionate about Fantasy gaming since, going on to become an award-winning game designer. He is the creator of the “Frostgrave Family” of skirmish wargames (the Fantasy titles Frostgrave, Ghost Archipelago, Rangers of Shadow Deep, and the Sci-Fi evolution, Stargrave) and of the Oathmark Fantasy battle game and The Silver Bayonet, a game of Napoleonic Gothic Horror. The latest information on his game design and other writing can be found at: josephamccullough.com.

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      Book preview

      Frostgrave - Joseph A. McCullough

      CONTENTS

      Introduction

      The Basics

      Getting Started

      Objectives

      Level of Difficulty

      Creatures

      Spells

      The Basics – Summary

      Chapter One: Limited Time, Unlimited Monsters

      Methods of Time Limitation

      Monster Spawning

      Scenario One: Writhing Fumes

      Scenario Two: Isher’s Weapon Shop

      Scenario Three: The Dog Days

      Chapter Two: Traps and Obstacles

      Traps

      Obstacles

      Scenario Four: The Reavers’ Crypt

      Scenario Five: The Warrens

      Scenario Six: Hunting Ground

      Chapter Three: The Unknown

      Clue Markers

      Room Cards

      Scenario Seven: The Doorway

      Scenario Eight: Fire and Ash

      Chapter Four: Dungeon Crawls

      Dungeon Cards

      The Randomly Generated Dungeon

      Scenario Nine: The Vaults

      Scenario Ten: Dungeons Deep

      New Treasure

      Bestiary

      Ballista II

      Borock

      Chronohound

      Hellcrow

      Magmite

      Manaworm

      Matriarch

      Planar Lurker

      Reaver Wight

      Vapour Snake

      INTRODUCTION

      Soon after the Frostgrave rulebook was released, I wrote a three-scenario campaign called Dark Alchemy that was designed to be played either solo or cooperatively. To this day, it remains one of the most popular additions to the game. Despite this, I never followed up on it. I wrote the occasional solo scenario for magazines articles, but I never attempted to write a full-set of solo rules for the game. Solo scenarios are much more difficult to design than player-vs-player scenarios, and, at the time, I just didn’t feel ready.

      Over the last three years I have gained tremendous amounts of experience in writing wargames rules. I reworked Frostgrave into a new setting with a new kind of protagonist (Ghost Archipelago), I designed a set of mass-battle rules (the forthcoming Oathmark), and I even designed a wargame created to be played solo or cooperatively (Rangers of Shadow Deep). During all this work, I have learned many new techniques and methods for both designing and playing wargames and have been able to experiment with numerous scenario mechanics to see what works and what doesn’t. Most importantly, I have gained a great deal of confidence in my own ability to write rules and design scenarios. This greater confidence led directly to the writing of this book.

      Whenever I sit down and start planning the next Frostgrave expansion, I ask myself a question: ‘How is this book going to be different?’ It would be easy to write a book that included nothing more than new scenarios, monsters, and treasure, and I daresay that many people would be happy enough to have it. But if I took this approach, I would very quickly grow bored. To keep my own interest in the game, I need to always be pushing forward, trying new things. I want to make sure that each book gives players something new – something that changes or enhances the game experience or helps players to use their own creativity. To that end, I decided that this book would be different from any that have gone before it in two ways. First, all the scenarios in the book would be designed to be played by either one player on their own or by two players working together. Second, instead of just presenting new rules and scenarios, the book will discuss the different techniques that can be employed when creating these kinds of scenarios, in order to aid players in designing their own. So, really, it is part expansion and part ‘how-to’ guide.

      This book also includes rules for ‘dungeon crawls’, with randomly created dungeons. This style of gaming, where a party of heroes ventures deep underground on the hunt for treasure, dates back to the original Dungeons & Dragons. Such a set-up never really worked for Frostgrave while it was a competitive game, but for the solo or cooperative gamer, it can be a load of fun – the ultimate exploration of the unknown. It is also an incredibly random, open-ended, and potentially lethal style of game. I suppose, though, that’s what being a wizard in Frostgrave is all about.

      This book also differs from any that have gone before it in one other, minor way. This is the first Frostgrave book where I have written the introduction first. In every other book, I have saved the introduction for last as I was never quite sure what the finished product was going to contain until I had written it. This time, I mapped out the book in advance. I’m sure that there will be changes and unexpected additions as I go along – this is the joy of the creative process – but with the idea of what I want to accomplish so clear in my head, I decided to first write this introduction to help establish the road I want to travel.

      Even more than the books that have preceded it, Perilous Dark should be viewed as a toolbox. Players should take what they want from this book, use it in whatever fashion brings them the most fun, and discard anything that doesn’t fit with their style of gaming. One of the best parts about playing solo is that you aren’t beholden to anyone else for which rules you choose to use, or those you choose to ignore. You are completely free to create, and play, in any style you wish.

      One thing that this book is not is exhaustive. I am sure there are numerous solo and cooperative techniques that I haven’t covered or even considered. If you have developed some new rules, or come up with some great scenarios, please consider sharing them with the rest of us. There is an extremely active online Frostgrave community, centred around the Frostgrave: Fantasy Wargames in the Frozen City Facebook group, the Frostgrave forum on Reddit, and the Frostgrave page on the Lead Adventure Forum. Please check them out and share your thoughts, games, terrain, and warbands. Even when playing solo, it is nice to have other gamers to talk to!

      As always, if you want to keep up with me, my various writing projects, and what is coming up for Frostgrave, you can find me at therenaissancetroll.blogspot.com.

      THE BASICS

      Just so everyone is on the same page, I thought it wise to define what I mean by solo and cooperative play as it relates to Frostgrave in general and this book in particular. When playing solo, players take their full warband as they would for a normal competitive game and pit them against the challenges of a specific scenario. ‘Cooperative’ refers specifically to two players working together. In this case, both players should take their wizard and up to four soldiers from their permanent warband – the idea being that the two players will together field the same number of figures as a solo player. This keeps the table from getting too crowded and means that the scenarios can generally be run either solo or cooperatively with only a few changes. That said, with two wizards, likely from different schools, as well as the pick of their best soldiers, cooperative players will have more capabilities and potential power than the solo player. For that reason, all the scenarios presented in this book are intended for solo play, but also have a ‘Cooperative Modifications’ section that typically makes the scenario just that little bit harder.

      While there is no specific reason that Frostgrave cannot be played cooperatively by three or more players, each additional player, and the diverse capabilities that each new wizard brings, means that it becomes increasingly difficult to balance the scenario versus the players. I have not attempted this balance for the scenarios in this book, but if players have a larger play-group, they are encouraged to do so on their own.

      GETTING STARTED

      If you are going to start a new campaign that you intend to play solo, you should follow the wizard and warband creation rules found in the Frostgrave rulebook. This way, you will be able to use this warband for any game – solo, cooperative, or player-vs-player – and you can even switch between the different modes of playing using the same warband.

      If you are starting a new campaign and intending to mainly play cooperatively, you should do things a little bit differently. If you create a warband in the normal way, there is no incentive to buy

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