Monster Siege!

[Gold Bearer]

I've adapted my death match p-b-p idea that nobody was interest in. I need 4-6 other players to control a group of four monster type characters. I think the main reason was that people didn't like the idea of hero type characters in competition with each other, so I've switched it round to rival groups of monsters attacking some kind of settlement. In the first one (if it even gets that far) will be an imperial settlement. There could be others using other monsters later on.

I'll probably use random movement dice for these monsters with set movement for the imperial force (in the spirit of switching round). S is speed, 4 = roll one dice, 6 = the highest of two, 8 = two dice, 10 = the highest two of three, 12 = three dice. The standard enemies will be the men-at-arms with the additions of spearmen and bowmen, Elven spearmen and bowmen and Dwarven axemen and crossbowmen as the fodder. The basic idea will be to fight your way to the centre to retrieve some kind of artefact and get it back to where you started (a bit like a cross between Space Crusade gameplay and capture the flag). They'll also be some the heroes I've created with better versions (veterans, masters and legends) as you get closer to the centre. It will give me a chance to test them out and with these monster stats there's going to need to be quality hero level opposition.

From the chaos deck I've taken out the spells that have spells with the same name in other sets to avoid confusion, the ones the good guys can have and the spells that are in the element decks. The listed for the chaos warlock are what was left after I gave the vampire his three. Monsters will still defend with black shields and the good guys with white shields.

I'd like to use a city type board for this but I'm not sure what's possible in p-b-p. I could use the standard boards joined together like in the dark company if not. This could be a lot of fun. Here are the monsters. They might still need a bit of balancing, they're supposed to be roughly as effective as each other. Comments, suggestions, and especially players are very welcome. What do you think?


Green

Goblin Fanatic
M10 A6 D1 BP2 MP1 - At the start your turn roll a combat dice, skull = attack a the closest enemy, black shield = attack the closest target.

Fimir
M6 A3 D3 BP3 MP3

Orc Warlord
M8 A4 D4 BP5 MP3 - Can attack with two melee weapons in the same turn without penalty and can attack before and after moving.

Orc Shaman
M8 A2 D2 BP5 MP7 - L2M WoM spells.

Mercenaries: Goblins, Orcs.


White

Zombie
M4 A2 D3 BP2 MP0

Wight
M6 A3 D3 BP3 MP3 - Wight Blade (D3 damage).

Mummy Tomb Lord
M6 A5 D6 BP5 MP4 - L0M Chill Touch.

Necromancer
M6 A1 D3 BP5 MP7 - L2M WoM spells.

Mercenaries: Skeletons, Mummies.


Grey

Chaos Warlock
M8 A3 D4 BP1 MP5 - L2M Six random chaos spells.

Chaos Sorcerer
M6 A4 D5 BP3 MP8 - L2M Two of each AtOH spells.

Chaos Warrior
M4 A3 D4 BP4 MP3

Gargoyle
M6 A4 D4 BP5 MP4

Mercenaries: Elven Warrior, Elven Archer.


Blue

Ogre Warrior
M6 A5 D5 BP5 MP1

High Mage
M6 A2 D2 BP5 MP8 - L2M WoM spells.

Storm Master
M6 A3 D2 BP5 MP6 - L2M WoM spells.

Mercenaries: Giant Wolf, Ogre Shaman (M6 A4 D4 BP3 MP3 L1M Three random chaos spells.)

[Daedalus]

The monster twist is a cool angle to try out. Some suggestions, take 'em or leave 'em:

I'm just speculating, but if you worked up a Hero Scribe map of a section of the town and some Monster Cards for the players, perhaps it would serve as a draw. Some of the PBP threads have gotten very creative in display information.

Also, I think it would be a good idea to repost here the necessary Death Match rules that apply to Monster Siege!, as it has been a while. Shorter posts=more readers, so I'd say edit down the repost as much as possible. You're looking for a pool of players, so you'll need to make some compromises. Most HQ players prefer the familiar, simple gameplay over a set of new houserules. Switching most of the Hero rules to yourself is a good idea, so I think you can save a lot of space here only posting what monster players need to know. A briefer summary of what to expect from Heroes should be sufficient to get play started.

From our experience of play in the Melee Tournament, I'd be ready for players to team up whenever possible against the "good" common opposition. Hero Quest is normally a cooperative endeavor for the players, so they are rewarded by sharing BP resources through unspoken alliances.

My opinion is PBP can can drawn out over time with all the delays. For that reason, I'd say a single board with players starting in each quadrant would be preferable to four boards combined. It would be clearer to post, and it would also bring about a resolution while interest is still strong--this isn't a Twilight Imperium board. If you have more you want to test out, you could continue the campaign on a new board with either a fresh Monster Seige! or link it like The Dark Company.

Knocking out Heroes with white shields should prove time consuming, as Melee Tournament has shown. In contrast, monster players throwing black dice should be expected to burn through thier rosters more quickly. I think it should prove helpful to playtest some combats at home to get a sense of the pacing, if you haven't already.

[Gold Bearer]

Thanks for the feedback. This has taken I back seat at the moment due to lack of interest but I haven't given upon the idea. I plan on writing a better description and posting a map as you said. I'm also going to add two more teams for people to choose from. They'll be a three more skavin characters for a team of their own, people like skavin. I can't remember the other team, I've got notes somewhere.

The monsters are very simple to use, all their rules fit on one short line with the exception of the goblin fanatic, he should be fun. They'll see the hero rules (or at least a brief summary of the basics of what they can do) as and when they encounter them. I might have to include some kind of reward incentive for the monster factions to attack each other.

I think a single board would be too small for this. It would be a bloodbath with very little room for tactical manoeuvre. I still want there to be an exploration element as well. With four or more boards there's also more room for different approaches like letting others go for the central regions with tougher opposition and clearing up the artefacts from the outskirts and then taking on the monsters who went to the centre and are now weakened. There'll be better artefacts in the centre as well as better opposition as well though so there'll be incentive to go for it from the start as well.

Having the monster players defending on black shields and the 'good guys' defending using white shields should be offset by the crazy monsters stats, they very powerful. I thought that would be a fun way of doing it. The stats are a wip and still need balancing but they'll basically be what you see. I only ever play test in my head. I've got a good imagination and I'm good with odds and stuff so I can normally judge it fairly well. Although this is bit more different from the standard game than anything I've come up with before so we'll see.

I think a nice addition would be to allow the players to take their turns as one instead of having to end one monsters turn to use another, so for example they could move one of their monsters, then move another one, then attack with the first. That should be simple enough and would provide some flexibility and be quite interesting. Obviously I wouldn't apply to breaking up actions, so a monster who stops moving with movement left to allow another monster to perform an action couldn't then take the rest of their movement. It would just mean that players will have eight actions in total that can be used in any order.

As a way of speeding up play I think it should be first to post after me gets their turn instead of having a set order. Players wouldn't have to wait for another player to finish their turn before they start their own either. That could be fun.

Can I sign you up then?

[Daedalus]

Right now I'm just trying to catch up on a 2-week backlog of posts, since my vacation and some other things really set me back. Generally speaking, I only play PBP when I have time to spare. (I've also had my fill for a while.) Monster Seige looks epic and should be wild, but I figure it is also more than my time budget can support. I'll have to content myself with a few comments--not as useful as playtesting, but better than nothing.

[Gold Bearer]

That's cool, I appreciate the feedback.

You've got a lot of catching up to do in the HQ25 forum then.

[Gold Bearer]

I still haven't given up on this idea because I think it could work well if it's done right. I changed the teams to make it simpler and to use just the standard monsters, ish. I think the teams are fairly well balanced (yes the blues are a team of three).

One team starts in each corner and they'd be raiding towns/cities/villages/elven woodland areas/dwarven keeps/dungeons/mansions etc against various foes (evil can fight evil without a problem). Instead of buying equipment between quests they'll be able to only buy potions and hire mercenaries, although artifacts can still be found. Dead 'heroes' will be replaced at the cost of some gold.

As you're playing against each other instead of working together we could have a set amount of areas and whoever has the most gold at the end wins. That would make an interesting choice about whether to buy or save. You'll get a GP reward for killing rival characters and they'll loose the same amount of GP but you'll always be have a full group again for the next area, if you don't have enough GP you'll just start the next one on zero. That will prevent players from falling too far behind the others.

If I can get a few interested players (four preferably) I'll start making up an area for them to raid and finish the detail like mercenary prices. This will be a true experiment because I don't think anyone here has done something like this before but I think it could be a lot of fun. Anyone up for it or got any suggestions?


Green

Goblin Fanatic
M10 A6 D1 BP2 MP1 - At the start your turn roll a combat dice, skull = attack a the closest enemy, black shield = attack the closest target.

Fimir
M6 A3 D3 BP3 MP3

Orc Warlord
M8 A4 D4 BP5 MP3 - Can attack with two melee weapons in the same turn without penalty and can attack before and after moving.

Orc Shaman
M8 A2 D2 BP5 MP7 - L2M WoM spells.

Mercenaries: Goblins, Orcs.


White

Zombie
M4 A2 D3 BP2 MP0

Wight
M6 A3 D3 BP3 MP3 - Wight Blade (D3 damage).

Mummy Tomb Lord
M6 A5 D6 BP5 MP4 - L0M Chill Touch.

Necromancer
M6 A1 D3 BP5 MP7 - L2M WoM spells.

Mercenaries: Skeletons, Mummies.


Grey

Chaos Warlock
M8 A3 D4 BP1 MP5 - L2M Six random chaos spells.

Chaos Sorcerer
M6 A4 D5 BP3 MP8 - L2M Two of each AtOH spells.

Chaos Warrior
M4 A3 D4 BP4 MP3

Gargoyle
M6 A4 D4 BP5 MP4

Mercenaries: Elven Warrior, Elven Archer.


Blue

Ogre Warrior
M6 A5 D5 BP5 MP1

High Mage
M6 A2 D2 BP5 MP8 - L2M WoM spells.

Storm Master
M6 A3 D2 BP5 MP6 - L2M WoM spells.

Mercenaries: Giant Wolf, Ogre Shaman (M6 A4 D4 BP3 MP3 L1M Three random chaos spells.)