Black Ravens assult the Gray Fangs pics

[Murph]

Hey guys.  I've been running a New World campaign.  My PCs last night successfully defended a Grey Fang settlement from a Black Raven raid, with the help of the Bronze Hammers, some gripoli clerics of
Pelor, and the Grey Fangs themselves.

Instead of kinecks, we had the help of the Grey Fang shaman Jenga, who had a prestige class that exclusively focused on woodshapping and placing square blocks.  My players got to build there own fortifications, which they enjoyed immensly.  I also gave the each a squad to command.  Ka'nos the monk had some gripoli whom had been recently converted to Pelor, and were clerics in training.  Ka'nos's gripoli apprentice was there also.  The druid Relic had control of the Bronze Hammers, and the Cleric\monk Brant had some Grey Fang Druids in trainging to command.

The combat went really smooth.  I ran everyone without a name as a minion, who hit other minions on a 10 or better, except the Gray Fangs who hit on a 9.  The other squads had 1 first level spell and 1 0th level spell.  The Black Ravens had 6 "named" leaders, 3 fighter\barbarian types, two mages, and a rogue.  And 36 minions.  They had three carts with some variation of stoneskin cast on them (so I could justify giving them 50 hp) that contained teleportation stones that the Black Ravens wanted to get to the temple at the other end of the settlement so they could do Very Bad Things(TM).  Below are some pictures.
http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/41363558@N06/3811523170/

[clockworkjoe]

That's awesome! So are you playing 3e or 4e? you mention prestige classes and minions so I'm not sure which edition you're using. Also, how long did the battle take?

[Murph]

We are playing 3.5 because that's what the players wanted/some if them are cheap and the SRD is free/I was going through 4th edition burnout at the time we started.  I am somewhat regretting it, but it hasn't been a combat heavy game, so it's not terrible.

That said, I have stolen liberally from 4th, taking things like minions, and monsters with cool abilities when apppropriate.

The battle itself took about 15 minutes to set up and about 2 to 2 and a half hours to run, making it the longest combat in the campaign so far.  Probably lasted about 20 rounds.

Two of the pcs are warmachine players, so they enjoyed controlling they're squad.  The other is just new and enjoying pretty much everything.

[pwvogt]

Minor side compliment: awesome idea to use Jenga blocks for terrain. I could easily see getting enough cheap jenga blocks to use to outline whole dungeons at a time.

[Murph]

I never thought about dynamically building a dungeon with them.  Might just do that.  And they are cheap.  I bought them to try to play Dread (never got to) but they were 10 bucks or so.

[clockworkjoe]

Minor side compliment: awesome idea to use Jenga blocks for terrain. I could easily see getting enough cheap jenga blocks to use to outline whole dungeons at a time.

I do that with cheap lego knockoffs

[pwvogt]

It's a shame you haven't had a chance to play Dread, really excellent horror game that gets the mood just right. It's the game that got me into role playing and I can't endorse it enough as an entry-level game.

Anyway, on-topic, we just use wet erase boards w/markers or the tiles (we've been going through the Dungeon Delves and they all utilize the tiles, it's been very convenient).

[Murph]

We also use a whiteboard that someone cut grooves into.  I think I'm going to make some multi tiered terrain, like scafolding.  Might be interesting.

With Halloween coming up I might have to try again with Dread.

[malyss]

Minor side compliment: awesome idea to use Jenga blocks for terrain. I could easily see getting enough cheap jenga blocks to use to outline whole dungeons at a time.

I do that with cheap lego knockoffs

Since I have two young boys, and one large boy (me) I have access to tons of lego blocks - I usually call them "My First Caltrops," but I will have to try using them for a dungeon.

I try to use the tiles or various paizo maps when I can, but sometimes they aren't as convenient as I would like. I can see building a dungeon with my kids in advance and then just transporting the blocks to the table when the time comes.

Great ideas guys, thanks.

[pwvogt]

I would definetely recommend trying Dread again. Start with the first scenario in the corebook (there's a limited run of the expansions, but there are in fact two short "setting" books, each with three more scenarios and advice for running a specific type of game - post-apocalyptic in one, madness in the other) and just give it a shot. It doesn't matter how far off the path you go, but the scenario gives you a lot of good ideas on how to require pulls and other things and really teaches you how to run a Dread game. I could start a new thread about Dread if anyone's interested in more information or a place to ask questions.