Fields of Blood: The Book of War - anyone else read it?

[Geoff Watson]

Anyone who is interested in my spreadsheets, email me on
geoffwatson@ihug.com.au

They currently include a bunch of house rules, so editing will be required for the RAW.

Geoff.

 

[Geoff Watson]

Geoff, I'd love to see your notes.

Here's where I'm at with a game I am considering putting together. What do you think?

• I've done up a map, and am considering playing/running a game of FoB. It'd be eight realms total - 4 human, and 1 each of Elf, Dwarf, Orc and Hobgoblin. Each player would dice for the order they pick races in. Then, each player would pick their capitol hex in the order of elf/dwarf/hobgoblin/humans/orc.

• 
  That's a lot of humans; the Plains will be heavily contested.
  I'd suggest 2 human, 1 each of the others, and two random.
  On my map, I had much more random terrain, so that all of one type wouldn't be together. Also, that map is huge. It could be a very long time before the realms encounter each other. What's the difference between the two types of trees?
  
  

  [*] Players would then each pick X number of hexes, but they have to be continuous. I'm thinking of 8 additional hexes each to give the game a sort of jump start; once the hexes were selected, the DM or player would roll as per p112 (Step 3) to see whether hexes adjacent to the capitol had a Thorpe, Hamlet or Village. Per the same section, the remaining hex would have a 50% chance to have a thorpe.

  8 hexes is a lot.
  IMC the PCs started with two hexes (one Small Town with Garrison, one Thorpe), and have expanded fairly quickly.
  
  

  [*]I'll have a single custom rule to make large empires financially manageable (the rules penalize anything over 10 hexes quite heavily).

  Same here. The RAW for large realms are excessively punitive.
  
  

  [*]Undecided whether I'll play or just DM.

  I'm DMing, and running the minor NPC realms that they have discovered, and the major NPC realm I put in as a threat. It didn't seem to be really necessary, as the minor NPCs seem to be enough of a threat.
  
  

  [*]The game would progress at two game weeks per real week (Tuesday and Friday deadlines). That'd give people time to do their stuff. If they didn't have their turn in by a given time on deadline days, they'd simply take a pass that turn.

  
  I've been doing a season every week (if nothing much happens, longer if there are several battles to do).
  In-game 'week' turns are unnecessary, as nearly everything happens seasonally.
  
  Geoff.

 

[Emiricol]

Here's the thinking that went into it (perhaps flawed thinking hehe). With 8 players, and at 8 hexes each to start, that still leaves half the map unclaimed. 4 humans would also make the humans "late arrivals" as a race, since they go after everyone but Orcs in terms of starting territory selection. I might reduce this based on what you've said, since I haven't actually played yet

I made the map the way I did mostly because I figured such an island would have to be volcanic in origin. It's only 400x400 miles, including water. A single central mountain range just made sense. A magical origin would allow something more random I guess.

I'll probably end up just DMing, and making the event rolls. Heh, I always end up DMing.

A season per week works for you? So I assume the "weekly" actions only come up rarely? How often do you find yourself having to backtrack the timeline for someone to do a "weekly" action?

Thanks for the input!

-Emiricol

That's a lot of humans; the Plains will be heavily contested.
I'd suggest 2 human, 1 each of the others, and two random.
On my map, I had much more random terrain, so that all of one type wouldn't be together. Also, that map is huge. It could be a very long time before the realms encounter each other. What's the difference between the two types of trees?


8 hexes is a lot.
IMC the PCs started with two hexes (one Small Town with Garrison, one Thorpe), and have expanded fairly quickly.


Same here. The RAW for large realms are excessively punitive.


I'm DMing, and running the minor NPC realms that they have discovered, and the major NPC realm I put in as a threat. It didn't seem to be really necessary, as the minor NPCs seem to be enough of a threat.



I've been doing a season every week (if nothing much happens, longer if there are several battles to do).
In-game 'week' turns are unnecessary, as nearly everything happens seasonally.

Geoff.

 

[Falkayn]

Here's the thinking that went into it (perhaps flawed thinking hehe). With 8 players, and at 8 hexes each to start, that still leaves half the map unclaimed. 4 humans would also make the humans "late arrivals" as a race, since they go after everyone but Orcs in terms of starting territory selection. I might reduce this based on what you've said, since I haven't actually played yet

I made the map the way I did mostly because I figured such an island would have to be volcanic in origin. It's only 400x400 miles, including water. A single central mountain range just made sense. A magical origin would allow something more random I guess.

The game that my friend was looking at started us off with 4 hexes ...

A question about the map, I notice that the rivers are all on hex dividing lines, whilst convenient (it effectively double the number of hexes that can use the river) it doesn't seem to allow capturing a hex to capture a river - instead you have to capture the ones on each side ... it also seems a bit TOO convenient.

I think I'd be interested playing as this other game hasn't taken off yet.