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Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Monday, February 24, 2020
Madrak1 - A Tour Of Trolls
Continuing on with my Tour of Trolls I'm going with our post-CID zero to hero star: Madrak1.
Fair warning, this is a long article because there's just so much to cover with this caster!
What makes him so good is pretty obvious:
Even Ground gives everything in his control area straight up +2 DEF and no knockdown, and it can be cast by his Blood Boon ability, which can proc off of his ranged attack.
His other two spells are also good:
Guided Hand: An additional dice to hit on a model/unit's next melee attack
Both of these spells are strong, though Guided Hand is really going to shine. Additionally both of these spells can be cast by Madrak1's all-but-officially-mandatory caster attachment: the Runebearer.
I'll be honest, 99% of the time I've feated purely for the "no-charge" portion of the feat simply to deliver my army to have the alpha strike and it's gloriously powerful. The healing setup can be a big deal, especially since things like Champions are obvious auto-includes with Madrak, where the feat near guarantees they will be fully healed if they take damage and spread it around via their Sanguine Bond ability.
Madrak1 also has Tactician for friendly warrior models in his CMD range, allowing for an amazing amount of flexibility in order of activations as well as clearing out your own models or unpacking what will inevitably be a troop heavy list. Tactician in Trolls is simply amazing because of all the space the medium or larger sized based army takes up on the table.
On top of all this, Madrak1 still retains his old MK1 ability to use a scroll once per game that allows him to just ignore a damage roll. With Even Ground up and under the Stone's Aura Madrak's defensive stats are insane: DEF 16, ARM 19, with 18 Damage boxes, tough with no-knockdown, and he can camp for transfers.
Key Pieces for Madrak1
More than other casters, a Madrak1 list seems to want specific pieces to really function. Before I go into List Theory I want to lay out the pieces that I feel are must take options for Madrak which will influence what we can do in theory.
The Runebearer – Extending Madrak's control area from 10" to 12" with Arcane Repeater is absolutely necessary to get the most out of Even Ground and Madrak's feat. Harmonious exaltation is clutch for those turns where you can't reliably proc Blood Boon to cast Even Ground, which allows Madrak to cast it himself for 2, possibly throwing out a Guided Hand if necessary, or just camping Fury. The Runebearer can also be used to cast Guided Hand on a unit himself every turn if you wished, which helps with Fury management and getting things going before Madrak has to activate. Suffice it to say you will always be taking the Runebearer with Madrak, but luckily he will be free due to theme benefits.
Bomber or Impailer – Madrak really wants the Far Strike animus to be able to shoot 12" with his axe to proc Blood Boon to cast Even Ground. I've played a fair number of games with Madrak without the Far Strike animus and my conclusions after the fact are that we should always have it.
Eilish Garrity – Madrak1 can make life an utter nightmare for your opponent in a variety of ways: Lots of single wound infantry that suddenly have very hard to deal with defensive stats, Champion bricks that are DEF16 in melee, the fact that you can run into position and deny charges onto your stuff. The way a lot of opponents will deal with this is via control, most of which is delivered via spells: Repudiate to deny a unit orders, Crippling Grasp to reduce their effectiveness, etc. Eilish solves this problems by removing offensive upkeeps from your models, freeing them up to be able to run or charge in. If he isn't doing that, then he's busy giving Puppet Master to Madrak who can much more reliably kill a model with his thrown axe to proc Blood Boon. It's hard to dedicate 5 points to this model, especially since he can't be free as a Minion Solo, but he's worth it to guarantee Madrak can play into a lot of matches he'd otherwise struggle in due to control elements.
Fell Caller – This is more of an honorable mention than a pure necessity, but for most lists I've played with Madrak, you need a Fell Caller. Most of the time at least one or more of your units will need Pathfinder before they have it (ie. Champs + Skaldi only get it on the charge, Fennblades via mini-feat), or +2 MAT to tackle opposing high DEF models. I can see a Skaldi+Champs and Double Fennblade list that can play without the Fell Caller, but other builds with a second unit of Champs, or Longriders, or Kriel Warriors are going to want the Fell Caller to at least maneuver around terrain on the approach.
Band of Heroes – This is where Madrak1 wants to be played. It's arguable that Madrak could be in Storm of the North, but the main benefit from that is getting to upkeep your spells for free on Northkin units, immunity to cold on all your Warrior models, and two snow drifts. The problem is that Madrak1 has no upkeeps, immunity to cold doesn't really matter, and you lose access to the strongest benefits in Band of Heroes: Remove from Play on all melee attacks, ignoring Tough on all melee attacks by Warrior models, and the extra 2" of deployment for what will inevitably be a Troop based army. Fennblades seem very strong with Madrak which are only in BoH, but I can possibly see trying to go for a hard DEF skew with Northkin Raiders, Champions, and Fire Eaters in Storm in the North – but it just seems like it's easier to counter.
List Theory
There are so very many ways to build Madrak1 that the mind boggles, and there are some key decisions you need to make which will influence your list:
Double or Single Champion Units? This will strongly dictate which way the list will go. Double Champion units gives you two problem units for your opponent to deal with, but it's obviously weaker against lists that can easily deal with DEF16 Champion units in melee. This will dictate what else you can take in the list, since it's mutually exclusive with double Fennblade units, at least if you want to take the important solo's needed to run the list.
Bomber/Mauler or Min Beast Points? If you're going to use minimum points, the light package with Impailer and 2x 9 Point Beasts of your choice is the safest bet. In this case I think I'd go with an Impailer, Bouncer, and a Pyre Troll so that Madrak can get up to PS18 under the Strength Aura of the Kriel Stone if he needs to do some heavy lifting. I'm personally much more of a fan of using a Bomber and a Mauler to round out the beast package, even though it cuts into your unit budget to spend the extra 5 points over Madrak1's beast points.
My List:
I'm going to go through the list I've used for our last Scrum (a Steamroller tournament run 1 game a
week over a month) where I paired Madrak1 with Kolgrima. This is a list where I tried to squeeze in as much value as possible, but in doing so I went without the Far Strike Animus. I've come to realize that this is a mistake and so am going to list variants I want to play going forward in another section below.
Trollblood - More is More
Theme: Band of Heroes
3 / 3 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain - WB: +29
- Trollkin Runebearer - PC: 0
- Dire Troll Mauler - PC: 15 (Battlegroup Points Used: 15)
- Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 14 (Battlegroup Points Used: 14)
Eilish Garrity, the Occultist - PC: 5
Fell Caller Hero - PC: 0
Stone Scribe Chronicler - PC: 4
Kriel Warriors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 11
Kriel Warriors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 11
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
- Stone Scribe Elder - PC: 3
Trollkin Champions - Leader & 4 Grunts: 16
- Skaldi Bonehammer - PC: 0
Trollkin Champions - Leader & 4 Grunts: 16
THEME: Band of Heroes
Kriel Warriors main problem is having low MAT and POW. While Madrak doesn't fix their POW problem, he does make them hit very reliably with Guided Hand, which lets them chew through opposing enemy infantry nicely. The Stone Scribe Chronicler can be very good here, with Heroes Tragedy to knockdown anything that kills one, though most of the time it didn't really matter much.
In the end, what seemed to matter the most with this list was exactly how hard it was for opponents to actually just kill Kriel Warriors. At DEF 14, ARM17 vs. guns and ARM19 vs. melee, I was comfortably able to just run them into opposing infantry or even put them in walk+attack range while under Madrak's feat and without getting boosted damage rolls, the small amount of attacks that hit just bounced off the armor.
Literally every tough check a Kriel Warrior makes is utterly demoralizing for your opponent, especially if they're trying to just clear them out to score scenario VP's.
The best part was that they're literally there just to jam, anything they kill is a bonus. They deliver the Champions and beasts extremely well, and stop a lot of armies just dead in their tracks.
My Results
The only list pairs I had to avoid dropping Madrak into during our Scrum was Vlad1 Rockets which has enough volume of attacks to chew through all of my guys. In fact out of all the games I've played with Madrak1 post-CID (with many more lists than the one above), I've only lost literally one of them - it was a case where I made a mistake and left Madrak in range of a teleporting Warpwolf where I could have just moved to the back of a zone, not even cast Even Ground, and won on Scenario.
Madrak is a scenario and attrition monster in this list. You can jam opponents out on scenario AND back it all up with hard hitting stuff that is very tough to deal with for a lot of opponents. Like all Troll lists, it really likes to go first, but it can handle things pretty well going second. The extra turn to just dump Fury on the Krielstone and run as far forward as possible with the Kriel Warriors is a big deal: this version of Madrak is much slower than the alternative builds with Fennblades or Long Riders. Basically I'm trading speed for bodies and having two heavies and two units of Champions.
Future Changes
In hindsight, I've had some games where I got lucky to avoid assassinations, and a lot of this was related to the fact that the list has almost zero ways to reach out and touch people, or deal with any kind of sniping out of problem models.
This is why I intend to switch to the following list now that our tournament is over:
Trollblood - Bombs 'n Kriels
Theme: Band of Heroes
3 / 3 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain - WB: +29
- Trollkin Runebearer - PC: 0
- Dire Troll Bomber - PC: 19 (Battlegroup Points Used: 19)
- Dire Troll Mauler - PC: 15 (Battlegroup Points Used: 10)
Fell Caller Hero - PC: 0
Eilish Garrity, the Occultist - PC: 5
Kriel Warriors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 11
Kriel Warriors - Leader & 5 Grunts: 7
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
- Stone Scribe Elder - PC: 3
Trollkin Champions - Leader & 4 Grunts: 16
- Skaldi Bonehammer - PC: 0
Trollkin Champions - Leader & 4 Grunts: 16
- Trollkin Sorcerer - PC: 3
THEME: Band of Heroes
The main losses are 4 Kriel Warriors and the Chronicler to pick up a Bomber and to me it definitely seems worth it. You still have two screens for the Champs and beasts, and the loss of 4 Kriel Warriors should be made up for by the Bomber and Madrak's improved ranged output.
Fair warning, this is a long article because there's just so much to cover with this caster!
Pre-CID, Madrak1 was one of the worst casters in the faction. Post CID he's so amazingly good that it seems hard to think of a time when he won't be featured in most Trollblood Steamroller pairings.
He's not quite the (pre-nerf) Haley2 of Trollbloods, but he may well be our Rask.
Strengths
What makes him so good is pretty obvious:
Even Ground gives everything in his control area straight up +2 DEF and no knockdown, and it can be cast by his Blood Boon ability, which can proc off of his ranged attack.
His other two spells are also good:
Guided Hand: An additional dice to hit on a model/unit's next melee attack
Jackhammer: Target warbeast can make an additional melee attack.
Both of these spells are strong, though Guided Hand is really going to shine. Additionally both of these spells can be cast by Madrak1's all-but-officially-mandatory caster attachment: the Runebearer.
If this was all Madrak1 had, he'd still be in contention for a lot of lists, but he's got one of the most amazing feats for Trollbloods: You can't charge models in his control area and all Trollblood models heal D3+3 damage.
I'll be honest, 99% of the time I've feated purely for the "no-charge" portion of the feat simply to deliver my army to have the alpha strike and it's gloriously powerful. The healing setup can be a big deal, especially since things like Champions are obvious auto-includes with Madrak, where the feat near guarantees they will be fully healed if they take damage and spread it around via their Sanguine Bond ability.
Madrak1 also has Tactician for friendly warrior models in his CMD range, allowing for an amazing amount of flexibility in order of activations as well as clearing out your own models or unpacking what will inevitably be a troop heavy list. Tactician in Trolls is simply amazing because of all the space the medium or larger sized based army takes up on the table.
On top of all this, Madrak1 still retains his old MK1 ability to use a scroll once per game that allows him to just ignore a damage roll. With Even Ground up and under the Stone's Aura Madrak's defensive stats are insane: DEF 16, ARM 19, with 18 Damage boxes, tough with no-knockdown, and he can camp for transfers.
Key Pieces for Madrak1
More than other casters, a Madrak1 list seems to want specific pieces to really function. Before I go into List Theory I want to lay out the pieces that I feel are must take options for Madrak which will influence what we can do in theory.
The Runebearer – Extending Madrak's control area from 10" to 12" with Arcane Repeater is absolutely necessary to get the most out of Even Ground and Madrak's feat. Harmonious exaltation is clutch for those turns where you can't reliably proc Blood Boon to cast Even Ground, which allows Madrak to cast it himself for 2, possibly throwing out a Guided Hand if necessary, or just camping Fury. The Runebearer can also be used to cast Guided Hand on a unit himself every turn if you wished, which helps with Fury management and getting things going before Madrak has to activate. Suffice it to say you will always be taking the Runebearer with Madrak, but luckily he will be free due to theme benefits.
Bomber or Impailer – Madrak really wants the Far Strike animus to be able to shoot 12" with his axe to proc Blood Boon to cast Even Ground. I've played a fair number of games with Madrak without the Far Strike animus and my conclusions after the fact are that we should always have it.
Eilish Garrity – Madrak1 can make life an utter nightmare for your opponent in a variety of ways: Lots of single wound infantry that suddenly have very hard to deal with defensive stats, Champion bricks that are DEF16 in melee, the fact that you can run into position and deny charges onto your stuff. The way a lot of opponents will deal with this is via control, most of which is delivered via spells: Repudiate to deny a unit orders, Crippling Grasp to reduce their effectiveness, etc. Eilish solves this problems by removing offensive upkeeps from your models, freeing them up to be able to run or charge in. If he isn't doing that, then he's busy giving Puppet Master to Madrak who can much more reliably kill a model with his thrown axe to proc Blood Boon. It's hard to dedicate 5 points to this model, especially since he can't be free as a Minion Solo, but he's worth it to guarantee Madrak can play into a lot of matches he'd otherwise struggle in due to control elements.
Fell Caller – This is more of an honorable mention than a pure necessity, but for most lists I've played with Madrak, you need a Fell Caller. Most of the time at least one or more of your units will need Pathfinder before they have it (ie. Champs + Skaldi only get it on the charge, Fennblades via mini-feat), or +2 MAT to tackle opposing high DEF models. I can see a Skaldi+Champs and Double Fennblade list that can play without the Fell Caller, but other builds with a second unit of Champs, or Longriders, or Kriel Warriors are going to want the Fell Caller to at least maneuver around terrain on the approach.
Band of Heroes – This is where Madrak1 wants to be played. It's arguable that Madrak could be in Storm of the North, but the main benefit from that is getting to upkeep your spells for free on Northkin units, immunity to cold on all your Warrior models, and two snow drifts. The problem is that Madrak1 has no upkeeps, immunity to cold doesn't really matter, and you lose access to the strongest benefits in Band of Heroes: Remove from Play on all melee attacks, ignoring Tough on all melee attacks by Warrior models, and the extra 2" of deployment for what will inevitably be a Troop based army. Fennblades seem very strong with Madrak which are only in BoH, but I can possibly see trying to go for a hard DEF skew with Northkin Raiders, Champions, and Fire Eaters in Storm in the North – but it just seems like it's easier to counter.
List Theory
There are so very many ways to build Madrak1 that the mind boggles, and there are some key decisions you need to make which will influence your list:
Double or Single Champion Units? This will strongly dictate which way the list will go. Double Champion units gives you two problem units for your opponent to deal with, but it's obviously weaker against lists that can easily deal with DEF16 Champion units in melee. This will dictate what else you can take in the list, since it's mutually exclusive with double Fennblade units, at least if you want to take the important solo's needed to run the list.
Bomber/Mauler or Min Beast Points? If you're going to use minimum points, the light package with Impailer and 2x 9 Point Beasts of your choice is the safest bet. In this case I think I'd go with an Impailer, Bouncer, and a Pyre Troll so that Madrak can get up to PS18 under the Strength Aura of the Kriel Stone if he needs to do some heavy lifting. I'm personally much more of a fan of using a Bomber and a Mauler to round out the beast package, even though it cuts into your unit budget to spend the extra 5 points over Madrak1's beast points.
My List:
I'm going to go through the list I've used for our last Scrum (a Steamroller tournament run 1 game a
week over a month) where I paired Madrak1 with Kolgrima. This is a list where I tried to squeeze in as much value as possible, but in doing so I went without the Far Strike Animus. I've come to realize that this is a mistake and so am going to list variants I want to play going forward in another section below.
Theme: Band of Heroes
3 / 3 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain - WB: +29
- Trollkin Runebearer - PC: 0
- Dire Troll Mauler - PC: 15 (Battlegroup Points Used: 15)
- Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 14 (Battlegroup Points Used: 14)
Eilish Garrity, the Occultist - PC: 5
Fell Caller Hero - PC: 0
Stone Scribe Chronicler - PC: 4
Kriel Warriors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 11
Kriel Warriors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 11
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
- Stone Scribe Elder - PC: 3
Trollkin Champions - Leader & 4 Grunts: 16
- Skaldi Bonehammer - PC: 0
Trollkin Champions - Leader & 4 Grunts: 16
THEME: Band of Heroes
The big change I found in this list was exactly how good Kriel Warriors are with Madrak1. Taking two units of Champions and two units of Kriel Warriors is just too much for most opponents to deal with reliably. Against many opponents, you can just run in and jam your way to a scenario victory, keeping them out of zones while you rack up points.
Kriel Warriors main problem is having low MAT and POW. While Madrak doesn't fix their POW problem, he does make them hit very reliably with Guided Hand, which lets them chew through opposing enemy infantry nicely. The Stone Scribe Chronicler can be very good here, with Heroes Tragedy to knockdown anything that kills one, though most of the time it didn't really matter much.
In the end, what seemed to matter the most with this list was exactly how hard it was for opponents to actually just kill Kriel Warriors. At DEF 14, ARM17 vs. guns and ARM19 vs. melee, I was comfortably able to just run them into opposing infantry or even put them in walk+attack range while under Madrak's feat and without getting boosted damage rolls, the small amount of attacks that hit just bounced off the armor.
Literally every tough check a Kriel Warrior makes is utterly demoralizing for your opponent, especially if they're trying to just clear them out to score scenario VP's.
The best part was that they're literally there just to jam, anything they kill is a bonus. They deliver the Champions and beasts extremely well, and stop a lot of armies just dead in their tracks.
My Results
The only list pairs I had to avoid dropping Madrak into during our Scrum was Vlad1 Rockets which has enough volume of attacks to chew through all of my guys. In fact out of all the games I've played with Madrak1 post-CID (with many more lists than the one above), I've only lost literally one of them - it was a case where I made a mistake and left Madrak in range of a teleporting Warpwolf where I could have just moved to the back of a zone, not even cast Even Ground, and won on Scenario.
Madrak is a scenario and attrition monster in this list. You can jam opponents out on scenario AND back it all up with hard hitting stuff that is very tough to deal with for a lot of opponents. Like all Troll lists, it really likes to go first, but it can handle things pretty well going second. The extra turn to just dump Fury on the Krielstone and run as far forward as possible with the Kriel Warriors is a big deal: this version of Madrak is much slower than the alternative builds with Fennblades or Long Riders. Basically I'm trading speed for bodies and having two heavies and two units of Champions.
Future Changes
In hindsight, I've had some games where I got lucky to avoid assassinations, and a lot of this was related to the fact that the list has almost zero ways to reach out and touch people, or deal with any kind of sniping out of problem models.
This is why I intend to switch to the following list now that our tournament is over:
Theme: Band of Heroes
3 / 3 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain - WB: +29
- Trollkin Runebearer - PC: 0
- Dire Troll Bomber - PC: 19 (Battlegroup Points Used: 19)
- Dire Troll Mauler - PC: 15 (Battlegroup Points Used: 10)
Fell Caller Hero - PC: 0
Eilish Garrity, the Occultist - PC: 5
Kriel Warriors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 11
Kriel Warriors - Leader & 5 Grunts: 7
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
- Stone Scribe Elder - PC: 3
Trollkin Champions - Leader & 4 Grunts: 16
- Skaldi Bonehammer - PC: 0
Trollkin Champions - Leader & 4 Grunts: 16
- Trollkin Sorcerer - PC: 3
THEME: Band of Heroes
I'm not sure about the Sorcerer on the second unit of Champions, but its 3 points left over and fills out the list. It could easily just swap to being a unit of Swamp Gobbers to help protect line of sight to Madrak since the main way he seems to lose in the matches he's targeted for is getting assassinated.
The main losses are 4 Kriel Warriors and the Chronicler to pick up a Bomber and to me it definitely seems worth it. You still have two screens for the Champs and beasts, and the loss of 4 Kriel Warriors should be made up for by the Bomber and Madrak's improved ranged output.
This all said, I have to admit I may want to swing around and start trying a faster list, akin to what I played when I started Madrak1, before I got a deal from a friend selling his old Trolls to double up on a few of my units where you run one of everything: Longriders, Fennblades, and Champs. You can squeeze all of that plus Eilish, a Bomber, and a Mauler into 75 points and it worked well enough before I started experimenting in other ways. I may go back to that if I find being too slow with the Kriel Warriors isn't as good against a wide variety of the field. In fact, if you're coming back to Trolls from MK2 when you possibly didn't own 2 units of Champs, Fenns, or Kriels, this kind of list would be a great place to start.
Conclusions
There are just so many ways to play Madrak1 and he is so incredibly powerful for Trolls as a faction that it's hard to see him coming out of list pairs for both power and fun reasons. While I think Band of Heroes is his best place, there is definitely a way to run him in Storm in the North or Power of Dhunia, though probably not Kriel Company (which is more a fault of the theme than of Madrak). The only worry I have is that he may be too good, and may stagnate our pairings a bit. That said, it is nice to always have as a kind of question/answer that can be slotted back into Troll list pairs as we go forward into MK3.
Conclusions
There are just so many ways to play Madrak1 and he is so incredibly powerful for Trolls as a faction that it's hard to see him coming out of list pairs for both power and fun reasons. While I think Band of Heroes is his best place, there is definitely a way to run him in Storm in the North or Power of Dhunia, though probably not Kriel Company (which is more a fault of the theme than of Madrak). The only worry I have is that he may be too good, and may stagnate our pairings a bit. That said, it is nice to always have as a kind of question/answer that can be slotted back into Troll list pairs as we go forward into MK3.
Sunday, February 23, 2020
Suzy Cube Streaming Tonight On Twitch!
#SuzyCube #gamedev #indiedev #madewithunity #Twitch @NoodlecakeGames
Suzy Cube will be streaming on Twitch later today! Tune in to twitch.tv/noodlecakegames at 6pm
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Thursday, February 20, 2020
MONTEZUMA'S RETURN
Platforming in the first-person is usually a very bad idea. Anyone who has played Half-Life knows that the platforming sections are the most frustrating thing about an otherwise genius game. Released in 1998, the same year as Half-Life, Montezuma's Return by Utopia Technologies based the entire game around this mechanic. And is actually the best example of it I've ever seen.
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DreamForge Grav-StuG Kickstarter (Postponed To March)
The Kickstarter date is set, pending final approval from Kickstarter...
The Kickstarter will run from January 25th to February 3rd. Its going to be a short one so keep your eye on the calendar!
I will release an introduction video and try to do one to two additional videos, in a Q&A format for the questions asked during the KS, as well as a overview of why I have decided to go the direction I did and where I would like to go next.
There will be retailer/wholesaler packages available.
Please see the previous post for more details regarding this Kickstarter. More details to come...
You can track our progress, sign up for news releases and follow all new content on our web page
I hope to see you there!
Storium Starters: Crash Landing
Storium Starters are starting scene ideas for the generic Storium worlds available to everyone. They contain introductory narration, challenge text, outcomes, and some location or world information that may be necessary to understand the first scene, though I attempt to keep them generic enough that they can easily be slotted in regardless of other world details you might have designed. Along with the initial scene idea, they will also contain ideas for where the story could go from the starting point. Storium Starters are released to public domain and may be used without attribution for your own games.
This Storium Starter is meant for the Space Adventure world. It is possible you may find uses for this starter outside of that world, but your mileage may vary on that.
This starter assumes that you are using the Dauntless ship described in the world's cards. If you have another name and design for your ship, you may need to make modifications to make this make sense with your concept.
It didn't, of course. The crash was the loudest noise any of them had ever heard by far. But in the moments before it, they heard nothing. The world moved slowly, too slowly, and they could see every little detail, every tiny blade of grass, every speck of dirt on the ground that was coming far, far too close.
The world moved too slowly, yes, but too quickly as well. They had time to take everything in, but not enough time to *do* something about it. One eternal moment they were plunging towards the ground, staring in horror at the shuttle's viewscreen and blaring alarms. The next...
Impact.
They weren't sure how long it took for them to shake off the daze, to clear their vision, to scrabble at their safety harnesses and crumple out of their seats. They weren't sure quite how they got out of the shuttle. Some walked, or walked and crawled and stumbled. Some were carried.
When they were fully able to take in the world about them once again, they were clear of the shuttle, and they were alive. That was what mattered.
They each looked around. Others had gotten clear too. Everyone? That wasn't sure. Some, at least. Shell-shocked, defeated, despondent, defiant...the expressions varied, but all knew the danger they now faced.
The *Dauntless* - the ship on which they served - would search. But it would take time, and in the meantime, they had to survive.
They were on an unknown world, in the middle of a wild jungle of strangely-colored plants and natural metallic formations. They'd come to explore it, in fact - that had been the mission. Quietly explore, take some samples, get recordings of the local wildlife, determine if there was any sign of sentient life. They'd taken a few preliminary scans on the way down, and located a safe place to touch down.
That place was *hundreds* of kilometers away.
So, first things first: They needed a safe location where they could patch up anyone in need of it, take stock, and get their bearings. It wasn't safe to remain by the crash site longer than they had to. The noise would certainly have attracted some attention, and chances were, anything willing to approach could be deadly. It wasn't a good idea to go traipsing off into the jungle on a longer journey yet, but hopefully they could find a place nearby that would serve their needs for the moment.
Hopefully without stirring up any of their own trouble, or getting lost. The jungle was sure to be confusing, but on the bright side, the smoke rising from the crashed shuttle, higher and higher, could guide them back if they ran into trouble.
And the shuttle...the shuttle itself was totaled, a mangled mass of metal. It was hard to believe any of them had gotten out of it at all. It was sure to be dangerous - sharp bits of metal were poking out seemingly everywhere, and exposed wiring and damaged control panels emitted sparks. But there might be something of use in there - and at the very least, they needed some basic supplies. Best to get what they could from the shuttle before they had to leave.
Slowly, the team set to work. The mission was a wash, but they had a new one now: Survival.
This Storium Starter is meant for the Space Adventure world. It is possible you may find uses for this starter outside of that world, but your mileage may vary on that.
This starter assumes that you are using the Dauntless ship described in the world's cards. If you have another name and design for your ship, you may need to make modifications to make this make sense with your concept.
Scene:
In the moments before the crash, it was like the world went silent.It didn't, of course. The crash was the loudest noise any of them had ever heard by far. But in the moments before it, they heard nothing. The world moved slowly, too slowly, and they could see every little detail, every tiny blade of grass, every speck of dirt on the ground that was coming far, far too close.
The world moved too slowly, yes, but too quickly as well. They had time to take everything in, but not enough time to *do* something about it. One eternal moment they were plunging towards the ground, staring in horror at the shuttle's viewscreen and blaring alarms. The next...
Impact.
They weren't sure how long it took for them to shake off the daze, to clear their vision, to scrabble at their safety harnesses and crumple out of their seats. They weren't sure quite how they got out of the shuttle. Some walked, or walked and crawled and stumbled. Some were carried.
When they were fully able to take in the world about them once again, they were clear of the shuttle, and they were alive. That was what mattered.
They each looked around. Others had gotten clear too. Everyone? That wasn't sure. Some, at least. Shell-shocked, defeated, despondent, defiant...the expressions varied, but all knew the danger they now faced.
The *Dauntless* - the ship on which they served - would search. But it would take time, and in the meantime, they had to survive.
They were on an unknown world, in the middle of a wild jungle of strangely-colored plants and natural metallic formations. They'd come to explore it, in fact - that had been the mission. Quietly explore, take some samples, get recordings of the local wildlife, determine if there was any sign of sentient life. They'd taken a few preliminary scans on the way down, and located a safe place to touch down.
That place was *hundreds* of kilometers away.
So, first things first: They needed a safe location where they could patch up anyone in need of it, take stock, and get their bearings. It wasn't safe to remain by the crash site longer than they had to. The noise would certainly have attracted some attention, and chances were, anything willing to approach could be deadly. It wasn't a good idea to go traipsing off into the jungle on a longer journey yet, but hopefully they could find a place nearby that would serve their needs for the moment.
Hopefully without stirring up any of their own trouble, or getting lost. The jungle was sure to be confusing, but on the bright side, the smoke rising from the crashed shuttle, higher and higher, could guide them back if they ran into trouble.
And the shuttle...the shuttle itself was totaled, a mangled mass of metal. It was hard to believe any of them had gotten out of it at all. It was sure to be dangerous - sharp bits of metal were poking out seemingly everywhere, and exposed wiring and damaged control panels emitted sparks. But there might be something of use in there - and at the very least, they needed some basic supplies. Best to get what they could from the shuttle before they had to leave.
Slowly, the team set to work. The mission was a wash, but they had a new one now: Survival.
Challenges:
- Seeking (Relative) Safety:
- Description: A crash-landing on a world that's still a mystery...there's sure to be dangers lurking in the wilds. Immediate survival is priority number one: You need a place you can defend.
- Points: This is the major challenge for the scene. Assign it points equal to the number of players you have.
- Strong Outcome: You find a location nearby the landing site that is safe enough for now. There aren't any notable dangers near it for the time being.
- Weak Outcome: You find a location nearby the landing site that *seems* safe enough for now. What significant danger did you miss spotting?
- Uncertain Outcome Idea: The players find a safe location, but there's a danger approaching that they're aware of so their time there will be limited. Or, the players are unable to find a safe location, and return back to the crash site to let everyone know they're just going to have to get moving as soon as they can. Or, the players find a site that *could* be safe...once they deal with a more minor threat.
- Salvage:
- Description: Your shuttle crash-landed, and it won't be flying ever again. Best see what you can salvage from the wreckage before you move on.
- Points: This is the secondary challenge for the scene. Assign it points equal to half the number of players you have, rounded up.
- Strong Outcome: You salvage some general supplies and one particularly useful item from the wreckage...what is it?
- Weak Outcome: You salvage some general supplies, and CHOOSE: You salvage a particularly useful item...what are it? But whoever played the most weakness cards (or a volunteer) is injured while they search the ship - how? OR: You salvage something that you think will be particularly useful - what is it? But you don't notice it was damaged badly in the crash.
- Uncertain Outcome Idea: The characters discover an item that would be very useful to them...but it is trapped within the wreckage. Now they'll have to figure out a way to free it in another challenge.
These two challenges are both focused on searching or exploring in some ways, but emphasize to the players that the manner in which these challenges progress is up to them. If characters are more combat-focused, for instance, they're welcome to state that they encounter aggressive wildlife while exploring or other minor physical threats that they can overcome with their weapons and combat skill. Or, maybe there's something in the ship that's being blocked by a heavy object, and a big guy needs to move it out of the way.
Storium allows players a lot of leeway with defining what happens during a challenge, including defining their own threats if need be. The Outcomes should tell players the range of things that can ultimately result from a challenge, but the way the challenge gets to those outcomes is fairly open. Players should keep things on theme for each challenge, but should feel free to come up with details that suit what their characters can do...or what they really struggle with.
If you plan to do a second set of challenges this scene, you may wish to warn your players not to play all three of their cards during these starting challenges (or all their card plays for the scene, in any case, if you are using different settings from the defaults).
Players get to get creative with the outcomes on these challenges - they're quite open. If you'd rather have more control over things starting out, or if your group doesn't seem comfortable with creating the details in the outcomes, you may wish to specify more clearly what "useful item" is found or what "safe location" is discovered. Making these sorts of things up can be a lot of fun for players, though - and for you as narrator - so if it feels possible, try letting players have more freedom with the details.
Setting Information:
This starter takes place on an uncharted alien world which the crew of the Dauntless had been tasked with exploring. The Dauntless itself is not present yet - the characters took one of the exploration shuttles on this mission. The Dauntless may arrive during the game as a change to the story, or its arrival may take place at the end of the game - the event everything builds towards.
The nature of the world is up to you, and depends on where, precisely, you would like the story to go. You might start with either the Planet DRX-31880 or the Planet EV-1996 location cards, or feel free to make up your own as suits the direction you'd like to go with the story. I've set things up with a jungle environment above by default, which fits DRX-31880 best, but that's a fairly easy modification to the narration if you'd like to have a different sort of environment.
The Dauntless itself is an exploratory space vessel with several decks in the offical cards, which should have a fairly large crew. The player characters and any NPCs you decide to have as part of the crash landing are a small subset of this crew. The Dauntless knows they are here, so it will come and look for them.
Moving Forward:
Where do you go from here? Well, there's quite a lot of options:
- Hostile Sentients: Maybe what brought the shuttle down was an intentional attack by a hostile force. Are they native to this world? Perhaps they are from an old enemy of humanity, or perhaps they are a new foe. With this idea, it's best to hint at the possibility of these sentients early on - maybe as early as right after these starting challenges, by having someone notice that some of the shuttle's damage looks like it was hit by a powerful energy pulse. Introduce them as actual antagonists as early as scene 2, and either have the players play the mouse to their cat and try to reach a place where they can safely signal the Dauntless, or find a reason they need to confront the hostiles directly. Is peace possible?
- Survival: With this, it's all about survival - the players are faced with challenges from wildlife and plants and unusual weather and anything else that seems interesting that you can throw at them. The story is all about waiting for the arrival of the Dauntless. You'll want to be careful to give players reasons to be active, though - what are the group's actual moment-by-moment tasks? Finding food and shelter, chasing after dangerous wildlife that also stole something crucial, saving an endangered crewmate...those are the sorts of challenges that can give the story a sense of momentum. It is harder to do a pure survival story than a story with solid antagonists. One angle that you can approach, then, is to find an antagonist - why did the ship crash? Maybe someone on the crew didn't want something on this planet to be found, and committed sabotage...and maybe he's working against the crew even now. Or, maybe there's just an incompetent NPC officer who tries to assert his authority and gets the group into dangerous trouble.
- A Trap! With this one, it's about the Dauntless. Bringing down the shuttle was a trap set by a hostile force, but a force that doesn't fully reveal itself until the halfway point when Dauntless arrives. Perhaps the players can realize the danger before then, and work to stop the plans of the aliens, or perhaps they struggle with their survival until the arrival and then have to work to take back Dauntless when the hostiles take it over.
There's sure to be more you could do - maybe the world is the home not of a hostile alien force, but of an inexplicable supernatural entity or other being beyond human understanding. Maybe the world itself is sentient and trying to kill the characters. Maybe they all actually died in the crash and their existence now is a purgatory where they have to work through their faults and come to understand themselves better...there's a lot you can do with this as a launching pad, so take the story where it seems to go...or just see what your players come up with and go from there, as suits your narration style.
I hope that you find this starter useful for your games!
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