Story on board #2

Neuroshima Hex illustrations Creating The Dancer 6 interview Rustan Hakansson 7 ncer Dancing with The Da 10 Articles Ryu, I am sorry...

14 ts...

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Neuroshima Tactics - introduction Neuroshima tactics 18 Playing Game Neuroshima Role G - introduction 24 Neuroshima RP Other 26

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Editor: Ignacy Trzewiczek Translation: Marcin ’Joker’ Karbowski, Danai ’Smoczyca’ Chondrokouki Front cover illustration: Michał Sztuka Design, layout and DTP: Maciej ’Scorn’ Mutwil

Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island

Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island is new epic

game from Portal. This time we will give you an outstanding adventure on the deserted island. You will build a shelter, you will build palisade, weapons, you will create tools like axes, knives, sacks, you will do everything you can to… to survive. You will have to find food, fight wild beasts, protect themselves from weather changes…

Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island is a co-op

game that deals with big issues of co-op genre: the “leader issue” and the “dumb player issue”. We do believe that Robinson will be a step in new direction, will change the way designers think about co-op games, will prove that this issues can be fixed…

Prepare for a great epic game from Portal, a new great story on your board…

51st State: Winter Winter has come. There’s a brief cease-fire. The factions begun preparations for the next stage of war, a brutal clash that will come in a few months. In the meantime, though, they are reinforcing their troops. Thanks to the new resources found near the gigantic Frozen City, new leaders are preparing for spring. Winter sleep is, in the end, just a cover for secret arms race…

Winter is a new expansion for 51st State (and The New Era). It introduces new rules, new faction (Texas) and 54 new cards. It is a proposition for gamers preferring sustainable development over unpredictable aggression. Game takes exact 6 rounds of winter time, production is flexible and changing every round. Every round players can send their workers to Frozen City (special mini board) to hire mercenaries and find new leaders.

New faction, Texas is crowded with people (4 workers in production

phase) and has a possibility to use one of its faction contact twice in a round!

Winter will make the perfect choice for strategy oriented gamers.

Convoy

Convoy was released in Poland in June, in France and Germany in July.

English edition of the game we will bring to Essen this year. You can learn more about Convoy here.

Steel Police and Dancer – army packs for Neuroshima Hex

Two army packs for Neuroshima Hex were published in Poland in March

and July. English editions of these items we will bring to Essen 2012. More about these armies you can find on dedicated pages, here for Steel Police and here for Dancer.

Dancer printed. Now it has to be put into boxes and is ready to ship

reprint of Polish edition of Babel13. Tomorrow it will go to print.

New models for Neuroshima Tactics https:// twitter.com/trzewik/status/223691170310656000/ photo/1 Today’s 'Lunch break report’ I win Crokinole ;)

French Convoy available! In France!

Friday Blog Post on Portal’s website is live http://www. portalpublishing.eu/2012/07/ friday-blog-post-15/ I need ideas for event cards for my Robinson Crusoe game! Any ideas? I need some fresh angle!

I’m in building events section now. What bad can happen when you build camp, shelter or make some tools? :)

I just finished blog post for tomorrow. It is 11PM here Been 8h at work, then 2 games of Robinson, now writing. Damn tired. Good night guys!

Fire! I forgot about fire in the camp! I had it in the notes and forgot! Thank you very much.

We will burn some stuff now :D

Good picture for good night bunch of Dancers (above).

OK, I am done for this weekend. 96 event cards for Robinson Crusoe are ready. It was busy weekend... as always. :)

My new blog post. I hope you’ll like it! [click] I’ve just lost NS HEX game during lunch time. People in our office don’t get that I am The Boss and I should win... ;) Today we were working on

Rulebook for Dancer army for Neuroshima Hex is online on Portal’s website! http://www. portalpublishing.eu Today we published rulebook for Dancer army for Neuro-

shima Hex. Check out changes we introduced in this great army! http://www.portalpublishing.eu This weekend in Warsaw there is 'Rafinery’, post-apo con.

We’d love to have there hot copies of Dancer for NS HEX. I hope we will make it.

Proof-reading of cards for Winter expansion. 54 new cards!

2nd day of our Neuroshim Hex office league. Piechu ('boardgames team’) lost with Ryu ('looosers team’) It was 2nd lost of our team in a row.

Dreadfull story it is! Sometimes playing boardgames can make a mess... ;)

Cover for Winter expansion is ready. On Monday we will make an announcement.

If you believe in 'google translate’ you can read Polish review of Convoy ;) http://www.gamesfanatic. pl/2012/07/20/konwoj-klimatyczny-pojedynek-na-bezdrozu/ I go for 2week vacations.

Robinson prototype?

Packed. Winter prototype? Yes. Laptop with modem? Si. Yhm I’m not die hard fan of vacations :)

http://boardgamegeek.com/ blogpost/12033/ryu-i-amso-sorry-i-made-you-playneuroshima-hex-y

Our Essen2012 releases officially confirmed! http://www.portalpublishing.eu/2012/07/our-essen-releases-are/

Next week we will have #2 issue of STORY.on.BOARD. Did you like first issue?

That’s how new expansion for 51st State will look like...

Second issue of STORYonBOARD, our free magazine about boardgames is really close.

We’ll publish it next Wednesday!

After presenting cover of issue #2 I received questions about #1 issue of STORYonBOARD. Gamers! You can find it here: http://www.portalpublishing. eu/2012/06/storyonboard-is-here/

RUSTAN HAKANSSON o

interview Ignacy Trzewiczek

Ignacy: Hi, Rustan. It is great to have a chance to talk with you. We met in 2007 in Essen.

Do you remember this first time? You found Portal booth by accident, or you were looking for us? Did you know Neuroshima Hex or you just learned it from demo game on our booth?

Rustan: Hi Ignacy! I worked in game distribution at the time.

I always prepare for Spiel and your booth was one I had marked to visit. It was probably the first time that I played Neuroshima Hex that time next to the waffles seller in hall 6, and I liked it a lot. We ended up distributing the game in quite nice numbers over many years and it is still one of my favourite games.

You quickly became one of the most active Neuroshima Hex fans and you began to design your own armies and publish them on BGG. How many armies you designed up to today?

That depends on how you count, officially published is soon 1 :) I have never done any graphics design for the armies but have relied on the BGG community for both that and for improving my ideas. Midaga and Michallus have helped me a lot with

this, but many others too. When I have had an idea I have written up a draft, posted it on BGG, and if someone has thought it interesting enough to them they have done the graphic design for it. After that I have been able to test it, refine it, and finally release it.

6 playable armies: The Dancer (3 Unit-HQ tiles dancing around) Vermelius (A builder HQ with units that take some turns to be finished and activated) Super Muntant Killer Bunnies

(Gargantuan HQ bunny that spawns fast-moving bunnies and can stomp anything) Commandos (4 experienced Commandos defending their stash, can heal if next to HQ and are highly mobile) Vlad (starts with a single HQ tile that can heal and take over other tiles) Biohorror (a mutating hive with spitters that needs connected modules to attack) 3 draft armies without tiles Circus Mechanicus (Pie-throwers that play tiles face-down, surprise balloons and lots of weirdness) Spider Queen (Tough but slow spiders with net and sting) The Overmind (HQ must be adjacent, or use a relay tile, to directly control all units. Otherwise

they cannot activate) I have also done a 8 scenarios.

Some of them are structured like armies but have scripted actions.

They are: Deathroller, Guard Tower, Department Store, Alien Scout, The Vault, Bunker, Junkyard, Cockroach Valley.

I remember one Essen fair when you gave us printed copies of Bunnies army and I remember we were playing it late in the night. We were very tired after all day of hard work during Essen, but still we had a great time with your pink tiles :) How you came up with such an army?!

It is from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail :) I wanted to to something funny, possibly I thought of something that could be played at Easter, but maybe I just thought about Monty Python. I think I had played some computer game with silly surprises it it that could be activated by finding secret areas and maybe I wanted to do the same for Neuroshima Hex. Often several factors contribute to fun things happening :) All your armies are very original, very unique. Man, how do you create such armies?

Thank you! I need inspiration, something that gets me started.

Two armies that got me thinking are Mephisto and Uranopolis, each of them opened up a new way of thinking about the game.

I have not read any background material for the Neuroshima RPG yet (great that it is coming out in English!) and am not limiting myself to what would be suitable in the Neuroshima world. Instead I think of a concept, develop an army around that, and later others have helped me transform the army to something suitable in the world. Bunnies might have to stay a silly army though :) Dancer is first fan army that got published as an official army. When Portal announced that we will publish fan armies people were discussing whether it will be your army or Michallus’s Mephisto.

Michallus is another big fan of Neuroshima. Have you played his Mephisto?

Yes! I have played it and spoken a lot with Michallus. It inspired me to start creating my first own armies. I hope to see it printed for real some day as well.

At BGG you work as Project Manager. Big changes of site are coming. Can you tell us more about it?

I work mainly with prioritizing, scheduling, organizing and structuring the work inside BGG. With the redesign I handle beta testing. Without the over 1000 beta testers it would be impossible for us to do a project this big, thank you to all of them!

The new site is a lot more customizable and flexible. This allows us to make the site useful both for people that are new to gaming and are visiting the site

for the first time, and to the very experienced.

Very few new features are being implemented, instead it is a full rewrite of all the existing functionality. Once it is done it will be possible to add new features in a better way.

There are a lot of great things that can be done to make BGG more useful to both gamers and to the gaming industry.

I saw you work on a game called Nations and it is civ game.

Sounds very interesting. Can you tell us a little bit more about this design?

Sure! Nations is going to be published 2013, hopefully in time for Essen, by Lautapelit.fi (the publisher of Eclipse). It is a game I, my wife and my two brothers have been working on for 5 years.

We really like civilization games, all of us have played many of the various incarnations of the computer series as well as many of this genre of board games over the years. Especially the fan expansion for Civilization 4 have inspired us, there are many great ideas explored there.

Nations is a game for 1-6 players, with complexity and playtime comparable to Agricola. We have drawn much inspration from Agricola, Through the Ages, Power Grid and other games that we like, and have created a game that we hope will appeal to others who like those games too. The response from playtests has been fantastic and we are very happy it has been chosen to follow on the huge success of Eclipse from Lautapelit.fi.

Dancing with The Dancer Michał Oracz

illustration: Jakub Jabłoński

A few months ago a small box containing a violet and very dangerous Steel Police appeared on the market. A new format of NS Hex addons was established. Steel Police received a very warm welcome - the new army pack format turned out to be a great idea.

There were a lot of candidates for the second blister, many armies with great potential, with new interesting, ideas, both classical and very original, showing a completely new approach to the game.

But we’ve already had a very cunning plan.

We decided that the first two armies will be as different from one another as possible – one classical and one innovative, with a totally different approach to NS Hex. Some players prefer the formerothers - the latter style.

Steel Police was very similar to a classical army, so it was time to turn our game upside down.

Looking from that point, the decision was pretty obvious: it was either The Dancer or Mephisto.

In the first one there are three unit tiles, in the second – only one plus modules.

Before I found a coin to toss, the problem solved itself.

The Author of the Mephisto army asked us to postpone his army’s premiere, as it required some additional work before sending to Portal for final tests.

Only one army was left on

the battelfield – The Dancer by Rustan Håkansson. A beautiful, three-units army with great potential.

Rustan’s Armies

I’ve had the pleasure of playing few of Rustan’s famous armies on Essen Fairs. I remember it as if it was yesterday. A young, cheerful and very tall man approached our stand, and handed us a small, mysterious box.

In the evening, extremely tired after a whole day of work, we decided to test the armies hidden in the box. There were rabbits eating enemies like carrots, builders whose tiles appear on board very weak and take some time to grow to a normal strenght and three deadly dancers.

That most definetly wasn’t the world of Neuroshima.

But most definetly it was top class NS Hex entertainment.

It was obvious, that we have to publish at least one of those armies. We didn’t know how or when, but the potential in those ideas was too great to just let it go.

Finally, a chance came.

Rustan’s approach to army design (and Neuroshima Hex in general) is completely different from mine. He has his own, very clear rules for choosing and combining unit’s traits. He puts an emphasis on army theme and mechanics. His tiles are less diversified, making his armies more resistant to randomness factor.

Had Rustan designed NS Hex, Moloch, Borgo, Hegemony and

The Outpost armies most definetely wouldn’t be in it.

Potential and tests

The scheme of designing and publishing NS Hex armies hasn’t changed since the game’s premiere.

First, there is an idea. A brilliant idea, great joy, first drafts. Congruence inside the army and with the Neuroshima world is also important.

Then there are more ideas, each better than the previous one, a bit of testing, few changes and finally, there it is: a 35 tiles army. I show it off to my friends. They like it, all goes according to plan.

If we decide to publish the army, it is sent to the most fussy, fretful and picky group of testers on this planet. When they are finished with it, there’s not much left. It’s always the same pattern.

I still remember the first version of Steel Police. They were heavily armoured (hey, they’re „steel”, right?). The HQ were slowing down enemy units (it seemed to fit SP style). Among the units you could find a heavily armoured policeman on a huge bike, moving across the board wrecking havoc wherever he appeared, a shooter killing everyone around him, supporting units with combat chemicals, a bomb stolen from the Moloch’s army... And look at them now: no slowing down, no choppers, no heavy armours, no shooting in ervery directions, not to mention the Bomb.

I

remember

when

Smart

was flying, hidding in the trees, kidnapping enemy units (all taken from Neuroshima RPG) and his HQ could shoot and cancel battle tiles. Of course before the tests were over, there was no flying, kidnapping, tree climbing and all the other attractions.

New York HQ was supposed to „motivate” its units to fight, extend module effects and build fortifications. As you probably know, it doesn’t motivate, extend or build anything.

In the early developement stage, the Neojungle was attaching it’s units to enemy tiles using special hooks, Vegas had a lot of sniper tiles and blocked healing modules, and so on and so forth.

And you don’t want to know how the first four armies looked like.

When our testers get their hands on a new army, there’s no more praises and friendly patting on the back. Instead, there’s a slaughter and extermination that leave barely half of the army still standing.

If that doesn’t happen, it means that testers got too friendly with the author and it’s time for more drastic measures – a call to Portal Publishing Internal Affairs Department.

And all those adjustments, tests and cuts still have nothing to do with the army balance – that’s something we deal with by the very end of production process.

Dancer was no exception – Rustan’s army went through the same hell as every other, but we’ll get to that later.

Playability

Interesting ideas, army consistence (internal and with the world of Neuroshima) are important factors, but when in comes to tests, only one thing counts: playability.

Creating an army pack is not a beauty contest, movie or a novel. We’re talking about a game. And a game has to by playable. Period.

Just so we’re clear, from all those deep, complex definitions of

playability, I prefer a much simpler one, which many times helped me achieve an effect I wanted when designing a game. Every time I start to play, there’s just one thing I focus on: the joy of it.

There are many types of games, but the components are most of the time very similar: choice making, emotions resulting from tough decisions, surprises (resulting from randomness or other player’s decisions), replayability resulting from different possible strategies for winning, consequences of our actions, comfort of playing and many more.

Looking at all of them from the „pleasure of playing” perspective makes the judgement a lot easier.

The first and most important stage of external test (after the test conducted by the author are finished) is a test of playability and playability only.

Nothing else matters

Balance is almost irrelevant at this stage. If it doesn’t discourage testers by generating absurd results, we don’t bother with it.

It’s important not to mistake playability with the army raw potential. They’re two completely different things.

Testers play for a while and finally we get the first results.

The most important number – the amount of games played.

If it’s bigger than usual and they still want to play, that’s very good. If they send in their own ideas for changes and improvements, it means they’re fired up and the army is working.

It never happend after the first round of tests.

If they’ve played exactly the amount of games that was expected of them and wrote something like: „It seems ok, there’s a few cool ideas”, it’s a very bad symptom – obviously the army still needs a lot of work.

You know the army is ready to print when the testers are fighting for the privillage of testing it.

As all the other armies, The Dancer went through all those stages and finally was absolutely polished up.

Changes in The Dancer

When I begin editing and correcting someone else’s work, I always think to myself: „Damn, how am I gonna look the author in the eye?” ;)

Thankfully, the test group working on NS Hex armies is big, solid and very experienced. We only implement changes that were heavily tested, received an unanimous approval, improved playability and number of combinations, reduced frustration of both the leading player and his opponent and fixed the problems with playing against older armies.

Here are the most important changes introduced into The Dancer army. They’re not described in chronological order – it’s hard to say which of them was the first, second or last. There are a lot of connections between them and sometimes only together they solved the problems we’ve encountered.

1. CONNECTING THE GRAND THREE

I recall playing The Dancer a few years ago in Essen – I immediately noticed a very interesting solution, giving the army an exeptional character. All of the three HQ Dancer units – the so-called „Faces”, couldn’t touch at any point of the game. It gave me an impression of commanding same-charged electrons.

Unfortunately, this Trait was the first to go durin the tests.

Instead, the Faces of the Dancer were given the ability to protect eachother from many directions.

The Player gained something even more valuable – a greater choice of tactics. He can, of course, scatter the Faces throughout the board, but he also is able to shape them into a strong, concentrated killing machine.

And while we’re at this topic, there was also a third reason for re-enabling the Dancer’s Faces to touch – and it’s probably the most important one...

2. MODULES AND COMBOS

In the beginning The Dancer lacked the possibility of using even a single Module. And the problem was not that the army was not strong enough – it was that we like thinking, modifying our forces, changing them into very powerful – although sometimes short-lived - combinations. If we are given the possibility of designing combos, we get more ways to play the game.

In the beginning, we hesitantly put one Module edges on one of the Dancer’s Faces.

It didn’t do squat.

We achieved satisfying results only by thinking bigger – as a result we have 5 Module edges on all of Dancer’s Faces.

And, obviously, the Outpost’s Scoper and New York Spies have their use in a game against The Dancer.

It also solved another kind of problem...

3. THE WEAK LINK SYNDROME

Each od the Faces was of course very different. One fought hand to hand, the other one shot, the third netted, and each of them had special, rarely activated Traits.

It turned out one of them was weaker and less useful than the others.

During the trials the thing got even worse, because the Face in question was either a not-so-useful HP reserve stash for the Dancer player (and a less interesting target for the opponent) or a priority target, as the weakest link.

Installing really powerful Modules solved the problem and restored the third Face to its rightful place among the Great Three.

And those Modules were...

4. HEALING AND INITIATIVE

For a long time I resisted with all my might giving any of the Dancers an Initiative Module. It turned out, though, that the testers were right, and such a Module helps the gameplay safely and surely not hindering it in any way.

The Modules boosting the attack strenght (both hand to hand and shooting), two „hasteners”, well, it was becoming very interesting in terms of possible combinations. You could, for example, put a very nice offensive line with a hand to hand combat Face, behind it a boosted shooting Face, and all of this hastened and protected by a net.

But there was one more problem that remained unsolved all along – the hand to hand combat Face loses HP much quicker than the other ones, which can act at a distance. It’s common knowledge that the enemy HQ packs a punch in all of the enemy units in its vicinity.

The final solution was, again, dictated by the idea of giving the Player multiple choices. Instead of increasing the amount of HP, giving it an armour or other similar patches, one of the Faces became able to … heal.

Exactly, there’s a possibility of restoring HP, but it calls for a decision, and a hard one at that – I have an opportunity, should I have a free shot or heal myself, what should I do?

It’s all up to the player, and that’s what it is all about.

Of course, just like any other modification, this one underwent many changes, the first ones making it even more limping, and making the „weak link syndrome” even worse (in the beginning the Face wasn’t able to heal itself).

Solving this problem was what the testers appreciated the most of all the polishing The Dancer underwent.

How do you enable the Healing? Just like about anything else in The Dancer – using Action tokens.

5. ACTION TOKENS

Action Tokens are a kind of instant tokens, allowing the Player to activate the special Trait of each of the Faces (e.g. A free attack outside of the Battle) – and it made me very weary.

From the very beginning of game designing I think of the instant „attacking” tokens as a remedy to the so called „tilt”. When your enemy nets your HQ, surrounds it and puts up somewhere a heavily protected doom-machine, the only solution is to surrender and walk away from the board.

Here it’s a bit different – there’s almost always the possibility of getting the Sniper or a Bomb and changing the course of the Battle.

This kind of tokens I treat with exeptional reservations, and use them scarcely, because even after recieving a balance there might be the impression of the adversaries playing two different games, one about building, the other about something else, just randomly sharing the board.

It’s kinda cool anyway, but only to the point when the other player’s game doesn’t spoil our own.

After many, many games played with The Dancer I was convinced that this solution was a good one, at least for this particular army, made of three tiles prone to non-stop attacks from all sides.

What’s more, even the Action tiles evolved during the tests, becoming more universal. With the Special Traits gone from the Faces (as I’ve seen the faces of people trying to make sense of the „weird scribbles” on the tiles), the tiles themselves started activating any chosen side of any of the Faces – thus, their effect depends on what the Player chooses to build.

He might build a feeble 1 po-

int shot, or a powerful, satysfying, Module-aided 3 point shot, or Healing.

It’s all up to the player, and that’s what it’s all about.

6. SNEAKY DEATIL: INITIATIVE CHANGE

One of the most inconspicous changes was the change in the Initiative order of the Hand to hand Face and Shooting Face.

This is how it is: your enemy protects his HQ with his tokens, surrounds it and it’s not easy to break a wall like that, and hurt him.

Those playing a Borgo army against experienced players probably know the pain – the opponent concentrates always on the same thing: to surround his HQ with ANYTHING he can use, and during the Battle Borgo won’t even scratch him – because the hand-to-hand fighting Borgo can’t simultaneously destroy the HQ shields AND reach the HQ itself.

But there are also two sharpshooters in Borgo’s ranks. And this is the knack, cause the fighter will clean up the area in front of the HQ, and the shooter can hit the target.

This is the particular rule, that by sheer luck didn’t apply to the Dancer. All it took was to switch Initiatives, and another possibility emerged – the faster Face, fighting hand to hand, sweeps the area clean, and the slower one hits the HQ.

Sounds like a detail, but it makes all the difference.

7. PULLING

This is the last of the big changes.

One of the special Actions of the Dancer’s Faces (and a few of the instant tiles) was the pull.

But it doesn’t work like pulling at all.

Usually, the attracted unit

can turn itself in whichever direction it wishes. When we used this rule with the Dancer, all of the pulls

caused fatal wounds, so we had to choose again: make „something like pull, but not quite it” with a different symbol, or remove this Trait from the Dancer.

Removing it turned out to be the best of ideas, and the handfull of Action and Push tiles only made the consistence in the army character more pronounced.

8. FINAL TOUCHES

Aside from all those very careful changes, made with playability in mind, the tests highlight some minor exceptions, problems and questions.

What does the Dance do on a Duel board? Does it enable the Terminals? What happens in a game against Vegas or can the Agitators take over the Faces? Does the Executioner kill the Face by falling from the sky? Ddoes the Steel Net paralyze a Face till the end of the game?

How does Terror work atainst The Dancer? Does the Dancer’s net hold the enemy HQ untill the end? What about Scoper and Spies? Do you put out the Faces on the board face-down or face-up? etc.

That type of changes is not worth mentioning at all – it’s just cleaning up, something you do automatically, but nevertheless very tedious, just as the next round of tests, polishing the army up or army balance.

Many of the good old changes failed (more, than were included in the final version), e.g. Adding Blockers or separate Modules, many rules from the „Black List” entered the final version as a result of testing (e.g. The way of starting the Action:Dance – by discarding all tiles in hand)

It’s the tests that are right in the end, always and forever tests, tests, tests...

Balance and fluff

After putting so much work into playability, so much testing, po-

lishing, disputing, analysing and fixing there comes the time to take care of the army balance.

Contrary to popular belief, the balancing is the easiest of the stages of game development.

Time-consuming and tedious, but not complicated.

We worked up a method of balancing the NS Hex, but that’s another story.

This is usually the end of designing a new army.

Usually.

Because usually the new armies are created on the basis of existing Neuroshima RPG factions.

This time, with a great potential and rules we had three, pretty much anonymous Dancers.

This is why the Neuroshima RPG boss had to step in and miraculously combine the Dancers with the world of Neuroshima, and this is how the Dancers came to be a result of pre-war experiments in designing a perfect soldier.

They are deadly effective, crazed, cyborgised, unpredictable, and very, very aggressive.

Is there anyone willing to take them on?

Previously published on Boardgames that tell stories

iczek Ignacy Trzew Jabłoński Illustrations:

Jakub

It happened yesterday.

out that they rent a room for of-

But before I tell you what exac-

fice just opposite ours rooms, in

tly happened, a short introduc-

the same building, on the same

tion...

floor. Basically, we work together now. ***

They do serious work I

don’t really get, they work on

Ryu and Leszek founded

CAD software and draw some

their company three weeks ago.

damn boring stuff like schemes

Ryu is my friend, he said he was

of ventilation or something like

looking for some room for

that. This is exactly the work I

office, and one thing

decided I will never do in my life

led to another..

when I ran away from college 13

Finally it turned

years ago.

Anyway, they planed to start work on 2nd of July. That was a good plan and of course it didn’t work.

Company that was ma-

king their furniture screw things up, then router didn’t work, blah, blah, blah, and it turned out that they start work on 5th of July. They began with 3 days of delay. Nice. ***

Leszek and Ryu worked

since 7AM till 8PM every single

day. They worked hard. It’s their

first order, first client, their first

door open. A man walks in. Ryu

play Neuroshima Hex yesterday.

job to do. They started with 3

and Leszek suddenly stand up.

It was stupid. And what can I do

days of delay and they fought

„Who the hell is he?” I wonder.

now? Guys I am sorry!

hard to catch up.

„What are you doing?” he asks

Ryu.

an awkward situation like this

the moment when I came up.

„It’s a lunch break. Actually we

with playing boardgames? Hey,

are done. Let’s go to the office”

And that’s unfortunately It’s Thursday, 1PM. Lunch

And at some point the

break in Portal. I walk into their

he says. They go to office.

room. They look like zombies.

They worked too hard for the last few days.

It was their first client.

The guy who was unhappy with their delay. He came personally

„Guys, we have a lunch

to check if they can work faster.

break. Come on, take a break.

And it turned out they sit and

We play

play games and have fun. Great

Neuroshima Hex, you can join

first impression.

us”

„We have to work.”

as a hell for the last 10 days.

„Come on, it’s 30 minutes. One

I make them take a short, 30

quick game. You need a bre-

minutes break today and their

ak. You need to eat something

client had to come right in the

anyway!”

middle of this break to see them

„I don’t know...”

play a board game. Sweet.

„You don’t want me to call you a chicken, do you?” „One game. I crush you and we are back to our ventilation schemes. We had a tough conversation with our client today. He is not happy with the delay” „One game. I promise.”

So they take a break and

go with me. Lunch breaks in Portal are fun. We have a really long table in the corridor and many short, quick, lunch break games. Somebody plays Crokinole, somebody plays Neuroshima Hex, some people just comment and support, other test new armies. Long table crowded with people. I do love these moments in Portal.

So we play. Ryu plays

Neuroshima Hex agains Piechu.

Leszek is just supporting. I play Crokinole.

Guys were working hard

***

I feel guilty I made them

BTW: Anyone of you had

BGG users, any ideas what should I do? How to say ‚I am sorry for the mess’?

(And no, a free copy of

Stronghold for Ryu and a free copy of Pret-a-Porter for Leszek is not the right answer!)

Previously published on Boardgames that tell stories

iczek Ignacy Trzew

Last weekend in Bulgaria

And then somebody

you’re stuck with it. You don’t

there was a final of The Volley-

finally figured it out. This game

ask yourself an important qu-

ball World League. Polish team

is broken, he said. We have to

estion:

beat US team 3:0. It was nice,

change the rules. You need to

„Does my game really need that

thank you very much Americans

score after every successful at-

rule?”

tack, no matter who served.

ching the match I realized that

estion. There is a risk that you

you can learn a bit as a designer

change the rules of a game that

could hear „No”. You would need

when you take a second to talk

is played for almost 50 years. A

to delete this rule. The rule you

about volleyball.

game that was played in world

got used to. The rule you like.

championships, during olimpics,

Exactly that rule...

my whole life rules of scoring in

a game with officiall leagues in

volleyball worked like that: when

almost all countries all over the

you serve and win the point,

world.

you score. If opponent serves

and you win the point, you don’t

Volleyball had the balls.

game better. They don’t bring

score, you just have the right to

more choices. They don’t bring

serve. If your attack is success-

„Our game sucks. We can make

more emotions. They just are.

ful now, you score. If the oppo-

it better.” And they changed the

They just are because you got

nent wins, he only has the right

rules. It was 1998, 41 years

used to them after these all tho-

to serve...

after Federation was founded.

se test games.

They had the guts to remove

tion was founded in 1947. For 40

rule that was making volleyball

removed if you had the guts to

years people were playing like

boring.

ask the question.

described above. If you serve,

and I win, I don’t get a point. I

simple. It is fast, extremely en-

only get the right to serve. So

gaging. It is a great sport now.

Anyway, when I was wat-

You know, for almost

Official volleyball federa-

You know, it’s not easy to

So you’re stuck with it.

Your game is filled with rules that don’t bring anything to the

But the Federation of They had the guts to say:

gameplay. They don’t make the

All those rules could be

Volleyball got much more

now I serve, but this time you

***

win, so you don’t score but now

It is hard to ask that qu-

***

you can serve... And it goes like

I am a young designer.

Yes, I was lucky to make some - I believe good - games like

that for two hours. Score? 0:0.

This is a nightmare for a

Stronghold or The New Era but

designer. You design a rule. You

this is just the beginning. I am

test the game, you play a lot,

aware of that. I am still in the

you get used to this rule. Finally

primary school of designing. I

Watching volleyball was

kinda’ boring for over 40 years.

am learning every single day.

I have flaws that I need to get rid of. I know that.

One of my flaws is

putting to many rules into my games. I have difficulties with designing simple games. It’s hard for me to delete rules, to ask myself a question: „Does my game really need that rule?”

But I am working hard.

I am trying to be better. I am aware of the problem and I believe this is a good beginning. I see the problem. This is always a good first step.

During the last months

I was working damn hard on my Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island game. The game is ready.

Works really great. I am proud of it and I can’t wait for you guys to see it. But it’s not going to print yet. I still have a few weeks left.

During these weeks I

will ask myself the question.

In 1998 the Volleyball

guys showed that they have guts. Now it is my time to act.

ir lives. On the other hand, the nuclear holocaust also marks an end to taxes, school exams and insurance brokers, so there were some perks to all this mess.

Step by step a new world

was born. A world in which the main concern is survival, where the only law is the law of jungle, where the bits and pieces of pre-war knowledge are as valuable and scarce as fuel, water or safe

Many of you already know

Neuroshima Hex or The Convoy.

In October, during the Essen Trade Fairs, another game from the Neuroshima universe will have its international premiere. Neuroshima Tactics, as that is the game in question, is a dynamic, post apocalyptic skirmish wargame with immense

tactical

possibilities.

First, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the NS world, a few words about the apocalypse and the factions that rose from the ashes of our civilization.

The world of Neuroshima

shelter. The great achievements of humanity have been reduced to nothing, and exist only in the

30 years ago, civilization

fragile memories of irradiated

as we know it was blasted to smi-

elders – what is left, though, is

thereens. Later we learned what

worth fighting for, regardless of

happened - that it was the rebel-

cost.

lion of machines, but back then

it was pure chaos. Bombs vanquished cities and factories, architecture and culture, science and social etiquette. In the radioactive pyres, raging pandemics and chemical assaults an immense number of good people lost the-

In this new reality, hu-

manity has encountered an opponent like no other before. It’s name is Moloch - a great condominium of machines, expanding its territory and control year after year. Along with it appeared the mutants, the horrid abominations, a result of dreadful experiments. The Wastes swarm with beasts, but that’s not the only danger, waiting for a careless wanderer. There are the deadly blighted areas, weather anoma-

lies, and the continously mu-

The Outpost

tating vegetation, known in the South as „Neojungle”. And when you take a look at the ruthless gangs or violent soldiers

supposedly

providing

protection for the settlers, you can’t help but think that despite all what happened, the worst plague of humanity are humans themselves.

Factions

The Outpost is the last stand of humanity against the Mo-

loch. They are brave soldiers, holding out the prevalent forces of machines, fighting to the last bullet to destroy the gigantic robots trampling the ashes of our civilization. The Outpost has access to the remaining military bases with pre-war equipment and weaponry.

Among their ranks are the last surviving officers, battle-hardened veterans of the last war. The Moving City is a place, where even the most worthless scum is turned into a soldier. The Outpost has significant firepower, and their spec-ops are expert soldiers, giving you a significant advantage on the battlefield.

You’d think that since ci-

vilization was blasted to oblivion, the world would be rather peaceful, right?

Well, the correct answer is ‚no’. The ruins and wastelands host many enclaves with survivors, the wrecked highways are home to rabid gangsters, and on top of it all, the Children of Destruction - Moloch’s machines and the mutants rose to conquer the world.

The Radiated States are a polluted, uncaring place, but at the same time - a paradise for the countless groups, bands, factions, armies, and most twisted of organizations.

This is the first choice

The Hegemony

you will have to make while playing NS Tactics. You’ll lead a one-of-a-kind faction, with it’s unique perks, which will serve to build your dominance.

Of course, the faction also has some downsides, which your enemies will try to take advantage of. So, read up and make your choice.

The Hegemony is a band of ruthless killers, violent felons,

anarchists respecting only the law of club. They are degenerates, devoid of any kind of morality, surviving by brute strenght, roaming the Polluted States in search of easy targets. Wherever they appear, they wreck havoc and destruction. They steal food, fuel and ammo, killing for anything of use – or just for laughs. The troops of Hegemony are bands of more or less unruly dudes and dudettes, only kept together by a charismatic boss, who knows when to give

moloch an order and when a headshot. Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish wether their goal is to exterminate the enemy, or just to have a blast by hurting others.

Moloch is a mechani-

cal and electronic formation, taking up the area of several states. It’s the butcher of mankind, a powerful, ruthless force making its way down south, crushing human resistance. From deep inside of Moloch, where many linked artificial brains devise tactical plans, come orders for the robotic squads. Responsible for the execution of those commands are smaller, independent brains, acting as field agents, coordinating new attacks, establishing shelters, and acquiring resources. Each of Moloch’s departments is a specialized branch, and all of

Borgo’s Mutants

Borgo’s mutants are the children of Destruction. They were created by Moloch, and formed into

an independent army led by a wired chieftain. The forces of Borgo vary greatly, powerful thanks to the abilities gained by mutating different tribes. Hardened in the fire of battle, they are the creme de la creme of mutated society.

They are fittest ones, able to survive in this world of havoc – an intermixture of machine and human. From Moloch’s point of view they are stronger, faster, more efficient. For humans, though, they are degenerated brutes and savage beasts. So, in the end, is a mutant a higher form of life, or a disfigured monster?

them complement one another.

ted by radiation or pollution, they

On their own, they lack versati-

don’t mind the dark of night, and

lity – together, they act as one,

from the scraps of destroyed ro-

bringing death and destruction to

bots new ones are built. There’s

the surviving humanity. Machines

no doubt that in this great war

need no food, they are unaffec-

for survival, Moloch is the strongest player.

What kind of game is NST?

roes’ abilities, of course. There’s an immense amount of tactics involved - and subsequently - fun

We’ll be frank and to the point:

at the battle table.

Neuroshima Tactics is a stealth

shooter, with a side of twisted

ge detailed maquettes with lots

postapo. Although it’s also full of

of places to lurk, many walls and

fun, those are the three adjecti-

nooks, and pressurize paying at-

ves that define it. We make a po-

tention to what the units see or

int of keeping it that way.

do not see. Long, long time ago

The stealth

The game is played in ste-

alth mode. It’s important to keep to covers, sneak upon the enemy, search for the most convenient setting for an attack - take advantage of the ruined, deserted surroundings, and of our he-

This is why we encoura-

war was about immense armies

nades or Molotov cocktails, you

marching against eachother on

can set a trap or blast their asses

a flatland. That’s the past, bla-

to Hell with an exploding barrel,

sted to nothingness by an ato-

or just serve the old-fashioned

mic wave. The battlefields of to-

knuckle sandwich. Just don’t for-

day are ruins, scorched remains

get that this is a shooter, which

of houses, the walls of enclaves

means that a baseball bat aga-

or Moloch’s bases. The army of

inst a gun will get you killed in

today is a handfull of soldiers,

no time, even before you mana-

a good crew, a gang or a squ-

ge to reach your enemy

ad of perfectly cooperative ma-

- unless, of course, you

chines. Everyone tries not to be

didn’t charge all in, but

the target. Remember to sneak

you sneaked up on

– he who doesn’t sneak, bites the

your opponent, or

dust.

you used a smo-

Shooter

kescreen, or caught him with his pants

down.

Think

hard

The most efficient and sure way

how

to

to x somebody out is to put a bul-

get

let through his head. Of course,

se

you’re not limited to guns only -

roughnecks,

there are many other methods of

forget, that the crew on the bat-

making others’ lives miserable:

tlefield are mostly brawns and

you can shower them with gre-

guns. Take it as a hint.

The game is also shooter.

thobastards but

never

Twisted postapo

The game has a posta-

pocalyptic ambience, but it’s not just any apocalypse. It’s an apocalypse Neuroshima-style! You can live wicked, spectacular scenes, just like in the best of action movies. Dudes and dudettes team up and prep for battles, pulling off almost impossible stunts: storming buildings under gunfire, violent raids and crazy pursuits with stolen gambles. The mutts reek of pheromones, punks are puny teens, making up for it with uncontrollable thirst for wreckage, the cyborgs are so tough,

boiler rooms or...pigs, that you can snatch and exchange for gambles. In the heat of battle many things can happen: wind will open closed doors, tip over barrels or disperse a freshly put up smokescreen. Toxic fumes will blast from cracked pipes or you will have gas explode just above the heads of your crew. If you run hard enough, you might be able to jump over a huge chasm.

If you take a bullet,the impact might push you off the rooftop If you shoot a barrel, it could explode. Neuroshima is a treasure chest, full of explosives. Have a blast!

Sneaking. Shooting.

Neuroshima. Are you in?

they don’t feel a thing - every unit is exceptional, well-thought and has cojones!

It’s gets a bit rough when

In the next issue of Story

it comes to equip and ammo,

on Board we’ll say a few words

tho. You have to save and pen-

about the rules and twists that

nypinch each gamble. At the

make NST a unique, deeply tac-

battlefield you can find puffbollz,

tical

explosive mini-robots, smoking

game.

and

extremely

addictive

NEUROSHIMA. introduction to postapocalyptic role playing game Ignacy Trzewiczek

Illustrations: Piotr Foksowicz

I was born five years before the war. When the hellfire began, I was just a small, frightened kid. I don’t remember anything about those years except fear.

I remember chaos, and it terrified me. When it died down, the long years of war started. I grew up in the south, and when I was old enough I made my way north

to fight the Moloch. That was fifteen years ago. Fifteen long years of nothing but fighting. It’s time to go south again; at least life was simpler there.

The World

Today’s world is a bleak shadow of what it once was. Wherever you look, you

see ruins and junk. Along the highways lie wrecks of old cars, broken remains of road signs, and destroyed power lines. Once in a while, you can find deserted gas stations, and old, entirely destroyed bars. They all look the same: like their owner stepped out for a moment and disappeared for twenty years. Broken windows, unhinged doors, and signs of automatic weapons fire are everywhere. Only the wind howls like it used to, moving windows long since untouched by human hands.

The creak of old hinges has become a kind of welcome song. Everything, no matter where you go, is rust, dust, and broken glass.

Meeting someone outside of a ruined city is a major event. After the war, everyone seemed to disappear. A kind of unpleasant quiet and gloom settled over the old United States, and old timers will always mention the old world with a gleam in their eye as they say something about the noise. In the old days, cars sped down the highways, you heard loud music all the time, and wherever you looked, there always was some hot chick.

Today, if you’re lucky, you’ll see a mutant or wild beast. Nice chicks, fast cars and good music are things of the past.

The cities

The largest American cities took the brunt of the Fire and died. Today they’re only ruins, inhabited by the remains of the old citizens.

People live there like rats on a dump, poking about the buildings, guarding their dark dens, and fighting for the most valuable goods. In cities there’s more broken glass than anywhere else; you can walk for hours and there’s always something crunching underfoot. People probably didn’t realize how many windows surrounded them. Now it all sits under piles of concrete and bricks like a shallow grave. Under the debris, you can see car wrecks and remains of the old infrastructure – long-dead traffic lights, fire hydrants, and power lines.

Most of the cities have some kind of center, a gathering place where the rats come out to remember what it means to be a human being. You’ll recognize it because it’s clean and nothing’s crunching under your boots. Most of the wrecked cars and other trash has been cleaned out.

There’s always a marketplace, and usually a few bars and a gas station or two. In some cities, there are even

indoor shops, like in the old times. It’s good to go there and buy something, just for the satisfaction of shopping.

It’s a nice feeling, believe me.

You can almost believe cities are alive. Sometimes you’ll hear a stereo belting out some long-forgotten song, or even just the yelling voices of children at play. Sometimes, it’s a barking dog or a shooting gun, or even the rowdy shouts of gamblers. But it’s the closest thing there is to life.

People

The old timers say people have changed. Frankly, you don’t have to be some grizzled old coot to see it: the war changed everything, including us.

Several years ago, I spoke to an old guy. He told me he was almost sixty and in perfect health. He used to be a teacher in Chicago, at least before the Moloch. One of the smartest bastards I’ve ever met. The evening with him was a thousand times more interesting and worthwhile than a Tornado trip.

Have you taken tornado yet? I’ll tell you about it later. The man, who called himself Kevin, said that in the old days, people were pretty much alike.

The education system, social requirements, culture, television and the ‘net made people almost the same.

Of course, nobody was really identical, but when you met someone you knew, what to expect from him.

Today you don’t know jack.

If you meet someone, he could be an axe-wielding psychopath trying to decapitate you, or a scientist looking to cure one of the Moloch’s diseases. One of the things Kevin told me that evening really stuck with me: “Before, we had a society. Now, we don’t even have a pack of wild dogs…”

Every town, after years of isolation, has different customs and laws. Every village is an entirely new world. We’re all much more careful and reserved. Nobody asks “how’s it going” anymore. Today, we ask you where you’re from. We became untrusting, aggressive creatures, but it’s the only way to defend yourself against fear of the unknown.

Michał Oracz

illustration: Tomasz Jędruszek

A riddle for our readers.

Long, long time agon, on the planet

need to overpower the enemy. He-

Mil-Halah, in a country named Orval, near

re’s what you can buy with your 110

the city of Trumbur in the Great Mountains

gp’s:

Morghrorg, on the top of Mount Berbuth,

• Mercenaries. If you are gene-

stood the hold of Zorm. At that time, in

rous enough, you will instanteously

year 2577, it was ruled by the hand of

find men willing to defend your ca-

king Bobuszki - the mad and greedy prince

stle - local highlanders, guards form

Katon Steelfoot. Compelled by his sick

the mountain outposts and even a

ambitions he invaded the neighbouring

mercenary army, hailing from the

country, called The Duchy of Seven Castles

nearby City of Merc.

and stole a great treasure (which included

Higlanders. Strength 1. 10 gp

the relics of god Kukh-Ghamon-Ge) and

Guards. Strength 2. 30 gp

took as a hostage the daughter of king

Warriors. Strength 3. 60 gp

Lili-Drun...Wait a sec, why does any of this

• Repairing the walls. The wor-

matter? To sum it up: you need to organize

kers and stonemasons are burning

the defence of Zorm hold from the enemy

the midnight oil, the barrows are

forces, which came to put an end to you

full of stones and cement, the walls

and yours. Prince Cato! Get down to work!

now begin to look respectable.

Luckily, since a while you have had

Hightened wall. Adds 1 point to

a spy in the enemy camp, and thanks to

the Strength of all divisions at that

that you know precisely when and how will

section. 30 gp.

the enemy attack. Look at the map - this

Unconquearble wall. Adds 2 po-

is your hold, it’s current condition and the

ints to the Strength of all divisions

plan of defense.

at that section. 60 gp.

• Warmachines. Terrible, deadly

The original state of your defense

forces.

machines roll slowly onto the walls.

The picture shows how many divi-

Each of the purchased machines will

sions you have at hand - your army is at

work only once, which means that if

the courtyard. As for now, you don’t have

you want to shoot a ballista twice,

any war machines, and the walls don’t

you need to buy two.

look all that impressive. But there’s some

Flaming missile. Allows to burn

more time for preparations and changes.

one ladder: the section of wall with

You have plenty of gold in your treasury

the ladder will be destroyed - no-

- 110 gold pieces. It’s up to you to decide

-one can attack from here anymore.

what to use the gold for - strenghtening

20 gp.

walls, buying more weapons or the loyalty

Ballista. Weakens the enemy

of the mercenaries. Let us begin!

squad by 1. 15 gp

• Not enough gold? If you can’t

Warning! Before you make any

decisions, read the whole riddle first, so

afford to plan your purchases, you

you know all the rules - both the ones per-

can sell some of your men.

taining to the equipment, placements and

Higlanders. Strength 1. 5 gp

the game itself. Otherwise you will make

Guards. Strength 2. 10 gp

bad purchases or misplace your soldiers

Warriors. Strength 3. 15 gp

and lose.

1. PURCHASES

At the begining decide what you

2. DEPLOYMENT

ugh, it may turn out it can move

A is greater than that of team

on the path although it couldn’t

B, division B is destroyed, and

as indicated on the board. You

do so before. This is why you

the division A is weakened - it

deploy your armies wherever

need to pay extra attention when

loses as many Strength points as

you deem fit. It’s the positioning

shooting down enemy squads with

the defeated division had. E.g.

of your divisions that is the key

ballistas, because as they become

if fighters with Strength 3 clash

to success, so don’t rush. On

weaker, they also become more

with an enemy party with the

each wall section you can place

agile.

Strength of 2, they will overpo-

The enemies are placed

wer them, but themselves will

as many divisions as you want, given that their total Strength

3.3 Attack at the walls

lose 2 Strength points. In the

doesn’t exceed 4. On one tower

case of a draw, both parties die.

only one division with Strength 1

one by one, fighting your soldiers.

If, though, the Strength advan-

can fit.

Each enemy squad always picks

tage is twice as big, the weaker

the best possible way of attacking,

division is destroyed without

3. THE SIEGE BEGINS

meaning that if it has two ways

any losses on the belhalf of the

Purchases made, armies

of attacking and the chances of

stronger party. E.g. if a squad

placed, time to being the battle.

succeeding are better on one of

with Strength 2 battles a division

Now you’ll see if your plan was

them, it will pick the better one,

with Strength 1, it will destroy

good enough. The enemy forces

even if it means it has to cross to

it, without losing any Strength

will attack your walls according

another wall section (heeding the

Points.

to the rules shown below. If you

rules, of course).

survive - you’ve won. If not - try

a different approach.

sections. Begin with checking

section 1, then the next one, up

towers (only with Strength 1!),

3.1 Warmachines

to 8, so you don’t get caught up in

may support those fightinig in

all of this. Sometimes you mi-

the sections adjacent to the

are your warmachines. They sho-

ght have to go back, if an enemy

tower. If they choose to enter

ot all at once. Mark the burned

division has to move to another

the battle, their Strength adds in

ladders and weakened enemy

section.

the usual way to the Strength of

squads.

the party fighting on the given

The first ones to attack

The enemy squads attack

The hold is divided in 8

No matter how big the

3.5 Towers Parties located in the

amount of divisions on any given

section. E.g. should there be a

3.2 Movement

section, only two take part in one

party with Strength 2 be aided in

encounter (with the exception of

fight by a division of Strength 1

placed at a point, will not move

the squads hiding in the towers,

placed in the tower, the party’s

untill the end of the game. Your

read below). In other words, the

strenght will rise up to 3 points.

enemies, on the other hand,

squads fight one by one. If there’s

The squad in the tower receives

can move sideways to different

more than one division at one sec-

damage in the usual way, and

wall section, using the paths

tion, the stronger one will attack

it’s total Strength - no matter

that connect them, as long as

first, then the weaker one.

how big the advantage - will not

Your soldiers, once

ensure destroying the enemy

the Width of the way allows it.

The squad can move only when

3.4 Combat

without any losses, since every

it’s Strength doesn’t exceed the

party receives damage separa-

width of the path. E.g. A division

attacks your defenders, the re-

tely.

with 3 Strenght, cannot fit on a

sult is decided by comparing the

path with 2 points of width. If

Strength of fighers.

Strength 3 is helped by a to-

the division is weakened, tho-

wer squad with Strength (total

When an enemy squad

If the Strength of division

E.g. If division A, with

Strength is 4) while fighting an

enemy army of Strength 2,

plan was not good enough. Try

se the battle one more time,

and they destroy it, each of the

thinking up a better one, with a

looking for any crack in your de-

parties loses 2 Strength points -

more complex strategy.

fense. Try your very best, then,

meaning the tower squad dies,

thinking not only for your troops,

and the Strength of the division

SOLUTION

but for the enemies as well - so

A falls to 1.

that you can see to all ends and

defense plans of Zorm Hold

Another example: if an

Solutions - the perfect

prepare for every possibility.

army with Strength 2 is aided

should be sent to the SP adress

by a tower party with Strength

until end of December 2004.

We will someday defend castles

1 (total Strength is 3), and

The results and answers will be

again, maybe even conquer

they fight with an enemy with

posted in the January issue of

them. If the riddle proves too

Strength 3, they both die.

GP. Among those, who give the

hard - or in the worst case sce-

The party in the tower does not

correct responses, my buddy -

nario - too easy, next time I will

defend any section of the wall,

the Star Pirate, will draw lots for

add something to make it more

and can only partake in battle

exquisite prizes.

interesting, i.e. time, provisions and hunger, decreasing morale,

as a help to other division. The enemy cannot attack a party in

Remember! When you send in

the tower - it battles only if you

your plan, our staff will rehar-

wish it to.

Tokens. „Siege of

Zorm hold” is a complex riddle, which might be a made a bit easier by using tokens or chips.

I would suggest simple dice the number of pips can mark the Strength of a party, while divisions with Strength 1 can be symbolized i.e. by coins.

4. Victory and defeat

Victory. If you carried

out all possible encounters, and the enemy still didn’t manage to break your defense, you win - your walls are impenetrable.

Check-mate.

Defeat. If the enemy enters the walls - meaning, in any given moment there will be a party on a section not guarded by the defenders, you lose. This is the end, your

magic and heroes.