It has been a while since myself and the Dastardly Regular Opponent got together to play some games (with the last time being the Old World day back in September). Time has grown short with both of us busy with work and family stuff. That said, it’s hard to escape the need to roll dice and so we decided to get together for a Saturday evening game session, as well as giving me a chance to drop off some 3D printed parts for his collection.
The problem was to decide what to play. We both have plenty of games in common that we enjoy but as times come and go, we can both have different moods for the sort of game we’re interested in (you can probably guess where mine usually point – more SF than swords) and there is also the more practical concern of getting the table setup in a busy house and then tidied down at the end of the night before I drive 45 minutes home. For this night, we decided to keep things simple and went with an old favourite – Open Combat by Carl Brown at Second Thunder. This game has graced the pages of this blog before (including in some games with my sister) so it was something we could relatively easily relearn and get playing.
In fact, we managed to get two games in on one evening. First up, I was given a part of adventurers to go and stop an evil necromancer from completing a ritual at a burial cairn. With the usual motley crew (heroic leader, tanky heavy, elf archer, halfing thief and battle wizard) I jumped into the fray against a concerning number of skeletons.
The game was pretty fast-paced so I didn’t have too much time for photos or a blow-by-blow. Instead, let’s talk about the ruleset and what it did. I really liked the fact it was pretty simple to kitbash some profiles for characters together and get them on the table, with a very strong feel of getting your hand on a toolbox to build what you want. I’m also a fan of the combat system – it fits on a single sheet of A4 with all the basic details and we only had to check a few edge cases back in the main book. The dice system (roll X dice based on comparing skills, all dice rolls use the same values) meant we were able to jump in, understand what to aim for and when and focus on playing the scenario.
It’s not all roses though – maybe it was the combination of figures we had (there were a lot of Resolute folks around) but it did feel like we had quite a few dice rolls where the result of “nothing happens” in our two games. To make it clear, I don’t need every dice roll to make something explosive happen, but it can still be frustrating as the “nothing happens” rolls start to rack up, especially when you pit ordinary joe against a literal liche. Similarly, I think although we got the basics down, the specific tactics of the game can feel a little directionless – I can understand the aim to flank your opponent’s fighters to gain the benefits of attacking outside the front arc but some of the abilities we were using did nothing to assist with this. I feel like maybe I need to spend more time on the game to really get back into things. I can remember sliding off playing it because it lacked that gritty feel I want from a fantasy game, even if I think the core systems are great. It’s maybe something that could be added on, with a few special rules to evoke that feeling of heroes in the darkness.
These issues aside, it didn’t stop us from finishing one game and immediately leaping into another. This one was a bit more of a mirror match, pitting my adventurer party against another in a battle for survival. It went poorly for me – although I did manage to squash his halfling before my own was killed, I lost fire superiority with my elf going down to a magic and crossbow bolt attack while my own wizard ended up being outmanoeuvred. My leader and heavy did still manage to tie down their opposite numbers, but the arrival of the enemy wizard left me to concede. It was however still a game with plenty of fun and a good end to the evening.
After the game we managed to get another date in the diary for our next game (a good start). Hopefully, this time we’ll be able to get a better schedule together, especially as next year I want to take full advantage of a venue that the Dastardly Regular Opponent has access to so we can run big games or games days every two months, such as the What A Tanker we ran last year after Vapanartak or the Old World game day.
The other thing is that the Opponent didn’t sound too opposed to trying out some rules I’ve been sketching down. If the test goes well, I’ll report more here.
