Creating a Caravan Guard for Talomir Tales

 

I've decided to create a caravan guard character for Talomir Tales Caravanserai, which I can no longer find the link for so we're going into the realm of discontinued rules until they show up in the Rebel Minis archive of Two Hour Wargames. I envision him as a late teens mercenary trying to prove himself. Since he's not a veteran in combat, like a soldier would be, his class will be warrior. As usual, I will be using the GameMaster's Apprentice Fantasy deck for character creation.

Adventure Log: Shen Month 4 Epic Quest Part 6 Quest Finale

 

Rules Used

So far it has been a heck of a journey. A lot of battles and a lot of blogging on the quest for the Eternal Father statue. So let us conclude with Shen and Phineas' adventure!

Adventure Log: Shen Month 4 Epic Quest Part 5 Homeward Bound

Rules Used

We are almost home! This is the last wandering encounter of this quest. Whew, been quite a ride. I will be using this to resolve PEF's: 1-3 Capalan League, 4-5 Goblins, and 6 trolls. I figure the goblins are hot on the trail after killing their chief or king or whatever goblins call their commander in chief for their given tribe (and boy did they get revenge, as you will see soon). There will be five PEF's in this encounter. The dice gods really don't want me to get to the finish line, I guess! The encounter is taking place in the dark.

Adventure Log: Shen Month 4 Epic Quest Part 4 The Long Road Home

Rules Used

What did I think about the dungeon delving table? Overall, I thought it was pretty slick. It doesn't take up any space and, since you're not going back through the dungeon, you don't need tiles, cards, or sketching it out. Not that tiles and cards are a bad thing, I just didn't have room playing on my coffee table right now and it speeds things up. Less components equals less set up time. It is truly random so you could have a long dungeon or you could encounter the big bad and his treasure room on the first roll. Both of the dice can be modified with a +1 to get you going through the dungeon faster though.

On with the next encounter, wandering!

Adventure Log: Shen Month 4 Epic Quest Part 3 Into the Dungeon Bowels!

 

Rules Used

Before we get started, I'd like to talk about a couple of things.

Adventure Log: Shen Month 4 Epic Quest Part 2

Rules Used

 

Having a healer is great and all but he is of the Red Sun alignment (the "good guys"), which opens me up to attacks from the Black Moon alignment (the "bad guys") and more negative interaction results. This is not necessarily bad but, I'm committed to the side of good now and can't recruit Black Moon NPCs, such as goblins and orcs...Sad indeed!

Also, I've never had a healer in the group so I will go into detail if I need to heal a character and take a step-by-step approach. With that said, let's get started on the second wandering encounter for this quest!

Adventure Log: Shen Month 4 Epic Quest Part 1

 

Rules Used

A quick note: Not that I need to explain things in a solo game (other than to myself?), I've decided to keep the Send Lawyers, Guns, and Money model for Involuntary encounters. Why? There is a 1-3 chance of a something bad happening, 1 chance at a job, and 2 chances of nothing happening. As written in Caravanserai, your chance of something bad happening at the beginning of the month is 100%. Now, in a post-apocalyptic setting I can see that being the case. It is, indeed, a harsh environment where every day you are fighting for your life.

In a fantasy world, however, I really don't see someone being attacked every month while going about their humdrum lives in between encounters. Sometimes, sure, you're going to be raided by goblins but not always. So with that said, I'm going with the SLGM involuntary encounter table. As I said before, the great thing about Two Hour Wargames is, you can pick and choose from other rule sets. Besides, Talomir Tales Distant Shores doesn't even have involuntary encounters so it's a nice in between.

On with the adventures!

Adventure Log: Shen Month 3

 

Rules Used

In the mail yesterday, I got the above gem. The third book in the Talomir Tales series, Caravanserai. It is, apparently, still available through Amazon as of this date. It might be gone soon as it is being replaced with Warrior Heroes Adventures in Talomir!

Anyhow, I picked these up as it updates the rules slightly, has the tabletop battles (if you want more of a wargame), expands the regions you can adventure in, and includes a city to explore, Brigana. The great thing about THW games is that you can just add whatever or take out what you don't want. So I'm going to add Brigana to Capalan League since Shen is already in that nation. Boom, Brigana now becomes "a city" (couldn't think of a name just yet!) in Capalan League.

There are six sections in a city: The Bazaar, The Docks, Public Area, Poor Area, Government Area, and the Wealthy area. You can enter each area once per month and resolve as many PEF's as you wish. You can take sections of the city away if you want a smaller town, for example: The city Shen is in only has four sections, The Bazaar, Docks, Public Area, and Poor area. I figure the Government area and the Wealthy area are in bigger cities. I'm still playing RAW (rules as written) but just downsizing.

Making a Fantasy Character with GameMaster's Apprentice: Shen

 

Shen

Characters, you can't really play an RPG game without them. I primarily play simple solo games and I like simple characters but I do like a little back story. What's their motivation? What's their back story? What's their personality like? Do they like hot dogs?

I came across this post over on the Two Hour Wargames forums by davidlhsl and, on a whim, bought the GameMaster's Apprentice decks as he highly recommended it. I like card drawing and thought this would be a good fit for my character creation. No rolling dice and no flipping pages in a book, sweet!

Each card has a TON of information on it, as seen here:

This is the fantasy version but each card set has genre specific info on it.

For my uses, I primarily look at names, random events, sensory snippets, belongings, catalyst, location, and the virtue/vice. The difficulty and likely odds could be good. Does Shen like hot dogs? "No!"

Read on if interested...

Adventure Log: Shen Month 2 (continued)

 

Rules Used

Rather than go looking for employment, I decided an Explore encounter would be a decent choice. I am using CrinkleChips' little explore creature table found here in the THW forums. It's a great little tool! Maybe we'll meet some new friends? Or enemies! Or NPCs that just ignore us, which is probably going to happen...Oh it will happen.

Adventure Log: Shen Month 2

Rules Used

 Our heroes:

Shen Rep 5 AC 2 Thief Star (Smooth, Clumsy)

Phineas Rep 3 AC 2 Grunt Soldier (Hard as Nails)

Let's get this going right off the bat, roll for involuntary encounter, confrontation. Sounds juicy! Yes, the artwork is updated from last time. 😎

Adventure Log: Talomir Tales Shen Month 1 (continued)

 

Rules Used

Shen Rep 5 AC 2 Thief Star (Smooth, Clumsy)

Last night's log started off Shen's adventuring career and ended with him accepting a job to escort a merchant. Escorts are tough business but, I feel confident that Shen can overcome it and gain some coin. Maybe he'll even meet some allies, who knows? We will see! I forgot to mention that Shen is in the nation of Capalan League.

Adventure Log: Talomir Tales Shen Month 1

 

Rules Used

Shen Rep 5 AC 2 Thief Star

Shen is a Rep 5, Pep 5, and Sav 4 thief. Class attribute is clever. His chosen attribute is smooth. His random attribute is clumsy. Just my luck, a clumsy thief! I will rule that finding and disarming traps is a physical challenge but finding secret rooms is more of being keenly aware, so more of a mental challenge. Thankfully, clever lets me roll 3D6 and choose the best result on challenges.

Personal preferences for my games:

I start my adventuring with an involuntary encounter. While not actually in the Talomir Tales Distant Shores rule book, it is from the 5150 Send Lawyers, Guns, and Money.  1-4 something happens and 5-6, nothing.

Regarding magical items, only rep 5 or higher (also a big bad of any rep) can have a magical item. I will roll when the PEF is resolved to see if it is equipped with it. I assume they know what they have.

Read on for his first adventures!

Tanan Saga: Bernard The Healer

Once again, we follow Tanan the elf scout (Rep 6 AC 2 shooter). This time, he will be guarding a healer named Bernard. I will consider Bernard (Rep 4, AC 2) part of the group until he is dropped off at his destination (or killed!). I will be doing two Wandering Encounters as per the "Guard a Character" job. It says you may resolve as many PEFs as you want on a Wandering Encounter but instead of doing it the easy way with just one, I'm going to resolve two for each encounter set in a different battle board. The first would be 1-3 Tereken, 4-5 Goblins, and 6 trolls. The second would be Mirholme and the rest the same.

The elf and healer set off early that morning with the sunrise. They chatted along the way and sang a few traveling songs.

Tanan Saga: Market Day

Getting fed up with not being able to recruit members to his band, Tanan decided he would do something very unlike an elf. He would go to the nearest city of men. Elves, as you know, are very shy folk who prefer the woods and the company of animals over that of men. But, as his village didn't really contain anyone interested in adventures, he decided it was time to go into town.

Tanan knew that not far from his camp was a small city. He decided to look there. So he broke down his well disguised camp, rolled up his bedroll, and set off. It would be a short journey.

This will be a carousing encounter. I'm using my new Big Book of Fantasy Mats by Loke Battle Mats. These are perfect for Battle Boards! Look for a review of the Fantasy and Sci-Fi books soon! A nice addition to the Battle Boards from Two Hour Games.

Tanan Saga: The Encroachment of Man

Tonight, we again join Tanan the elf on his ongoing adventures. Let's take a look...

Tanan woke early in the morning to do some exploring. At heart, he was an adventurer. He liked to walk in the sunlight and take in the cool morning air. Strapping on his quiver and stringing his bow, he set off, humming merrily. He made his way north into the scrub lands.

Tanan Saga: Troll Troubles

A young elf deftly crept through the forest, eyes and ears sharp for anything ahead. Tanan was his name, a scout from a nearby elven village in Tereken. 

Tanan

 

Tanan is a rep 5 wood elf shooter with an AC of 2. He has the attributes slippery (race), hard as nails (random), and agile (class). He's aligned with Red Sun. The encounter is Wandering. I figured instead of a Carousing encounter, an elf would feel more natural recruiting on a wandering encounter so I chose 1-3 Tereken Men, 4-5 Elves, and 6 Trolls.

Talomir Tales: Distant Shores Review

I think I've played enough games of Talomir Tales: Distant Shores to write a review. Most games I played I didn't record on my blog.

"What do we have here? He wouldn't make a mouthful!"

Talomir Tales: The Northman Part 3

After his last encounter, which nearly ended in disaster, Hellburg finally made it down to the fringes of society. He entered a tavern and strode up to the bar. "Give me the strongest grog you got, tender!" The bartender complied and slid the "grog" to him.

Talomir Tales: The Northman Part 2

Hellburg awakens, bloodied, bruised, and missing his sword. "Dammit!" He got to his feet, dizzy from the loss of blood. He shook his head, piecing together what had happened. He had been beaten to a pulp by some highwaymen.