Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

Introduction
This is a supplement for CROM, a skirmish game set in the Hyborian Age. I've
included a number of articles that will hopefully answer some questions that
I've been asked since the initial release of CROM.

Introductory Scenario
This is a quick scenario that is suitable as an introduction game. It can be
played solo as both sides have simple clear objectives and it doesn't involve
many figures or scenery.

I've included a suggestion to vary the difficulty so it provides more of a

challenge and also a complete play through to give you an idea of how it might
turn out.

Scenario Design
A short article about designing scenarios for CROM. This
aims to give general guidelines on content and pacing for
beginners.

Playing at Heroes
An article about playing the good
guys. It's not as easy to be a
successful hero as it seems. This
may give you some pointers.

Building a Tower
Finally, to round off, instructions and plans for
building a tower for use with 28mm miniatures
that will make a good centre piece for an
adventure.

©PRD Ward 2013

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Introductory
Scenario

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Plot
The Situation:

Conan and Sonja have been hired to put a stop to the on-going problems
caused by a High Priest of the ancient and terrible Snake People.

The High Priest and his followers are currently distracted by some nefarious
religious ritual they're undertaking and so Conan and Sonja are able to creep
up on them undetected.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 The Setting

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 The Setting

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 The Players
The Heroes:

Conan, 12 dice, and Red Sonja, 10 dice.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 The Players
The Adversaries:

Snake Men.
The High Priest, 10 dice, two lesser priests, 2/2/4 and two groups of three
minion warriors 2/2/0.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 The Players
The High Priest generates 1 summoning point for every 2 dice he uses, the
lesser priests generate 1 summoning point for every 4 dice.

If they manage to complete the ritual a worm, 10 dice, will be summoned that
may aid them.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 The Players
As it stands this will not give the heroes too much trouble and it's unlikely the
worm will be summoned. It does make a decent learning scenario if you want
to introduce new players to the game as it covers the three basic concepts of
Moving, fighting and magic with out too many distractions.

For a challenge the Snake Men minions can be 2/3/0 rather than 2/2/0. Which
will allow them to be more of a threat and last longer. This should give the
priests enough time to summon the worm and the heroes will have a real fight
on their hands.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Example Game
Set up

Set out the play area as per the scenario map. As long as the altar is central
the mix and position of the ruins, rocks, trees and scrub grass isn't critical. Mix
them around to break up sight lines and movement.

Place the Snake Men and heroes in their start positions.

Shuffle the action deck. Any Snake Men minion card that comes up before a
hero has moved is ignored and that group of minions loses their go.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Example Game
Turn 1

Since the Snake Men cannot do anything except continue the ritual until either
of the two heroes makes themselves known none of them allocate any dice to
initiative.

The High Priest allocates some of his dice to his magic (the ritual) and the
other Priests do likewise. The minions don't allocate beforehand, they decide
what to do when it's their go because they have so few dice to use.

Conan and Sonja allocate three dice each to movement and the rest to
combat, not going to be much negotiating here.

The cards are turned to see who acts first.

First up are Minions 1, the group nearest Conan and Sonja but their go is
wasted because they can't act yet.

Next is Sonja who rolls pathetically low on her movement so decides to move
behind some rocks and await developments.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Example Game
Turn 1

Minions 2 go next. They can act, unlike their companions, and decide to rush
Sonja.

Only one gets close enough to attack.

Sonja allocates three of her combat dice to defend herself. Dice are rolled,
totals are compared and Sonja stabs the reckless Snake Man twice. (She
inflicts one wound for the highest total and a second because she rolled a six).

Minions don't actually have a dice pool so I record hits with little skulls.

The Priests go next and continue their ritual with all their dice hoping to
summon the Worm sooner rather than later.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Example Game
Turn 1

Conan is next. His movement dice total allows him to spring forward into the
midst of the Snake Men. He determines to finish things quickly and attacks
each minion with reckless abandon.

He allocates two dice to each attack and 'burns' a further one to give him three
attack dice against each; the 'burned dice' count as sixes but are removed
from his pool- the extra exertion saps his reserves of strength.

However, his gamble pays off and he wins both rolls. He inflicts two wounds on
each for his successful attacks (successful attacks do two wounds, successful
defences only inflict one) and a further wound on each for the sixes from the
burned dice. (each six rolled in a successful combat throw is an additional
wound). Three hits and the minions are dead as planned.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Example Game
Turn 2

Both Conan and Sonja allocate a couple of dice to initiative, Conan wins the roll
so he will go first.

Turning his attention to the High Priest Conan delivers a devastating attack
with all his combat dice.

The priest has been donating dice to his ritual magic (it's tough, not to mention
dangerous, being a sorcerer) and currently only has four dice to defend with.

Conan out rolls him massively with enough sixes to kill him outright which is
how it should be when barbarian meets sorcerer.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Example Game
Turn 2

Judiciously Conan uses his movement dice to retreat out of range (he hopes)
of the other minions since he has no way of defending himself.

Sonja goes next and rushes up to one of the remaining Priests. The chanting is
continuing even with the High Priest dead which is worrying.

Against all the odds she fails to kill him.

He out rolls her with a six as well and Sonja has to discard two of her dice
(discards are taken from unused dice first and this robs Sonja of another
attack).

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Example Game
Turn 2

The Priests go next in quick succession.

They manage to allocate enough dice (leaving them only a single one each to
keep them alive) to complete the ritual.

A dreaded Worm of the Earth appears!

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Example Game
Turn 2

The minions are next. The elect to charge towards Conan and avoid the Worm.

With the High Priest dead things might not go according to plan. None of them
reach Conan but they're poised to strike next round.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Example Game
Turn 3

Again the priests activate one after the other.

Each receives another dice (magicians regenerate a dice a round if they've

spent them on magic) and each uses all their pool to flee.

The first one escapes off the table.

The second doesn't get far enough but tries to hide anyway. He knows that
without the High Priest to control it the Worm will attack randomly.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Example Game
Turn 3

The minions launch themselves at Conan who hacks them about a bit for their
trouble.

The Worm attacks Sonja as she's the only thing near it. She loses half her
remaining dice to the hideous beast (the Worm rolled lots of sixes).

Sonja goes next and uses her few remaining dice to flee. Not very far however.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Example Game
Turn 4

The minions try again to overpower Conan but they've been weakened and two
die easily whilst the third is wounded.

The Worm split it's dice to allow some movement and decided to chase Sonja.

She defends with all her dice and burns all but one of them. This is do or die
for her.

She just wins the roll and inflicts six wounds (successful defence and her five
burned dice which each count as a six). Now she only has a single die left,
she's nearly dead and the Worm's still alive.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Example Game
Turn 4

Conan is the last to go. He has to burn a couple of movement dice to ensure
he gets to the Worm with enough dice left to attack with some hope of
success.

More dice burning in the combat and the terrible creature dies (just).

The pair of bloodied heroes limp off towards the sunset, victorious.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Scenario Design

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Scenario Design
There are no hard and fast rules about designing scenarios that allow you to
make them 'balanced'. The freedom of choice for the players makes this idea
that there will be some kind of inherent balance that in turn will make each
encounter 'fair' a meaningless concept.

Rather, a scenario should be designed to offer a challenge to the players. A

scenario that sets a tough challenge is the one that players will remember once
they win through it.

The governing factor in playing CROM is the player's ability, not their
character's ability.

Having said that it does help to have some kind of starting point if you're
completely new to all this so here is a quick guide that may set you on the
right track.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Scenario Design
Adversaries

There should always be a villain character, a single tough villain is much harder
on the hero players than a larger number of not so tough villains.

Since the villains are usually run by a single person the amount of thought that
can go into allocating their dice and carrying out their turns is drastically
reduced by increasing the number of character adversaries.

The main villain should have a task to complete, summoning a monster is a

good one to begin with. To this end there must be enough minions to keep the
heroes busy so that the the main villain has the time he needs to succeed.

This task is what drives the scenario and imposes a time constraint on the
heroes. Heroes with unlimited time will overcome anything thrown at them but
by having a ticking clock they are forced to take action rather than rest and
recuperate. If the pressure isn't on then minions are worthless because their
ability to hold up or weaken the heroes is negated.

One group of basic minions per hero is fine, the number of minions doesn't
really matter although a group of five will require more thought/time/skill to
dispatch than a group of three. The actual threat they pose isn't too dependent
on their numbers, they will be slaughtered by a competent hero regardless.

Conversely a bad player will lose his hero to a group of three as easily as to a
group of five. If the player is really bad he may feel better about losing to a
larger group.

For every three or so groups of minions deployed a minor villain should be

fielded. This can either be a combat character such as a Death Dealer or a
group of helpers for the main villain such as junior priests to aid in a
summoning.

These minor villains should either buy time for the main villain by making the
fight longer or shorten the time needed for the villain to achieve the nefarious
task by adding their effort to the pool.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Scenario Design
Objective markers

Other problems for the heroes can be thrown into the mix with difficult or
dangerous terrain or events triggered by uncovering an objective marker.

Each linked scenario should have objective markers, usually four, evenly split
between good and bad items or events. Uncovering all of the markers will
usually trigger the next scenario unless there is another specific event that has
been scripted in.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Scenario Design
Pace

As mentioned previously the pace of an encounter should be fairly frenetic. The

heroes should feel pushed for time all the time.

Having the main villain trying to achieve something is a good time threat and
adding in time dependent minor threats such as poison add to the tension/fun.
You can't really ever have too many of these.

Environment effects such as a spreading fire or a slowly lowering door that will
trap the heroes are another way of keeping the sense of urgency alive. All such
effects can be handled in a bookkeeping free way by having a card shuffled
into the action deck so don't be afraid to include several.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Scenario Design
Conclusion

A tough challenge and not much time to overcome it are the two ingredients
that will ensure a good, fast, pulp style game of action and heroics.
Don't be afraid to stretch your players, they'll thank you for it in the end.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Playing at Heroes

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Playing at Heroes
Heroes

On the face of it the hero's life is an easy one. They have many dice and most
of their opponents have only a few.

Unfortunately this can lead some people to have very short-lived, and not
particularly heroic, heroes.

Whilst it's true that heroes (and major villains) have lots of dice, they have to
do quite a bit with them and take a lot of things into consideration. Also there's
the difficult choice of whether to burn dice or not and the uncomfortable reality
that, as a hero's dice pool shrinks, the tasks he has to accomplish are as great
as they ever were.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Playing at Heroes
Being heroic

The important factor in succeeding as a hero is controlling the encounter.

Having the tactical initiative and keeping it is the key.

Pick your fights and win them. Choose your opponent and beat them. Easier
said than done? Maybe.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Playing at Heroes
Initiative

Going first can be important, it lets you do your stuff before your enemies do
their stuff.

Since killing your enemies and driving them before you is a standard part of
your adventuring day the advantages of killing them first are self evident.

However it isn't necessary to go first all the time. Pick your moment and keep
initiative dice for when it's crucial. Don't go first just for the sake of it.

If your chosen enemies are a long way off wait for them to come to you, then
spring forward with panther like grace. So long as you attack them before they
attack you the plan is working.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Playing at Heroes
Attacking

Moving in and attacking is better than waiting and defending. You get much
better value out of combat dice used to attack than those used to defend.

An unskilled and inexperienced hero will often leap into the midst of a group of
minions and start to lay about him wildly with his sword. All good right? The
hero has many dice and the minions few.

The usual result is that the hero, having emptied his dice pool in lots of small
attacks, ends up panting and exhausted surrounded by a couple of dead
minions and a couple of live ones. With no combat dice left to defend the hero
gets cut to pieces by the remaining minions.

He rarely actually dies but he always loses a lot of dice from his pool, dice he's
going to have trouble replenishing because the clock's ticking and he needs to
get on.

What does the experienced hero do? He picks his targets, chooses his
opponents and wins the fight.

He moves into the group of minions, he attacks one (maybe two) with enough
dice that he doesn't need to burn any (so he gets them back later) and wins
the fight.

Then, and this is the clever bit, he moves away, preferably further than the
minions can reach. It is worth burning dice in this phase, better to move with
them than to lose them to an undefended retaliation.

Rinse and repeat. Careful positioning will save a hero's life.

Sometimes the ticking scenario clock will require a more brutal attack to get
things done quicker which is when burning combat dice is acceptable but really
only to kill proper villains not minions.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Playing at Heroes
Reserves

It can seem like a good idea to keep some combat dice for defence but actually
it's better to use them for movement and put yourself beyond attack range
altogether. You will never keep enough to avoid harm and failed defence dice
are wasted dice.

Even if a villain can reach you to attack they are likely to go for a nearer
opponent if one is handy so you don't have to be right out of range, just more
out of range than someone else. Keeping the healthier hero nearest the
enemies (in a tank roll if you like) whilst the others move, attack and move
away is a viable tactic.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Building a Tower

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Building a Tower
One of the first thing you need for a set of CROM scenery is a tower. I'm going
for an Arabian/Indian/Persian look, something like I imagine Zamora to look
like.

Here's the cutting list, nothing very difficult and not many windows so this
proved quick and easy to prepare.

As always, everything here is cut from 4mm thick cork tile.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Building a Tower
The small windows are evenly spaced, 20mm in from the sides and with 20mm
between them.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Building a Tower
Before assembling the tower the doors need to be glued into place.

The doors are made from thin balsa wood scribed with a pencil to look like
planks.

They need to be big enough to cover the openings, mine are 30mm x 50mm.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Building a Tower
They were glued behind the door apertures with PVA and then a pin was
pushed through to make a door handle.

I clipped the pins off on the other side and covered the sharp bit with some
super glue and accelerator to avoid scratches during construction.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Building a Tower
The lower part of the tower is braced with lengths of balsa wood to help keep
the walls square during construction and to add extra rigidity during play.

I stuck the bracers to the sides of the thin (72mm) walls so that I could line
them up with the edges.

I used PVA again to stick them because I needed time to check they were
aligned properly and super glue sticks cork very quickly.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Building a Tower
Finally the tower could go together.

I used the 80mm x 80mm base to help position everything and glued with
super glue.

The 72mm walls fit inside the 80mm walls.

Super glue accelerator helps to fix everything very quickly since this part can
often seem to need several pairs of hands.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Building a Tower
With the bottom of the tower finished it's time to assemble the thinner top
section.

This isn't braced, just stuck with super glue. I assembled the tower fully before
attaching it to the 120mm balcony base.

I drew two diagonals in pencil on the 120mm base to help with placement,
when all the small tower's corners are touching a diagonal you know it's
centred.

Again,to allow time for fine adjustments, I used PVA for this part.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Building a Tower
The four walls of the top section were attached next. They are only small and
didn't pose any problems.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Building a Tower
Next I made the steps up to the main door.

The door frame was cut from a 50mm x 50mm square off-cut of cork to give
the door more interest and the steps were cut to a 50mm width to match it.

I cut a strip of cork into increasing lengths; 5mm,10mm,15mm,20mm and so

on in 5mm increments all the way to 40mm.

Once stacked these made the stairs. I glued these with PVA and, once
everything was square, I attached the finished step unit to the wall the same
way.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Building a Tower
The balcony railing could be made from anything.

Originally I was gong to make it a solid wall but I had some laser cut plywood
frets left from an earlier project so I decided to use them instead because they
gave a more 'eastern' look.

I cut them to length allowing for 10mm balsa wood posts at each corner.

Everything was tacked in place with PVA and, after some fiddling, was finally
fixed with super glue and accelerator.

I topped the posts with some mapping pins.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Building a Tower
I stuck a square of cork under the balcony that fits inside the lower part of the
tower.

This shouldn't be a particularly tight fit as it's only there to stop the top being
moved around or toppled during play and it's best if the tower can be moved
and positioned one handed.

The tower isn't supposed to come apart, I haven't added an interior floor and I
don't intend to, I was going to stick it all together but I realised that two parts
make for easier storage and transportation.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Building a Tower
The very top was finished with the 60mm x 60mm roof to which I glued an Ian
Weekley resin dome topped with another mapping pin.

These domes are very useful modelling aids and can be obtained from
Magnetic Displays. www.magneticdisplays.co.uk

I added another smaller square of cork to the underside of this roof to aid in
positioning it as this is supposed to lift off and allow access to the tower top
during play.

Some coffee stirrers were cut to size and added to the walls for interest and
the tower was complete.

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

 Building a Tower

Luca Ccb (order #14830881)

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