Scenario G1, another way to play DDM
The guild is pleased to release scenario G1, Escalation, which presents an entirely different way to play Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures. This is the first in the G series of modules, which are meant to be ‘general’ in nature. Rather than following a specific story arc, they can be adapted to a number of different situations, and they typically provide a slightly different format for play. G2, in editing, was written by Jason Lioi and will follow the same pattern.
When playing DDM using the scenario G1 , the game only ends when all units belonging to your opponent are removed from the battle map. Players start with a modest force,that can nonetheless quickly build above the standard 200 points. To accomplish this, players move creatures to occupy victory areas, which allow them to ‘earn’ points that they can later spend to acquire new units. Playtesting shows that once a team starts losing, it can all be over quickly (if they haven’t been careful in allocating their resources). This can be countered, in part, by having additional players. So while this scenario is good for two players, it is also a great scaleable format for 4+ players as well, particulary if you can put a couple maps together.
On this last note, if you like to customize your play, then feel free to add victory areas. This was also determined to make the game more interesting during playtesting. In scenario G1, we’ve included a tile that can be used to add one (or more, if you duplicate it) victory areas. This permits G1 to be replayed with several variations on the recommended maps. Of course, where you place the Victory Area should be decided with your opponents before the game starts. Alternatively, you can have one player place the Victory Area and let the other player set up first. The additional victory area also allow play on other maps. Want to play on Evermelt, a single victory area map? Add two or four additional ones and it works just fine. Multiplayer? Flooded ruins and Dwarven Outpost fit togther nicely as a double-sized map for 4 players (start in 4 map corners), and its fun to include at least one VA as an ‘island.’
Download G1
here.
G1 also introduces two new campaign cards, but once you master this, feel free to play with any of , those already released.
This looks really cool! It’s a bit like a variant that I’ve tried to make called Divines and Devils where each side can summon either an Angelic or Demonic creature (depending on if they have any lawful good or lawful evil creatures in their warband) one time per round if at least one of their creatures in their warband is bloodied. The summoned creature fights in the stead of the bloodied creature for that round then is gone again at the start of the next round.
I’ve also been tinkering with an idea for having shape-changing creatures such as the dragons in the Dragonlance books who can take either humanoid or dragon form. Not sure how to pull it off in the game yet though. I’ve thought that a player could maybe spend a turn to switch their creature from one form to the other (by swapping out minis) then activate the transformed creature in the following round. Any effects the creature feels in one form, transfer over to its other form. It could be kind of like the ‘regular’ and then ‘epic’ versions of cards for certain creatures like some of the D&D miniatures sets had only in this case, you’d have humanoid stats on one side and dragon form stats on the other side.
Really looking forward to running this game variant at our next Vegas Game Day! I think the guys will really like it.
Thanks for the victory area templates! I’ll certainly be adding them to my DDM maps. I’ve been adding start areas and victory areas to maps from D&D RPG adventures to make them into DDM maps by drawing the areas on the map by hand. These templates look much better.
The warband cards for the scenario look really cool too! It’ll be interesting to try them out.