Wyrmlog

Inspired by Peachy’s regular mentions of it on the Juggz podcast I shelled out some of my hard earned cash this week to acquire a copy of The Silver Bayonet – the self described “Wargame of Napoleonic Gothic Horror”.

It is – in my quickly formed opinion – excellent! A nice, streamlined system that still manages to have enough complexity to be fun, and with a fascinating setting. You choose your nation from the major powers of the Napoleonic wars, recruit soldiers of various nationality-determined specialties, then send the resulting unit into combat against similar units from rival nations – combat which will inevitably be interrupted by various supernatural horrors that need to be put down before they kill everyone.

I’m already planning to pick up the supplements that extend the game with new regions, specialties and monsters – I’m particularly tickled by the inclusion of a serpopard in the Egyptian expansion.

Anyway, as is so often the case after reading through it I have a whole bunch of ideas for customisations, many of which probably won’t work. But who knows, maybe someone might find some use for them? So here we go…

First up, an addition to the Special Armoury…

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HOLY WATER
A small jar of water blessed by a religious figure. It takes up 1 equipment slot and may be used to make a single Melee or Shooting Attack. No Soldier or Officer may take more than 1 Holy Water.

Holy water only inflicts damage on figures with an Allergy to Blessed or Salt. It has no effect on figures without these Allergies.

When used for a Shooting Attack, Holy Water has the profile:

Range: Equal to the attacking figure’s Speed
Damage: Skill Die
Special: If the attack inflicts damage and a double (apart from double 1s) has been rolled, all Blessed/Salt vulnerable figures within 2 inches of the target suffer damage equal to half the inflicted damage rolled down.

When used for a Melee Attack Holy Water has the profile:

Damage: Skill Die
Special: Ignores 1 point of Damage Reduction/Armour

Once Holy Water has been used for an attack – even an unsuccessful one – it is expended and cannot be used again this game. In a Campaign it refreshes before the next game – assuming the soldier has survived to fight again!

Any soldier type that starts with a Holy Symbol may exchange it for a Holy Water during recruitment.

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… and secondly some monsters to use that Holy Water on! (just kidding, none of them are affected by it)

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BOG BODY
An ancient body, mummified in peat, reanimated by the Harvestmen. Its hardened skin and tanned innards make it particularly resistant to damage.

Speed: 3
Melee: +1
Accuracy: +0
Defence: 10
Courage: +5
Health: 12
Experience Points: 2
Attributes: Damage Reduction (2), Master of Cover, Nimble, Immune to Fire

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DESERTER
A Revenant raised from a soldier executed for crimes by their own forces. Deserters harbour a hatred for officers that persists beyond the grave.

Speed: 4
Melee: +1
Accuracy: +0
Defence: 12
Courage: +5
Health: 10
Experience Points: 1
Attributes: Indefatigable, Damage Reduction (4) against projectile weapons only, Mutinous

Mutinous: The monster has a Melee of +2 when attacking Officers or Junior Officers. The monster will always move towards and attack the nearest Officer/Junior Officer in its line of sight – if it cannot see an Officer/Junior Officer it moves and behaves as a normal monster.

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HANGED MAN
The reanimated corpse of an executed murderer, walking abroad to seek vengeance on the living.

Speed: 4
Melee: +1
Accuracy: +0
Defence: 12
Courage: +5
Health: 10
Experience Points: 2
Attributes: Indefatigable, Damage Reduction (4) against projectile weapons only, Chilling Touch

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AUTOMATONS
Inventors in numerous nations have experimented with cunning clockwork devices that mimic living creatures. Some of the most advanced are capable of acting as guards, remaining dormant until triggered by an unwary trespasser.

SMALL AUTOMATON
A small, fairly harmless yet highly distracting clockwork construct.

Speed: 8
Melee: +0
Accuracy: +0
Defence: 12
Courage: 0
Health: 10
Experience Points: 1
Attributes: Clockwork Heart, Inexhaustible, Irritant, Mainspring

MEDIUM AUTOMATON
An automaton resembling a medium sized animal such as a dog, boar or swan.

Speed: 8
Melee: +2
Accuracy: +0
Defence: 14
Courage: 0
Health: 15
Experience Points: 1
Attributes: Clockwork Heart, Inexhaustible, Mainspring

LARGE AUTOMATON
A man-sized automaton capable of posing a genuine threat.

Speed: 8
Melee: +3
Accuracy: +0
Defence: 17
Courage: 0
Health: 20
Experience Points: 2
Attributes: Clockwork Heart, Inexhaustible, Mainspring

ARBALIST AUTOMATON
A man-sized automaton with a powerful, built-in mechanical crossbow (the crossbow never needs to be reloaded).

Speed: 8
Melee: +0
Accuracy: +3
Defence: 17
Courage: 0
Health: 20
Experience Points: 2
Attributes: Clockwork Heart, Inexhaustible, Mainspring

Clockwork Heart: Automatons are unthinking mechanical constructs and automatically pass all non-magical Courage checks. A Courage check caused by magic is rolled against Defence.

Inexhaustible: Automatons are completely immune to Fatigue and never receive fatigue tokens.

Mainspring: Automatons are powered by tightly coiled springs. As their springs run down, they become less effective, eventually running out of power and freezing into immobility. At the end of each Turn, all Automatons lose 1 Speed, 1 Melee (min +0), 1 Accuracy (min +0) 1 Defence and 1 Health.

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So there you go. If you end up using any of these ideas in your games let me know how it goes!

Edit: While I’ve based my Automatons on real 18th century creations such as the Digesting Duck, Silver Swan and Mechanical Turk I suddenly remembered that the 2006 Doctor Who episode The Girl in the Fireplace features clockwork robots invading the Palace of Versailles. The Exterminate! miniature game has figures for these that would look great in a game of Silver Bayonet, but they’re 1:48 scale, so a bit too big, damnit!