Wednesday 1 April 2015

Lock Stocke n' Two Smokin' Snaphaunces

Blame TV drama! Musketeers for Maff, Wolf Hall for me. The result? Lock Stocke n' Two Smokin' Snaphaunces fast play house rules for light-hearted swashbuckling romps!

Tonight was the inaugural outing. The Deputy March Warden and his men have caught up with Auld Nat and the Sparkes family who are busy looting a border farmhouse!


Our heroes are Gentlemen, Bravos or Lackeys (Humblies). Being a Gentleman, the Deputy March Warden leads from the front.....


....and is summarily dispatched by Old Nat's pistol. That fancy armour doesn't save him this time.

The Deputy March Warden and two of his Bravos had fired a volley of snaphaunce pistols at Old Nat and his two boldest Bravos who are rushing forward to meet them. Two of the pistol shots fly wide.... the third causes a minor Discomforture to one of the Reiver Bravos. Old Nat fires his own pistol in return... a double six! The Deputy March Warden is Shotte Through! and drops like a sack of tatties. Emboldened, pistols are discarded and it's time for the sword!


'Half pike will at you!'..... but only if the Lackey rolls above his opponent (modified) if he intends to close on him!


The melee! The Deputy March Warden and one of his Bravos lie dead. Two more of the Wardens men are 'Discomforted', so with their leader shot through and themselves clearly bested by the Sparkes', the Warden's men decide to save their hides for another day. All over bar the taunting in just three furiously enjoyable game turns.

This was just a test game fought on a 2'x3' playing area. Each force had 6 figures. In this case, Border Reivers by the late Jim Bowen with a mix of character types, arms and armour. The rules were a bastardised version of Lock Stock n Two Smokin' Sterlings which Maff had kindly converted to the age of swashbuckling and the flashing blade. Sadly, there was not much opportunity for buckling of swashes going on in this particular game...... Maff has created some nifty rules for that.... but it was still a lot of fun to play through. We both agreed that the game had the right 'feel' we would expect for such an encounter. Whilst only three game turns in length, we were happy with the result as we really don't want to spend an hour where 6 figures each are mincing around with swords trying to force a paper cuton each other. These encounters should be short, sharp and oten as not brutal with one side being 'Run Through' or giving up when all is lost.

Looking forward to the next game!

Cheers
Mark



5 comments:

  1. Present your musket! Give...FIRE!!!

    Great write up, Mark!

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  2. Great fun indeed - even though the accents verged on poldark yokeldom.

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  3. Well it is clear that I need to start paying closer attention to my blog feed. I have been missing a ton of cool games.

    ReplyDelete