"Where Heroes Dare at LGS" Topic

Eagle & Empire in Northern VA hosts bi-weekly sessions of WHD on Wednesday nights. I bought a copy from them a couple weeks back and showed up to last night's game to give it a go.

The game is warband oriented so you won't be fielding huge armies. Reminiscent of all those Crash Corrigan, Flash Gordon and Zorro type movies and stories like Doc Savage and even Thundarr the Barbarian for children o' the 80s.

The rules are just tight enough to work but still need buy-in from the group to not try to break the thing. Our local organizer is a good guy for putting this on and he fairly refs even when he's fielding a gang himself.

Something I thought funny was because it's kitchen sinky, you can paint up just about anything you've got lying around and field it. Got some old jungle animal toys? Africa is always a possible setting. Have some heroclix cops? Press 'em into service :)

If you've got a bunch of folks who just want to have fun, roll some dice and move figures into Indiana Jones-type action, I recommend Where Heroes Dare. If nothing else, it'll motivate you to paint all that stuff in your miscellaneous pile (or am I the only one who has an extra left-handed Lithuanian shot putter figure carrying a fifty cal?).

I've gotten to play several games of this(being friends with the writer) and we always have tons of fun with it. It's what finally made me pull the trigger on buying a pile of Pulp Miniatures. It is extremely versatile. I've read through the book several times now and everytime I go through them I notice several things you can do with the rules. So, in conclusion, even though the guy that wrote the game is a dirty SOB who will drink all your Pabst the moment you turn around, the game is a lot of fun. We have a session coming up on the 20th and I can't wait.
Check out the writer's blog for great battle reports, scenario ideas and painting examples:
doctormerkury.blogspot.com

Mongo

Can you guys give a quick break down of how the game plays?

I'm going to be brave and use the combat system to play it as a roleplaying game. I game with only RPGers now and I am going to use it to bring them into the "fun" of miniatures gaming. I will run the bad guy gang and they will run the good? guys.

If you've ever played any of the Iron Ivan Games platoon level games there will be a lot that's familiar to you. The rules are expanded upon to be able to support Special Characters. Character generation is a lot of fun. On the board there are usually multiple factions trying to find an ancient tome, or a secret crypt entrance, etc. which is represented by encounter markers on the board. So the gameplay involves trying to fight off the opposing factions while using the RPG lite elements of the game to "solve" encounters. The rulebook has a very cool scenario generator system that lets you plot out what you'll be playing and gives you a way to link scenarios into a campaign.

Thanks for all the kind words. We have had all kinds of stuff show up in our games so far, from Giant Robots to Zombies and even Foo Dogs. Lots of fun stuff to see what everyone puts together for a team. Currently I'm working on some American forces for the Cold Wars games.

More is in the works…

Doc

Grabula,

It's d10 based. Primarily you have shooting, fighting and morale (with appropriate pulp names) for your characters. Most special abilities and gadgets give you things like extended range, a saving throw, better chance of hitting in close combat, or greater chance of being brave/good morale.

For most rolls, you want to roll your stat or lower. Let's say I have a guy with a Gats (shooting) of 7. Assuming he can see the target, is within range, etc., I need to roll a 7 or less on a d10 to succeed. If my gun has a higher rate of fire, then I would roll the appropriate number of dice needing 7 or less on each one to hit. Any hits would then be rerolled based on how nasty the weapon was to see if a wound was actually caused.

CC is a little involved from my first run through. We sorted it out but it takes a line by line (and probably will continue to do so for at least the first few times) read through.

Apparently your 'hit points' or Dare are impacted by ranged weapons while your morale is what's affected in a fist fight. Most characters have a higher morale (moxie) and can survive a little longer in a one-on-one fisticuffs. But a gun can take out a mook character in a single shot. Indiana Jones would probably have 3 hit points (dare), so you'd have to hit and wound him 3 times with a gun to take him out of the game. In one-on-one close combat, he'd probably do a lot better :)

Just my quick-ish summary.

Just a note Dare! is the ability to decipher Dare! Locations, use Schticks, the amount of Wounds you can take ( both in Howling Heaters and Dire Duels) and is the number of attacks a Character can make in Dire Duels. Moxie is the morale element that Characters use for general bravery tests.

I have an Errata sheet here to resolve any rules riddles:

link

Here is a general overview of the rules:

link

And an article on Team building in WHD! :

link

Hope that helps!

Doc

That helps a lot. We were going on the thought that it was your courage and general willpower that let you soldier on during a fight. Makes sense that Dare! is hit points for everything. Thanks.