""Rescue the Damsel in Distress, Kill the Bad Guys..."" Topic

OK, it's skirmish time. The Great Adventurer and maybe 3-5 friends have to rescue the Princess before she's sacrificed, or maybe just stop the Archvillain from activating the McGuffin of Doom. Might be a similar force of bad guys. Might be more cheap sword fodder than you can count. What's your rule set of choice for this? And more importantly why? If the one you'd use for a one-off isn't what you'd use for a campaign, that's worth noting too. Also whether it works well for solo or not.

And my apologies if I've asked this before. The castings are painted, the terrain is assembled, and I'm running out of excuses not to actually hold a game.

QILS.

It's built for objective based skirmish. Works fine in campaign, one-offs, or solo.

However, most of the things you are asking about are a function of scenario, not rules.

Rescue the princess? link

I very much like the rules mechanisms of SONG OF BLADES AND HEROES. Fast and fun with up to a dozen or so to a side.

My own skirmish rules are in development and being play-tested but are probably at least six months out.

Honestly, for this sort of scenario, I'd go back to my roots: D&D (Basic, circa 1981-1986)

If I was just doing quick-and-dirty: HeroQuest
But that's not really one that allows for terrain, and a grid is absolutely necessary.

Less personal experience, but the systems are good:
GW's Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game
Mordheim

It kinda depends on exactly what sort of fighting flavor you want.

Pulp Alley!

Nick, +1 for Pulp Alley, it's literally written for this sort of scenario.

Pulp Alley, meh.

QILS looks promising, and as one reviewer said "the price is right". And D6 are cheap(Dollar Tree 5 for $1.25 USD).

The classic RUNEQUEST system, back when Chaosium still had it, was great fun, although granular: a fight that D&D might resolve in 5 minutes might take RQ half an hour. I also like the PENDRAGON system.

Really, we are spoiled for choices, and I am unfamiliar with new systems that may well be even better.

I might go with Fantasy Trip or even AD&D for medieval or swords-and-sorcery settings.

What about for steampunk or just historical 18th or 19th centuries?

A possibly interesting spin would be to use Bushido (is it still in print?) and set the adventure in Japan during the Warring States, Tokugawa, or early Meiji Restoration periods.

I have used One Hour Skirmish Wargames for low count skirmish battles and have very much enjoyed it.

I like that you can eliminate, or so it seems, an enemy to only have the game mechanics pop him back up good as ever at the turn end. There is some stress in that where this may change your tactics and you may stay stationary waiting for the turn end to see what happened to said enemy 'casualty', instead of moving out in to the open.

One Hour Skirmish Wargames uses a deck of playing cards, actually 2, no dice. A unique system.

As for campaigns, sure it would work.

If the bad guys are a similarly small force, my first thought would be SOBAH.

Not sure what I'd use if there were an inexhaustible horde of them.

I used a heavily modified FNG: Second Tour by Two Hour Wargames for a game based on the real rescue of Magie O"Brien in the city of Chau Doc along Vietnam's border with Cambodia during the '68 Tet Offensive. House rules dealt with whether or not the bad guys would find Maggie hiding in her house as Sergeant Dix (MoH) and his men arae getting there.

Worked well. Have played it at least three times.

Tom

Hmph. Lots of support for Pulp Alley. I hate to buy $40 USD rules--especially ones with multiple editions and a ton of supplements--but I may have to try. (Is anyone else as tired as I am of "reviews" which turn out to just be direct quotes from a manufacturer's blurb?)

Hordes. I was a little surprised to see people doubtful about this. The mechanism in the "Chaos" system seemed reasonably transferrable: treat each horde as a henchperson, number of models corresponding in some way to the number of hit points. And I seem to recall multiple sets of rules which restart wiped out hordes coming in fresh from a table edge. Of course, if you do something like that, you can't make "wipe out the horde-generating side" the victory condition. It has to be something like "survive X many turns" "kill the Evil Overlord" or "get get the Princess off the west table edge." But skirmish-level scenarios generally have more interesting victory conditions than massed battles anyway.

I second the fantasy trip.

Put me down as another 'meh' for Pulp Alley. Maybe see if some play-throughs are on YouTube to see if it is something that you would want to spend money on.

Do you have a set of Old West/cowboy rules that you like?

No Wild West, 79th. Outside of horse & musket, I tend to gather up Fantasy & SF castings. I have Astounding Tales, the Chaos System, and Mutants and Death Ray Guns--the SF version of Song of Blades and Heroes. Might still have One Hour Skirmish Wargames and a few more clipped from magazines. Oh. And D&D in one edition or another. Mind you, for this sort of thing scenarios are seldom period-specific. (How hard would it be to take that climactic battle from "The Searchers" and turn it into fantasy? Or SF? "For a Fistful of Dollars" has already been done as SF. And "The Magnificent Seven" has already been turned into both fantasy and SF.)

Beginning to think what I should do is pick a core mechanism I like, then bolt on three different turn sequence mechanisms--one for one on one play, one for cooperative or semi-cooperative and a third for solo. As things stand, solo may be the only one I need anyway.

Have your ever checked out rules from Two Hour Wargaming? He had lots of variant with the same basic rules. I believe the business is shut down but there should be some floating around 2nd hand.

And, of course Seven Samurai was turned into The Magnificent Seven.

Nightwatch Raid and Ruin

link

I find that any skirmish set of rules work.

I used GASLIGHT rules for a "Rescue Demi Moore" FIW game with 8 "factions". Just eliminate any Science and it's a fine game. Add musket and bow to the weapons.

And Gloire is not limited to 4 figures per faction either. I did "Rescue Roddy McCorley" with ~80 figures per side. No figures for The ‘98? No problem. Use Marlburian figures for the Evil English instead.

Wonder Woman don't need no rescuin'.

We'll be using TSR's Boot Hill for a start with Wild West. It's basically Dungeons and Dragons with Cowboys. First thing on the menu will be bank robbery, of course. And my Rosa's Cantina has a mariachi band or two and several Wicked Felinas.
I need Temperance Ladies in buckboards to do Hallelujah Trail.
Plenty of women figures out there, from very respectable to those of negotiable virtue. And Empress Miniatures do Unforgiven heroes to rescue them.