Watergrave: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Finished my Watergrave table and played a four-player game on it. I think it played quite well. Used a homebrew scenario printed below.

Scenario: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Many stories are told of how a legendary ghostship still haunts Watergrave. Sometimes it can be seen sailing through the misty skies above the city on its eternal journey. It is also said there is a magical bell, the ship’s original bell, that if rung, will impel the ghostship to take you, magically, anywhere you want to go.

Set-Up

Set up the tallest structure in the centre of the board. This building should hold the ghostship’s bell at its highest point. Access to the bell should be roughly equal from all the starting positions.

Once the starting positions are determined, before any figures are placed, in initiative order, each player must place one rowing boat anywhere on the water.

Special Rules

Water

Any warband figure going in the water leaves the game immediately. This also provokes a random monster appearance (on a roll of 16-20).

The Bell

The bell at the centre of the board is not treasure, but it can be rung by any figure capable of picking up treasure. This requires an action. The bell can only be rung once during the game. If it is rung, then that figure’s warband receives 50 xp bonus.

As soon as the bell is rung, the entire warband that rang the bell is removed from play together with all the treasure they are carrying, carried aloft the mysterious ghost ship. The other warbands must leave the arena by more conventional means.

Marsh Trolls

Marsh Trolls are the only random monster in the scenario. They can appear whenever treasure is picked up (on a roll of 16-20), whenever a treasure or body falls into the water (16-20), whenever an activation involves crossing a bridge (20 only), whenever a boat is moved (20 only).

To determine where the Troll appears, note a point d20 inches in a random direction from the event that caused the appearance (if this is off table use the point closest to the edge of the table). The troll will then appear in the closest bit of water to that point.

Marsh Troll

M	F	S	A	W	H	Notes
6	+4	+0	12	+2	14	Large, Huge Weapon, Treats water as normal terrain, Vomit*

*Vomit: Before a Marsh Troll attacks, roll a d20. If it rolls 16+ then it Vomits instead: Every figure even slightly within a 5” diameter circle centred on the Troll is attacked with a F +0 attack (roll each attack individually).

Sea Mist

Playing on a water-themed table could mean a bit less scenery and more open spaces. To prevent the Line of Sight spells becoming unbalanced, it might be worth considering having a Sea Mist roll in and limit invisibility to 18”, or something like that.

Bridges

Crossing a bridge can provoke the appearance of a Marsh Troll (on a roll of 20). Decide which bits of terrain constitute bridges before you start.

Boats

Rowing boats travel at 4”/2”. They can carry up to 4 figures. Every figure in the boat must use its move action, to make the boat move. And they must all use their second action as a move to gain the second move.

Moving the boat provokes a random monster appearance (on a roll of 20)