Swordtember Day 8 - Keyword : Sun

The Solar Scimitar is weapon for only the most experienced of fighters. In light of day its ability to reflect and channel the light and heat of the sun can result in major destruction if not properly controlled. Even in the darkest cave or dungeon, between dawn and dusk it is capable of shining brightly and causing enemies to suffer burning cuts.

 Swordtember Day 4 - Keyword : Divine relic

The Blessed Blade is the material avatar of the god of the harvest. The knight who successfully quests for it becomes the Protector of the Lands.  This title does not only signify their role in turning away invaders, bandits, and despoilers. It also places the responsibility of the wielder to use the powers in the sword to manage the rains; prevent pestilence by animal, bug, or weed; and to encourage the farmers to be diligent in their role of successfully growing their crops.

 Swordtember Day 3 - Keyword : Cursed relic

The Bright Blade is renowned through out the realms for it's power and precision, being the weapon of many long lived conquerors. While the blade does ignore physical armor and project damage across great distances, it's true power has been kept secret by its many wielders. 

Upon taking possession of the blade, the wielder instantly becomes a revenant.  Initially physically unchanged, their body will slowly begin to rot. Only regular use of the blade to kill and harvest the life force of its victims will halt the degradation of the body. And as time passes the preservation of the flesh and continued life of  its owner will require ever more blood to be spilled.

 Swordtember Day 2 - Keyword :Floral

 The Garden Blades consists of a katana and paired wakizashi of unknown rainbow hued alloy.  When flourished by a skilled swordsman, they create a rain of petals of fragrant local flowers in the immediate area, growing as the swordman continues. If ritually wielded by a priest they induce growth of flora of all types in a widespread area.

Swordtember Day 1 - Keyword : Wings

 

 Sword of Return

The pommel of this sword looks like a pair of eagle wings.

The sword bonds with its owner as long as the previous owner gives it up willingly or is dead. On any night it is away from its owner, it takes flight and finds its way back.

The sword is made of an adamantine alloy that is extremely sharp. When used in combat, it provides a bonus to hit and damage. Anyone who grabs it while in flight automatically suffers double damage and must make a strength check to maintain their hold.

RPGaDay2024

 On my podcast, Phantom Thoughts, I am participating in RPGaDay2024, a month long celebration of RPGs in the month of August.  Every August, on the blog Autocratik, prompts are published to help people share about their experiences with RPGs or alternatively to trigger creativity to share on blogs, podcasts, videos, and social media.

The following creators are also participating. I encourage anyone reading this to check them out. My thanks to another participant, Free Thrall of The Stochasium blog and Keep off the Borderlands podcast (find links on the blog), for compiling many of these links and inspiring me to do likewise. Far too often I ignore/forget the social part of this hobby and social media in general.

 If anyone would like to suggest other creators to add to this list, feel free leave a comment or to contact me on Discord (ThePinkPhantom), Twitter (@ThePinkPhantom), or email (thepinkphantom1@gmail.com)

Podcast: Mirke the Meek

Podcast: Hindsightless 

Podcast: The GMologist Presents 

Podcast: The Arcane Alienist

Blog: Nerd's RPG Varietycast  

Podcast: Dekahedron

Podcast: Diagetic Advancement

Blog: Casting Shadows Podcast: Casting Shadows

Youtube: Ivanmike1968 

Blog:  The Stochasium

 

Also checkout #RPGaDay2024 on the artist formerly known as Twitter and Facebook

  

Chain of Thought: Fatigue in Chainmail

 Amidst a blog post documenting the first part of a play-by-post Chainmail battle, 

How to Play Chainmail: A Play-by-Post Experiment

 Purple Druid posited a question:

There is no rule for what happens when Fatigued beyond "-1 level of Troop type", do y'all have any ideas?

Me being me, I went straight to the rules in Chainmail, 3rd edition 

I responded on the blog entry, suggesting there is nowhere in the rules that suggests fatigue is a one time process, and that units could cycle through the steps over and over. This would mean ever increasing penalties until the unit in question rests. That was how I thought it.

Later on while I was in the shower (why do these things always happen in the shower where paper and electronic recording are not recommended?) I realized, the rules do not say anything about *rest*.

For some time I've seen those posting, blogging, and viding (?) about Chainmail struggle with combining the effects of steps 1, 2, 3, and 4 above. What if a unit moves 4 turns and then melees 1 round? What about moving once, charging, then meleeing twice? How exactly does 3 melee rounds = 5 moves?

But changing the mindset from resting (no activity at all) to not moving potentially clears up some things. Points 2 and 3 are no longer connective tissue to aid wargamers in mixing and matching all variations of melee and movement. They are special cases being specifically addressed in the rules. They stand alone, only used in those 'corner cases'.

Now the thought process for fatigue is: Did a unit move five turns in a row? Did it melee three rounds? Did it meet one of the specific cases? If the answer to all three is no, that unit is not fatigued. A unit moves on four straight moves and then is engaged in turn five in melee action. Unless it is forced to move due to morale failure (or fight two more rounds of melee for those that advocate multiple rounds of melee in a turn) that unit is not fatigued.

And I just realized while typing this, there's a word that is not present in point 4. The word "consecutive" is not there. Three melee rounds = fatigued, regardless of timing. I think that makes things even simpler. Now there is even less need to worry about the math of movement + melee when figuring fatigue other than the specifics of points 2 and 3.

This really leaves me with only one question, and then I think I could adjudicate fatigue under any circumstances. Does a unit that hasn't yet engaged in melee but is fatigued, does not move in a turn, engages in one round (or two if doing multiple rounds in a turn) melee, and wins (not forced to move due to morale failure) lose their fatigue? Logic says no (melee is stressful), but a straight reading of the rules says yes.

Okay, two more questions (dang stream of consciousness): Do fatigued archers that do not move in a turn, but fire ranged attacks lose fatigue at the end of that turn? Does shooting without moving incur fatigue as melee does? Going strictly by RAW, I would say yes for the first and no for the second.

For each of these three questions, a strictly RAW adjudication feels wrong. But what say you?

 

Edit (about two hours after original publication):

RHampton on the Wargame Culture Discord responded there:

 After reading his comment, I've changed my mind about my questions on archers and fatigue. A RAW interpretation of how fatigue applies to ranged attacks makes more sense to me now than my initial misgivings.

Also, he has some interesting rules systems on Drivethrurpg so check those out.