Another night at the slaughtered lamb

This week we played another go at my Night at the Slaughtered Lamb game. Below you see the inn looming in the twilight. A Witchfinder and his men have chased an evil witch here, but she has charmed herself into looking like one of the inhabitants of the inn. The witchfinder will need to flush her out without hurting the real inhabitants, in the meantime fending off the witch's ferocious allies.

While the witchfinder and his men enter the inn, fierce hellhounds approach the building.

The witchfinder and his men barricade themselves into the inn, driving the guests to the first floor for their protection and to prevent the witch from escaping.

Attacked from all sides, the kitchen door is ripped to shreds by hellhounds. Fortunately both fall to deadly musket fire. Nocterlinger ghouls try to break through the windows and get fired on by the witchfinder himself.

Here the Noctelinger skulk below the window, dodging the bullets with devilish cunning....

Finally they break through into the kitchen, killing two musketeers before themselves being gunned down.

The witch, disguised as a blind beggar, uses the confusion to jump from the first floor room she had hidden in. Getting wounded by the jump, just seconds before she can reach the edge of the woods she is shot down by a vigilant musketeer who guarded the main door.

Good has triumphed once more! But at what price? 5 Musketeers lie dead, hacked and ripped to pieces. And still Evil stalks the land....

Night at the Slaughtered Lamb Action Report

This weekend I played my latest participation game: Night at the Slaughtered Lamb (extra points for those who know which movie that one comes from) at Ducosim. It was a Witchfinder General game for 4 players with some RPG elements thrown in. What was happening?

This rustic tavern deep in the woods has become the last refuge of an evil witch. Hunted by the Witchfinders she has hidden in this tavern; The Slaughtered Lamb, killed one if its inhabitants and has glamoured herself into his or her form. It is the Witchfinder's task to find her out and prevent her escape. However, the other guests are not to be harmed, night is falling and sinister shadows growl and skulk at the dark forest's edge....

The Witch player(s) control the five guests (the witch among them) that start inside the tavern and the monsters that start at the forest's edge. The Witchfinder player(s) start inside or near the tavern, ideally surrounding it with their musketeers. The Witch may use her monsters and (to some extent) the other tavern inhabitants to draw attention away from herself so she can slip out of the tavern and dissappear in the dark forest. The other inhabitants are of course in awe of the armed witchfinders, may not initiate violence and such, but may otherwise act as suspicious as possible. As soon as the Witch reveals herself (by magic or violence for example) her miniature (only the Witch player knows which one) is at once replaced with a Witch figure.

The Tavern from a Noctelingers point of view.

Noctelingers and Werewolves aid the Witch from outside the tavern, arriving at sunset. 

The Witchfinder and his musketeers.

Here is the only picture I managed to take of the game in progress. Running a game with four enthusiastic and noisy players with some audience thrown in leaves little time for taking pictures, so I am glad I managed this one. (This is also my excuse for the gratuitous use of older pictures in this blog....)

I ran three fully manned games in a row, had a lot of fun and some spectacular endings. The Witch managed to dodge the bullets once, got shot once and in the final game, while still disguised as the innkeeper, got ripped apart by one of her own Noctelingers (the monsters were played by a second Evil player) before the Witch player could call out a warning! I didn't see that one coming....

A great day with a great audience and a great little ruleset!

Night at The Slaughtered Lamb at Ducosim March 2nd

On March 2nd I will host a Witchfinder General game at Ducosim at Amersfoort. Two to four players per game will be able to play a thrilling crossover between RPG and skirmish wargaming.

Setting: an remote inn surrounded by brooding dark forests, and night setting in....

Cast: a witchfinder and his men, having tracked an evil witch to this inn, the innkeeper and his guests, one of whom must be the witch. But who?

The challenge: the witch's dark minions will gather after darkness trying to free her. The witchfinder must prevent this, but he must identify the witch first. Meanwhile, the witch must either try to escape the inn or let her minions in to help her, but armed men guard every door....

What is that, sneaking through the dark....?

Witchfinder General Demo

Impressions of playing a Witchfinder General demo at Ducosim (NL) today. Severely hampered by an upcoming flu (cough, snurff) I nevertheless managed two small-scale games before my voice finally gave out. I learned some important things:

• A 1 square meter table really is big enough. I played my games on a 120x 200 and hardly used a quarter of it.
• Cut out cards with specific unit data on them enable a player to hold all the relevant data in one hand (witch/barguest/Noctelinger) without the rest that he doesn´t need. Thanks Dashing Dice Games for the downloadable QRS that made this easy.
• 10-year olds are bloodthirsty monsters ;o)

Witchfinder general sneak peek!

I have been happily painting away the last months and while I still have played only one game the supplies are piling up!

Weary travellers desperately defending themselves against werewolves.

 A witch hunter and a benign mage fending off Hellhounds at the mage´s cottage.

Witch hunters and villagers

 A Witchfinder and his force of musketeers and pikemen

The Forces of Evil: vampires and demons

A witch and her minions: a werewolf, a Nocterlinger and a Hellhound.

Flying Witches

Mounted troops led by a Witchfinder General scouring the countryside.