I need more scream in my steam

I love steampunk, as you all know by now, but Gothic horror also runs through my veins. Some of the additions to "In Her Majesty's Name" in the "Heroes, Villains and Fiends" supplement fed into that hunger, but it really did little more than whet my appetite. So now I've decided to push the envelope and write some rules for creatures I'm eager to see on the tabletop for IHMN.

So, as I push my steampunk to screampunk, I'm eager for your feedback on these house rules, either here or over on the IHMN board over at  Lead Adventure Forum.

Let us on this Friday the 13th begin by adding ... GHOSTS!

Ghosts in ‘In Her Majesty’s Name’

Some arcane practitioners have learned to summon spirits to aid them on the battlefield. The  ethereal nature of these ghosts presents quite a problem for their opponents: How do you stop something you can’t touch until it lays hands on you to kill you?

To control a spirit on the battlefield, the arcanist must possess some kind of personal token of the spirit, often a remnant of its physical body. These anchors are often the bones of the deceased, but may take other forms in the case of spirits not originating as humans. One example is the banshee, or bane sidhe, a fey spirit whose wail spells death.

While physical combat with a manifest spirit will temporarily slow or disrupt a spirit or ghost, the only way to permanently dispel it is to destroy its anchor, whatever the arcanist is using to compel the spirit to fight.

Type    Pluck FV   SV   Spd   Armor  Cost   T&P     Basic Equipment

Ghost

4+

+2

+0

+0

8

35+MP

Ethereal*, Terrifying, up 30 pts. of Mystical Powers

Claws (fighting knife)

Ghosts may exchange their weaponry for monstrous fangs (sword, +1 points) or a scythe (halberd, +3 points) .

* Unique skill (15 pts). Ghosts move up to 6”, ignoring all intervening terrain. (Ghosts may run.) Ethereal figures cannot be targeted by physical shooting attacks. They can, however, be targeted by arcane powers that operate during the shooting phase, like spitfire.

Ghosts fight normally in base-to-base contact. If a ghost is hit and fails its pluck roll, however, it is only Knocked Down. Only destroying the ghost’s anchor will see it removed from the table.

A ghost’s anchor must be destroyed in close combat, because there are often extra steps involved besides just physical damage (salting the bones, sanctifying/desecrating the site or similar). Unless otherwise specified, anchors have an armor value of 9 and a pluck of 5+. Once the anchor is destroyed, the ghost is immediately removed from play.

As long as a company has one member possessing Mystical Powers, even if from a reliquary, it may utilize ghosts. A ghost and its anchor are deployed together simultaneously. Anchors do not move once deployed. No arcane practitioner or company may utilize more than three ghosts in any one encounter. Removal of all arcane practitioners from play has no effect on ghosts.

Figure suggestions:

Horrorclix Skeletal Maiden

Reaper Ghost by Julie Guthrie

Reaper Spectre by Dennis Mize

Enigma Miniatures The Old Death

"Heroes, Villains and Fiends" arrives

I now have my grubby little mitts on the second volume published for the game "In Her Majesty's Name," the aptly titled "Heroes, Villains and Fiends."

The noise Jon Richardson makes for his "tennis gremlins" in the clip below is the same noise I keep making as I hold the volume in my hands.



Just substitute "book" for "ball" and you've pretty much got it.

While I haven't finished it yet, what I have read has been delightful. In addition to increasing the arsenal available to the companies, the book also introduces rules and stats for vehicles and beasts. There's also a campaign system with examples using companies from the original book. And for my overall impression, I don't think I can say it any better than I did earlier today in a post on the Lead Adventure Forum:

"Can't wait to dive into it more thoroughly, but I have to say that, even with the vast increase in availability of weapons, vehicles, mounts and equipment, Craig and Charles have shown the strength of sticking to KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) design principles. They've taken Occam's Razor to rules and mechanics and presented a system that is flexible but not overly complicated, inclusive but not cluttered, and rich with choices without dampening the creativity of the player. Kudos, gentlemen! Another successful foray that makes me even more eager for the third volume."

Speaking of vehicles, Bob Olley has done a bit of redesigning on the steampunk vehicle stretch goals for his Victorian Scrunts kickstarter. I look forward to the flood of company concepts that are going to appear once these gorgeous figures are released. But take a look at this tank/tankette!

OK, back to the boards, everyone, and I'll see you across the table soon.