Warhammer Pirate Princes of Sartosa is now available!

Pirate Princes of Sartosa is ready! Download it on the left sidebar!

Your feedback and comments are always appreciated. Happy to finish this project after so long. I hope to do a post mortem about this project and my share some insight into what my plans were for Warhammer content soon, as well as support Sartosa with free periodic "DLC" pages that add more quests and content.

Warhammer Warbands Campaign - Special Campaign Lore Preview: The Lore of Ages

Pirate Princes of Sartosa is full of of custom content, rules, and systems to add a new dimension to smaller points Warhammer Fantasy 8th Edition games without bogging down the action. Some of that content comes in the form of three unique lores of magic; the Lore of the Deeps, the Lore of the Southlands, and the one we're looking at today - the Lore of the Ages.

click to see Lore Attribute

The Lore of the Ages is based around the trope of the timeless and wise mystical ancient. A mage or even cosmic entity so powerful that time has become meaningless, and the stars are theirs to command. 

In terms of Warhammer fantasy and a low-points campaign, we adapt that trope into a more grounded and less cosmically grandiose frame - the Time Mage. Fans of Final Fantasy are likely familiar with this job class. Spells from the Lore of the Ages, much like the abilities of the Time Mage (though we are not looking for 1:1 equivalents), can be disruptive, supportive, or highly destructive.

Click to see the Lore of the Ages spells

The Lore of the Ages builds around the thematic synergy between existing magic spells from the eight lores of battle magic in the Warhammer rulebook as it's framework. These are spells that feature temporal or cosmic elements. The second half of the lore consists of original spells that give us a strong feeling of a mage with the ability to alter time at will. 

You will be able to recruit a Time Mage to your Warhammer warband or recover a tome to allow an existing Wizard in your army to select the Lore of the Ages when Warhammer: Pirate Princes of Sartosa becomes available later this month! 

Warhammer Warbands Campaign - Special Campaign Character and Quest Sneak Peek

The last few months have been spent working on and play testing the Pirate Princes of Sartosa warbands campaign for Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition. As it stands, I'm nearing the finish line, but I want to put out the best first version possible so my estimate for release is mid-October 2015! (If you're reading this blog post after that  date, chances are you can download the campaign in full on the sidebar!). I've been meaning to give some insight into the way quests will work in the campaign so here we go! 

There are 13 quests in the initial campaign pack of Pirate Princes of Sartosa (more may be released periodically after the campaign is available). Quests are picked up from Points of Interest on the map of Sartosa once per campaign turn, before you have your turn's campaign battle.

Once you have picked up a quest from a Point of Interest, it's time to see what it's all about! For this example, let's check out what you'll be seeing when you stop off at the city of Ragil, and pay a visit to a strange doctor named Tristan...  

click to expand quest

Requirements

Once you've read the quest, you will note that it will list requirements for completion. These are marked as any combination of Minor and Major. These denominations serve only to approximate the difficulty of the task needed for completion of the requirement, but all requirements must be completed in order to turn the quest in. 

Some quests ask for multiple instances of a requirement to be completed, in this case, four of Tristan's Missing Grail Relics. The final requirement of a quest will list the manner in which the quest may be turned in. Sometimes you may have to go back to the point of interest where you picked up the quest initially, other times, you may be able to turn in a quest after completing the requirements no matter which map tile your warband is currently on. Once you have turned a quest in, you will claim it's rewards. 

Completing a quest will reward you with any mix of special items, currency, or a special campaign character for your warband. You will also note that every quest awards Marks of Piracy. More of these are awarded depending on the difficulty of the quest, and are important for the final outcome of the campaign. 

Tristan, Bretonnian Plague Doctor

Tristan is a challenging character to recruit, but once you do, he will really add value to your warband, especially if your opponents have chosen to invest in magic and you have not. 

click to expand special character. art by niconoff

The plague doctor was designed as an anti-magic tank, with his Magic Resistance(3) and adding a die to your dispel pool, as well as specialized but powerful bound spells, he excels in an army that does not need its magic phase to win or swing the game, or against armies with an overwhelming amount of Magic attacks. 

Tristan's buff spells are significant, but come with a potentially equally significant drawback. Still, if you can avoid getting into situations where that spell's specific drawback would really hinder you, then ultimately, you've come out ahead.  

Thanks for checking out this Special Campaign Character! I can't wait for you to check out the others when Pirate Princes of Sartosa becomes available! 

Pirate Princes of Sartosa - Campaign Map!

Check out the final Pirate Princes of Sartosa campaign map, which will be in the book as a two-page spread!

I'm now shooting for a final PDF of version 1.0 to be available before October. I've been making great strides with the remainder of the writing lately, which has been super fun. I started a new job recently and fully expected my progress on Sartosa to slow to a crawl, but with the release of Age of Sigmar, I'm more fired up than ever to finish the campaign.

Age of Sigmar is, for me, a very disappointing development for many reasons. I won't add to the internet chatter with a rant of my own, but I will say that I will be continuing to play Warhammer Fantasy Battles 8th edition and will not be playing Age of Sigmar or make Age of Sigmar content.

With this commitment to 8th edition, I really want to get the campaign finished as soon as possible so that others who are sticking with 8th can have new content and a fun campaign to get their friends into the hobby or campaigning, which has always been the aim of my Warhammer Fantasy content efforts, so business as usual.

Now, back to the map. If you're curious about how the campaign will work, players will move their warbands around the map, on land and by sea, and explore points of interest. The points of interest are marked on the map with numbers (1-15). Two of these are Special Campaign Character shops (1, 4) where you will be able to hire unique lord-level heroes using campaign currency.

The remaining points of interest contain quests that reward you with a Character Slot Item (using the same system as Conquest of Lustria), or a Special Campaign Character when completed. That's it for now! I will make a post showing how quests work sometime soon.

I also want to thank all the people who have sent me email messages. These are always super cool to get and the questions and anticipation for Sartosa have really encouraged me to continue working on the campaign so thank you! 

Pirate Princes of Sartosa Campaign Map Preview 2

I previewed the layout of the campaign map for Pirate Princes back in February, and talked about using elements of the Dreadfleet game. The plan is still in motion and I'm here to show how it's coming along! It's a pretty big part of the project (and super fun!) - I expect to be done with it next week. Part of it is in the shade in the picture so excuse the poor photography, but it is really bright and I'm excited!

UPDATE: Check out the finished map here!

an illustrated map of Sartosa. The volcano, Mount Ertinia, will be the
quest location of the first expansion content after the PDF is available.

Pirate Princes of Sartosa Campaign Map Preview

It's a beautiful Saturday morning here in southern California, and I'm just hung over enough to make staring at a computer screen painful so I worked on this preliminary mock-up of the map for Sartosa.

This was just to see if I had enough Mighty Empires tiles to get the job done and get an idea for how the cities, ports, and other landmarks relate to each other spatially. So far so good!

I'm super excited to work on this map because it's going to be a really fun project and I have some big ideas for the final product, including cannibalizing an entire box of Dreadfleet for all it's little rocks and other mini-terrain.

my dremel is ready.

An added bonus is that once I have absolutely destroyed the contents of the Dreadfleet game, the ships will be great race-specific counters for the campaign, since there is a travel by ship mechanic that can be used to get around the island!

Warhammer Campaign Updates - Sartosa Lives and Lustria gets a version 3.0

Pirate Princes of Sartosa is alive! Writing stands at an estimated 75% complete, and Photoshop work is at about 3%. Once only Photoshop work is left though, it will really feel like a downhill battle. Getting my groove back on Sartosa has also meant that I had the time and motivation to take a... 4th(?) pass at Conquest of Lustria. After several days of work, version 3.0 of The Conquest of Lustria has been finalized, and it's feeling like the final and 'definitive' version.

The Conquest of Lustria update has involved not only additional graphic design work, but heavy changes to the wording of rules, the stats of Character Slot Items, scenarios, narrative, and nerfs to the admittedly overpowered Black Label Maneaters.

As a sample of what you will find upon downloading 3.0, here is the updated map page:

 

And here is an updated Conquest of Lustria 3.0 scenario - the Golden God of the Amazons, one of my favorite scenarios of the campaign:

If you've played this scenario previously, you will see how much more flavor and storytelling has gone into the 3.0 version. It's night and day. Don't be fooled by the power level of the items obtainable from the Golden God's Shrine - these always were, and continue to be, some of the absolute best and hardest to obtain items available in the campaign.  

Conquest of Lustria began with a campaign I ran for my friends in 2010 in which our Generals got HUGE with bonuses and items, and we enjoyed every minute of it. The packet was originally intended to capture the fun of that campaign, but the feedback I've always gotten regarding the CoL items has said otherwise. Players like super fair items, go figure. It may not yet be perfect, and please, if you play with it, send me a message via the box on the right if you have any feedback, but it really feels solid now.

I love Warhammer and I'm so happy to be able to share my creativity and vision of what Warhammer could or should be with those willing to check these campaigns out. I won't touch on the upheaval that is The End Times in this post, but I will say Conquest 3.0 and Sartosa are made with 8th edition in mind, and I am seriously considering sticking with 8th edition in perpetuity. Again, not necessarily something that must be discussed in this post, but you've been warned. Regardless, what I want to get at is the role of this blog and the campaigns as they become available. 

As a means to continue releasing creative Warhammer Fantasy output and keep the campaigns alive, I have decided to adopt a "DLC" model of content update, right here on this blog. This will all be free of course, but future blog updates will periodically add scenarios, special characters, items, and maybe entire new systems or mechanics to the Conquest of Lustria, Pirate Princes of Sartosa, and any other campaigns that I am able to produce. The first of this DLC will release with Pirate Princes of Sartosa, adding a quest and corresponding Special Campaign Character to the mix.

Also, before I forget, Pirate Princes of Sartosa, by it's nature (warbands campaign) and through it's development, has emerged as a prequel to The Conquest of Lustria. As a comic book nerd, there's nothing I love more than continuity and world building, so Pirate Princes will add more flavor, story, and a few familiar faces to what I'm dubbing the moopy saves summer 'campaign adventure universe'. 

I cannot wait to share what comes next, and I hope you have a TON of fun with your friends. Drink one for me the next time you roll the dice! 

Warhammer Warbands Campaign Cover and 2014 Hobbying

Following a very busy and largely hobbyless year (except for the 2.0 update to Conquest of Lustria), the last month has been pretty productive. Along with a complete revamp of my gaming table and terrain, I've been able to dedicate time to continuing work on the campaign I teased at the end of Conquest; Pirate Princes of Sartosa. I'm really excited for this, and it's been taking up a good chunk of my nights after work. 

I'm very encouraged by the continuous interest I've seen lately on Warhammer forums for warbands type rules and supplements, and my aim for this campaign is to create a fun system to play scaled-down games and offer a new type of campaign experience while encouraging players to teach WFB to friends or start new armies.

Although the completed pdf for Pirate Princes is still surely months away, here's the tentative cover for the next campaign adventure;

I'm planning on better documenting my hobbying this year and use it as encouragement to be as productive as possible. I've also been catching up on warhammer podcasts to keep up the motivation. Up next is the revamped table and terrain while I plug away at Sartosa!

Conquest of Lustria Campaign Map

Here's a blank campaign map that play groups can use to set up their campaigns. :)
                               
             

Update - a map is now included in the PDF.

The Conquest of Lustria campaign 2.0 Update

A complete, full color PDF Warhammer Fantasy battles campaign set in the jungles of Lustria

UPDATE: The latest version of the campaign will now always be available on the button to the left.