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@Rob Dean convinced me to give Rangers of Shadow Deep a try, and today we sat down to wrap our heads around the rules and play the first mission. Rob provided everything from his traveling Battle in a Box collection. As a change from our usual forays into the McCullough-verse, where we usually use stuff from our 28mm collections, the figures we used were ones selected from Rob's collection of beautifully painted 1/72 plastics. Rob chose, besides the given Ranger (Marcus), an Archanist (Corvus), an Archer (Alana), and a Hound (Duke) for his companions. I selected, other than my Ranger (Churchill), a Rogue (Firefly) and a Guardsman (Cromwell). The mission had us investigating the disappearance of a fellow Ranger in a nearby town. As we gathered in the town's center to discuss the fact that the town seemed abandoned and awfully quiet, a nearby moan made us aware of the approach of 4 zombies; one each from each table edge. Quickly we jumped into action, and while some of us battled Zombies, others in our party attempted to tracked down the clues. Of course some of the clues, and the Random Events each turn, produced more Zombies, or Giant Rats. As the game went on, our wounds mounted, and we kept having to divert our clue-seeking in order to battle the creatures who kept getting in our way. Eventually though, one by one, we were able to uncover the clues within the 8 turn limit while only two Companions were brought down during the game (Alana and Cromwell). We never found the the missing Ranger, but we were able to determine what was going on and who was responsible for the apparent attack on the village and appearance of the Zombies. And, after the game, no one was found to be diseased, and all made a full recovery. We really enjoyed the game; especially the narrative aspects of the small personal nature of only controlling a few figures, and the inclusion of Clues and random Events. We are looking forward to the next mission. A look at our heroic band after the battle. From left to right: Firefly the Rogue, Churchill the Ranger, Cromwell the Guardsman, Corvus the Arcanist, Marcus the Ranger, Alana the Archer, and Duke the Hound. We gather in the village's center to discuss our plan. Behind us is a house with a clue (as well as a pair of Giant Rats), another house with a clue can be seen just on the left edge of the photo. (Note the clues are inside the buildings, but the interiors of Rob's buildings can not be accessed) We jump into action as the 4 starting Zombies approach. Alana the Archer releases an arrow at the one entering from the bottom of the photo, hitting it and doing 3 HP damage. My Ranger, Churchill, fires an arrow and kills one of the Giant Rats near the clue building at the top of the photo. Firefly the Rogue moves to the building with a clue on the left and picks the locked door, as Cromwell the Guardsman runs up to the other clue building and dispatches the second rat with his mighty two-handed axe. . The fight continues as more Zombies appear. At the top of the photo, Cromwell the Guardsman has successfully found the clue in the house which, after busting down the locked door with his great-ax, turned out to be treasure(!) and he now moves to investigate a clue by some nearby rocks. But has he moves towards the rocks he is set upon by another Zombie. Alana and Churchill battle a Zombie near the other house, while Corvus faces off against a Zombie as well. Firefly the Rogue had in the meantime discovered tracks in the clue house he searched and was able to determine what caused them, but ended up battling a Zombie and being reduced to 1 HP, so he discreetly ran off to check a clue at the village's edge near some other rocks. Corvus also at this point had found a clue by a small stream, off the upper right corner of the photo, which was a mangled body with mysterious bite marks for which he was able to determine the source. The badly wounded Firefly finds a lone survivor hiding behind the rock, who tells him what happened in the village. Having just 1 HP left, Firefly asks if she minds if he hides behind the rock with her. Just when the sun shines brightest... the Guardsman Cromwell, having found the treasure in the first building he searched, subsequently went off, and after killing a couple zombies, found a cache of valuable herbs behind the rocks he had gone to search. Very content, with the treasure tucked under one arm, his great axe over his shoulder and the herbs stuffed in his pouch... he thought himself quite the hero as he passed by the house he had searched earlier. But, at that point in the turn, the next to last turn, we rolled for the random event and it turned out to be Building Collapse! Roll for random building, and it turns out to be the one he is standing next to. We suspect he hit the house a little too hard earlier to bust the door in; and according to the event table upon its collapse everyone inside and within 2" of it must take a +4 attack. Unfortunately, Cromwell rolled poorly and couldn't withstand having a building drop on him and he was reduced to 0 health points.. his treasure and herbs lost amongst the debris. Luckily, as I mentioned earlier he did roll to be Fully Recovered later that night, but when questioned about what happened he had no memory of the event. 🙂

I've been collecting the official ROSD miniatures and some Reaper minis that fit the aesthetic. I actually played the missions with others but wanted to set them all out (and may well start again with a new crew...). There are 3 reaper minis in this, a Tre Manor ranger, Ardallen the Knight, and Aeowyn Silverwood. My actual ranger/PC is by Dark Sword miniatures. Then there is a recruit/guardsman from Grenadier, a dog by Wargames Atlantic. The remaining minis are by Northstar. The caster is one of the rangers, and the 4 others are the NPCs in the Blood Moon mission. That one's a lot of fun as you need to find out which of them is a werewolf.

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the RoSD panel this morning. It was really great; thanks Joe and Reaper Team. Much of the panel was Joe explaining what the game was about and a bit of how it plays. Some of the high points for me were: The first few suppliments will be compiled together into one big volume. In the past, the web releases for Frostgrave were compiled into the Frostgrave Folio and Joe wrote some new material that release. Here's hoping he will for the RoSD collected volume as well, coming from the girl who has everything. Joe believes that games should have a solo element. Covid has only reinforced this. He wants purchasers to be able to play his games immediately after purchase. Expect continued support for solo elements in his games. RoSD is the only game that was specifically designed for solo play, and will play better this way than the -Grave family. The second part of the trilogy that started with Across the Wastes has gone to the printers. This will be a dungeon crawl-style game. It will have 4 levels. Much of this mission will have hidden clues. What monsters await the rangers in the rooms of the dungeon is not specified on set up. The third part of the trilogy is still in development. It has to do with storming an enemy fortress and is called [something] Citadel. Joe wouldn't give us too many details for fear of spoiling the content of the second part. Across the Wastes is getting minis to support some of the stranger creatures. The humpback and zombie camels are the ones he mentioned. Strangely, he didn't talk much about how similar -Grave and RoSD are mechanically. I'm not going to talk about it either on the assumption that there are plenty of videos and comments about this already on the internet. Chat wanted to know mostly about minis (surprised?) and about online games. RoSD has a robust Facebook following and there are some fan-made missions there. He also talked about self-publishing his game in both America and the UK. Social media has played a major impact in getting the games exposed and creating a fan base.

December batch : - 10 giant flies for RoSD (trick or treat stuff) - 12 giant rats for RoSD (Reaper) - 30 trees from various brands (ziterdes, GreenStuff World, Amazon) - Troll Slayer Sophie (Reaper) (more pics on my blog )

First minis for "Rangers of Shadow Deep" : Team 1 : Ranger + falcon Team 2 : Ranger + hound Bestiary : 4 zombies, 2 giant rats, 10 giant spiders Tokens : 10 cocoons (more pics on my blog)

Rangers of Shadow Deep is somewhere between a skirmish game and an RPG. You play a ranger, an elite soldier tasked with saving your kingdom from the advancing forces of the Shadow Deep, that has already consumed the neighbouring lands. Its great fun, can be played solo or co-operatively, and has a lot of fans on Facebook and this forum. The game is miniatures agnostic and lots of the fun arises from getting a new supplement (from Drivethrurpg) and seeing what terrain and miniatures need to be sourced and painted up for the next mission. That can give the impression however that you need to source and paint 100 random single use minis, and make a bunch of terrain, to enjoy the game. That isn't the case. There are some very nice official metal miniatures that are produced by Northstar but it is also entirely possible/economical to use Reaper Bones for the opponents you encounter in particular. This is an entirely personal, non-commercial post. There shouldn't be any spoilers. Because I love the game (and suppose I like Reaper miniatures…) I wanted to set out how you could source the minis you need from this company, or show people how they might have a lot of the minis already. RPG players, and people who own the big dungeon crawler KS games may also already have a lot of suitable minis. Basics Most of the missions are played on a 2.5 foot square table. If you are so minded, you could get or use a 3x3 foot mat or cloth and have room for milk. You could use a dry erase RPG mat very effectively. The missions are pretty much evenly split between interior/dungeon locations and wooded/outdoor locations. Your ranger and companions You play as a ranger. The illustrations to the book show a lot of traditional, middle earth/early medieval cloaked warriors. The game is very open though and lets you create a character that could be an all rounder, a caster, an archer, fighter etc etc. There are tons of mysterious cloaked types in Reaper Bones (search for “Bones Cloak”) or you could go for metal figures for your characters. People are playing this with samurai, pirates, steampunk, evil, all sorts of characters as their ranger. You also get up to 7 companions. The types available will be familiar to players of Frostgrave, and include various types of soldier, casters, rogues, hawks and hounds. Again, there are a ton of options in Bones, and probably c. 100,000 options in lead and plastic from Reaper and other manufacturers. First mission The very first mission involves investigating an abandoned village. The main feature of the terrain requires you to represent 5 small houses on the table. You don’t have to walk around the interiors of the houses in the missions. If it would be a bit of a tar pit/expensive to go out and buy a bunch of mdf or plastic houses, a cheap option could be to use decoupage house-shaped boxes, and decorate these with filler/coffee stirrers/cardboard tiles, or represent the buildings in 2d. The opponents in the mission are rats, and zombies. You probably won’t need more than 4 of each on the board at any one time. SKU 77016 “Rats” or 77198 “Barrow Rats” would be useful. SKU 77342 is a set of 5 zombies, and SKU 77053 and 77014 are sets of 3 zombies. Zombies turn up in future missions a lot more than rats. Bones 5 includes some nice new zombies as part of the Core Set and as an add on. The Dungeon Dwellers expansion will include 4 giant rats. Second mission In the second mission you encounter giant spiders, and investigate some of their cocoons /webs and some creepy trees. Giant spiders come up in future in quite a few of the missions. SKU 02784 is metal, but has a spider and two victims, if you want to show the victims. Or you could wrap a packing peanut in cotton wool. I used tree armatures for the creepy trees. If you don't have any model trees/bushes and you want to show them in 3d they get used in a lot of future missions. For spiders, SKU 77126 (“Vermin: Spiders”) looks perfect and you can probably get away with having 6 minis. You could mix it up with SKU 77128 (Vermin: Spider Swarm) and SKU 77025 which is a bigger, single giant spider. Bones 5 includes an add on with 4 giant spiders, a couple of victims, a halfling paladin, and some terrain. Third mission (3 scenarios) In the third mission you start to encounter gnolls. These are one of the main opponents you come across in the game. I used orcs and half orcs a lot of the time, or the plastic gnolls from Frostgrave. Future missions involve you facing human cultists/evil soldiers and gnolls so you may want two distinctive types of opponent. The types of gnolls you need to depict are archers, fighters, sergeants (bigger and tougher) and shamans. You only ever encounter a single shaman in each mission. It is sensible to have 4 archers, and 4 -6 fighters, with two of those being bigger/tougher looking and identifiable as sergeants. If you were going for gnolls and using Bones, there are 6 different minis to look at (SKU 77388, 77234, 77235, 77236, 77104, and 77012), and you would only need multiples of the archer (77104 Blacktongue Gnoll Archer). You need to show a bridge and a stream for the first part of this mission. The gnolls have set up camp to guard it. Then you move into the interior of a captured watch tower. It could be handy to have some tents, shelters, and a camp fire as these show up in other missions. It is worth thinking about how you would depict rooms/dungeon walls as a lot of the missions involve setting out the table in a number of large rooms. I used 1cm high strips of xps foam, detailed with a foam roller, and stuck to tongue depressors. Dungeon scatter (crates, wreckage, skulls etc) could be a good investment as well. Other opponents you may need to depict in this third mission are a vulture (see SKU 77485), 1 or 2 civilians /prisoners, a flesh golem (perhaps 77512 or 77169). You will definitely encounter a “Shadow Knight”. I used a metal mini (Krass Omenthrall SKU 03792). He is turning up in the Core Set in Bones 5. There are a huge number of evil looking knights in Bones though. Searching for “Bones Evil” brings these up. Fourth mission In the scenarios comprising the 4th mission you start to encounter giant flies. A lot of people use joke shop flies, there is a model from Northstar, but I used the Bones “Fly Demon” (SKU 77259). If you don’t need an army of lead or plastic flies in your life you can get away with having 4 models, as they die quickly in the game. The final scenario in this mission is “The Last Stand”. This is great fun and involves you defending a ruined farmhouse from randomly generated opponents. You need to show 4 civilians and 3 allied soldiers. There are a number of suitable peasant NPCs and searching for “Bones Townsfolk” would bring a bunch of these up. Your opponents in this mission are randomly generated and could include gnolls, giant spiders, and giant flies. You may also have to deal with Trolls and with a burrowing worm. There are 10 different trolls in the Bones range, and 10 different ogres. Future missions have you facing off against skeletal/zombie ogres so you might want one model to represent both types of opponent. Trolls and ogres don’t show up in the same missions. I used SKU 77541 (“Carrion Worm”) for the burrowing worm but other useful models would be SKU 77006 or 44031 (giant leeches). The new Bones core set includes a suitable looking creepy worm, and a number of armoured trolls. In the final mission you are able to have minis in the cottage and on the roof. I represented minis on the roof by putting these on up turned transparent plastic cups. Next If time allows I might try and add to this post to go through future missions. I’ve really enjoyed playing through the game and (partly due to lockdown) only have 2 more ‘books’ to go.

I've been trying to work on my encounters for Rangers of Shadow Deep. Here's a bunch of randomness from that work! Oh, Rats! We have: a Warhammer Quest rat, a Frostgrave Wizards II Rat Familiar, a Reaper Bones Rat Swarm, a Reaper Bones Rat Ogre, a Spawn Rat from Dark Platypus Studios, a Warhammer Skaven Giant Rat, and a Rat Mama 3D print from Crippled God Foundry. Oh, Bats! A Bat Swarm from Reaper Bones. An Infestation of Spiders: A Reaper Bones Cavern Spider, a Reaper Bones Spider Swarm, a man-faced spider that may be from Foundry, and a classic Warhammer Quest giant spider. Flies that are Giant: One of the more unusual encounters in Rangers of Shadow Deep. I picked these up from the 40k Kill Team: Rogue Trader boxed set before there were official models.

The latest Rangers of Shadow Deep book is set in a desert so have gone through the lead pile to see what Eastern and Arabic flavoured minis I have. I also have some sand banks and desert terrain which am adding to. Really enjoyed painting this mini which is by Diehard miniatures (sculptor Tim Prow). Went for a pale pallette, over an Army Painter cream undercoat and an all over umber ink wash. Am probably not adding tufts to these bases (although do that for western minis).

I created a single scenario mission for low level rangers based on the "The Dungeon" books from Loke Battlemats. Since here are some rosd players and backers of that kickstarter I thought I'd share it. No clue how large the overlap is. Anyhow, C&C welcome, reports of how it went also. I played it with two players (GF and I). We had a close, but successful, mission with level 0 and level 1 rangers. I would say tough adventure, and mid level ranger around level 5 might also be fine. ROSD-Into-the-dungeon.pdf

Over my "weekend", I finally put all my recent works to use and played the intro scenario, "The Missing", of Rangers of Shadow Deep as a solo game. Alexa kept me company with backup tunes. The majority of my Ranger and Companions were based off old D&D characters: Apprentice Mik (Conjurer) a young wizard who joined the Rangers for extra credit. Hershel (Bloodhound) Cormac's longtime companion. Anwar (Archer) a pirate turned manhunter, now serving in the ranks of the Rangers in exchange for a clean slate. Cormac Wildkin (Ranger) the Half-Orc son of a renowned Elf hero. He was left at the doorstep of his father's Ranger Lodge and raised in their ways. He is a loyal member hoping to live up to his father's legacy. Thorek Silverthumbs (Rogue) a Dwarf smuggler who joined the band to investigate his clan's disappearance. Ajaxxus Skiotho (Savage) a Tiefling former hermit who has fallen under a berserker curse and joined the team guided by strange visions. The party begins their investigation at the fountain at the center of the village. Cormac and Hershel go to exterminate the giant rats in the Dwarf Outpost. The companions quickly get swarmed at the fountain. Hershel is taken out quickly by a partial building collapse. Even Dwarven Architecture can't withstand the unknown forces of the Shadow Deep. Thorek finds odd tracks but can't quite figure out what they mean. The fountain crew is not doing well. Cormac continues to clear out the nasties lurking near the Dwarf Outpost. Mik decides to begin his trend of running away from danger. Thorek spots a "clue" near the ale stores. Squeak squeak squeak Ajaxxus remembers that civilized folks like people to knock on their door...slightly after using his sledge. Meanwhile, Mik realizes he didn't memorize "Knock" today More undead are attracted to the village center. Ajaxxus convinces a Survivor to come out of hiding. Mik casts "Run Away!" Cormac finds treasure. The Survivor realizes Ajaxxus may have exaggerated how safe it was to leave. Mik realizes he ran the wrong way. Thorek finds the remains of Ranger Aventine, stashed among the kegs. Mik miscasts "Run Away!" More Zombies?!? Ajaxxus attempts to rescue Mik... But even the mighty Savage is overwhelmed. Cormac and Thorek pick off the zombies from a distance, before the expedition came to an end. Having finally played, my review for Rangers of Shadow Deep is positive. It was a lot of fun, and I didn't know what to expect with the random Clues and Events tables. I wasn't expecting to only have two of my original team still standing at the end! Thankfully, they all survived, with only Ajaxxus suffering a Smashed Arm. Hopefully they'll be luckier when they follow the strange tracks they found.