SFR, Inc.

[ddicerc]

I'm starting to toy with an idea for a five-sided DD campaign in which Dragonmasters (one of each color) battle for mastery of Esfah. Each army is led by a DM with two dragons of their color (1 drake, 1 wyrm), which fight as army units rather than separately as dragons. The army of a DM can be made up of any race containing the DM's color. (Amazons can be in any army.) I haven't thought about army sizes, although I'm thinking of making a large pool from which the armies for individual battles would be drawn. If I get time to work on this (ha!) I'll post more, but anyone who would like to take off with this is welcome to do so.
_________________
Steve "DDice" Braun
The Diceman's Gaming Pages: http://ddicerc.weebly.com
2014-2015 U.S. National Champion
(Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...)

[DEEPBLUEB2]

nice idea Steve.... try adding this to the concept......
If the Dragon Master is killed, it goes to the Reserves instead of the DUA

[chuckpint]

I'd go father than that. If you lose the DM, you lose. He's your General.

I think Mark had worked on a concept at one time with dragons as units. If I remember correctly, the Jaws acted as the ID, but like dragonkin, could only produce saves, maneuvers, and melee. Couldn't do missile or magic. However, I'd think about making Jaws doing magic for dragons, given the long history of dragons casting magic. I'd also give breath a "range" so it works during missile as well as melee (see Frostbreath). If a drake rolls wings, treat them as maneuvers during a roll that needs maneuvers. During any action roll, treat as Teleport, and let the dragon carry up to 5 health along with it.

I'd also ban Dragonslayers/hunters/lords for this format (natural enemies). Another thing to think about, if the Dragonmaster and a dragon are in the same army, during reserve movement, the DM can ride the dragon directly to another terrain. In other words, all dragons are treated as "tamed".
_________________
You can never have too many dice.
First Place at the first ever Daemon Dice sealed starter tournament.
Battlefest tied for first GenCon 2012
Single Race Champion GenCon 2008-2009, Sealed Box Champion GenCon 2007,2009,
My collection is 21,500 Dragon Dice, 20,000 Daemon Dice, and others (too many to count).

[DEEPBLUEB2]

If the General is Killed you lose,like Chuck has mentioned,
but perhaps the General could be "immune" to being targeted.
The immunity would allow the army to fight for the General.

[Autpost]

If you are interested: Years ago I've worked out a game variant which is played in this way: Each player must bring exactly one Eldarim, which represents the player himself and if he is killed, it's immediately game over for you. However it's clear that Lightning Strike will make it too easy to win, so there must be some extra rules.

Some ideas that come up:
1.) The Eldarim cannot be the target of spells and effects. (obvious)
2.) The Eldarim has a health of five, so many SAIs (like 4 Bullseyes) would not be enough to kill him.
3.) You may bring extra Eldarims (of the same color) to the game, which are out of play (for instance in the summoning pool, replacing kins or units). These extra heroes represent the lives you have. If you are killed, your Eldarim-die is removed from the game and the next Eldarim from the summoning pool moves into play.
4.) [...] (a lot of other cumbersome ideas)

And this is in my opinion one of the best (It would give you a bit of a role-playing feeling):
5.) The rule for 4-sided items could be modified:
.) Only the Eldarim is able to carry 4-sided items; He may carry up to one of each type, as long as it has his color. (= One sword, one shield, one arrow, one shoes and one magic/medallion item.) Imagine: One Eldarim, carrying 4 rare items & 1 medallion & 1 artifact. This would be a 24 health army, made out of one single unit.
.) Whenever the Eldarim is rolled, all 4-sided items are rolled as well, even on an individual roll. Results from 4-sided items are considered to be generated by the Eldarim himself. (Hence: If he carries a shield and is the target of a lightning strike, he will always roll a save.)
.) If the Eldarim is not rolled (because of Stun, Sleep, ...) his 4-sided items are not rolled either. (Carrion Crawlers and Satyrs could suddenly become an interesting choice, if you play in this way.)
.) If the Eldarim moves, 4-sided items move with him.
.) The artifact rule is not changed. Each unit (including the Eldarim) may carry one artifact.
.) I haven't checked all spells and SAIs, but the biggest problem I can see so far is Finger of Death. If anyone else finds another rule which would kill the Eldarim too easily, please let me know.

I remember terms like champions, heroes and legends. I have always guessed that a legend would work in this way, i.e. like the King in Chess: If the legend is killed, you have lost. But maybe I'm wrong, it's just a guess.

[DEEPBLUEB2]

Autpost

[Autpost]

I have not meant that all those rules should be applied together. So he either "cannot be targeted" or "has a health of 5" (which is the worst idea) or "uses items to protect himself" (which is more interesting (in my opinion), but also more complicated), but not all 3 suggestions at the same time.

If you think "cannot be targeted" is the best way, you can make it a bit more interesting:
The General is immune to being targeted as long as there is another target in his army.
Or another variant: ... as long as he is riding a dragon. The dragon protects his Master and takes the Bullseye / Lightning Strike instead (and will probably roll autosaves).

Additionally you can replace some or all of your dragonkins with DMs, which count as extra lives. Just for the case your General is killed, you have another live in your summoning pool. However if your opponent doesn't even try to kill your Eldarim, you will find out that all those DMs in your summoning pool are useless and you have no (or at least less) dragonkins to summon.

I have not play-tested any of these suggestions and it isn't meant that it should be done in this way, but it could be discussed. Maybe it will lead to other solutions. A semi-official set of optional rules for the DM-General would be interesting.

[ddicerc]

I believe in the original Champions rules (which Dave Papay used for Gnomes), the rule for Champions was that they could not be targeted by any spells or SAIs EXCEPT from other Champions. That could prove interesting-duels between the Eldarim (as Champions), in which only they can kill each other vai magical powers or SAIs.
_________________
Steve "DDice" Braun
The Diceman's Gaming Pages: http://ddicerc.weebly.com
2014-2015 U.S. National Champion
(Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...)

[DEEPBLUEB2]

Masters of Esfah Rule option:
When a Dragonmaster rides(tames) a dragon,
he can't be targeted even by another Dragonmaster!!