Let's Review: Frostgrave

What is it?:

Frostgrave is a 28mm fantasy genre skirmish miniatures game produced by Osprey Games.

The setting:

Frostgrave is an ancient city that's been covered in ice for a thousand years. Once the capital of a vast magical empire, there are many riches to be had, if you're crazy enough to explore the ruins and brave the horrors found within.

The players take over the role of a wizard and their warband; seeking treasures, eventually building a lair and expanding their warband.

The expansion of the game, Ghost Archipelago, takes place in a jungle and islands. Or something, I haven't checked it out yet.

The system:

The basic system of the game is pretty simple: roll a d20, add your stat, and beat the other player rolling or the difficulty number. There's only a few stats (Fight, Shoot, Will) as well as health. The amount you beat the other model's roll by is the amount of damage you do, after you subtract the model's Armor. So, it all comes down to the one roll, which keeps the game going fast.

The game is centered around your wizard and his/her band of cutthroats and thieves. First, you build your wizard. You pick one of ten schools of magic, be it Necromancy, Chronomancy, Elementalism, Enchantment, and so on. Most of these spells are going to be used in the game, by dealing damage, boosting or penalizing models, or controlling things. However, there are a handful that are suppose to use outside the game. If you make the roll, you get a boost for the game or an item you can use.

You get to take three spells from your school with no casting penalty. Then you get to take one spell from each of the three “related” schools, so you can get some things to compliment your main choice, but keep in mind that these spells have a minor casting penalty. Lastly, you get two spells from the “Neutral Schools” to fill your spells out, but these have a hefty penalty. Of course, there's an opposing school that's almost impossible to use.

Next you build your Apprentice. You don't have to, as it does cost gold, but you probably should. The apprentice can also use magic, but isn't as powerful as your wizard. He also uses the same spells as you wizard, so you have to really think about the spells and how you're going to use them in the game.

After that, you grab some cannon fodder to fill out your ranks. You can get archers, fighters, war hounds, and the like. Each one has a cost, but the better ones are more expensive.

There's also stuff for items like weapons, potions, and scrolls. Those seem to be acquired by getting treasure.

How do you get treasure? You collect treasure during the scenarios. In the main book, there's ten scenarios, which is a really good start for a game you want to play again and again so your wizard can level up. That's right, your main character gains levels as you keep playing. The game is designed to be played in campaigns. To keep things fresh, they sell PDF mini-campaigns for $3 on the website, in addition to the other supplements they've put out. As your wizard gains level and treasure, they can increase their warbands, expand their knowledge of magic, and become more badass.

During the scenarios, you can have random monsters appear, like skeletons, ghouls, werewolves, vampires, gorillas, ice spiders, and so on. Without a spell, these creatures attack the nearest model whenever possible and aren't under control of any player.

Is it worth it?:

Yes.

The game only really requires a D20, some fantasy minis, and terrain. If you bought the Reaper Kickstarter stuff, and play any sort of minis game and/or RPG, you probably have everything you need laying around. Even if you only have minis and dice, you can print out or make some cheap terrain. Since the Bones line from Reaper is cheap, you can easily get into the game if you don't have any minis. I would say it's a fun little game to pick up for anyone who plays RPGs or any sort of minis game.

While the core book is a little expensive (roughly $20 for a PDF copy), it is nice to have to give you something to do when game night is canceled because of no-shows. Or, it can be something you play on the side, in between game sessions. If you have a group of roleplayers that want to learn how to play miniature games, this would be a good one to use.