What is it?:
Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago is a 28mm
miniatures game set in the Frostgrave world published by Osprey
Games.
The setting:
While in the same world as Frostgrave,
Ghost Archipelago is a literal world away, set in the tropical isles
that make up the aforementioned archipelago. You take control of a
Heritor, who's ancestor once visited this area and drank from a
Crystal Pool, gaining great powers. Since the archipelago vanishes
every 200 years, only to reappear for a few more, you have acquired a
ship and crew and are now looking to find the Pool. You need to find
the pool so using the powers you have don't make your blood burn...
The system:
Much like Frostgrave, you're going to
start out by building your crew, beginning with your Heritor. You
pick five powers for your Heritor (which is just like your Wizard in
Frostgrave), one of which will be very easy to use and four others
that aren't much harder. Of course, you can use these powers multiple
times per turn (depending on a few factors) which makes them harder
to pull off and hurts your Heritor more. After you get the Heritor
figured out, you have to pick a Warden, which is more like a
Frostgrave wizard with a “school” of sorts, but are much more
like druids in a traditional high fantasy setting. Once the magic
users are done, it's time to get your crew sorted out. You get a
total of eight crew, up to four of which may be upgraded to
Specialists, with 250 gold. The basic crew get to choose a weapons
package, like hand weapon and shield, two handed weapon, etc. The
Specialists will help you decide what kind of force you're going for.
Heavy weapons and armor? Ranged specialists? Speed? It all comes down
to what you pick.
Just like Frostgrave, you have a few stats and everything is settled with a single d20 roll. And each mission revolves around claiming treasure and getting away. The random monster tables are similar yet very different. You'll spiders and undead return, but now there's a whole bunch of dinosaurs and even intelligent forces to contend with. One positive change is that most of things that could make a game complex (like random encounters) are now optional and can be used to bridge the gap in power between forces. Of course, this does mean that you're going to need to buy more miniatures, but, come on, dinosaurs! Who doesn't want some of those to play with?
One of the major changes is that most of the missions will involve water and boats, meaning you might need to invest in new terrain and some miniatures for those. I'm a bit unhappy with that, having to make a bunch of islands and waterlogged ruins, but I do have to agree that it makes sense for the setting.
Is it worth it?:
Yes. If you already have a Frostgrave
group, switching over shouldn't be too hard. If you don't, just buy
some pirates and dinosaurs. Or just buy some anyway.
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