Marian

The life of a noble maiden in times of yore was evidently a rather alarming one, given their propensity for being kidnapped by evil wizards, jealous step-mothers, ogres, trolls, dragons, fallen knights, faeries, etc. Today proved no different! The fair lady Marian had been spirited away and none knew to whither. Acting on rumours that a boy out hunting in the forest had heard the sweet and mournful singing of a young woman, two knights errant and their retainers converged on the ruined and apparently abandoned house in the deep wood from different directions...

EM's knight, spearman and crossbowman enter through the lower door, while CJ's identical group choose the upper door.

CJ and co. encounter goblins of varying stature and a swirling melee breaks out - hence the blurred image! Having rolled a 1, CJ was nervous, but then the gobbo did as well - a draw!

EM had swiftly dispatched the human brigands and realised they might not be in league with the foul creatures CJ was battling as the door separating their lairs was firmly barred and bolted. Put your shoulders to it, lads!

The noise of increasingly desperate combat from the other side of the door was a fair indication that CJ was beginning to suffer from the seemingly endless horde of monsters drawn by the ring of steel on steel, so EM redoubled his efforts and the door finally splintered under their blows.

"Hail, fellow, and well met! Let us join forces to complete our quest"

More goblins! Knights and spearmen carefully shuffle to one side to give the crossbows a chance to pick off the vicious little imps at a distance; all our heroes were tired and wounded by now.

But this did not stop them from piling in and clashing blades with the greatest possible force. Look at all those high rolls!

With the tide halted, the heroes cautiously descended to the lower level, the silence broken by the sounds of hurrying feet and the occasional monstrous roar...

Concerned at what unspeakable horrors the lady Marian may be undergoing, the knights split up to speed up their search. A bruising encounter with goblins later which very nearly saw the end of the noble Sir CJ (tears were shed, but a new rule idea came from that moment). The roaring sound proved to be a troll that got herded towards the heroes by its goblin handlers. The two particularly injured fighters shepherded Marian to safety while the rest screened their escape, ultimately slaying the troll and his smaller cousins.

And there was much rejoicing...

This was a game I played with my two boys on Saturday, using the really-nearly-finished-honest rule-set I've been working on, off and on for the last little while. We seem to have got used to calling it Knights' Quest, rather than Goblinquest and that will probably stick for the foreseeable future.

Players: Me, CJ (aged 6), EM (aged 4)

Rules: Knights' Quest (link to 1st ed. version, called Goblinquest)

Tiles: Inked Adventures tiles

The rules seem to be working pretty smoothly now, including missile rules and in-game character development. Excess dice-rolling (eg movement) has been removed. The game-to-game development is something that I'll be asking for feedback on in the fairly near future.

Back to work,

Rab