Wizard-Hunting for Pleasure and Profit

I wrote a thing! And it's just been published!

I'm always toying with little rules and systems for Frostgrave, because I've been elbow-deep in it for so long now, finding new tweaks to entertain myself. Most of these come to absolutely nothing, but I'm fortunate in that I have Joe McCullough himself as a sounding board if I think something has potential. I was fortunate enough to be invited to contribute a scenario to Wizards' Conclave, and I did also chip in some mounted rules for an early issue of Spellcaster, Joe's original self-published Frostgrave zine.

Well, Spellcaster has given way to Old Bones (with so many games under his belt, producing a zine for each game wasn't a viable option!), and I've been playing with more bits and bobs - this time, a set of new NPC 'monsters' and accompanying rules for building small groups of recurring foes to really menace the wizards and their warbands. I bounced them over to Joe for his thoughts, and was thrilled when he asked if I'd like to work them up as an article for Old Bones.

So, I did, and this week, I came home from work to find an advance copy of Old Bones #3 waiting for me...

Alongside Joe's scenarios and rules for Crocodilians can be found my own article: "The Most Dangerous Game". This is a collection of eight new opponents that hate magic and wizards, and who travel in small groups to the Frozen City to hunt and destroy these sworn foes.

Yes - I looked at Frostgrave and thought "needs more witch-hunters".

These 'anti-magic cells' are generated by all players in a campaign and (typically) include a mix of these new opponents and regular soldiers, stalking the warbands, and waiting to strike when their prey is at their weakest... And they keep coming until you stop them for good.

And what are those new opponents?

• Castoffs - victims of spells and experiments gone wrong, possessed of random powers (generated from the Demonic Attributes in Forgotten Pacts or the mutations from Grave Mutations).
• Echo-Hawks - birds of prey with the natural ability to reflect spells that bond (and share this ability) with a handler.
• Hounds of Zaroff - the answer to the question "what do you get if you cross a nullman with a mastiff?"
• Husks - burned-out spellcasters who have lost their magic, now turncoats lending their knowledge to groups of hunters...
• Inquisitors - templars, bounty hunters, and paladins that provide a martial backbone to these anti-magic cells. Can be generated randomly or cherry-picked to match specific models.
• Lodestones - magnets for magic, able to draw spells away from intended targets and to themselves instead!
• Wreckers - we've seen vampire hunters and demon hunters... now meet those that really hate constructs.
• Zealots - fanatics that hunt wizards using specialized poison.

I hope the rules offers new and entertaining ways to challenge your wizards.

Oh, and the art by Barrett Stanley is great!

You can pick up PDF and print-on-demand copies from DriveThruRPG.

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