The Joy of Bad Footwork: creating Off-Balance markers

“In the carriage of the feet, you should float your toenails in a little and step strongly with your heels. In the use of the feet, you should walk as usual, whether the case calls for large, small, quick, or slow strides. Feet that seem to fly, float or be immobile are, all three, undesirable”.

Miyamoto Musashi “The Book of Five Rings”: The Water Chapter

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Good footwork is one of the key elements of fine swordplay. And bad footwork is something which can be introduced into a miniature wargame of sword-fighting to try and add to the fun.

In both “When the Last Sword is Drawn”, and the Three Musketeers-inspired companion ruleset “With Flashing Blades”, one of the consequences of combat can be a miniature figure becoming off-balance.

Initially, I used to mark the off-balance status on the tabletop. But with a small playing area in these games, this became unwieldy.  I then moved to marking the character card of the miniature figure which has become off-balance.  I added a place on each card which could be covered with an off-balance marker.  

As being off-balance is a circumstance which is temporary, the off-balance markers could be added, and removed, as the game progresses.

I had a lot of fun making the off-balance markers for both games. Of course, I didn’t need to make any markers at all - a simple counter would have sufficed to place onto a character's card. But part of the pleasure in creating a smaller foot-printed game is that the time saved on not needing to paint lots of figures can pay dividends elsewhere.

I hoped that smaller 20mm MDF bases, of 2mm depth, would be enough to allow some modelling opportunities. I had a number of spare metal swords, scabbards, tessen (a Japanese armoured metal fan), and fallen sashimono banners to get me started. To those items I added small dōsojin stone shrines made from green-stuff, tiny geta wooden sandals (which are quite clumsy and look a bit like wooden flip-flops), small 3D printed bonsai trees, a 3D printed Buddha, and some Zen-like towers of prayer stones made from modelling putty.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve created a “summer set” and a snow-bound “winter set”, with the same items.  Two sets were not necessary, but were certainly fun to do.

I felt that the extra work in creating these items help spread the fun from the playing board and onto the wider table.  The entertainment around the table in awarding a character a set of clumsy wooden sandals when that character becomes off-balance is more than worth the additional effort.

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Let the Blood Dice roll...

One of the pleasures in designing a wargame is being able to create tangible things which add to the fun and theme of the game.

A key themes of the swordplay in “When The Last Sword Is Drawn” is having miniature warriors wielding iconic Japanese katanas, wakizashi, no-dachi and naginatas.  Who doesn't want to have the chance for their miniature heroes to wield an array of sharp edged weapons from Japanese cinema, manga and samurai literature?

To preserve that theme into the game, I wanted each miniature figure wielding a razor-sharp weapon to get to roll a “Blood Dice”.  Only one (or sometimes two) of the sides of the dice has a symbol - being a cinematic blood spatter.

If a miniature in combat rolls the blood symbol on their blood dice, then their opponent has suffered a debilitating cut from the razor-edged blade. The effect of that is to increase the severity of any additional hits on that opponent. The blood dice therefore gives a different dynamic to just inflicting casualties in a combat round.

The more we used the blood dice in the games, the more players seemed to like the effect of the blood spatter face appearing in a cluster of dice results.

I had to work out how to incorporate the idea into the dice I already had in my dice-bag. Of course, I could have just given a differently coloured dice and used “6” for a blood symbol. That’s perfectly serviceable, but seemed to lose a bit of the drama of specifically designed dice.

I therefore bought a few handfuls of blank dice and painted blood spatters on one (or more) of the dice sides. I started with D6s, but also tried D12s (painting two sides), a couple of D8s (painting one side on one, and two sides on the other) and even (purely for laughs) a D4.

I kept the scarlet “blood” paint as thin as possible and lightly gloss-varnished the whole dice to make sure all sides were evenly painted.  Maybe a statistician might report that the micrometer depth of paint on a face of the dice makes a difference to the various rolls in a game, but so far I think that the blood dice rolls have come up as unpredictably as normal dice.

Thirty of so games in, the blood dice have been causing mayhem, as was the intention.

Indulgent?  For sure.  But certainly fun.

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The Limbo of Sorcery: An entry for Challenge XV

Shinkurō, the former ronin, had never heard of "toad magic" until the moment that Lord Ghoda mentioned it. The ancient sorcery that Lord Ghoda claimed he had been studying sounded to Shinkurō like the ramblings of a drunk, at best. Or the ravings of a mad man at worst.

Sorcery and spells to turn a magician into a toad, and to enable to the spell-caster to weave magic and enchantments? It sounded almost heretical to voice the thoughts in his own head, Shinkurō warned himself. What nonsense!

But then, the demon had appeared. A powerful Dai-Oni, armed with a huge war-mallet, javelins and a famous sword stolen many decades before from Lord Ghoda’s grandfather. Against such an adversary, both Shinkurō and his new Lord would be helpless. It was just a matter of time before the demon would overwhelm them both.

At least it had all seemed gloomily inevitable until the moment that the magic transformation which had been promised by Lord Ghoda, actually worked.

It was beyond Shinkurō's belief, but.....it was happening before his eyes. Lord Ghoda’s webbed feet were starting to cast the spell to banish their adversary.

Shinkurō just hoped that the incantation didn’t require fingers.

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Happy New Year, everyone!

Over the last few years, I've taken part in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, a global community painting-a-thon over the winter months.  This year is Challenge XV, and along with the other challengers I'm looking forward to three months of frantic painting and blog posting.  

The last couple of Challenges, I've added some figures to my Japanese figures for my game of "When the Last Sword is Drawn", and to get me started, I added a couple more.  

The figures were a lot of fun to do. The demon and rōnin are both Dixon Miniatures sculpts by Mark Copplestone. They’re quite venerable, being first produced in 1984, although I bought them both earlier this year. The gigantic toad is from Crooked Dice, one of a couple of large specimens I purchased last year and hadn’t yet used.

I added some of the GW “Barbed Bracken” to the base of Shinkurō. I admit the spikey leaves do look, if you're a fan of manga, a lot more “Wicked City”, rather than strict Edō-period Japan. But I’ve enjoyed using these plants on various terrain bases, and hopefully I can use more of them as the Challenge progresses.

The bracken painted up very well, even though they are quite “flexible” (a.k.a. “bendy). I coated the plastic with PVA-glue beforehand, to add a little stability. But so far, in the games we have played with terrain and bases featuring barded-bracken, the paint hasn’t flaked off the razor-sharp thorns. A minor miracle worthy of Lord Ghoda himself (in toad-form).

I painted the submission as my entry for "Limbo". How else can one describe an indefinite transition to gigantic toad-form? Knowing this is Limbo also allows me to add a totally indulgent in-game character card for Lord Ghoda in his mythical-Japanese fauna-form, with two slightly more sensible cards for Shinkurō and the demon. If, of course, one can ever claim anything to do with demons is ever sensible or simple.

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"When the Last Sword is Drawn": Bringing a game idea to life

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"Something terrible has happened at the small mountain monastery of Ikoto. The monastery is under the protection of the House of Akiyama, and is located halfway up the steep slopes of Mount Norikata.

A few hours ago, a badly wounded messenger from Ikoto has informed Lord Akiyama that the monastery has been attacked and that several monks have been slain.

Worst of all, the sacred relics of Ikoto appear to be at risk of being stolen or destroyed.

The perpetrators of this dishonourable act are the fallen house of Ichimonji, a ruined noble family long jealous of the Akiyama.

Can the Akiyama avenge the murdered monks and protect the sacred relics of Ikoto? Or will the Ichimonji further despoil the monastery and violate the religious treasures of Mount Noritaka?"

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This was the introduction to one of my games of “When the Last Sword is Drawn”, which I have being running at games days up and down the UK for the last couple of years. This year, I decided to change the setting of the action from a summer to a winter setting - and so far, in 2024, I’ve run a dozen participation games at games days, and a couple of play-test games with groups of friends. This is the fourth game setting of “When the Last Sword is Drawn” - the other three being in summer (or, at at least, not winter) settings.

All the games have been a blast to run, with players cheerfully slaughtering each other in the monastery of Ikoto.  Many characters have fallen under the impassive stare of the huge bronze Diabutsu of the monastery, with some of them suffering truly dramatic (and cinematic) ends.  And a couple of unfortunate characters have even tumbled to a terrible fate from the steep slopes of the bell tower at the top of the mountain.

I thought that the time might be right for a look on the Blog behind the scenes in running our games of “When the Last Sword is Drawn”.  Much of what follows applies to our games of “With Flashing Blades” that I’ve been running occasionally at the same time.

Terrain

As “When the Last Sword is Drawn” is played on a small board or table, the name of the game is trying to maximise the action without the terrain getting in the way. 

This means trying to make the terrain representational without needing to be a totally accurate recreation of a mountain monastery. I used some skills from the 1990s in making terrain for Warhammer to create the functional, but hopefully attractive, mountain-sides of Mount Norikata. The intervals in the blue styrofoam mountain were helpful for gauging the distances to be climbed, and the ledges created by the styrofoam were perfect for inspiring cinematic duels on rocky ledges.

And just as important, these types of terrain pieces can be transported very easily.

Focal scenery

I like my games to have a visual anchor point. It’s a bit of a trick, but having something on the board which looks authentically Japanese helps. If you can catch the eye of the players and passers-by with something which looks right, you can use that to draw the viewer into the smaller details.

This also helps in setting the scene quickly - in a wargame you don’t always have as long as you would like to do that.

In this regard, 3D printing has been wonderful in enabling me to find things in the real world and converting those to the tabletop (with the help of some wonderful friends and their 3D printers!). Here’s a spectacular Buddha from the National Museum of Scotland, transitioned (complete with mandorla) to the table top.

What’s the Game About?

This is the hardest part of running a game you’ve designed yourself. “What’s going on?” “I’ve played other Japanese games before - how is this different?” “Is this like Test of Honour/Bushido/Ronin….?”

All valid questions, and one of the hardest things about any game is working out what it’s about. Or, as one gamer said to me, “I quite like [insert popular set of rules], I think that gives me everything that I’m looking for”.

Comments like that might seem a little bit existential, but I liked it. It made me think not so much about how the game worked, but why it needed to work a particular way compared to other games which have already been produced. 

The (excellent) roleplaying game “Monsterhearts” sets out what its about in a very up front and direct way, that the MC can read to the players. So I’ve tried experimenting with something similar to read at the start of "When the Last Sword is Drawn" - ideally as soon as the players have sat at the table:

"Welcome to When the Last Sword is Drawn. This game is about three things. The pursuit of Honour. The skill of Swordplay. And the theme of blood.

All three are common elements in Japanese art, films, history and legends focused on medieval and early modern Japan. My promise to all of you is that you'll see each of these in the game across this table in the next couple of hours.

One may ask, of you all, why are you gathered here at this location?

You are here to enhance your honour, because for the samurai, honour is the essence of your life. Honour is what provides your position in society, what gains the respect of your family, your house and your enemies. Honour is the heart of your world.

And we are assembled here to show our swordsmanship. Because the sword is at the spiritual heart of the samurai. The sword is a way of expressing your valour, a visceral and kinetic messenger of your fame.

And we are gathered here to witness the flow of blood. Because the path of the samurai is inextricably marked with blood and the risk of death."

Table Candy

Taking the best bits from other games I love is part of the fun in designing a game. Standing on the shoulders of giants, in other words.  I've always admired the cards which are included in  Fantasy Flight boardgames and in games produced by Games Workshop.  Of course, those giants of the hobby have teams of incredibly talented graphic artists.  And I have, well....good intentions and Microsoft PowerPoint...

I’ve created individual cards for each of the characters in the games we’ve played. This allows weapons, skills, status, wounds and some general flavour-text to be shown for each character (and there are usually 5 to 8 characters a side in the game).  Each card also has an image of the character, which helps players keep track of which character is doing what and where they are on the table.

Trying to make the cards, and other board-adjacent items, attractive was something I wanted to try to achieve. I wanted to make what goes around the board as much part of the game as what is happening on the main stage, so to speak.

Scatter

The "scatter" scenery was important on the board.  Temple lanterns. A frozen pond with fish still visible under the ice. A small shrine. These items of scenery look good, and they connect visually with the Japanese theme.

But they also form small barriers to break up or channel the flow of the fighting. I’ve found over the games of “When the Last Sword is Drawn”, and “With Flashing Blades”, that the games play best when there is not just one fight in the middle of the table. Scatter helps enormously in orientating the different routes the action might take.

Making combat fast, deadly but also interesting

“When the Last Sword is Drawn” , and “With Flashing Blades” are games about combat. They focus on swordplay (and other hand-to-hand fighting methods). They are not long games, and the combat is quick and is intended to be brutal. 

But I also wanted to find ways to make the combat interesting. One refinement over the course of this year has been the addition of “Duelling Cards”.  One of these Duelling Cards is chosen by each character at the start of their duel to set a theme for that combat. 

An iaijustsu sword stroke. Or a dirty trick. Or moving for an advantage. Or, maybe, declaring your name and gaining honour. Players seem to have enjoyed the little bit of drama these cards inject into the duels on the tabletop.

Keeping things cinematic

One thing I always wanted was to ensure that the games being played were fun.  Sometimes that means springing some surprises.  That'll be the subject of the next blog post - which is all about designing scenarios.

Hope you can join me for that.

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"Nobody Likes the Chaya": A villainous faction for 'When the Last Sword is Drawn'

"Nobody likes the House of Chaya. Their nobility is bought through wealth and their signature is greed.

They are wealthy, proud and ambitious. Their sharp-elbowed advance along the coast of northern Honshu, gathering lands and castles, has created many enemies. One clan, the Akiyama, has become the most recent victim of Lord Chaya Ichiro’s schemes of aggrandisement. But now, Lord Akiyama is dead.

Two days ago, Lord Akiyama was dishonourably killed by Chaya no Irosuke, a notorious samurai of the House of Chaya. Worst of all, Lord Akiyama’s legendary sword was taken from his dead hands and was brought to the Chaya’s ancestral temple to be re-consecrated as a trophy of the Chaya’s conquests."

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Everyone loves a villain. And, as one famous actor has said, “Every villain is a hero in their own mind.”

In creating tabletop miniatures games at games days and wargame shows, I always find it helps to try and set the theme. Part of that is describing what the players are fighting for. What are the stakes? Which side are you on? It’s easy with history. Everyone, and I mean everyone, knows it’s OK to punch a Nazi.

But with games which involve a more alt-history, or a down-right fantasy feel, it’s harder. Of course, sometimes it's made easy by the bad guys wearing black, or carrying a red light-sabre. Other times, it helps for me to tell the players, in as few words as possible, which side they’re fighting on.

And so to The House of Chaya.

Put simply, they’re villains. Nobles, for sure. Wealthy, of course. Darkly handsome in a Kylo Ren kind of way? - well, maybe you can make your mind up on that one. But they’re the bad guys? Yes, they are. Because every story needs a villain.

More seriously, I’ve found that wargames with a smaller footprint (in terms of game size and playing time) need a helping hand. You can have an attractive table, and thematic rules. But the importance of the background story, or the “skinny” as American TV writers might call it, increases as the table shrinks. The figures and the terrain can’t do it all on their own.

And in that environment, it helps for there to be a villain. Someone you can point to as the bad guys. Maybe they “killed our ‘Pa”. Maybe they burned your farm. Maybe they took your sacred sword.

Or maybe they did all three.

It short circuits the long gaming background of where you are and why you’re fighting. Because as Indiana Jones says, it's always OK to punch a Nazi.

Or clash swords with the Chaya.

I've been carrying the representatives of the House of Chaya up and down the United Kingdom for the past year and a half to serve as the bad guys in our games of "When the Last Sword is Drawn". These are the latest additions to the usual suspects. Including the heart-throb of the House of Chaya - Chaya no Irosuke.

These are some more of the figures from the glorious samurai- and Japan-fixated 1980s. The two fallen fighters are from Dixon Miniatures’ early samurai range. The mounted samurai is from the same range. He’s advertised as a famous samurai commander from the 13th Century.

But he’s such a lovely figure that it’s a shame to limit him to that period. I strung his bow string with fine wire, and pinned the bow to his hand at the start of painting. I also glued him to his horse. It would, however, have been easier to paint horse, rider and bow separately, and assemble afterwards. It was a hard choice, and I might do it differently next time.

The remaining figure is a Games Workshop samurai retainer from the 1984 “Oriental Heroes” range. He’s a lovely, flexible, figure who could serve as a retainer, or a samurai without armour. I love the confident pose, the larger than normal (almost comic-book) katana, and the wicker rain cape. He’s got a swagger about him, which the mounted samurai shares. And, after all, who doesn't love a villain with a little bit of sass?

I also felt the Chaya needed a uniting theme. I chose a colour for their House. Green, the colour of confidence, green tea, lush (almost-certainly stolen) farmland, and jealousy. I tried to make it a signature of the House of Chaya. Almost so that you know when to boo when they enter the stage.

And because all the factions in "When the Last Sword is Drawn" have some traits and attributes (not all of which are helpful), here's the ones we've been using for the Chaya on the tabletop, updated for some of the new members of the household. And, of course, a ludicrously indulgent character-card for Chaya no Irosuke himself:

More from the wintry coast of northern Honshu next time, dear readers.

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