The Mordheim Scavenger


Optional Rules


•  Night Fights

•  Arson

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p.I: Optional Rules

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"What need have I for eyes that have seen such things, nor hands to touch, nor tounge to give voice to theat brief uncertain terror of the dark. A curse uopn hand and heart, I say, for neither serves man well but serves him ill. I see all men's hears and hear the beating out of their lives knock-by-knock. How they grasp upon the shattered ruin of existence, so desperate are they to prolong their daily torment. Counting dross as if it were gold until their tally is done.

I am here walking gently amongst you. I watch quietly the hour come round and silently I summon you. You look upon me and recognise me then for all men know me that live ever in the mervice. You grip slackens and your sword fall from lifeless fingers and drops to the ground. You cry out soundlessly and try to speak but cannot, for now you know the time for words is passed. now you can but follow me into the darkness that waits for you as it always has..."

"Death is as light as a feather, duty as heavy as a mountain. Alas, tis' a hard choice to make, but even worse is when thine choice is made for thee."


Night Fights


The night surrounded them like a blanket of darkness, and Yarri felt like he was wading in an sea of black. The nights at mordheim are bitterly cold, and so dark the darkness seems to suck in and engulf all light. The monsters too, seem to favor the night, and the unexpected happens more than any warband leader would like.

Yarri sat hushed next to his old friend, his handgun cocked and ready to blow away towards any sound he heard. He jumped as a hand touched his shoulder, but soon he calmed his mind thinking it was only Grum trying to gather his bearings. However, his calm nerves lasted only a second longer as the grip tightend and long claws dug into his shoulder.

Yarri cried out for help, but all he recieved was a strangled cry emmenating from the darkness and a burtal blow the head...


The following are just some ideas of mine for night battles - obviously you may change these and ajust them to your own liking.


Summary of rules:

•  All modles can see 6+their initiative value in inches. Any modles with lanterns may add an additional 6" to the range they can see

•  All to hit rolls from distance weapons are at a plus one difficutly

•  All leadership tests receive a +1 to their difficulty

•  An initiative test must now be made to detect hidden modles

•  Any modle that is on the recieving end of a diving charge must pass a fear test, otherwise they will flee.

•  If you are using the optional rule of random events - they now occor on a 1 or 2, instead of just 1.


My thoughts on why:

Ok, well those are the rules I came up with, here is my reasoning behind them...

First of all, we all know that when you are in darkness, we cannot see nearly as far as we usually can, and thus I thought we should put a limit on how far modles can see. However, we also know that not everyone can see as well as the next person while in the dark. So I set a base vision of 6", and then you get to add your initiative value. I was (and still am) at half a mind about the lanters. It makes perfect sense that you would be able to see father with them, but the problem is that other people without a light will be able to see those carrying the lantern from a greater distance, and therefore lanterns would not be that useful. So, I have decided that there is no bonus to those viewing someone carrying a lantern, I think that makes sense, but if you like you can make it so that you can see people carrying lanterns from afar.

The +1 difficulty to hit with distance weapons is quite logical - it is really dark, and you are trying to hit a target that you can only catch glimpses of.

The +1 to leadership tests originates from most peoples uneasyness in the dark. All the strange noises emminating from places you cannot see is boun to set people on edge.

The 1-2 causing a random event is not a difficult concept. Most of us associate evil things with darkness, and night time is a prime time for this sort of thing. Who knows what leaves the safety of their dark holes to come out and terrorize the scant few whom reside in Mordheim?





"Listen now to my tune: ah, how my flute sings! Heed my call mortals, and do not think of the thing that waits you in the shadows where my siren's call lures you. Come men, come rats, come the creatures of the dark. Hear not the cries of those who have gone before you, see not the brink of the abyss where your dancing steps take you.

Dance to the tune of my flute, even if your feet are raw and bleeding. Smile with me, eving if it is the smile of skulls and your skin peels away. Laugh with me, though your throats may choke with bile. For you are all my puppets and I shall lead you in a merry dance.

The merry dance of death.

And though thou walk with the shadow of fear before thine eyes, and the bitter taste of death upon thy tounge, yet each day thou shalt hear the call of thy doom and wage war upon thy destruction.

And though thou sleep beneath the blinded pall of night, and the tase of darkness is ever sweetened by victory, yet the grasp of death is daily defeated, and the glow of immortality grows ever brighter.

And though thou layest now in the cold grip of earth, and worms spawn silently upon thy palate, yet thy prison of moulded flesh gives succour still to the maggots that feed in unseeing, unthinking and uncertain hope.
Arson


For some reason whenever I play a game of Mordheim, the subject of being able to burn down buildings almost always comes up. Maybe its just our group, but I have a feeling its not. Anyway, here are some rules I wrote up for burning down buildings. Use them if you like, but be cautious with them.

First of all, I figured that any modle with a lantern should be able to burn down a building. All they really need do is drop it on some wooden surface, and the oil would spread and be ignited by the flame. That is the way I imagine it anyway. So, the idea is that if a one of your modles is inside a building (I think they should have to be inside at the beginning of their turn) and at the very beginning of the movement phase, they should declare that they are going to commit an arson. Place a counter of some sord directly where the modle is standing, this is to show the location that the dropped the lantern. The modle must then cross the lantern out of their equipment list (it gets destroyed in the process), the modle must then move their running movement towards the nearest exit of the building, and once outside, must finnish their movement going directly away from the building. Once this is completed completed roll a dice 6 on the below table:

Result Effect
1-3 No outward effect (the building was only slightly singed
4-5 The floor errupts into a bright blaze, hitting all modles within 4" with a S2 hit, but then it is put out by some strange magic inhabbiting Mordheim.
6 The lantern fireballs on the floor igniting the entire building. Any modles inside take a S3 hit unless the move outside in that turn, and any modles witing 2" of the walls take a S2 hit from the smoke and heat unless they move farther away was well. For the rest of the game, the building itself will cause fear due to the intense flames and anyone who wishes to enter it must first pass a fear test exactly as if the wished to charge a fear-causing enemy.

Resolve all effects (if any) from the attempt at arson then continue on with the movement phase. Please note that only one arson attempt may be made per turn. Also, all of this is resolved BEFORE any other modle has a chance to move. So the player committing the arson cannot move all of their modles out of harms way before torchin' the building.


Some of you think that this may give the player to much power in being able to destroy buildings so easily. One thing I considered is making it a 2D6 table, and only a score of 12 would actually destroy the building. However, if you have to roll 2 6's to get the damnable thing to burn down, no one would actually do it. Another interesting thing to try would be making it so that if you rolled a 6, and the lantern fireballed, the windows would blow out from the pressure and any modle on the outside of the buildings within 4" of a window gets smoked by shattered glass, suffering maybe a strength 4 or 5 hit? Anyway those are just some extra suggestions. Have fun with that one - I know I will.





If you have any optional rules you would like to contribute to the site, please submit them, I will read them over, test them, and then post em'.