Colorcrayons
New member
Frostgrave game design + Heroscape tiles + minor conversion to Frostgrave rules to fit in with heroscape tiles = Frostscape.
Frostgrave. Hoo-boy, what a great skirmish game full of narrative potential.
However, I dont have a lot of terrain or models to play the game in the sense that most would ideally think of when referring to games like this. I do have a ton of heroscape though. Both in terrain and models.
So as an experiment, I embarked on converting the game to a hex based format. This was pretty easy to do, using a (One hex = 1.5" ) conversion formula.
For example, a model who has a movement of 7" now has a movement of 5 hexes. For half movement, all measures are rounded down. So a move 7 model would move 5 on first action, and 2 on second action. This gets rid of ridiculous things like being shy by half an inch or whatever.
There was one exception, and that was move 8" creatures. I gave them a move of 5 hexes still, but they got a new "fleet" rule that allowed them to round up on second action movement. This even things out and allows faster creatures to still have that distinction.
But in order to avoid doing math at every stage of play, I had to go through the rulebook, spells and ulterior motive cards and convert them so that hard copies are present during play. Some spells took a bit of creativity to justify the conversion, like a circle of protection, or fog and wall for example. But, I think it is a better game now simply by virtue of removing measuring devices and allowing players to calculate spaces easily at a glance. It makes it more tactical and strategic at the same time. I now possess a Frostgrave bible to use with Heroscape terrain that is sans illustrations that is nearly 100 pages. (contains all supplements, magazine articles, etc. prior to Maze of Malcor)
Here are a few images to illustrate my point.
Two different boards:
This one is a very flat board with very little elevation variations. Basically no higher than height 3. Works very well.
This one has a lot of elevation variation, and the slope of the board on one side goes all the way up to height 9, with a lot of elevation variation between the valley and the peak.
This scenario is a campaign prologue. The Gate of Felstad, a scenario we devised. Just a generic set up. Each player places 3 treasures. Deployment is on opposite corners of the left side of the map where the elevation is lowest. No turn limit.
Here are the two warbands used recently. The first is an elementalist, apprentice, knight, templar, archer, 2 thugs, and a war dog.
And this is a witch, apprentice, assassin, archer, infantryman, treasure hunter, thief, thug, wolf animal companion.
I snapped these right after my opponent's thug picked up a treasure and rolled a 17 for an encounter. A frost giant shows up not five spaces away from his mage. Good thing he had elemental shield up.
But even though that frost giant is on his doorstep, my apprentice is about to have to contend with both the knight and a damned werewolf on my six that crawled up from the road entrance last turn. I chose to shoot the knight with a poison dart. The werewolf made my apprentice wounded, and after game wound up with a nasty injury. A lost eye.
Two ice spiders were about to assault my wolf companion, but I moved him far enough away that they both jumped on his apprentice instead. A she tried to sneak up and steal the treasure, she died for her troubles.
It was a mad rush on both our parts to get the hell out of dodge and be glad for the treasure we were able to carry away before the fauna of frostgrave could devour our bands of greedy looters. Any victory today was pyrrhic.
I'm happy with the results of how well this plays in a hex board environment, even if it is not quite as pretty as a fully painted up frostgrave board.
As a disclaimer, I have emailed Joseph to see how I could distribute the conversions without stepping on his or Ospreys toes. Until I hear back I dont feel comfortable sharing any materials. But rest assured the 1.5" = one hex conversion rubric works just fine, if you decide to embark on a similar project.
Frostgrave. Hoo-boy, what a great skirmish game full of narrative potential.
However, I dont have a lot of terrain or models to play the game in the sense that most would ideally think of when referring to games like this. I do have a ton of heroscape though. Both in terrain and models.
So as an experiment, I embarked on converting the game to a hex based format. This was pretty easy to do, using a (One hex = 1.5" ) conversion formula.
For example, a model who has a movement of 7" now has a movement of 5 hexes. For half movement, all measures are rounded down. So a move 7 model would move 5 on first action, and 2 on second action. This gets rid of ridiculous things like being shy by half an inch or whatever.
There was one exception, and that was move 8" creatures. I gave them a move of 5 hexes still, but they got a new "fleet" rule that allowed them to round up on second action movement. This even things out and allows faster creatures to still have that distinction.
But in order to avoid doing math at every stage of play, I had to go through the rulebook, spells and ulterior motive cards and convert them so that hard copies are present during play. Some spells took a bit of creativity to justify the conversion, like a circle of protection, or fog and wall for example. But, I think it is a better game now simply by virtue of removing measuring devices and allowing players to calculate spaces easily at a glance. It makes it more tactical and strategic at the same time. I now possess a Frostgrave bible to use with Heroscape terrain that is sans illustrations that is nearly 100 pages. (contains all supplements, magazine articles, etc. prior to Maze of Malcor)
Here are a few images to illustrate my point.
Two different boards:
This one is a very flat board with very little elevation variations. Basically no higher than height 3. Works very well.
This one has a lot of elevation variation, and the slope of the board on one side goes all the way up to height 9, with a lot of elevation variation between the valley and the peak.
This scenario is a campaign prologue. The Gate of Felstad, a scenario we devised. Just a generic set up. Each player places 3 treasures. Deployment is on opposite corners of the left side of the map where the elevation is lowest. No turn limit.
Here are the two warbands used recently. The first is an elementalist, apprentice, knight, templar, archer, 2 thugs, and a war dog.
And this is a witch, apprentice, assassin, archer, infantryman, treasure hunter, thief, thug, wolf animal companion.
I snapped these right after my opponent's thug picked up a treasure and rolled a 17 for an encounter. A frost giant shows up not five spaces away from his mage. Good thing he had elemental shield up.
But even though that frost giant is on his doorstep, my apprentice is about to have to contend with both the knight and a damned werewolf on my six that crawled up from the road entrance last turn. I chose to shoot the knight with a poison dart. The werewolf made my apprentice wounded, and after game wound up with a nasty injury. A lost eye.
Two ice spiders were about to assault my wolf companion, but I moved him far enough away that they both jumped on his apprentice instead. A she tried to sneak up and steal the treasure, she died for her troubles.
It was a mad rush on both our parts to get the hell out of dodge and be glad for the treasure we were able to carry away before the fauna of frostgrave could devour our bands of greedy looters. Any victory today was pyrrhic.
I'm happy with the results of how well this plays in a hex board environment, even if it is not quite as pretty as a fully painted up frostgrave board.
As a disclaimer, I have emailed Joseph to see how I could distribute the conversions without stepping on his or Ospreys toes. Until I hear back I dont feel comfortable sharing any materials. But rest assured the 1.5" = one hex conversion rubric works just fine, if you decide to embark on a similar project.