Tales from Dunwall

Tales from Dunwall

I recently shared a post on Instagram about one of my recent pet projects, a skirmish wargame based on Mordheim and set in the world of the Dishonored franchise titled Tales from Dunwall. It created a bit more of a stir than I expected, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how many people engaged with the idea of a Dishonored wargame. Though it's still in development, I want to share snippets on the blog over the next little while, in the hopes of presenting a playable draft by the end of the year, if not earlier. Most of the concept work is done (i.e. blocking out warbands, characters, stats), but the deeper I delve into writing it, the more I realize I need to consider. It's an interesting exercise, to say the least.

In this post, I wanted to share a bit of my rationale for creating Tales from Dunwall, my design philosophy, and a tidbit of the rules modifications so far. It's a labour of love for me, but it also seems to interest a fair amount of people, so I want them to feel like they're in the loop as I proceed.

First, a disclaimer: I'm not a game designer by trade. I work full-time as a teacher, and while I devote a fair amount of my free time to TfD, I also don't collect any revenue from it, nor do I intend to. (That's both a principle thing and a copyright issue: I'm using a lot of art that doesn't belong to me, and it would be wrong morally and legally for me to profit off it.) I also don't intend to hold myself to, or allow myself to be held to, any schedules or deadlines on this. It's my hobby, I'll do it how I do it. That being said, unlike the small mountain of other projects I've laid aside over the years, the buzz this one generated encourages me to work a little more diligently on it.

Anyway, with that out of the way, let's begin.

Why am I doing this?

I have enough on my plate already. I find my day job a struggle, and juggle a fair number of hobbies that I don't make enough time for. Why stack another thing on top of all that? 

Well, why not?

I think I mentioned this in another post, but I'm a big believer in the philosophy that if something you want doesn't exist, you should make it for yourself. I want a Dishonored wargame. I think Dunwall is a great setting, with a lot of character, and huge potential all on its own, without even getting into the expanded world that Dishonored 2 introduced. The Rat Plague is an awesome motivator for desperate bands of characters to work together to survive, and survival in a time of crisis is as good a reason as any for the conflict necessary to a wargame. 

Furthermore, the Dishonored games present a wide range of factions, but only from the perspective of the protagonist. That's not a bad thing: it works well in that medium. It would work well in the tabletop medium too, if we're being honest, but I wanted to give those factions their time in the spotlight. Groups like the City Watch and the gangs of Dunwall are presented primarily as faceless, massed antagonists also have a rich background of their own that goes unexplored outside of books and occasional lines of dialogue. No individual member of these groups is as powerful on their own as the protagonists, though, so they rely heavily on each other for support and survival. Small groups of relatively ordinary fighters clashing in the streets of a closed city seems like a recipe for a good skirmish game to me. 

Not to mention that the physical environment of Dunwall lends itself well to skirmish wargaming. The city is a claustrophobic network of streets and alleyways, punctuated by the sweeping openness of areas like the Wrenhaven river, Kaldwin's Bridge, and Dunwall Tower. It is a highly vertical environment, with pipes and ledges providing a quick route to the rooftops for able climbers. Even beneath the city, the sewer is a hive of illicit hideouts, boltholes, cisterns, and pipes of all sizes. Engagements can take place through multiple avenues, on multiple levels, in multiple environments, providing ample variety for scenarios.

In a nutshell, that's what piqued my interest: the awesome setting, characterful factions, and lack of an existing skirmish game. Mordheim seemed to be the perfect basis for a rule set, with its focus on grimy urban combat, but I also wanted to add some distinctly Dishonored elements to distinguish Tales from Dunwall and bring its mechanics closer to the source material.

Design Philosophy

There are a few points I've been keeping in mind as I work my way through Tales from Dunwall. First and foremost, it has to be fun. I doubt this needs to be elaborated on, but if the game isn't enjoyable, why would anyone want to play it? 

What do I mean by "fun", though? Well, for one thing, it should embrace the wackiness possible both in Dishonored and Mordheim, and try to integrate the two as best as it can. That means thinking about interplay between rules and systems, and building in creative options for players who want to stretch their imaginations. It should also be flavourful, with different warbands, items, scenarios, settings, etc. having a distinct and appealing sense of character. It should keep the great parts of Mordheim, but also have elements added that fit the setting and add to the experience of playing TfD, rather than taking away from it. One aspect in which I've tried to implement this "fun factor" is by developing a special skill list for each warband. While there are plenty of warbands in Mordheim without special skills, I feel like it's a great way to further define a warband's character and identity. Since I don't currently anticipate adding more warbands on top of the nine that will appear in the initial rules, I think these special skills will also give players more agency in customizing and diversifying their warband of choice.

Building on that first point, the game should also feel like Dishonored, while still being rooted in tabletop wargaming. My aim is to bridge the gap between the two communities, which means having elements that will be familiar and enjoyable to both. 

Great as Mordheim is, Dishonored has certain idiosyncrasies that define it and that should be included. I've already included a number of changes to the base rules in TfD, but to give a concrete example, let's look at magic. Mordheim's magic system functions quite differently to Dishonored's: in the former game, magic is unreliable, but a wizard's capacity to cast spells is only limited by the amount of risk they wish to take. The difficulty roll represents the wizard's concentration and ability to control power, but no matter how many spells they succeed or fail to cast, they can keep attempting them so long as they are physically capable. In the latter, magic always works, but is limited by a fixed pool of mana. A difficulty roll does not accurately represent this system, since powers in Dishonored can't "fail" as such. Instead, I've adopted a system much closer to Necromunda's ammo roll, where casters roll after each time they use a power to see if they have depleted their reserves of mana. Once depleted, mana can only be regained by consuming special elixirs, which are difficult to come by, or by waiting until the next battle.

The last point I'll mention here is taking advantage of the opportunity to change the system. As I mentioned, Mordheim is a great set of rules, but it isn't without its flaws. In a previous post I discussed how a "second edition" of Mordheim might be developed, and how it would need to improve upon what exists while not alienating the existing player base. Tales from Dunwall is something of an attempt at that kind of improvement. Since this is a game powered by Mordheim, rather than an expansion on Mordheim itself, I feel more empowered to bake my own homebrew rule ideas into the system. This includes implementing suggestions I've seen on the internet, comments on my previous Mordheim Musings blog posts, and rules I've developed myself. I can't ask anyone to play Mordheim using my set of modifications, but I absolutely feel I can ask people to use them for Tales from Dunwall, especially when they become central to the game's feel.

Like the previous point, I'll provide an illustrative example. I wrote in a previous post about how the main thing holding back shields from reaching their full potential was the power of an extra attack in close combat, and that the extra attack's potential is disproportionate to the gold crown investment necessary to access it. In Tales from Dunwall, there is no two-weapon fighting except under certain specific and limited circumstances: pistols and wrist-mounted crossbows may be fired once per combat (or more often, with modifications), and a few skills allow special extra attacks. 

Furthermore, reflecting Dishonored's focus on fencing, parrying is possible with any weapon and functions a bit differently than in Mordheim. As before, the defender rolls a die to parry, but also adds their WS and subtracts a Perry Penalty, a value between 0 and -2 that each weapon possesses (which I lifted from Inquisitor). This is compared to the attacker's roll plus their WS, with a parry succeeding if the defender beats the attacker. These modifications add a bit more depth to parrying, in my opinion, and turn it into a more ubiquitous defensive option.

Preview: Gangs of Dunwall

Now that I've shared a bit of my rationale and philosophy, I want to showcase the first warband in Tales from Dunwall, which I teased in my Instagram post. The Gangs of Dunwall are my homage to the Mordheim Mercenary warband, one roster with three separate identities built in. The Bottle Street gang have a more aggressive bent, with a special fire-spitting attack and two skills that enhance their combat potential. The Hatters are focused more on acquiring Rare items, and making the most of Dunwall's advanced technological weapons. The Dead Eels flourish in Dunwall's aquatic environment, excelling at moving through and hiding in the water, and coming with a set of nasty special weapons inspired by boats and aggressive river fauna. I've posted the warband in PDF format on Dropbox. Not everything is explained in this one document, so check in next time for some discussion of combat mechanics and weapons if you want to start your own turf wars!