The Dwarven Rearguard

Andrew over at Fictive Fantasies just posted a really cool adventure generator for dwarves traveling old dwarven roads called "The Road Home".  It's a great adventure generator and could even be played as a solo adventure.

As soon as I started reading it I remembered a really cool wargame idea from The Courier wargaming magazine (1993) called The Happy Little Rearguard by Jim Birdseye.  Roughly the idea is that you run a group of random stragglers from Napoleon's army retreating from Russia.  The board has a road running down the middle of it and your little band is in the middle.  The scenery is moved by on either side to simulate the group moving forward.  Each turn you randomly determine what scenery comes up next on each side and what random encounters happen.  To win you need to get some minimum number of your guys to travel X amount of road to catch up with the main force.  The keys are surviving fights, adding other stragglers as reinforcements, scavenging supplies (it's winter), and keeping morale up.

So...I was thinking that this game concept could mesh with Andrew's "dwarven road trip" game quite nicely. To keep with the original theme, the dwarves would battered survivors fleeing the recent destruction of their home fortress and trying to make it through a winter landscape crawling with roving enemies, monsters, and fellow refugees. They have a small cart pulled by strong draft ram with treasures and belongings, but no supplies (well, except the beer) and need to travel at least a week to safety.


So to Andrew's game I'd add these morale encounters, one per section of road (1d12):

1. Beer keg leaked overnight: THERE'S NO BEER LEFT!!! (negative morale check)
2. Small chest in road, probably fell off a cart, smashed open with coins spilled out (1d4 x 100 GP; positive morale check)
3. Dying dwarf, riddled with arrows; 0 HP and just barely conscious; they have 1d4 turns to stabilize/heal or dies (negative morale check)
4. Dwarf deserter comes out of hiding in rocks by side of road, claims he got separated in the dark, still wearing the clan guard tabard which is suspiciously clean (CN coward); fighter, with crossbow (full quiver of 20 bolts) and handaxe
5. Abandoned cart, empty but in good condition; draft ram dead in the traces with enemy arrow in neck
6. Spot cache of supplies in bushes by side of road, traditionally stashed by dwarf rangers for travelers; 1d6 person/days worth (positive morale check)
7. Beheaded dwarf wearing royal messenger tabard of the fortress the group is heading towards; scroll case tossed nearby has official letter saying that the other fortress is under siege and asking the group's fortress for reinforcements (negative morale check)
8. Draft ram pulling your cart steps on a thorn and gets a limp; half speed if not healed
9. Sheets of ice: half speed unless they can think of something clever
10. Sheets of ice: half speed unless they can think of something clever
11. Pile of dead, stripped, gutted dwarves, clearly the members of an extended family, old and young alike (negative morale check)
12. Pile of dead, stripped, gutted dwarves, clearly the members of an extended family, old and young alike (negative morale check)

Key change here is the addition of these morale checks. The party has just seen it's beloved clan fortress overrun, friends and family slaughtered, and now there's nothing back there but a massive pillar of thick, black smoke. So various events lead to a morale check. There are two kinds of morale checks, negative and positive. A failed negative check causes their morale (mental state) to drop one level; a successful positive check allow them to recover one level. The three levels are (per Pathfinder):

1. Shaken
2. Frightened
3. Panicked
4. Confused