Frostgrave: An Overview

Way back in July 2015 I mentioned that I had bought into a "Nickstarter" to grab a whole bunch of Frostgrave goodies. I must admit that I did not do a lot with them except read through the books that came with the package, give the miniatures a once over and then put it all away for later use. As time went on, more supplements were released for the rules system (which I bought and read) but still I did not get a game in. What prompted me to write this post is that there is a new edition of Frostgrave out now and my interest in the game has grown as a result.

Frostgrave 1st Edition

The new version is compatible with all of the old supplements (give or take a few minor items) that have been released, which is a relief, and has a heftier feel to it (more pages and info contained within the covers). I will run a short series of posts on the rulebooks and supplements over the coming days, and write a comparison of the first and second editions towards the end.

The author, Joe McCullough, has been quite busy with his output for this ruleset and he has expanded it in a couple of new directions too:

Ghost Archipelago moves the adventures to a different setting with a more pirates/Lost World feel (although I do not have any rule books or supplements for this game so I may be completely wrong here)

Rangers of Shadowdeep appears to be a co-op or solo game that uses the same engine but allows players to collaborate against the grim-dark world setting rather than each other - again, I do not have any rules or supplements to corroborate this

Oathmark seems to also be set in the same vein but is aimed at mass-battles rather than skirmish gaming

All of the above games are getting full support from the author along with Osprey and North Star Miniatures who published the books and miniatures ranges, which is good to see as I want to immerse myself a little more into the setting and see where it takes me.

The next few posts will contain summaries of the Frostgrave rulebooks, supplements and miniatures that I have to date, and then maybe afterwards I will look at getting onto painting/assembling some warbands to play. My games will most likely need to be solo affairs and, in order to speed things up, I may even sort out some warbands from my existing fantasy minis collection, which is what these games were aimed at doing from the get go.

An idea that popped into my head recently whilst re-reading the main rules and supplements was how it could be adapted to fit into the Lord of the Rings/Middle-earth universe. Magic in LotR is not very prevalent, but the Games Workshop Strategy Battle Game allows for a little more to be used, so maybe I can see how the two systems could be made to overlap - I may need to drop a lot of the magic (I know that is the main premise of Frostgrave) and see where the creation of a not-Fellowship warband would lead. Perhaps I can run a few solo adventures for a mini LotR camapign? Perhaps utilise some of my GW LotR minis for my band of warriors versus a variety of baddies (elf or human warband versus orc warband with a shaman?).