Vastarian: Using the Trench Crusade ruleset

Inheritance.

It is hard to fathom, but it has been almost a year since we hosted, with the help of Bill Ford, our first Inq28 narrative event: Vastarian - Dreams of the Pious! We have written about the first two days of the event so far (one, two), sharing the participants and the rules we used. While we used a modified version of Necromuda for the event, we have encouraged people to use any ruleset they enjoy to play games in the setting. Ultimately, it is more important to use a ruleset you are familiar with, as the games will flow more smoothly and allow you to focus on narrative elements. It is our hope that people will not be chained to rules-as-written and will be willing to modify things to better suit the narrative as cool moments unfold. With this in mind, I had been meaning to use the Trench Crusade rules for some Vastarian games, primarily because they streamline many mechanics and because the religious setting of the game parallels Vastarian's. To my good fortune, work brought Bill to Baltimore recently, and when he suggested we play a game with some of our Vastarian warbands, I suggested we give the Trench Crusade rules a try.

Bill Ford, the legend himself, finds himself in Baltimore.

The Trench Crusade ruleset appeals to me because it essentially removes each model's statline, simplifying the rules for a warband when playing a game (letting you devise them as you play, almost like a pseudo-roleplaying experience). I also like the blood/blessing marker system, as it adds more agency to your decisions, allowing you some additional control when making critical rolls. We decided to play a game on some of the Zone Mortalis-style tiles Bill created for the Rot of Hondious. Neither of us created warband lists. Instead, we each took five to six models and started playing immediately, assuming most of the models had a standard 6” move, no +/- DICE bonuses for Ranged or Melee, and no armor (similar to most basic troops in Trench Crusade). For the leaders or specialists in the warband, we might add + DICE bonuses or armor, as we saw fit, based on the models in question. All of this was very fluid and easy to adapt while we played because the core mechanics of the game are so simple (no complex statlines or special rules to remember). We followed this same concept with the weapons our models were using, determining what made sense as we played. It was the first time Bill played Trench Crusade (and only my second), but the game came naturally, with the rules not getting in the way of a good story. For the game, Bill played his cult, the Reverent House of St. Nirvath, attempting to revive his deceased Cardinal Ladorak. I used the Church of the Gyro Choir warband Nicky Grillet created for us.

A lone tech logis pores over cogitators, consoles, and data slates to ensure the labyrinthine forge halls of the Church of the Gyro Choir function efficiently.

Desperate members of the Reverent House of St. Nirvath venture deep into some moldering data stacks maintained by the Church of the Gyro Choir, hoping to find functioning archeotech that might be able to revive their savior, Cardinal Ladorak, who suffered catastrophic psy-death at the base of the hyperradiant lighthouse of Ravachol.

Servo-thralls of the Church of the Gyro Choir awaken as signs of an incursion become evident.

Even with the passing of Cardinal Ladorak, Alexis Mincolla, his fixer, stayed with the Reverent House of St. Nirvath. Flanked by an unsightly Srakchi, Mincolla pressed the tech logis unsuccessfully for access codes to the facility's inner sanctums.

Case, an Ogryn-turned-faithful from his life of crime, bludgeoned a servo-thrall to the plasteel floor.

Lexico Arcanus Tsuchinshan 9981600.11Z/f skitters forward on a carriage of fine pneumatic legs, intercepting the Traveller, preventing the Nicassar from interfacing with the Empyrean Nexus, which was under the purview of the Church of the Gyro Choir.

The Trench Crusade core rules worked really well for playing a game in the Vastarain setting. They were easy to pick up and adapt as the game progressed, never requiring us to look into the book for rules queries. I am excited to play more games with the system in the future, and encourage anyone interested in skirmish games to give it a try!

- Eric Wier