Introduction Sea-monsters have been part of sailors’ mythology since the dawn of man's maritime experience. Giant, archaic or fantastic creatures of all species have been imagined, although surely the most well known to Forgotten Futures players will be the giant squid from the film version of Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea". Sadly, copyright laws prevent a Verne Worldbook, however I present here a simple game of men against monster inspired by that interpretation of Verne's work. The Ship, the Crew, and the Monster Being a tabletop game, there are a few minimum equipment requirements. The game is written to be played with 25mm figures representing the crew. Many companies produce suitable models and only 8 or 9 figures maximum will be required. However, if on a tight budget, the players could use 25cm square pieces of card suitably marked. The type of vessel being fought over is up to the players. It could be a masted merchant ship, or a classical Jules Verne Nautilus. It does not matter from a playability point of view what type of vessel it is. The top deck (or outer surface if a sub) of the vessels could be modeled by the very eager, but a simple pencil sketch will do. The vessel is the length of three sheets of A4 paper laid short end to short end, by the short end of a piece of A4 broad, with the stern and bows tapering at either end. The exact details are unimportant, but any immobile objects which cannot be walked through (e.g. a mast or a sheer conning tower surface) should be clearly marked. The only parts of the Kraken which need marking are the tentacles. There are eight of these, each of which should be stuck to a 30cm square base. Again modeling tentacles is not strictly required. In addition, players will need pencils, paper, and several D6 dice. Initial Set-up The crew figures start anywhere on the vessel. The Krakens tentacles start no more than 12cm from the vessel and relatively evenly spaced along its length, although the exact positioning is not important. The players have 50 Pluck points (see below) to assign between the crew figures. There can be as many crew as the players wish, but no less than 5. No crewmember can start with a Pluck less than 3 or greater than 10. It is worth noting that figures with high Pluck points are much more likely to be able to do something in the game. For the first few game it is advisable to start with a few heroes. Pluck Pluck is the key mechanism in this game. Pluck is an attempt to distill a number of factors - moral, training, leadership, fatigue, "friction" - into a single numerical value. A high score indicates a well-motivated, heroic individual, a low score a poorer one. Whenever an individual tries to perform an action, its score is rolled against. Failure may not only result in the attempted action failing but a fall in the Pluck score, as the individual begins to succumb to the stresses of the situation. Under this system, even the most motivated hero will eventually be worn down and break. All Pluck roll are made using two ordinary six-sided dice. Pluck is a value between 2 and 11. If an individual’s Pluck falls below 2, he is assumed to have fled, frozen in terror, or collapsed exhausted, and is removed from play. A Pluck value of more than 11 is not possible, even as a result of a critical success. A successful roll occurs when the score on the dice plus modifications is less than or equal to the Pluck score. A failure occurs when the modified score is more than the Pluck score. The Pluck value of an individual will vary constantly during a game, so it is vital that players keep accurate records of each of their characters’ Pluck values. This can be done either through maintaining a separate record sheet, or by placing appropriately numbered chits behind the figure. Pluck Criticals The purpose of a critical success / failure system is to simulate the effects of extraordinary heroism or unfortunate calamity on an individual. A critical success occurs when a natural double (two 1's, two 2's etc.) is rolled and the combined score is less than or equal to the rolling individual’s Pluck. A critical failure occurs when a natural double is rolled and the score is greater than the rolling individual's Pluck. Turn Sequence The games progresses in a series of turns. The phases in each turn should be followed in order, with all the action in each phase completed before the next phase begins. Phases (in order) 1. Player Movement 2. Player Combat 3. Tentacle Reaction 4. Kraken Morale Winning and Losing All the players in Kraken are on the same side. They either all win or all lose. However, the player who destroys the most tentacles, whilst losing the least number of pluck points is the moral winner. The players lose if their vessel is destroyed having suffered a cumulative total of 30 or more hull points damage. In these circumstances the vessel breaks up and the crew die horribly in the sea. Players can also lose if all the crew are either killed or reduced to less than two PLUCK points. Players win if all the Kraken's tentacles are destroyed, or if the Kraken fails a morale roll and withdraws. Movement The decision to attempt movement is made for each figure in turn, starting with the figure with the highest current PLUCK score. A roll against the figures PLUCK score is made, with the following results: Critical Success: + 1 PLUCK, figure moves up to 18cm. Success: Figure moves 2D6 + 4 cm. Failure: Figure does not move. Critical Failure: - 1 PLUCK, figure does not move. Figures may move less than the movement score they roll if they wish. Figures may not move through obstacles, other figures, or off the vessel and into the sea. Only one roll may be made per figure per turn. Combat The firearms possessed by the crew are insufficient to harm the Kraken. Therefore the only way to damage the beast is to hack off its tentacles with knifes and axes. Any figure within 3 cm of a tentacle base may attempt to destroy it in close combat. A roll against the figure’s PLUCK score is made, with the following results: Critical Success: +1 PLUCK, Automatic destroy result on the tentacle. Success: Roll: 5 or 6 on d6 to destroy the tentacle. Failure: - 1 PLUCK, no effect on the tentacle. Critical Failure: - 2 PLUCK, no effect on the tentacle. Only one roll may be made per figure per turn. Tentacle Reaction The Kraken and its tentacles are not controlled by a player but instead react to events according to the table below: Roll Figure within 4 cm. Vessel within 3 cm. Vessel within 3.1 to 10 cm. Vessel beyond 10 cm. 1 WI WI WI WI 2 W W W W 3 W W W W 4 F C A W 5 F C A A 6 G C A A A Advance Move tentacle 1d6 +2 cm towards vessel, or along the vessel hull towards the nearest figure. C Crush Do 1D6 - 1 points hull damage F Flail Roll 2d6 for each figure within 4cm of tentacle base. On a score of 8+, the figure losses 1 PLUCK. On a critical success, figure loses 2 PLUCK. G Grab Randomly target one figure within 6cm of the tentacle base. If the figure fails a PLUCK roll, the tentacle grabs them and horribly crushes them to death. The figure is removed from play. WI Withdraw Move tentacle 1d6 cm away from the vessel. W Waft Tentacle wafts aimlessly in the air. No effect. Each tentacle acts completely independently of the others, and a separate single die roll is made for each tentacle every turn. The table is read from left to right, with each tentacle’s reaction being rolled on the first applicable column for that tentacle. Only one roll is made per tentacle per turn. Kraken Morale Each turn the Kraken loses one or more tentacles, it must make a morale roll by rolling equal to or less than the number of tentacles remaining on 1 D6. If the Kraken fails, it disengages and flees leaving the surviving players as winners. If it succeeds with the roll, then the game continues. Final Word Kraken is designed to be a simple and fun game. Players may wish to experiment with the total numbers of PLUCK points available, or even the number of tentacles. If you don't like a rule, please feel free to amend it, but do remember that the purpose of this game is simply to be a bit of fun. Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #139 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com