"Bath Quest" - An Adventure Map Game
In the 1975 issue #39 of Games & Puzzles magazine, a British hobby mag, Tony Bath writes about how and why magic & mythology are “compelling subjects for games”.
In the article, he describes a method for setting up a board game of fantasy war.
There is even a sketch of what that board might look like:
The basic description of the game follows, with draft rules I’ve created below for paid subs.
Game Structure
He made up some locations, which could be pre-generated for a true “boardgame” style game, or could be generated randomly (or just invented by the referee) for a map-based game.
He describes the other equipment needed for a game like this, which could be cards, or even just lists for a more freeform style of play.
at least 20 Spell Cards, where each Wizard could draw 6
a set of Chance Cards, with information about treasures, spells, monsters, etc
an additional set of cards, or a list, of the various monsters, resources, etc referred to by the Chance Cards
Bath describes a method of combat using percentage dice, “special 20-sided dice”, with a 10% chance of an outright kill, otherwise a 5% damage to one side or the other. For the version of the game I’m creating I will be using The Killing Fields rules I’ve developed, inspired by the Siege of Bodenberg.
Objectives
The game can be replayable by changing the objectives for each player each time. These objectives could be randomly generated via cards or a list, or the game could be played as a Campaign, with players creating their own objectives to create a win condition.
He mentions a few, such as:
Obtain new spells
Obtain X amount of treasure
Take possession of a particular treasure
Destroy or enslave another player