Jackals: Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying powered by OpenQuest

[timbolton]

The British Museum are running a series of blogs called Historical City travel guides that may be of use for Jackals gamers.

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/historical-city-travel-guide-thebes-egypt-13th-century-bc/

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/historical-city-travel-guide-athens-5th-century-bc/

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/historical-city-travel-guide-rome-1st-century-ad/

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/historical-city-travel-guide-nineveh-7th-century-bc/

 

[rsanford]

On 6/17/2020 at 7:17 AM, timbolton said:

The British Museum are running a series of blogs called Historical City travel guides that may be of use for Jackals gamers.

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/historical-city-travel-guide-thebes-egypt-13th-century-bc/

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/historical-city-travel-guide-athens-5th-century-bc/

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/historical-city-travel-guide-rome-1st-century-ad/

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/historical-city-travel-guide-nineveh-7th-century-bc/

 

That travel guide to Athens you provided a link to will be quite helpful for a game I am preparing. Thank you!

Edited January 30, 2021 by rsanford

[smiorgan]

On 6/15/2020 at 6:16 AM, ORtrail said:

That cover is amazing.  Blotting out the sun with arrows, but they'll fight in the shade.  😁

Pretty amazing cover indeed.

[timbolton]

No new Jackals info as yet, though it looks like 2021 and not then end of 2020 for the core book, but there is info from other RPGS in the fantastic Osprey RPG line - https://ospreypublishing.com/blog/ospreygames_gencon_day3/

[timbolton]

I’ve created a Facebook (non-official) discussion group, the Gathering Hall, for the Osprey RPG line – general chat and info. Anyone needing a specific game, I’ll also redirect to the appropriate FB group too.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/602507410355068/

[Crabus]

I saw that there are some Jackals games during the Virtual UK Games Expo.

https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/events/RPG6156-jackals-wolves-lair/

Edited August 5, 2020 by Crabus

[timbolton]

Thanks for posting that, I hadn't been checking the games.
Two Jackals sessions, 1 place left on both:

Jackals - The Lost Children
https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/events/RPG6155-jackals-the-lost-children/

Jackals - Wolves Lair
https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/events/RPG6156-jackals-wolves-lair/

There is also one for Romance of the Perilous Land, one of the other Osprey RPG games (along with Paleomythic, they were the first to start Osprey's RPG line off). I can post a link if you want, 2 places left on that.

[Crabus]

I had the chance to play the Jackals Wolves Lair adventure during the convention.

For me it was a lot of first time. First time playing Jackals (obviously), first time playing during a convention (virtual or not) and first time playing in English.

As English is not my primary language and the setting is full of names, details, etc, it was like a firework in my mind.

But, clearly, after this adventure, my interest for this game increased.

What I understood :

The game is a Bronze Age settings with Hebrew-like, Greek-like, Egyptian-like, Giants descendent cultures. It’s probably not as archetypical as that, but the format (a one shot convention game) request concision.

So player characters are jackals, wandering adventurers, organized in pack.

We were hired for rescue merchants captured by Wolves (bandits), but we discovered a lot more.

The setting is quite living, with lots of things that going on. A Jackals campaign is like a Pendragon or Paladin one. Running on a long period, with multiple characters.

About rules:

It’s OpenQuest with some new mechanism (that I noted) :

• A new magic system name rite. Quite straightforward. You have a list of 3 or 4 spells by spellcasters speciality.
• A Virtue, that can be used to improve a roll result (critical failure to failure, failure to success or success to critical success)
• Valour, that are HP before HP (named wounds). So you decrease Valour first and wounds after (when Valour is 0). Valour come back quickly.
• Clash points. Kind of action points for combat but that can be spent in many ways.
  • In defense, you can use a clash point to make an opposed dice roll. The winner (high success) wounds the looser. If you don’t have clash point, it’s an unopposed dice roll, if the attacker success the defender is wounded. Work very like Pendragon combat with this clash point twist.
  • In attack, you can perform a special attack by spending clash points (slash attack or power attack)
• Initiative. DFT (?) + 1d6 but the group can decide who go first. To be honest, I didn’t understand the initiative system.
• Mettle that we used quickly, that is a fatigue system.
• Corruption. Not really used, but you can probably guess what it is.
• You have some favorites skills. That was highlighted skills on the character sheet that you roll with advantage (roll 2 times keep the best) (There was a mechanism for some highlighted skills, but I did not understand it. Sorry.)

I was very happy to discover this game. I will look forward for it release (the core book and the campaign).

Edited August 31, 2020 by Crabus

[rsanford]

3 hours ago, Crabus said:

I had the chance to play the Jackals Wolves Lair adventure during the convention.

For me it was a lot of first time. First time playing Jackals (obviously), first time playing during a convention (virtual or not) and first time playing in English.

As English is not my primary language and the setting is full of names, details, etc, it was like a firework in my mind.

But, clearly, after this adventure, my interest for this game increased.

What I understood :

The game is a Bronze Age settings with Hebrew-like, Greek-like, Egyptian-like, Giants descendent cultures. It’s probably not as archetypical as that, but the format (a one shot convention game) request concision.

So player characters are jackals, wandering adventurers, organized in pack.

We were hired for rescue merchants captured by Wolves (bandits), but we discovered a lot more.

The setting is quite living, with lots of things that going on. A Jackals campaign is like a Pendragon or Paladin one. Running on a long period, with multiple characters.

About rules:

It’s OpenQuest with some new mechanism (that I noted) :

• A new magic system name rite. Quite straightforward. You have a list of 3 or 4 spells by spellcasters speciality.
• A Virtue, that can be used to improve a roll result (critical failure to failure, failure to success or success to critical success)
• Valour, that are HP before HP (named wounds). So you decrease Valour first and wounds after (when Valour is 0). Valour come back quickly.
• Clash points. Kind of action points for combat but that can be spent in many ways.
  • In defense, you can use a clash point to make an opposed dice roll. The winner (high success) wounds the looser. If you don’t have clash point, it’s an unopposed dice roll, if the attacker success the defender is wounded. Work very like Pendragon combat with this clash point twist.
  • In attack, you can perform a special attack by spending clash points (slash attack or power attack)
• Initiative. DFT (?) + 1d6 but the group can decide who go first. To be honest, I didn’t understand the initiative system.
• Mettle that we used quickly, that is a fatigue system.
• Corruption. Not really used, but you can probably guess what it is.

There was a mechanism for some highlighted skills, but I did not understand it. Sorry.

I was very happy to discover this game. I will look forward for it release (the core book and the campaign).

I know a Brit convention was held over the weekend that featured Jackals. I was supposed to participate but couldn't figure out how to log in. Did they send you a Goole Meet link or code to use? Still not sure what I was supposed to do.

In any case I am sad I missed it. I am looking forward to Jackals.

[Jakob]

Sounds like some interesting changes! I'm definitely going to get this one.

[Dimbyd]

On 8/24/2020 at 12:38 PM, Crabus said:

 

It’s OpenQuest with some new mechanism (that I noted) :

• A new magic system name rite. Quite straightforward. You have a list of 3 or 4 spells by spellcasters speciality.
• A Virtue, that can be used to improve a roll result (critical failure to failure, failure to success or success to critical success)
• Valour, that are HP before HP (named wounds). So you decrease Valour first and wounds after (when Valour is 0). Valour come back quickly.
• Clash points. Kind of action points for combat but that can be spent in many ways.
  • In defense, you can use a clash point to make an opposed dice roll. The winner (high success) wounds the looser. If you don’t have clash point, it’s an unopposed dice roll, if the attacker success the defender is wounded. Work very like Pendragon combat with this clash point twist.
  • In attack, you can perform a special attack by spending clash points (slash attack or power attack)
• Initiative. DFT (?) + 1d6 but the group can decide who go first. To be honest, I didn’t understand the initiative system.
• Mettle that we used quickly, that is a fatigue system.
• Corruption. Not really used, but you can probably guess what it is.

There was a mechanism for some highlighted skills, 

Lovely to game with you Philippe. Hopefully we will game together again.

The highlighted skills were skills that you could roll with advantage- that is the tens dice could be rolled twice and the best result can be used. There was also a cultural virtue which gives you an auto-success. I liked the modified Openquest system and the plot was engaging. And the players were great. 

 

I will also be buying the core book and campaign. 

[rsanford]

New art for Jackals here -> https://kellybennett.art/jackals?fbclid=IwAR3pdgSKYlA9Xdo-3sLfVdJsMclAqSZIlGXgsvyn4RWhQyHqKpWnPRLn_bU

 

[timbolton]

Ah! Great, it was Philippe and Dimbyd I played the adventure with. Great fun guys

For anyone on FB, I am keeping updates for all the Osprey RPG lines posted here - https://www.facebook.com/groups/602507410355068
 

[rsanford]

5 hours ago, timbolton said:

Ah! Great, it was Philippe and Dimbyd I played the adventure with. Great fun guys

For anyone on FB, I am keeping updates for all the Osprey RPG lines posted here - https://www.facebook.com/groups/602507410355068
 

timbolton could you share your feelings of the game that you played and the setting? I am surprised the author doesn't spend more time here - free marketing!

 

[timbolton]

I'll try and post some things later in the week
In terms of why not here so much, I can see he's quite busy on other projects and I think he'll be more active when we get nearer release.
At the moment Osprey are blogging about two TTRPGs coming out prior to Jackals - the whole Amazon listings were messed up, Jackals in September proved false - so we have "Those Dark Places" (Industrial Sci-fi) in Oct/Nov and in December there is "Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades" (Wuxia rpg). Then in early 2021 the first Jackals book will be released. Jon did say other  products may get released as well. If you see the example of Paleomythic and Romance of the Perilous Land, the authors of those are releasing their own material through blogs and online RPG stores.

[rsanford]

1 hour ago, timbolton said:

I'll try and post some things later in the week
In terms of why not here so much, I can see he's quite busy on other projects and I think he'll be more active when we get nearer release.
At the moment Osprey are blogging about two TTRPGs coming out prior to Jackals - the whole Amazon listings were messed up, Jackals in September proved false - so we have "Those Dark Places" (Industrial Sci-fi) in Oct/Nov and in December there is "Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades" (Wuxia rpg). Then in early 2021 the first Jackals book will be released. Jon did say other  products may get released as well. If you see the example of Paleomythic and Romance of the Perilous Land, the authors of those are releasing their own material through blogs and online RPG stores.

Good to now about the dates for Jackals. All I have to do is be patient 🙂

[timbolton]

Gah! Just realised I never got round to posting, huge apologies! I'll try to get one when I am free.

Osprey have given the official announcement for Jackals on their blog along with a pdf of the introduction

https://ospreypublishing.com/blog/jackals_announcement

[Jakob]

I'm really looking forward to this in so many levels - not only the setting, but also the Implementation of OQ. Preview looks great!

[General Kong]

Looks quite interesting.

[timbolton]

Just a little bump... this comes out 4th February 2021... just over a week to go

[Jakob]

Yes, I'm pretty excited for this ... preview looks great!

[rsanford]

I am looking forward to Jackals as well as well as the setting book.

[Dimbyd]

Ordered from my FLGS

[Mankcam]

Watching this with interest, as I really like the simplicity of OQ.

This setting looks really good, not to mention great production values in regards to evocative artwork.

I  just pre-ordered the core book from OSPREY, and will probably do likewise when the campaign book is available!  

Edited January 27, 2021 by Mankcam

[rsanford]

Jackals' actual play...