Super Open Combat

Open Combat is a game I supported on Kickstarter a while back. I finally received my hardback copy of the rulebook a couple of weeks ago (after realising I hadn't actually paid the postage; I could have had it in my hands a lot sooner).

Although I shan't go into a full review of the rules here (although rest assure I will at some point), here's a quick succinct overview:

Open combat is effectively a sandbox rules set; there are no unit profiles, rather the players use 'Renown' points to stat up their models however they see fit. This allows players to use almost whichever models they want, within the confines of a pre gunpowder historical or fantastical setting. This means you can recreate archetypal dungeon crawl encounters, fight battles between Saxons and invading Danes or send your Spartan Warriors to slay a foul Gorgon and her minions. Your imagination is the sole limiting factor.

 

The few games I've played (using an older pdf version of the rules) pitted my necromancer and her undead followers against a band of chivalrous knights. These few games we're a lot of fun, but really just scraped the surface.

So what am I getting at? Where does the 'Super' come in to all this?

Last weekend I was playing Dungeons and Dragons with my friends Elliot and Aaron. I use the word playing loosely, it really just gives us an excuse to meet up and talk about Father Ted, comic books and movies whilst occasionaly rolling some dice and maybe moving some models around.

 

We somehow ended up talking about B-list superheroes, and that we should come up with teams of our own and play them against eachother in Open Combat. We came up with some stupid ideas for superheroes and references we could make (some of which I can't repeat here); the Zookeeper from Futurama, for example.

Having subsequently given it some thought, I think the rules could actually handle the idea. Our crappy superheroes would almost definitely be fighting eachother in hand-to-hand, perhaps with the odd bow and arrow or laser beam thrown into the mix.

The few skills and abilities presented in the rulebook allow for some psychic or magic powers, as well as different weapons and combat styles. The renown points system also makes it easy to model certain powers - super speed (high SPD stat), super strength (high ATK stat) and super endurance (high DEF or FOR stat).

The 24" x 24" play area is also great for representing a small area where the two teams of heroes / villains might beleiveably meet up - a city square, dark back alleys, the interior of a base or other more exotic locales.

I've decided to take this idea and run with it; I really think it could be quite fun inventing our own (ideally terrible) Superheroes and Villains. Hopefully Elliot and Aaron will jump on board as well, letting us run a series of games using the campaign rules presented in the rulebook. We shouldn't need more than 5 or 6 models each, which will neither break the bank or be too difficult to get painted up.

I'll follow up with a roster for my Heroes and Villains once I've invented them and found some suitable models.

Until next time viewers, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!