Review: Horde Wars Basic
My name is Winston. I write adventures and play (mostly DM) TTRPGs including D&D and Call of Cthulhu.
Today, I’m excited to share my thoughts on “Horde Wars Basic” by Blackwall Games, released on August 14, 2023.
Here is the description from their store page on Big Geek Emporium where you can buy it and check out the reviews other customers have left.
Horde Wars Basic
Horde Wars is a fast paced Medieval Fantasy D12 RPG. Horde Wars Basic includes the first four levels of play and over 100 Beasts, Monsters and NPCs to battle. Character creation rules, a starting adventure, sample town, and treasure generation tables are included. There are also seven pre-generated Characters.
This is a review of the system as well as a play report below of my first time playing this.
First Impressions
At first when I began to read through the rules it seemed like something adjacent to D&D 5e, just using D12 instead of D20. The ‘Actions’ section describes many aspects that are similar to other games, which does lend an ease-of-access feel to it, but also doesn’t set it apart.
Then there are a variety of rules for different situations. Stuff like Climbing, Drowning, Conflagration (cool), etc.
This is all pretty cool and it feels very well thought out. It helps me to build up potential adventure milieus in my mind and these are all great tools for not just DMs, but players as well.
All pretty standard stuff and well handled. It’s great, but doesn’t necessarily excite me.
Then we get to character creation. This is when I realize that this game is something else. I am now leaning forward in my seat reading the rules.
Now, I tend to read through things and get a surface-level understanding. At least for me, I need to apply the rules to get a good grasp of them. So, I read through the following sections of: Character Species, Careers, Skills, Features, and browsed through Equipment.
Lots of neat stuff.
It wasn’t until I sat down to make my character that I realized how cool it all was and how it all fit together.
There are quite a few options.
- 5 races: Human, Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Orc
- 21 Careers (You choose 2!)
- 21 Skills
- 55 Features (akin to feats, with humans getting an extra one)
There are so many options and combinations to play. I am quite certain that you’ll find something you’re gonna like here!
Aspects of Play
Combat, Exploration, and Role-playing are often considered the core pillars of tabletop role-playing games. I’m gonna tack on Character Creation as well to give you an idea of what you can do with this system.
So, let’s talk about those starting with Combat.
Combat
This is a highlight of the system; it is both engaging and tense. It’s the combination of several factors that draws me into this.
Enemies and lots of them.
It’s called Horde Wars for a reason, you’re going to be confronting large groups of monsters.
Now for many games, this would be a slog. The DM describes more than a dozen zombies, goblins, or kobolds and the groans are audible.
Not so, here, and there are several reasons why.
- You get two attacks with weapons you have a style in every turn.
(You pick 1–3 styles during character creation) - Type matching, you get an extra damage dice if you’re using a weapon made of a material that the creature is vulnerable to.
- Black Iron — Characters, so bandits and the like.
- Bronze — Beasts, like bears and wolves.
- Silver — Monsters, goblins, undead, and their like.
The cost of these different materials are ten times the base price of the weapon.
Here’s an example.
- A dagger does 1d6 damage.
- If it’s one of my styles, I get two attacks with it.
- If it’s silver and I’m fighting a goblin, the damage becomes 2d6.
- I get two attacks at 2d6 each against a 6 hp goblin.
2d6 Result Percentages
- Roll 2: 2.78%
- Roll 3: 5.56%
- Roll 4: 8.33%
- Roll 5: 11.11%
- Roll 6: 13.89%
- Roll 7: 16.67%
- Roll 8: 13.89%
- Roll 9: 11.11%
- Roll 10: 8.33%
- Roll 11: 5.56%
- Roll 12: 2.78%
That’s about a 72.23% chance of dealing enough damage to put down a goblin. I’d say it would be severely unlucky if you were unable to kill at least one each turn. - Accuracy!
For attacking to hit, you roll a D12 of course, and because you do the bonuses are that much more potent.
Prior to bonuses, you would have a greater than 50% chance to hit a goblin’s defense of 6, as matching the defense is a success.
With the appropriate skill for your attack, you get a +2 bonus and another +2 circumstance bonus if you are flanking the target with a melee weapon.
With a +4 to hit said goblin, you only need to roll a 3 or higher, so it’s both likely that you will hit and kill a goblin with a single blow.
So, if you’re stacking these bonuses against your opponents, you’re going to be hewing them down left and right. The battlefield changes every turn, it’s exciting and it commands your attention.
Other Aspects
- Morale. If you take out more than half their number, there’s a chance that they may just flee. IF they’re intelligent. Zombies do not care if you’re chopping their pals down.
- Armor. It provides protection, or half damage, against specific types of attacks. Having the right tool for the job is key here.
- Lethality. You’re dealing tons of damage, but your opponents can do just the same. Even the weaker opponents can swarm you and if you can’t manage that, you’re as good as dead.
You have to pay attention AND work with your teammates if you want to see success. - Healing. A couple careers can heal, but are limited in that.
Healing potions heal you for 10 hp, but you can only benefit from 1 each day.
Full Day’s Rest, this only happens if the players are relaxing at a safe location (town) for at least 24 hours. - Death. If you get dropped to 1 hp, you roll 1d4. That’s how many turns you have until you die.
To recap.
The combat is great because it’s exciting and engaging.
- You have tons of options in combat.
- The battlefield is constantly changing, play tactically!
- It’s lethal! Enemies can overwhelm you if you’re not paying attention.
Exploration
My experience with this is limited to the Travel Encounters, which are very cool. Reading through the rules reveals that there are plentiful ways to interact with and explore the game world.
Travel Encounters
For a day’s travel, everyone in the group rolls a skill check, adding their bonus from one of four skills if they have it. This check is going to be harder depending on locale and conditions.
If the majority succeed, you’re all good, safe travels for the day.
On the other hand, if the majority fails…
- 1d4 is rolled. This is how many encounters will occur.
- 1d20 is rolled for each encounter. This is for how many hours after the players rolled for when the encounter occurs.
- Threats are then rolled for the encounters on the tables. These can vary in challenge, the table has no mercy.
This whole aspect creates tension during the journey. The stronger abilities that careers have are 1/day/tier use. (HW Basic only covers Tier1)
If you have multiple encounters coming, the group will have to play it smart by either fleeing or rationing their powers out accordingly.
Now, there are also rules for the following:
- Climbing & Swimming
- Drowning & Suffocating
- Drinking & Carousing
- Conflagration
- Building collapse
- Traps
- Sailing
- Riding
This tells me that the world can be interacted with in many meaningful ways and that you can take your Horde Wars game in, really, any direction and fully explore all aspects of it.
Role-playing
In my play session we did very little roleplaying, however, it was key to our success. At the start of our chosen quest, the group had hired a woodsman to guide us.
This reduced our chance of random encounters which was a huge boon. We got caught by one random encounter, just one, at the very end. My character nearly perished from that alone and it could have been much much worse.
The other aspects of play reinforce the need and desire for roleplaying.
- Allies and guides can be very helpful, if costly.
- The world is dangerous, you should go around and ask the locals what’s around and what to expect. The need for it seems obvious to me.
There are diplomacy type skills but there are also skills that help you navigate certain situations. My group played from a small town, but there are sample nation descriptions along with languages that indicate that you could go elsewhere with it.
My point being, the tools are there. You could run the role-playing in this the same as you do others, generally. As I said, with how the other aspects of the game works, role-playing is more useful than the fluff of what you may be used to.
Character Creation
This is the process I went through with my character creation.
I knew I wanted to play a thief sort of character, I always like the utility they offer. This time, though, I wanted to do someone thuggish, like a burly thief. Your stereotypical thug.
I browse through the class options, ah right, there’s a Brown Wizard.
Can’t not do that.
With Horde Wars, you pick 2 careers, so I ended up picking a Brown Wizard/Thief.
There are 2 pages dedicated to the outline of character creation. One for a step by step creation process, the other page is for advancement. As this is the basic version, it only goes up to level 4.
Following the process laid out, it was very easy to make a character.
Here’s the highlights.
- Brown Wizard — Acid spells and an animal transformation.
- Thief — Backstab and double burglary skill on picking locks.
- Fighting styles of knives, slings, staffs, natural weapons
- If you use a weapon that corresponds with your style, you get 2x attacks. - Features, these are similar to feats from D&D allowing you to further customize your build and playstyle.
I chose the following two: - Wrestling — allows me to grapple and attack same turn.
Grappling is sweet because you get an attack bonus against the grappled target. - Rust — I detail this below, but gives me a chance to destroy equipment if I hit them with acid. Very cool!
This might look a bit goofy, but it was entirely fun to play.
Mind you, it took me about a day to read the relevant rules and to make a character for this.
You could have this bought and ready to run inside a week!
Summary
Highlights
- It’s quick to get to the table.
- The rules are a quick read AND easy to understand.
- Pre made adventures as well as characters. - Character options.
- Lots of combinations, a style for everyone. - Combat is engaging and tense.
- Actually preparing for an adventure feels necessary, which is fun.
- Very affordable!
Drawbacks
- Not all of the 4 Attributes feel very potent.
- The Attributes are Fitness, Reflexes, Senses, and Willpower
-If i had to rate the stats in importance, it would be Fitness, Reflex, the other 2.
- NOW, I wasn’t in a position where I was making many saves, but Fitness affects bonus HP and Encumbrance, both important. Reflexes affects initiative and traps saves. The other two are largely saves.
- Again, since it is a D12 system, every little bonus point could give you the edge in a make it or break it situation. - Character Sheet
- Not a huge one as anything can be a character sheet.
What I would change
- A whole new sheet for gear with lines and where you can circle whether B for bulky St for standard Sm for small. This would be huge.
- Weapons and abilities. If there were set spots for bonuses, range, type, etc. That would also be helpful.
- It might make it more busy, but the quick access of information would be great. - Basic Edition
- There’s a lot of potential here, but it can’t be fully realized until the Advanced version of the game releases at the end of next year — give or take a few months.
- With what is here, you could still play dozens of sessions and still have a blast with it.
Recommendation
I recommend this, wholeheartedly.
I plan to both play more and to GM this as well.
I look forward to when the Advanced Edition releases!
Pick up a copy of Horde Wars Basic here:
https://t.co/mvmZX5ecp1
Play Report
I wrote this the day after playing so that the memory was fresh.
Characters
- Phillip Bronswick — Brown Wizard/Thief (me)
- Ninder — Archer/Assassin
- Azmog — Blademaster/Crusader
This is a general account of how a roughly 3 hour session one shot went. I’ve never played with these guys or the DM.
The DM was one of the creators and Azmog had played many times before.
This adventure is only one of many included in the system rules!
It begins…
Grimstead, a small village of about 250 people. It’s walled in and surrounded by a forest called the Witchwood. The town itself has some Tristram vibes. It’s sort of this end of the road place with only one other stop 30 miles down the road.
The party came in as escort to a trader, Euric Stonebeard. Traders only come by every few weeks because it’s so out of the way. Euric came to sell his wares of silvered weapons, holy water, and potions.
This was foreshadowing, but I did not realize it at the time.
We all got paid 5 crowns for the escort.
- 10 Pence = 1 Mark
- 10 Marks = 1 Crown
A couple of us went to the local inn, The Black Lion, an alright inn for a small village. Ninder went to the smithy, Axe & Blade, to see about procuring some gear — silver arrows I believe.
There he talked to Balfor, the dwarven proprietor, who mentioned that his son, Bjorn, and some of the village lads had gone to see about reclaiming a silver mine to the east about 24 miles.
They’ve been gone for about 2 weeks.
Balfor says if we look into it, he’ll make us each a weapon from a material of our choosing. He also tells Ninder that last he heard there were skeletons and zombies in the area, but it’s been 50 years since he’s heard anything of that.
Ninder comes to the inn and tells us about the request, sounds good, urgent too. Checking my gear, I feel like I’m ill prepared for zombies and skeletons (monsters).
I leave the inn and go to where Euric has set up near the church. I buy a silver dagger off him with the money he had just paid us. He tells me that he’s got a treasure map that he’s willing to give us, we just have to bring him a specific item from the place, a crypt. I tell him I’ll talk it over with the others.
We decide that the missing villagers is a more pressing quest, we can do the treasure map when (if) we get back.
We rested for the night and nothing happened, we were fortunate.
These small villages have their own dangers…
Coming down in the morning, we get some breakfast and notice someone new in the common room. A raven haired man dressed in the garb of a Royal Forester. His name is Derek Fitzwood, I’m told.
Alright, he sounds interesting. I go over with my breakfast and ask if I can sit with him at the table in the corner. He’s fine with it.
I start asking him questions about the Witchwood and the mines to the east. He tells me, don’t go there, there’s hordes of zombies out there.
Dozens of the things.
Well, I tell him about how Bjorn and his pals might be missing and that me and the lads are gonna go check it out. He thinks we’re crazy so I ask him if he wants to come along.
He hesitates but says he will. He charges and it’s one crown for every day. I don’t have the money now, but offer him my reward from the blacksmith as collateral.
He says that’s fine, but he does want cash later. We finish breakfast, then we all head out into the Witchwood.
Day 1 — We avoided any encounters as Derek gave us a +2 circumstance bonus as our guide. Everyone has to roll a check against a set DC, if the majority fail then encounters are rolled up.
Ninder went hunting and was successful, saved us all from dipping into our rations. Otherwise, fairly uneventful.
Derek mentions there are pixies in these woods, strange.
Day 2 — Again we avoided any encounters.
We drew up short on our journey this day so that we would be a good 6 miles away from the mines.
Derek had suggested that you don’t want to be within 6 miles, as that is where the zombies roam.
Day 3 — No encounter roll as it was not a full day of travel.
We arrive at a large clearing where we can see the mine, an outbuilding, and a ton of zombies. Atop the building we see one of the villagers sitting.
The zombies are trying to get into the building and they haven’t noticed our presence, yet.
There are 17 zombies here.
13 shamblers
4 runners — these guys are fresher and move faster.
We talk over a plan. We could stealth closer and get the jump on them, a bit of a mixed bag there. So we decide to lure them to us. Their shambling speed will allow us to take some shots and thin them out as they approach.
Our crusader steps out of the treeline and begins to make noise to draw them.
The runners break ahead from the rest of the horde, as they move faster, and we take care of those without much issue. Our crusader doing good work tanking and slashing, Ninder shooting arrows, and Derek doing very little.
Says he was only paid to guide us and it’ll cost more for him to participate in the fight.
I used my sling, but the damage type wasn’t terribly effective, but it was the best ranged option I had for these guys.
Once we cleared the runners, the rest of them were closing in. I dropped a large acid burst into a cluster of them, taking out 6 of them at once.
Down to 7 now.
We keep dropping them as we go, Ninder takes some damage, he downs a potion and feels much fresher.
Down to the last one, it’s facing off against me. I grapple it successfully and shank it with my silver dagger, destroying the zombie and surprising the party with my savagery.
Just as we have some breathing room, we hear some stirring coming from the mine.
It’s another horde.
This one consists of 14 shamblers and 1 zombie crusader in plate mail.
Crap.
I’m able to get some acid attacks in before the rest swarm the crusader, his abilities are the only thing keeping him above 0 hp, barely. Our archer, Ninder, took many out with the help of Derek.
The zombie crusader marches towards me. I’m able to get an attack on him, just one, and then I retreat away from him.
I use my rust feature, if I roll a 1 on a d4, I can destroy his plate armor, which would be a huge boon. I don’t, it’s a 3. The number I roll is the number of items the target gets to keep, everything else gets destroyed.
As the crusader and archers are dealing with the greater horde, the zombie crusader closes in on me and smacks me around a bit. I’m real low at this point, 2hp. I had taken an attack earlier (can’t remember when) which had dropped me down to 11.
Ninder comes to my rescue as he flanks the zombie crusader, wielding a silver handaxe loaned by Derek.
We land some great blows on him and narrowly avoid the zombie’s attacks. The zombie crusader looks real rough at this point. I land a grapple on him and score attacks with my silver dagger, destroying him.
Meanwhile, our crusader had cleaned up the rest of the horde.
Victory!
We looked rough, but we came out ahead, all alive. Our potions put us back at a more comfortable spot hp-wise as they grant a flat +10 hp restoration.
Bjorn and his friends were looking very rough, but alive. They hadn’t eaten or drank in some time. Fortunately, we had 2 survivalists to gather up some food and water for everyone.
As they recovered, we checked out the mine. Treasure.
We each rolled on the table.
Ninder found 2 belt pouches with money, I don’t recall how much.
I found a treasure chest with 600 marks, nice! I gave Derek his due right then, with a little bonus. 110 marks in total, that he had to carry back, he earned it.
Azmog found an artifact, the ring of St. James. It expanded on his languages known and would give him the power of flight briefly twice a day.
Very cool!
This is not the end. We still had to make it back to the village.
Day 1 of the return trip went by uneventfully. Phew.
Day 2, not so much.
If the majority of the players fail on their travel encounter roll, encounters happen. Someone rolls 1d4 to determine how many encounters, this is followed by another roll to determine when the encounters happen, and then what is encountered is rolled along with how many appear.
The majority of us failed the roll and we were so close, too.
I rolled just 1 encounter to happen and it was gonna happen in the evening.
So, with the town in sight in the evening, we ran into 2 huge bears. It could have been worse, but it certainly didn’t look good!
Fortunately all of our 1/day spells and abilities had recovered. Unfortunately, you don’t recover your hp until you’re back somewhere safe for 24 hours minimum.
Initiative favored me. I got to go before the bears and they were close enough to hit with a burst of acid. 4d8 acid damage, I got 27 damage, close to max!
The party got some great hits in, but then a bear charged me. It had to double move, so it only had its maneuver left for a bite attack.
It dropped me to 1 hp.
It was also low.
Its morale was rolled.
A 4. Fight to the death. Damn.
We got some hits on it, this could be it!
Low rolls, not enough to finish it before it got another turn. Double Damn, this could be it…
It rolls one attack against each of us and misses each attack.
Derek decides to contribute and finishes the bear off. He’s a dick, but we all survived.
We all return to town, but Ninder remains to skin the bears. He gets 1 crown each for the skins, a nice score!
We got our rewards from the blacksmith and that closes our adventure.
Closing Thoughts
This was great.
I felt both badass and tense the entire time. The combat is lethal, so you really have to mind how you play and approach encounters.
The treasure felt great, the fact there was a chance of getting some really crazy stuff. Even the money I got was a pretty huge boon. I won’t be any stronger for the next scenario I play, but I can certainly buy more resources to help me and that’s cool, ideal even.
I feel like the party scraped by with the random wilderness encounters. Without Derek, it would have been a lot worse. There also could have been more zombies rolled up.
I enjoyed all of it, I’m looking forward to both playing more and running this as well!
