The Porridge Wars are Thomas' creation, one which he began years ago and which still raises it's stunty little head from time to time even now.  Thomas utilized both our own Pirates! rules, and the Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd edition rules.  For those of you not old enough to remember, the 3rd edition rules were the last time they did not come in a boxed set.  WHFB rules were used to determine the outcome of any land battles, and, of course, our Pirates! rules for the naval aspect of the campaign.

The Porridge Wars campaign was run using a narrative style of play.  A campaign map was provided, but there were no hard and fast rules for moving about the surface of the campaign world; it was there primarily to give the players a visual impression of the world in which they were campaigning.  Instead, at the outset of each battle, the players would be given their forces, and the possible consequences of winning or losing each scenario.   The battle would then be fought with either the Pirates! or WHFB rules as appropriate.  Between battles, Thomas would decide what effect the outcome of the battle would have on the campaign world.

For example, let us say the Dwarves on the Hot Porridge side conducted a coastal raid on the Cold Porridge Dwarves.  The Hot Porridge Dwarves manage to take the small village and secure the outlying granary, but take heavy casualties in the process.  The next game finds the Hot Porridge Dwarves frantically trying to get reinforcements to their new possession in order to hold it, while the Cold Porridge Dwarves attempt to stop them from getting there by intercepting them with a few ships of their own!  If the Hot Porridge Dwarves manage to get their reinforcements through, then they will benefit from either increased morale, or perhaps a few additional troops in the next game, thanks to their new food stores.

Like any good campaign, the Porridge Wars were all encompassing in a fantasy sense.  In other words, it was not limited to squabbling Dwarves!  Eventually, as the Dwarves could not longer sustain the conflict by themselves without facing extinction, they began to recruit outside help, in the form of humans, Elves, Orks, and other fantasy races.  Before long, the entire world was embroiled in the battle to determine which breakfast cereal was best!  The advantage of this is that no-one was excluded, and it also added a lot of color and excitement to the battles, as each newly entered race had secret goals of their own (c'mon - what do Orks care about porridge - they just want to kill Dwarves!).

STARTING A NARRATIVE STYLE CAMPAIGN
The benefits of a narrative style campaign are many.  First, they don't require you to come up with cumbersome and often unrealistic map movement rules.  Second, the only one who has to do any planning is the Campaign Master (CM), and all he has to do is come up with a story line between games, and decide what the outcome of each game will do to the campaign overall.  In fact, the CM can even play in the campaign himself, enjoying directly the fruits of his or her labor.  Now that's something you just can't do with most campaign systems!

As the name suggests, the most important element of the narrative campaign is the story line.  Think of it as writing a story in which the players are acting out the various roles.  Each battle is a chapter or the story, and it's outcome will help determine the beginning parameters of the next chapter.  Below is an example of what we mean:

The Campaign Master (CM) decides to start a narrative style fantasy campaign.  He wants there to be several factions in the campaign, divided into two basic sides.  However, to add that extra element of back stabbing, he wants there to be incentives for each faction to cheat on the other members of its faction, perhaps even switching sides at some point.

He starts with two sides, one basically "good" (i.e. - Elves, Dwarves, etc.), and the other basically "evil" (Orks, Trolls, etc.).  He then draws a campaign map to show the positions of the various kingdoms relative to each other, and the major cities and other geographical features.  This will give some visual support to the campaign, as each scenario will involve some spot on the map.  Even though the map is not used for movement, it is very important to giving the campaign depth.

Then a "goal" is created for the campaign.  The easiest method is to play for victory points, with each engagement worth a certain number of points, and the player with the most points at the end of the campaign is the winner.  Besides having general victory points for winning battles, each faction could possibly earn special victory points for performing certain deeds, some of which may involve doing things for nothing better than personal gain, even if it means screwing his "allies"!

Next, the CM creates each factions' motivation or personality.  This can be provided to the players in a pre-game print-out available to everyone, or, more appropriately, each player can be given their own information secretly from everyone else.  Below is an example of what we're talking about:

Your are King of the Dwarves, and you rule the entire Dwarven Kingdom.  You have allied with the Elven Emperor Mentho-l'tum and Baron von Mustard, leader of the Human Knights of Pupon, against the Orkish hordes and their allies.  While you would not normally ally with the Elves, what with them refusing to relinquish your ancestral holdings at Tzven-Ilevun (known in the Dwarven tongue as Eh'hem P'he-em), the current crisis dictates matters otherwise.  Victory over the Orks is critical, but still, should you find your troops in the vicinity of Tzven-Ilevun...

It doesn't take much goading to get wargamers to turn on each other, and something like the above should be sufficient to get the Dwarves to turn on the Elves at some point of the campaign.  Each player should have similar orders, although you may want to make one or two factions on each side totally loyal to the cause, just to mix things up.

The next thing to do is create the story line for the first battle.  The first battle or two should be simple ones, and preferably small so that you can build up to a big final engagement at some future point.  A good item to start with would be a border raid, or an ambush on a diplomatic convoy, or something similar.  It is also good to have an idea of what possible outcomes will occur depending on which side wins the battle.  Here's an example to give you an idea:

The Battle for Bakon on the Green!
Big Boss Kurk and his Enterprising Ork Raiders have been dispatched by the King to perform a little "recon" of the Dwarves and their holdings near the border.  Recon to most races means, "Sneak around behind enemy lines and find out what they have going on."  Recon to the Orks means, "Sneak around behind enemy lines and find out what they have going on and then kill or steal it."  Being a good Ork, Kurk decides to do just that.  The first thing he comes across is the small Dwarf village of Bakon On The Green.  Noticing some livestock to steal and houses to set fire to, the Orks charge into the village, intent on "recon-ing" it but good!

Goals:
The Orks' goal is to steal livestock and burn houses.  They get one victory point for each house they burn to the ground, and one for each animal they get away with.
The Dwarves' goal is to survive the encounter and drive off the raiders.  They get 10 victory points, minus one for every house burned down and for every animal taken.

Possible Outcomes:
If the Orks win, more troops will flock to their standard, partly because they are inspired by the Raiders' victory, but more likely because they heard about the fresh meat they captured and are hoping to get some grub for themselves!
If the Dwarves win, then they will be able to reinforce their border, and will be ready for the next Ork incursion (in other words, they will get some extra troops in the next battle).

This is a simple scenario with simple possible outcomes, but the first scenarios of a campaign should be like that.  In later scenarios, victory or defeat could impact which battles are fought next (i.e. - if you win this battle, it's on to the enemy's capital next time!), or could result in possible alliance changes (hey, what are those Dwarves doing in Tzven Ilevun?!?).  You get the idea.

This should give you some ideas starting your own narrative campaigns.  Keep your eyes on this site as we provide rules for some of our own narrative style campaigns, which you will be free to use to further your plans for world domination!

Back to the Porridge Wars page.