Introduction

What Is This?

This blog is a playtest of In The Black Cloister, a journaling/solo wargame I'm developing.

A Miniature Wargame

One of the core activities of the game is making little models to represent the various characters, along
with miniature terrain for them to fight over.

It’s as much an excuse to make models as a game. 

A Solo Game 

This game is intended to be played on my own. I make decisions for my own fighters, and the enemy responds automatically.

A Journalling Game 

As well as making models, I’ll be keeping a journal of events that occur, and the more I play, the more a story will emerge over time.

Putting It Together 

I'm gonna start out building a handful of starting characters, making models for them and recording who they are and what their rules are on this blog. 

Subsequently, I’ll generate encounters for these characters, building models for the enemies encountered and the terrain they’ll fight over. I’ll play out the encounter with miniatures and
dice, and record what happened on this same blog. 

As I fight through more encounters, I’ll gain new characters for the expedition, and the existing characters will be changed by their experiences.

Setting: The Black Cloister 

Here

The Black Cloister sits on a remote island, several days travel out at sea. A crag of rock jutting from the ocean waves, the Garden is isolated from the outside world. 

Here, the climate is mild and humid, and - away from the mainland - all manner of strange plants grow.

Once 

The island was once the site of a large convent, home to the Sisters Of Saint Dorothea, an order of nuns who lived here in quiet isolation. Away from the mainland and the church’s orthodoxy, the nuns delved into strange mysticism and odd rites.
Seeking to perfect the creation of sacramental wine, the nuns bred a strain of grape - the Vina Cthonica - and from it brewed their own wine, which they called Cauchevine. This wine, supposedly, held all manner of supernatural properties, and granted the drinker untold power. 

Then 

 At some point, contact with the convent was lost. They ended all communication with the outside world. Those few supplies they needed from the mainland were no longer requested, and they no longer shipped back the wine they brewed. 

Those expeditions sent to investigate never returned. 

Now 

Several centuries have passed, and the Black Cloister has passed into rumour, dwindling to become little more than a fairytale told by adventurers. 

Until now.

A new expedition, the first in decades, has set out to the island. There, they find the cloister has become a lush, strange garden, inhabited by frightful creatures that are the products of the Cauchevine. With the nuns seemingly disappeared entirely, the vine has taken over, producing a riot of new life.

This game tells the story of that expedition.

 So, that's our set-up. The next post will go through my starting characters: who they are, the miniatures used for them, and their game rules.