Why I love Frostgrave, and Why You Should Too
There are so many reasons to love Frostgrave. My reasons include affordability, the stories told by the game, and that there are campaign rules. This article overlaps my earlier one about Why You Should be Playing Frostgrave, but this one is straight up why I love the game.
First and foremost, Frostgrave is super to get into. The main rulebook costs $20 to $30. If you are lucky, you might be able to find it for less. After that, the expansions tend to be $16 to $20. After that, you are encouraged to use whatever minis you have. If you own minis, the cost may very well be nothing for you to get in after the rulebook.
Tables with dense terrain are encouraged, but Osprey Games even goes so far in providing free 3D paper terrain for you to use with the game. Using these files will get you a gaming table at nearly no cost to you. If you don’t want to use that terrain, you can get paper terrain at very affordable prices, or use whatever you already have in your collection.
Here I am using a dollar store Dinosaur alongside some official Frostgrave Barbarian miniatures. They look great on the table and it didn’t cost me too much either. Image from Must Contain Minis post about using Dollar Store Dinosaurs in Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago.
Finally, if you want to buy the official miniatures (like the female soldier miniatures we looked at last week), the price won’t set you back too far for what you get.
Frostgrave won’t break your bank account at all. I got all in with official miniatures for under $70 Canadian (roughly $50 American). I have a little more than that now, but it doesn’t cost much to get in on this game!
The Stories Told
Frostgrave leads to some really interesting stories. Because of the game being based on a D20 with a chance for Critical Hits, a dice rolls can make for some wild story arcs. In one game, I critically hit and killed a Wizard with a low ranking zombie by rolling a natural 20. Competitive players might not like this extreme boon from luck, but those that like seeing what stories unfold on the table will enjoy this optional rule.
What, a Zombie behind me? I am not worried about that!! A fatal final mistake. Image from Must Contain Minis’ Zombie Kills Wizard Gaming Report.
Generally, Frostgrave is a lot of fun with two to three players simultaneously on the table. The game handles more and at conventions, I run tables for up to six players. With six players, a lot of craziness can happen.
Check out this picture by my Friend Randall Carder. In this game, the players had to get their Wizards to a ruin circle in the centre of the table (in the middle of the table), read some magical ruins and exit the board. Image from the Battle Report of the game tables that I ran at the 2017 Hotlead Gaming Convention.
Another favorite thing that I like to do in Frostgrave is a house rule where the treasure can move around the table. This works really well at conventions where I act as a GM to multiple players. As treasure icons, I like to use civilians and these cool little figures are Stone Zealots by Reaper Miniatures.
I love using these little guys as moving treasure tokens. Image from a Must Contain Minis’ Campaign Battle Report.
A closer look at one of the Stone Zealots. Image from a Must Contain Minis’ Campaign Battle Report.
In the games, some really wild stories develop. One of my adventures, my friend Dave diverted all of his party resources into killing a giant rather than collecting treasure. It was extremely epic, but did not help his force in the campaign.
In one of my early Battle Reports, my opponent had to dedicate his entire force to kill a giant that came in from behind his warband. Who needs to fight the other player when there are wandering creatures like this?
Whenever I get together with friends to play Frostgrave, I know I am going to get some laughs of how the game “rolls” out! 😀
The Campaign System Makes the Game!!!
The campaign rules take the game from being okay to being absolutely awesome!!!
The rules of Frostgrave as a miniatures skirmish game are okay. They are written up in a way that anyone familiar with Dungeons and Dragons should be able to pick up the game quickly. Likewise, people more used to Wargames should also be able to pick up the game easily. What really makes the game though are the Campaign Rules.
It is an absolutely awesome feeling to create your Wizard (or Heritor in Ghost Archipelago) and see that person grow between adventures. When I run convention games, I now like to have the players play a couple of games with upgrade options between the games to give the feeling of growing their character. To me, that is what this game is about!
An Image from the Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago Demo that I ran at a Convention in Hamilton. In this session, I ran two games and let players upgrade their Heritors between them.
If you are ever to do a Frostgrave event, the best way to do it in my opinion is as a Campaign day.
This image is from the same post as where the link in the Stone Zealots pictures take you to. At this event, I played through three linked missions with level upgrades between games. Tons of fun!
Wrapping it up…
Hopefully you enjoyed this quick post. The goal of it is just to let you, the reader, know why I love Frostgrave. Why I love Frostgrave is because it is extremely affordable, the stories that unfold on the tabletop and the fact that there is a campaign system to the game. In fact, it is the campaign system that makes this game great for me.
As a final note, I am working on compiling a list of all Miniature Gaming Conventions in Ontario (Canada). If you are in Ontario, please take a look at the list and let me know if I missed anything.
Read more about great Indy and Historical games on my site!
