Temptation
by Steve Blease

A soldiers life is not a happy one; harsh discipline, bone shaking marches, poor pay and the cheery prospect of a violent death. Consequently when a soldier chances upon something a little special, he may well not be able to resist himself...

To simulate this, players characters take a modified D100 roll against the following criteria. A character that fails a temptation roll falls under the control of the GM who decides exactly what the effects this failure has.

Alcohol:

Many soldiers find the chance of a bottle or two irresistible, even whilst under fire! However not all races have the same palate and whilst they may well feel tempted by one type of alcohol, they'd turn their noses up at another. To simplify game play, split alcohol into the following categories and note the races tempted by them:

Spirits: Elves, Dark Elves, Goblins, Dwarves, Orcs, Ogres and Rats.

Fine Wine: Elves, Dark Elves, Goblins, Dwarves and Orcs.

Cheap Wine: Dark Elves, Goblins Ogres and Orcs.

Lager: Dwarves, Rats, Ogres and Orcs.

Ale: Ogres and Orcs.

There is a basic % chance for characters deciding to forget all their troubles and have the odd tipple:

This roll is modified as follows:

Feel free to add more as appropriate...

The effects of getting drunk can range from the modifiers Private Tunge of Sharke's Rifles suffers in Flintloque to passing out for D6 moves...

Women:

Alcohol is not the only pleasure that soldiers crave and houses of ill repute and lamp posts can often provide an amusing distraction in the middle of a game.

Racial preferences play a part. Orcs aren't overly fussy, but Elves only fancy their own race or Dark Elves. The GM can decide a appropriate (and don't ignore races not included in Flintloque, the halfling prostitutes from Mary Gentle's novel Grunts are widely fancied!).

As a general guide use the % failure rolls as above and as effects of failed rolls are GM's discretion, though you could take the characters out of the game for D4 moves Raw, D6 moves Average and D8 Experienced (ooh err missus!).

Obviously there's more temptations eg. treasure, but these should start you off...

Ed Note: Flintloque is a set of Black Powder Fantasy wargames rules produced by Alternative Armies and was reviewed in Ragnarok 23. Flintloque won both Best New Fantasy/SF Rules and Best Fantasy Rules in the 1996 SFSFW Awards and Alternative Armies also retained the Best Fantasy Figure Manufacturer category as well. For further details regarding price and availability, send an SSAE to Alternative Armies, Unit 6, Parkway Court, Glaisdale Parkway, Bilborough, Nottingham, NG8 4GN.

The Orcs in the Hills Flintloque fanzine is produced by Wessex Games and was also reviewed in Ragnarok 23. It won the Best Non-Professional Journal category in the 1996 SFSFW Awards. Send an SSAE to Wessex Games, 4 Old Acre Road, Whitchurch, Bristol, BS14 0HN for further details.