“Movie adaptation” is a phrase that sends shivers down the spines of any booklover. Video game adaptation? Now that’s something likely not suck. But what if your favorite book spawns a miniature wargame? That’s what happened to the Forgotten Ruin series – it inspired the aptly-named Forgotten Ruin solo “adventure wargame” from Ivan Sorensen and Modiphius.
Listen to the Fortified Niche episode.
In Forgotten Ruin, future Earth has experienced White Chlorination Syndrome or something, so they send some US Army Rangers into the far further future to find the cure. What they find is orcs, goblins and dragons. What your platoon in the game finds is that they are hopelessly off-course and away from their original LZ.
Forgotten Ruin works on a simple, FiveCore-derived engine. It’s a d6 roll-over system and the absolute majority of rolls will be for hitting and wounding. Saves are rare at the start (your troops are seemingly unarmored) and morale only applies to mobs – while your rangers act as solo characters, the regular enemies activate in units and can thus shed deserters when shot up.
There’s really not much to say about combat, other than that it’s fast and not that exciting. A lot of firearms fire once and hit on 4+ if the enemy is in open but not within 6″ or in cover, so it’s a lot of 50% chance shots. Enemy archers hit on 5+ at best. There’s no suppressing fire or anything that fancy. Just rolling a lot of dice and cursing.
The real exciting meat of Forgotten Ruin lies outside the battlefield encounter. For one thing, the starting squad will always be roughly the same: two fireteams of four and a squad leader. Not that many options in armament. But you make three troopers Known Personalities, which can randomly roll two personality traits per which give bonuses to rolls if you find them applicable. They’re also the ones accruing XP and advances.
But after each battle, you can turn one regular guy (who still has a name) into a Known Personality with all the benefits that come from that. This is a much cooler concept than, say, Necromunda’s attitude of “fuck gangers, only champs and youngbloods matter.” Also, if you’re running understrength, you may get a temp replacement from the platoon. If that replacement ends the game by getting Exposure or whatever else would make him different from a regular grunt, you can name them and take him the next time you’re short a dude!
Meanwhile, if an enemy mob starts with a champion, and you win that mission, the champion has low odds of surviving and turning into a reoccurring villain. This is a great take on the Nemesis system, especially since it’s not contingent on AI beating the player. Honestly, this and every other random generation table that has mechanical effects is great.
Forgotten Ruin isn’t exactly Fortified Niche’s cup of tea – but that’s OK, we’re not fans of solo wargaming. It is still a solid miniature wargame that plays fast and doesn’t burden the player with endless stats and modifiers to remember on their own. It just needs better gunplay.