Frostgrave

Frostgrave is a dungeon crawl/wargame first published in 2015 by Osprey Games. The setting takes place in the titular frozen city of Frostgrave, which has recently been unthawed after being frozen for a thousand years. Naturally, ambitious spell-users of differing stripes have come to Frostgrave in search of ancient knowledge/treasure/magical artifacts. To do so, they must contend with the many strange creatures and denizens left behind in the ancient city, while competing with eachother. The game launched its second edition back in 2020 and has since released several expansions and supplementary material. A spinoff known as Stargrave has also been released in 2021, which is essentially Frostgrave...BUT IN SPAAAAAACE!!! If Dungeons and Dragons and Mordheim had a baby, it would be Frostgrave. That, and it's one of the most accessible miniature games currently on the market; with plentiful modular miniatures sold for surprisingly cheap prices by Osprey themselves, easy to learn and dynamic rulesets, a full library of supplements and additional content, and the freedom to customize or bring in minis from other games...Nevermind Battletech!! THIS is the game GW exiles should flock to!!

Setting

Thousands of years ago, there was a great city called Felstad which sat at the center of a magical empire. Like Alexandria before Caesar, or Bagdhad before the mongols, the city was considered a center for learning and culture. But y'know, with magic and stuff. Unfortunately, like those forementioned cities, Felstad would suffer a terrible cataclysm in the form of an epic blizzard that buried it whole and turned the surrounding area into a frozen wasteland. No one is quite sure what caused this phenomenon, though it is strongly suspected that the storm originated from inside the city itself. Felstad faded into legend, until eventually the city began to thaw and it's remains were uncovered. Since then, the city has come to be known as Frostgrave and Wizards have started hiring out mercenaries and warbands to launch expeditions into the city to learn its secrets. Unfortunately, these bands are prone to competing with eachother, and that is on top of the many creatures/constructs/undead that already dwell within the ruins.

Aside from the above fluff, the setting is not very fleshed out and we do not know much of the world beyond the events that take place inside Frostgrave. It is your archetypical high fantasy universe with spells, heroes and monsters. However it is heavily suggested that Frostgrave shares a universe with Ghost Archipelago, which is another Osprey Games property.

Mechanics and Gameplay

Frostgrave uses a d20 system and statlines for its units which are fairly easy to pick up and play, especially for players who are already used to games like DnD. You take control of a warband which is led by a wizard and their apprentice. Both are customizable with their own range of abilities and statlines. The game combines both pve/pvp elements by pitting you against another player, along with several obstacles/npc monsters, with the goal of completing certain objectives. If pvp is not your thing, the game also has supplementary material which adds rules for both cooperative and solo play. These objectives can range from getting your wizard to interact with a certain macguffin somewhere on the map, to collecting treasure/artifacts and escaping with them. The core rulebook and supplementary material contain several different and unique scenarios, though imaginative players are free to come up with their own. The game also features a campaign element, where any experience/treasure/injuries that your wizard accumulated during your last game can carry over to either help or hinder you in the next. The variety of different spells that your wizard can learn, along with the variety of minions that you can hire can make the game feel very dynamic and unpredictable.

The Wizards

Before you play Frostgrave, you must create a character sheet for your wizard. The wizard leads the warband and has access to a range of spells which make it the most important unit by far. These wizards are very customizable and come in different archetypes which determine the spells that they favor, as well as their overall flavor. Each wizard type has schools of magic that they are aligned to, neutral towards, or opposed to. As you can imagine, your wizard will have an easier time casting spells from the schools of magic that they are aligned towards, though it is possible for them to learn spells from any school of magic in the game. Each wizard can also hire an apprentice who knows all the same spells as their master, but has lower stats and generally has a harder time casting.

Schools of Magic

Chronomancer-

Witch-

Thaumaturge-

Elementalist-

Summoner-

Necromancer-

Soothsayer-

Enchanter-

Illusionist-

Sigilist-