Frequently Asked

Questions & Errata

Since the release of the Burrows & Badgers hardback rulebook at
Salute 2018, we’ve had a couple of questions about the rules, and
also noticed a few errors that managed to sneak through the edit-
ing process (they’ve got a high Concealment stat, obviously…)
Core Rules Questions
against, not your opponent. So, for most spells, you roll
Q - How many Wounds does each beast have? Do they all your Stat against the Target number of the spell, and if
have 16, even the little ones? you roll higher, you cast the spell.
A - Yes, all beasts have 16 Wounds - it keeps the Warband
Roster simpler. But the Tough and Delicate Skills makes Some spells do require you to Roll-off against your oppo-
a huge difference; so although a Bat and a Beaver both nent, but they will say so in the spell’s description.
have 16 Wounds, the Beaver’s Tough (3) makes him much
harder to take down, while the Bat’s Delicate (1) means Q - When do things that happen every Turn happen? For
they’re an easy target. example, the Creeping Things Spell - does the target of
the spell take the Wound at the start of the turn? The end?
Q - Routing. If both a warband’s Leader and Second are When they Activate?
taken Out of Action, the warband Routs automatically
at the end of the Turn. But if my opponent has to take a A - When they Activate. If a model has any ongoing ef-
Rout test at the end of the Turn, what happens? fects happening to it, they occur when the model declares
their Action.
A - If you’ve lost both Leader and Second, you auto-Rout
at the end of the Turn. Your opponent wouldn’t need to Warband Creation Questions
test for Routing, as you’d already have lost. Basically, the
game ends immediately before any other roll offs for rout- Q - Does my Freebeasts Warband get to roll for Rare
ing. Items before every Scenario in a Campaign?

Q - The Hide Action - if I Hide and don’t Ambush, do I A - Freebeasts roll for Rare Items (and get them free – they
stay Hidden after the end of the Turn? do not have to be paid for out of your starting 350 pen-
nies!) at Warband creation, not before every game. They
A - Yes, you do - the model counts as Hidden until it get offered Rare Items to buy after games just the same as
takes another Action, is Spotted, or is revealed by a spell. other Warbands, but can modify the rolls by +/-1.
So you could Hide at the end of one Turn, and Ambush
in the next Turn, for example. Q - Marmots have a Block Stat of d5...
Q - The Hide Action again - can I Hide while in Base
A - It should be d4! Sorry...
Contact with an enemy?
Q - I’ve got a Shrew Knight Errant on a Stag beetle, but I
A- as the rules are written, yes. But we’re changing that,
can’t find one in the Races of Northymbra table. How do
right now!
I use the model in my Warband?
The Hide Action test should be modified to read: A model
making a Hide Action may make one Move, however, the
A - The Shrew Knight Errant model was sculpted after the
move must end with the hiding model MORE THAN 2”
rulebook had already gone to be printed, so there are no
away from any enemies, and either in base contact with a
rules for it in the book... but if you want to use it in your
terrain piece, or totally out of Line of Sight of any enemy
Warband, then treat it exactly as if it is a Wildcat - same
models. The model then automatically becomes Hidden.
pennies cost, same Stats etc.
Q - The Cast Spell Action - it says I must take a Fortitude
or Presence Roll-Off against the target of the Spell, and Alternatively, there’s a PDF in the Files section of the Bur-
if the acting player’s Roll is equal to or lower than the rows & Badgers Facebook Group, and in the Downloads
opposing Roll, the Spell fails to Cast etc. It’s a bit confus- section of the Burrows & Badgers website which provides
ing... new rules for Shrew Knights, including a way to use one
as a Warband by itself!
A - Yes, it is a bit confusing! Firstly, there should be a
capital T at the start of target... most spells have a Target
number, and it’s that Target number you are Rolling off
Skills Questions
Q - Can the Intercept Skill be used multiple times in a
turn by the same model?
A - It counts as your Action, so only once.
Q - Is there a cap on Modifier Skills, and do they stack?
I’m thinking of a Wildcat with double handed weapon.
Do you just use the Wildcat’s starting Strong (2) or add
the Strong (3) of the double handed weapon for a total of
Strong (5)? I know Tough stacks with Armour, but is it
the same here?
A - A Wildcat with a double handed weapon = Strong (5).
It all stacks... we tried it with just Tough stacking, but it
meant Heavy armour-and-Shield equipped Badgers were
pretty much invulnerable. So, yep, everything stacks!
The example in the book for Skill stacking is for Tough,
but it equally applies to Strong, Weak and Delicate.
Q - If an animal with a bow and the Fast Shot Skill makes
an Ambush, do they get to fire twice still? If so, I assume
you make a single Ambush Roll-off, and should it suc-
ceed, roll the two shots?
A - Yes, that’s right. An Ambushing shooter with Fast Shot
can be deadly; when I’ve faced them, I’ve tended to use
Searching or spells to spot them before they get the chance
to shoot!
Equipment Questions
Q - How much do Magic Items cost to purchase?
A - It’s 3d20 pennies, regardless of the item. Sometimes
you get a bargain, sometimes it’s horribly expensive!
Page 122 should start:
‘Magic items take various forms, from ensorcelled Staffs
that give great power to the Wizards who wield them,
through rings and necklaces imbued with bound spells,
to weapons and armour that carry enchantments and the
spirits of the fae folk within them.
Such unusual and rare items are difficult to price; as a
result their costs vary widely. In addition, sellers may often
be unaware of the power of the item, and sell it for less
than its true worth. Regardless of the magic item type or
power, it costs 3d20 pennies.’
Q - Rare item : Relic. There is no cost listed; what do they
cost?
A - They’re 2d6 pennies.
Q - How do you generate Materials?
A - Certain objectives give you t hem, but the easiest way
is to buy them - 6 pennies each. For some reason, they’re
on the end of the Spell Ingredients list, rather than where
they should be, on the Open Trading list... sorry about
that!
Q - Page 99, Spell Ingredients lists Copper Strip as 5 pen-
nies and Elf Bolts as 2 pennies.
A - This should be Copper strip 3 pennies, Elf-bolt 5 pen-
nies.
Q - There’s no Badger’s Blood in the Ingredients list?
A - But there should be! It costs 3 pennies.
Q - Can a character wear more than one suit of armour?
For example, could I take Light Armour twice on the
same character?
A - No, only one suit of armour per characer!
Q - Poisons - when I get offered poisons as a Rare Item, is
it only a single use?
A - Yes; although I think it should really be d6 uses, and
the price you roll is per use, so we’ll try that...
Campaign Questions
Q - Magic users must take Delicate (1) and Weak (1) for
every spell they know at the beginning of the campaign.
Do they also gain Delicate (1) and Weak (1) for every
spell they learn later in the campaign?
A - No; only for spells chosen during Warband creation.
After that, new spells are earned with Experience, and
don’t cause Delicate/Weak penalties (or have the 5 penny
cost!)
Taking a Spell as an Advance instead of a Skill or Heroic
Stat Increase is already a difficult choice; it didn’t seem fair
to apply the penalties as well!
Q - How about for new recruits hired later in the cam-
paign who are magic-users?
A - New recruits get hired using exactly the same proce-
dure as for Warband creation; so, yes, they get Weak/Deli-
cate penalties and pay 5 pennies per spell.
Q - Are Secondary Objectives kept secret from your op-
ponent? And what if I roll the same Objective twice?
A - Ideally, you’d want to keep your Secondary Objec-
tives secret from your opponent, but as all rolls should
be witnessed by both players, that’s not really possible. In
practice, we’ve found it doesn’t really matter that much –
your opponent will be too busy trying to complete their
own objectives to spend time trying to stop you complet
ing yours…
But if you’re happy to write the rolls down and trust each
other, then hidden is usually more fun!
If you need to roll more than one Objective, re-roll any
duplicates.
Q - When Wandering, a Slave Trader gave me a new War-
band member - what do they start with?
A - They have the basic starting Stats and Skills of their
race, and have no Equipment or extra Skills or Spells.
They are a regular character, not a Hireling.
Questions about Northymbra...
Q - How big are these creatures? Are they regular sized
animals that can walk and talk etc (like in the Secret of
NIMH, Watership Down etc) or human sized (such as the
Redwall series)? What kind of buildings do they live in?
A - I usually think of the creatures as being effectively
human sized, so trees / rocks / landscape etc would appear
normal sized. Obviously you can do anything you want
with your own terrain, and if you’d rather have the crea-
tures small, that’s entirely up to you!
They’re effectively replacing the humans in the world, with
the medium sized beasts being about human size; so a 6
foot tall Hare, and a 3 foot tall Mouse, rather than a 4
inch long one...
We went that way because so many people already had
fantasy terrain, and we figured it was best to simply scale
with that, rather than force them to make / buy all new
terrain. I picture a pretty much Medieval / Renaissance
(ish) world, with animals instead of people.
I tend to think of the towns as being full of the types of
timber framed buildings you see in the Shambles in York,
and the countryside with a mix of stuff, including bur-
rows in hills and riverbanks, treehouses, weird nest/house
combos etc.
The country towns might be anything from Saxon round-
houses through to Pride & Prejudice style stately homes.
There’ll also be a lot of odd stuff, like houses in trees,
Hobbit hole style burrows, wizards’ towers, and plenty of
full-on strangeness.
Q - Do the carnivores eat other animals?
A - It’s not something which really comes up in the game,
but I think yes, a Wildcat would happily snack on a
Mouse! After all, in real-life Britain, the biggest cause of
death among moles is hungry badgers...
Optional Rules
Q - My opponent uses a lot of Spells - it’d be good to have
a way to stop them...
A - Here’s a new piece of equipment to try out.
Item. Dispel Scroll. 10 pennies. May only be used by
Magic users.
This Item requires a Cast Spell Action to use; the acting
model may automatically end one spell that is in cur-
rently in play, or store the power to automatically cause
one Spell that is Cast that Turn to fail. After use, the
character makes a Fortitude Roll-off against a Target of 5;
if the Roll-off is failed, the Scroll crumbles to dust, and is
removed from the character’s Equipment.
Q - Perfect rolls; the +7 seems too powerful to me. Why
did you pick +7?
A - We tried +3, +5 and +7 during playtesting. All three
had things to recommend them, but in the end most of
the testers preferred +7.
When we used +3, it meant that even a Perfect roll would
often see the smaller beasts doing little damage to their
larger opponents, which took away from the heroic feel of
a mouse cutting down a huge wildcat.
But, if you would prefer a game which is slightly more
predictable and relies less on luck, try +3 instead. It does
mean that the more powerful beasts will be harder for the
little ones to take down, but the lower risk does make it
easier to plan ahead successfully.
One other idea is to stick with +7, but only allow it for
models with a 30mm base.
Or alternatively 30mm based models get +7, 40mm based
models get +5, and 50mm based models get +3.
If you try any of these Optional Rules, let us know how
you get on!
That’s all the ones we’ve spotted so far, but if you have any
questions just email us or ask on the Burrows & Badgers
Facebook Group!
Cheers
Michael & Jo
The Oathsworn Team