KRAKEN

Sea-monsters have been part of sailors' mythology since the dawn of man's maritime experience. Giant, archaic or fantastic creatures of all species have featured, although surely amongst the most well known will be the giant squid from the film version of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. Presented here is a simple game of men against monster inspired by that interpretation of Verne's work. The Ship, The Crew and The Monster: Being a tabletop game there are a few minimum equipment requirements. The game is written to be played with 28mm figures representing the crew, many companies produce suitable models and only eight or nine figures maximum will be required, however the players could use 25cm square pieces of card suitably marked if figures are not available. The type of vessel being fought over is up to the players; it could be a masted merchant ship, or the classical Jules Verne Nautilus. The type of vessel does not effect playability. The top deck (or outer surface if a sub ) of the vessels could be modelled by the very eager, but a simple pencil sketch will do. The vessel is the length of three sheets of A4 paper laid short end to short end (about 34 3/4" x 8 1/4", or 88 x 21 cm), with the stern and bows tapering at either end. The exact details are unimportant, but any immobile objects which cannot be walked through ( e.g. a mast or a sheer conning tower surface ) should be clearly marked.

The only parts of the Kraken which need marking are the tentacles. There are eight of these, each of which should be stuck to a 30cm square base. These can be modelled from wire and putty or purchased from The Honourable Lead Boiler Suit Company.

In addition, players will need pencils, paper, a ruler or tape measure and several D6 dice.

Initial Set-up:

The sailors (crew figures) start anywhere on the vessel. The Kraken's tentacles start no more than 12cm from the vessel and relatively evenly spaced along its length, although the exact positioning is not important.

The players have fifty Pluck points (see below) to assign between the sailors. There can be as many crew as the players wish, but no less than five. No crew member can start with a Pluck less than 3 or greater than 10. It is worth noting that sailor with high Pluck points are much more likely to be able to do something in the game. For the first few game it is advisable to start with a few heroes .

Pluck:

Pluck is the key mechanism in this game. Pluck is an attempt to represent a number of factors - morale, training, leadership, fatigue, "friction" - into a single numerical value. A high score indicates a well-motivated, heroic individual, a low score a poorer one. Whenever an sailor tries to perform an action, a roll against their current Pluck score determines the outcome. Failure results in the attempted action failing, and may decrease the sailor's Pluck score, as the sailor begins to succumb to the stresses of the situation. Under this system, even the most motivated hero will eventually be worn down and break.

All Pluck roll are made using two ordinary six-sided dice.

Pluck is a value between 2 and 11. If an individuals Pluck falls below 2, it is assumed to have fled, frozen in terror, or collapsed exhausted, and is removed from play. A Pluck value of more than 11 is not possible, even as a result of a critical success.

A roll succeeds if the score on the dice plus modifications is less than or equal to the Pluck score. A failure occurs when the modified score is greater than Pluck.

The Pluck value of each sailor will vary constantly during a game, so it is vital that players keep accurate records of each of their sailors' Pluck values. This can be done either by the use of a separate record sheet, or by placing appropriately numbered chits behind the figure.

Pluck Criticals:

Critical successes and failures simulate the effects of extraordinary heroism or unfortunate calamity. A critical success occurs if a Pluck roll succeeds and is a natural double ( two 1's, two 2's etc.) . A critical failure occurs if the roll fails and is a natural double (two 5's, two 6's etc.).

Turn Sequence:

Games progress in a series of turns. The phases in each turn should be followed in order, with all the action in each phase completed before the next phase begins.

Phases (in order):

1. Sailor Movement

2. Sailor Combat

3. Tentacle Reaction

4. Kraken Morale

Sailor Movement: Sailors need not move, but a Pluck roll is needed for any attempt to move. The sailor with the highest Pluck tries to move first, then the others roll and move in turn.

A roll against the sailor's Pluck score is made, with the following results:

Critical Success:	+ 1 Pluck, sailor moves up to 18cm.
Success:	Sailor moves 2D6 + 4 cm.
Failure:	Sailor does not move.
Critical Failure:	- 1 Pluck, sailor does not move.

Sailors need not move the full distance shown. Sailors may not move through obstacles, other sailors, tentacles, or off the vessel and into the sea.

Only one movement roll may be made per sailor per turn.

Sailor Combat: The crew don't have firearms, or they are two puny to affect the Kraken, so the only way to harm the beast is to hack off its tentacles with knifes and axes.

Any sailor within 3 cm of a tentacle base may attempt to destroy it in close combat. This requires a Pluck roll, with the following results:

Critical Success:	+1 Pluck, Automatic destroy result on the tentacle.
Success:	Roll: 5 or 6 on d6 to destroy the tentacle.
Failure:	- 1 Pluck, no effect on the tentacle.
Critical Failure:	- 2 Pluck, no effect on the tentacle.

Only one roll may be made per sailor per turn.

Tentacle Reaction: The Kraken and its tentacles are not controlled by a player, but instead react to events according to the table below:

Roll	Figure within 4cm	Vessel within 3cm	Vessel within 3.1 to 10 cm	Vessel beyond 10 cm
1	WI	WI	WI	WI
2	W	W	W	W
3	W	W	W	W
4	F	C	A	W
5	F	C	A	A
6	G	C	A	A

A (Advance): Move tentacle 1d6 +2 cm towards vessel, or along the vessel hull towards the nearest sailor.

C (Crush): Do 1D6 - 1 points hull damage

F (Flail): Roll 2d6 for each sailor within 4cm of tentacle base. On a score of 8+, the sailor losses 1 Pluck. On a Critical Success, sailor looses 2 Pluck.

G (Grab): Randomly target one sailor within 6cm of the tentacle base. If the figure fails a Pluck roll, the tentacle grabs them and horribly crushes them to death. The sailor is removed from play.

WI (Withdraw): Move tentacle 1d6 cm away from the vessel.

W (Waft): Tentacle wafts aimlessly in the air. No effect.

Each tentacle acts completely independently of the others, and a separate single die roll is made for each tentacle every turn. The table is read from left to right, with each tentacles reaction being rolled on the first applicable column for that tentacle. Only one roll is made per tentacle per turn.

Kraken Morale: Each turn the Kraken looses one or more tentacles; it must make a morale roll. This is done by rolling a D6:

If the result is equal to or less than the number of tentacles remaining, the roll succeeds and the Kraken continues its attack.

If the Kraken fails, it breaks off its attack and flees; the players have won.

Winning and Loosing:

All the players in Kraken are on the same side. They either all win or all lose; however the player who destroys the most tentacles, whilst loosing the least number of pluck points is the moral winner.

The players lose if their vessel is destroyed, having suffered a cumulative total of thirty or more hull points damage. In these circumstances the vessel breaks up and the sailors die horribly in the sea.

Players can also loose if all the crew are either killed or reduced to less than two Pluck points.

Players win if all the Kraken's tentacles are destroyed (don't worry they will regenerate in time for the next game!!), or if the Kraken fails a morale roll and withdraws.

Final Word:

Kraken is designed to be a simple and fun game. Players may wish to experiment with the total numbers of Pluck points available, or even the number of tentacles. If you don't like a rule, please feel free to amend it, but do remember that the purpose of this game is simply to be fun.