SSC14: The Legend of Robin Hood

One of the most well known tales is Robin Hood, the story of the outlaw of Sherwood Forest. The setting is late 12th Century England before the Magna Carta signing. In the absence of King Richard, who was on Crusade, the oppression of the nobles and clergy became so intolerable that many landless men were forced to become outlaws to secure their daily bread. Robin of Locksley was a country land owner of some substance. The stories differ as to the manner in which he became an outlaw, but all agree it had to do with the crime of killing the King’s Deer, an offense punishable by death. Our game opens at this point with the King's Foresters in hot pursuit of the outlaw, Robin Hood.

Thus opens the rulebook to Avalon Hill's 'The Legend of Robin Hood'.

I'm going to kick this thread off with a few photos of the game and where I come from with the Robin Hood legend.

A few weeks ago I got a trade for an unpunched copy of the Avalon Hill small box version. This edition came out in 1982. I think the game originally came out in 1979, in a baggie, but not from AH, but OSG (Operational Studies Group).

Some years back there was a make over put out by Universal Head, and I had considered time and again about printing up a copy. Ultimately, I decided against it for two reasons, one of which I'll explain later. The first reason is size. The AH game is just so small, that I found it too attractive to pass up. Check it out:


(If only my collection were this small...I'd be living the dream.)

Inside the box is a full wargame proper, but with a very low chit count (awesome) and a mounted board (double awesome) covering the Northern Midlands of England.


(having been unplayed for over 30 years, the board doesn't lay flat at all. I'll still likely be playing this under plexi the first few times.)

I read through the rulebook last night, which is only 8 pages, and at first thought "what the hell am I doing". Yeah, it's written in that arcane AH style where rules are referenced all out of order, but after getting into it, the game seems to play fairly straight forward. Additionally, it looks as if most of the charts and anything I'd reference are included around the edges of the board. One odd thing I noticed, is there are a lot of situations where on a d6 1-2 is good, but others when 1-2 is bad. Not sure why this wasn't consistent, but I'm thinking of just going one way or the other. I'll decide after a few plays...

It appears the game starts out just after Robin Hood has slaughtered a deer, and is on the run. The other Merry Men and Robin Hood characters have to be found and recruited during play. All the while, nobles and bishops (travelers) will move from one side of the map to the other who the Merry Men can rob, while staying on the run from The Sheriff of Nottingham and his boys. Combat looks to take place over three phases: Arrows (range), Melee, and personal combat (between leaders/characters). Additionally, there are rules for hanging outlaws, arranging prisoner exchanges, traversing secret passages under keeps, looting villages, raising taxes, marriages, etc. I'll get into this more once I get my first session in.

Anyway, back to the second reason why I passed over the Universal Head remake (which is awesome, btw)...the setting.

I grew up in the 80s in West Germany, so my childhood Robin Hood was actually the BBC series Robin of Sherwood. It's probably the most influential telling of the legend since the Errol Flynn take, as this is where the Saracen character in the mythos came from as well as adding a bit more grit to the tale as opposed to men in tights (I do love that Mel Brooks flick though). In this version, Robin Hood is in cahoots with the woodland spirit Herne the Hunter (looking like a brooding Knight of Ni), and the series as a whole ties in English folklore with pagan mythology. In fact, it is the perfect companion series to Boorman's Excalibur film (Robert Addie - who played Mordred in Excalibur, turns up here as Sir Guy of Gisbourne). The soundtrack by Clannad (called 'Legend') is fantastic and Ray Winstone's turn as Will Scarlet is, to me, the standout in the series. He played the character up as the 'first football hooligan', whose antics I found quite enjoyable. If you are a fan of British fantasy or the Robin Hood legend, I highly recommend the series (it ran a short 3 seasons).


(the cast - minus Maid Marion. Couldn't find a quality photo of the bunch)

The AH version of the game uses only symbols on the chits, hopefully enabling the mind to envision the setting of Robin and Co as these folks, and not the more swashbuckling, 'illustrated classic' take in the UH version. A small thing, but we all have our quirks.

There have been a ton of books and games on the legend of Robin Hood, and many can be found here: www.robinhoodlegend.com/ , but he also pops up now and then in other titles by surprise. He's in MMP's Warriors of God and 'not Robin Hood' shows up in Talisman and in earlier editions of Warhammer as a Bretonnian archer. Here he is where you may not have expected:







The most I ever gamed Robin Hood previously was in the Cinemaware classic Defender of the Crown (still one of my top 3 videogames, and I play on an old GBA from time to time):

(In this version of DotC, you play as one of the nobles, each with their own strength and weakness, and Robin is an ally you can lean on.)

Note: I bought an XBOX back in the day just to play the 'updated' Defender of the Crown, which I also really enjoyed, even though you only played as one character.
[img]www.theisozone.com/images/cover/xbox_590.jpg
(In this game, you only play as Robin Hood.)

I look forward to getting in a play of the game either this week or next, and will continue a rundown of the rules a bit more and how the first hunt of Robin of Locksley goes down.

Oh, I also intend to finally read Ivanhoe this summer to coincide with this challenge (finishing Killer Angels first). I've also been trying to get through the more recent BBC Robin Hood series (on Netflix), but besides Richard Armitage's star turn as Sir Guy of Gisbourne, this show is proving unmemorable. Not sure I'll finish the series, but I'll try.

Minor historic note -- Robin Hood is in the Lion in Winter scenario in Warriors of God appearing around 1200. He should be in the 100 Years War scenario instead since he appears to have lived in the 1300s, but the movies moved him to the era of Magna Carta and there he's stayed ever since. It would be interesting to see Robin and Joan go toe-to-toe in 100YW. That 4 on the lower left of his chit means he kicks serious ass.

S.

Jeff, I know it's a little harder for remembering, but I implore you to keep the D6 1-2 good/D6 1-2 bad thing.

There has never been a more memorable moment at my home, regarding gaming, than when my buddy Mickey first played DungeonQuest (GW). He was on fire. The man could not be stopped. He'd keep rolling these 6's that were helping him until I drew a card, and he rolled, got a 6, cheered again, and then was told in a deadpan tone that he had just fallen into a bottomless pit and died.

We STILL talk about this, 6 years later. Do you want to rob yourself of that one time you roll, think all is well, do a little happy dance, then refer to the chart and realize you just got fucked every way but sideways?