Dracula's America-Shadows of the Colonies

I had my first game of Dracula's America for several months last Friday with Luis. It was the first game in Luis's Canada version of DA. He has put an enormous amount of work into this with different items and several new entities and creatures. It is set in the 18th century. 

I had very little time to put together an idea for a posse (less than 24 hours). I had painted several figures for another ruleset The Devil in the Wilderness and felt it might be cool to use these. This game is focussed on the Salem Witch Trials in the 17th century but with a bit of thought I put together a backstory where I could move them to the 18th century.

After the Salem Witch Trials several of the accused fled north into the remote forests of Maine and the Maritimes, beyond the reach of Puritan courts. Living quietly near communities of the Wabanaki Confederacy, their descendants preserved a darker and more secret tradition recorded in a hidden grimoire begun by the original fugitives. Passed from generation to generation, the book contained cryptic symbols, forbidden rites, and whispered accounts of ancient powers tied to the wilderness, including stories drawn from Wabanaki mythology of spirits and shapeshifting beings that could move between human and animal form in the deep northern forests.

I called the posse the Darkwoods Occultists and based them on the Skinwalkers faction but if I had given it more thought I believe the Salem Sisterhood would have been a better fit. I sent my posse list to Luis Friday morning and amazingly enough he generated some beautiful cards for the posse.

Burroughs was the Hero and the Archanist, with Puljinskews, Skadegamute and Alten were the Veterans. Lovecraft cognoscenti will recognise the names of Curwen, Hutchinson, Oren and Nadek. Alden and Pukjinskews are skin walkers and can shapeshift into a Werewolf and a Werebear. The Flying Head (Wendigo) was converted into a Medium Flying Entity. When I vsualise the Wendigo I think of Algernon Blackwood's novella. 

Anyway on to the game, it was a lot of fun. Essentially it was quite simple with the only goal having as many figures as possible within 4" of the centre marker. I thought I had it but in the last move Luis was able to get 2 figures in place so we ended up with a tie. 

I have had some reservations about Dracula's America but I really enjoyed this game. I think that I liked this game as the figures were not complicated with a lot of skills and weapons. This made it much smoother to play. I think I would be happy to play one-off games but maybe less so campaigns.