Day 1- Mount Silence At Night

Welcome to Oakbound Studio’s 2024 Advent Calendar, and The Woods Lite game ‘Mount Silence At Night’.

Each weekday we’ll be giving you the next part of the rules along with the models, dice and card components needed to play. On  Saturdays and Sundays there’ll be adventures for you to play using the parts of the game unlocked at that stage. The game can be played solo or as a 2-player, making it ideal to play through with younger gamers who may be off on holiday.

In your calendar today you should find a Gnome Cavern Guard. These metal miniatures contain lead and spiky parts, so be careful when handling them. To get your Gnome ready for the game push the tab beneath his feet into the slot on the plastic base. You may need to trim the tab and use a spot of superglue to make sure he sits securely.

The Gnomes of Mount Silence run the administration of the Fae Empire in Talamhlar. They are a bureaucratic people who rarely do anything without all the ‘i’s dotted and ‘t’s crossed. They are governed by three guilds, each struggling to acquire the most influence over affairs of state. Most of the Gnomes are secretaries, scribes, clerks, archivists and accountants but there are a few armed and armoured to protect the borders of their city. These are the Cavern Guards. Mostly the Cavern Guards operate in the lower levels of the mountain between the habitable parts and the mines where a host of Goblin slaves toil to produce the resources demanded by their Fae overlords. Goblin uprisings are rare, the Goblins being disorganised and busy fighting among themselves, but when they do happen it is the small force of Cavern Guards who have to sort things out.

Gnome Sword
CS Gnome

Above you’ll find an example of a painted Cavern Guard and a Character Sheet for one. Your models can be painted using acrylic paint, or enamels or oils if you feel adventurous! We recommend printing out a Character Sheet for each of your models and using different colours or markings to identify each, these can be drawn or coloured in on the sheets. The long oval at the top can be used to give the character a name. You can find a page of Character Sheets ready to print out HERE.

As you can see, each Character Sheet has a set of 6 stats- Decisiveness, Stamina, Perception, Agility, Strength and Endurance. Over the next few sections we’ll cover what each one does but for now we’ll take a look at the two which from the framework of the game- Decisiveness and Stamina.

DECISIVENESS

Decisiveness is a measure of how quickly a model chooses what to do. Models take turns based on their Decisiveness, with the highest (most decisive) going first. For example, a Gnome has a higher Decisiveness than a Goblin so all Gnomes will take their turns before the Goblins.

If two or more models are tied for Decisiveness each player controlling the tied models rolls a dice, highest roller decides if they want to go first or second. Then alternate models of the same Decisiveness until they have all taken a turn.

STAMINA

Stamina determines how much a model can do on their turn. A model can take a number of Actions equal to their Stamina. Possible Actions include moving, fighting and interacting with elements on the board. A model does not have to use all its Stamina, in fact it’s often a good idea to save some Stamina so the model can better defend itself when attacked. We recommend using dice placed next to the model or on the appropriate Character Sheet to show how much Stamina a model has left.

ACTIONS

On a model’s turn it can perform any number of the following actions provided it has enough Stamina to do so. Each action costs 1 Stamina.

  • Move
  • Turn on the Spot
  • Recover
  • Open/Close Door
  • Interact

ONCE per turn a model may also Take a Swing. These actions will be covered in the following sections.

Actions do not have to be taken in any particular order. For example, a model with 4 Stamina could Move, Take a Swing, Move again and Close a Door. With the exception of Take a Swing models can perform the same action several times in a turn.

Now turn over your calendar to the back. Here you will find the board on which adventures will be played. Keep the board mounted on the back of the calendar until instructed otherwise.

The board is divided into square spaces depicted by stone slabs and wooden boarding. Pale lines indicate walls and can only be seen and moved through where there are open doors. You’ll find a door printed on today’s advent window. Once you have opened a window of the calendar use a pair of scissors to carefully remove it and cut out the card component printed on the reverse, you will need these for the game. Of course if you have modelled 3d doors you can use these instead. Making doors and floor tiles for you games is great fun and takes your games to the next level! Why not find some cardboard, plasticine, polystyrene, cocktail sticks and anything else you may have lying around and spend the rest of the day making some cool doors using the ones shown on the front of the calendar as inspiration?