Mercy Thompson - or a Dracula's America Tangent

   Settle down, this is going to be a long post.


   So, one of the things that's been keeping me sane in the lock down is a series of books I was recommended by one of my mates - Mercy Thompson. I've been describing it to people as Twilight if Twilight was any good. It's a similar premise, a girl who lives in a world of werewolves, vampires and fae, except the main character (Mercy) is a shapeshifter who can turn into a coyote and instead of moping around, she's actually a full blooded, problem solver who has help from the men around her and doesn't just happen to be in a supernatural story.

   The series has set off quite a few ideas in my head, the first of which was a straight 'what's the closest game that I can get into cheaply that will scratch the itch'. The answer turned out to be Dracula's America, a game I completely overlooked when it was released as I thought it looked stupid, but which on closer inspection looks like a clever set of rules (so sorry North Star).

   This idea is as loosely influenced by the series as it's possible to be. The game only allows 2 supernatural figures per gang, so doesn't quite hit the idea of a full pack of werewolves going on a hunt but if we are merely taking the influence into a different system we can make this work. So, I bought the Vampire posse - Red Hand Coven, a pack of werewolves and the Twilight Order pack as something completely different.

The Red Hand Coven pack is a collection of figures that has left me with mixed feelings for a start I got two of the same gunslinger by mistake (I mention it to avoid it being pointed out in the comments, I'm sure North Star would have fixed it if I'd been in contact with them).

Positives; I think the creepy gunslingers you get in the pack are brilliant and really look like wanna be vampires rather than random cowboys painted in blacks. The two vampire fledglings (two with feathers in their hats/head dresses) are, also, brilliant looking vampires - looking the part without going over the top.

Negatives; The vampire broodlord I think it is called looks so out of place in this pack - the only reason I painted it up was because it was a quick job and I didn't really need to add it to my backpile for later.

The two werewolves - or Accursed - are probably my favourite werewolf models that I've seen on the market and I suspect I'll be buying another pack or two of them in the future. The rest of the gang will be made up of cowboys from my collection as needed.

My attempt at a Twilight Order, a gang that is purely Dracula's America and nothing at all to do with the Mercy Thompson influence. In this case I bought the Crusaders (the equivalent gang upgrade of the vampires) and the Templar that came in the same pack. Delores and the preacher are from the Dead Man's Hand range and were bought to add a bit of flavour - the gang will then be bolstered by other cowboys from my collection as needed. 

While I was in a Mercy Thompson and Cowboys mood, I decided to dig the pack of Great Escape Games Coyotes out of my backlog and get on with them. I've got no real plans for them beyond dressing the board but I might use one in a game as a skinwalker at some point, who knows.

 The coyotes and werewolf tangent then led me down another path, wolves. I've got another fantasy/historical mixed army that's been a slow burn project for a few months now and it dawned on me a month or so ago that if I was going to do the project properly I needed to really go nuts with the theme and I bought myself enough wolves to give me two units of lesser beasts for Dragon Rampant. I then used the same recipe as I did for the werewolves. I'll explain their army in another post.

I've got ideas on how to make a more authentic Mercy Thompson game in the future. but in the short term I now have 3 gangs for Dracula's America to get on the table.

Thanks for reading