An Ode to Obscure Games: Kobolds and Cobblestones

 Hi!

As part of my obsession with niche and obscure games, I have a tendency of picking up stuff that I see that looks interesting but never sees use and todays post features a prime example: Kobolds and Cobblestones by Osprey Games!

Kobolds and Cobblestones was released back in 2018 as one of the blue Osprey Games series and created a wee bit of a stir when it was announced as it seemed like it might be a Mordheim Light sort of fantasy skirmish game with rival gangs fighting over the neutral city of Odinsport.

The art style was decidedly Discworld in style and it looked pretty awesome!

Now when the game got released it turned out to be a different beast entirely and seems to have disappeared into obscurity as there's almost nothing to be found on the interwebs for it, be it people collecting gangs or actually playing it. Interestingly this seems to be making a little bit of a comeback as there's now a few how to play guides showing up on Youtube which is handy and a bit encouraging.

The game revolves around the seven pre-generated gang bosses (including my personal favourite, Barry the Elf) in the city gathering some ruffians to go fight each other and recover the loot that the recently deceased Dwarven crimelord left hidden in cashes around the rather rundown city.

Mechanics wise, your force is going to be about half a dozen figures a side using all the typical fantasy races but the game is dice free, instead using decks of cards for activation, combat and pretty much everything else.

Essentially in keeping with the grubby setting, the game uses a mixture of Poker and Blackjack which inolves card management as well as tactical play which is pretty original. Similarly movement is card based so a figure will either move the breadth or length of a card which I really liked as it simplifies movement considerably.

Also the assorted fantasy races have special abilities that can be unlocked by getting specific card combinations and rivalries between Red and Black suits of cards which I thought was pretty innovative and from folks that have played the game, it appears that once you get into the swing of things, a game will generally last 30-45 minutes which is good.

 

Combined with a simple campaign system and the ability to recruit specialists and big guys once your gang gets higher notoriety it does have a bit of lastability to it but as with many of the Blue Book series, it could really have done with a few more pages of gubbins to breath more life into what is a fairly fun beer and pretzels style game.

Sadly unlike many of the more successful Osprey rule sets that have been released, it never got its own miniature range which I think counted against it as while it says you can use any figures you have in your collection, a more stylised, Dickensian range of lowlife scum would have done wonders and possibly made it a bit ore of a hit as it feels like it should be a bit more Ankh-Morpork with characters that reflect this.

Its still available in physical book format and as a pdf and its well worth a peruse as Ralph Horsley, the artist has produced some absolutely brilliant illustrations for it, especially the drunken Dwarven girl who has tons of character, not to mention someone you'd not want to bump into down the pub!

With all that said, this is a game that does deserve more attention, especially as it only requires a handful of figures and a 2'x2' gaming surface to play and does look quite a lot of fun, especially if you were to work in a more complete campaign system with different regions of Odinsport being fought over and maybe a few more gang options but as with many of the games I'm featuring in this series, its imperfect but well worth a look.

I've got a bit of a classic lined up for tomorrow but in the meantime, All the best!

Richard