Be careful what you wish for, your GM might just give you it

I was running a Fantasy Craft game recently, but had been handling combat in a freeform fashion rather then worrying about the grid. (This is a technique I’m becoming quite fond of so I tend to save the grid for the more tactically interesting encounters).

One of my players does like his miniatures though and was lining up a collection of them as the session started out … I threatened to use all of them if he wasn’t careful.

When it came time for the climatic battle, I decided that it was quite a good idea after all. The expression on his face when he encountered a dozen opposition was priceless.

To be fair there wouldn’t have been so many of them if there hadn’t been a critical failure on a roll several hours before (in game time) that gave them warning, so the party wasn’t expecting such numbers.

These were also relatively new FC players who weren’t used to the ease that Standard NPCs can be eliminated.

As it worked out, the number was perfect. Most of the PCs were wounded and one was nearly killed. Just the right amount of danger to make the attack a challenge.