Cult Of Games XLBS: Are You Fed Up With Not Playing Any Games?
August 13, 2023 by warzan
For some website features, you will need a FREE account and for some others, you will need to join the Cult of Games.
Or if you have already joined the Cult of Games Log in now
What difference will having a FREE account make?
Setting up a Free account with OnTableTop unlocks a load of additional features and content (see below). You can then get involved with our Tabletop Gaming community, we are very helpful and keen to hear what you have to say. So Join Us Now!
Free Account Includes
- Creating your own project blogs.
- Rating and reviewing games using our innovative system.
- Commenting and ability to upvote.
- Posting in the forums.
- Unlocking of Achivments and collectin hobby xp
- Ability to add places like clubs and stores to our gaming database.
- Follow games, recommend games, use wishlist and mark what games you own.
- You will be able to add friends to your account.
What's the Cult of Games?
Once you have made a free account you can support the community by joing the Cult of Games. Joining the Cult allows you to use even more parts of the site and access to extra content. Check out some of the extra features below.
Cult of Games Membership Includes
- Reduced ads, for a better browsing experience (feature can be turned on or off in your profile).
- Access to The Cult of Games XLBS Sunday Show.
- Extra hobby videos about painting, terrain building etc.
- Exclusive interviews with the best game designers etc.
- Behind the scenes studio VLogs.
- Access to our live stream archives.
- Early access to our event tickets.
- Access to the CoG Greenroom.
- Access to the CoG Chamber of Commerce.
- Access the CoG Bazarr Trading Forum.
- Create and Edit Records for Games, Companies and Professionals.
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
![Warcradle Studios Reveal TINY New 10mm Festive Marker! [Updated]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2025/11/christmas-kyle-main-600-338.jpg)
Happy Sunday CoGs and OTTers!
@lloyd I have that exact same Mamod traction engine
Isnt the Shanes Castle steam engine not up at the Causeway now?
@warzan I think the smoking /obesity thing I rubbish. Although I no longer smoke. I do still vape and I’m still a fat c*nt
Then taking up smoking is not gonna work for me then lol Ahh Well!
Weight gain occurs when you quit smoking as it can be an unconscious habit to reach for sugary snacks to recreate the dopamine hit of smoking. Therefore it wouldn’t work in reverse necessarily as your eating habit is established already.
My first thoughts about rulesets and Warren’s war project reminded me of this is that the rulebook needs an index
Not Found
This is somewhat embarrassing, isn’t it?
It looks like nothing was found at this location. Maybe try a search?
While I’m here I’ll just say I hate living rulebooks. Means that all the players might have different versions of the rules when they meet up to play
Try now
Happy Sunday XLBSers.
Lol let the Wookie IN.?
Yes she is said to be a friendly girl from the story’s.
Are you sure it’s not a lump of slate. Warren?
Nothing beats a good scrubber.?
Yes MANSHEDS Are.us.
Nuns and their dirty habits.?LOL
As an aside the warhammer combat system is based off Tony Baths ancients ruleset from the early to mid 70’s
You can have a train set in the other part of the garden.??
It’s all the crap in factory food’s.
You can’t do D20s Lloyd is allergic to them @warzan
? one page rules ?????
Anything where you do have to drag out the encilopedia is a good start.
I am with @warzan – it all feels like more of the same. What we need are new formats, not new topics. New game mechanics, not new genres. Based on existing games but reimagined. Converting once-cooperative games into extremely competitive ones and vice versa. I have an idea. More soon in the project system.
Happy Sunday! So Snag-a-normie failed – the next OTT recruitment drive will be Clone a Member??
Some of us cannot be cloned as we are truly unique members. I keep telling myself this to feel special, just like everybody else.
Very interesting discussion today – thanks lads! @warzan you might like this quote from TS Elliot:
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
There is probably a reason why there is massive commonality in the rulesets of games that have survived the test of time. In 10 attempts, the 40K designers have kept coming back to largely the same system (core system that is – layers of special rules are another matter), and that myriad other games have similar core rules. Move, shoot, fight. And similar stat lines – Movement, Strength/toughness, shooty ability, fighty ability, likelihood to panic.
I was thinking it and then Gerry said it. There was a time when the GW systems were all very similar. I remember switching between 40K and Fantasy very easily and I don’t remember doing the level of homework I just had to do to play a game of 40k after a few years break. It was all very intuitive. You could have lots of fun spending your 2000 points on your army list and then you just played.
The greatest game designing brains in our industry (even excluding GW from the mix) keep coming back to the same core concepts – that’s probably for a reason.
Maybe we return home and, thanks to the decades of exploration, know it and appreciate it for the first time?
Happy weekend chaps n chapette. Many many thanks for the Golden Button and even more thanks for the really kind words 🙂
That wizards folly is bloody gorgeous. cracking sculpt and a really lovely paint job. I need one…….. bcs reasons!!
@warzan One Page Rules?
@warzan Adding GW into this conversation is a problem. They are unique in so many ways and it is at this point pretty indisputable that they have completely screwed their rulesets to the brink of unplayability. The reasons for this are complex and thankfully most (if not all) other game designers have kept a tight lid on this and kept playability ahead of financial concerns.
Fat also has the same/similar affect on the liver as alcohol. Morgan Spurlock discovered that during the filming of his documentary film where he ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days
I wouldn’t believe him, but as is pointed out in the lecture only one thing on the McDonalds menu doesn’t include sugar and that is the nuggets, which you eat with a sugar dipping sauce.
Happy Sunday.
Thanks for the golden button. I can now call that project multi-award winning as it’s my second golden button for that project.
I couldn’t help but think of One Page Rules, which nicely incorporate the same or very similar rules across various genres. Also Joe McCullough tends to use very similar rules across his work.
I kind of like how games like the multi-award winning Moonstone just says to choose any six miniatures from a particular faction. It seems so much neater than points but then some games I like building and customises each character in a warband and for that you need points, or gold. I’m kind of torn between the two.
I am not sure there is a point to pointless points…..
There has to be some balance to the games otherwise you would already know who wins and there would be no point in playing them. Points are a way to balance them, different objectives are a different way when you have uneven armies.
In older 40k, 5th to 7th edition, you could just look at the chart and figure out how it was calculated which was actually quite simple once you’d figured it out. LET’S BRING BACK THE GOLDEN AGE OF 40K!!!
I am all for a universal ruleset and am willing to help developing it and might even have a go in starting to write some stuff down when I feel better.
so points are pointless then, if you can use different objectives to balance asymmetric engagements.
Well, to set-up an asymmetric game you’d still need to know how big of a difference there is between the armies, so points would still have a point there.
nope, you just use the OOB
What is this OOB you are talking about?
If you mean Order of Battle, that only works for battles that happened or were close to happening in history or the lore of the world. For historical stuff you can easily come up with comparable armies so you can understand the strength a lot better due to historical references. For fantasy and sci-fi this becomes a lot harder as you can literally think of anything that can fit in, this is where points are a good thing to give you an idea of the strength.
Ah but OOBs by there nature are asymmetrical. A Brigade of Guards is always going to be better than a Brigade of Militia. The point of using OOBs for refighting an historical battle is that you are limited to what they had on the day (thus some battles are unwinnable, but the fun is in playing and seeing if you can make the best of a bad job). OOBs force a player to deploy units they wouldn’t normally touch with a bargepole (such as the aforementioned Militia).
Now for fantasy and sci-fi it gets harder. Some books (like Hammers Slammers) allow you to fairly easily build an OOB. Battletech is another where you can pretty much build an OOB and they publish campaign books where the units in each lance is locked down. I think for Fantasy/Sci-fi games I will always steer towards systems where such happens, whereas game systems which are designed for “free” lists and tourney style play just isn’t my thing (and I avoid them like the plague)
That is exactly what I was trying to say and failed at it because I was too tired… In historical games, you can use history to understand the relative strengths of each army and come up with a scenario. And the same counts for worlds that have a rich lore from which you can replay battles. But the thing is, I and many others don’t want to play set battles in the lore or history over and over again and want to come up with our own scenarios. Like I said, in a historical setting you can use history to guide the army building, but in sci-fi or fantasy, unless the lore is rich enough to do that, that becomes a lot harder and points give a good idea of the relative strength of the forces. Plus, for those lore heavy or historical settings, points would become an easy reference for people who don’t want to invest a ton of time studying said setting. That’s why I think there is a point to having points.
However, I do feel that people are getting a bit too hung up on the amount of points and literally want people to fight perfectly equal point games. I don’t think that is how it should be, it should be a reference to get an idea of the strength of the force. With that knowledge you can set-up asymmetrical scenarios that are fun for both or play roughly balanced games, whichever both players prefer.
Showing your rocks, there goes the neighbourhood.
@lloyd try the Sprue Shop as you can get one frame and free postage
LOL get one frame and free postage is exactly what I got and that was the problem 🙂
I haven’t been on the https://thesprueshop.co.uk/ before so I’m going to have a look see, thanks.
So my take on gaming mechanics
Points
I believe this has been very much based on the idea of the tournament gamer. That said if you are going to use them the more points used absolutely agree the more you have the more nuanced you can be with troops.
Simplification
I would say it depends on what you mean by simplicity. I like games that are easy to understand but are hard to master. Simplification should be about removing clutter, having lots of tokens is rubbish.
As to dice it’s interesting cos I like the CCC system that Mortem et Gloriam is based upon it simplifies the results removing the clutter of tables.
Generic rule sets
@warzan basically you are looking for the wargaming equivalent of GURPS. The closest I have come to that is probably the Rampant games.
Just not enough time to play all the games out there. I catch myself “crossing the streams” with the tools. ?. But I try to play as many as I can. My nerd ass is only on the earth once . Living that gamer life!!!! ???. Happy Sunday Cogs and Otters!!!
Snacky Sunday!
00:00 Double-J in the house.
02:00 Tech hates @avernos?
04:30 Ooooooh….. wonky-cam
05:45 Little house on the prarie… vs The Waltons?!
06:50 Called it!
07:45 Bonanza – Little John… or what was he called?
10:00 Working on rocks… what could go wrong?!
12:00 Nat 20. That’s a horror Story!
14:30 carvin’ stuff
16:00 Workshop… always workshop… that word is tainted!
20:00 Lable everything. Andrea has German roots? XD
21:45 Radio 4? Old mans radio? XD
25:30 Storytime!
30:00 Terrainchallenge! 8)
31:00 The way @brennon is waving with his terrain.. I feel challenged! XD
37:30 So no plants and anything green any more in your backyard @lloyd ?
41:30 Don’t let them bully you @brennon
44:15 Noooo, Nooooo, NOOOOOOOO
45:30 SEND HELP!
47:00 Multi Award Winning game Moooonstone!
51:30 Mouldline!
52:30 Tower of power.
57:30 bob! cockain!
1:02:00 Black Beard!
1:06:00 There is no point! Never! Ever!
1:19:00 No there isn’t
1:21:00 Flocking hell I know I have had this topic earlier this week… but where?
1:25:00 Found it! https://www.beastsofwar.com/featured/three-lesser-known-sci-fi-worlds-unique-miniature-wargames/
1:33:00 and please send help to lloyd
See ya
Some lovely GBs chosen this week. Keep up the good work everyone.
HAPPY SUNDAY…..cracking show Gents, me i just use bolt action, mixed with Platoon Forward and Nuts and i am has happy as a pig in S…
To Warren’s discussion of gangs for ‘Deadmans Hand’ ……… ‘Pa’ from Little House on the Prairie was, (as Gerry said), in BONANZA where he played the youngest Cartwright son ‘Little Joe’. His character was famous for getting shot in the arm many many times throughout the series. “They winged Little Joe” was heard during many an episode. ??
So if “Little Joe” joins your gang Warren he has to be highly vulnerable to arm hits. ?
And here is where @brennon begins WAR…One game to rule them all, one gamer to find them, one gamer to bring them all, and in the dork den bind them; In the Land of Ben’s hobby hole where Shadowdeep lies.
The discussion about wargaming rules really has me thinking how I want to go forward with my wargaming.
wasn’t good clean fun playing Bot Wars, it was vicious and too many cars being lobbed at my head. Not fun!!!! lol 🙂 well done Pau!!
Ooh! I got a Golden Button , thanks guys.
Crooked Dice’s 7TV does a lot of what you’re talking about — a single rules set the accommodates multiple genres. Its only major flaw is that its rules for creating custom units are a little vague and not well codified.
Regarding rules mechanics that I would want to see in an open source rules set, I like rules for collecting objectives or goals other than just attacking my opponent. I think the Knight Models Batman game stands as a fairly good example, although their system is overwrought and could stand to be a little simpler.
Complexity so good.