Reply To: Who would be Interested in a New Very British Civil War Skirmish Rules?

[phaidknott 7250xp 1]

Well my “wishlist” for a future game would be along the lines of….

Narrative campaigns, always the best way to get gamers into the “fluff” with unit carry over to the next game etc. A section at the end of the campaign book outlining how you can research the period for your local area (with some European/US support here, as it’s just as likely that other conflicts could have sprung up. For example did you know Canada was running “labour camps” in the 30’s during the depression out west with the workers having to leave their families behind…..and there WERE riots with armed response going on. The whole era was a tinderbox).

“Spirit of fun”, keeping the sense of “silly” and not taking it all too seriously (tourneys are RIGHT out), larger than life characters (although by todays standards the historical personalities were certainly fitting the description of larger than life). Encouraging player imagination to build silly stuff like armoured traction engines etc.

You intend it to be small groups of minis (presumably along the lines of Mortal Gods perhaps?) lead by a leader or two. Could be fun, but I’d like to see a little chaos come into play. Adding some AI elements (take a look at Core Space for example) to spice games up and possible add a large nemesis (for example fighting between Communists and the Anglican Church League in a BUF held area. If the fight causes too much commotion the “authorities” (a overwhelming force of BUF) turn up to stamp out the annoyance for some games.

But to stand out in this day and age of a multitude of “Skirmish” games, it would have to bring something unique. I remember the interview with the Author of Frostgrave here on BoW where he said that writing a new rule set was defining a core mechanic that stands out and then writing the rules around that. I suppose in this day and age never a truer word has been said about publishing a successful ruleset. I think just transposing a set of rules from one period to another these days just doesn’t cut it anymore (we gamers are a needy bunch), playing a fantasy skirmish and a dark age skirmish are pretty much the same game. Similar with WW2 and Moderns (it’s the limitation with all skirmish level games).

Just a few random thoughts (none clearly thought out, which is why I’d never attempt to write a set of wargame rules 😀 )