Reply To: Top five things that help you getting into a new game

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> Sorry for the click-bait-y title

I think it’s a worthwhile discussion, as I’ve seen a few new miniature wargames enter the market (eg. Song of Ice and Fire), and several discontinued (some small company had three different miniature sf wargames, one of them licensed?). And by “discontinued” I mean “gamers have sunk hundreds of dollars into games that no longer have any support so are unlikely to be played”. I’m not much of a miniatures wargamer, but I don’t think I bought a miniatures wargame requiring purchases of proprietary miniatures. (Don’t even get me started on the idea of painting an army for a new game only for it to disappear from shelves by the time I’ve finished painting…) I’m sure part of the rise of miniature skirmish games (and agnostic rulesets) was caused by gamer’s reluctance to be the only person they know of who would sink in a few hundred dollars into a new miniatures game (hello, Runebound).

> Introductory/Demo rules to get the hang of “how to play”. Free PDF goes a long way.

Yep, that’s a good one. Actually a free PDF rulebook helps! And, as Frostgrave and Rangers of Shadowdeep customers can tell you, just because you have a PDF, doesn’t mean you won’t sell a hardback. And, as Mantic will tell you, free PDFs drive miniature sales.

* Novel mechanics: Too many miniature games and dungeoncrawls use dice-based mechanics. Yes, I know *you* may be fine with dropping $50 on rulebooks and $200+ on proprietary miniatures, but I’m not. The only dice-based miniature wargame I bought recently was Dragon Rampart. I picked it up because it’s a well-regarded game on Lead Adventurers. On top of that, I bought it on sale and only to reach free shipping when I was buying a heavily discounted boardgame that I actually wanted. Meanwhile, Kobolds and Cobblestones, a poker-hand card resolution mechanic, ended up in my cart pretty quickly.