Reply To: What do you like in a skirmish game?

[phaidknott]

In this day and age you’ve really got to stand out from the overwhelming mass of “Skirmish” rulesets these days. Basically you’ve got two basic modes, Mainly melee with a bit of ranged stuff going on (Fantasy, Dark Ages etc) or mainly ranged with a bit of melee going on (ww2 to moderns) with the focus being the main game element with a more basic subset of rules for the latter. Some Skirmish games that have really stood out for me have been the card driven (no dice) rules from Buck Sardu (Combat Patrol, Feudal Patrol and the ACP164 rules although I’ve not got that one). If you go too basic and simplify things, then you end up with a generic set that could be used for anything (and there’s a fair few of those floating around). Personally with a Skirmish set of rules, you do have the “room” to perhaps go into a little more depth (although I hope no where near as much depth as the current Necromunda rules from GW (20+ “active” rulebooks and still growing). But you’ve got to find a unique “hook” to your rules to draw players in. It’s not so much the background and world building but more the mechanics that’s going to make the difference.

• This reply was modified 7 months, 1 week ago by phaidknott.