Reply To: Any minimalist thematic rules sets for wargames like OSR for RPG’s ?

[limburger 22204xp 0]

Fistful of lead is another one to look into. They’ve done a few thematic variants IIRC.
With games like this I do wonder if they’re not pushing the system a bit too far at times. Although the same thing happens to D&D clones as they’re used for genres that don’t suit the core mechanics (Call of Chtulluh being the worst example of this).

I do wonder why there isn’t a bigger community advocating a generic lightweight set of rules for wargaming.

Could it be that OSR is effectively classic D&D and that system ‘just works’ whereas wargaming never had an equivalent that got big enough for something similar to happen ?
D&D going ‘open source’ (for a short while) probably helped a lot, because that allowed for variants without fear of copyright issues.

@blinky465 Relic Knights does its entire game with a system like that. That system uses a custom deck, but I see no reason why a standard deck couldn’t be used. One could borrow a few aspects from poker so card-combinations can have extra effects too. There is the risk of it becoming too complex to be useful.

OTOH … it’s only a mechanic and could be done with dice rolling as well.
Rail Raiders used a poker dice variant, but that’s probably the only game that ever tried and it was more like a boardgame.