For those of you who celebrate it, Happy Easter! It’s the perfect time to celebrate new life and the promise of better things to come.
While it has been a mild winter in this part of Pennsylvania, I’m still ready for the colors & flowers of Spring, warmer temperatures, and putting away the overcoats & sweatshirts and transitioning into tee-shirts.
It will also be nice to get outside more often. Yesterday afternoon, I mowed my lawn for the first-time this year. Thankfully, I avoided a heart-attack cutting thick green grasses that were probably hiding lilliputian marauders — I may have been daydreaming to make the task of cutting the grass more interesting!
Spring & Summer Reading
I recently purchased two new books on game design that I’ve added to my queue of books to hopefully read sometime soon.
The first book is Your Turn: The Guide to Great Tabletop Game Design by Scott Rogers. I love learning about game design from folks who have done it before and have read several books on the subject over the years. To be fair, they’re frequently hit or miss with their content, sometimes stating the obvious and glossing over the deeper aspects of design. This book was one suggested by Geoff Engelstein, a game designer/scholar/podcaster whose insights I really respect, so I’m optimistic that it will be excellent.
From the Amazon book description:
In Your Turn! The Guide to Great Tabletop Game Design, veteran game designer Scott Rogers―creator of tabletop games including Rayguns and Rocketships, Pantone the Game and ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo―delivers a practical walkthrough to help YOU create over a half-dozen game prototypes, including dice, card, euro, miniature, and party games. The book is packed with easy-to-follow instructions, charming illustrations, and hands-on lessons based on the author’s proven knowledge and experience.
And once you’ve made your game, Your Turn! will teach you how to prepare, pitch and sell it whether through crowdfunding or a publisher. You’ll also learn how to:
Write and create elegant and crystal-clear rules of play
Playtest your games to improve quality, fix problems, and gather feedback
Learn what players want and how to design for it
Learn the secrets of the Six Zones of Play and why they are so important to your game design!
Your Turn! is the essential guide for practicing and aspiring tabletop game designers everywhere! Why wait to make the tabletop game of your dreams? Grab this book and prepare to take Your Turn!
The second book is Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design: An Encyclopedia of Mechanisms by Geoffrey Engelstein and Isaac Shalev. This is a massive reference book (over 600 pages) of game mechanics. From my perspective, it’s akin to a dictionary or synonym book for writers — something that can help game designers ideate and craft a better, more interesting tabletop game.
Until next time, Happy Easter to everyone and watch out for those sneaky lilliputians hiding in your lawn!
Board gaming and miniature wargaming are two distinct hobbies. But they do share commonalities. Both hobbies involve playing games on a tabletop, usually face-to-face with a group of friends at your home, club, convention center, or friendly local game store.
Another increasing commonality these two hobbies share is an explosion in the amount of stuff you can get for each of them. I recently read there are around 3,000 to 5,000 new board/card games published each year. There’s absolutely no amount of blog-reading, YouTube watching, crowdfunding following, and general research you can do to keep up with everything.
On the miniature wargaming front, there are more new games being released than ever before. Osprey Wargames keeps churning out new books, worthy competitors to GW have emerged, and new titles from small publishers appear frequently on electronic download sites like Wargame Vault. And don’t get me started on 3D-printing. The sheer number of STL files available to folks who want to make-it-themselves is stunning and grows every day.
I personally feel that we’re in a Golden Age of Choice when it comes to tabletop hobby games.
Choice isn’t the only thing growing
While choice is certainly not a bad thing, I’ve written before about how too much choice can lead to feelings of being overwhelmed. Which new games should I buy? What games should I play? What figures should I collect and paint for this new project? Driven by FOMO, people often over-buy and over-collect, or simply take on too many simultaneous projects. I’ve been guilty of that in the past. Advancing age and dwindling storage space work wonders on helping you curb those urges.
But what triggered me to write this post is something I’ve noticed in the realm of hobby gaming over the past few years, and which really irks me. There’s a proliferation of MORE, MORE, MORE.
Board Game Overabundance
So many new board games have become behemoths, not only in terms of their rules complexity, but in the sheer amount of components that they stuff into the box. Nowadays, in order to garner the attention of the board-game illuminati, a game has to include a solo-mode, a campaign-mode, and over 100 cards drawn by artists akin to the Dutch Masters. Oh yeah, it better feature some combination of at least five hot mechanics (worker-placement, deck-building, card drafting, set collection, tech trees, tile-placement, modular board, variable player powers, end game bonuses, etc.).
OATHSWORN product shot on its Kickstarter page. $225 for the Core Pledge.
I don’t need or want all that. Board games fill a different niche for me than miniature wargames. When it comes to board games, I want a fun, out-of-the-box experience, not something I’m going to dive into deep.
My ideal board game is not too difficult or time consuming to learn/teach, doesn’t take long to setup, can be played in 1-2 hours, provides a moderate challenge, is interactive, and elicits laughter & table-talk with my friends. And I don’t want to pay $90 or more for it. This isn’t a lifestyle game for me; I’m not planning on playing it 50 times over the next year.
There’s the occasional exception to this rule, but it’s rare. I gravitate towards Medium to Light-Medium weight games. I don’t need a 40-page rulebook, extended campaign play, or a solo-mode. Expansions, while nice-to-have, shouldn’t be necessary to make the game fun. And please, please, please, make it easy to fit everything back into the box!
Miniature Monstrosities
Miniature wargames, by their very nature, are often more complex than most board games. There can be a lot of pieces (troops) to manage, the freeform spatial aspects of play are tricky to cover with elegant rules, and adequately simulating combat without succumbing to Modifier Madness is a true art. Factor in fog-of-war, troop abilities, and the psychology/morale of your tiny soldiers and you’ve got a game with multiple layers of complexity.
Surprisingly, I don’t think miniature wargames are getting more complex on the whole. There will always be games with verbose 300-page rulebooks (thank you GW), but the recent growth in popularity of skirmish gaming shows a trend towards lighter, less complex rules. There’s less mental load playing Frostgrave, Song of Blades & Heroes, or a One Page Rules skirmish game when compared to most mass-battle games.
However, some skirmish games make up for easier mechanics by puffing up their rulebooks with extensive sections on imaginary worlds, light RPG elements (like leveling up heroes), and extensive campaign rules. They just can’t avoid the trap of MORE, MORE, MORE. Honestly, this extended stuff doesn’t really have to be included with the Core Rules — sell supplements to those people who want them and price your smaller core book at a lower price. Pretty please?
CARNEVALE is a skirmish game that boasts a massive rulebook
But what’s way worse than rulebooks are miniature models themselves. Ever look at the new sculpts coming out of the bigger fantasy miniature companies nowadays? They are so OVER THE TOP compared to models from 20 years ago. Today’s technology makes it possible for insanely detailed figures to be created. But for us mere mortals who prefer spending time playing with their toy soldiers instead of spending a lifetime to paint them, seeing these figures induces anxiety and heart palpitations.
Would you rather paint 8 of these super-cool looking Vanari Bladelords from Games Workshop…
…or 8 of these friendly little Swiss Gnomes from Brigade Games..
There’s no right answer for everybody, but I bet you can guess which of these fall into the MORE-MORE-MORE versus LESS-IS-MORE camp, and which is easier to paint!
In my humble opinion, game designers, mini makers, and publishers should follow that old adage: LESS IS MORE. Streamlining results in games that are more approachable, affordable, and easier to play, and models that aren’t overly daunting for the average hobbyist to paint.
But that’s what I think — what do you think? Opinions welcomed.
Today’s post is a quick brain dump of stuff that I’m working on, as well as games and toys that have caught my attention. God willing, I will delve into these things in a bit more detail once I break free of the things that are currently constraining my free time. But for now, here are some random jabberings and observations that hopefully interest some of you…
Tanks… Tanks… Tanks on the Brain…
I’m not exactly sure what triggered it, but about a month ago I got the sudden itch to do some research into WWII tank battle games.
My friend Wally and I played What a Tanker! by the Lardies, and while I think it’s a pretty good game overall, there are things about it that frustrate me. The niggles can be house-ruled, but my biggest disappointment was that it’s cumbersome to manage more than a few tanks per player and there just wasn’t enough carnage & decisiveness in the game play for my tastes. That feeling might change with repeated plays, but as someone who often looks at games with a Game Designer Lens, I doubt that I will suddenly fall in love with it.
I started reading about alternative rule sets and it struck me that either (a) they were overwrought with too much detail, or (b) they covered all aspects of WWII warfare, which is a bridge too far for me — I just want to focus on playing with my tanks and blowing stuff up.
About 2 weeks ago I said “you know what, screw this”, and began designing my own WWII tank battle game. My goals were to create a game that plays fast with lots of back-&-forth interaction, lets each player comfortably manage 4-6 tanks, has a satisfying amount of carnage, features card-play that lets you do some fun things outside of the common move/aim/fire actions, and is easy to learn. So, Tiny Tank Blitz was born.
I’ve been buying more 1/72 diecast tanks off eBay to add to my collection. Recent additions include a Panzer IV, M3 Stuart, two Churchills, a trio of heavy Russian tanks, two Tigers, and an Elefant and Hetzer 38(t) on the way. Perhaps I have a problem? LOL.
I’m hoping to give the rules a first playtest spin very soon. More stuff to share on these as they develop.
Pre-Painted Dungeon Terrain
There are only 5 days left on the Dungeons & Lasers – Caves crowdfunding campaign over on Gamefound. This stuff looks really cool. They’re offering both unpainted and pre-painted terrain (using their Prismacast technology).
The pre-painted stuff is impressive and seems reasonably priced. Some of the cave builds they have are uniquely twisted & beautiful. Tempted!!
HeroScape is Back! Really!
HeroScape, my favorite wargame-in-a-box, is officially back after 14 years! Can you believe it?
Renegade Game Studios has three new products available for pre-order on its website: the HeroScape Master Set (Age of Annihilation), an expansion Battle Box (Battle for the Wellspring), and Terrain Box (The Grove at Laur’s Edge). The Master Set is available in both standard unpainted ($129 USD) and premium prepainted ($225 USD) versions, and features 20 miniatures, 74 hex terrain tiles, some wall pieces, and a bunch of game components.
Will I buy this? I already have a crap-ton of HeroScape stuff, but the pull this has on me is strong. I really don’t think the Premium edition price is too bad. Terrain and 20 colorful painted minis (no assembly required) + components for LESS MONEY than a Warhammer: The Old World boxed faction set? Ummm.. Yes Please!
But geez, this and Dungeons & Lasers and diecast tanks — my wallet is probably going to hurt.
Random Tidbits
Other stuff that has plopped on my radar…
I’m not playing D&D these days, but if I were I would definitely grab a copy of The Tomb of Gyzaengaxx adventure set. It has an old school charm with nods to industry legends.
For those board game old timers, you may remember Slapshot, a light and zany card game with a hockey theme. It’s a true classic and continues to be played at the World Boardgaming Championships to this day. Well, it turns out Columbia Games is planning to kickstart a new game called Pigskinwhich is an American Football game inspired by the classic Slapshot. Color me intrigued. I’ll be watching this one.
While checking out the recent Kickstarter for Ready, Set, Bet deluxe edition (which I didn’t decide to back), I discovered another older board game that combines racing and betting called Camel Up 2nd edition. It seems like the kind of light strategy game that would provide a nice change-of-pace from deeper fare and wargames, and something that my group of friends would probably enjoy. I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, but this is on my buy-list for later in 2024.
That’s all for now. Until next time, enjoy the start of Spring!
It has been a slow start to my gaming year. Between various ailments, events, and worklife stress amongst the regular members of my group, we just haven’t gotten together to play games as much as we would like. Still, hope springs eternal and I have faith things will get better.
On March 3rd, we finally managed to pull together a 3-player game of my original edition of Chaos Marauders, an old Games Workshop board game designed by Stephen Hand from 1987. Chaos Marauders is billed as “the manic game of orcish mayhem”, which is an accurate summation of what this game is about.
Chaos Marauders Box Cover 1987 version
Without going into intricate detail, Chaos Marauders is ostensibly a card game that mixes set collection, card placement, push-your-luck, and overt take-that game mechanics together into a delightful stew. Add in a major dose of chaos through special Green cards and the Cube of Devastation (a weighted six-die with the Mark of Chaos on one side and the Orcish Eye on the remaining five sides), and you’ve got a truly wild & wooly game.
It had been many years since I last played Chaos Marauders, so I was happy to finally get it back to the table after a long hiatus. It’s a good, fun game that brings back fond memories of my earlier gaming days.
I’m also a big fan of the old-school John Blanche artwork, which gives the game a whimsical look and reminds me of the days when GW didn’t take itself so seriously. The slideshow below shows some of the cards from the original 1987 version of the game. Photos shared from BoardGameGeek.
Gamers who only enjoy deep strategy games probably won’t like this game, but for those who enjoy occasional zany, light-hearted romps where laughter is more important than who wins, then you can’t beat a few games of Chaos Marauders.
For those looking for copies of this game, I’d definitely recommend going for the original first edition (1987) of the game by Games Workshop. A second small-box edition of the game was published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2009, but the player mats are nowhere as nice and John Blanche’s unique card art was replaced by something that I find to be less charming.
I’m going to try harder to work this into the regular mix of light games that my group plays. Until next time, watch out for Sneaky Gits!
Tiny Painted Heroes 