Let's Write a Wargame!

Wargaming: fun for all the family.

It had to happen, I suppose. Making your own rules is to gaming what building robots out of plasticard is to model kit assembly: kind of impressive, but probably more hassle than its worth - even assuming that anybody will want to use your creation. However, over the last few years, I've become increasingly dissatisfied with 40k and the more complicated board games, such as Zombicide. Most of the big board games I've tried to play have ended up feeling like a stunted wargame rather than anything lighter (with the exceptions of Shadows of Brimstone, which is really good, and Sedition Wars, which is just bewildering).

So I am going to write my own rules, and I'm going to write them here to force myself to see this through. In order to get the most fun out of this project, I'm going to write a statement of intention, just how they do in middle management. Yay!

This game is going to be a fast, simple wargame to be played on a tabletop. Model count will be low. Models will be moved individually and not as units. Rules will be streamlined as much as possible. In particular, I want to avoid the roll to hit/roll to wound/roll for armour structure of Warhammer games.

As many models as possible will have single wounds. I won't do vehicles - at least, not yet.

The aim will be to produce rules that can cover fantasy and science fiction settings, as well as Victorian or WW2 type stories, mainly by giving different names to weapons and enemies. Monsters will be fairly generic, at least to start with. "Heroic" characters will be possible, like Indiana Jones or Luke Skywalker, able to fight large numbers of enemies. Some sort of character development and/or enemy generation table would be nice - but let's not run before we can walk.

Wish me luck.