Friday 30 May 2008

Why We Play

We’re publishing this blog firstly because it amuses us to do so. But just as importantly we’re doing it because we want to inspire other people to do the same sort of thing. We don’t plan to present a definitive set of rules or a system, because that’s not how we do things. This is old-school wargaming, how it always used to be played before everyone decided they couldn’t play without an FAQ and needed a scoring system to measure their worth as a gamer!

As with many ‘veterans’, we’ve developed our own gaming tastes over the years, and fancy trying out a hybrid of all our favourite rules mechanics. Many people look to gaming companies or to the web to provide rules specifically tailored to their own tastes, but fail to find them and end up getting bitter with those companies, who are just catering to the widest market possible. Some people even get so angry they try to set up in competition to the big guys, trying to publish their own, clearly superior version of the rules.

But the point is we do this for fun, because we want to, not because we’re angry about something! Wargamers have been making up rules to suit their own groups since the early 20th century, so there’s no reason we should lose this skill.

Anyway, we’re using the Necromunda rules, and tweaking them as we go along. We’re also using the Necromunda campaign system, with some minor changes. To start off with, we’re simply counting the territories as their equivalent on Jeriko Reach. Each game we play we try out a new house rule, which we’ll post here for ours and your entertainment (and because we’d lose our notes if we just wrote them down).

3 comments:

  1. Couldnt have put it better myself.

    I think the philosophy is that you dont have to adhere to a codex/rulebook/armylist, if its fun and it improves the game for both of you then do it.

    In an early skirmish when we were trying out the campaign the guard had a clear win at the end of the set game time but we played on for a few turns 'to see what might happen'.

    Its a cliche but true that its not the winning or losing that counts but having a fun game.

    If its not fun and becomes a maths exercise with plastic and lead minis then something has gone horribly wrong :)

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  2. two heads talking4 June 2008 at 16:52

    I love campaign style games. Where you and your opponent freely work with a loose rules configuration to create a smooth flowing game.

    I agree, if it's fun, then no matter the outcome, win or lose, both players can enjoy the game.

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  3. Hope you don't mind me posting this here :). I'm starting an old school Warhammer forum to try and bring all the disparate old school GW gamers and bloggers into one community, ultimately with the goal of growing the community and allowing people to arrange games. The forum is here - http://oldschoolwarhammer.forumotion.co.uk/ - and if you'd like to use it you'd be very welcome :)

    Ben

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