Last week review... Outer Dark
I had a bunch of game ideas this week, but also slacked a bit because I basically played Door Kickers: Action Squad non-stop when I had a minute. What a great game! But I did get some work done too. I've been working on a game called Uncommon Valor for a little while now, having risen out of "demand" as opposed to necessarily interest in developing the system. Basically, my friend has some 28mm miniatures, and so do I, and we want to bash our mandollies together, but we need rules for it. Despite there being a bevvy of miniature-agnostic games out there I decided to lump one together out of a bunch of spare mechanics sitting around on my computer. So that's where this project came from.
Uncommon Valor is a miniature-agnostic tabletop wargame for two players. It can be played at any scale, but is getting tested with 28mm figures. Pieces are designed by the players using a fairly basic set of parameters so they can stat up whatever type of unit they'd like (within reason) to accommodate a broad range of models. After designing forces, the game is based around 3Ms: Morale, Maneuver, and Momentum. Each has a mechanic that represents this focus. It also has a delayed fire-resolution mechanism that I'm still tinkering with. I'm just going to give a brief rundown on the game here. Time is a flat circle
Outer Dark
I even forgot to take pictures! In a previous poast I discussed some thoughts on deployment in wargames where spacing was employed. The previous ramblings focused on the sequence in which players put assets into play. Here, I'm going to move on to the second part of deployment: position. Where do the assets go when they get put into play? This makes a huge impact on the feel and flow of the game, as well as on which rules matter and which don't. Recap of last week's goals:
Outer Dark
I have been thinking a lot about "pregame" parts of various types of game--mostly wargames where maneuvering is involved in more than one dimension. If this kind of movement is going to be a factor int he game at all, then the way the board is set up is also going to be a huge factor. So it seems surprising to me that so few games have tried to do much other than either "all at once" or "alternating" deployment. Alternatives open up a lot of variables that make a game harder to balance, but on the other hand, they also make the game a lot more interesting. I'm going to think out loud about deployment systems here a bit, looking at systems from other games and rough sketch ideas I have. Most setups for wargame scenarios have two intersecting systems: placement timing and position. There's kind of a miscellaneous aspect as well where other systems can be a factor, but these two are the biggest elements. You can fiddle with the two to create "new" systems. In this post, I'm going to go over the sequencing aspect and muse on those systems. |
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