The Roman Seas project is alive and progressing. Time has not been on my side during the last two years; my life had a few unscheduled twists and turns, but I id manage to put on several games at Enfilade 2008. What I noticed about the rules is that the functioned very well. I'd say the game is about 90% there.
The only problem I have encountered is with the play testers: and this is with the move and turning rules. Play testers want a more complex system with the larger ships. I am going to opt for a simple system and also have an advanced system available, and then let the players decide which they want to use. At Enfilade 2008, the games all went very smoothly with virtually no problems. Only problems encountered were forgetting to use a few rules/tables that were in the game. Players complained about obvious omissions in the rules, even though I spoke out and told them that it is in the rules, we just forgot to include them (ie Broken masts on merchant/Saxon ships). These were in the rules; we simply forgot to use them. This was fixed after the first game (Friday night game) and then all other games went smoothly after that.
Time to put the game to rest.
I envision that these will be a living set of rules. Once released, players will be changing and adding their own house rules, etc., and arguing why their rules should be included, or how something should be added changed because of some physics formula states it is so, or why the designers of the SS Olympia have theorized the possibility of… blah, blah, blah. Can't get away from that, but I do see that version 1.0 rules being modified to include tweaks and changes, house rules, etc as warranted. No one set of rules will satisfy everyone, but I think Roman Seas will add a different dimension to the game period. I see the rules as a mass skirmish naval game -- quick play, deadly, quick resolution. Most games have been played out within a 3 hour period, and that includes games with 30 or 40 ships being involved. Some game scenarios play quicker than others, but over all, despite the numbers of ships used in a game, the games seem to play out quite quickly. I am pleased with the results.
E.H.
