"Scheisse! -room for another black powder skirmish ruleset?" Topic

Hey guys
Angelbarracks, Torriani, Pete developer of the Commander series, the Pendraken Family, Priestley and Cavatore know me.
I'm a TMP regular and have been for many years, I'm 31 years old and have yet to find to a skirmish black powder ruleset to my liking. So I wrote my own.
This is an example of what we played tonight

"Early on an acidulous morning, as the mist withdrew hastily under the shy spring sun, a group of Black Sea Turks gathered with their Napoleonic Russian deserter brethren near the Hamlet of St. Louis within the cover of a thick forest. The air was cold and biting, the two parties barely able to communicate but through sullen stares and the broken words of a pair who'd fought in a few ventures for the local merchant Chantan. They'd been hired by Chantan to locate a case, promised enough to entice them to lay their skills at the man's service, and in these times of turmoil this was enough for them to lay their religious and cultural ideologies aside to assure their respective bands a meal for the day.
Not far, beyond the cold and mist of the early morning, a band of Tirolese deserters from the once great Napoleon's regiments joined their newfound brothers in arms, a pack of Milanese irregular veterans, and discoursed on the best manner to raid a small hamlet rumoured to contain some documents the black market wanted to get its hands on. As law and order were now long forgotten promises of a failed revolution and an exiled Emperor, the parties recognized their skills were only useful to those who could pay for tasks as these to be achieved.
Someone would pay well for whatever was in the case rumoured to be held in St. Louis.
Surely….
The Milanese and Tiroleans etched a plan for the Tirolean sharpshooters to move on the left of the town, bank on a hill overlooking the village, and for the Milanese with their muskets and long blades to scout forth and explore the town. They should be done and out by midday at the latest, spending their easily achieved loot by lunch and securing a few nights in an inn in the company of local buxom talents.
On the other side of the hamlet, the Russians moved in ordered fashion to overwatch the town from a prominent position on an opposing hill, well hidden from indiscreet eyes, and all proceeded well until one of the Turks spotted a Tirolean sharpshooter among the brush. The Turk ran forth, out of cover and with a wailing cry in a foreign tongue, and speared the Tirolean in the stomach before swiftly leaping forth to assault his partner. The Tirolese were taken completely by surprise and the Turk defly dispatched his opposition, beating and stabbing them within an inch of their lives.
The Milanese moved forth on the opposite flank but were met by Russian gunfire, to which they replied in kind, before falling back and both sides ascertained they were not alone in this forgotten valley after all.
The young Turk, his spear jabbing wildly, severely wounded both Tirolese sharpshooters before the Tirolese warrior mistress Helena joined the fight and caught the aggressor by surprise, clubbing him to the ground and killing him with a deadly blow to the head. A lonesome Russian regular moved into the small inn to begin looking for Chantan's coveted prize, as his Turkish comrades in arms broke through windows into the hamlet and began their search there. Shots were fired, many missing, with the badly wounded Tirolese falling back and the legendary Herr Barsch advancing with his sword in hand on the hamlet under a hail of rifle and musket fire as the Russians opened up on the Milanese who moved from cover to cover until they stormed the inn and beat the soldier within to death in bloody hand to hand fighting. Blood curdling screams could be heard but there was naught any of his comrades could do to save the man from the Milanese rebels' fury.
Across the hamlet the Turks and Russians cooperated in locating and taking the prized case out of the hamlet, but the Turk was shot in the back by a Tirolese and his Russian comrade carried the hefty box alone over the hill and away into the woods. The Milanese stormed the building, killing another of the Russians, but much as the loot from the dead bodies and the Russian and Turkish prisoners had made the raid worth their while, the Milanese and Tirolese leaders knew all too well that the true prize of the expedition was now in Chantan's hands and they had failed to achieve their goal.
For that, they swore, their prisoner's heads would roll…."

This is the result, with much more I can't remember because so MANY amazing moments took place, of a skirmish system we're developing.

Do you think the market can bear ANOTHER card driven skirmish system? In our game you have 4-8 figures. You have 60 points to spend among 6 stats, with no figure having more than 24 points and no less than 6. Every miniature has a number of cards assigned to them based on their stats, and we flip these cards and activate miniatures based on the card – miniatures may move, ambush, fire, bank cards, or carry out special actions. Within the deck are special cards that improve or hinder the next activation, and then there's a card that ends the turn and ends the turn. The soul of the system is that depending on the weapon used (pistol, carbine, musket, rifle etc….) it takes a number of activations to reload weapons. Black powder weapons took awhile to reload. Or you can tap load. And melee is deadly, consisting of a guessing system….

My question is….is the market saturated?
Do Sharpe Practice etc…own the market?
Would skirmish gamers pay $10 USD-15 for a new innovative 19th century ruleset that matchers their perception of the period. or better still if they know the period force them to employ well researched period tactics?
ACW, AWI, FIW, ILW…

We're not so much interested in making money from this system as much as we believe we're developing something innovative, fun, nail-biting…
It's been play tested for three years now, we'd even be willing to partner with a manufacturer to release the rules for free….

Anyway, it's an AWESOME game and we'd love to get some playtesters on board but they need to be stand up guys. Angelbarracks, Pendraken, Torriani, Priestley…people who won't screw us about. Perry twins…
How do we get to these guys???

Happy to Skype or email (PM for contact/address) and chat it over.
Don't want to make money off this game as such, it's just that it's a really good ruleset and we'd love to share it with the community. That said a little lead in kind would be nice though if you get my drift…

Otherwise we'll take Scheisse! to Kickstarter and call it a day and play it in Oz alone, but feel this is a really good project that should be shared!

I don't know about all your other questions, but if you're going to put it out widely, especially on Kickstarter, I'd change the spelling of your game's title. I would hope you mean Shiesse!

Nono, I mean Scheiße!
It's…German….for evacuation
LOL!

I would agree that the name could lead to some unfortunate consequences …

According to my dictionary the German word for evacuation is "Evakuierung".

No it means what is says
link
Maybe in Australia we have a different sense of humor than on the other continents, but when we write Scheiße we mean what it says.
Play the game….test it out…you'll soon find yourself calling that specific word out in whatever language often as you become aware it takes 2-4 activation cards to reload your carbine or musket or rifle (unless you tap load it!) while there's a bloke running toward you with a bayonet or Tomahawk whose only purpose in life is to skewer or beat you to a pulp.
Add to that the fact close combat is handled by rolling a hidden 1d10 and for the opponent to guess what the number rolled is, and you'll soon find the interaction among players is a grounding principle to the system.
"Oh scheisse!!"
It's a very funny game, actually! Tense, nailbiting, as the cards get turned and you try to reload your weapon in the face of incoming hordes…
Do you keep reloading or do you relocate? Do you charge in yourself or do you bank a card to give you advantages in the coming melee? What if the End Turn card is turned over next and your banked cards are put back in deck?
What if a "well done, Sir" or a "Sorry Sir" is flipped next?

What risks are you willing to take? How gutsy are you, really?
No plan survives contact with the enemy, they say, but having played wargames for close on 20 years now few systems have made that so true as the system we've designed. In our game, you WILL scream Scheisse! often I'm afraid…
Captures the intensity of the period magnificently!
:)

From your link:
"Scheiße f (genitive Scheiße, no plural)

(vulgar) feces, "

So, like I said, I think it's an unfortunate title for a set of rules that can only lead to some "interesting" reviews …

To judge by the OP's writing style, I hope the rules aren' t going to suffer from logohorrea.

I guess the bleeper only works in English.

Probably enough Scheisse in the market at the moment. :)

TMP link

Well, the name's a point against you, and your literary style is more than a touch over-excited:

" -- on an acidulous morning, as the mist withdrew hastily under the shy spring sun --"

None of that means you might not have a great game, there. Just write it, test it, have independent tester play it without your being there, and see what you've got. The worst thing that can happen is that you have a set of rules that you and your friends like. You don't have to print a thousand copies and have a box of nine hundred of them in your spare bedroom.

Scatological names wear thin after a while.

As for the writing style. It is ok for a battle report, but I prefer rules to be written in plain, simple text.

I think the suggestion of finding some playtesters outside your group is a good one if you have eventual publication in mind. If not, well, it sounds like a fun game and that is never a bad thing.

There will always be rules junkies who will buy any and every rules set for their period, and also those who are dissatisfied with current offerings. But, I would consider releasing it as either a PDF or print on demand, lest you end up with a large box of not yet sold copies.

To the gentlemen who bothered to read and reply to this thanks for your replies. All of them. I can take one on the chin in the right spirit.
The name of the rules has been changed, I've been whipped for posting on TMP by my fellow designers about an upcoming WIP project, and long story short aside from a little acrimony I appreciate the constructive criticism. In MY mind, that's what a community is about.
We're still testing this thing, I think it's a good project but letting it to other parties involved whether it's going to be published or just released for free.
Thank you.