Schogun | 11 Aug 2016 3:18 p.m. PST |
Does anyone have any of these books? Good stuff? |
Who asked this joker | 11 Aug 2016 3:31 p.m. PST |
It's Wally Simon articles. There are bound to be plenty of marvelously random nuggets of wisdom on all things gaming! |
robert piepenbrink | 11 Aug 2016 3:43 p.m. PST |
I've ordered this one. On the basis of previous volumes, it probably won't contain a useful rule set, but it will be a fun read, and have some insightful things to say about various mechanisms. Might even be a game idea or so in there somewhere. |
Joes Shop | 11 Aug 2016 5:09 p.m. PST |
I have all of the books in the series (so far). Excellent value for the money. |
(Phil Dutre) | 11 Aug 2016 11:53 p.m. PST |
I have all 5 of them, and I just noticed a minute ago that a 6th one is available. It's a good mix of articles. Some feel a little bit outdated, but others do offer some useful ideas. They are not complete rulesets, but more a set of tools for ruleswriters and game designers. I don't use the ideas conteined in these books 'as is', but I use them as sources of inspiration to develop my own rules. |
Ed Mohrmann | 12 Aug 2016 7:06 a.m. PST |
I've dozens of Wally's 'Potomac Wargamer's Newsletter' each of which seems to have been mined for the articles contained in the cited publication. Great reads back in the day and now as well. |
79thPA | 12 Aug 2016 10:39 a.m. PST |
I believe it was the PW "Review." My brother used to get it for the various rules ideas that it contained. |
jefritrout | 12 Aug 2016 12:11 p.m. PST |
As someone who gamed with Wally regularly… Phil, Wally only used his rules as ideas to simulate games and he changed them regularly. He used his rules as "guidelines." We often joked that if the date on the rules was over a week old we were playing with an old edition. As far as I know only 2 sets of his rules were ever published. "Modern Skirmish Warfare" which we dubbed "The Pillow Fights" and his Seven Years War rules which were actually published by Scott Holder as "Patriots and Loyalists" (with minor modifications). Ed, Russ has pretty much done exactly what you said. Russ and Fred have complete collections of the PW Review as far as I know, whereas I have a couple hundred. Lot of articles to sort through to find the best. |
Russ Lockwood | 12 Aug 2016 1:04 p.m. PST |
Thank you for your kind comments. As the editor of the series, yes, the individual articles in the booklets are like a 'best of' PW Review. His estate granted me rights to his wargaming articles in exchange for royalties. I dive into the archive, pull out a dozen interesting articles and then edit them up. Quite often, Wally never told the whole story about a rules set -- many mechanics are missing from many of his articles. I pull out the ones that have some sort of interesting hook to them, polish his sometimes stream-of-consciousness writing into a little tighter narrative, note what's missing and try to patch in info from his other ideas. I include the few graphics that might be in the specific article, but most articles were all text. I add in some graphics I think are appropriate, or at least whimsical enough. The articles range from the 1980s to the early 2000s. PW Review was a monthly newsletter, so a bit to go through. It's amazing to see how Wally solved -- or not solved -- many of the same issues rules face today. I just reprinted volumes 1, 3, and 4. I know OMM has them all in stock, but not sure about Caliver in the UK, which stocks my booklets. For the record: Vol. 1: Secrets of Wargame Design Vol. 2: More Secrets of Wargame Design Vol. 3: Solo Secrets of Wargame Design Vol. 4: Campaign Secrets of Wargame Design Vol. 5: Master Secrets of Wargame Design Vol. 6: Skirmish Secrets of Wargame Design Available from onmilitarymatters.com and in the UK caliverbooks.com |
McLaddie | 12 Aug 2016 4:11 p.m. PST |
Phil, Wally only used his rules as ideas to simulate games. jefritrout: Did you mean 'stimulate' or simulate games? Not sure about the latter meaning if meant. |
Ed Mohrmann | 12 Aug 2016 5:19 p.m. PST |
You guys are correct – 'PW Review' it was ! Wally used to send me an obituary announcing the demise of 'sub' as a reminder when my subscription ran out ! |
Russ Lockwood | 15 Aug 2016 6:31 p.m. PST |
Wally was a fearless experimenter of rules mechanics. Some of them rather clever, some OK, and some, well, to riff on Thomas Edison, Wally found 200 ways not to make a rules set. :) I only spent a couple of weekends at his house, but with his 40+ years of gaming, he could pop things out of a box and say "We should try this." It may work. It may not, but his joy often came from the journey, not the end result. |
(Phil Dutre) | 16 Aug 2016 2:36 a.m. PST |
Russ, Thanks for editing and publishing these books. I really enjoy them, and they do offer insight in the creative processes of a renowned wargamer. As I said, I don't use the ideas in these books "as is", but more as an inspiration and starting point. But I guess that always was the intention? |