"Do You Name Your Home Wargame Rules" Topic

I have been working on a set of home wargame rules for a while. I've ripped off HotT, 5Core and wanted, really wanted to steal from One Hour Wargames too but all I can do there is borrow the basis of 6 units and the scenarios.

So I was thinking today of what I should call my new home rules. I thought of perhaps a mashup of each set like Hordes of the One Hour Weasels but nah. Then I thought I would just ask if others have done similar. Thanks to all who respond.

My set of WW1 air rules were always called 'Wings of Blue Max War, 'arry tate' it stuck for years, betraying their heritage.

John

My version of Featherstone's Horse and Musket rules are called DF-Like. Another based on the same mechanics is DF-Like WW2.

I did a re-write of Chainmail called Chainmail Reforged.

One that I never finished was called Featherstone and Wessencraft take a Bath. An ancients set borrowing from those three writers of course.

I do think it is a good and proper to give a little nod to those you borrowed from somewhere, even if being a little cheeky.

Well of course I do! But in my case I ripped off a quote.

yes always have a name for your game.

Sure. The names include Legion vs Horde, Metal Men With Minie Balls, and Status: Red Chicken, to name the more interesting ones.

Yes.

I call my blatant AWI ripoff of The Sword and the Flame "Flames of Liberty".

Yes. Usually with some period catch phrase.

Examples include "Let It Begin Here" AWI, "Marching to Disaster" FPW, and "Perils of War" Classical.

Though I do occasionally give way to whimsy. My rules for the 1877-8 Russo-Turkish War are entitled "Abdullah v. Ivan".

Yes. Currently my stable includes:

• Another Glorious Day in the Corps (SciFi)
  
• Pity the Living (Zombies)
  
• Steel Crush (OGRE style tank game)
  
• Flames of Awesomesauce (WW2)
  
• Bitter Angels (ACW)
  
• Skyship! (1/300 Aeronefs with boarding actions)
  
• Kid's Play (Generic kid friendly skirmish rules)

When I got my WWII ETO game ready to play, I asked myself "what are these soldiers doing?" The answer was "To Die For The Land." Here is the text on the cover page.

Für das Land sterben
To Die For the Land

15MM WWII Skirmish game

kleine Schlachten für grosse Männer
(Little Battles for Big Men)

Miniature Gaming Tabletop Combat where you engage a determined 15MM Metal Menace Army in a glorious effort to prove yourself a ferocious warrior and hero, while rolling elusive dice!

Jay

French and Indian War: Feather and Flintlock (and long before any of the games that use either of those words in their titles now – at least ten years ago, probably longer).

But my basic core rules: GOR, pronounced like gore – like blood, guts, and gore. And, yes, it is an acronym. And, no, I'm not going to tell you what it stands for – except that OR stands for Own Rules, like King's Own whatevers.

The rules we use in my basement for cold war era moderns are based largely off of GWs Epic Armageddon, so I call them Armageddon '89.

I shamelessly rip off the Marx Brothers, so my Dark Age rules were "A Night at the Opera" (Wagnerian gesturing and singing of commands were required), my car racing game using the heavily modded car wars rules became "A Day at the Races"…

I have no shame.

French and Indian War: Feather and Flintlock (and long before any of the games that use either of those words in their titles now – at least ten years ago, probably longer).

But, of course, RAFM's Flint and Feather line has been around for 30 years or more.

Wagnerian gesturing and singing of commands were required

Kill da Wabbit!

Yes.
ACW "A Nation Divided"
AWI "Battle Road"
FIW "Settlements Ablaze"
Medieval "Death Before Dishonor"

Yes…Wings of Star Wars.
Battle of Hothica (a alternate history sci-fi)
😜

BLVDI RVLES pronounced bludy rules, my own ancients rules set now defunct…

Fast Play Fleets: B5
FPF: Star Trek

Yes. They are always named e.g.
World war two rules on a 2'x2' table are WW2x2.
My version of Take Cover was Open Fire but that got used elsewhere so changed them to Advance to Cover.
My original ancient rules started off as a mashup of Justified Ancients and Warrior Kings and was called Justified Warriors than morphed into When Warriors Collide (These rules did not survive long in play testing).
My current ancient rules got their name as in battle reports I was always writing "and then the battlelines clashed" so I called them Ancient Battlelines Clash.

I have a few others that have been written but not played and they all have names

I love one from a Sam Mustafa article in MWAN years ago, the apocryphal napoleonic rules "The Glory of Glory"

20 years ago we first used the Brother against Brother ruels for our ACW games. Since then, we changed and added so many things that the original game is barely recognizable. We still call it Brother against Brother.

Of course.

Our current WIP is titled "Zona Perestrelki" or Zone Firefights – a rule set for STALKER-style skirmishes. Game mechanics are based on a previous iteration titled "Cleared to Engage."

definitely but my home names tend to be a bit sillier than what gets published :)

What I am working on now boringly got names "the project" for now.

I always name my rules but avoid the conjuntivitus that seems popular along with the three nouns and a comma method. I also try and make them somewhat inscrutable. I always use silly names.

Archaic Ancient rules – "Honey I Sacrificed The Kids!"

Classical period Ancient Rules (Graeco Roman) "Mardonius' Lament, or bare-knuckle boxing with a bush chipper."

Renaissance Tactical Rules "O Dio, Tutto Tranni una Sei"
Renaissance Campaign Rules. "Chiaroscuro."

17th Century Tactical Rules "O Dio, Todo menu Seis."

18th Century Tactical Rules "Mon Dieu Tout Saif in Six!"
18th Century Campaign Rules "Functionaries, Flunkies and Munchkins"
18th Century naval "Yo-Ho-Ho,little naval rules for big ships."
18th Century Siege Rules "Have I ever told you how the Viennese Bakers saved Civilization."
18th Century Role Playing Rules "Persons of Condition"

My game of 19th century intrigue, spying, espionage, dancing, romancing, seduction, and secret societies is "Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna"

American Civil War Rules "Magnolia's Mint Juleps N' Gritz!

Between WWI and WWII rules "The Shattered Century: Marxist War gaming between the wars in the style of Chico, Harpo, and Groucho.

My latest project for 18th century wars between Ruritanian monarchies is called "Don DiDraino: or the Abduction of Figaro."

Oops! I forgot my 19th Century Ironclad game "If you build it, it will sink!"

Yes I do. I also give names to game system under design and in the playtest phase. Some the names remain the same. Sometimes they change. If I am doing them for another company, the name often changes. In those cases, I am just providing the game mechanics and research historical data.

I just call them my napoleonic miniatures rules. Names are for selling (even if free)

Yes. My Napoleonic rules: Bonaparte Waltz.
Went through several names for my SYW rules.

I settled on NOT-HotT for my new rules.

Always. Gotta have a name!

Of course, I've released a few publicly, too.

Names so far:
Squads!
Generic Outlandishly Big Spacefleets! (GOBS!)
Redcoats & Minutemen
Dark Frontier
Raise the Jolly Roger
Lance & Longbow
Kings of War (long before Mantic came along)
Big Honkin' Lizards

Plus several others I can't recall. I frequently come up with a name long before I think up any actual rules!

Guard du Corps- Napoleonic 1981
Glory skirmish 1750-1913 1984
Induanas, Colonel and Emirs, 1984 colonial mass combat. An HG Wells Award nominee (lost to TSATF, not a surprise
Fire and Discipline, tactical combat 1750-1900
Several variations
Coastal Command pt boat rules 1985
Emperors of Europe 1985 board game which seems to have influenced several current games
Supreme Warlord 1981, campaign rules for ancients
Supreme Warlord: Bloodlust, tactical fantasy mass combat 1990
Fire! Goon! Freur! WW2tank vs tank combat, 1981
Eagles, crowns and oak leaves, WW2 battalion level combat
Stars and Marshall batons, WW2 divisional rules
Distant World Battles, SciFi mass combat
Several other work titles and board games

Don't steal names come up with your own.

I call mine "unfinished." But apparently that name is taken…

@tshryock:

wonderful name! :)