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"Rules - Not Detailed Enough!" Topic


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Personal logo Editor in Chief Bill The Editor of TMP Fezian10 Aug 2018 3:44 p.m. PST

We asked – TMP link

In general, would you say that wargame rules today are too detailed, or not detailed enough?

22% said "not detailed enough"
14% said "too detailed"

49% said "none of these/no opinion"

14th NJ Vol10 Aug 2018 5:38 p.m. PST

Problem is wargamers read about a single event in a war, and they want it in wargame rules. You can't cover ever single event on a table top. As I've gotten older playability is all I look for in rules. Old and lack of patience.

robert piepenbrink Supporting Member of TMP10 Aug 2018 6:23 p.m. PST

You know, given that I were a commercial publisher, if 22% of my potential customers said rules weren't detailed enough and at least 63% disagreed, I would not take that as a mandate to layer on more detail.

jurgenation Supporting Member of TMP10 Aug 2018 6:56 p.m. PST

too detailed .

Personal logo Extra Crispy Sponsoring Member of TMP11 Aug 2018 9:07 a.m. PST

More and more I want *more* crunch in my games. After a while all the Bolt Actions "roll d6 for 4+" blend together…

Personal logo etotheipi Sponsoring Member of TMP11 Aug 2018 12:21 p.m. PST

You can't cover ever single event on a table top.

This is what drives my distinction between "rules" and "scenario" for QILS. Very little is in the rules, but it is flexible enough to allow less than a handful of scenario rules change plain rice into jambalaya.

It's also why the rules are free and I charge a bit for the scenarios.

WKeyser15 Aug 2018 12:04 a.m. PST

I think Extra Crispy has hit the nail on the head all those roll d6s and hit on 4-6 and then roll to save seem to blend together.

It seems fewer and fewer rules are really trying to capture a period and more often than not it seems the design goal is few figures and finish in 3 hours. Not how do I represent the difference between tactical doctrines of the the two armies.

I don't mind parts of the rules to be "simple" like rolling for combat but please somewhere put some meat into the game, hopefully in the command and control aspects of the game.

So I think simple some places and crunch in others is the way to go.

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