"It's a miracle I took up wargaming DESPITE this book" Topic

"A guide to wargaming" 1980

An introductory volume to wargaming, sample rules, scenarios, and a general overview of the hobby at the time.

Note "at the time" There are some sample rules and even with several decades of wargaming I found myself reading and re-reading them to try to make sense of them. They are of the variety of "Here is a framework, they should be playable, we hope …"

It included a few golden tips like making your own cannister and MG templates with clear acetate or better yet, wire and solder …

It's not all bad, it's a perfect time capsule, offers a few universal tips and a now nostalgia-inducing manufacturer's list.

I guess the authors meant well and it is, like I said a product of its day and it only helps to remind us how good we have it today.

As I've said about a particular set of rules written in the 1980's, "We shouldn't be too harsh with the author. After all, English is only his first language."

Snark aside, there is a distinct skill to technical writing and editing. A number of authors don't have that skill, and the production run is generally too small to justify the cost of a good editor – well, that and the fact that wargamers can be notoriously cheap. :-)

"Can be?"

The venerable SYW rulesset Tricorne advised making bases by ripping down 1/2" plywood. (With a note to "Be careful!")
I guess you couldn't get the right size balsa wood back then.

Yes, Winston, "can be." Or else go back to the sentence and say "some wargamers." Take a look at what some of us are paying for figures or terrain. Not me, obviously.

Some of us are poor. Some of us are stingy. Some of us would rather have lots of serviceable than a little bit of excellent. But those three are by no means the complete hobby.

I think Winston's humorous point is spot on. Some people waste too much time being cheap.

I make a virtue out of being cheap.

There is a fine line between frugal and cheap

There is a fine line between frugal and cheap.

Only if it's inexpensive.

I will now commit a "group attack" against 15mm DBM players.
I dropped out of "the hobby" for about 10 years.
When I came back I tried to hit the ground running.
So I joined a DBM discussion group on line.
I saw one gamer who had a single stand/element of Psiloi over his ideal lust. He was offering it for sale.
That's cheap.

Clumsy and primitive as the ideas contained in them so often were, at least you could almost guarantee that the rule books and other hobby publications (excepting the soft-cover, stapled work of amateurs and those in Barkerese, of course) of yore were competently written and a pleasure to read, Gerard. With the deterioration of standards over the years many (most?) 'authors' in this hobby writing in English these days are fundamentally technically semi-literate. The skills they lack are the ability to spell correctly, punctuate correctly, construct proper sentences, and clearly express concepts. Some of the appallingly bad writing that makes its way into expensive rule books on glossy pages between hard covers would cause any old-time respectable publisher to have a heart attack.

Most gaming circles include people with varying levels of English comprehension. Even in the absence of professional editing, can it really be so hard for a rules writer to track down someone in his/her circle who's fully literate and prepared to correct and improve the writing in his/her manuscript – maybe in exchange for a free copy of the published product?

Given the cumbersome, torturous mechanics and primitive production values of most of the rules of the time, I too wonder at the fact that the late seventies/early eighties was one of the greatest growth periods for the hobby, and the time when I became involved. I guess we just didn't know and couldn't conceive of anything better. When they dropped on us the likes of 'Johnny Reb' were a revelation of what was possible.

Was he just overly passionate about the hobby, Winston, or… a Kiwi?

I look back with some fondness to wargaming past with stupid pink tinted lenses. I do see now athough the rules have got better, more simple and elegant we have become mired in the issue that the figures/models count for more than the game. That could never be said of the earlier times. Even though I can afford it I feel the entrance cost for figures that some try to imposse is an issue we fortunately never had to face. Aifix plastic or simple cheap metal.
As for commecial editors another step into the mire, wargames was best and most hobby's are when run essentially by enthusiastic amatures. Commecrial folk have profit as a first motive, that does not have the customer at heart. So the 80's had some gains but some losses.

Actually, I love the old rules and wargaming books. I resisted the metal urge until well out of university and then, only because the old Editions Brokaw range was releasing the GNW. I still have most of my Airfix and ESCI figures.

I think one of the major problems with rules now is that people in the States and in other English-speaking countries are not taught to write clearly and concisely. Since I live in a non-English speaking country, when I'm asked to edit or proofread something in English, I have to remind people to use the KISS method, as they load down their articles and books with excess verbiage. Oh, the slaughtering of the English language continues under the guise of politically correct nonsense. I honestly believe that if you're under 21 years of age, you can't write a sentence to save your life – even if you're trained to 'write'. I have no idea what the heck they are teaching at universities now, but the tripe that passes for intelligent thought now would make Tolkien and Lewis hang their heads in shame.

Regarding the writing of rules – how difficult is it to compose a sentence in English without any errors? My goodness, if only there was a place, a place filled with advice on how to write, and maybe a dictionary or thesaurus that was connected to my computer. And, oh, if only there was a place where I could get my non-English words translated into proper English that was also connected to my computer.

Would anyone happen to know a place like that?