"Scrumlandia: The Start of Something Special?" Topic

The Second Saturday Scrum Club played another game of "Chainmail" this weekend, after having such a swell time back in January when Keith Sloan ran his "Battle of Emridy Meadows" scenario for us using the rules.

But first we spent an hour and a half brainstorming and "blue-skying" how we might cobble together our own Braunstein-esque RPG/wargame campaign, discussing how we might borrow concepts and mechanics from a variety of sources spanning the entire gamut of fantasy gaming's history, from Arneson's Blackmoor and Gygax's Castle & Crusades Society games to a variety of RPG systems over the decades that have attempted to incorporate "domain" creation and management rules up to what we're able to glean from the blog postings for the upcoming Oathmark wargame system.

Read more about our some of the gaming ideas we're developing see a slew of photos from that night's big "Chainmail" battle at my blog, Scrum in Miniature:

link

Scrum in Miniature: link

Are you really using Gary Gygax's Chainmail?

Nothing wrong with "Chainmail"-- I remember playing a number of large games with Pete Kerestan of Wee Warriors using the "Chainmail" man-to-man rules. Lots of fun!

Are you really using Gary Gygax's Chainmail?

Of course! Why would somebody make that up?

Damn, I thought it was going to be a Fantasy Rugby game. I'm so disappointed.

Wolfhag

Some of the best games I ever played was with "Chainmail". I really liked the combat system. On the other hand the morale rules were tedious.

Nice table, really nice figures! Looks like a very fun game.

I have read, but never played, the ChainMail rules. I also own a PDF copy of Swords & Spells, which was written for OD&D as a mass battles set of rules. I purchased a copy of 1e's BattleSystem, too. None of these are as refined as the 2e BattleSystem game. I recommend it, as it seems to be the most streamlined of them all, while still being tremendously comprehensive, covering damn near everything you could want in a fantasy game.

Been playing 2e BS since 1995. Loving it still, 25 years later. Cheers!

I would love you guys to give us an analysis of these rules as you see them after having played.

I have wanted to play Chainmail since I first heard about them in the Basic D&D Ruleset back in 1978. I had acquired the 1st edition Battlesystem as a teen, but could not get anyone to play, (didnt have all the cool minis back then either). I have played a few games of the 2nd ed. Battlesystem like it quite well. I have recently acquired a pdf of the Swords and Spells, and it appears to be halfway between Chainmail and 1e Battlesystem, with quite a bit of similarity to 1e AD&D if one was going to use AD&D as a mini wargame system, which I actually think it could quite easily do.

The Swords and Spells seems to be the AD&D combat system, but without any variability of the dice in determining damage, ie its what you get if you use straight average hitpoints for all troops in a unit, and average damage and chances to hit, with no chance to do exceptionally good or bad. the Swords and Spells rules would give the victor to who every commanded their troops best, given equal armies.

It really surprises me how little one can find about the Chainmail rules on the internet, as from reading them, they seem mostly quite good and look like they would be quite playable. Chainmail and Battlesystem would work equally well for both Fantasy and Historical. Both seem quite logical in their execution. THere are a lot of games that owe its orgins to the Chainmail game, including D&D and all its derivatives,including Warhammer, and probably lots of the historical rulesets also.

Hi Albus

I think Chainmail and Warhammer are both inspired by Tony Bath's rules so Chainmail's influence via D&D is vast but in terms of wargames it is more of a 2-way street. See
link

rgds
rob