"Skirmish/RPG Period and Place" Topic

No doubt there will be two polls out of this, but what I'm really looking for is a discussion. Given we all face limits on time, money and storage space, if you had to limit Skirmish/RPG to a single era, what would that era be, and why? And if you had to restrict your terrain, what would be your preferred setting and why?

Note that this is not yet the poll, but the discussion: the "why" is the important part.

Era: Napoleonic, straight-up and fantasy ("The Silver Bayonet"), due to the attractiveness and variety of uniforms and the strong possibility of a mix of ranged- and melee combat, plus the evocation of Brigadier Gerard/Lieutenant Sharpe/Horatio Hornblower etc.

Terrain: Mediterranean buildings (red-tiled roofs), more-or-less suitable for Italy, the Peninsula, and the Caribbean. Plus foliage of the deciduous and palm-tree varieties, etc. This would seem to offer the maximum variety of theatre of operations (compared to half-timbered buildings which seem much more Northern European, or thatched-roof wooden buildings which suggest Poland/Russia). And a Caribbean setting would let me introduce pirates who are always cool.

The Multiverse.

I do have limits on time, money, and storage, and that's what it limits me to.

So, I need a more clear constraint on the constraints. Since money can be traded for time, I'm going to do with space. I did a 3 month tour in Seoul a couple years ago, for which I mailed myself (cheapest shipping option) two 12"x12"x12" boxes for gaming, one only half filled (I figured I would get new stuff while there). I don't know if that is more or less extreme a constraint than you are thinking, but that's what I am going with to answer the OP.

Genre: Postapocalyptic

Wide variety of figures and flexibility on who is on whose team for any given scenario. One "big" horde of ~50 mutants, a four visually distinct scavenger teams of five each, a baker's dozen termibots (9 RIF, 1 NCO, 1 BigBad), three packs of 6 animutants (one flying), ten robed cultists, one big vehicle, three dunebuggy sized, and ten personal conveyences, one light air, one glider, one balloon, and as many tentacled terrors as I can fit.

It also supports a wide range of scenarios. Area control, seige/assault, guerilla actions, insurrection, piracy. Many historical scenarios,too, f'r'ex, The AWI Battle of Short Hills is "elite rebel units harry the empire's advance to cover the rebel retreat".

I would go with desert terrain with lots of scatter and as many industrial and ruined buildings as I can. I have a desert groundcloth with a curvy cut the long way. If you pull the halves apart, you can put a river, canyone, or toxic waste beneath. The shipping boxes would be good for mesas.

I could and would also trash-bash more stuff. I wouldn't feel bad about throwing it out or giving it away if space restrictions dictated so. This is what I did in Korea:

inlgames.com/trashtable.htm

Horse and musket including the late Renaissance.

FIW/AWI with side trips into pirates and 1812.

While I play a number of skirmish/RPG-ey type games; if limited to one, I would stick with FIW (could stretch up to 1812 or back to the Beaver Wars ) in NY state and Sleepy Hollow. Covers historical and gothic horrors with lots of historical legends that go well beyond the Horseman. I already have such a massive investment in modelling time and storage space for this terrain to give it up (and more still to go). Fun modelling and lots of story-telling background with one foot in history led me down this path.

Fortunately, I don't have to limit this, with good sized builds and fun games also done for New York street gangs (The Warriors, stretching up to The Last Dragon), Silver Bayonet in Napoleonic Europe, Test of Honour, starting to gear up now for Lunar. Must create more storage space….

Skirmish…. real fond of the dark ages (Saga, for example) but wild west has some appeal. Mobsters? That is a thought I get from time to time. I also really enjoy Frostgrave…… yeah, I do have attention issues sometimes

1960's through 1990's modern… DEA, FBI, SWAT, drug gangs and other crooks. As for thew rationale – it's familiar territory because of real life, TV shows, movies, and the news. Scenario ideas are everywhere and players will easily get absorbed into whatever is going on.

If I had to restrict myself to a specific type of terrain It'd probably be modern or futuristic urban.

I play FRPG and Fantasy mass battles games. I very occasionally play fantasy skirmish games. My terrain is used for all three games.

I also play wargames with Army Men, but not based on history in any manner. I have limited terrain for my 54mm Army Men games, but I do use my fantasy hills for my Army Men games. I have some buildings in the works for Army Men, using drinking straw sections glued in the corners of the MDF walls: hold them next to each other, and the corners will have straw sections that line up -- insert a wooden dowel down the lined up tubes, and the walls will be held in place. Need to get busy sealing the MDF wall sections so that I can paint them… Cheers!

Single base skirmish – French North Africa (FFL)

link

I like Pulp Alley rules and my favorite period is roughly the half century from about 1890 to 1940. Colonial late stage European expansion over the globe got me hooked a couple of decades ago. But I prefer the very small scale RPG/skirmish adventures like Indiana Jones. I enjoy the ships, airplanes, vehicles, clothing, and weapons of that period.

I'm a big fan of the tropics, especially jungle. A spectator walked by one of my Pulp Alley tables and said he could feel the mosquito 🦟 bites just looking at it!

Either Warren was reading my mind or pretty close. Only difference is I include the 1880s as I do like Wild West RPG games. And Pulp Alley works for that, too.

Skirmish and I never seem to quite gel; I've tried a great many systems and settings over the years, and none has stuck the way various battle-scale things have.

But given that it's what I've managed to play at all, skirmish-wise, in the last several years, the genre would be post-apocalyptic. For terrain, I'd like ruined industrial sites, with cisterns, cranes, catwalks, and whatnot.

Probably either Sci Fi or the Wild West.

Should have cross posted to the Victorian Colonial Board. That is mostly skirmish gaming.