"Rules: Fashion or Progress?" Topic

There's some of each.

I agree with the above- there will probably some of each, mixed and modified somewhat, but recognisable to most long-time gamers.

I see The Last Conformist nailed the poll set-up. Congratulations, Last.

I checked "Fashion" rather than punt, and I think that's mostly the case, but some rules mechanisms which once were common I don't expect to make a major comeback.

Agreed. Fashion more than progress, but there has still been progress.

Neither.
"What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun."

There are no innovations in wargame rules. It's all been done before. Anyone who thinks he's innovating is just kidding himself.
If it's good, it's been done. If it's not, it's like putting pineapple on a pizza.

Harrumph, and get off my lawn.

Damn. It seems I copied Wolfhag from the pre-poll discussion.
Ooops!

If we are bringing back the bounce stick, I insist on a revival of the cannister cone.

I still have my bounce sticks from the 1970s. I use them as pointers while performing game master duties.

Jim

I only play older, OOP rules sets. I don't keep up with the modern rules systems.

I found rules I like, so I play them, even though they are now only available in PDF -- if you know where to look for them.

I also do not play competitions. Not my cup of tea.

If you find a set of rules you like, keep playing them until/if you find something you like better.

If you like to keep up with the latest rules sets… Well, that is not me. Cheers!

Survivor bias here for me. I buy and use the rules that are progress for the sorts of games I like to play, and don't buy ones that aren't unless they might be good reference material or some bits that might be worth appropriating.

Yes.

The poster suggested an option in the original poll suggestion, but it is not a voteable option!

Okay, been miniature gaming since 1981. I have never heard of a bounce stick. What is it?

A lovely device that served to show the progress of ball shot after hitting its first "strike point" on the ground and its progress until considered ineffective.

Where marked on the stick/gauge (ostensibly related directly to the ground scale), the ball is flying at heights that would plow through formations of men. With each ground strike, the distance in the air is half of the previous indicated distance.

Realistically, this is what makes ball shot different from shell or shrapnel in combat, and is not well represented by other techniques. I don't currently use these in my own rules, but this is a case where "progress" is outweighed by "fashion."

If the ground scale is small enough, it's a device that really deserves to be revived.

TVAG

Thank you, Flashman. The poster has noticed that too.

TVAG,I have come to regard the bounce stick as a perfectly good idea sadly unfit for use by human beings--young male human beings, anyway. Old-timers can maybe get away with them, but players in their teens and twenties will (a) halt the game indefintely in arguments about whether that casting in the second rank of the 1/20 Foot does or does not have his hand under the red portion of the bounce stick. Then they'll go out and buy the smallest castings they can got their fellow gamers to allow in the game standing at the position of attention to minimize casualties.

In the abstract, I agree-wonderful way to simulate ball passing through formations. In practice, the bigger the game and the younger the players, the more it slowed the game.