MEDIEVAL LAND WARFARE:
Knight Hack

I would like to take this opportunity to address a number of things Mr. Retzer has written about Knight Hack. Knight Hack is first and foremost a grass roots set of rules. Rules that are intended to be cut to fit players' ideas and ideals on Medieval Warfare from 1000 A.D. to 1230 A.D. It is also designed not to be played as a tournament set of rules. The Introduction clearly states a basic philosophy and exactly how the rules are to be used by the purchaser. "The rules cannot be tailored by us to fit everyone. They are designed to be tailored and changed to fit the gamers' beliefs and interpretations, so feel free to alter them as you the user see fit." The rules do not claim to be perfect but then few rules are. Are what? Why perfect. So let me begin to answer Mr. Retzer's points.

I agree completely with his comment that "he had heard good things about them." I have heard the same thing said. First in a Spear Point review by Scott Holder, shortly after the first edition came out. People who play them say they are good. Perhaps those who play Knight Hack take them as they were intended; simple and not terribly involved. Certainly no one should take them as a tournament set to be played with calibrated measuring devices.

Unfortunately, I may never get around to playing your game. Despite the professional presentation (as far as the "look" goes), Knight Hack is an amateurish production. Entire sections are missing (examples are at the end of this letter). Typos, missing words, and awkward sentence structure make rules incomprehensible. Poor spelling and grammar, and mangled syntax make the rules painful to read. Whatever the merits of your ideas, I cannot shake the idea that if you truly thought they were worth playing, you would have taken the time to do a good job.

While I do not know whether Mr. Retzer ever did get around to playing Knight Hack, I do thank him for the comments about "professional presentation." We must both have the same appreciation for layout and design. The Bayeux Tapestry, while amateurish by comparison to many forms of modern art, is still appealing in its simplicity and "amateurish production." Line drawings taken from the Bayeux Tapestry are used as illustrations in Knight Hack.

Because Knight Hack is intended to be developed further by the purchaser, we feel that the ideas and ideals should remain vague. Indeed, many sentences retain more of a note book style than a definitive, carefully structured, unbending, even rigid if you will, style. While no one will receive a national tournament standing by playing Knight Hack, they will have fun. Mr. Lembit Tohver of Hamilton, Ontario, expressed the comment that "the rules are so easy to read and are clearer than most tournament style rules. They are quite understandable."

Having demonstrated the rules many times at all the major and many of the minor conventions on the eastern seaboard from Toronto to Augusta, seldom do players require great assistance after turn three. I just verbalize examples of movement, morale, missile fire, and melee in relation to the sequence of play. Armed with dice, rules, and a cheat sheet, most players (not all) are off and running in short order. These demo games host up to sixteen players each and finish in three hours. Heck, the players seem satisfied. Go figure.

It is clear that the "Jogglers" have high aspirations. Your production values are high; the layout, artwork, and typefaces are good; a 4-color cover is not cheap. Why then, did you not take the time to carefully edit your work? Or, if you are not competent to do this job, why did you not hire someone who was? (I noticed that you credited Paul Forgette as the editor - what, exactly, did he do? If you paid him, you were ripped off.)

We have always tried to reach our aspirations, however imperfectly. Unfortunately, we did not pay Mr. Forgette. You may not believe this, but we did not write the rules to make money. Ok, so we are ready to go into third edition. Perhaps Mr. Forgette's efforts were not fully utilized, because by error the printer used an incorrect disk. It should be noted that the rules do come with an errata sheet intended to repair much of the the damage caused by this error. Because we do not shrink wrap all sets sold, it is possible that Mr. Retzer did not get an errata sheet with his set. For this we apologize to Mr. Forgette, for our undoing his good work, and therefore causing Mr. Retzer such agitation at his being ripped off.

I am sorry if this seems unduly harsh. I really do mean it as constructive criticism. I have worked for years as a professional editor and ghost writer, and know how hard it is to write well. A good writer or editor agonizes over every sentence and paragraph. This is because a writer's job is to clearly communicate ideas to the readers. A simple misplaced comma can completely change the meaning of a sentence (I remember once seeing an errata sheet for DBA - or was it DBM? - where one of the changes was the addition of a simple comma; it completely changed the meaning of the rule). At the very least, a good writer or editor makes sure that his work isn't missing any critical sections.

Good editors are not cheap, but they can make the difference between an ok work, and a very good one. Most, however, will adjust their fees based on ability to pay. Heck, I'd have done it for credit and a few courtesy copies, simply because I love the hobby.

My advice: Find someone competent to go over your work before you invest in producing any more rules sets. After reading through your rules and trying to figure out what you're saying, I think that you may have something there; it deserves a good editor.

We hope to begin work sometime late next year on third edition Knight Hack. Here's your chance to give us your help. But know this, so there is no misunderstanding. First, Mr. Forgette will be editor-in-chief, because he has played the game and also knows our intended interpretations. Second, we want the rules to be clarified and expanded and not rewritten. They must remain historically correct while remaining fast, fun and still understandable. We have accepted your challenge - will you accept ours and help us in this endeavor?

Here are just a few examples that I picked at random. Muddled writing and missing rules occur on nearly every page. I don't have the time to list them all.

Missing Rules:

1. Is this game a simultaneous movement game, or Igo-Ugo? Does each side complete section A before going on to B, or does a side complete A, B and C in turn before allowing the other side to go? Your rules don't say. This is an unforgivable oversight.

2. There is no rule for computing Basic Morale Level (before adding or subtracting modifiers) nor are there any rules describing how to check Morale. To figure out how to do this, you have to read the example on p. 16, and draw your own conclusions.

This is pure laziness. Examples are just that: examples. They should illustrate the use of a rule, not substitute for them.

At the time you wrote this you probably did not understand our intention, but please again refer to the errata sheet.

Foggy writing also creates confusion in this section:

In the section on disorder, it states: "Disorder due to any other cause lasts until the next rally move phase in which the unit is able to rally." Does this mean that they automatically rally in the phase, or that they must test for morale in the rally phase? Further, the sentence implies that there are some rally move phases in which the unit is not able to rally. Since I don't know how the turn sequence works, there's no way to figure this out (and I shouldn't have to: the rules should state such things explicitly).

See the errata sheet. Put more effort into your own judgment and you will understand the sequence.

A check of the rules under "Rally Moves" reveals more incoherency. You state: "Units which broke off, successfully evaded a charge or successfully tested to cease pursuit, charge or rout will in the rally phase." Will what? Will "check"? Will "automatically rally"? The missing word makes this rule incomprehensible.

Nor are these the only examples of missing and incomprehensible rules. Taken as a whole, the rules are unplayable.

Demonstration game experiences, Knight Hack players' comments received from Gainesville, on line e-mail, and going into third edition might prove you incorrect in this assumption. Our parents instructed us by example. "It's that simple."

I can see what happened here: These rules were written and edited and tested by people who already knew how to play. So, they didn't notice the inconsistencies and missing rules. I doubt you ever sent test sets to people who had not played a "hack" game before.

I addressed test play earlier. The MIGS Club might also disagree with you.

Inconsistent terminology:

In several sections, you refer to percentile dice. In others, you refer to probability dice. Which is it? Is one different from the other?

Both are interchangeable terms.

Goofy spelling and grammar errors:

Page 1, paragraph 1, sentence 3:

"Rules that capture the flavor of warfare in each of these specific yet different periods." This is a sentence fragment. It means nothing. Better: "These rules are designed to capture the flavor of warfare in each of these specific, yet different periods."

Page 6, paragraph 1, sentence 4:

"Mixed units cannot not separated . . . " More nonsense.

Page 11, Paragraph 3, line 2:

"Figures in melee may not" This is another sentence fragment. The question: Figures in melee may not what? Further, it should be "figures in a melee."

And finally, the funniest one:
Page 12, Paragraph 1, sentence 5:

"If the object evades and another unit can be contracted . . . " Contracted? The word you want is contacted (no "r"). You use this word incorrectly throughout the booklet, with (I am sure) unintentionally hilarious results. The use of "contracted" brings up two very funny images: 1) A line of Saxon infantry suddenly shrinking to 3 inches tall and being stomped to death by a herd of pigs. 2) A warband of lawyers swarming onto the field, waving papers for their opponents to sign.

See errata sheet. At one convention a lawyer friend offered to put on a scenario game based on MacBeth. I think he will find this funny.

I hope you clean up your act. The hobby needs a good set of ancients and medieval rules. It also needs entrepreneurial individuals like yourselves who can introduce new ideas. At the same time, however, the consumer deserves more for his money. Had I read these rules before buying them, I wouldn't have paid 20 cents.