British Cromwell hunts Whittman!

British Cromwell hunts Whittman!
A pic from a Fireball game at Fall In 2010

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Scenario Specific rulebooks or not?

Hi All,

I have had a couple of people express disappointment with the approach we have been considering regarding scenario specific rulebooks. The idea is that we will not publish a rule book and then seperate scenario books. The scenario books will come with rules and charts tailored for those specific scenarios.

As we have been developeing the rules it looks like that idea will probably fall by the wayside. As more scenarios are written and developed we seem to be encountering most situations that will need to be covered by the rules. (Having said that I don't think any rules are fully complete when first published. We had to wait years for Squad Leader to come out with Japanese and Marines. And there are a whole slew of planes missing from Check Your 6!)

We are currently developing artillery rules to cover all situations and the armor rules have been revamped. In last night's game we tinkered with the mortar rules after playtesting the first Hurtgen Forest scenario and we all think they 'feel' right.

The question remains as to wether we will publish the rules as a seperate book or just include the rules in each scenario book. I'll chat with the publisher about that.

Thoughts???

cheers,
Mark

3 comments:

  1. Mark,

    One thought I just had while talking about this with Mike is that if you do the full rulebook and cover as many of the basics as possible, you open the system up for use with all of the scenario books already available out there - Skirmish Campaigns, the TFL books, old SL scenarios, etc.

    I also wonder if you go the scenario route, how often will you find yourself reprinting the same additional rules in scenario books?

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  2. For WW2 a lot of scenario books already exist, the Skirmish Campaigns books or the TFL books.

    I think the CY6! model of the core rules, some common units stats, and a few scenarios is a better approach for another WW2 game in a crowded market.

    Sort of a promise that I can just buy one book and add supplements if I desire rather than having to wait and see what rules get released in which scenario book.

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  3. I have liked the idea of the combined rule book/scenario book since Mark first mentioned it to me way back when he and Jonathan were just getting started on it. I still think it is a unique and interesting approach to putting out a set of WW II rules.

    I suggested to Mark today that perhaps he could release the combined form in print and just the main rules as a PDF. Then everybody could be happy...

    Jerry

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