Pledge: Finish the vikings I meant to last thread

WIP

A system becomes old when there ceases to be a player base willing to play it with joy and the manufacturer just drops support. A well aged system has the player support and the development by the publisher occurs with infrequent changes or additions.

Mordheim, Bloodbowl (at one time), Malifaux 2nd ed. all were obsolete when I couldn’t find people to play with

I haven’t made up any game systems because I’m neither a statistician nor an architect. I can say these minis are cool and the fluff is grand but making a game takes me into a realm where I just falter in creation.

Time for sleep

Lol nout wrong with playing Homeworld all day if you can.

So my pledge is to paint these wargames atlantic this weekend I have just been out to prime them so fair chance I might get them finished.

Tabletop miniature games fall into two groups. Those that are in a constant shift of updates such as bolt action, infinity etc etc so they never really get old. Then you have the ones which are static either they are one hit games normally board game style or they are out of production. Certainly when they fall out of production you cannot buy them in the shops they become old quickly.

Yes to a degree games become obsolete at least personally. I dont feel the need to go back and play the original Blood Bowl Game. Not because it was bad but if I am going to play it I would choose the new edition. Those games still hold a space on the shelve but unlikely they will grace the table again.

I did write my own Fighting Fantasy book when I was about 15. Come to think of it I did back then write a number of D&D campaigns we used to play out. I was not much good to be honest but then without the internet and anyone else to be critical of them I was happy with it.

I do have the best idea for an RPG. Coronation Street the RPG. You get play one of the characters from the street and together with 3-4 others you have to complete daily tasks on the street. Like getting into the Rovers Return to sample one of betty’s HotPots. You have the evil tracy barlow trying to out wit you at every turn.

It is going to have standies and maybe a board of the square you can travel around. I tell you it is going to be amazing if i ever start work on it. Maybe I should do a kickerstarter asking for 3 million to get it off the ground one day.

1) At what point does a tabletop miniature game become “old” and what is the difference to a “well aged” system?

Games never become ‘old’ unless the rules suck and new games show how to do similar things better …

And that to me is the difference between ‘old’/’obsolete’ and ‘well aged’
One has rules and mechanics that simply aren’t any fun for the new generation.
The other has mechanics that have proven themselves over the years.

2) Did you ever find any of your games to be obsolete and why?
Yep … mostly because the mechanics were silly and needlessly complex. D&D/AD&D 2nd edition suffered from this.
At first I thought 3rd edition would fix things, but in hindsight it added more things to it that it didn’t really need.
I’ve sort of come to understand why OSR are so popular … and it’s primarily because they get down to the bare bones needed for RPG’s : a couple of stats and lots of imagination.

Do I really need a list of hundred different skills and feats ?
Or do I just improvise by using whatever backstory I got to justify wether or not a character can do stuff ?

I believe a lot of the rules comes from the need of a certain type of player to want to find and exploit loopholes.
And it’s good for business if you can convince people that they need to buy your expansions in order to have a ‘better’ and ‘more complete’ game.

3) Have you ever tried to make your own set of rules for a complete game? So not just some house rules for an existing thing but from scratch? If yes: who do you feel about it today? If no: why not?
Define ‘complete game’ …
Last year I had a bit of an inspiration to make a silly short beer&pretzels type of game.
However other than getting the basic idea/concept on paper I never finished it.
I might revisit it once I got another round of inspiration … because like writing code there is fun to be had in thinking about systems and mechanics.

Biggest hurdle would be finding people who would want to play and deciding when the game would be fun/balanced enough to play at all.

There’s also the challenge of finding and/or making the components, but at a local (board)game convention I saw one shop selling all sorts of meeples and boardgame related materials that were not dice.

I am a believer of simple systems, because  complex rules that force people to do certain things invariably lack fun and are counterintuitive at best which results in them being ignored.

I hope I can get myself in the mood for some hobby time, because I really really should do more than just read (and complain) about stuff. 😀

@pagan8th but today is not that day 😉

that’s why we hobby … to feel like a kid again 😀

I did some hobby … and am documenting it for proof

GW – Landraider – 1988 (so says the sprue), primaris for scale