Big Little Wars Update

Me relaxing.

Well, by skin of my teeth I managed to get the first draft out to my play-test/reader group on Christmas Eve. Of course that night I dreamed of a couple of things that I missed. Yeah, I have oddly specific dreams at times.

I realized that I had failed to write explanations for blast grenades.

For that matter what I meant by blast and the effects in general. The two are very different, so one has probably got to be renamed.

Blast grenades stun. Inflicting shock. Simple as that.

The blast attribute is the radius of the weapon attack. I have in mind that a roll to hit that misses uses the miss die value for determining where it hits and what might happen. But, I'll have to give it some more thought.

As I was writing the scenarios I wrote that one objective as capturing people.

I had not mentioned this as a possible action anywhere else in the rules. I have some thoughts that involve grading the ease or not of successfully capturing people.

I can excuse myself for this, because it only became apparent when I finished writing the two scenarios. Also, I wanted to write more scenarios, but I ran out of time.

However, I have ideas for more, and no doubt my play-testers will make suggestions too. But, one of my play-testers has already told me he got what I intended from the introduction:

Command and Control
Integrating a range of technologies
Asymmetry between forces

So more later. Always more later. But now I must focus on writing my next novel, which is long overdue.

NB: Added; forgot to mention, solo play

Big Little Wars

Big Little Wars is a set of rules to play games in the Gate Walker universe. It has become the main focus of my working day since I started being able to string two words together.

While this is not directly related to the next novel I'm writing, it has set me the task of working out what the everyday world is like for the average person living on Earth, circa 2071.

Clearly the world is large enough for the adage, the future will not be evenly distributed, to apply.

From a miniature gaming perspective this makes for interesting conflicts. For someone living circa 2071 it sucks. Because living in the middle of a world of proxy wars while shopping is the very definition of suck.

So I use tech levels to differentiate the disparities that arise from asymmetrical access to technology.

Anyway, my document tells me that the current word total is: 19,677 words; though the project counter only says 19,401 words. No doubt there are good reasons for this, but I haven't a clue why they differ.

Arguably, I don't have much of a clue about anything these days.

So while doing this project has completely sidetracked work on my next novel, the upside from all the work is that it has got me thinking about a lot of stuff that counts as world building stuff I will need to know for later stories.

I'll take that as a win.

Focused on Writing Rules

A blast from the Mummerset campaign: 3rd Battle of South Boring from Operation Sand Box.

Over the last week my mind has been focused on writing a set of wargame rules.

For far too long I've been trapped, procrastinating over the mechanics of play, and the game setting. I'm still undecided about the setting details, but yesterday I was managed to spend the day working on them.

I really got into my writing groove, and produced just over 1800 words.

Colour me amazed. I haven't written that many words in a day for far too long.

While yesterday's writing was amazing, I didn't sleep much last night, because my mind was racing with ideas. So, I got up and wrote notes instead of tossing turning in bed. All things considered, this has left me feeling a little bit fragile today.

Still, I've managed to do some more writing today.

Mostly down in the weeds. Working through the rule mechanics , and checking my assumptions arising thereof. It is a thing.

That's it for now. Catch you all on the bounce!

Writing, I've Done Some

Here's a blast from the past. One of my friends posted a review of OHMU War Machine, snippet below, go read the rest on Board Game Geek.

I only very recently (2020) learned of the existence of OHMU and was lucky enough to acquire a lone remaining copy from one of the authors. I always enjoy taking a look at older games like this, too see how games and their base assumptions changed over time.

When I posted my new acquisition online it got a number of responses from people who had heard of the game but never seen or read it and were curious about it, so I figured I might as well do a first impressions/review on it here.

So, spurred on by the feedback on BGG, and friends egging me on, I've gone and co-opted another fellow gamer, and I'm now working through a new draft of the Bad Dog rules.

What's also interesting for me, is seeing how much of the background fluff I wrote nearly 30 years ago for OHMU, has seeped into the the ideas behind my Gate Walker universe trilogy.

Anyway, more news as and when.

Another Month Flew By

Another month has flown by. When I've not been painting miniatures to escape the world around me,  I've been noodling about rules for playing a tabletop miniatures game set in my Gate Walker universe.

It's a way for me going back to my non-fiction writing roots.

Having failed to market the previous rule set I wrote*, it's important to minimize the risk of my mecha combat rules getting lost in the churn. So, I've been asking myself, what do I want to achieve with these rules?

An important question, because I'm aware that there are several new sets of mecha rules out, or are about to be released to market. I want to focus on command and control, including the use of UAVs/drones.

Currently the UAVs are for laying out the deployment points on the game table.

But, I just had this idea about how to use them in the game as artillery spotters for fire-support. Besides that, I want the game to feel like a battle taking place in the future, where everything is interconnected.

What I'm hoping to do is make my game different from other sets of rules, with it's own unique selling points to encourage players to buy these and instead of BattleTech or Heavy Gear.

A tall order. But a worthwhile goal to have. That's all for now, catch you all next month.

NB: *OHMU War Machine: Oversized Heavy Mechanised Units.