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Greetings,

Is there a genre or period that you feel is still in need of a good ruleset, or that needs something new to add to the equation?

I am always adding new ideas and concepts to my "to do" folder so a thread like this helps spur my imagination.

I will save some of my thoughts for a bit later in the thread.....

Given how important the horse archer was in warfare throughout human history, I don't know of any really good rules that capture the battles between horse archer nations.

I'd like to refight Tokhtamysh vs Tamerlane or invade Persia as the Hephthalites!

Mecha

Fantasy naval

Map based campaigns

A satisfying system for vehicle collisions

Weird War 2 (where did they all go?)

Urban Arcana (Buffy, Charmed...)

Covert Ops (X-com, MiB)

Dinosaur era. Basically giant lizards battling each other.

Primitive man, prebronze age.

Ultramodern combat - not Team Yankees ‘80s or near future, but a TT game using modern this-day unit’s and tactics.

Campaign systems that include a bit of logistics. Everyone’s focus seems to be mostly on one-off battles, I’d like to see more systems that utilize the results of prior battles to inform the next skirmish, but without devolving into a “roll tide” effect that makes the victor unstoppable. Some sort of Growing Desperation/Overextended mechanic to keep a winner’s momentum from getting out of hand - but at the same time not punish a player whose doing well.

What scale, Stormonu? Off the top of my head I can think of Force on Force, Skirmish Sangin and Spectre: Operations for 28mm small-unit actions.

Cold War Commander covers larger actions, and claims to cover right up to the present day (or at least up to 2006 when it was published).

 Ratius wrote:
Dinosaur era. Basically giant lizards battling each other.

Funny you mention that as I have been slowly working on one of those. I have a draft version up on my blog if you are interested.

https://app.box.com/s/hay8y9x8g4hfngiv9vivq1c7ul7feqp7

There is still a long way to go on the final rules still.....

I'm thinking "Transformers," preferably the Golden Age of Cybertron, but also the Autobot Rebellion.

 Ratius wrote:
Dinosaur era. Basically giant lizards battling each other.

Might be difficult as a stand alone product, but it'd be perfect as an expansion to a Bible based wargame.

Nurglitch wrote:
I'm thinking "Transformers," preferably the Golden Age of Cybertron, but also the Autobot Rebellion.

A 'Beast Wars' campaign would be cool as well! Wassspinator approvvves of this idea.

 ProtoClone wrote:
Primitive man, prebronze age.

Check out Paleodiet by Ganesha Games. It might be something of interest to you.

 lord_blackfang wrote:


Urban Arcana (Buffy, Charmed...)

Good to hear that at least one person might be interested in the thing I've been working on for the last couple of years... (No ETA on any kind of announcement, still in art gathering and playtesting, and turns out that art and sculptors aren't cheap so it's gonna take a while...)

Dinosaurs: there's Cretacea (Kickstarter link) although I don't know if that's still available. I've also used Chris Peers' [url=https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28455/saurian-safari]Saurian Safari[/I] rules for doing The Lost World or One Million Years BC-style games.

Transformers? There's Bot War (prices are in AUD, not USD).

Alternatively, the Mekton RPG from R. Talsorian Games would do. You'd need the Mekton Zeta rules and the Mekton Zeta + expansion to give you the full design rules including transforming and size-changing. It's an RPG, but you could adapt it for a skirmish game with one or two characters per player. I was going to use it with 1:144 Gundam Wing kits, but you could also do it with actual Transformers toys if you wanted.

Chinese Fantasy/ Wuxia / Kung Fu skirmish games. This genre just doesn't get much representation outside of characters in other games or as bits of another setting. The Osprey/ Ganesha ruleset wasn't bad, but I thought it tried to emulate too much at once.

Musou/ ___ Warriors games. Heroes vs piles and piles of disposable minions and badass bosses. I thought the Project: ELITE board game could make a good base for this type of game, and all it would need it a slick reskinning.

Tokusatsu Hero. Yeah there was a Power Rangers board game on Kickstarter, but I want more like Kamen Rider or the Guyver. Fight baddies and complete objectives, cruise the board in your slick ride, power up (multiple times?) to whoop bad guys and monsters. Save bystanders. Convince recurring anti-heroes to join the side of good. Pilot a giant robot?

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:

Tokusatsu Hero. Yeah there was a Power Rangers board game on Kickstarter, but I want more like Kamen Rider or the Guyver. Fight baddies and complete objectives, cruise the board in your slick ride, power up (multiple times?) to whoop bad guys and monsters. Save bystanders. Convince recurring anti-heroes to join the side of good. Pilot a giant robot?

This. Also, something Ultraman-scale would be pretty sweet.

There aren't many genres I find lacking, but it's just a matter of hunting down rules - and finding a set that you personally enjoy. Some great games are personal projects or unreleased games. The best Gladiator game I've ever played was one I was playtesting for a guy who never got around to releasing it...

I also think the key to any quality game is that you're passionate about the period or whatever your setting is. I love designing games, but they have to start as something I have a desire to do. I don't know how well I'd design something if someone just handed me an arbitrary genre or time period. Not saying I couldn't "get into it" after some research...but I've read my fair share of pretty stale/dry game rules...and they're the worst.

I will say, oddly, I find good dungeon crawl rules sets to be pretty sparse. I think this is mainly due to the massive success of either A) RPGs in the setting, or B) Boardgames in the setting. But for build-your-own dungeon crawl style tabletop games, there are few. It's why I'm working on some of my own rules just to be able to use all my sexy minis and dungeon bits!

Mecha

Mecha, mecha, mecha, mecha, mecha.

 weasel_beef wrote:

 Ratius wrote:
Dinosaur era. Basically giant lizards battling each other.

Might be difficult as a stand alone product, but it'd be perfect as an expansion to a Bible based wargame.

Get an exalt dude

Another vote for map based miniatures campaigns.

The only one I have seen that is good is battlefront’s firestorm system and it really only feels like WW2 (I.e. would be all wrong for Napoleonic, ancient or fantasy)

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
Dinosaurs: there's Cretacea (Kickstarter link) although I don't know if that's still available. I've also used Chris Peers' [url=https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28455/saurian-safari]Saurian Safari[/I] rules for doing The Lost World or One Million Years BC-style games.

Transformers? There's Bot War (prices are in AUD, not USD).

Alternatively, the Mekton RPG from R. Talsorian Games would do. You'd need the Mekton Zeta rules and the Mekton Zeta + expansion to give you the full design rules including transforming and size-changing. It's an RPG, but you could adapt it for a skirmish game with one or two characters per player. I was going to use it with 1:144 Gundam Wing kits, but you could also do it with actual Transformers toys if you wanted.

Botwar doesn't really hit the Transformers box; there don't seem to be alt-modes and it looks like they're going very off-brand. I want to play five Decepticons vs 1 Guardian Robot or something.

 Elbows wrote:
There aren't many genres I find lacking, but it's just a matter of hunting down rules - and finding a set that you personally enjoy. Some great games are personal projects or unreleased games.

I also think the key to any quality game is that you're passionate about the period or whatever your setting is. I love designing games, but they have to start as something I have a desire to do. I don't know how well I'd design something if someone just handed me an arbitrary genre or time period. Not saying I couldn't "get into it" after some research...but I've read my fair share of pretty stale/dry game rules...and they're the worst.

Agree 100%. I am just curious and it often spurs my own ideas and can get me started.

I totally agree about Wuxia/Ultraman style stuff. I have been watching too much of both lately and thinking about it......

The 41st Millennium could do with a good ruleset.

(/snark)

Well you're not wrong.

 LunarSol wrote:
Mecha

Mecha, mecha, mecha, mecha, mecha.

Ash Barker is working on that.

I'll second a good Fantasy naval game and I'd love to see a good campaign system rule set. something with a map and that takes logistics into account.