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I've been on a Magic the Gather site, looking over Commanders for my own amusement, lately. But due to that, I've had a few ideas rattling around the noggin. As one might guess from posting here, it involves making a Magic (inspired, at least) wargame.

A few of the ideas I have knocking around...

-Each unit/model has multiple HP, and recovers half (rounding up) of any missing HP after their activation or at the end of the turn. Especially durable units may recover more, fragile ones less.
-Exploding dice, and no guaranteed failures. So if the target is 10, and you've got +9, you succeed. Whereas if the target is 100, and you have +0, if you roll max value enough times you can (in theory) do it. The numbers here are completely arbitrary and do not represent any real actualities
-Either Alternating Activations or have a robust reaction system for units on your opponent's turn. Probably AA.
-Ideally, should work with more than two players, though still work with just two as well.

Unfortunately, I've never designed a wargame. And I don't really know where to start, other than looking at other systems and seeing what I like. So... Halp?

...do you need a step-by-step template to brainstorm the rules, or do you need some technical expertise to anchor them down in a sensible way?

There's some consideration to be had: first, Magic or not? It's not simply a matter off brand and marketability, it's a matter of feel and player expectations.

For example, already from you short description, I would envisioned a different way to manage the HP, which is all or nothing. Unit either are destroyed because they suffer enough damage in a turn, or they don't.
That's a blueprint about how it works for creature in Magic.

Then, if so: what kind of focus this wargame implicitly had? It's not a game where you pick someone to death, it's a game of coordinated effort to amass enough power to remove the enemy. It's at an higher scale and "model count" because there are horde cards, but also because if individual damage are not considered it means those can be healed, recovered or ignored.

And so on so forth. First you have to really narrow down THE most important feature, and the expand on that by proximity, opposition and comparing the supposed rules with what they mean in game flow.

At least, that what I can suggest in such limited post

 Cybtroll wrote:
...do you need a step-by-step template to brainstorm the rules, or do you need some technical expertise to anchor them down in a sensible way?

There's some consideration to be had: first, Magic or not? It's not simply a matter off brand and marketability, it's a matter of feel and player expectations.

For example, already from you short description, I would envisioned a different way to manage the HP, which is all or nothing. Unit either are destroyed because they suffer enough damage in a turn, or they don't.
That's a blueprint about how it works for creature in Magic.

Then, if so: what kind of focus this wargame implicitly had? It's not a game where you pick someone to death, it's a game of coordinated effort to amass enough power to remove the enemy. It's at an higher scale and "model count" because there are horde cards, but also because if individual damage are not considered it means those can be healed, recovered or ignored.

And so on so forth. First you have to really narrow down THE most important feature, and the expand on that by proximity, opposition and comparing the supposed rules with what they mean in game flow.

At least, that what I can suggest in such limited post

Good point. Though it should be noted, I'm completely unaffiliated with WotC, so this is not something that's going to be an official MtG product or anything. (Which, I'm totally sure, comes as a huge shock. )

And I do want to be able track damage turn-to-turn. I don't want it to be a complete ape of the card game, where you kill something entirely or not at all (unless you have Infect), but at the same time, I do want it to at least FEEL similar.

I guess one of the big things that could help is if anyone has resources-articles, blog posts, whatever-on tips, tricks, and advice on making wargames.

Thank you very much, by the way, for taking the time to post!

This may be helpful to you:

https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2018/09/wargame-design-getting-started-on.html

It is a blog post about how to move your ideas into reality. There are a few in the series covering topics like the 4Ms, Activation, adding Hooks, Creating Chrome, etc.

I also recommend the Delta Vector blog series on Wargame Design as it was pretty helpful to me when I was getting started.

http://deltavector.blogspot.com/search/label/Game%20Design

Thanks for the links, Easy E!

I have a few resources but, even if I'm pretty sure they are still free, maybe I downloaded them directly or access through partnership and specific windows of opportunity... So I won't share the link to my Drive, but I'll give you some references. You should find those available online, and if not feel free to PM me.

[2009, Brathwaite and Schreiber] "Challenges for Game Designer" - definitely the first in the list. You'll notice that is not about wargames specifically, but that's really important: games designer are the worst enemies of themselves because we tend to replicay what we like, rather than really approach design with an "empty" mindset. Also, is structured as a series of challenges and many of them require exactly what you aim to do ("translating" a game into another).

[2012, Adams and Dorman] Game Mechanics - Advanced Game Design - another good, comprehensive and easy to read book. O think it lacks the accessibility of the one above, but it's a good reference. Just remember that because they suggest something, it's not necessarily the best option for you too.

[2008, Schell] Art Of Game Design - another comprehensive and good book to start. Maybe somehow obsolete in some parts, specifically because a lot of recent evolution aren't considered here, but it's worth reading.

Finally, last but not least, you should browse a little Roger Caillois. Even if he didn't wrote about game design (his concept of "games" encompasses more what we can consider "entertainment"), his sociological approach is still invaluable of you have any interest in more bleed between different medium and how to approach the thematics of players engagement and fun, rather that the technicalities of game design (which is on my opinion another grave and common risks: designer focus on technicalities, without considering if their mechanics are fun or not. Even the supposed professional game designer at GW routinely forget it... So be aware of that).

As shirt summaries go, I think you'll have enough for some time.

PS: multiple edits for typos.

Thanks Cybtroll. I really need to brush up on these more "professional" craft writings.

Thank you! I’ve been busy with work and haven’t been able to really read up or consolidate ideas, but I do appreciate the knowledge.

Y’all are quite helpful