Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I have been thinking of an idea for a Homebrew Tabletop Game that is going to be free. using the game engine Warmahordes has since it is going to be magic-based as well as Warband-level skirmish game to a point. Why I went with this because the magic seems to be really balanced out and dynamic to most other games, and the activation of models, how they activate, and interactions is very tight and well done as well. Although I though of some changes I wanted to do for this game to add to it (Note: My intent is to not overthrow, detract, or overthrow Warmahordes and Privateer Press in any way, shape or form, as I believe PP makes a damn good game, and it is both very good on both a competitive and Casual playing level. My intent is to use the Warmahordes rules engine as a basis and try and do something unique for its game for people who enjoy the ruleset, but want to try something a little bit different and out of the usual box):

+Overwatch of some kind: I want to make it close to what the turn order is like in WMH, but I want to add a touch of Dynamism to it, like Overwatch or ARO's like Nercomunda and Infinity have. How I might do this is have both players do the maintenance phase all at the same time, with upkeeping possible spells and the sort.

+Custom Leaders/ Heroes: Like Warmahordes, gameplay is going to heavily revolve around a power leader of the Warband, but the difference is that there is going to be a vary of builds around how the playstyle you want to play the Warband, with a points-buy system for upping stats, equipment the leader has, and what type of spells and magic he/she has.

+Different ways of generating magic: With how the Warmahordes system generates its Focus & Fury differently, I am possibly planning that each army has a different way of generating its own mana of sorts to add a bit of style for each faction.

For now, these are some brainstorming ideas I have, and some are subject to change, be removed or added upon later on. For the general idea for the possible fluff, I had this idea, and gameplay is kind of based around some factions in Warmahordes:

-Mix of Cyberpunk/ Anime Magical Girl/ Magic elements, with most forms of magic considered illegal and/or dangerous unless approved by a Combine of Nations (mostly ran by Corporations who have the the power and money to control the political system to a great extent).

-One combine of Corporations allies with an advanced alien race who has access to Magic since their birth, although the two have different goals and see the partnership as beneficial towards their goals for now.
Gameplay: Strong military backbone, disciplined army, Balanced Magic with no specialization in any type of magic school.

-Usual Common Anime Magical girls you would see, although with a twist of them being deemed criminals. Style is a mix of usual Magical girl clothing mixed with some Cyberpunk/ shadowrun-like clothing.
Gameplay: Hit-and-run gameplay, fast moving and hard-hitting, offensive and debuffing magic although very glass cannon-y as well.

-Loosely combine of Knightly Sectorials whose main purpose is to purge and protect the world from Magic except from the Goddess they worship called "The Maiden."
Gameplay: Kind of slow moving, with high emphasis on Melee combat and attrition. Weak offensive magic but High defensive, denial and Synergy magic

-Semi-secretive order of Druids who wish to combine Nature and Technology as one as the believe it will restore "the Natural Balanced of the World as best as it is now".
Gameplay: Low defensive stats with Regenerative abilities, magic based on primal elements blended with technological basis as well.

This is just ideas alone, sube are subject to change later on and will be added on to the original idea. It might take me a while to get an alpha ready since I am a college student with a variety of other hobbies and my studies conflicting a little bit with this as well. If this is the wrong thread to put this in, I will move this to Dakka discussions.

So over all, what do you think of the general idea of this game? Anything you would like to add to this?

Would be nice if the game let you play Warmachine style games without casters/jacks.

This is general advice to anyone wanting to make a game, so this is a little bit generic, but it is valuable advice:

But you need to design your GAME before you even worry for a moment about the fluff, or the factions, or what things look like or what story they have. Roughly half of your post is stuff like this, which while I'm sure it is important to you, is providing a HUGE distraction where your resources go. Because, at its core, nobody is going to want to play a game with really bad or poorly-thought mechanics, no matter what the factions or fluff are.

And, let's not kid ourselves, designing faction and fluff is the fun and easy job of design. It makes you think a lot is getting done where in reality, it is only so much window dressing, it is decoration. The mechanics should always be the driving force of your game design, and energy spent on other things before you even have a solid idea of your mechanics is wasted time and energy. If I was in your position, that whole second half of the post should be filed away and your focus should go onto the mechanics, both in how they work and how they will balance with one another.

This is not to say that lore/factions/fluff are not important, but in this phase of design, you have bigger worries than that. You can add, remove or edit 'soft' things like lore/fluff any time, and at extremely low effort (provided you keep your notes straight), but mechanics CANNOT change like that. One change of a mechanic can instantly and irreparably skew the balance of a game. This is a very, very, very hard thing to do, so you need all of your mind working on that to even have a chance at getting it right. There's going to be a lot of math involved, too, so make sure that you are braced for that.

 sing your life wrote:
Would be nice if the game let you play Warmachine style games without casters/jacks.

Well, the game is still going to be Leader-centric, but it is not going to be to the point that it is going to be a automatic game over and players can make a comeback, but it is going to be a uphill battle of sorts. It is mostly going to be Infantry-centric, with factions at most having access to maybe one or two big things, but balance out so it is not a dominant thing. That is a possible idea for that, but that is far from in my mind what I had for it for now so it is only Infantry-centric for now.

curran12 wrote:is is general advice to anyone wanting to make a game, so this is a little bit generic, but it is valuable advice:

But you need to design your GAME before you even worry for a moment about the fluff, or the factions, or what things look like or what story they have. Roughly half of your post is stuff like this, which while I'm sure it is important to you, is providing a HUGE distraction where your resources go. Because, at its core, nobody is going to want to play a game with really bad or poorly-thought mechanics, no matter what the factions or fluff are.

And, let's not kid ourselves, designing faction and fluff is the fun and easy job of design. It makes you think a lot is getting done where in reality, it is only so much window dressing, it is decoration. The mechanics should always be the driving force of your game design, and energy spent on other things before you even have a solid idea of your mechanics is wasted time and energy. If I was in your position, that whole second half of the post should be filed away and your focus should go onto the mechanics, both in how they work and how they will balance with one another.

This is not to say that lore/factions/fluff are not important, but in this phase of design, you have bigger worries than that. You can add, remove or edit 'soft' things like lore/fluff any time, and at extremely low effort (provided you keep your notes straight), but mechanics CANNOT change like that. One change of a mechanic can instantly and irreparably skew the balance of a game. This is a very, very, very hard thing to do, so you need all of your mind working on that to even have a chance at getting it right. There's going to be a lot of math involved, too, so make sure that you are braced for that.

I figured it is the case, but I want to have at least some basic lore outline to coincide with what I am designing so I have some sort of direction. The second part of the post is all I am really going to focus on the fluff and story for the time being so I have something to refer and have a good direction. Also the other reason why the rules part of it seems so short is due to me working from an existing engine and modifying it to what I want to present in this game, although later on will be expanded on once I get a good start on (which I might try and get to today, but I want to get to Homework so that is done for today soon). In many ways, I agree with you post, so I do not mean to come off as just denouncing it, but I wanted to make it clear I wanted to have some sort of background to work from so I have a footing and direction in it.

 Tanakosyke22 wrote:

 sing your life wrote:
Would be nice if the game let you play Warmachine style games without casters/jacks.

Well, the game is still going to be Leader-centric, but it is not going to be to the point that it is going to be a automatic game over and players can make a comeback, but it is going to be a uphill battle of sorts. It is mostly going to be Infantry-centric, with factions at most having access to maybe one or two big things, but balance out so it is not a dominant thing. That is a possible idea for that, but that is far from in my mind what I had for it for now so it is only Infantry-centric for now.

Sounds decent.

You might want to take a look at Gruntz 15mm rules. I've seen several comments that they were a genericized version of the WM/H rule set - including a build your system.

 Imaginos wrote:
You might want to take a look at Gruntz 15mm rules. I've seen several comments that they were a genericized version of the WM/H rule set - including a build your system.

Mind if I have a link to the thread?

 Tanakosyke22 wrote:

 Imaginos wrote:
You might want to take a look at Gruntz 15mm rules. I've seen several comments that they were a genericized version of the WM/H rule set - including a build your system.

Mind if I have a link to the thread?

This is one place I saw it commented at. It has been a while since I saw this.
http://deltavector.blogspot.com/2013/01/gruntz-15mm-rules-review.html

 Imaginos wrote:

 Tanakosyke22 wrote:

 Imaginos wrote:
You might want to take a look at Gruntz 15mm rules. I've seen several comments that they were a genericized version of the WM/H rule set - including a build your system.

Mind if I have a link to the thread?

This is one place I saw it commented at. It has been a while since I saw this.
http://deltavector.blogspot.com/2013/01/gruntz-15mm-rules-review.html

I have to say that is a interesting twist on the system, Plus the I love the custom creation rules he touches on. Might have to check it out.