Battle of the Halji 30th Anniversary Edition

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Quirkworthy

It’s funny how things happen.

The first game I ever had published was the slightly strange Battle of the Halji. This was designed in cahoots with friend of mine called Chris Hunt, way back in 1987.

Halji box cover.jpgLooking back, it was a bit slower than it should have been, and over the years I’ve occasionally pondered what I would do with the idea now. Certainly I could do a better job. However, I wasn’t expecting to ever get the chance…

Then Chris’s dad died.

During the ensuing sorting out, Chris discovered a couple of hundred original copies of Halji, that we’d thought had long-since gone the way of the dodo. Stacked in boxes in the spare room of his parent’s house were a few finished copies (complete with crumbling 29-year old shrink wrap) plus some boxes of components, ready to assemble.

Interesting.

So over the last few weeks we’ve been discussing what we can do with them. Obviously, the simplest thing to do is chuck them all in the recycling. After all, that’s where we thought they were anyway, so no loss. Then I realised that it was the 30th anniversary next year. Maybe we could or even should do something more interesting with them.

After some discussion, the alternative to the recycling bin that we are pondering is this: we take the existing components and add a new rulebook. That’s got the charm of the retro bits, allied to the fun of a modern game. Sure we could do something completely new from scratch, but I don’t think either of us really has the time or the inclination to run the logistics. Too dull. If, on the other hand, we’ve already got the components and all we have to sort out is a new rulebook, then that’s much more manageable. It would be a fun side project to commemorate the game.

We did work out a few parameters for the project. If we did a 30th Anniversary edition it would be limited in number to however many we can make out of what’s left. That’s also got a perverse charm to it. And, because I don’t really want to be faffing about with stock, it would only be available for the 30th year (i.e. 2017), even if we ended up with spares. Again, fits the anniversary bit nicely. Anything left over gets to be recycled after that. Anyone who knows the premise of the game should find that entirely appropriate.

So there it is. Today’s strange thought. Not a definite plan yet, by any means. More a topic for consideration. I thought I’d mention it here to see what you guys thought.

And no, this isn’t an April’s Fool joke.

Honest 🙂

 

 

Posted in Battle of the Halji, Board Gaming, Nostalgia, Random Thoughts | Tagged , , | 18 Comments

Lost Patrol Found Again

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Quirkworthy

Lost Patrol new ed.jpg

Yesterday I’d gone exploring the wilds of Whitley Bay, visiting a games club I’d just discovered was only a short distance away. I returned to an inbox full of people telling me that Lost Patrol had resurfaced, and did I know any more about it. That was a bit of a surprise.

The short answer is “no”.

Yes I did design the original version, as part of a project to reuse existing plastic figures in new products. This was an intriguing challenge as I couldn’t get any new models made at all, and had a very limited budget for the rest of the components. Even so, I came up with a total of 6 finished games before the whole thing was canned. Sadly, only Gobbo’s Banquet (by Gav) and Lost Patrol made it out of there alive. I suspect that none of the other ones will never appear, which is a special shame for the waste of Ralph Horsley’s lovely board art for my version of Formula Waaagh! Ah well.

Now I like a lot about Lost Patrol, but it isn’t without its faults. Frankly, they irk me a little more every time I play (probably that’s because I think I could do better now, with an extra 16 years’ experience as a designer). Over the years I have asked both GW and FFG whether anyone was interested in a second edition as I’ve got some definite ideas about what I’d do to finesse it. From these queries I knew that FFG didn’t have that license, and as GW specifically kept it I guessed that it might resurface someday.

What looks like a press release has turned up on a number of sites (eg. ICV2, ACD Distribution), and doesn’t tell us much. But I’ll be keeping an eye on the news and I have to get myself a copy when it does come out, if only to see whether they’ve changed what I thought needed improving.

It’s a little bit of a shame not to be able to have any input myself, though to be honest as soon as I found out it was something GW were keeping for themselves I knew it would be that way.

Overall though, I’m excited about the prospect of getting my paws on a new copy to see what they’ve done with it 🙂

 

Posted in Lost Patrol, Random Thoughts | Tagged | 9 Comments

Twisted Almost Over

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Quirkworthy

I’ve mentioned the Twisted Kickstarter a couple of times before, and I’ll be coming back to them again, I’m sure. Hard to resist such lovely figures.

Twisted comparison resin-metal

As you can see in the picture, they offer these 32mm models in both resin and metal, and in both materials the detail is nice and crisp, capturing the high quality of the original sculpt. Painters should have a lot of fun with these, and that’s not all: there’s a jolly little game in there too 🙂

Anyway, I just noticed that it’s the last weekend of their campaign (it closes in 3 days), so if you haven’t had a look you might want to. It’s gone very nicely and they’re pleased with the results so far. I’m sure that they’ve got more up their sleeves though…

Posted in Kickstarter, Random Thoughts, Twisted | Tagged , | Leave a comment

A Dungeon Saga Question…

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Quirkworthy

DS-logo-badge…and answer.

This one came up yesterday, and I thought I’d pass it on before I forgot 🙂

The following follows my usual Question, Answer, Discussion format.

Q: What happens when a Hero that starts without any Shooting skill gains a Shooting dice through levelling?

A: The Hero gets to write 1 Shooting dice on their sheet and can now take Shoot actions. The range is the appropriate one for the weapon they have (see below). When they make a Shooting attack, note that they will often get an extra dice because they cannot roll fewer than 2.

D: This is a compromise between either two or three earlier versions of the rules (I can’t remember which now) and is slightly less harsh than the original DKH version. If you want to add a bit more realism, then play that you don’t get the 2 dice minimum if the modifiers reduce you to zero dice or fewer – instead you cannot take the shot. As it stands, a Hero with 1 dice gets a bit of an artificial boost and is effectively immune to problems like being injured or partially blocked targets: he’ll always get 2 dice to shoot. Like I said, it could be more realistic. However, it is fairly heroic, and that’s quite appropriate, which is why I don’t mind. Plus it’s not exactly a common issue, and compared to Heroes who are good at shooting it’s not much of a benefit. Professional archers are still going to be a lot better, and Heroes that only dabble in Shooting are still likely to have better things to do most of the time anyway.

Regarding the choice of Shooting weapon, personally I’d let people pick what they wanted, with the caveat that they must model the weapon on their Hero model if they want it to be long range. Short range throwing knives, etc could be hidden under robes. Not so with bows and similar weapons. If you want the extra in-game benefit then you should make the extra modelling effort 🙂

 

Posted in Dungeon Sagas, FAQ | Tagged , | 42 Comments

A New Gaming Magazine Coming Soon

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Quirkworthy

The folks who do Figure Painter magazine are branching out into gaming with their upcoming title Initiative Magazine.

Initiative magazine logoI rather like Figure Painter (even when I’m not daubing myself), and have found a number of great models and companies in there over the years. I’ll be interested to see how they pitch their gaming version. Personally, I’m hoping for coverage of the smaller games – in terms of publicity – because there’s a load of col stuff out there which deserves more attention and fails to get it because of marketing rather than game quality. I suspect that they’ll have to include some GW games, Warmachine, etc to get people looking though.

What would you like to see?

I don’t envy them the challenge. It’s tough doing magazines these days (on any subject) because the internet is already full of so much stuff. What they need is a unique voice, so we’ll see if they can find it.

Here’s hoping they can 🙂

 

Posted in Magazine, Random Thoughts | Tagged , | 35 Comments

A Moment’s Interruption

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Quirkworthy

Sorry if you tried to connect this morning and couldn’t find quirkworthy.com. The auto-renewal for the domain name was linked to an expired credit card and I’d forgotten to update it.

Oops.

All sorted now.

Posted in Random Thoughts | 2 Comments

Last Hours Of Age Of Tyrants

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Quirkworthy

Big gunsWell the clock is ticking down on the AoT Kickstarter. They’re fully funded, so it’s going to happen, which is great. They’ve also unlocked a bunch of extras, which is also good news for their backers. These include a whole bunch of flyers, free figures, and more troops to customise your army further. All told, they’ve ended up with a fairly well-rounded selection of options (including some humungous artillery pieces – like those shown above).

It’s been a bit of a roller-coaster, not least of which because Wayne England died in the middle of it. He was the main concept artist for the project, as well as a friend, so that was a blow on many levels. A real character who will be much missed.

Still, as the big man said when he heard it was funded: “We Are The Champions..WAAOOOOOOT” 🙂

 

Posted in Age of Tyrants, Random Thoughts | Tagged | 2 Comments

Buzzing

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Quirkworthy

No, not a game about bees (though I did do one of those). Just my mood this morning after a great gaming session last night. As I said on Facebook, I think everyone should try gaming. Why doesn’t everyone?

What is it that we (as gamers) aren’t doing to explain to the wider world that gaming is so enjoyable?

Is it really that 90% of the world isn’t wired to enjoy it? The studies I’ve seen on the value of play makes me doubt that.

Is it that people are too busy to meet up with real people face to face, and that “gaming” now means digital gaming and that’s it? I’d say there was a strong measure of this, though even these gamers are missing out on a lot of what I’d call gaming. As every study on communications will tell you, 90%+ of the information we communicate to each other is done by body language and tone of voice. It is simply not the same playing online (as much fun as MMOs, etc are).

Is it that people simply don’t know what’s there, and think that the world of games games is just Monopoly, chess and Ker-plunk? I think this is true too.

 

Working on the assumption that more players is a good thing, then what can we do about it, over and above what is done already?

Posted in Random Thoughts | 26 Comments

And Another One

Posted on February 8, 2016 by Quirkworthy

And Demented have finally set a date (for their Kickstarter) 🙂

12672062_1069317679767094_2149730122325890609_o.jpgI’ve been working with these guys for a while, though only on a rules front. They need zero help from me on the miniatures end of things. Their work is amazing!

It’s been an interesting experiment for me, as I’ve not been writing the rules, but critiquing and reviewing them instead, offering suggestions and options for improvement. Mentoring, if you like. It seems to have been quite a successful process, and I’ll be offering that service more widely later this year.

But back to Twisted…

The chaps are really keen to make their game as much fun as the crazy background demands. It still has all the normal moving and fighting stuff you might expect of a skirmish game, but it can all get a bit… well… Twisted when The Engine intervenes. And when does The Engine intervene, I hear you ask. Well that’s a big like the old one about the gorilla with a machine gun. What does it do? Whatever it likes.

I think there’s a bit more tweaking of the game left to do to really finesse it, and the KS will have some beta rules for you to try out so you can join in the process. It would be great to hear what you think. Personally, I think that Twisted has a really nice atmosphere about it, and tells a fun story, which for me is an important part of a game. The fact that the miniatures are so good is just a cherry on top 🙂

 

Posted in Random Thoughts | Comments Off on And Another One

While I Was Out…

Posted on February 2, 2016 by Quirkworthy

aot_facebook_placeholder…a whole bunch of stuff happened. As you’d expect.

One item of note was that the Age of Tyrants Kickstarter went live, and I’m happy to see that it’s already funded with a fortnight left to run. Just a case of seeing what goodies get added to the core set now 🙂

I’ve got a couple of the early test shots of the models that I can show you when I dig them out of the piles of boxes which turned up yesterday in the office. They must be in there somewhere. You’ll probably have seen renders and other people’s pics already (on the official website, for example), but it never hurts to show some more angles. They have done a very nice job of getting the models to look like the renders, and keep the fine detail.

Anyway, I’ll come back to this again when I’ve got more to say. Just thought I’d bring up the topic of big games with little tanks again 🙂

 

Posted in Age of Tyrants, Random Thoughts | Tagged | 4 Comments