Quirkworthy

This is the first version of my house rules for Dreadfleet. It’s not a complete rewrite, but a cutting away of what I think of as dead wood that hides the worthwhile game underneath. Or, put another way, murdering some darlings that should have long since been safely hidden away under the turf.

This is only the first cut of these house rules and needs a load more playtesting to call finished. I just thought you might like to have a peek at where it is now, and perhaps play some games yourselves and let me know what you think. That is, after all, why I have comments section 😉

I’ll be saying “I decided this”, and “I came up with that” because I’m writing it (and because I can’t recall who actually thought of every little bit), but this is really a collaborative effort. I particularly have to thank the Jolly Old Tar known as GloatingSwine who did indeed come up with many of the following thoughts – even if I’ve subsequently put them through the mangle…
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I’ll be putting up the House Rules in their own post so I can track comments better (and after I’ve got them a little more straight). For now, let me run you through the game GloatingSwine and I played.

We were playing scenario 9 in which the Grand Alliance has to charge the length of the table and get off the other side. The only scenario rule we changed was the way you calculate victory. Instead of rolling a dice you tot up VPs. Alliance get VPs for getting ships off and Dreadfleet gets them for sinking Alliance vessels. The Grand Alliance don’t get anything but an easier life for sinking enemy ships.

The first turn was a race for the middle, with only the odd long ranged shot being fired. The first Fate card (yes, we’re still using them, but only one per turn) was the Tsunami. Wot larks! We’d already decided to reduce that to D3 damage, and it did some damage to 4 enemy ships. I should perhaps have waited till some were close to sinking, but I just blurted it out. By the end of turn one we were in among the central line of rocks.
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As those of you who have read my reviews of Dreadfleet will know, I wasn’t entirely impressed by the rules. The models are well made, the mat looks great and the rulebook is very pretty, but the game itself? Well, that’s way too random and way too long for my taste.

So, I have a very expensive box of nice models sitting about not likely to do anything but gather dust. I could just stick it on Ebay and have done with it, and I was sorely tempted when I played it. Well I never got round to that, and now I’m curious. Instead of just binning it, can I tweak the rules a bit and get a game I like?

I like naval games, and have quite a few. Individually, most of the rules in Dreadfleet are fine and are often “industry standard” – it’s just the whole ensemble that doesn’t work. I don’t have either the time or the inclination to start from scratch, so I decided on a brief for my project:

• Don’t change the background – that’s fine already.
• Keep as many of the original stats and rules as possible.
• New rules should be kept to a minimum.
• New rules have to fit with the story and existing rules.

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