Here it is November already, the holidays are fast approaching, I have a to-do list as long as Santa's and I'm sitting at the gate waiting for my plane to whisk me home from FallIn. All those things I could be doing -- should be doing -- piling up as the seconds tick by. Tick. Tick. Tick. Getting impatient I've managed to scrounge pen and paper as I've decided to use my captive time to reflect and write to you.
Not having been to a Fall-In before, I had no idea what to expect. But what I was hoping for was easily achieved. Gettysburg was a great setting. I got to roam about the battlefield, see some of the museum, and took in the lit map overview of the battle. My most prevalent thought was that the terrain in the lit map room just begged for some people to push lead over it. If Poker and Bowling tournaments are broadcast on TV, then why not some miniatures tournament? I could just see the theater filled with eager spectators, the teams with long poles like the ones used on craps tables to push their figures about, and the head GM up in that announcer's booth ... and, yes, even while daydreaming, I did pay attention to the map show and learned something about the Civil War.
Fall-In itself was quite pleasant for me. I saw many familiar faces and met many new people. It was great to hear from so many MWAN readers who stopped by the True North booth to share how much they are enjoying the magazine. My only wish for the show was for the vendor hall to have been closer to the gaming so that I could have snuck in some gaming and met more eager readers. I get the feeling that there were a lot more of you at the convention who didn't make it over to shop the vendors' wares. Nonetheless I hope all who attended had great fun and returned home safe.
Those of you whom I did get to talk to seemed to be enjoying yourselves immensely. There was lots of talk of rule sets flying about, especially in regards to what miniatures to buy to go with a rule set already owned and what rule set to buy to got already owned and what rule set to buy to go with miniatures already owned. Well, we were in the vendor hall after all so what we heard was not so surprising. The big thing that stood out for me regarding this talk was that it seems the majority of gamers spoke of modifying any rules they played with (or looked to play with). While not a veteran of years of wargaming, my hours logged gaming have seen only one game where we played with a straight set of rules right out of the book. Why is this, I wonder? I suppose I can only answer that mystery for myself. When I look at a rule set from Don's large collection I find myself picking and choosing. "Oooo! I like that game mechanic. I would gloss over that situation. This would be especially fun." I hear my inner mind telling itself. Thus, I conclude that a good rules set is one that provides a simple set of easy-to-understand basics to get a game up and running quickly, one that provides for a fun time, and one that provides for adding levels of complexity once I get familiar with the basics. Yet achieving all those goals is quite a task! It's not that all rule sets are terrible. It's just that it seems that each gamer has his own preferences, and the more popular sets are those where you can weave your own preferences and personality into them.
Now that I feel a bit smarter for having observed a common trait in the average wargamer as to how we look at rule sets I can see why many of our issues have articles on modifications to rule sets. I see these articles more as a compliment to the efforts of a rule set to maximize their enjoyment of them. Furthermore I consider such articles as encouragement for wargamers to take a second look at rules that they may have written-off as something they are not interested in once they have seen a fellow hobbyist's latest twist on them.
So, if I'm right, and the majority of you do this sort of thing with rules, I invite you all to send in your modification ideas along with a write-up of your modifications to a rules set and tell us how it worked for you once you played with it. Sometimes, failures are as interesting as successes! MWAN Magazine is here to share your wargaming triumphs (or disasters) with fellow hobbyists throughout the world who will appreciate your thoughts and efforts. You never know how a simple idea you have created in your own basement may enhance a wargamer's enjoyment of a particular period or specific rule set in a basement far away, possibly in another country.
Getting back to Fall-In, the big thing that caught me by surprise when talking to many of you at Fall-In was the number of references to my little page of female gamer insight. Personally, I feel I voice my opinions enough in person that I leave Don and Michael to cover "heavy-hitting" topics on their pages. Therefore, Hal-like, I choose to provide what I hope is a quick, entertaining read that helps you to know me on a slightly more personal level. To me it's a way for you to know that we are people deeply interested in the miniatures industry, and more so are people who will provide you with a magazine dedicated to your interests. But I fear that I'm getting heavy-handed here.
The most asked question posed to me at Fall-In was about my painting cat. So in the interest of a light-hearted read, here's another adventure of Khayman the Destroyer:
WHY I CANT GAME AT HOME
Last April, when Don and I bought our cozy new home (aka live-in miniatures storage unit) we had high hopes for hosting a miniatures game now and then. After all, we have the room. But every time I try to sit down and paint or play even a simple computer game, there's a fuzzy 18 pound reason sticking his nose, paws, and tail into things. "Whatcha doing? Can I play? Huh? Huh?" asks the fuzzy kitty as he plops his rear on my keyboard. Definitely not content to sit quietly behind a closed door, I recall his participation the one and only time I hosted a gaming night.
A few years ago I was part of a Middle-Earth campaign. Spread across the table, we did had a large map, miniatures, and lots of dice. Well, Mr. Destroyer took it upon himself to clear the table of dice and figurines whenever we weren't looking. I suspect my group didn't appreciate Khayman rolling critical hits and then batting their lucky dice under the refrigerator. That, and while I found it hilarious at the time, I can now appreciate the painter's feeling of horror as he sees his painstakingly painted miniature dangling from the mouth of a fuzzy Siamese demon eager to participate.
Keeping that in mind, I think it prudent to not find out how he'd take to Styrofoam terrain and fake trees. But it has crossed my mind many times how the gaming industry could fare if we successfully marketed our wares as cat toys. Catnip-based paint? Hollow dice filled with catnip? Skaven rat teams - the favored Warhammer unit of cats everywhere. The mind boggles at the possibilities.
Good gaming to all, especially over the holiday season!
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© Copyright 2004 Hal Thinglum
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