Like almost every wargamer out there I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to periods of wargaming, projects, and sticking things out until completed. I'll buy a shed load of miniatures and paint about half before seeing another bright n' shiny and abandon the current miniatures and terrain in order to start on something else.
This leads to a cluttered workbench filled with something akin to a set up for a Heroes in Hell with Yardies facing off against undead Roman Centurions while a power armor clad Sister of Battle stares disapproving from her vantage point off a 15mm scale Sherman tank she has been set upon for four months...
When I abandon a period I totally lose interest in it apparently. You can ask any of my Flintloque figures and I'm sure they'll tell you they never expect to be primed much less base coated. Such is the fickle brush I wield.
Now enter a sudden passion for something new, again. The Tales of the Dragon King miniatures put out by Black Hat productions.
UK Manufacturer- http://blackhat.co.uk/catalog/index.php?cPath=121_147
USA carrier our own Rattlehead Games- http://www.rattleheadgames.com/catalog/TalesoftheDragonKingsProducts.html
I love Shaw Brothers martial arts films thanks to Kung Fu Theater. Particular attention was paid to The Five Deadly Venoms as well as Chinese Super Ninja as these moved at a faster pace than many of the films they also dealt with special powers or specialized weapons.
Later on I'd graduate to films like Kung Fu Colt Master (sic), Swordsman II, Chinese Ghost Story... Epic martial arts films are something I truly enjoy and why not transfer them to the table top?
Therein lies a two-fold problem.
1. I do not want to get stuck petering out so that a group of Chinese heroes are now staring at a group of 6mm Italian soldiers knowing full and well I'll never get around to painting them much less going through the work of building a 6' by 4' Chinese Wuxia/martial arts village to squab in.
2. No one has written rules for wargaming martial arts films that I'm aware of. There's Hong Kong Action Theater, Weapons of the Gods, Quinn but these are roleplaying games and not really built for a 2-3 hour game of master swordsmen facing off against hopping vampires while the bandits break cover of the bamboo grove to raid the town.
The solution to number 1 is simple... Sort of... Build the terrain table before buying the miniatures. After all, I'm a cheapskate and model everything out of foamcore, popsicle sticks, wooden coffee stirrers (they're thinner) liberated from Starbuck's (only reason I go there), and craft paint. Add to this finding out how to model bamboo cheaply
http://www.warfactory.co.uk/scenery/bamboo.php
and I've got a project that I can work on to completion before dropping the serious cash. Well $16.00 a pack is reasonable for miniatures but with the economy taking a nosedive my hobby dollars are near non-existent right now.
So it follows that I research the period (do the house have dirt floors? Wooden? Stone?), build functional terrain. Tea houses, temples, pagodas, homes, Buddha statues, whatever I can find and make out of the piles of foamcore in my closet. Make a few bamboo groves. Model some cherry blossom trees which I'm experimenting on an idea myself that may or may not work as I couldn't find anyone who has made an article on this. By the end there will hopefully be a nice table full of potential kung fu mayhem. I haven't even touched on the fact that I have no idea where to get 28mm Chinese styled furniture.
2. I could adapt some rules for martial arts but that's almost as much work as writing your own. I am still playing with this as I have seldom even house ruled games much less considered game design. A part of me thinks I should seek out the community for advice but I also see that the gaming community is so diverse that everyone will have a different opinion on mechanics, resolution, balance, morale. Some people like dice pools while others like opposed rolls.
Is it better to forge ahead blindly and develop a game to be fixed or canned based on playtesting or look for approval every step of the way?
Even my wargaming philosophy might differ from many as I put fun ahead of fiddly rules, point systems, explorative use of geometry with a tape measure to advantage, etc. Yes, this kind of game usually takes a game master to arbitrate but that's the kind of game I prefer over structured systems with rigid rules.
Basically I have to answer questions about how I want the genre emulated on the table. What sort of action do I want detailed. Should I go beyond whacking each other and move into simple mechanics covering the honrable aspects of a Wuxia swordsman and how far his heroic aspects might be brought down by a beautiful woman? Should stats ooze with the genre using a state like Grace or Poise over the usual Dexterity or Agility or will that just make things more confusing?
Lots to consider and I think I'm just trying to clear my head here as so far the undetaking is a collection of post-it notes with more question marks than firm ideas.
Tags: Game Design Wuxia Martial Arts Tales Of The Dragon King Miniatures Wargames
