Tabletop Wargames: A Designers’ and Writers’ Handbook

Rick Priestley · John Lambshead

Nov 2016 · Pen and Sword Military

Ebook

192

Pages

Eligible

About this ebook

Unlike chess or backgammon, tabletop wargames have no single, accepted set of rules. Most wargamers at some point have had a go at writing their own rules and virtually all have modified commercially available sets to better suit their idea of the ideal game or to adapt favourite rules to a different historical period or setting. But many who try soon find that writing a coherent set of rules is harder than they thought, while tweaking one part of an existing set can often have unforeseen consequences for the game as a whole. Now, at last, help is at hand.
Veteran gamer and rules writer John Lambshead has teamed up with the legendary Rick Priestley, creator of Games Workshop’s phenomenally successful Warhammer system, to create this essential guide for any would-be wargame designer or tinkerer. Rick and John give excellent advice on deciding what you want from a wargame and balancing ‘realism’ (be it in a historical or a fantasy/sci-fi context) with playability. They discuss the relative merits of various mechanisms (cards, dice, tables) then discuss how to select and combine these to handle the various essential game elements of turn sequences, combat resolution, morale etc to create a rewarding and playable game that suits your tastes and requirements

About the author

Rick Priestley is the world’s most successful and best known wargame designer. He has created many professional wargames including Warhammer and Warhammer 40K, which together have outsold all other wargames by a huge margin. He is also the author of successful sets of historical wargame rules for several periods, including Black Powder and Hail Caesar. Dr John Lambshead designed the award-winning computer game, Frederick Forsythe’s Fourth Protocol, which was the first icon driven game, was editor of Games & Puzzles and Wargames News, and has written a number of wargaming for Games Workshop. He is now a novelist writing SF&F and is published by Bane Books. He is now working on the officially licensed Dr Who gaming rules.

Dr John Lambshead designed the award-winning computer game, Frederick Forsythe's Fourth Protocol, which was the first icon-driven game, was editor of Games & Puzzles and Wargames News, and has written a number of wargaming rules supplements for Games Workshop. He also wrote the officially licensed Dr Who gaming rules for Warlord Games. He was co-author, with Rick Priestley, of Tabletop Wargames, A Designer and Writers Handbook (Pen & Sword Books, 2016). When not designing games he is a novelist writing SF&F for Bane Books. He lives in Rainham, Kent.

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