Just one question today but it bears a bit more discussion.

A fan of the venerable (pre NWG in fact) Fast and Dirty inquired if there would ever be an updated version of the "unofficial" v5 rules.

The answer is complicated. Quick history lesson: The FAD rules came about around the time of the 15mm scifi boom and I think spread in part because they had the good fortune of arriving in their proper version, as that scene was blowing up 

Over time of course that turned inexorably towards Gruntz which was both less "military" but also easier to make units for and I moved on to other projects and mostly let FAD sit around. The  3rd and 4th editions (with the nice art work) had been big efforts that were pulled together as much by a gentleman who assisted with layout and rewrites. The 4th edition was also a "community edition" in that fans submitted their artwork for the project. Really quite special in hindsight. 

I had struggled for a while with what to do. I knew I wanted to do an updated version, but I also didn't know what to actually DO. Yahoo groups were dying, forums at the time were not really the way forward and I didn't really want to run a website. (as evidenced by still being very bad at all things internet to this day). To top it off, FAD was in a strange situation where it had relied so much on fan contributions that I didn't really think I could monetise it fairly. But I also didn't really understand what would need to be done to make the game open source.

I started work on the "5th" edition (if you have a copy that looks a lot rougher and has minis photos, this is the 5e) just to experiment with various ideas I had at the time. Some were rather too derivative, some were good tweaks. But it never really went anywhere due to never solving the problems above. And since NWG was looking to take up a ton of my time and effort, as FiveCore blew up, FAD went to the shelf for a while. 

That seemed to solve itself when a gentleman emailed me and asked if I wanted to just sell them the game. They were wanting to update it a bit, put it online on their website and were willing to pay a bit for the privilege. I figured that solved my problem in that I wouldn't really have to figure it out and so the deal was done. In hindsight, for a relative pittance but I wasn't certain it was really worth much at all and in any event, I wasn't looking to do anything with it. 

Many years have passed now. I still get a couple emails every year with people saying they liked FAD or asking if there will ever be a new version. So I decided to look into things and try to contact the fine folks who had done their version. Except there does not seem to be any lights on any longer. Attempts to contact them has not resulted in any responses and there does not appear to be any sort of community existing online.

However, I did legitimately sell off the name. So I can't just make the same game again. I could of course create something descended from it and I have some notes to that extent, but then it raises the question of whether NWG really needs yet another scifi skirmish game? Well, you know me, that's never stopped me before but are old FAD fans looking for that or are they looking for the real FAD6, clunk and all?

It's a good question. When I have an answer, I will share it with you all.

The first round of our Reader Mail Bag. 

If you want your questions answered, please fill out the form at https://forms.gle/zfKgkUneQ3kiufPQ7 and I will answer each weekend:

Note that questions may be paraphrased or shortened a little bit.

Just wondering if you still get mail at the iCloud address.

Yes, I do! Unfortunately i am bad at email so I often end up losing an email that gets lost between a bunch of other things, but I try to go back and catch up on things. 

If you have the old Gmail address you can use that too, but I am trying to phase that out.

Who's your favorite Doctor?

That is really difficult. I am one of the newcomers who got on board with the new show, so Eccleston will always be my Doctor. For the classic show, probably First or Third. 

Is there a way for me to obtain a PDF copy of <Five Leagues From the Borderlands>?

Yes, if you contact Modiphius customer service with where you bought the book, they should be able to hook you up with a PDF copy. 

Are modern/ultra-modern games, like some sort of "Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare" style of miniatures game in plans for the future?

Let's call this one unlikely, mostly due to me not really playing much past WW2. Though our Cold War "No End in Sight" rules will handle it fine. 

How do close assaults actually work in No End in Sight?

Yes, that section could use a bit more clarity. Something for the next edition!

The attacker fires (and fights any hand to hand) as explained in the section. If there are surviving defenders, they are left in place. When that unit activates next, they are automatically in an assault and will fire as if they were the attackers with any figures within 3". 

In some cases you can have a unit be assaulted and take losses, leading to the target unit no longer being within 3" when it activates. In that case, they are free to do as they like.

This is not quite feeling exactly as it needs to, but for right now, it works fine. 

I have decided to do something new, which is to establish a Google Form you can fill out with questions you would like to be answered on the blog.

It can be found at https://forms.gle/zfKgkUneQ3kiufPQ7 

Questions can be about Nordic Weasel Games, game design questions, advice on miniatures gaming in general or about how to GM roleplaying games (I do have 35 years experience after all). You are also welcome to ask personal questions though the only things I know anything about is cats and heavy metal. 

Questions will be posted on the blog at regular intervals. A particularly interesting question may also be answered on the podcast. 

We figured this would be fun:

If you swing by https://forms.gle/HdtYV6xJPpjh3JW97 and fill it out, we will read out, rate and respond to your hot takes about miniatures gaming and the miniatures hobby on the podcast. 

The form should be anonymous, I tested it, so don't hold back what you REALLY think about basing your tanks. 

Depending on how many we get it will be either the next or next-next episode. 

I have argued before that gaming doesn't have to be an expensive hobby. A couple platoons in 15mm is far cheaper than a lot of other hobbies. However, it IS worth taking stock at how much more expensive the hobby has gotten over the past decade or so. 

Between rising shipping costs, tariffs and inflation, we're approaching a dollar a figure for 15mm figures. I suppose you can argue that for a skirmish gamer, that's not a huge cost but I think there is a mental distinction between a ww2 platoon costing 15-20 bucks and costing closer to 40. Especially if you are getting soaked on shipping costs on top. And that is before factoring in vehicles. If I want 3 tanks (so I have something to pick between) and a few heavy weapons its approaching 80 bucks pretty quickly. 

80 dollars for an army is not outrageous I suppose, but its outside the "on a whim" price range for me (roughly on par with what it costs for the wife and I to go out for a nice lunch). And I think that is a bit of a pity. One of the joys of 15mm has always been that the cost was low enough, you could decide to do a random Soviet paratrooper platoon because you read a book about that and it was no big deal.

You still can of course, but there's a bit more of a consideration I think at that price point. Then again, I saw a "combat patrol" box that was 8 dollars per figure for warhammer, so at least the little mini's still have their edge.

Will this affect skirmish gaming? Well, skirmish games have been more popular than ever for a few years now and I don't think that's only because of a fad. I wouldn't go so far as to say its strictly because of cost but "the entry point is not a tournament sized Warhammer army" has definitely been a selling point.

Of course if wargaming is your primary (or only) hobby then the cost may not be a big deal. That paratrooper platoon might see your gaming table for years to come, along with the time you enjoy painting, basing and generally tinkering with the physical models. Certainly these days I don't really care about video games, beyond some retro stuff for my Amiga, so the savings on that pay for a few armies when I want. 

What do you think? Am I whinging? Is it the inevitable way of things? Did the boffins in suits finally ruiin everything? 

Let me know in the comments.

Not everything is wargaming, we do an RPG once in a while.

Ballad of the Longbow is just such a thing: A roleplaying game about playing in a Robin Hood style medieval game, foiling villains, rallying the oppressed locals and doing silly things in the process.

The game is skill driven (a simple D20 roll under) and each character type has a selection of fun abilities ranging from the practical to the creative. For example the humble Yeoman can repaid more or less any broken tool or piece of equipment, while Clergy can hold up NPCs by pontificating about theology. 

The game also includes special villain skills (ever wonder exactly HOW the villain always manages to turn an encounter into a cunning trap? Turns out its a skill they have) and so do Allies (like Moment of Need which lets the ally show up just in the nick of time).

The game is playable as a longer campaign or as a one shot and is pretty easy to teach. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/341094/Ballad-of-the-Longbow?manufacturers_id=5701

Note that you do have to look on Drivethru, it is not listed on Wargame Vault (on acocunt of not being a wargame)

While over time most of the questions eventually get asked enough times, I did a long series of Q&A Round Ups. Today we are revisiting the first one. I have deleted one original question about Parsecs expansions getting printed, since by now they have indeed been printed :)

I will also try to incorporate the later Q&A posts into a single master post but that may take a little bit to do so. 

Five Parsecs questions:

Expansion 2: The Duck Back dramatic combat rule does not say how far the character moves.

Their basic move. In testing this was 1D6" instead but I decided to cut the die roll out. You can do it either way if you prefer. 

Why don't new characters roll on the character creation tables?

Originally I liked the idea that new arrivals would be blank slates to be developed in the game, but people really enjoy the character creation tables. Until we can make an updated game revision I suggest doing the following:

New characters roll normally but ignore all results of starting Credits.

Expansion 2: Expanded mission extraction. Leaving the table in 3 turns is going to be really difficult on a 36x36" table.

Yeah, you should probably increase that to 4 turns on the larger table. 

Expansion 2: Non Minis rules. What happens if there is only 1 enemy left?

If there are less than 3 enemies left and you still have 3+ crew you should still generate 3 firefights. In any "excess" firefights you will fire but they will not. This is not clear in the rules. 

Five Leagues questions:

How does Defensive Tactics work when I have a Parry?

As intended, Defensive Tactics is meant to use the highest die score, however I don't think you would break anything by letting the player pick either die roll. 

Weasel Tech questions:

Does the PL-C Beam weapon roll two dice to hit or roll once and hit twice?

It rolls two separate attack dice against the first target.

Nordic Weasel questions:

Is Nordic Weasel Games your main job?

Yes.

How come you write for smaller gaming tables?

 My gaming table when I started NWG was a round table that was just about 24" across. This was basically the worst possible gaming table, but I was determined to get some use out of it and so I started looking for ways to make the most of it. While I have a nice, big gaming table available now, I still like to cater to smaller sizes. 

I think 3x3 feet  is probably my favourite size of gaming space, but a lot of people have realised that the tight, no-nonsense space of 2x2 feet can be really appealing. I even saw a blog post of someone running Five Men in Normandy on a 12x12" table and that still worked!

What scale do you playtest in?

Unless the game is explicitly written for something particular (like Laserstorm) the original test is always for 15mm figures. 

I don't tend to include adjusted ranges for other scales for two reasons: First because I rarely use them myself and second because the most likely scale people use is 28mm and games written for those figures tend to have movement speeds and weapon ranges that are about what I think feels good in 15mm. So (mostly) everyone is happy. 

Will you ever revisit X?

In theory, every title in the back catalogue will be revisited at some point for an update. I am trying to test out what makes the most sense for everybody as far as new books versus patreon funding vs "weasel funding" and so forth. A technical issue is also that porting documents from libreoffice to apple pages is not exactly elegant and you end up having to rework much of it from scratch. 

Do you take suggestions?

In the past some games have come about due to fan suggestions (Weaseltech being the most obvious) so it does happen. When it does, it usually happens for quite some time down the road. What happens is this:

I won't do a game unless A: I feel strongly about it. B: I feel like I can put my own spin on things (i.e. make it Weasel-y). 

So sometimes an idea sits for a while before I have a good grip on it.

I suppose this is all very "Sludge/Inquisitor28/Turnip" adjacent but if you are the sort who is interested in strange settings, painting or kitbashing weird models and like to come up with bizarre scenarios on the tabletop, drop me an email at nordicweaselgames@icloud.com and I have something for people to take a look at and test out. 

Well first and foremost, swing over by the Wargame Vault to indulge in the summer sale.

This covers a whole host of creators and publishers on the site so have a look around. Of course you should start in the NWG https://www.wargamevault.com/en/publisher/5701/nordic-weasel-games and Modiphius web stores :)

Secondly, you will notice a separate Armies book in your Rogue Hammer download. I am splitting the book up into three parts, so it is a little easier to manage with updates and so on. The current rulebook will be replaced once the other two (Rules, Scenarios) are done but you are of course welcome to save the current version so you can use either one. 

I will probably not be able to maintain both versions so going forward, it will be three separate files. They will each have a cover so you can print them out if you like.

Third, don't neglect to swing by Patreon over at https://www.patreon.com/nordicweasel 

There is new Leagues AND Parsecs material this month as well as the fifth installment of Tracis Five Parsecs story about a Unity mechanic stranded somewhere out there. You can also get a peek at various things that are in development and there is a ton of cool material in the back catalogue of posts to pick through.

So you have probably heard. And if you have not, then presumably you clicked on this article because you read the headline.

https://modiphius.net/en-us/pages/xcomtheminiaturesgame

Modiphius is indeed doing an XCOM miniatures game, penned entirely by yours truly. 

I will have a lot more to say soon, both in the podcast and through some blog posts on the Modiphius website but the very short "obvious questions" is:

It is a solo game, but we included scenarios for PVP games with points too.

It uses D10s this time.

It is based on the first Firaxis game and does include the option to fight against EXALT as well.

There will be a full range of resin miniatures for sale. My understanding is every alien in the game is planned, as well as multiple XCOM figure sets for the different tech levels.

It comes packed with a ton of scenarios. 

You get to build a base and research tech. 

There will be a preorder forthcoming. As always these things do not move quickly, so bear that in mind. The game will also be available at your local retailer.