Five Parsecs questions:

Do I have to declare all my crew actions before rolling for them?

I had originally intended that you did, but we don't generally do that anywhere else in the game. Go ahead and declare and resolve one at a time.

Exactly when is a Patron lost?

Patrons are lost if you accept the job and then fail the mission. This applies no matter how you earned that Patron.

What counts as a rival of a particular type, f.x. "law enforcement rivals"?

This is left open ended depending on your story. The strict answer for law enforcement is Bounty Hunters, Enforcers and Vigilantes (though you might want to make the last one a fifty fifty chance).

Five Leagues questions:

(Repeat) Does the origin bonus and the bonus for having a skill stack to +3?

Yes.

Weasel Tech questions:

When do swarms from revealed blips act?

They act in the next Swarm Phase (which may be this or next turn), never in the current swarm phase if that is when they were revealed.

Lore questions?

Some folks are really interested in the setting and lore behind the games. If there is interest, I can do a second Q&A with lore questions though it might only be twice a month to avoid overscheduling myself. Let me know if you have lore questions. 

One of the common stumbling blocks of writing a game is that you end up in a sprawling mess. You start out writing a WW2 skirmish game and at the end of it you are writing rules for the divisional supply depots and how to handle hover tanks. How did you get here?

Well, the answer is that you got there gradually because each section builds upon the last. Its difficult to hold 200 pages of game in your head at one time so as you work you will tend to gradually shift things in and out. This is probably not how psychology actually works but to me it always feels like a conveyor belt. We just got done writing the morale rules and now we are on to leadership rules, so whatever section was before morale can get discarded. As a result sections can slowly get further and further from the original objectives as each deviates more and more. 

A common place for this to occur is in the special rules section of your game. This is the place where everything from paratroopers to demolitions goes and is a great place for all manner of over-detailed sub-systems to hide out. If your core rules are all "roll 2D10, apply modifiers and compared to a target number" and then the rules for sabotaging railroads is a dice pool with exploding dice and drawing from a card deck, this is what happened.

With experience you get a feeling for when this starts to happen and a critical reading (or having some serious feedback from someone you trust) helps weed it out. When you are just starting out however, it can be more challenging.

What helped me a lot was to write down my objectives up front. You can even put it in the first chapter of the book if you like, but otherwise a notepad, sticky note or your white board will all do.

These objectives can be about the scale of the game ("platoon level, infantry focused"), mechanical concepts ("dice pool with 3-6 D6s") or broad claims ("Ranged combat is primarily suppressive"). Try not to go overboard with too many: You are really just trying to nail down the 4-6 most important things that will keep the game together. This can easily double as the elevator pitch for the game as well, since this is basically what will end up defining your game.

It can also help to sketch out the list of content in advance. How many "special cases" do you want? Are you going to cover air units? Buildings? Magic? I always try to write the chapter headings first and I'll often fill in some expected sub-chapters in advance to help narrow down what I intend to do. 

When you are going through your project, stop every now and again and review your stated objectives. You can do this at the start of each writing session, at the end of each rules chapter or once a week, whatever seems to work. Compare what you have written lately to the objectives: Are you on track? If you deviated, did you do so for a good reason? Should you go back and rewrite something or make it an optional rule? 

If you find you are constantly bumping up against your objectives, you may have misjudged what kind of game you actually want to write. We will talk about that in a future post.

General questions:

What are your thoughts on the ORC license?

I think it's a cool development, though the value of it will depend mainly on what companies get committed to the project and what rules will go into the "community pool" so to speak. 

I am not sure if it will have a lot of impact on the miniatures gaming scene, where there seems to be less interest in shared game mechanics. I have kicked around putting Squad Hammer under the ORC license to kick things off, since it may be easier than updating and maintaining my own license.

Weasel Tech:

Can you clarify how Favorable mentions work? 

 The way the table works is a bit wonky because it got caught between two versions. Until I update it treat it like this:

Favorable mentions are earned by the squad, not by a specific character. So they are applied as a bonus to any commendation roll you make. 

Leagues / Parsecs general:

How do various "debts" work if I cannot pay them?

Some events can cause you to owe money (outside the normal ship debt in Parsecs). Unless the rules state otherwise, they must be paid as soon as you have the money available.

Parsecs:

Can a forced move, like a Terrifying weapon, force a figure off the table? 

It is not intended to, but I do play it that way. 

If I roll the "Caught off guard" deployment condition can I still roll to seize the initiative?

Yes. You can narrate it as being caught off guard but managing to turn the ambush on the attackers or a heroic scramble to improve your situation. Simply apply both rules as written.

Realistically if you are writing an indie miniatures game you are writing for people that are already veterans of the hobby and know "how it works". I don't think it is a good idea to always take that for granted however. First and foremost it obviously discourages new players from picking up the game. Yes, the prospective new player isn't likely to go to Wargame Vault first instead of just picking up some Warhammer or Bolt Action boxes at the local store but that doesn't mean nobody will.

Second, I think it can encourage poor writing because we get into a habit of relegating more and more features to "how it works". 

Recently I was reading through a set of skirmish rules and realised that at no point did it explain how casualties were actually removed from the unit. It could be implied based on the game it was inspired by, but it never actually clearly stated it. Does that matter? In a game where some figures can have a heavy weapon it matters quite a bit. It also tends to come up when it comes to keeping units out of close combat range (or within it). 

For an example that has become a bit of a catch-phrase with my friends, someone told me about a game that did not actually explain exactly how charging an enemy worked. They sent an email to the writer of the game who replied that you charge in the usual way.

Indeed. 

When you are writing rules try to develop a critical eye for the step by step of the process. You may be surprised to find that there are more steps than you thought and some of them may benefit from being made explicit. 

As an example does it matter who rolls the dice for something? Most of the time it does not and you won't have to say anything but what if the game system features a pool of reroll points that a player can use any time they roll the dice for anything? Now it does matter if I roll for the armour saves or if you do.

A few pain points that I find are easy to miss (and have missed in the past!):

* How are measurements done from figure to figure?

* How exactly does rerolls work?

* How are casualties removed in games with multi-figure units?

* Can I pick any target when I shoot?

* Can figures move through other friendly figures?

* What is stopping me from just shooting at that officer over there? 

* If multiple things are happening at the same time, how do we figure out how they get resolved? 

I am sure you can think of many more when you sit down and look critically at a set of rules. Give it a try. 

As a reminder I get the questions from all sources: Email, discord, facebook and blog comments. I do reword them a bit to fit the blog format and due to the fact that many are questions I have been asked by multiple people. 

If you post your question as a blog comment, I promise I will include it in the next week round up. (unless I skip a week, then itll be the next one after that :) )

General questions:

Do you ever make rules just for yourself that we don't get to see?

On occasion yes and usually for fun and my own enjoyment. I am currently working on a vanity project for myself which is basically 2nd edition 40K, adapted to various 19th century conflicts. 

Should I house rule when I playtest my own rules?

I think this is a bad idea unless you realise something is completely wrong. Play at least a few turns with the rules as you wrote them down, then revise and reset.

Five Parsecs questions:

How does recruiting work if my campaign crew size is not 6?

You substitute the actual crew size you are using for your campaign. Note that this is what you pick at the start, not your current crew. So if you are playing a 5 crew campaign, then you recruit automatically if you have less than 5 crew, instead of 6 as it says in the book. 

K'Erin with boarding sabre. How does the dice work?

Roll twice and pick the best (K'Erin). Then choose if you wish to reroll (Sabre). If you do, you must take the final result.

Is there an official answer to when you should determine the identity of a new rival?

The intent was to roll by the time you are fighting them, but a lot of players prefer rolling when the rival is assigned to you. It works fine either way. 

Five Leagues questions:

If I am backed into a corner and lose the combat but don't die, do I fight again?

Yes. You keep fighting until you die or win (pushing the enemy back). 

All 5X games:

Are enemies aware of my crew if they cant see them?

Yes. Unless an AI rule specifically refers to line of sight, assume the AI is always aware of your crew. You may of course choose to roleplay it a bit more realistically, but in that case you really ought to make it apply both ways. 

So you have written your game and you have gotten some play testers on board. Feedback is coming in, you have incorporated it and now you are ready for something resembling prime time. 

You put your book out there. Maybe its for money, maybe its a freebie. You do a little promotion and eventually someone buys it. People are actually playing it! Now is the time to go see what all these people say. 

You check your email, blog replies and a few forum threads. Most of them are enjoying the game or asking questions. There's some criticisms and you take them on board. Maybe you could have done a rule better in hindsight or you forgot something obvious. Maybe you straight up screwed up. All things to learn from. You keep a note pad with these things so you can work on them later.

Then there's the posts that make you pause:

This guy says the game doesn't have a rule that is absolutely in the book.

That guy says they changed a bunch of the rules and that the game is broken (because they changed those rules).

A third guy says that since the game doesn't do something it was never intended to do, its crap. 

A fourth guy just straight up made up a story about how you play tested the game by kicking bunnies. 

Guy number five says that "he heard" the game is shit, so don't play it. It's clear from the post he never even read it. 

Sixth guy is oddly obsessed that the game does not include a rule for different types of pontoon bridge and is disappointed that you left out such an important factor. 

Guy number seven points out that a rules term sounds like the word for a jihadist terror group and could that be changed? 

What do you do? 

You are a writer, nay a game designer! You can create worlds! You can wield the flaming wrath of the pen!

And you are going to sit your ass right down. 

Look up any established novel writer and they will tell you that the first lesson to learn is to not get into it with critics. You are likely to seem petty and aggressive (and if your self control is lacking you may very well be petty and aggressive) and to an extent, you are invading a space that isn't for you. When someone posts about a game they are expecting to talk to other players, not to have the writer looming over their shoulders. 

Unless you are a huge sales success you are going to trade on your reputation to an extent. The reputation of "googles his own name and then fights people over elf-games" is always going to be worse than the result of some guy who didn't like the game and was grumpy that day. 

A test version of a prospective set of WW1 rules titled "Fight the Kaiser!" is available. It is not quite enough to put on Wargame Vault, so for now you will have to email me for a copy or you can download it from Discord. Email is at nordicweaselgames@icloud.com 

The rules are aimed at roughly platoon level and the test version so far only covers 1914 (to have a confined area to test the core game mechanics). 

Drop me a line and you can help test it out. 

General questions:

Will you publish anything under the new ORC license?

Unlikely though a solid BRP system available under it could change my mind.

Weasel Tech questions:

Do individual swarm figures count as a kill for the "Contest" event?

Yes. 

Five Parsecs questions:

How does the "Looked worse than it was!" star option work with events or enemies that have special consequences such as vent crawlers?

Since the injury roll is ignored, any side effects, modifiers or restrictions are also ignored.

Should "Looked worse than it was!" be used before rolling or can I use it after I have rolled?

You can use it after rolling up all of your injuries. 

What happens if I lose the mission in an Invasion battle?

The criteria for leaving the planet is surviving the mission, not winning it. Though this is a great time to invent a special scenario.

Five Leagues questions:

Is the Old Dusty Manual cumulative with other skill bonuses such as those from character origins?

Yes. 

Do you lose the character origin bonus to a skill when you obtain the skill?

No. You add both to skill tests. 



I take these questions from my email, discord, facebook groups etc based on what questions are interesting, come up a lot etc. 

They are almost never verbatim, since I am usually paraphrasing a couple of questions about the same topic. 

If you leave a question as a comment on the blog directly, I will make sure to include it in next weeks round up. 

Five Parsecs questions:

 Is there any tool that helps add more details to a quest?

Expansion 2 offers more tasks to do as part of the quest, but there is not currently any table with additional fluff text. I do think that was a missed opportunity on my part, so keep an eye out for that in the future.

Why isn't there a Flanking rule?

In my original opinion flanking (as in moving to see the enemy with no cover) already increases your hit chance by 100% (for combat skill 0) so I didn't think it was required. However a lot of people want a mechanic that rewards that sort of maneuvering more explicitly, so you can download the proposed combat test rules on Facebook or Discord (or email me) and test a version that does just that. 

Five Leagues questions:

How do consumables and backpack slots work? 

The intended way they work is that each use of an item is a separate slot. However it is a common house rule to allow identical items to count as one slot like in a video game. I'd suggest limiting it to 3 per slot in that case.

What is the meaning of the reward table for the Fetch mission?

It is just a bit of extra fluff explaining how exactly you get paid for fetching the thing. The payment is your normal post game rewards plus anything listed in the table. I don't recall why exactly I felt that one mission needed more fluff but there you have it. 

General 5 X questions:

Would it be a good idea to have a recurring enemy that gets stronger? 

I think that's a really cool idea. If you face off a leader or personality I would probably make a die roll to see if they survive and become a recurring villain, then give them a new ability or trait. When you encounter another character of that type (f.x. another captain in Leagues) its a 50/50 chance of being your old friend. 

Do I have to declare my shots when I pick who to activate?

No, in both titles we never do anything like that. You always activate one figure at a time, resolve all of their actions (and any outcomes of those actions) and then activate the next figure.

For example if Biff shoots a K'Erin, then when Boff activates next, that K'Erin is gone and does not block movement, sight or anything else you can think of.

Why isn't X in the book?

Pick one of "I didn't think of it" / "I didn't think it would fit" / "It would be too much to explain" / "I just sort of liked the other option better". 

I try to add as many options and customization tools as I can think of but you have to be careful because it is easy for that stuff to get way too complicated. 

Todays installment is really more of a general writing tip, but it certainly applies to games as well:

The way to finish a game/scenario/expansion/product/thing is to start writing it and the way to start writing it is by typing on your keyboard (or other input method).

Don't get me wrong there is a lot that plays into game design: Testing, figuring out math, throwing out ideas that turn out to be bad, maybe some talking to players, research etc. But at the core of producing any written work is of course the writing. 

Writing can seem overwhelming, especially when you look towards the end result. How big of a book are you looking to produce? 

Renegade Scout was about 62k words. Five Men in Normandy is currently about 24k. A little 3 page Patreon piece I did a few months ago ended up at 831 words. 

Let's say you want something in the mid-range: A comprehensive game but not excessively so. You decide to aim somewhere around 30k words. Maybe you think you have about 25k worth of things to say, but you want to add a bit of extra allowance if you come up with something really cool. Or you make some allowance you can use up for explanations, examples and designer notes. However you expect it to work out, the goal is about 30k. 

Then you look at that number and say "I can't possibly do that, where would I find the time?". 

As long as people have been writing books, people have been writing books about how to write books and a lot of that advice is applicable to game writing too. This article is about two techniques that I have found to be really helpful.

First I find it really difficult to think at the keyboard. If I already know roughly how something is supposed to look, I can grind out the text, but if I have to create mechanics from scratch I find myself stumbling a lot. It helps tremendously to prepare even a tiny bit in advance. For me this is usually just a notepad with hand scribbled notes. I might sketch out the core mechanic I have in mind and then once I put that down on the page with proper explanations, I am on the right path and now I can start filling in all the surrounding space. 

I use keywords extensively. If I am working on the morale rules for something, I write down keywords and snippets. Sometimes they are short sentences, sometimes they are just a reminder. "-2 for outflanking" "Surrender?" "remove from play on second failure". Whatever gets you thinking. The same applies on a larger scale. The first thing i do when starting a project is always to name all the chapters and write in keywords for what I want to have in each chapter. If there is a "character creation" chapter and I want to have a "build your own class" option, I put a keyword for that. If you need help doing this, take a look at whatever rulebook you have lying around and look for what core features it (and any book) covers and what specific things it calls out. 

When I sit down to write the next day or next week or next month, the keywords help act as a frame work and I can start filling things in. The more structure you build up, the easier it is to continue working on it because the range of possible choices narrows. A blank page can have anything on it. A page that says "squad based shooting" can only have a few things on it. Use that to your advantage. 

It can feel extremely discouraging to realize you spent 30 minutes staring at the word processor without doing anything. Some writers say to just start writing anything and once you are "hot" then the material will flow. I sometimes work on a blog post or read over an old rules section to help get the engine running. You can try that as well.

Second I find that I benefit tremendously from scheduling. Obviously with a busy schedule you need to find the actual, physical time. I can't help you with that. However I usually set a word limit I want to hit every day. The number is not so important because once you are hot, you will almost certainly blow past it. However it can be very reassuring to be able to halt if you are feeling worn out that day. What should the word count be? That mostly depends on you. If you can write 1000 words a day, every day, you have your 30k book at the end of the month. If you can do 200 words a day, then that month still gets you to 6000 words. Thats a good chunk of your game and probably all of the core components to a point where you can test them.

Of course we cant always write every single day. So factor in 20% slippage and you won't be too disappointed but the point is to set a target and go for it. If your target is 300 words, then come hell or high water get on that keyboard and get 300 words on that page. 

This is all ignoring all the other time that goes into creating a game (testing, evaluating, balancing, tweaking and revising) but none of those matter until you have words on a page. 

There are a wealth of other options and resources for writing, many of which are applicable here but the above are some tips Ive used successfully.