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.

It's just another Job/Op. You and your crew of 'Punks sneaking through the shadows, hacking dataTerms, hotwiring lootCrates, and shooting your way out when it all goes wrong.

Except sometimes it's in the dead reality underneath a Corp lab, the virtual reality of the Grid, or the astral dreamscape.

And maybe you're shooting it out with kobold zealots and corpoMancers who work for a Dragon CEO. And maybe you're an Orc.

Chrome Hammer Ascension: New Thaumatology (CHA:NT) brings it all in one neon package. Play with monsters and magic or play it straight with only your chrome to keep you warm. Play the solo campaign to bring down the Corps, or play head to head as the Corporations themselves, sending Troops and hired 'Punks to do your bidding.

New features include:
- 6 new non-magical "types" with their own special abilities.
- Drone pilots included.
- The "Dybbuk" Role that can mind-control small animals.
- Psychic "Bleeders" with their own list of Psike powers.
- New Edges and Spell and Gear and special Gear abilities.
- Better support for non-magical CEOs including "The Man".
- New Corp Protocols and Units, including vehicles.
- Frag the wrong guy? Now your 'Punk has a Nemesis!
- The dark, Inverse dimension.
- Support for both PvP and Solo campaigns.

There's never been a better time to get chromed and hammered.

* * * * *

Chrome Hammer is based on the Squad Hammer engine to play quickly and easily, including reactive combat, stealth rules and a ton of fun. 
All you need is some miniatures you like and a pair of D6s to get started.

New Thaumatology is the second edition of the original Chrome Hammer Ascension rules. 

You can pick up the rules at https://www.wargamevault.com/en/product/571897/chrome-hammer-ascension-new-thaumatology

Going to change a few things regarding how I manage the Patreon account, just to keep with the times but also try to make it closer to what people actually want to see (I think).

First, I am going to tidy up some of the older posts. I won't be deleting anything that has files in it obviously, but things like long expired discount codes, random posts with no content, game update announcements from years ago, that sort of thing. 

A lot of people appreciate being able to go back through the backlog of what has been created, but it can be a little hard to actually navigate things.

Second, I am going to every now and again pick an old post from a couple of years again and repost it, but at the 1 dollar tier or free tier. Basically this will be things from 3-4 years ago, which people have forgotten about and to get them back into the public eye again.

This is also a way to get a bit more comments on things that might show up in future releases. You never know after all.

I hope these changes all make sense. If you are not already a patron, please consider throwing 5 bucks in a month at https://www.patreon.com/nordicweasel  to support new material for NWG titles, game updates and more. 

I love old games, whether on the tabletop, consoles or computer.

Sometimes it's a game that I never got around to playing but read about in a magazine or on a website (remember when we had websites? They were great, you could go to them and talk to people). 

Often it is to experience the history of the medium. I love digging into an old tabletop game and seeing where it fits in the history of miniatures gaming. 

I think in a hobby as hype driven as games, it is easy for the past to disappear. Sometimes that past is well documented but this only happens when it is something that is famous enough to become the default. There is tons of documentation about the creation of Warhammer 40.000 or Dungeons and Dragons. Much less about games that were competitors at the time like Runequest or Warzone. And when you get even slightly into the weeds, there is nothing. Do you know a single thing about the history behind the creation of the Ghostbusters RPG? Crossfire? Spacefarers? 

I was watching a video last night discussing that Youtube used to provide their own tv shows. I guess this was one of those things that just completely escaped my attention. The video mentioned a particular show, Origin, so out of curiosity, I went to look it up and found out that it no longer exists. It was only ever available on Youtube but they have completely deleted it. The channel still exists but all the videos are gone (A friend suggested probably for tax purposes). 

And a lot of tabletop games of course will go the same way. Dog eared old print copies of course will circulate but they are subject to attrition every year as a few more copies are thrown out or damaged. I don't know how many copies of Melanda were ever printed but I can't imagine it was all that many. 

Digital copies are, as we are now learning, subject to the same. Games like Beamstrike had to be rescued by a fan when the original websites vanished. Red Poppy White Feather survives only because of the Internet Archive. 

On a personal level, the first edition of the Fast and Dirty rules may be lost. There are no doubt a couple of copies out there on old hard drives, some of which sit in a landfill somewhere. At some point they will all be lost or functionally inaccessible.

One of the things that separates an interest from crass consumerism I think is a sense of its own history. Maybe that's made up, but it makes sense to me. Miniatures gaming is not box sets and kickstarters. It's something people made and were a part of. I think it's important to retain a hold of that.

This is just a quick update to let you all know where things are at.

The progress on Rogue Hammer Patrol mode has been delayed a fair bit, along with a number of other projects I had wanted to get to already (like the full version of Mystic Space and updating Fivecore Company Command).

The situation is that I managed to get behind on some large, complicated projects and have been in a perpetual state of trying to get out from under those projects, while also balancing financial obligations and it has been tough to do alongside the vagaries of life like family sickness and general tumult of being an adult.

Basically too much to do, deadlines getting mushed and not enough of me to do it all. If you have ever worked to deadlines, you have been in the same situation. And the result is pretty stressful at times, because it can feel pretty hard to claw your way out from behind. 

Of course I suppose it is also fortunate, because you only get behind if there is work to be done, so in that sense it is a positive. 

It has not been a secret that for a while now, NWG has existed in this weird middle ground where on one hand, there is too much work for one person and on the other hand, I can't support having staff. There's some light at the end of that tunnel but that will also take some time. Bringing a person up to basically be able to do the same things in the same way (the last bit is important) is almost as much work as it is to do it yourself, which has been a reason such things have had a difficult time succeeding in the past. 

Anyways, I wanted to just give a quick shout as to why I have been a bit less on the Discord and online in general. Hopefully soon things will ease up a little bit.

People love to discuss the positive effects of both miniatures gaming as well as tabletop gaming in general: Hand eye coordination (painting), patience, teamwork, maybe some social skills. Sometimes these can get exaggerated a bit but I think kids certainly all benefit from a hobby that at some point requires sitting down and reading a book :)

I think on a practical level, I definitely learned a bit of patience and it was a massive help for my language skills. But the real benefit was a realisation, namely that you could in fact just sit down and make things. 

I suspect this is one of those things that you can get from a lot of different places. Music seems obvious but while I've always loved music and I had many friends who played, I never had any interest in playing on my own. If you get into a craft at a young age, you no doubt have the same experience as well. I liked to draw as a kid and was in that middle ground of "better than the kids who didnt draw, worse than the ones who worked at it" but it was just something I liked to do for fun, I never had an interest in really bettering it.

But with tabletop games, it was different. Maybe it was interest, maybe it was seeing so many different ways to do things, maybe it was because tabletop writers often explained their rationales to the reader. Design columns in White Dwarf no doubt was a big impact with the likes of Jervis Johnson, Andy Chambers and Gavin Thorpe explaining their thoughts. Later, I would flip to the back of a gaming book immediately and see if there was a "designers notes" chapter. I still put one in all my books when I can, to pay it forward to the next kid who has that same feeling. 

It made me realise that these things are not the result of an elusive and secretive process: They are things people just sat down and did and if they could do it, so could I. There WAS something magical about the process which is working on something and then seeing it "carried out" on a table. I expect computer programmers feel the same way the first time they write code and see it work on the screen.

I suppose tabletop games also had a lower barrier of entry in that you just needed a pencil and a piece of paper. But I think the exact topic is perhaps less important than having the realisation to begin with. It doesn't matter if you intend to become professional at something or even whether you are ever any good at it. It matters that we can sit down and make something on our own.

I think that is huge. 

Talk to wargamers long enough and you will hear invective hurled at the humble army list and its cousin "balanced scenarios". Today I am going to take a moment to defend the humble army list, because I think it has received more abuse than it really deserves.

What do I mean by army list? A list of units you can purchase with points values and with some degree of restrictions guiding how you build an army. If a game has a list of every weapon in the game and a points cost but does not have some control of how you create units or that you can't make an army entirely out of left-handed tank drivers, then it's not an army list in my view.

I am not going to opine on the dichotomy between scenario driven games and tournament games, other than to acknowledge that often people tend to favour one style over another. I think the army list often gets assigned much of the blame for faults of tournament style play however, and I think that is something that is a bit misguided.

So let's get into it:

Scenario play takes experience that a player may not have

The first time i sat down to try to play a Napoleonic wargame, I literally did not know what a "corps" was other than "quite a lot of guys", nor did I have any idea of how many guns said corps might have. Historical games sometimes include tables of organisation and equipment but not always (and they can be contentious in their own right for scenarios - An infantry division in ww2 does not include any tanks, but gamers howl in protest if you don't include tanks, so how many tanks should I include?)

For science fiction this applies as well. One squad of MegaHeavyAssaultMarineDudes is cool because thats how the game was designed but an entire army of MegaHeavyAssaultMarineDudes might break the game. An army list can helpfully limit the number of MegaHeavyAssaultMarineDudes to something more reasonable because as a new player to the game, you may not even know the problem exists.

(Of course army lists famously don't always catch everything but this is usually a factor of it being better for the game if the army lists are more permissive than more restrictive. I think the general point stands however). 

People sometimes retort that you can just learn from scenario books (some systems don't have them) or from conventions/club games (often not available) but in the end, some percentage of players will be learning from the actual book. 

You don't have to use them

Is this controversial? I feel like it rarely gets mentioned in discussions but you can just not use the points and army lists. Heck, even the most "tourney heavy" editions of 40K have always suggested this sort of thing. If having the army list is cramping your style because you already know how to balance a scenario or you just can't be bothered to count up points, then don't do that. 

You can take the units you want to use in the scenario and then that's it. Heck, if you want you can each pick about the troops you like and then haggle it out. We did that a few times when our 40K games were starting to get REALLY experimental. I suppose there is an argument here that some players wouldn't want to not use the points system if it's offered, but I find that most of the time those players are also not really interested in playing games without points to begin with. I might be wrong about that though. 

You don't have to use the same number of points

Much of the opposition to points values tends to come from the idea that "real battles are never exactly balanced" which is true. But it does not follow that using points values means they must be either. Certainly you can give the attackers 2500 points and the rearguard 1500 points and have a go at a suitably desperate and dramatic last stand. Shoot, you might even use mismatched points totals to slightly adjust other things. One might imagine a WW2 Barbarossa campaign where the Germans have more points than their soviet counterparts in the early invasion, but the balance shifts to a Soviet advantage for the winter counter offensive. 

The funny thing is I have seen people opine on forums that "attackers need 3 to 1 superiority" but you can literally quantify that with a points system :) 

Use as a starting point

This ties back to point number 1 but the army list can always be your starting point. I find this pretty helpful when building a scenario. Let's say the scenario is going to involve a lot of dense terrain and an objective that is difficult to get to. In this case certain units (light scout type of troops) might be more useful while big, heavy tanks will be less so. However using the points values to get a decent starting point can be really helpful just to get in the ballpark of things before I start changing things up, whether I do this mechanically ("For this scenario, tanks are worth 75% of their normal cost") or just eye ball it ("Since those tanks are not as useful here, I'll give them an extra squad of infantry"). 

Pick up games are fine actually

Finally pick up games are fun. Yes, you can whip up a scenario pretty quickly on the fly, but there's something really fun about figuring out an army in advance and then going to your friends place and having a go. I don't always want that specific experience, but when I do, it's nice to have the option complete with trying out new units or a funny idea in the build. 

Army lists are fun to guide collecting and painting

Lastly army lists serve a pretty good purpose in giving you some direction in what to paint and collect. Especially if you are poorly organised (me) and poorly disciplined (also me) it can be very easy to end up buying, building and painting a bunch of units that do not really add up to a playable game in the end. An army list is a ready made check list of things to get and paint which will inevitably guide you towards a playable force on the table. I've even talked to people who don't really play 40K but who use the codex to figure out what units they'd like to paint next. 

Of course army lists do not solve every problem, nor do they avoid having some problems of their own but I think we are, broadly, better off with them than without them. Discuss in the comments.