I suppose this is more of a writing tip but one tool I use a lot is the Kill List.

This is created when you are getting near the end of the project and is basically the list of tasks as well as additions and segments still need to be done. By this stage you should have everything basically ironed out and have a clear idea of what you want to go in the game and what you have decided not to include.

So a Kill List might look something like:

*Write 3 more scenarios. 

*Rules for alchemy.

*Revisit monster summoning rules.

*Check all playtest feedback.

and so forth.

The list can be quite long, I usually add everything to do it that I can think of and if you think of additional tasks ("Oh shit, I need a cover picture") it goes on here. What does NOT however are new features. By the time you write your Kill List you should be narrowed down on the feature set and things can only be dropped from this point on (within reason). 

The list can be in any format. I prefer to keep it on paper since there is a tangible sort of finality in crossing something off the list. 

When you have your Kill List, keep it in sight at all times when you work. Each day pick items from the list (as suits your schedule, I recommend doing at least one) and knock it out. Keep whittling down the list until you are at the end of it. 

Initial test responses to History Dad has been pretty positive. I have some big plans that I won't jinx just yet (game design superstition, the more you talk about something the bigger the chance the universe will align to make it not happen) but the first expansion will be a campaign book covering Poland 1939. 

The intention is a few pages of potted history, unit details with prefigured points costs, tank stats, then delving into a couple of specific battles and making scenarios around them. 

I want to take this opportunity to talk about "national characteristics" in the game. These are something that tends to come and go in game design. Currently we are in a phase where most big games include them. I am going to buck the trend and NOT include them in the main rulebook for a couple of reasons:

First I think a lot of times special unit rules come around because the rules are abstracted to a fairly high degree. With History Dad while the mechanics will be quite simple, they are also pretty tangible. For example we are not going to shy away from having stats for lots of different weapons in the full game (History Dads love their hardware after all), so there's no need to make a special rule for American infantry with M1 rifles: The game rules will already reflect that.

Many other things can be reflected through the simple troop quality and morale systems. The classic set up of 1941 Soviets vs Germans doesn't require any special rules: If you make your soviets Green, they are unable to move and fire which means the Soviet player will have to commit to actions and will be more stumbling and less flexible than their German counterparts. 

Of course the flip side of this is that you are also not forced into a specific path either. The Soviet frontline strength on the eve of Barbarossa was something like 2.5 million soldiers. Were every single one of these "Green"? No, of course not. Some had veteran NCOs and officers, some had seen action in Finland, some just had it together more. They may not be the majority based on most historians assessments, but then a tabletop army is 40 guys out of 2.5 million. They don't have to be slavishly linked to the majority assessment. 

So as a player you can absolutely field a Veteran platoon of Soviet infantry in 1941 if that's what you want to do or what your scenario requires. 

However I also recognise that it can be fun to have a bit more flair and the scenario books will do just that. What we will do here is to delve into a much smaller scale, so the troops in a particular scenario might have a special rule that makes them more shaky or determined or sharp shooting or whatever the situation requires them to be.

We will also include some suggestions for how you can modify the core rules for a specific theatre of operations. 

So if you hang out on the discord, you have heard of this already but otherwise let me discuss what I am working on currently.

"History Dad" is the working title of a set of rules initially aimed at WW2 but eventually to cover 1900-1950 or thereabouts (I suppose if I say 1904 to 1954 it should cover all the usual suspects).

The aim of the system is to allow games to be played with a decent pile of single based figures: A typical game is about a platoon on each side and it should scale up to a company if you have a lot of table space. At all stages, the aim is to have rules that are pretty easy to remember but which feel fun to play and have a bit of flair. Some of the tricks to achieve this is things like casualties being resolved when a unit activates, not at the point it is shot at. So you will have an idea of how badly shot up a unit is from the hits they took, but actual details wont be clear until they go next. Another example is in the vehicle damage tables, where a tank may go "silent" after being hit. It has a fifty/fifty chance of being dead or okay. Do you risk firing another round at it from another gun or do you hope its actually dead and move on to the next target?

Decisions like that I think can really help make the game more exciting and "real" feeling, even if the core mechanics are at all stages quite simple and conventional otherwise (complete with buckets of dice for firing).

Scale wise as I said it is for single based figures. The hope is that pretty much any scenario from Chain of Command, Arc of Fire (including the Skirmish Campaigns books) and I Ain't Been Shot Mum should be usable more or less as is. This is another advantage of fairly conventional combat mechanics: It is easier to translate things in from other game systems. 

I am hoping to be able to produce scenario packs to accompany the rules but we will see how that goes sales wise.

The rules are aimed at both player vs player and solo play, with a suite of solo mechanics and some random tables to spice things up. I want you to be able to both play the game with a friend as well as get a big old tank battle going in the evenings solo. 

The game will also include campaign rules but I need to emphasise here that this is not a big, narrative "weasel campaign". You will have experience and casualties to contend with and your battles will contribute to completion of a small military operation, but it is much lighter fare than what the Parsecs players might be used to for example. 

Lastly I am hoping to include around 10 scenarios to play in the book and a points system for building your own units. 

One thing I am sure you have been waiting to find an answer for is the title. Why "History Dad"? Who is a "History Dad? Do I have to be a dad to play the game? When I began working on the rules, the target audience was going to be, in part at least, people new to WW2 wargaming but who always had an interest. When the rules began to come down on paper, the sort of person I had in mind is everyones nerd dad who loves watching tank documentaries on the History Channel (back before all the space alien stuff). History Dad loves tanks and brave soldiers and big explosions and the Ardennes and people who did their duty for Democracy. This game is for History Dad.

A lot of small decisions about the rules stemmed from "what might History Dad like the most?". We use blast templates for mortar fire instead of a more abstract system, because History Dad would definitely want to see the blast template covering an entire squad of German soldiers for example. 

But it is ALSO for beginners and novices of all kinds. I am doing my best to include "war explainers" that detail how various things worked in the war and really give you a grounding in the period, so you can come into the game without knowing a lot and still end up having a great time. 

If you are interested in helping playtest the rules, please get in touch with me at nordicweaselgames@icloud.com and I will send you a draft copy.

I will have more to say soon, but in January you can look forward to a new WW2 game using single based figures. 

2014 I put up an indiegogo page for Five Men in Normandy. It got 8 backers. 

Today the combined sales for Five Parsecs and Five Leagues are around 25.000 copies between the NWG and Modiphius versions. 

It has been a wild ride and I don't know if anybody expected it to end up here. Thank you to everybody who have been along for the ride whether you are old or new. I look forward to writing games for you in the future.

I was listening to an interview with an author last night and he said something that stuck out to me:

The job is to write.

What he meant was that once a book is done (or in our case a game, but plenty of game writers also fancy taking a stab at literature or history some day)  you can't go back and change it (some caveats apply for PDF releases). The responses and reviews will be what they are, but you can't do anything to change those (even if they are occasionally infuriating). 

What you should be doing is taking a deep breath and then getting on to the next book (game) because that is your actual job. 

I know this can flow together quite a bit because many modern game writers do like to keep in touch with the community and be more active whether its answering questions or talking to the fan base. That's a big part of getting a fanbase, I've always maintained. And "doing publicity" can be a lot of fun. I've done a number of podcast interviews and it was really fun to do. 

But at the end of the day the guy is right: Your job is to write books. That's what everyone is paying you for and that is what keeps your roof over your head. 

Life can be complicated but sometimes they can be distilled down to a beautiful simplicity and for me it is that I need to sit at the keyboard and write games. 

This may not pan out but have a preview snippet for...something

The world of Green

Nobody knows why we came here. We don’t even know when we arrived. The databanks might have the information, but they have been inaccessible for generations. 

What we know is that we did arrive and this is our world.

Green.

We don’t know who called it that but it must have seemed natural to the first people to arrive here: The dense jungle that always seems to reach and grasp for any intruder, the cloying air thick with pollen, even the tint of the sun light. It is all green. The old speak of worlds among the stars with other colours: Reds and blues and browns. I wonder what such a world would be like. 

Green is a difficult place to live, but it is also bountiful in its rewards. It feeds us when we are hungry, shelters us when we are cold and heals us when we are sick. But it also kills us when we are unwary. 

Whether you step on the tendrils of a Grasper or fail to hear the humming of a Mind Wiper, Green can be a deadly place.

The Memory-Holders say that when the first people came to Green, they spread out across the world. As no single place could sustain a large population, they had to. Each adapted to the world in different ways, some seeking to exploit it and some seeking to become part of it. Even today the Factions exist in a constantly shifting state: Alliance today may be war tomorrow. We fight for territory, for spoils or for the rights to patrol a bountiful area. Sometimes we fight because that is the way of Green. 

We are not alone. In addition to your Faction and the comrades from your patrol, there are the Kinfriends: Animals that help us work and fight. It is held that the Kinfriends sought us out when we arrived on Green. We taught them new skills in return for their help and now they live among us. While every Faction has its own version of the stories, all agree that Kinfriends are part of your Faction. Only the renegade would disrespect that bond. 

Our patrol is up next. Are you coming? I can show you but you have to do exactly what I tell you. One moment of carelessness could be the death of us both.  

As promised a while ago the print expansion book for Five Parsecs is coming soon. This will include not only all three expansions for Five Parsecs From Home in print format, but also a print version of Bug Hunt for the first time ever.

Preorder should be available before the holidays and people who have purchased the prior expansions will get a discount when preordering. 

The expansions are the Fixer's Guidebook, Traiblazer's Toolkit and Freelancer's Handbook, providing a ton of content to use in your games. 

Whether you are looking to customise core game mechanics such as the difficulty toggles or the non miniatures combat rules,  new character types like Skulkers and psionics, more detail like expanded quest and AI rules or new scenarios like salvage jobs and stealth missions, they are packed with new stuff for your games. 

What about Bug Hunt then? If you are not familiar, Bug Hunt is a set of stand alone rules pitting squads of Unity troopers against the horrors that tend to pop up in abandoned research facilities and remote colonies. Each mission features your squad and supporting troops sweeping an area, accomplishing missions and trying to get the heck out of there before you get overrun. The blip system adds a ton of tension as the enemies keep approaching and you will need every bit of firepower to bring down the hordes when they come at you. Seriously, make sure you paint up some extra baddies because this is a whole different ballgame. 

As with Five Parsecs From Home, it is a campaign game where you gain experience and progress over the course of your career. The game also includes a co-op campaign option that is perfect for a gaming group, club or online community where multiple players can help each other against the alien hordes, even if you are playing across the internet.

This updated version includes all the material from the expansion, including more alien variety, alien sub-types, spawn points and more, for the ultimate "human vs bug" experience. Additionally these options are included in the main rules text, though some are still marked as optional.  And the entire thing will be lavishly illustrated with gorgeous artwork, really bringing the universe to life. 

Did I mention that you can carry your characters over? The games are fully compatible so you can muster out from your bug hunter career and go adventure or vice versa.   

Version 1.09 is an army list expansion, giving every army a new unit, option or vehicle. Please enjoy. 

Just a quick post today since I am pretty busy. 

Cross referencing rules throughout the rulebook: Yay or nay?

By cross referencing I mean that each rule will list any applicable conditions and modifiers found elsewhere in the system. For example if you have a rule for smoke grenades that adds a -2 hit penalty, then you might add a note of that in your chapter on ranged combat or in the table of hit modifiers. 

As another example if you have a rule that figures that get hit might be pinned down, but androids and zombies are immune to this, you might add that to the section on pinning.

The advantage of doing this is that each rule becomes effectively standalone and comprehensive. If I check the rules for pinning, I can see all possible conditions and effects. This reduces the chance of me forgetting about it during the game, especially in cases where I might not otherwise be aware the secondary rule exists at all.

As such cross referencing can be tremendously helpful and is likely to improve the usability of your game rules (and remember game rules are utilitarian: They are intended to be used actively at a table). 

There are a couple of drawbacks however:

If your game has a lot of special rules and exceptions (such as is the case for many sci-fi and fantasy games) things can get out of hand pretty quickly. If your book has 20 different functions that can all modify the hit roll due to particular bits of equipment, rules, conditions or abilities, do you really want to list everyone? A common answer here is to limit yourself to either certain categories (so tabletop conditions and status effects might be in, equipment modifiers are out) or try to only pick out the most common occurrences (fog and night time modifiers are in, left-handed shooting of a medium sized firearm while balancing on a hoverboard is out)

There is also a significant amount of upkeep involved in establishing cross referencing and maintaining it afterwards, because the same rule is now referenced in multiple locations. I recently flipped through a rulebook that gave retreat distances as one distance in the main rules for morale, but in the movement phase summary of how units move when they have failed morale, the distance was different. The more items you try to cross reference the more you will run into this problem. 

You can alleviate this somewhat by using consistent terminology, so you can use cmd+f / ctrl+f to find all instances where a particular rule or term is mentioned.

A final concern happens when material is across multiple books such as expansions or army books. It can be helpful to have these elements referenced, but for players who are not using that expansion it can add to the clutter (not to mention irritating people who are not ready to purchase more content yet)

The upshot of it all is that at least some cross referencing is helpful to make your rulebook more accessible in play, but it does bear some thinking about how to do it.

That is all for today folks. If you like these types of posts, please consider supporting my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/nordicweasel