For a little while I have been looking at various methods of providing a solo wargame experience that I would enjoy. There are a lot out there if you look for them. There are others that can be multi-player games that you just play both sides out impartially against yourself. Both offer interesting experiences but so far haven't sufficiently scratched the itch I have.
Even though I am a video game designer, I wanted to keep this experiment in the realm of board or miniature wargames. This has the benefit of removing artistic and programming skills from the equation.
So I will document this endeavor as I go here for my own reference. I don't know how much value you the reader will find in it but if you want to embark on this ride with me, there's room for plenty in the car.
So where do I start?
I needed to decide what the nature of this project would be. Is it a
mod for an existing rule set to handle solo play in that game? Or is it
its own game built from the ground up to handle solo play? The former
is less groundwork to build but places a lot of restrictions on what the
game can be and how it can behave as it needs to operate within a well
defined framework. The latter has no restrictions until I place the
restrictions on my own as the project becomes more and more defined.
What do I expect from the gameplay experience? Is it the long form chess game that a player would work on from time to time as they recreate a historical battle? Is it a game that one can sit down and play over an afternoon.
I wanted to focus this idea down and define the goals of this project. What will this game be? Miniatures or board game? Time period to represent? How long will it take to play? How deep should it be in terms of complexity? Finally and maybe most importantly for getting started, what resources do I need?
Not all of these questions needed to be answered but the more detail I have from the start the better the foundation of the game as I create it.
I am not a fan of video games, I prefer the tactile if outdated joy of rolling dice and moving figures on a tabletop. I will happily play a board game with miniatures, I enjoy the Richard Borg series of games. As for time period, then each era has its own flavour and must haves, difficult to write a generic set for all ages, and still preserve the feel of the time. For a solo gamer, the length should not be an issue, assuming he has room to set up and leave the game for days or weeks if necessary. I prefer less crunchy rules, but others will prefer great detail. I like to roll a couple of dice, not a bucket full, and move the troops, not spend hours consulting tables and micro rules and appendix, I just want to play the game and fight the battle. If the resources needed are just a few stands of troops to begin, but with the option to add more over time, as your collection grows.
ReplyDeleteA difficult task you are setting yourself. But will be great to follow your journey.