To List or not to List....

[Faust23]

Ok, its State Your Opinion Time!

As many of you know, I recently published my skirmish rules, Brink of Battle.  In the design of the game, I had opted to go with an historical rules set first, adding Sci-Fi and Fantasy supplements to the base rules later on.

The philiosophy behind this was simple: Let Historical players, who are prone to research, define 'their' interpretation of historical soldiers capabilities rather than step into that role myself.  In the 32 years I've been invovled in this hobby as a player, retailer, promoter, and now author, I have learned that many people can be put off of a game simply because it didn't 'represent' their favorite army list or troop type they way 'they' envisioned it.

So, Brink of Battle lets you build your own from scratch.  And now there is a new problem to address: Time.

I have already, in the first two month of the games release, been asked to provide army lists or troop type lists.  It is requested usually by players like me who have very little free time to do the excersize of building a force from scratch.

I never want to be in a position where I'm telling a player what to play.  But, its not an unreasonable request either for those strapped for time.

I'm asking you all to sound off and help me understand what the 'pulse' of the community is on this question of pre-generated troops or lists.

Thanks,

Bob

[Lowtardog]

Definately opens the market place for you, I think the success of SOBH is there are oodles of lists for troop types, similarly THW rules. Those without are OK but as you ahve said its instant and can be picked up immediately and played without needing to study the rules and nuances of the mechanisms and their possible advantages/disadvantages of skills, weapon types, troop mix etc

[Henrix]

Lists are good. It let's you start playing at once and gives a common ground.

But state clearly (and I mean clearly) that the lists are merely suggestions, and perhaps even ask for improvements. (And when you get conflicting improvements you can present them as options.)

[jp1885]

I concur with the above. Sample lists would aid start ups of games, and act as examples that players can then modify when they feel more confident with the rules.

[Faust23]

I'll have Alan add the Demo Team lists that have 2 pregenerated forces per period.  Until the bulk of the fantasy supplment is finished though, more lists will have to wait, unless some fans want to put some together to share...

[Faust23]

What about an Excel spreadsheet that lets you click and selet forces easier?  Would that work for most of you?

[jp1885]

Yeah, good idea!

[Faust23]

If any of you are members of our BoB Facebook group, two members have come up with excel spreadsheets that are almost ready to go.

You can friend Bob Faust on FB, I'll accept then add you to the group.  We also have some great impromptu discussions there.

[Galland]

Lists are good. It let's you start playing at once and gives a common ground.

But state clearly (and I mean clearly) that the lists are merely suggestions, and perhaps even ask for improvements. (And when you get conflicting improvements you can present them as options.)

I would go for the above suggestion, really what I wanted to answer my self. ^^

[maxxev]

My suggetsions would be to have some free PDF lists on your site and to create and excel unit builder to make it very quick and easy to make your own.

[BOBBLE HEAD]

Im devided on this issue. To me, makimg the warband is part of the fun! But I can see the quick-play benefit of easy pick lists.
   But that raises a small difficulty. In BoB, there are no standard models, WYSIWYG is the guiding rule, and thats hard to pre-write for.
   I would say, creat good, balanced, "basic profiles" for troops, with Stats, historicaly appropriate Traits, but NO gear! Just available points, and EXAMPLES of appropriate gear for the period and force.
    This makes warband creation as easy as possible, but still leave room for model specifics. The individual nature of the models, is to me, central to what Brink of Battle offers as a skirmish level game.
    I feel a game like this cant be too tightly "prepackaged". Unless of course you want to produce your own minis sets?!