Blood on the Sands **NEW** Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears...

[YPU]

That would be QWIK no?

I will add my vote to the "pdf now" lobby. Would be 15mm for me but happy to support the game.

I am completely unaware what QWIK is...?

In any case BotS is scale neutral since it uses a hex grid board.

[Dr DeAth]

Go ahead and publish - it's a great game and loads of fun

[Comsquare]

I am completely unaware what QWIK is...?

It's basically "Jugger", if you know the movie with Rudger Hauer 

[YPU]

It's basically "Jugger", if you know the movie with Rudger Hauer 

Ah right, but that's not really one on one gladiatorial combat though. I mean I said it before and I'll say it again, this is the first and only game system I know that succeeds in making one on one "mundane" combat fun and interesting.

[Furt]

What I'm basically saying is PUBLISH THOSE RULES! 

I hear you Justin and Rui.  Thanks guys

As a friend pointed out yesterday, we could also really use a good post apocalyptic gladiator game. Really Furst I just want you to publish your fantastic base engine so that people can make fan mods for it down the road.

I have already drafted up some weapons for an apoc version of BotS, along with medieval sword-fighting and basic fantasy. When I designed the weapon stats I did so with the intentions of expanding to non-historic weaponry in the future. So things like chainsaws and heavier more mundane weapons are easily done. In essence weapons are the really only things that change along with the importance of crowd favor. Armor is armor, distinguished by where it covers and how well it covers.

[YPU]

I have already drafted up some weapons for an apoc version of BotS, along with medieval sword-fighting and basic fantasy. When I designed the weapon stats I did so with the intentions of expanding to non-historic weaponry in the future. So things like chainsaws and heavier more mundane weapons are easily done. In essence weapons are the really only things that change along with the importance of crowd favor. Armor is armor, distinguished by where it covers and how well it covers.

That's rather cool!

[Mindenbrush]

Publish the basic rules as a PDF so I have a reason to finish off my gladiators and civilians  

[parcival42]

Yes, please. 

After waiting years, I finally bought about 40 Foundry Gladiators and need a wonderful game to slaughter them in!

[YPU]

Something else that might be related here, it has become more and more common for companies to publish their games in a "beta" PDF format. Basically a bare bones simple layout version of the game with the intent of doing regular updates to the rules as reactions come in. These days services like wargames-vault allow you to notify al buyers of a product that a new version is available, and also increase the price marginally each step you take towards full product. In these states its commonly accepted that rules are a little less rounded. Campaign rules are ofthen only implemented later on and most rules start of with only with "pre build" set-ups, the feedback on which will hopefully allow the designer to implement an actually thought out and balanced customization later on.

This idea has largely leaked over from computer games, where beta versions and "early access" has been a growing phenomenon for a while now. Gone are the days where we expect to buy a finished product from the get go. There is a creative process where the community is an intrinsic component. You don't need to design in a vacuum and only show your product when its completely done any more.

Now I know you have been testing for a long time now, but what I'm trying to say is that's it acceptable, maybe even encouraged, to ask a small amount of money for the privilege of doing so these days.

[Mindenbrush]

Rules PDF bump

[ShortscaleDave]

Apologies for the bump, and hope Furt does not feel harrassed by this post! 

Short Version: is this likely to be available vefore June (UK Fathers day specifically) and if not the would you be interested in two playtestors, one with minimal wargaming exoerience and an old dad with none at all? Might be useful test to see if total newbs can pick up the rules

Long version: i got the bug for looking into gladiator games as a way of getting my Dad into it. He grew up loving the old Swords and Sandals epics, and I don't think he quite understands my hobby (and now career). So I have managed to get a good deal on the Playmobil arena and a load of 54mm plastic gladiators. I'm going to make a hex mat for the arena.

The only thing left is the rules to try. I really want rules that capture "feel" as I think that will hook my dad, not dry rolling of dice until one falls down.  I spent a few days reading about every ruleset I could find, and I've pretty much narrowed it down to the Black Hat rules, the free "Familia Gladatoria", and then I doscovered this thread about your game. It sounds perfect.  I would very much like to play this with my dad.  So if it happens to be being released in any form prior to that I'd be excited to hear that!  If not, and if you think two Noobs would be a good playtest experiment, then I would gladly do so, and of course give you a full feedback and report on how well we picked up the rules.  Hope that doesn't sound cheeky, and absolutely no offence taken if the answer is no . Either way if this ever is released you have another avid customer

[ColinOfCreatioGames]

Though a fascinated latecomer, I just wanted to express my sadness at the apparent petrification of Blood on the Sands...

Or, like a phoenix from bitter ashes, is there a chance that a rules set might arise? One can hope!

[Furt]

I'm so flattered that BotS still holds some people's interest.

I don't want to get anyone's hopes up but I am working on BotS again at the moment. I do feel the rules have aged somewhat and I'm trying to bring them in line with more modern rulesets.

I may ask for playtesters if anyone is interested when I have something worth testing.

Again thanks all.

[YPU]

I only ever got 1 playtest of BotS in way back, but its stuck with me as one of the best 1v1 combat games I've seen. The dice pools had us at the edge of our seats continually and there were multiple reversals in the game where things could have gone very differently. I played with a friend on here so never had full access to the game but still remember it fondly.

[Furt]

Thanks YPU - I appreciate that.