A blog post is annoying me (Can't Sleep Chronicles, #1)

[NotifyGrout]

https://zacgaming.wordpress.com/2020/12/14/stop-recommending-dragon-rampant/

I assume Zac is around here somewhere. I have rewritten this multiple times, so I'm going to try to keep this simple because I need to sleep but my brain refuses to let me until I finish this. I also apologize if this sounds hostile- it's not. I just feel like there's a lot in between the lines that, if it was explained a bit, would make more sense to me.

So I just got my new copy of Dragon Rampant. It seems like a fun way to play a fast, simple warband scaled fantasy game. Very beer and pretzels, but I think it would be a good intro to people unfamiliar with wargaming at that scale, or as an alternative to Age of Sigmar that won't require those players to buy all new stuff.

Homogeneous units

First question- do you hate Hordes of the Things? The ruleset is really good (some of Barker's opinions aside). Tight as it can be. Almost no unaccounted for corner cases which plague similar sorts of rules.

Then there are shortcomings. It also has generic unit types like the ones you boo DR for having. It relies on PIPs for activation- keep rolling low? All the tactical skill in the world won't save you if your PIP rolls go on a bad streak. It's more or less the same except that for the worst roll, in HotT you can move one unit, while in DR you might not get to move any.

But Notify, Dragon Rampant only has 13 unit types to HotT's 21. True, but I have never, ever seen anyone field an Airboat or a Cleric. Some of the units feel very niche and there for tradition's sake. Magicians are either game-winners or a waste of time, depending solely on luck. Do we need separate entries for Airboats, Flyers, and Dragons? Gods, Paladins, and Clerics? Lurkers are rarely worth it unless the board has so much difficult terrain- excuse me, Bad Going, that almost no one takes them, either. 

I count 14 unit types that are worth it for pickup games or tournaments. The rest are situational, for recreating specific battles or are hard counters to specific other unit types.

I bring up HotT because it is generally a very well regarded ruleset, and it is also fairly generic like Dragon Rampant is. Some of the same criticisms you make about DR can be leveled at HotT as well- so, would you?

Would DR be better if there were more unit types, or more special rules that could vary them up?

The Activation System

I'm shocked that you are able to stomach Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes considering that failed activations are way more common in that game, especially if most of the models have a 4+ Quality or higher. Maybe it's because it's skirmish level and not warband level, so it plays faster?

I think that the activation system is a love or hate thing, and that's fair. I like it for faster games like Song of Blades, and I feel it will help speed things along when I try DR. If it proves to be a major problem, we'll house rule something.

Blue Book Peril

Name names. Which ones can you verify are terrible? Generalizing that they are all bad means something very different dependent on whether or not we're talking about 3, 7, 15, or all of them. Here's the list of the rest:

Dux Bellorum, A World Aflame, Ronin, Of Gods and Mortals, A Fist Full of Kung Fu, On the Seven Seas, Fighting Sail, Black Ops, Honours of War, En Garde, Poseidon's Warriors, Broken Legions, The Men Who Would Be Kings, Chosen Men, Rogue Stars, The Pikeman's Lament (it is hinted that you've at least looked this one over), Kobolds and Cobblestones, Outremer: Faith and Blood, Rebels and Patriots, Men of Bronze.

A Billion Suns, Absolute Emperor, and Wars of the Republic were released after you published the post, so it would be unfair to ask you to rate them (but feel free to do so if you have experience with them and are that bored).

After reading the blog a bit, I'm less excited to get DR on the table. I know that's ultimately a me problem, but I was looking forward to trying something that is really easy to explain and using it as a hook to get into more complicated games like Warlords of Erehwon (also soured, thanks) and Saga: Age of Magic. I thought it would be a nice way to play something fast that's still a bit more complicated; I'm open to suggestions for better warband-scale fast-play fantasy games (or historicals that could easily have fantasy models shoehorned in). I'm looking at Oathmark but it requires movement trays so it would be a second step after the fast play game.

[Elk101]

We don't tend to go in for these 'open letter' type posts in the LAF. Perhaps a direct message to Zac via the blog may have helped? I can see you have tried to keep it about the rules in the main. Let's make sure this is all kept constructive. Thank you.

[Silent Invader]

Please spare us Chronicle #2 

[robh]

LAF is absolutely not the place for this sort of post.

[Elk101]

We've had a number of complaints about this post so I'm locking it. As I alluded to before, the LAF isn't really the place for this.