What information are you looking for in an announcement for a new rule set?

[terrement]

Like the title suggests,  I'm wondering what your take on the subject is.  I know there are a number of things that are important to me.  Ideally I like the information to be in the promotional material.  If not there, it should be readily be available from the game's website, Facebook page, Publisher, or the author.  This list isn't universal, and doesn't universally apply to every game.  Some might not be needed even though not explicitly listed as information.  A game described as a being for recreation of Old West Gunfights could reasonably be expected to be a skirmish game, individually mounted figures, playable on a relatively small gaming area, as opposed to a game that recreated battles that covered a large expanse of real estate, and /or a large number of forces - say the D-Day landings.
But for the things that could be provided, what data do you prefer to have in order to help you decide?

Thanks.

[tikitang]

• Table sized required
• Scale of miniatures
• Whether or not it is "miniatures agnostic"
• Size of warbands expected
• Whether or not decks of cards and/or tokens are required to play

[Captain Gars]

Price

Do I have to re-base the figures I already have?  If so, not interested.

[TheDaR]

Tikitang and Captain Gars hit most of the important ones.  In rough order for me:

• style/scale of combat
• genre, theme and tone of the setting if any
• mini count and basing style
• need for specific miniatures or additional accessories

Other things I personally look for:

Also what is the interesting selling point of the rules?   There's 100+ years worth of war gaming rules from H.G. Well's Little Wars through to the roughly dozen or so personal itch scratching indie rule sets that come out every week via online sites.   

What do these rules do different enough from other rule sets to make them worth playing over GW or Warlord game's latest bucket of dice thriller with lavish art and dramatic pricing? Are they simple to learn and fast playing with cinematic action?  Are they exhaustively researched and heavy on detailed simulation for highly realistic results?  Do they focus on elaborate scenario and objective play instead of simple to the death cage matches?  Is there some novel activation system or distance measuring mechanic?  Any sort of campaign system?   

Curse my packrat ways, but I have literally dozens of systems in hard print, and hundreds of PDFs and epubs of systems I could pull up at a moment's notice to play, and thousands more I could buy with about 3 clicks on a website like WargamingVault or itch.io.  Basically, an announcement needs to give me something novel that makes it potentially worth investing money and time over a dozen or hundred other rulesets that probably occupy the same space.

Beyond that, some indication of level of support/completeness.  Is this the first core book in a cavalcade of campaign books, army list and specialist supplements that will be reissued every few years?  Is this a standalone game that is complete in itself but will never be updated again?  Does it have some sort of online forum for rules or an app that helps (or that you need) to play?

[terrement]

Thanks Gents.  Good suggestions all.  I'll watch through the weekend for any others who'd like to add anything.

[Harry Faversham]

One word, if it's not in the first sentence, mi' brayn fries...

SIMPLICITY!!!

 

[carlos marighela]

Gluten free.

Biodegradable.

Less than a tenner.

[Gibby]

It's amazing how often these days a ruleset comes up for pre-order with some implied hype, but there is barely any information about how the game works or what the rules have to offer in the vast ocean of other options. Just a fancy cover and a brief blurb about the genre, etc. These days, I want the rules author/publisher to sell me the game with the tools we have now - a battle report or two with some explanations of the mechanics along the way. Perhaps a YouTube video, heck, even just an in depth article about the design ideas, etc.

[fred]

Lots of good stuff above - one that is useful is if the game is element based or figure based. If it is element based then figure scale becomes pretty irrelevant.

It's amazing how often these days a ruleset comes up for pre-order with some implied hype, but there is barely any information about how the game works or what the rules have to offer in the vast ocean of other options. Just a fancy cover and a brief blurb about the genre, etc. These days, I want the rules author/publisher to sell me the game with the tools we have now - a battle report or two with some explanations of the mechanics along the way. Perhaps a YouTube video, heck, even just an in depth article about the design ideas, etc.

+1 to this - a battle report goes a long way to explaining the game - and helps new players get started

[Storm Wolf]

For me as put very well above, however I love ths line from the TheDaR

"What do these rules do different enough from other rule sets to make them worth playing over GW or Warlord game's latest bucket of dice thriller with lavish art and dramatic pricing?"

Spot on mate

I would like to know if a multi-RPG dice set is required (Stargrunt 2, pulp alley etc, etc) as this usually leaves me a bit cold.

[tikitang]

• Table sized required
• Scale of miniatures
• Whether or not it is "miniatures agnostic"
• Size of warbands expected
• Whether or not decks of cards and/or tokens are required to play

My reason for this list, by the way, is that I am only interested if...

• it can be played on 2' x 2', or smaller
• it caters to all scales
• it is not bound to specific miniatures
• it can be played with 2-5 models per side
• it requires no tokens or card decks

I am quite the minimalist, so, generally, if it doesn't meet those criteria, I usually don't take a second look.

[sultanbev]

Ground scale of the rules
Figure ratio/unit size
base sizes
Morale rules - does it have any? Which leads to:
how are differing troop types rated - training and morale are separate items, just rating units as green-average-veteran isn't quite cutting it.
dice used - ie if it uses a single D6 for combat resolution then it isn't a historical wargame, as combat doesn't come in 16% intervals.

[ithoriel]

My criteria

Does it contain new and interesting mechanisms I can filch for my own home brew rules?

Do they cover a period I am interested in? Or pique my interest in a period I'd never considered?

If they are designed to be played with proprietary figures of eye-watering price can I source reasonably priced alternatives.

Is support available only through Facebook? If so, I'm not interested.

[robh]

Pretty much covered anything about the "rules" in the responses above but I would add Location of supplier and distributors.

USA, EU and UK are now virtually 3 independent markets, getting stuff from one into another is cost prohibitive. So for me in Spain I would need to know who the EU distributor is before even considering buying.

[eilif]

The first couple posts sum up what I'm looking for with two additions that are very high priority for me.

-Some indication of the complexity level of the rules.

-Approximate playing time.

I have a strong preference for streamlined games and I host games on weeknights. The practical application of this is that after setup and such, a game really needs to reliably resolve in about 2 hours, and I don't want to spend my precious game time flipping through a rulebook.