FMA Fantasy etc.

In message <199612130326.WAA27269@smtp1.sympatico.ca> Allan Goodall
writes:

> There really aren't any really good fantasy battle rules. I hate WHFB
> reliance on super figures and it's style-over-substance attitude. I
enjoy
> Hordes of the Things, but it's really too small and there's a certain
lack
> of flavour. I haven't tried a fantasy variant to DBM, but I'd prefer
> something more "official" and written with fantasy in mind. 

There are two commercial DBM-ish fantasy games out there. I, as yet,
own neither, so cannot reveiw them. They are "Raven" (supposedly
*very* badly presented, but a capable game) from... Heartbreaker?... 
not sure... and "Fantasy Rules!" from ChipCo, whoever they are. 
Somebody called "Chip", I believe. Heard good things about it.

You should find both mentioned on r.g.m.misc.

> Hmm, here's an idea. How about a project team to build a FMA style
fantasy
> game, to be distributed free of charge on the net, but only if Jon has
no
> interest in fantasy? With the people available on this list, I'm sure
we
> could come up with something that could easily compete with WHFB.

Some of the essential concepts in FMA seem to me very, very, 
grounded in the psuedo-modern style SF gaming genre. I don't really
see any equivalent of a SG squad or DS platoon in the Tolkien-esque
fantasy genre. Perhaps a DBM-esque element could substitute?

It could be worth a shot. Or stab. I'm not so sure about all those
chits littering the board.

---

GZG is a wholly SF enterprise. The only obvious gap I can see is for 
a lower-level skirmish game (where the basic game token is a single
person, not a squad) and one "Jungleland" has been on the cards for 
sometime. Or one could focus more tightly and create the FMA-RPG.

Jon also carries a range or two of anime and comedy ("nuns with 
guns") figures, so that might be a fertile area. Jon is a well-known
anime nut, so much so that I'm surprised he doesn't supply a 
Japanese army for StarGrunt consisting of uniformed schoolgirls...

...or new alien race: the Ka'Wai.

So a comedy knockabout game would help support some of his wares.

What other fertile SF genres are there? Car duelling? Unfeasable
Giant Robots?

-- 
David Brewer