Re: [MISC] [OT] Bring and Battle

At 12:52 PM 9/22/98 +0300, you wrote:

>Maybe it's my (heretical) background in Car Wars, but I *enjoy*
designing
>ships, vehicles, forces etc. and then taking them out for a spin.
>Designing is something I can enjoy about the game *alone*, when it
suits
>me (which is becoming a more and more important consideration). 
>
>I also *enjoy* the uncertainty of not knowing what your opponent is
>fielding.

Myself, as well.  Back in the long-go days when I played Magic, I always
took as much pleasure in building decks as I did in playing the game
itself.  And understand--the decks that I designed were not always (or
usually) winning decks!  But they were fun....	My Pirate deck?  Lost
consistantly.  My Infinitely Recursive Rukh Eggs Deck?	Won, but only
rarely.  And those two were my favorites, constantly fiddled with and
fine
tuned.	I like being able to do the same sort of things with my Full
Thrust
fleets, and my many DSII forces.

Can't do it with Stargrunt, though.  Thus, I use Shock Force.

>A preset scenario robs me of these pleasures.
>
>I don't have the luxury of a referee (unless it's me). I get to buy all
>the rules, learn them, teach them, buy all the minis and paint them --
or
>there's no game (unless I go play GW).

Same here, mostly.  If I want to play DSII, then it is all on my
shoulders.
 Others in my group have painted SF microarmor, but if a game is to be
run,
I'm the one doing it.  Historicals, on the other hand...well. we have a
lot
of people willing to run Napoleonics,or British Colonials.

>And I absolutely hate cardboard counters...
>
>> And no points 
>> system is infallible anyway. (I've seen many, and all can be abused 
>> by munchkins). Real battle doesn't give you the luxury of picking 
>> even sides. 
>
>I think you have a double standard here. It's bad that a point system
>creates unequal forces, but if you don't have a point system it's ok to
>have unequal forces? 
>
>All $10,000 cars in Car Wars are not equal. Some were designed by
better
>designers. That's all part of the game, part of the fun. 
>

I jusr finished designing a game called "Destroy All Monsters!", for
playing battles between giant monsters (of the sort that are usually
portrayed by guys in rubbber suits).  I purposely designed a points
system,
if a simple one, into the game, so that players can design their own
monsters.  Why bother?	Because there is a world of difference between
playing a game with forces that have been assigned to you, and gaming
with
a force (or big, ugly creature, as the case may be) that YOU PERSONALLY
have designed and painted.  It's called pride of ownership, I think.
Whatever it is, I like playing with the aforementioned assigned forces,
but
I would rather use MY troops, damn it!	It adds so much to the game, for
me--I have a more personal stake in it, if you know what I mean.

Now, whether my point system is balanced is another story.  I don't know
yet; but that's what playtesting is for.  Friday night, we shall play
the
game with rationally designed Monsters.  If time permits, we will then
play
one with monsters that have been minimaxed to the point of absurdity, to
see how far the point system can be bent before it snaps.

John X Crimmins
johncrim@voicenet.com
  "...is one of the secret masters of the world: a librarian.
They control information.  Don't ever piss one off."
  --Spider Robinson, The Callahan Touch.