Well, that's what I hope. I have an article in Wargames Illustrated 460 (April 2026), entitled 'Too Many Rules?'. In it I argue that there aren't really too many rules, as having lots of rules is, and has always been, part of the hobby. We're a creative bunch and the process can't be stopped, even if we wanted to.
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However, there's no denying that having lots of rules, and having more coming out all the time, can create some issues. I'm sure you will be aware of many of them, and I run through these issues in the article. I also consider how they might be mitigated, and making rules cheaper is, to me, an obvious way to help things along.
The internet provides a wealth of information on available rule sets, including reviews and examples of play, but sometimes there's no substitute for buying a set and trying them out. However, doing a taste test between 3 sets of rules can be problematic if they cost £30 or more a pop. That's maybe a hundred quid gone before you even make your mind up. How much easier it would be if rules cost less than £20 - or even better if you can get them for less than £10. How about £5? Well, in my ongoing quest for new WW2 sets I have recently got hold of 2 very interesting rule books for £5 each. How can that be?
My first success was a few months ago. We had been playing Rapid Fire! Reloaded at the Cirencester club, and I found that the standard printed edition of these rules does indeed retail at £5. Now, I'm not entirely convinced by these rules, as some of the mechanics don't really suit me, but you can have a fun evening game with them. Of course, stuff like OOBs and scenarios aren't included, but get this - all that stuff can be downloaded from the Rapid Fire! website for free, even the info I need for my 1939 Poland games. There is a supplement, Rapid Fire! Reloaded Extra, which gives additional rules for stuff like amphibious landings and parachute attacks, and this little booklet is also just £5. Brilliant.
My other find was more recent, just a few days ago. On one of my trawls through the internet, up came a WW2 rulebook called Iron Cross. Now these date from 2015, and I think I've come across them before, but this time I took a better look and liked what I was hearing in the online reviews. So I checked out the Great Escape Games website and found that the PDF version was currently available at just £5. As you can imagine, within 10 minutes a copy of the rules was on my desktop. Another very interesting and original set, especially the activation mechanism. And also some initial reservations (for example, off-table artillery only features in a preparatory barrage), but this is definitely a set I want to try out.
Rapid Fire Reloaded is a 15 page softback book, by the way. The Iron Cross rules are just 33 pages. This is what I'm talking about - we need more, much more, like this. Of course, this kind of thing doesn't suit companies like Warlord Games or (I must admit) Partizan Press, the latter of course being the publishers of Shadow of the Eagles. Even private publishers like Barry Hilton's League of Augsburg love the big coffee table books - Beneath the Lilly Banners 4th edition currently retails at £35 (and has 180 pages). I guess it's all about profit margins, or maybe in Barry's case he just likes big, colourful books. But these are not what the hobby needs right now. If we're to have more rules, let's have more cheap and simple rules.
Another great example here is Valour & Fortitude, which most of you will be familiar with. A totally free, well supported, 15 page set of rules for the horse and musket period. Very popular and a good set of rules.
And now let's turn to those lovely guys at Little Wars TV. They have produced a couple of short, simple and cheap tabletop game rulebooks themselves, Age of Hannibal (ancients) and Live Free or Die (AWI). Both have short page counts, and can be bought in PDF format for about £12 and £10 respectively. Even the printed copy of Live Free or Die is only £15. And LWTV have free rules also available from their site, like Ravenfeast (Dark Age skirmish), or Ruthless (Wild West gunfight). Check out the situation HERE.
But LWTV have something even better comming soon. They are creating an online free rules library which should be live in a month or so. Yes, a whole bunch of existing free rules on a separate site called Wargames Library. Check out their video here. Can't wait to see it - and I may well upload a couple of free games to the library myself.
It's really interesting (and frustrating) to see these two sides of rules availability co-existing in our hobby. The bloated (IMHO), full colour, expensive hardback coffee table book, vs. the free or cheap short and simple rules. The latter don't have be dull, black and white publications. Both the £5 sets I have already mentioned are full colour and feature good graphic design. And simple and short doesn't mean dull rules either - I have looked into or played every simple set I have mentioned in this post, and their gameplay is just as interesting, or sometimes more interesting, than the big books.
Rules that are designed to be short, simple and inexpensive will make choosing between rules that much easier - with a much reduced barrier to entry, you can purchase a few sets and compare and contrast. And you won't fill your bookshelves (or block up your wargames table) with A4, hardcover blockbusters. Let the revolution begin.
'Til next time!
P.S. - the promised post on my continuing Airfix Nostalgia project will be next.
13 comments:
Congratulations on another article Keith. Fully agree with you on this but I suppose that is because I am a cheapskate! I found the RF Reloaded rules pretty good and covered what I wanted - until you stepped into the fray again. The free downloads are useful and the scenario supplements are also good value.
As one who stuck himself to Airfix models in the 50's I am looking forward to your next offering.
Have to admit to being a bit of a cheapskate myself Jim! But if a wargamer wants to sample a good selection of the latest rulebooks these days, it seems that he or she will end up spending hundreds of pounds. I just can't justify that level of expenditure.
A very interesting post Keith. I know the RPG hobby has been providing rules lite versions for years without the bloat of the full size rules. Usually they provide a few ready made characters and a single sample adventure to give players a taste of the system before moving on to the full rules. Maybe rules writers could provide a taster set e.g infantry only rules with an explanation of the rules philosophy. Just a thought.
Jim
A pretty good thought, I reckon. I remember when Blitzkrieg Commander was first launched (decades ago!) there was a free BKC Light download available. That download got me into the game and I bought the full ruleset.
Many modern, commercial rules are padded out with pictures of beautifully painted models and terrain, and often with notes on how to create such models and on the history/tactics of the period. Neither of these are actually necessary for a set of rules. Modelling and painting skills can be learned from other sources, including videos on YouTube; the historical information is readily available in books on the period/war/campaign/battle. I suppose there is a market for the all-encompassing, one volume guide to wargaming X [insert period of choice] amongst those who have no desire to study the history and just want to create armies and play, but others do not require, nor wish to pay for, information they possess already. As you rightly point out, the high cover prices prevent most wargamers from trying out a variety of rules to find one they prefer, and must be a great discouragement to youngsters thinking of embarking on the hobby.
Personally. after purchasing a few of the 'coffee-table' style books years ago, I now avoid them like the plague and only try cheap pdfs from Wargames Vault, such as the Dominion of.. series; rules that writers make freely available on their blogs; and those I write myself. If a cheap or free set proves unsatisfactory, I can try tweaking it or abandon it with little loss.
Also, any set of rules that occupies more than three or four pages, or has a QRS that is more than one side of A4, is one that I'm not going to be able to learn in the way I have learned Chess or HG Wells' Little Wars, so I will reject it. Toy soldier games, as Don Featherstone wrote, bear only the most coincidental resemblance to real war, but are an entertainment, so why torture oneself with lengthy, complex texts and calculations to achieve such a result?
Totally agree with all this Keith and I have had a similar rant via my blog - or in response to other people's blog - I think the most recent was on Big Lees a couple of weeks back.
Now I am Scottish and therefore as tight as a duck's proverbial at twenty fathoms, but in my opinion, the hard back glossy rule books are created that way for one single purpose - justify an excessive price.
There is no rule set I have ever seen even needs 15 pages - most could be distilled don to four of five - and how could anyone charge 25-45 quid for that?!
I have played Iron Cross a few times and agree, lots of nice mechanisms like the opportunity for "interruption" fire etc.
I don't mind paying more for a set of rules I use a lot. The formula of price divided by the number of uses makes sense to me. I'm happy with the price of the rulesets I really like especially if they are for a favourite period.
The expense I do mind is multiple rulesets for a period I want to play where none of them suit what I think should happen. This is particulalrly true of the Pike and Shot era - there may be popular sets but I don't like any I've tried and have ended up writing my own which, while far from perfect, do the job better.
The second expense I mind is a new edition of a ruleset I've not got much use out of but still foolishly think I might oneday.
For the record - my favourite ruleset is "Dux Britanniarium" from TFL - it's the most used - it's for the period I chose for myself rather than one influenced by ther gamers - and it's inspired most of my recent figure purchases including a new setting that I think will work with these rules.
Stephen
Well said... I begin to wonder if I'm a cheapskate as well, or am I just old school?? When I started out the rules came with the book, and then you tinkered, and changed, and added, and took away, and even wrote your own.. now I look at my current projects and I think all of them use rules that were either free, adapted by me from free, or less than a tenner..
Sorry Keith, I can’t agree on all you said. The internet is replete with rulesets including free rulesets. Then there are any number of online old book sellers where you can pick up rules in hardback massively discounted. I will often pick up the previous edition as the tester which is normally junked as soon as the new edition gets published. The core rules are often unaltered between editions……….And crucially our market is fully liberalised meaning we all make our own choices unfettered. What I do agree with is the over promoting of some products as essential when their not. And your spot on - coffee table rulesets are not essential but they sell all the same! Also I think there is the element of product placement going on with the colour rich ruleset. But then again wargames illustrated is probably the worst magazine for selling product in every paragraph and image. Do I buy WI - of course but I know the “sell” and absolutely accept it. I think historical gaming still manages to retain a very competitive market and your spot in again - rules recycling is a life blood to the game. Look over the fence at warhammer - single market and of course continuous obsolescence to enable turnover of one of britains most successful businesses: Try buying their shares! And who are the biggest drivers of exclusivity in historicals - I would suggest some are ex warhammer people who learnt a very effective business model. Having worked in both public and private sectors I have no problem with people turning a profit ( it’s very hard work for the vast majority) to put food on their table. Closed markets with private sector supply/control is the problem - e.g uk water industry. The Historical wargaming market is about as free as you can get with almost corporates rubbing shoulders with one man bands. Long may that continue and thank you very much for raising an important topic.
Thanks everyone. As many of you have said, with a bit of research the free or cheap rules are out there. Unfortunately they don't get the publicity of the more mainstream (and usually more expensive) rulebooks. I've benefitted from this myself with free articles about HoW and SotE in the major magazines, organised by my publishers. I guess it's inevitable that the releases from well known authors or well known publishers will be the ones to get a mention in the 'review' or 'what's new' sections of the magazines, but it would be nice if a bit of priority could be given to free or cheap rules.
Thanks Norber. 'Corporates rubbing shoulders with one man bands' - it *is* good to have that diversity in the hobby. Despite the rise of the larger gaming companies (unheard of when I started gaming), the grass roots has maintained its importance in the historical wargaming hobby.
Remind me of your blog address! I'm having trouble finding you. Thanks.
I bought the mag and enjoyed the article, though of course it was a two parter with another rules author not agreeing with you. I sort of settled somewhere in the middle of your arguments.
I just find the argument of ‘things were better before £30 books came out and if only we could go back to those old minty type written rulebooks, life would be better’, too easy to make.
Those type written rules of yesteryear in their pastel card covers and B&W illustration are somehow held up as the good old way to do wargame rules, compared to the modern slick, full colour hard backed rules. I have just done an inflation calculator and our good old dependable rules would come in today at around £25, so I know which I would prefer for the extra £5 - £10.
Plus I am certain that in the good old days, if a niche hobby could have gone for full cover, hard back rule sets, it would have done.
I think the crux of the matter is that ‘then’ there were fewer recognised rule sets, so if you had 6th Edition Ancients, so did everyone else and that was the standard and you might only own 2 -3 rule sets, that is where the real budget saving lays. Now, every club member has their own favourite set that they bought last week and we just don’t get very proficient at playing any one system.
If you look at the Warlord Game family of rules as an example, in three RELATED sets they take you from Ancients - Medieval -Pike & Shotte through to Horse and Musket. They have been constant use for around 15 years, so people have got to know them well. I’m just holding these £30 rule books up as an example, but they are doing exactly what WRG did back in the day.
My own pet hate is Codex based systems that rely on you buying into an array of follow up army list books. If we have to have such things, then In this day and age, those ‘support’ items could easily go up on a website. If you are going to do a ruleset - a single volume suits me fine … rather like your Shadow of the Eagles :-)
And yes the Little Wars TV idea for a repository of free rules sounds like a real shot in the arm. Perhaps the one thing that has diminished in the hobby is the reliance on commercial rules over the creativity of wargamers making their own sets.
As well as a figure gamer, I am a boardgamer, with lots of boardgames ….. and they all come with their own rules! Now THAT is a lot of rules and a lot or learning curve to go through every time a box is pulled down from the shelf :-)
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