Sunday Musings - One Page Rules - Age of Fantasy Skirmish
As I get older, I start to struggle with time more and more. There never seems enough of it these days. It'll happen to you whippersnappers too one day.
In a more positive note, one thing I've always loved is the creative manner in which knock-off toys manage to name products. If you ever see me in person, give a me a full-sugar coke and ask me about Braveman. I'll talk for hours about Braveman. Or RobertCop. It's nectar to me.
Now, I'm not saying that these reasons are why I've delved in OPR this last week, as I feel that sells OPR short....but I'm also not saying that once I get an idea into my head I have a tendency to dive down that rabbithole and start dismantling stopwatches before the words "I'm Late" have been uttered into the air.
One Page Rules designs games that are at their heart, simple and quick versions of those found in Game's Workshops catalogues. They have two main branches of games in Age of Fantasy and Grimdark Future, with everything from skirmish level to mass unit combat (and some starfleet fighting). It's an impressive output and each system is built to be miniatures agnostic, though the Battle Brothers or Saurian Starhost are fairly obvious examples of what to expect from the army books.
Simple is the name of the game here, even compared to something like Warcry or Underworlds. Units have two traits in Quality and Defence, the rules for the weapon they carry and abilities. Weapon rules keep the simplicity in place by showing how many dice to roll when attacking and sometimes an effect that takes place.
Alternating Activation keeps everything moving as there is no long drawn out moments while awaiting the opponent to finish up. Each unit can move, shoot or charge into melee to have a good old fashioned pagger. Add in the abilities of each unit and there it is. That's the system. Each of the system rules is a version of this with very little difference so once you've got one down, you've got them all.
Everything is available as a free PDF, and so there's little to complain about. It's free, fast and easy to learn. A game will take between an hour and 90 mins, and it's perfect for attempting to drag in children (your own obviously) or partners who have no interest in attempting to learn rules or lore for the more Warhammer games in your collection.
In many ways, this feels like a modern take on Heroquest or Battlemasters. Entry level tabletop gaming to get people interested (in a way modern Heroquest hasn't done). It's clean and each book is put together with care. Its perfect for either the new, or those long in the tooth with not as much time to wargame these days.
However, personally, for me there are downsides. PDF's are fine but I am of a generation that likes having a physical book with me. I like reading the lore, and finding tidbits of information to pry out in order to build my narrative force. I like world-building and fiction, and that's not here, and nor should it be. This isn't that, and unlike something like Frostgrave which has spare amounts of lore to tempt you in, what you see is hat you get. But then, what you get is free, so maybe I shouldn't complain.
Until next, I Remain
Adam