Hollandazed: Thoughts, Ideas, and Miscellany

The challenge in creating Volume II of Horse & Musket lay with picking a time frame. The War of the Spanish Succession set the overall parameters of musket combat, which did not greatly change until the American and particularly the French Revolution. Yet, there is a difference between the wars that were fought from 1721 to 1748 on the one hand, and the apocalyptic Seven Years’ War on the other. The difference was less in tactics and more in the armies. The main armies of Europe in the period were France, Britain, Prussia, and Austria. Each had very different experiences...

Though 2017 still has some life left in it, Mary and I have been spending most of our time and energy in 2018. Since folks have been curious about what's down the road, we thought it'd be a good idea to dedicate a few blogposts to what we have in the pipeline. In this first installment, we'll be looking at some known quantities - that is, series games and sequels. Next time we'll be looking at some solitaire titles we have in development, and we'll round it off with a glimpse at everything else. And so, without further preamble, let's...

The first bit of advice that every designer gets about trying to get a game published is to approach publishers who will actually be a good fit for your game. You want to look at what other games they've put out on the market and get a feel for their catalogue and their general philosophy. Some companies have a very narrow focus. Winsome is a prime example. About a dozen years ago, Winsome's John Bohrer was interviewed by some guy named Tom Vasel, who asked Mr. Bohrer what he was looking for in a game: Well, first of all, the...

When a game is part of a series, it can make things easier for both the gamer and the designer. The gamer doesn't need to sit down with a whole new rulebook and read it start to finish every single time she wants to learn a new game in the series; once she's done it the first time, it's just about learning the new rules specific to that scenario or volume. And the designer doesn't need to write a whole new rulebook, and I gotta tell you, the less time I have to spend typing in "Movement Points cannot be...

I've designed a lot of different games for a lot of a different player counts on a lot of different subjects. At first glance, my wargames look nothing like my train games - to the point where at least one person didn't realize that the same guy had done them, and even suspected the Tom Russell who does train games as being some kind of pseudonym. But there are certain features that all my games have in common, such as my usual obsessions with tempo, momentum, the need to weaken your own position in order to advance it, feedback loops,...