Rules- Some Thoughts.

It must be a sign that I'm getting older but the thought of reading a new set of rules does not fill me with joy . Its probably my fault - God knows how many sets of rules I've read and tried to learn in the last 40 odd years , then having learned them I played them for a while and then moved on to the next exciting and better (?) set !. The trouble is being a wargaming butterfly I have flitted from period to period and returning to them after a break you have to try and remember them again , then there's the problem when they blend into each other and that rule you have been playing from rules 'A' is actually on consulting from rules 'B'. The rules produced now are beautifully produced hard backed glossy affairs - but are they any better than the flimsy illustrationless ones of my youth ?. The rules that I seem to remember best are of course the simplest sets - 'The Sword & The Flame', Charles Grants 'The Wargame' and 'Triumph & Tradgedy' being my old favourites , am a big fan of 'FOW' and have played them a lot recently but when I give them a break I think they are complex enough to have to be re-learnt . Some rules I never got to grips with - 'DBM' springs to mind and I shudder when I think of 'WRG 6th edition' and those blasted 'Newbury' sets of rules !- their 'fast play' sets were as long as any legal document and anything but fast play !. In my gaming career I started with Featherstones simple sets of rules-then to prove how accurate they were rules got complex , luckily we have returned to simpler D6 type mechanisms (Black Powder springs to mind) but to sell they seem to have to be hard backed gloriously illustrated volumes - but this of course does not automatically make them better rules . After all this I still do find myself seduced into buying new sets of rules but I not sure how many of them I will play , clever simple sets like 'Muskets & Tomahawks' are probably in line to join my 'best remembered sets of rules' whilst 'Hail Ceaser' were sold on to my gaming comrade 'A' almost unread - their very size defeating me. I think being a solo player a lot of the time has a bearing on my choice of rule sets , solo gaming needs simple easily remembered rules that allow the game to flow and give a 'narrative' type game - and get a result !. Well enough of my ramblings - oh there's another set of rules the postman has delivered !.

The book that started it all.