Writing a set of wargames rules is relatively easy. The hard part is writing a set that anyone would want to play. More than any other question I get asked as a game designer and publisher is: “How do I become a rule writer?”, to which I normally respond with “Don’t bother, unless you have a very thick skin”. At the simplest level, one could create a very basic game as a starting point: Infantry move 6”, cavalry 12” and every figure shooting rolls a dice and hits on a 6. I would wager that that has been the starting point for the majority of wargames rules ever written and, if time is indeed a test, then it has withstood its ravages with admirable longevity, if not style. Sadly, here, style is the issue.
Our basic rule set is perfectly good for a game at home or with our chums at the club, but as a commercial venture, it is lacking in the style or sparkle that will make it attractive enough for people to put their hands in their pocket and hand over hard-earned cash. It is a matter of fact that, if we are to create a set of rules that is to gain traction, we need to add something to the mix that will be different from what has come before. Something that will entertain and inspire the gamer and make for a pleasurable experience.
Having said that, new ideas are good, it is worth very quickly adding that this is not carte blanche to create something where every game mechanism is a revolution in wargaming design. Far from it. Indeed, whilst wargamers will always shout “YES!” when asked if they want new and challenging game mechanisms, the truth is that there is an innate conservatism within the hobby, which manifests itself in an unshakeable affection for the familiar. Provide gamers with too much that is new and too little of what they are used to, and their avowed desire for novelty will rapidly evaporate. As such, the new should be the seasoning that flavours the meal as opposed to the meal itself.
By way of example, take the firing mechanisms for Chain of Command. It is done with a D6, with the range determining what you need to roll to hit and the level of cover governing what damage is done to the target. It is a simple mechanism and one that, remarkably as I have never played a Games Workshop game, is instantly recognised by anyone coming to historicals from a GW background. I must conclude that it points to the DNA from the earliest days of wargaming and such worthies as Featherstone and Grant whose influence is still evident in the hobby today. The key point is that while Chain of Command is generally seen as innovative, there is much in it that is still the solid meat and potatoes of game design with which wargamers will feel comfortable with due to familiarity.
Taking the tried and tested as a base, we are then free to embroider on the interesting new ideas that will make our game stand out. In Chain of Command, it is the command system that is novel and the area of the rules with which the player has the greatest contact. It is this that provides them with the decision-making challenges that allows for a game to be, we hope, both challenging and fun.
It goes without saying that designing a new game demands a period of playtesting. I have written on this at length previously, so suffice it to say here that exposing your brilliant ideas to other gamers is the acid test for any new game. Horrifyingly, you may even discover that your brilliant ideas are also someone else’s brilliant ideas and that it has all been done before, but it is far better to discover this at an early stage before you invest a year or two of your time developing them.
As you develop your game, you will need to consider how you are going to get it from a scribbled set of notes to a shiny product in the hands of the wargamer. Here, there are more options and choices than ever before. Increasingly, electronic formats such as e-books or PDFs are seen as normal. Similarly, you no longer need a traditional publisher to produce your rules; self-publishing is achievable, especially if you have the right skills (and software) to allow you to produce a high-quality product. That said, there is little doubt that a hard copy rule book traditionally published by a publisher who is prepared to back that with advertising and who, just as importantly, has the right contacts in the industry, will outsell a book simply uploaded to one of the web sites that serve as an accessible repository for would-be purchasers.
Self-publishing gives you absolute freedom to publish what you like; however, it also means you do miss out on some reality checks that help avoid pitfalls that are obvious to others. At the point where we introduce a publisher into the mix, they are going to be looking for one thing: commercial viability. This is not naked avarice but rather common sense. Even a devoted hobby publisher who loves their subject matter cannot, and will not, take on a project if they do not see a profit at the end of the process. Getting this type of advice is not essential if you are publishing only in PDF format, but it is a critical test of viability if you are going to invest your time and money into producing a hard copy. It is sad to say that I have had to turn down several projects that I would have loved to publish and consequently not worked with people I would have loved to work with because of this financial imperative.
Of course, dealing with a publisher is a quid pro quo arrangement. They can provide benefits for the game designer, but that is not free. If you self-publish through your own website, you will get 100% of the revenue generated by sales but also have the cost of running the website and the obligation to fulfil those orders yourself. Online repository type sites tend to give 65% to 70% of the sales to the author and this will be a very simple “fire and forget’ solution where you just leave the file on the site and periodically collect the revenue. However, these sites tend to offer limited support and little in the way of marketing specific to individual products. You will also find your game is one among thousands, so whether your potential customers ever see your game is often a matter of chance.
If you go through a traditional publisher, you will not get anything like the sums mentioned above. Typically, authors receive royalties of around 10% of sales revenue, but this can go as low as 5%, and some publishing houses simply offer a lump sum of a few grand for a book, whatever its sales figures. However, a publisher can offer some significant advantages, which can often be overlooked, not least the fact that you are likely to sell many more copies, somewhat rebalancing the financial equation.
When embarking on the design process, games tend to start out as a few pages of ideas and concepts. As the playtest process progresses this expands as more aspects of the game are covered and then as notes are added for playtesters who are introduced to the process. This is a gradual and evolutionary process, and, by the time the rules are “finished”, what you actually have is a patchwork of text that has been added to on a somewhat ad hoc basis. What the designer thinks of as complete is best considered a pile of raw text that needs to be processed and restructured. A publisher will then take and shape this into a commercial product.
In truth, by this juncture, the game designer has been looking at their draft for so long that their ability to self-edit is severely hampered. Introducing a third party to read the rules, looking critically at each sentence to see if it conveys intent, will help see what the designer cannot. An editor will look at the overall layout to determine if each section follows logically and in the best order so that it is as effective as possible in delivering a playable game. This sounds like nit-picking, and it undoubtedly is, but it is this attention to detail that will determine the success and longevity of any new game. It is sad to say that a game that has been poorly edited or, God forbid, not edited at all, will soon find itself on e-Bay. A game designer’s survival is based on building and maintaining their reputation to deliver a good product and editing is a key step in that process.
Layout is critical to the success of a game. The days of densely packed text on a white page are behind us. A well-laid-out and well-illustrated set of rules will aid the reader in negotiating what is actually a technical instruction manual. Simple things like presenting key sections on one page; not packing text in simply to save the cost of a few pages, and having good examples and illustrations set aside so they cannot be confused with the text of the core rules; these will make for easy consumption and hopefully ensure that the rules are still being enjoyed for years to come. This involves some skill and access to a wide range of publishing software if it is to be done well. A good publisher will have the tools to take the lead in overseeing, or actually doing this layout work. If you are self-publishing, you will need to consider how you compete on this front. Look at the latest rules sets and see how they do it. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
Finally, however you publish, you need to ensure that people hear about your game. An established publisher will have the contacts and market knowledge to get your rules into the relevant publications. Achieving that yourself is harder. It took me several years before any magazine would carry an article about our rule sets or we could get a table at a major show to demo our games. If your game is to flourish, you will need the oxygen of publicity and that the whole range of hobby press, wargames shows, and, of course, the internet.
In truth, designing games is not relatively easy; it is actually hard work, and getting your game published is even harder. However, I would suggest that it is a fun process that all wargamers should try at least once even though your rules will probably be created for your mates rather than appearing on the shelves of major book shops. But you never know! WS&S
This article was featured in Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy Magazine 128. Discover this issue, and others, in our webshop: