Monday Night Mordheim; KISS Keep It Simple, Stupid

Welcome to Monday Night Mordheim, finally. It seems to have calmed down a bit at work, so I'm able to do a bit more creative non-work. Going to gab a bit to set things up and then get into the topic at hand, which is sorta typical of me.

Thing is that we have a new person in our pod at work, not in our department, but short on chairs. She's kinda fun. Reads some fantasy, wants to be an Astro-physics person. Now, me being me, and she being bored, I gave her the Prism Pentad novels from Dark Sun setting. Then she started reading the D&D 3.0 rulebooks we have lying around. In turn she lent me the first two Dresden Files books, which I was totally unimpressed by, I told her that it was like reading someone's solo Mage; The Ascension campaign. Then she started reading the World of Darkness books we have sitting around. So she has read a bunch of rulebooks (which in my mind is boring as shit).

I sat there and looked at the volumes of rules she's read through, and I'm sitting there thinking, this is such a huge amount of random crap. I love those games, but damn, I've been playing them for decades and I am still learning new rules. I think that is one of the reasons I love Mordheim so much. Mordheim plays by the greatest rule of them all 'KISS- Keep It Simple, Stupid'.

I could teach someone to play Mordheim in two settings, maybe four hours total. I really thing that the best rule to illustrate this is the Hiding Rule. Hide is not something in most other wargames, but it is executed so easily.

If no one can draw Line of Sight to a model after it moves, you can declare it hidden, and then you have to be within Iniative inches to see them. There's more to it then that, but it in essence, that's it. Nice, simple, clean. There's nothing to it.

That's the beauty of Mordheim, a game changing rule described in a sentence. The entirety of rules is in one book, and most of that book is options. Not hundreds of rules, not thousands of variations. Mordheim is a simple system, and yes, it does have its cracks and loopholes. In the grand scheme of things its a gem of simplicity, and a nice break from those other rules heavy games.

The Unspeakable

It's that time of year again folks, got mucho mas busy at work. No time for gaming or game thoughts. I'll try to keep you updated soon.

Monday Night Mordheim; Old Vs New

I want to write something poetic about the new addition of 40K. I really do, but the truth is that it doesn't matter to me. The most common thing I say to my wife or kids is 'Leave Well Enough Alone', no generally this means 'Stop messing with your hair and get in the car, we're running late', or 'Don't bitch that your brother got a bow and arrow for his birthday, you still get to use it'.

See, I look at things and I like how they work, in many cases. The thing is that 40K is poisoned by its own success. This is starting to look like something I should put on my angry blog, but its not. The problem with success is that something becomes popular, but even if everyone has a copy, no more copies sell. So things get updated, and changed. 

The thing is that Mordheim is the opposite. There are very few games that reach the small gem that Mordheim exists as. It's basically an old school parasite of a game. Which is what I want to talk about. Mordheim is a bit of a throw back to the oldest days of WHFB and 40K, where the game was much more like 'D&D encounters' then it was a massive army battle game. 

The thing is that old games and new games both have a place at the table. The old stuff tends to get pushed to the side though for the new shinyness. Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that, new stuff keeps publishers in business. 

Mordheim, though is a game in stasis. It was based on (I believe) WHFB 5th/6th edition. There haven't been any major revisions since the 2002 Annual, which if my calender is correct, was almost a decade ago. That's not 'old school' its more 'out of date' school. There's a beauty in a game that isn't getting support, its up to the fans, but the core of it is unchanging. I can walk with Mordheim anywhere that anyone plays it, and it is still good to go. 

Trying to stay up to date with other games is tiring. Old games are awesome, and should still be played. It doesn't matter if its Mordheim, or D&D B/X, or Star Wars d6, or even Original World of Darkness. The games themselves haven't changed. They are still playable as the day they were released. Think about those old games you have on your self that you haven't played in awhile. Take them down, blow the dust off, and get to playing.

Session Update; July 5- The Podcast!

Got 4 and a half hours to spare? Listen to our podcast version of the D&D session!

Linky!

Session Update; July 5th Rage Comic

So had another D&D session, and there's another rage comic session update. I also realize that I am not a very nice DM, since I keep putting my players in situations where they can get quickly over their heads. RIP Lucca!

Monday Night Mordheim; Loremasters of Hoeth PDF

At long last the Great Work is completed! The full pdf of the Loremasters of Hoeth warband is complete. I'm going to miss this project, I've invested a lot of time and effort into it. I hope you all like it. Next week will be an all new exciting Mordheim idea or talk or something. You'd think I'd run out of stuff to talk about, but nope! It's a never ending well. Without further ado;

THE LINK TO END ALL LINKS!