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In Theory: Making Warhammer 40k Better

When I sat down to write my last article—an update on my renewed relationship with Warhammer 40K since it came back into my gaming rotation last year—I found myself reflecting on the challenges I’ve had with the game. I started wondering: Could I fix some of these issues myself? Maybe through house rules, borrowed mechanics from other systems, or even a fresh approach to gameplay?

That question led me down a rabbit hole of research, where I started noticing patterns between my own table habits and the frustrations they created. But what really surprised me was the solution. It didn’t require complex rule tweaks, homebrew mechanics, or drastic changes. With just a few small shifts—nothing outside the official rules—I suddenly found myself realizing that having a much smoother, more enjoyable Warhammer 40K experience was a matter of setup rather than rules changes.

It was a lightbulb moment, and naturally, it led to another 40K article. So today, let’s dig into the question: How can we make our 40K experience better?

The Issues With Warhammer 40k

Now, let me be clear—I’m not claiming these are the issues with Warhammer 40K, just my issues with the game. That’s an important distinction. I can only speak from my own experience, though I suspect plenty of players might relate.

For me, the challenges boil down to three key areas—each interconnected and deeply tied to the game’s history and Games Workshop’s business practices. These are: Battle Size, Gotcha Rules, and Terrain Count.

Let’s break them down.

The Battle Size Problem

My first major issue with Warhammer 40K today is the battlefield itself—specifically, how claustrophobic battles feel and how terrain and distances lack real strategic impact.

Marketing shots like this are great because they show off the amazing miniatures from the Warhammer 40k universe, we love it, but if your actual games looks like this, it’s going to be a very boring “shoot out” with no strategy, tactics or relevant gameplay. It just becomes a dice-chucking roll-off where the best dice odds are most likely to win. That’s not a miniature game, that’s Yahtzee!

There are three key reasons for this, and to understand why it feels so different to me compared to how it’s supposed to, you have to consider how much the game has changed since the last time I played seriously (back in 6th Edition) compared to today (10th Edition).

The Battlefield Has Shrunk

First, the battlefield has physically gotten smaller. The standard play area used to be 6×4 feet. Today, the recommended size is 44” x 60”—a reduction of 4 inches on the short side and a full foot on the long side.

The adoption of a 44×60 table has become this presumption about what is standard going so far as people creating guides on how to convert your 6×4 table into a 44×66 table. The obvious decision to shrink the minimum table size is a marketing ploy so that GW can tell you “hey – you can play 40k on a kitchen table”, but the reality is that this is the absolute most minimum space you can play on and a minimum sized table create a minimum sized experience. 6×4 is still the standard table size for 40k, don’t let anyone tell you differently!

Now, here’s something I didn’t even realize until I saw it in a YouTube video pointing it out: 44” x 60” is not the standard table size—it’s the minimum table size. There’s no official rule stating that this is the “proper” or “official” battlefield size, only that it’s the absolute smallest table you’re allowed to play on. You can, and arguably should, play on a larger surface.

But the battlefield itself isn’t the only reason for the cramped feeling.

Army Sizes Have Increased

The second issue is army size. Over the years, the cost of fielding a Warhammer 40K army (in terms of points, not money) has steadily decreased. The changes from edition to edition may have been subtle, but when you compare 6th Edition to 10th Edition, the difference is staggering.

Take Hormagaunts, a staple of any Tyranid army. Back in 6th Edition, each model cost 10 points, meaning a unit of 10 was 100 points, and 20 would set you back 200 points. Today? A unit of 10 Hormagaunts costs just 65 points—nearly a 35% reduction.

And it’s not just direct cost but indirect cost as well. Consider Zoanthropes—back in the day, a single Zoanthrope cost 34 points, so a squad of three was 102 points. That might sound close to today’s cost (100 points for three), but in 6th Edition, you also had to pay an additional 25 points per model if you wanted to equip them with Warp Blast, effectively doubling their cost. Now? That ability is free.

This a modern Tyranid at roughly 1,000 points. It’s a pretty big army and is going to take several hours to resolve a battle with this many units.

This kind of points compression is consistent across every faction and every unit. If you add it all up, a typical 2,000-point army from 6th Edition is roughly equivalent to a 1,000-point army in today’s game. In other words, players are fielding twice as many models as they used to—and on a smaller battlefield to boot, adding to the claustrophobic feeling of the battlefield.

And here’s another thing: Back in 6th Edition, 2,000 points wasn’t even the standard game size, there was no standard size or even recommendation—point size was presumed to be between 500-2,000 points, and 2,000 points was considered a large, long game. In fact most missions published were well below the 2,000-point mark. Looking at tournaments and other events from the era as well, most games were played at between 1,000-1,500 points, with 2,000 points being seen as “a major event”. If you adjust for today’s point scaling, that would mean a 750-850-point game would provide a similar amount of miniatures on the table.

Army Construction Rules Are Looser

The final factor is the way armies are built. In older editions, list-building was more restrictive—you had to follow a structure with minimums and maximums for different unit types:

  • HQ (Leaders)
  • Troops (Core units)
  • Elites (Special forces)
  • Fast Attack (Speedy units)
  • Heavy Support (Big guns)

You couldn’t just spam your strongest units or cheese the system with hyper-optimized lists. You had to build a more balanced force. Today, those restrictions have been loosened significantly, allowing for much more extreme list-building strategies.

So why did all of this happen?

Spoiler alert: It’s because Games Workshop wants to sell more models. I get it—it’s a business. But when you look at how these changes impact the game, and more importantly, if you simply acknowledge that this is happening, the solution is surprisingly simple.

I get it, Games Workshop is in the business of selling miniatures, but the thing is that even if you can afford a huge army, most of us are looking for a game that can be played in a reasonable amount of time. More models, mean longer games. With the constant increase in model count and army size, Warhammer 40k is quickly reaching the 5-6 hour mark to complete a game that is about 2-3 hours too long and there is a marked reduction in the quality of the games rather than an improvement.

How to Fix It

Fixing this issue—and getting a much better gaming experience—is surprisingly simple. After making a few adjustments, I was shocked at how much more enjoyable my Warhammer 40K games became. Here’s what worked for me:

Play on a 6×4 table (or larger).
A bigger battlefield changes everything. With more room to maneuver, units are spread out properly, and movement becomes a real tactical factor rather than an afterthought. It makes the game feel more strategic and immersive—as it should be!

Play at 1,000-1,200 points.
Lowering the point cap drastically improves the game in three key ways:

  1. Less to track – With fewer models and abilities in play, it’s easier for both you and your opponent to understand what each army can do. No more “gotcha” moments because you forgot a rule buried in a sea of datasheets.
  2. Faster games – Cutting back on unit bloat speeds up turns, making for a smoother and more dynamic experience.
  3. Better use of terrain and maneuvering – With fewer models and a larger table, movement actually matters. Cover becomes important, flanking is viable, and armies don’t feel crammed together from turn one.

Limit non-Battleline units to one copy max.
This was the hardest change to implement—but also one of the most effective. Limiting non-Battleline units (i.e., elites, vehicles, monsters, and specialist units) to one per army prevents spamming, one of the most common balance-breaking issues in the game.

  • Want a Rhino? You get one.
  • A unit of Zoanthropes? Just one squad.
  • No doubling (or tripling) up on power units for maximum efficiency.

This forces players to diversify their lists, leading to more balanced, engaging, and fair battles. It also eliminates “cheese lists” that rely on stacking the same overpowered unit, making games more tactical and less about who can break the system better.

Making these small adjustments completely changed my 40K experience—for the better. If you’re feeling the same frustration I was, give them a shot. You might be surprised at just how much of a difference they make.

The “Gotcha!” Problem – A Paywall on Knowledge

One of the most frustrating aspects of Warhammer 40K today isn’t the game itself—it’s Games Workshop’s business model. Specifically, the way they lock critical game knowledge behind an expensive paywall.

If you want to fully understand how the game works, you need to know what every army can do. But legally, the only way to access that information is by buying every single codex—a ridiculous and financially unrealistic expectation for most players.

Sure, buying the codex for your own army makes sense. But unless you’re willing to spend a small fortune on all the other codexes, you’ll always be flying blind against other factions. And that lack of information leads to one of Warhammer 40K’s biggest gameplay issues:

The “Gotcha!” Problem

Picture this: You make a strategic move, thinking you’re about to pull off a clever play—only for your opponent to drop a totally unexpected army rule, stratagem, or unit ability that completely shuts you down.

You wouldn’t have made that move if you had all the information. But because key mechanics are locked behind expensive rulebooks, you’re left playing a guessing game—one that your opponent already knows the answers to.

Now, some might argue, “Well, you should know the rules to the game.” And they’d be right—if the rules were actually available. But Games Workshop intentionally hides them behind a massive paywall, forcing players to buy their way into understanding the game.

The Impact on Gameplay and Community

This leads to a terrible gameplay experience and fosters a toxic play environment where veteran players can easily take advantage of newer or casual players. The result?

  • Unfair, one-sided games
  • Frustration for new or casual players
  • A shrinking player base as people give up on the game

In fact, I know plenty of people who refuse to play Warhammer 40K solely because of this issue. And the worst part? The game itself isn’t the problem—it’s Games Workshop’s sketchy business practice that creates this artificial barrier to entry.

The sad thing about 40k 10th edition is that it was a considerably better game before the Codexes dropped because at the start you had much better visibility of the rules of the game thanks to the release of digital indexes for all the armies. As codexes were released, the indexes were removed, slowly resulting in more and more hidden information. Today, players are flying blind!

The reality of Games Workshop rules for Warhammer 40k is that to get a complete set of rules today for competitive play it will cost you around 600 dollars and that covers you for approximately 3 years. That is neither a reasonable nor honest service level.

How to Fix It

The options here are quite limited and I’m just going to answer this question with a simple quote and leave it at that.

Piracy is the act of honest people solving a problem in response to dishonest people. Provide a reasonably priced service and you will discover that most people are honest, fail to do so and you will discover that there is no such thing as an honest person.

Do with that what you will.

The final issue—and one of the easiest to fix—is terrain count.

Warhammer 40K doesn’t provide particularly strong guidance on how much terrain a battlefield should have, nor does it offer clear recommendations for placement. The game defines different terrain types, and there’s an example battlefield in the rulebook, but when it comes time to set up for an actual game, most players are left guessing.

The Problem: Too Little, Too Symmetrical

In my experience, the most common issue is not enough terrain. And even when terrain is placed, players tend to mirror the layout in an attempt to be fair. While this seems reasonable, the result is often a static, predictable battlefield where terrain has limited impact on gameplay.

Terrain is a big barrier to entry, another major paywall to miniature games and Games Workshop makes the most expensive terrain by a margin so big you can expect to pay 3-4 times as much for official terrain. Thanks to 3d printing however and plenty of companies out their making quality pre-painted terrain, it’s getting cheaper every day to field sufficient terrain for Warhammer 40k.

The worst-case scenario? A game that feels like a shooting gallery, where units just line up and fire at each other with nothing breaking sightlines or forcing tactical movement. This kills the strategic depth that terrain is supposed to bring to the game.

How to Fix

After experimenting with different setups, I’ve learned a few simple terrain fixes that dramatically improve gameplay. The key is making sure you have enough terrain and placing it properly.

Use More Terrain – A well-designed battlefield should be at least 25-30% covered in terrain, meaning that you roughly need 20-25 pieces. This ensures that movement, positioning, and cover actually matter.

Ditch Symmetry – Real battlefields aren’t symmetrical. Instead of mirroring terrain, create natural-looking battlefields with varied sightlines and areas of strategic importance.

Mix Terrain Types – Include a variety of line-of-sight blocking structures, dense cover, and elevated positions to make movement and positioning just as important as firepower. Be sure to use all the different types of terrain, there should be a strong mixture and it’s often better to have more pieces rather than large blockers. You need some of those two, but you want to make sure that the benefits of cover shots are far more common than clear shots. In fact I would argue unless 80%-90% of shots are with the benefit of cover, you don’t have enough terrain.

Invest in Terrain – If you don’t have enough terrain, it’s worth investing in some—or better yet, making your own. Terrain can be kitbashed from other games or built cheaply using household materials. More is always better.

Conclusion

Let’s be clear—miniature wargames are inherently imperfect. No amount of tweaking will guarantee a perfect experience every time. There will always be anticlimactic moments, disappointing dice rolls, and the occasional frustrating matchup. But at its core, Warhammer 40K is a fun, cinematic, and immersive game, and with the right approach, you can make sure the good games far outweigh the bad.

One of the biggest keys to improving your experience in my opinion is separating game design from business decisions. Warhammer 40K isn’t just a game—it’s a product, and Games Workshop makes choices that prioritize sales over gameplay, for which I do not fault them. Still, many of the issues that make the game feel frustrating—cramped battlefields, bloated army sizes, and gotcha mechanics—aren’t necessarily the result of bad game design, but rather business-driven design. Recognizing this distinction empowers you to take control of your own gaming experience and fix the experience. You don’t have to go down the shallow road of listening to Games Workshop advertisement-based decisions about how the game should be played. They want to sell you as much crap as possible, but you don’t have to be a fool and buy into it. Beneath the exterior is a very good game and simply taking the reigns of control is sufficient to have a vastly improved gaming experience.

At the end of the day, Warhammer 40K is your game, your table, and your experience. Fewer units on the battlefield, a larger play area, smarter terrain placement, and limiting army spam may not align with Games Workshop’s profit goals, but they absolutely make the game better. The goal isn’t to feed a corporation’s bottom line—it’s to create fun, balanced, and rewarding battles for you and your friends.

I hope you found this guide helpful – Happy wargaming!

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Miniature Game Theory: Picking The Right Game For You

It happened by accident—at least, that’s what I tell myself—but the truth is, I own a lot of miniature games. I’ve painted and played so many that it’s a little scary! I don’t even want to think about how much time and money I’ve sunk into this hobby, especially not around my wife! In today’s article, I’ll take all that hard-earned experience and try to put it to good use by offering some advice on finding the perfect miniature game for you, with a few recommendations sprinkled in.

Let’s dive right in!

The Three Categories Of Miniature Gaming

Most miniature games can be sorted into three broad categories—though many games blur the lines between them. These categories are: hobby-focused games (sometimes called lore-heavy games), mechanics-focused games (often competitive in nature), and narratively focused games (driven by storytelling and immersion).

Now, every game publisher will tell you their game does everything, and technically, they’re not wrong—but the reality is, most games lean heavily into one category more than the others, often to an extreme. Knowing what kind of game you’re getting into and understanding how the community that plays that game sees it is a big part of the key to picking the right game for yourself.

Categorization is key because all miniature games are marketed in a visually exciting way because they ARE visually exciting. If you pick a game like Star Wars: Shatterpoint, you likely have certain expectations and imagery about what the experience might be like (player expectations), but Shatterpoint is a highly mechanized game designed for competitive play, about playing King of the Hill on generic objectives. It’s closer to being a board game than being a miniature game, falling heavily into the Mechanic-Focused category.

Let’s break down these categories for clarity.

Hobby-focused games

Hobby-focused games are all about the experience—stunning miniatures, immersive lore, and endless collection opportunities. Here, the gameplay often takes a backseat to the joy of building, painting, and diving deep into the game’s rich world.

These games are usually supported by expansive novels, army books, special terrain, and a constant stream of new releases. They demand a serious investment—not just in time, but in cold hard cash. Hobby-focused games are easily the most expensive, often costing two to four times more than other types.

A prime example? Warhammer 40k by Games Workshop. To even get started, you’ll need at least a 1,000-point army (2,000 points being standard), translating to anywhere from 50 to 100 models. Before you can even think about playing, you’re looking at hundreds—if not thousands—of dollars spent on miniatures, terrain, rulebooks, and accessories.

While most miniature games can be classified as a hobby to some degree as you will often be assembling and painting miniatures, there is a distinct difference between miniature games being a hobby and a game being hobby-focused. Warhammer: Underworld for example aims to get you playing the game right away with easy-to-assemble miniatures that have colored plastic with a game that is played on a hex board with all the accessories (cards, tokens etc..) included in the box. You can play a full game like Underworld a few hours after you open the box, it is not a hobby-focused game even though you will get the opportunity to paint some miniatures and experience the miniature gaming hobby element inherent in all miniature games.

When all is said and done, you’ll likely spend over $500 and 100+ hours before experiencing the full game of Warhammer 40k as it is intended to be played. No ad will tell you this, and hardcore fans might argue otherwise, but trust me—after 35+ years in the hobby, I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s done it for less.

Warhammer 40k is a hobby-focused game, you will spend just shy of 100 dollars to get into the starter set and after assembling and painting these miniatures you will discover that what you have purchased is not even close to the full game. You are still hundreds of dollars and hours away from experiencing Warhammer 40k from this point. In fact, the starter set doesn’t even teach you the real game, it gives you a sort of “sub-game” of the real thing. Warhammer 40k assumes a lot about what you will spend in terms of dollars and hours preparing to play a full game.

The trick is that this is exactly what Hobby-Focused games are designed to be and it’s what fans of such games want. If it was easy and fast, it would not have the same appeal. To hobby-focused gamers, this long road is seen as an opportunity, not a drawback.

But here’s the thing—fans of hobby games love this level of commitment. The journey of collecting and painting is the whole point. You’re never done, and that’s exactly the appeal. To fans of these hobby-focused games, the journey is the juice.

Mechanics-Focused Games

If hobby games are about immersion, mechanics-focused games are about playing—and playing now. These games prioritize tight, balanced rules over deep lore or hobby elements, often designed for competitive tournament play.

Many of these games require little to no hobby work at all. most come with pre-painted miniatures, easy-to-assemble miniatures and/or low model counts, making them much more accessible for casual or competitive players.

Examples? Star Wars: X-Wing and Star Wars: Armada, with streamlined mechanics and pre-painted minis that let you jump straight into the action. Even hybrid games like Star Wars: Shatterpoint leans into this category, focusing on accessible, tactical gameplay with minimal prep.

Most mechanic-focused games are going to try very hard to make the hobby parts of miniature gaming as painless as possible, even going so far as offering pre-constructed, pre-painted miniatures. The goal of a mechanic-focused game is not only to get you playing right away but more specifically to get you competing right away. Star Wars: X-Wing is a prime example of a game that took this to the furthest extreme. You need roughly 3-6 models, everything is pre-painted and assembled, and essentially you are ready to sign up for tournaments after the unboxing.

Side Note: Star Wars X-Wing has been discontinued by the publisher, but don’t fret, miniature games never truly die and X-Wing is no exception. Communities keep these games alive and there were so many products produced for X-Wing that there are more miniatures available for purchase today than there ever was when the game was still being published.

Mechanics-focused games often feel closer to board games than traditional miniature games, with precise, clearly defined rules that leave no room for “eyeballing it.” These games are generally much cheaper to get to the table while getting the intended full gaming experience.

Narratively Focused Games

Narratively focused games sit on the opposite end of the spectrum from mechanics-driven ones. These games aim to capture a feeling—bringing iconic franchises, historical moments, or unique settings to life in a cinematic way.

Balance and precision take a back seat to storytelling and thematic immersion. Instead of symmetrical matchups, expect scenario-driven play that tries to replicate key moments—whether they’re historical battles or epic fantasy showdowns.

Bolt Action is a fantastic example of a narratively driven game that hybrids a bit into the hobby-focused element. The point of Bolt Action is to create (or use) scenarios that depict historical battles, but the game is not about simulation or exacting rules, it’s about creating the atmosphere of a great action-war movie. It’s about the sensation at the table, the atmosphere of the setting, and quick execution. The extra effort to put together a nicely painted army and building nice terrain is to quench that creative appetite, though I would still argue it leans far more into the narratively driven games rather than the hobby-focused games.

Two great examples of Narrative-focused games are The Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game and Bolt Action. MESBG tries to replicate the lord of the Rings movies, while Bolt Action tries to replicate a movie version of historical World War II battles. In both cases, the games exaggerate the cinematic fantasy to bring the feel and style of their chosen setting to the table.

Understanding Your Interest In Miniature Games

Now that we’ve established a way to categorize games, the next step is figuring out how to use this information to guide your decision and ultimately select the right game for you.

You might already have a gut feeling based on the categories we’ve outlined, leaning more towards one over the others. Preferences are often instinctive and valid, but it’s important to remember that while most games lean toward a particular focus, they usually incorporate elements from all three categories. Even games with a clear identity—like Warhammer 40k being hobby-focused—venture into narrative and mechanics to some extent.

Choosing the right game is about balancing your interests with realistic expectations. To help narrow down your options, consider these three key factors:

Time & Money?

It’s easy to be drawn to what excites you most, but miniature games require a significant investment of both time and money.

Games generally fall into three price categories:

  • Cheap: Around $60-$100, comparable to the cost of a typical board game.
  • Standard: Ranging from $150-$250 for a full experience.
  • Expensive (a.k.a. “Go F* Yourself”)**: $500+ for the complete experience.
The BattleTech Alpha Strike box set is an outstanding value for a game, coming in on the “cheap” category, this box set costs about 90 dollars US and quite literally comes with more than what you need to play a full game. You can buy this box set, never buy any more stuff for Battletech, and play the game forever. This kind of value is rare in the miniature market, but if you love giant robot battles, you can’t do better than this.

Price is not the only consideration however, Battletech can take upwards of 6+ hours to play a single game, so you have to ask yourself that question too. Will you ever have time to play a 6+ hour game?

It’s worth noting that you can spend more or less on any game. For example, you could grab an intro set for Warhammer 40k at $50, but that won’t give you the full experience Games Workshop intends. On the flip side, a core set for Battletech at $90 can offer a well-rounded experience, though diving deeper could cost thousands.

Time commitment follows a similar pattern. You might grab an X-Wing starter set and be playing within minutes, while something like Warhammer Old World could demand 60+ hours of assembly and painting before your first match.

Infinity is a fantastic example of a game that respects your wallet and your time but still offers a very robust gaming experience with extreme collection and expansion opportunities. They do this through masterful design, ensuring that the game is every bit as exciting and fun on a smaller scale with simplified rules as it is with large scale and nearly bottomless rules expansion. A small game from a basic starter kit can cost less than 50 bucks to get into and offer a game session as short as 45 minutes, to larger scale and elaborate battles with deep rules that can cost hundreds of dollars to collect and create play times exceeding 5+ hours.

Some gamers (this one included) love games that have varying scales like this, it makes collection (acquisition) easier and you get to play as you collect, build, and expand. In my eyes, Infinity is one of the best miniature games out there, especially when it comes to respecting your time and money!

Many games market “quick start” options, but the reality is that each game has a clear overhead. Take the time to research what’s truly required to enjoy the full experience and compare it with your available resources.

Miniature Games are a group activity

No matter what game you choose, remember that miniature games are fundamentally social. While they can be enjoyed as a solo hobby (through collecting and painting), the core experience revolves around playing with others. Most games require at least two players, but the best experiences often come from being part of an active community.

Don’t have any friends to play miniature games with but you still want to get into it? Don’t worry, Warcrow Adventures has your back! Ok, I’m going to say this up front, games like Warcrow Adventures (just like any game) are always more fun when you have friends to share them with. But if you want to get into miniature games and you are living in isolation or simply don’t have anyone around to play with, Warcrow Adventures offers a fantastic game that can be played completely solo. It offers fantastic miniatures for you to paint and enjoy the hobby part of miniature gaming with expansion opportunity and because the game’s miniatures are directly connected to Warcrow the miniatures game, you could potentially in the future expand your collection to that game as well.

That said, I still think the best option is to find some friends to play games with, community is just a huge part of this hobby and often it almost doesn’t matter what miniature game you play, as long as you have people to play it with.

Before diving in, make sure your chosen game has a local presence. There’s nothing worse than investing time and money into a game you never get to play because no one else in your area is into it. Online communities can help bridge gaps, but nothing beats in-person matches and events. After all, if you’re going to invest time and money into building an army for a game, playing some digitized version of it is going to be very anticlimactic, don’t expect that sort of thing to fill any voids.

Competative or Casual

Some games are designed with competition in mind, while others lean into a more relaxed, narrative-driven approach. While this often aligns with a game’s core category, community culture can shift things in unexpected ways.

Take Warhammer 40k, for example—designed as a hobby-focused game, yet many local communities treat it as a highly competitive experience. Conversely, Star Wars: X-Wing, built for competition, has embraced the mantra “Fly Casual,” encouraging players to focus on enjoying the thematic experience rather than strict competitive play despite its clear design goals.

These community-driven shifts can be confusing for new players, so it’s crucial to research how a game is actually played in your area rather than relying solely on its marketing or official design.

The concept of the current state of the game as seen through the eyes of the community should be an important consideration when selecting your game. Marketing is one thing, game state is an altogether different thing. Take Warmachine for example. A few years back I would have recommended this game without hesitation, it was once, a fantastic game. Today I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Privateer Press has done a very poor job taking care of this game and it’s in terrible shape right now, unlikely to survive going forward. It’s a real mess!

It’s also worth noting that any game has a “current state” defined by the opinions of the community which defines the mood of the community. This is an important pulse to have your finger on, because the rules and governance of a game by it’s publisher can have a tremendous amount of impact on the game and the gaming community. It’s important to know that being negative gets more clicks, so look for positive feedback on any game you’re considering, but beware that every game has a “this game sucks” anti-fan club on social media.

The Miniature Games – Overviews!

I have already offered a bit of insight on a few games in the article, but I will do a few more here just to give you some ideas and inspiration for your own research, that said, here comes the golden advice.

DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!
This is so critical to the process, before you whip out that credit card you should know everything there is to know about a game. Don’t go into miniature games likely, even the most basic game is going to demand a lot more from you than a typical board game, so miniature games should never be an impulse buy!

Star Wars Legion

It’s truly a rare gamer that I run into that doesn’t love Star Wars on some level and it’s natural for gamers to gravitate towards familiar franchises. As such, Star Wars Legion always comes up in conversations about miniature games because it is, in a nutshell, Star Wars on a grand scale.

In Star Wars Legion you are going to have mass battles on large battlefields with Jedi’s, AT-AT walkers and the countless troops each with their own personality from the Star Wars universe. Visually, it’s every kid’s dream to play Star Wars on this scale.

That said you have to be weary here. This hybrid game, has a heavy hobby element requirement, it’s quite expensive to get a full game on the table and the game state right now is a bit confusing.

It’s a great game, but be sure to check on the status of this game thoroughly and do some calculations. Once it’s all said and done you will spend a solid 300-400 dollars to get a complete army with many hours of hobby time to pull it all together. It requires a commitment!

Marvel Crisis Protocal

Like Star Wars Legion, the Marvel Universe has been popularized in recent years by the never-ending influx of Marvel movies, so gravitating towards a miniature game with all of your favorite superheroes is perfectly natural.

What you have to know about Marvel Crisis Protocol is that it’s a very structured mechanic-focused game with a very stern competitive style and objective-oriented game. This is not a narrative-focused game at all, it plays more like a board game than a miniature game. The scenarios in the game are just “adjective” driven excuses for what amounts to a game about holding objectives (positions) on the board.

It’s a fun and fantastic game, but be sure you match your expectations with the actual gameplay.

Wings of Glory

Speaking of managing expectations, let’s talk about Wings of Glory. As an avid historical war gamer, I love a good heavy war simulation, so one look at Wings of Glory and it is easy to get excited.

The important thing to know about Wings of Glory is that it’s not a simulation at all, in fact, this is the UNO of miniature games, one that can be taught to children. It does not take itself seriously, there is no hobby element (everything is pre-painted) and it’s not designed for narrative-focused play.

This is a very simple dog-fighting game, with board game-like mechanics. It’s light, fast and super fun, but this is not the historical simulator you might hope it would be.

Ok that’s it for today guys, I hope you found the article useful, good luck out there!

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Top 10 Lifestyle Boardgames Worth The Effort and Top 5 That Didn’t Make It

There are board games, and then there are BOARD GAMES!—epic, brain-bending experiences that redefine what it means to gather around a table for game night. Once you delve a bit deeper into this hobby with an appetite for depth and challenge, you’ll find yourself discovering games where gameplay often demands much more than the average player might be ready to give.

These aren’t your casual diversions. We’re talking about games that push the boundaries with intricate strategies, meticulously designed simulations, and often marathon-length play sessions. They’re the kind of games that give back as much as they demand.

But let’s face it: not every complex game is worth the time and effort. Many fall short, bogged down by poor design, unnecessary complexity, or a lack of payoff. In this article, we’re diving into the fascinating realm of “lifestyle” games—those games that go beyond entertainment to become a full-blown hobby. These are games so rich, so challenging, and so immersive that simply learning to play them well feels like an achievement in itself.

Let’s explore the best (and maybe a few of the worst) of this exclusive club. Buckle up; it’s going to be a long one!

War Of The Ring

This classic Lord of the Rings boardgame that is part adventure game, part strategic war game is without question one of the most endearing games on this list. If you’re a Lord of the Rings fan looking for a two-player experience, this is the one that immediately pops into my head, but even as it does so, I can’t help but immediately point out the cautionary elements of this game.

It’s a long game and it’s a relatively complex game but this is not why I define it as a lifestyle game. The reality is that in order to get the most out of this game you need to have repeated plays of it, many…. so many repeated plays.

It takes many sessions to understand and come to terms with the subtle strategies of this game, the eben-flow of the asymmetric decks, the unique architecture of the map and the subtle way the gameplay is defined by the unique dice mechanic that may at first feel like a strange randomization in another why’s very thinky game, giving this one a kind of reactionary playstyle.

In short, this is not a game you play to try to win, rather you play the game to see what happens. In almost an RPG-like way, this board game is as much about telling the emergent tale of the entire trilogy of the Middle Earth story as it is a strategic war game. A concept that, for a Lord of the Rings fans, should hopefully spark excitement and anticipation. It’s a game where you get to explore what-if scenarios.

The game has a steep learning curve and the rules are not always intuitive, focused more on trying to bring out the story of the game and the realities of the Middle-earth world than being streamlined. Just explaining the game to a new player and having them come to terms with the nuances is going to take several plays and when you finally have that aha moment, you will find yourself in a permanent loop of “theory-crafting” different approaches, each demanding another session to try out your latest theory.

By the time you have played this game a dozen or so times, you will find yourself no closer to a definitive answer on how to play this game well or how to win at it and so you are drawn to it like a moth to a flame in the never-ending pursuit to figure it out. That is if it sticks the landing for you and I find that with many gamers, it doesn’t and this is why, finding like-minded opponents with a desire to explore the depths of this game becomes an important part of bringing the true nature and experience of this game to the forefront.

If you can find a good partner who loves Lord of the Rings as much as you do, what you have is an almost chess-like experience, a dual with eternal replayability that will have you creating and re-telling stories of “that one time” or describing past theories and gambits and its in this combination of attributes of the game, War of the Rings forms into a forever lifestyle game.

Western Empires

I have a love-hate relationship with this game mainly because it has this intangible quality, born part out of nostalgia for the classic game on which it is based (Advanced Civilization) but also because of its unusual mechanics that you will never see in any other game, creating this sort of abstracted, yet very story driven and personal experience. Simultaneously it’s frustratingly difficult to get to the table simply because of its scope and length of play.

It’s a massive game, playable by 5 to 9 players, but, quite clearly designed for 9 players specifically. A game that takes 12-24 hours to play, this is a massive epic-event game that can be made even bigger, up to 18 players by combining its sister game, Eastern Empires. To say this game is HUGE is an understatement. I say this without hesitation or exaggeration, this IS the single biggest boardgame ever made and I doubt we will ever see anything top it.

I don’t think it’s difficult to understand why I would proclaim this a lifestyle game, it takes enormous effort to get to the table, demanding a lot from its players, but why is it on the list? Especially given that this game also appears on my TOP 5 BOARDGAMES THAT WERE ALMOST GREAT, BUT HAD A FLAW THAT RUINED THEM list?

The answer is quite simple which is that the hard part of this game, unlike so many games on this list is simply getting X amount of players to sit down and play a game for Y amount of hours, in this case, the preferred X is 9 and the likely Y is 12-24 hours. It’s a bit much even for the most dedicated of gaming groups.

Despite its massive size, scope, and length, the mechanics of this game are surprisingly simple, at least in terms of understanding the “how” of playing the game. The beauty of this game is that it’s mostly a game about social interactions and player psychology. At the core of gameplay is trading resources and making high-level decisions, then living with some of the often impossible-to-predict outcomes. Much like real history, the story of the game is viewed in this sort of history concept where the culture you’re playing isn’t “you” or “your culture”, but this abstract engine you’re running in a grand historical concept of the world. You feel that personal ownership of the culture you’re running, as you would with any other civilization-building game, but there is this distance there because there really is only so much you can control strategically. This is a game you can win or lose simply because of bad luck, and that is a hard pill to swallow when you consider its length of play.

This is not a game you will win because you made the best strategic decisions, the best movement or tactical plan to overcome your opponent, or some clever leverage of mechanics. If there is any contributing factor to a victory it will be being the slickest salesman, the best negotiator, the most clever politician. It’s a game of subtle psychology, nuanced gambits, and social illusions, and these efforts make a huge difference but in the end, you might still get stuck with devastating calamities that will decimate all of your effort. As such the game is as much an activity as it is a game.

Yet despite that, a grandiose board it is. Massive and illustrious on the table, this game looks and feels like an event game, which makes this entry a unique lifestyle game to the list because it doesn’t have to be one. This is a game you can plan a big event around once a year and leave it at that, it works great for this purpose.

If however you can muster up the strength and the player count to get together more often, to dig deep into this games strategic layout, you will discover that in fact, while the game is played in the minds of the players, there is a lot to know about the motion and subtle tactics to this game. There is so much to learn and try out and while the game may not appear asymmetric as the only thing that differentiates one player from the other is the starting position on the map, this very small difference has a massive impact and each nation in this game has its own approach to be discovered.

Of all the games on this list, if I had my desires fulfilled this is the one lifestyle game I would choose for myself. A monthly game with a dedicated group to play this massive epic would be my definition of pure joy! As demanding as it is to get to the table, there is no doubt in my mind it’s one of the most timeless and unique gaming experience you can ever hope for.

Twilight Imperium

Over the years I have talked a lot about Twilight Imperium on this blog and it’s not a secret that I’m a fan, but when I talk to members of my group they often speak about this game in a negative light and I think that is because, contrary to what I used to believe about this game, it doesn’t make for a good event game. It is a lifestyle game, arguably almost exclusively so and that perhaps explains why my group maybe doesn’t love it the way I do, as I have, in the past, played this game as a lifestyle game and I know how that experience differs to simply running this as a once in a while event game which is the experience all the members of my group have with this game.

What is the subtle difference? The answer is that the game has an endlessly complex well of depth, not just in the way the rules execute, but in the subtle way the game is balanced between the sociology of the game and the impact of mechanics.

This is not a game you can win by outplaying everyone using mechanics alone, it’s a game where, like chess, you have to get your opponents to make a mistake and when that mistake is made and you leverage it, you make your move. Other (less experienced) players might look on this as a game they lost because someone did something stupid. In an event game, this can feel like king-making as players are unfamiliar with the subtle art of forcing a mistake in this game.

See the game is deep, very deep strategically with tons of unique interactions and hard-to-extrapolate balances hidden within the game’s uniquely asymmetrical elements with so much nuance, I could write a 12-book volume set on the strategies related to the different races in the game alone. This high-level understanding of the game however is not transferable, it’s not something you can teach, it’s the result of having played it countless times over two decades. This is not something I can explain to players even on a high level when teaching them to play so in an event scenario where the game is played as a one-off, players know the rules, but they are dozens of plays away from even realizing that such subtlety exists, let alone knowing what to do with that knowledge.

I don’t think I’m overselling it, I think a Twilight Imperium player will understand how this nuanced realization completely changes your outlook on this game, it’s why there is a such a difference of opinion on this game. You can really see the difference between a Twilight Imperium player that explored the depths of the game reviews this game, versus someone who casually dips their toes in. There is a massive difference in the two experiences.

Twilight Imperium definitely falls into the lifestyle or nothing category and I can always tell when I’m talking to someone who has “tried it once or twice” and someone who has “played it for years like me”. It’s almost like a secret language, a kind of understanding that can’t be learned from reading about the game or studying the rules of the game, watching or theorizing about it, this secret understanding comes only from countless repeated plays.

For science-fiction fans who love civilization-building games (4x games), Twilight Imperium is a revelation, and don’t let any other game marketing convince you otherwise. There are no games that do the same thing or even anything approaching Twilight Imperium. There are no games that come within a million light years of this one, in fact, many games make the claim that they are “lighter” versions of Twilight Imperium or are “shorter” versions of Twilight Imperium. This simply is a false advertisement and what’s egregious about these advertisements is that it’s clear the people making that claim don’t have the faintest clue what Twilight Imperium is or how stupid they sound when they make such claims. There are no alternatives to Twilight Imperium, it is a unique, white-elephant, one-of-a-kind lifestyle game that has no competition in this genre. It’s the ultimate Science-Fiction Civilization Builder in a class of its own.

Empire Of The Sun

Empire of the Sun, much like War of the Rings is an in-depth strategy game with a primary goal of telling (or perhaps better to say re-telling) a story, in this case, the entirety of the war in the Pacific.

The caveat is unlike War of the Rings, Empire of the Sun is a simulation and complex mechanics weigh heavily on the game, in a word, this is the most complex game I have ever played and by a considerable margin. In fact, it took the better part of a year of constant attempts to play it, pouring over rules, watching videos, studying the game and even direct interaction with its designer, Mark Herman before I was certain I was playing the game “mostly” correctly.

That in itself requires a level of commitment to the game that goes far beyond a typical board game night, placing it squarely in the lifestyle game arena.

It is a fantastic game, but it’s made by and for historical war gamers who care about the most finite of details the most accurate of representation and the most researched of content. Every inch of this game is as historically accurate as a historian could make it and the decisions you make in this game are very much the same decisions the generals of the actual war had to make, with outcomes that simulate this war with precision only the most informed historian could fully appreciate.

It is an amazing game with tremendous detail, it takes two very dedicated players, ready to spend hundreds of hours studying the nuances of this game and its many rules and rules exceptions, but it is also hands down one of the most rewarding games I have ever played. This game tells a story like nothing I have ever played before, and it does it with a hex map, some cards, and tokens.

From where I’m standing this is one of the best game designs in all of board gaming, it’s a masterpiece. If you are going to choose something as a lifestyle game, this one will not disappoint, with the caveat of course being that you have to get through a very tough learning curve first and you have an insatiable hunger for historical war gaming.

Paths Of Glory

While we are on the subject of historical war games, like Empire of the Sun, Paths of Glory essentially fits the same niche and in the same way. While arguably the learning curve is a bit simpler on the rules side, it’s no less robust, deep, and dynamic than Empire of the Sun.

There are a couple of things that segregate Empire of the Sun and Paths of Glory. The first is the historical period. World War I and World War II have a completely different set of political and geo-centric problems to solve, most notably World War I isn’t as cut and dry as good guys and bad guys and the war tends to escalate over time with more countries entering the war at different points in Paths of Glory which creates an entirely unique set of circumstances in each game. There are two distinct sides in this two-player game, but the game states can vary wildly from game to game, so it feels like a chess game where you are not even certain what pieces you will have in the course of the game to work with. In a way, it’s less tactical and more strategic with a lot of attrition.

The card play is quite similar between Empire of the Sun and Paths of Glory, there is no question that these games influenced each other, but I think Paths of Glory has a more dynamic system. In part because in Paths of Glory the recruitment of soldiers is part of the resource management, whereas in Emprie of the Sun you have a fixed schedule. This doesn’t make one better than the other, but you do tend to end up with a more dynamic outcome in Paths of Glory, as the flow of the game can be wildly unpredictable at times. Aside from the opening moves, there is very little pre-ordained strategy in the game. Empire of the Sun tends to, regardless of player decision, have certain historical points you will hit, but with Paths of Glory, things can become wildly different depending on player decisions and you will rarely have a historical outcome when the game finishes. You do a lot more historical re-writing in Paths of Glory and some players prefer that.

This debate is neither here nor there, in my eyes, these are both amazing games, and frankly, if you play one, it makes learning the other easier, so for me personally, if you choose a game like Empire of the Sun as a lifestyle game, it’s not a big stretch to include something like Paths of Glory as part of your repriotore just to shake things up now and again.

Terraforming Mars

This might be a rather odd entry into this genre because Terraforming Mars is actually a relatively simple game to understand, it really doesn’t take that long to play, at least compared to other games on this list and it does just fine as a pickup and play game for a board game night.

So, how does this one make it onto the list of a lifestyle game? There are three unique reasons that allow this game to rise from your typical euro game pick-up game and into the realm of lifestyle games.

The first is the unique game states that this game creates, driving a truly dynamic and highly competitive atmosphere at the table with a tremendous amount of nuance and interaction between players that require both short term and long-term planning and execution. Much like a collectible-competitive card game draft, players create their tableau from a combination of card draw (random cards) and spending resources on cards that become available, meaning the game is both pro-active and re-active. This creates a unique set of circumstances each game that never repeats, resulting in a fascinating puzzle for you to solve and requiring new strategic direction each game.

The second thing is that the game, on a competitive level, is incredibly tight. The more you play this game, and the closer you get to that most optimum play level, the more critical of a role each action you take has on the outcome of the game. It’s a very interesting effect in the game that you can really see, but when you first start playing the games victory point difference can be as much as 50+ points, but after a while people start winning this game by 2-3 points. You come to a sort of strategic mastery level of playing this game, but to get to that, you have to go really deep into this games amazing and diverse gameplay. You really have to outthink your opponents on an incredibly high level and build engines based on the unique combination of resources (namely cards) that become available to you. The replayability here is infinite and you are never truly done assessing the games finer details.

Finally and perhaps most importantly the game has a plethora of expansions that completely re-define established elements and this drives the game to ever-increasing complexity and sophistication. The game becomes almost overwhelming robust and this is a good thing for a lifestyle game because one of the key requirements of a good lifestyle game is that there is no end or repetition in what you are doing, each game is a new challenge and just when you think you have it figured out, you add one of the expansions that completely unravels all the theories and forces you to re-think and re-imagine your victory.

To me, Terraforming Mars is a highly competitive and very intelligent game that really deserves to be on this list, its nuanced and it takes time to really fully grasp its high-level strategies and even when you get there, each card draw, each card draft, and each play on the board forces you to redefine your route to victory.

War Room

This Larry Harris-designed masterpiece is my favorite game of all time and while I believe it to be far better suited as an Event Game, I do believe it has the mustard and stamina to also be a lifestyle game.

This World War II monster, designed by the same guy that brought you Axis and Allies, is a simulation of the entire war, designed for up to 6 players. It takes about 10-12 hours to complete a game of War Room so this is definitely not a casual game by definition, but the reality is that the rules are quite simple and it is a team game so personally, I think it works great with both experienced and amateur players.

As a lifestyle game however there is one caveat because while the rules are simple there is considerable depth, especially in the math of the game and the way the asymmetrical and hidden movement works. It’s a game that is part psychology and prediction and part mechanical execution, making it a much more human experience. This is not a game experience an AI will ever replicate because a huge chunk of the experience is trying to outguess and out-think your opponent in a more general rather than mechanical way. What I mean by that is if you could see the movement of your opponent, you would win 100% of the time regardless of which side you’re on. This is not a game that comes down to dice or position, it comes down to predicting what your opponents will do and responding to those actions. Do it right and you WILL win.

As such it’s then also a game about trying to get your opponent to guess wrong and cleverly trapping them into believing you’re going to do one thing, while you do something completely different. Like real war, its all about intelligence and counter-intelligence, the more you know the more successful you will be.

I love this game above all others, it’s not only a fantastic game, but its actually an amazing interactive experience. It’s one of those games where you will spend as much time looking at the board as you will looking into the eyes of your opponent to try to guess what they are thinking.

Love, definitely deserves to be on this list!

Warhammer 40k

I have to admit, it pains me to put this one on this list because frankly, I don’t think it’s that good of a game mechanically. I say that while in the same breath, having to admit that I love playing it, I love building models and painting them and it’s one of the few games in my collection that sit in a display case with pride.

Warhammer 40k is not just a lifestyle game, it is a self-contained lifestyle hobby and while it’s stupidly expensive and there are far better miniature games out there, not to mention far better ways to spend your money, my life would simply feel incomplete without Warhammer 40k on the agenda at certain intervals.

I don’t play it nearly enough, it sort of comes in spurts of enthusiasm, but I do spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about it, planning for games, painting, and fiddling with it. It’s just something that you are drawn to as a gamer and it’s perfect for people who enjoy a solo hobby that is also occasionally a game you can play with someone. A game that is mostly a creative endeavor that doubles as a social activity and to some extent is also an actual game.

This list would be incomplete without Warhammer 40k on it and while there are many other miniature games out there, I find I don’t obsess over them in quite the same way. It is worth saying as well that 10th edition of Warhammer 40k is a much better game than previous editions were and there is a clear move towards a more streamlined and accessible experience with each new edition.

What else can one say, 40k is an addiction for many gamers, myself included and there has to be a reason for it. Tyranids for life!

Star Wars Unlimited

It’s not the only collectible card game that I’m going to put on this list but it certainly is the latest and greatest and to some extent at least, this game is shaping up to be the first real contender to face off against Magic The Gathering. Now, I will say that it’s a long way off before it reaches that goal, after all, Magic: The Gathering is a game that has been in constant development for decades, so the library of cards and, as a result, deck building possibilities is nearly limitless. That said, I think Magic: The Gathering has a lot of core mechanical legacy issues that will never be fixed that Star Wars Unlimited addressed on day one, so in a sense, it’s a CCG that has been greatly influenced and learned from the grandaddy (MTG) of CCG’s, yet maintains that robust, high level addictive replayability that MTG is famous for.

To understand why this game is shaping up to be a lifestyle game and not just another soon-to-be-extinct CCG you have to understand the three core design elements that make this a true competitor to MTG.

The first is mana management (aka card playing resource). Star Wars Unlimited uses a fixed rather than random “mana” for the lack of a better word system, unlike MTG’s “land” system. This means that there is a real competitive consistency to the game, you are going to get mana always and at certain intervals and while there is ramping up cards, there is a kind of control here. You are not going to lose X amount of games simply because you got unlucky and drew too much land or not enough, a problem that has always existed in MTG and essentially makes both deck building and competitive play an often frustrating experience.

The second is set mechanic control. One of the big issues with MTG is that there are countless broken combos that are born from set mechanics that all interact with each other, creating this crazy situation where you can do unlimited damage on round one, or spawn unlimited creatures and all other manner of game-breaking combos.

In Star Wars Unlimited each set introduces two new, self-contained mechanics that don’t really interact with mechanics from other sets so there is this fixed stability in the game and this effectively eliminates game-breaking combos. Not to be confused with cards and effects on a single card that can be too much, this still happens, but at least there aren’t these accidental introductions of broken game mechanics that can and often do ruin CCG fun time.

Finally it is the Star Wars universe, and say what you will about Disney’s trouble with managing the franchise, people still do and probably always will love the Star Wars universe. It’s a franchise that is older and far more known than the MTG universe, and there is a certain attachment and fundamental connection players have to the game. This is a game where each card you draw is clearly tied to some person, thing or moment in the Star Wars universe and there is this “feel good” story element in cards rolling out on the table. It’s also notable that FFG has gone to great lengths to make sure card combos are related narratively, with classics like Han shooting first and power levels like the Emperor and Darth Vader fitting to the thematic cores of the story upon which the game is based.

This is a fabulous game with tremendous replayability, it very quickly became a “standard thing” in my gaming life, and I foresee it having tremendous longevity where my collection will just grow infinitely. Thanks to the game’s great stability and FFG’s attention to detail, at least right now, the game is on a fantastic path with a bright future ahead of it.

Lord of the Rings The Card Game

I’m almost tired of hearing myself talk about this game so I’m going to make it short and sweet. This solo/cooperative living card game by FFG is the single, best card game I have ever played.

It’s very challenging, easy to learn, impossible to master, diverse and dynamic and has been supported by FFG for over a decade, now in its second edition which is exactly the same as 1st edition just repacked. It was so good the first time around, they saw no reason to change it, that, is the sign of a brilliant design, when no one can think of a way to improve it.

This is my favorite lifestyle game. I have been playing it since it was released, and I simply never tire of it.

Games That Don’t Make it but tried

There are a few games that really desperately want to make it into the lifestyle category but there is some flaw/reason that prevents it from succeeding. I mention them here only because they are great games, but this tragic flaw of simultaneously trying to be a lifestyle game, but failing to be one puts them in this odd limbo that results in them missing the table more often than hitting it.

Game Of Thrones: The Board Game

My gaming group and I play this game typically once a year at our big board gaming weekend getaway in the summer ,and frankly, I love this game. It captures the Game of Thrones theme with perfection, its deeply strategic and always tense. It’s got everything you want out of a game fit for a lifestyle spot, but unfortunately, it has one tragic flaw.

When you replay this game a couple of times in a row, clear patterns start to emerge, key plays, strategies and round executions start to repeat. This is a solvable puzzle and while I would argue it has sufficient dynamics to keep a yearly game exciting as everyone essentially forgets everything over that time period, on repeated plays this game really falls apart and you really start to see the design warts. Lord knows there are plenty of them.

I discovered this kind of by accident by playing the digital version on Steam for a couple of weeks back to back. After a few games, it all started to look like the same game over and over again.

Game of Thrones The Board game just lacks the stamina and the diversity and dynamics needed to qualify it as a lifestyle game, there just isn’t so much to discover and unravel here. Once you get the core nuances there are just so many “moves” you must make and reactions just become kind of predictable.

It’s a very long game, however, so it’s not really a good fit for a typical board game night, relegating this one to a once-in-a-long-while event game. I love it,4 but it just doesn’t stick to the landing as a lifestyle game.

Star Wars Armada

I’m a huge fan of Star Wars Armada, I think the concept of capital ship combat in the Star Wars universe is brilliant, and I love the unique movement mechanics and the amazing diversity of ships and upgrades, perfect for those of us who love list building.

Unfortunately, it falters in two main categories that knock it out of contention as a lifestyle game.

First and this one is kind of obvious, a miniature war game that has no hobby element, means that the only thing to do with your minis is keep them on a shelf until you are ready to play. There is no hobby here outside of the game which in general is kind of the main thing about miniature gaming, that personal touch and obsession of building and painting “your” army. Sure you can do some repaints, but there are only so many interesting takes on “grey spaceships”. I will say that there are benefits to this drawback for those of you out there who want to play a miniature game but don’t want to deal with the hobby.

The second issue and far more important is what I call the “default winner” effect. Basically most games of Star Wars Armada assuming a reasonably equal level of understanding and skill level in the game can be called with near-perfect precision based on list building and initial deployment.

This is a very decisive game and the battle outcomes really don’t surprise you, in fact, most of my friends got so good at this that we can look at two lists and tell you who is going to win with 99% accuracy. There just isn’t enough in the mechanics of the game to wildly alter the outcomes and while two players with wildly different skill sets can certainly create surprise outcomes, in our group, everyone was pretty expert at the game so it just became far too predictable.

This one hung out for quite a while until we all made this discovery and we all enjoyed it but these days it doesn’t take more than a match to remind all of us while we no longer play this game with any regularity.

It just lacks sufficient dynamics to be a lifestyle game.

Eclipse: The Second Dawn For the Galaxy

I was really excited for the second edition of this game, it really promised a lot and at first it seemed like it would deliver, but even as it sits near the top of my list, I can tell you hear and now that it’s rise on the list will be as rapid as its climb. In fact, right now, I would say it doesn’t even make the top 20 anymore.

The reason for this sudden shift is the stark realization that the mechanics are just too static and there is virtually no dynamics in the game at all. Initially, you might think with a mixed galaxy, asymmetrical races and dice for resolving combat that there would be plenty of ways games diverge into unique experiences, but the reality is that the mechanics are so tightly wound that in effect, every game of Eclipse is essentially a parallel version of every other game of it played.

Worse yet is most of the activity of the players is mostly irrelevant, the only thing that matters is scoring points and the board state really has minimal impact on that. It’s just like any other standard Euro fair, figure out how to build a good engine and then just let it spin.

This is a fine way to play a game and I love engine-building games, but Eclipse was not supposed to be that. It was supposed to be a faster, more streamlined 4x game that could compete with Twilight Imperium and it was definitely my hope that it could be the next big lifestyle game.

The aesthetic is there, all the pieces are there but the game just doesn’t come together to create a repeatable experience. It’s a bit like playing checkers, after a while you can’t remember one game from the other, sure outcomes differ, its not like the game is unbalanced or anything but its just a very bland game full of routine and default (many choices but one obviously good one) kind of a game.

After 3-4 plays of this gam,e I’m fairly sure it’s going to collect dust on my shelf for a very long time, in fact, I may even cull it from my collection, it was that much of a disappointment in the end.

Mage Knight The Board Game

There are many adventure games out there and over the years, I have found plenty of them I don’t like, but Mage Knight is a unique exception for me and there is very good reason for it. It, unlike most adventure games, doesn’t try to replicate the role-playing experience and actually focuses on bringing quality game mechanics with excellent card management and card play, clever and difficult scenarios designed to actually defeat you and outstanding expansions that lean on the games existing strength, rather then just giving you more of the same. In a word, its a “real” game, rather than what you get with most adventure games, which is a sort of quasi role-playing activity.

This is a massive game, Mage Knight doesn’t really hold your hand and as such is had a considerable learning curve, a long play time and is in a word infinitely replayable; all qualities that fit well with a lifestyle game, there is plenty to explore.

With everything going for it, it still manages to fall short of a lifestyle game. Mainly I think because it’s one of those games that once you learn the nuances of each of the characters, that mastery leads you down a road of automatic moves that are sort of preordained. It’s a bit like figuring out the patterns in Pac Man, once you know them you end up playing the game the exact same way each time you pick it up.

The different scenarios while interesting and fun in their own right, really do not alter the approach you will take. There are just some clear builds you discover and after that the game becomes quite repetitive despite its generally very dynamic game state.

This means there is a kind of cap on the game as a lifestyle game, play it enough times and it runs out of fuel.

Its a fantastic game and I would never suggest that its not, but life style games need this sort of infinitate discovery element where no matter how many times you play it, there is always more to discover, new strategies, approaches and puzzles to solve. This game is just limited in that department, once you discover its patterns and secrets, it goes stale quite quickly.

Through The Ages

This is a bit of a heart breaker for me personally as Through The Ages is without question one of my favorite games of all time, sitting pretty in the number 9 spot on my top 20 list and having been on my best of list since the first time I played it almost years ago.

This is one of the best civilization building games I know, its highly competative, deeply strategic and overwhelming diverse. In many ways it is a great lifestyle game but it has one key caveat that really sort of disqualifies it.

The main issue is that if you play it enough, patterns emerge and those patterns lead you down very specific highly effective playstyles that essentially disqualify all others, really answering the question “What is the best strategy” with a definitive answer.

A good lifestyle game is an unsolvable puzzle, or at least one that you must solve in a unique way each time you play and unfortunately, Through The Ages for all its depth and meaningful gameplay, has tricks and “must do’s” that really kill its lifestyle game potential.

It’s a fantastic game, I play it every chance I get, but the only way your going to beat me is if I explain the core “answers” to you, at which point the game becomes a tight and interesting “lets see what happens” sort of thing, but there is absolutely no way you can beat me at the game otherwise. I’m not going to bore anyone with the answer here, in fact, its kind of a spoiler as it will take you many plays to figure it out, but eventually, if you play it long enough you will unravel the mystery of Through The Ages. At which point it’s a bit like watching Harry Potter, knowing full well how it will end. Still fun, but there aren’t going to be any twist endings.

Gaming Articles, Role-Player Game Reviews

D&D Theory: The lost art of fantasy adventure

The Gilded Griffon stands at the village’s edge, deep in the unexplored frontier, its weathered stone walls are bathed in torchlight, the sign of a majestic griffon hanging above the door. Inside, the scent of roasting meat and exotic spices fills the air, while shadows dance across scarred oak tables. A grand hearth crackles, its mantle adorned with ancient weapons and relics of past adventures. Patrons from distant lands murmur in hushed tones, and a minstrel’s haunting melody drifts through the room. Behind the bar, a silver-haired barkeep watches with a knowing eye, recognizing you with a nod as adventurers looking for work.

DM: What do you want to do?

This is the moment, this is how D&D kind of started for me. Not this exact start, but it’s how I imagined it. I was 10 years old, it was 1985, I was for the first time invited to a D&D game, I had my 1st level fighter (Darius) character sheet in front of me and all I knew about the game I was about to play was that my job was to pretend I was this fighter in a fantasy world in which terrible monsters existed.

It was a magical moment, one that would define how I would spend my free time over the next 4 decades. It made me a prolific reader, it drove a lifelong passion for creativity, and resulted in the most memorable friendships of my life.

As far as the game went there was an important discovery that I would not make until nearly 40 years later about how and why this moment was not only unique but why I would spend the next 40 years trying to re-create it every time I sat at a gaming table.

See the magic of this moment is not about nostalgia, it’s not really about old-school gaming, or the OSR, or something about the “edition of the game” or game mechanics specifically either. There were many theories I and others would come up with that would try to explain this moment and why D&D back then was different than today and what has changed and why but they would all turn out to be dead wrong.

The magic of this moment it turns out was simply that, I didn’t know what was about to happen and I was not following any script filled with assumptions. There was nothing that happened before the game other the mechanical work of producing an abstract character which we knew nothing about except a race and class and maybe a name. Meaning, I had virtually no information about the game I was about to play. All I knew was that I was a “Fighter” and that meant I knew how to use weapons and armor, a generalization at best. I knew that the goal of the game was to explore the game world (somehow) and we were told by the DM that “you can do whatever you want, go wherever you want”.

The question was “Why”? Why would I go anywhere? I was instructed that as a 1st level fighter, I was not very good at fighting yet, that I would need more experience (which notably I was unsure how to get), and that the world outside of the tavern was dangerous and you could die easily.

Here was the thing, It was scary and though I just made this character, I was already quite attached to Darius. The act of writing down his name on a funny looking, but intriguing page called a character sheet had built him up in my head, he wasn’t just a “character”, he was a person I cared about and I didn’t want him to die, I didn’t want to do anything “stupid” that would put him at risk. The DM was well known for cruelly tearing up character sheets of dead characters right there at the table, we had all heard this rumor, so I knew and believed in the danger of the game.

One of the tricks of the trade among DM’s in the early days of D&D was that they did not reveal much to the players. It would be several months before any of us even realized that we were actually near the City-State of Greyhawk, a famous place in the D&D “world” we would eventually have the pleasure to visit.

But the DM of course did not make my life easy. He said, “You are hungry and thirsty and tired as you have traveled many weeks to get here and are low on supplies”. The DM told me that you can die of thirst and hunger and you can even die from exhaustion. So we did the natural and perhaps predictable thing, (we being a couple of my friends in similar situations with similar characters in our adventuring party) we walked into the tavern, ordered food and drink, and asked for rooms so that we could rest. It seemed logical and it was our idea, our plan, we made the decision to do that, our first act as role-players. It felt powerful, even though it was very simple.

The DM then, in the voice of the tavern keeper told us that this would cost 2 silver for the food and drink and 3 silver for a night in a room. And in that moment, that split second of pretending to exist as characters in a fantasy world, we all realized what this game was really about. We were about to spend the rest of the money we had collectively together just to eat and sleep for a day. If we didn’t get more money soon, we would probably die of thirst and hunger, it was the harsh reality of the game.

We….. needed money!

And so a purpose was born, we were adventurers, fighters, clerics, and thieves and we needed money because we were just about out of it and we had no jobs and no way to make more and so the game truly began. We were promptly approached by an old thief who had a treasure map of a ruin nearby and offered us 100 gold, not to explore it, but just to find the entrance hidden somewhere in the nearby forest. You can’t imagine what an exciting moment that was. We had a mission..ney, a quest and it felt real, it felt important. We were role-playing and it didn’t take much to get us there.

The 1st edition AD&D DMG had a lot of very strange rules, but of course, none of us ever looked inside of it. It was only sometime in 1992 when I became a DM that I finally read this book, getting my own copy. It never occurred to me that the game we were playing really didn’t have any firm rules and was built on abstract philosophies like 1 gold = 1 XP, things that defined the metagame, but were mere suggestions at best, not really rules.

There was no session zero, no elaborate rules or explanations, no backstory writing, and no “defining” anything about what was about to happen. We relied on our natural and very basic instincts and imagination to create a game of make-believe that we would make every bit as real to us as the world we lived in. We were playing Dungeons and Dragons, a magical fantasy world of pretend, not rules.

This was Dungeons and Dragons to me from 1985 well into 1995. That little gaming group was together for over 10 years and though my fighter from that first session would quickly perish in a terrible incident with a Gelatinous Cube as did many characters that followed, I will never forget him, his adventures, or any of the characters I played in Dungeons and Dragons during these years. Oddly, I never wrote a single word about them down, yet I remember each with crystal clear clarity. I remember their deeds, their adventures, how they grew into power and often how their story ended tragically in some dungeon as we (the avatar and I) pursued our ambitions in the game.

This is Fantasy Adventure, this is what D&D was and I have to be honest and this will make me sound like an old Gronard, but it was so much better, so much more fun and narrative than anything that happens at a gaming table in the modern day. A fact that would plague my group for the many years that followed.

Is it possible to learn this power?

In 1995 my group had been together for 10 years, we had played through 1st and 2nd edition AD&D and while we loved our games, like all gamers do we started noticing that there were “other games” and everyone wanted to try their hand at some new stuff. After all, we loved D&D and we loved role-playing so, doing it with other settings and rule systems sounded awesome. It sounded amazing to be a Jedi in the Star Wars universe, or a Highlander or a Star Trek Captain. The opportunities of other games were very attractive to us and we began exploring them.

For about 5 years we went through what I would call a sort of “role-playing ring around the rosy”. We played everything that wasn’t D&D you could think of. All the world of darkness stuff, various science-fiction games and every system under the sun from GURPS to Warhammer Fantasy. You would be hard-pressed to name a game my group and I didn’t try, we did it all, and nothing was off the table.

It was fun, and I really want to nail this point home here that no one was disappointed, we really enjoyed these games, but….. We all realized by around 1998 that we didn’t get together as often, campaigns didn’t last as long, people got bored and often games died when people didn’t show up to sessions, and really, the entire “magic” of D&D that kept our crew fully dedicated for 10 years prior was missing from all of these games. These games were all a bit empty, absent of the magic and wonder that we found in D&D. By 2000 we barely even played RPG’s anymore.

Then 3rd edition D&D came out and we of course got excited again. We all got back together with fresh new books in hand, everyone read every rule, cover to cover and we were ready to play, invigorated by the hopeful return to those amazing and magical D&D games which at this point were distant, nostalgic memories. There was a promise of a new golden age, a return to the wonderful world of Dungeons and Dragons that we all missed, that in our eyes was “true role-playing”, the only game that ever really gave us that intangible gaming experience.

I think we had all hoped that 3rd edition D&D would bring the magic back to the table, but as I discovered many years later, the problem wasn’t the game system so much as gaming culture that led game design. I don’t want to suggest that AD&D was the only way to create magic at the table, but it was the only game that didn’t get in the way of the attempts to do so. 3rd edition had too many explicit rules that defined what characters could and could not do, a trend that would catch on and became the methodology for game design. It was in a way, the death of role-playing as I knew it. Games no longer lived in our imaginations, we could no longer “do whatever we wanted”. Games now lived on the table with very strict rules about what was and was not possible and we would spend most of our time arguing about whether these rules were good or not rather than playing D&D.

By 2002, role-playing in our group was all but over. 3rd edition D&D, even though it was Dungeons and Dragons and felt very familiar just had no magic in it, that much was clear. There was no excitement, no mystery, and no mystical spirit in the game. The rules were convoluted and far too explicit and we argued about their abstracted representation of the game worlds living in our head constantly. These rules killed the imagination because they sought to place it with game mechanics.

In many ways, the rules of the game became the only point of any conversation about D&D between us, we no longer wondered about what D&D was, or what mysteries were hidden within its intangible imaginary words. We spent an ungodly amount of time instead trying to fix the rules as we fought among ourselves and the world (internet) over them. To put it plainly, it just wasn’t fun anymore, the year was 2002 and Dungeons and Dragons was over, it was dead and 3rd edition would create 2 decades of terrible game design that would slowly drown out any life D&D had in it. I know that is cruel to say and one might even challenge its accuracy given the popularity of 5th edition, but, modern D&D is popular in the same way McDonalds is popular. It’s a processed and manufactured game for the masses, reduced to the most basic, lowest common denominator. When I tell people about the intangible magic of D&D, they call be a Gronard, a relic that doesn’t know what he is talking about. For a time, I almost believed it.

Our group was pretty much fully disbanded by 2003 and I would not play D&D or anything else with any of those guys until nearly 2 decades later. I did continue playing with other groups myself though. As much as I enjoyed the many people I shared RPG experiences with over the years the games were simply never as good as those original AD&D experiences of the mid 80’s and 90′.

In fact, most of the time I was quite bored and have continued to be quite bored with most role-playing games since, it’s really a rare game that even marginally excites me these days even though I’m constantly chasing that dragon. I still like playing them, I still enjoy the pursuit, but more in a conceptual and philosophical way rather than actually playing. When I play, most of the time, I’m just disappointed that these games are just not as good, not as much fun and lack that intangible spirit of the classic D&D that we played for over a decade in the 80’s and 90’s.

So what really happened? What is the problem with other games? Why is there no magic, no spark, no heart in any of these other RPG including the latest and greatest versions of D&D from Wizards of the Coast? Why did Dungeons and Dragons die around the 00’s? Did it die or did I change?

Not from a Jedi..

I have contemplated this for years, I have researched, I have reflected, I have tested a wide range of theories to try to understand what was so special, what it was that was so unique and/or different that altered the experience and made it so much better in those 80’s and 90’s D&D games that I find missing in modern RPG’s and the modern RPG experience?

For a time I wrote it off as nostalgia and my age. I was between 10 and 20 years of age when I played AD&D, I’m nearly 50 now, it was during a much simpler time in my life and I just presumed that back then I just had more imagination, more energy, and more appreciation that today I lack. The game didn’t change, I changed.

It seemed like a fair and reasonable assessment, one I could accept, but…. then something magical happened. Almost like a fairy tale, as if some genie appeared out of thin air and granted me the wisdom I needed to understand and to find perspective and of course a little help from a little show, maybe you heard of it “Stranger Things”.

One of the oddest elements of Stranger Things is that it’s a show driven by classic D&D tropes and specifically 1st edition D&D fantasy adventure which is played and represented on the show. The very game and very experience I had and missed was right there on the screen, yet oddly enough modern fans would take this inspiration and instead of playing AD&D they would play 5th edition that does not in any, way, shape or form represent what you see on Stranger Things. It’s bizarre to me.

A friend of mine called me up, an old friend from my old gaming group and said “Hey, the old crew wants to get back together and play some D&D, we want to do an AD&D 1st edition one-shot”.

I thought to myself, holy shit yes.

I have the high ground..

In the first 30 seconds of our first session, I was back in 1985 as a 10-year-old playing Dungeons and Dragons for the first time. It required nothing more than the DM using the old formula, the most basic introduction and the simplest core element of D&D to bring it all back.

There was nothing to it, we made characters, essentially randomly generating them as one would in AD&D. Made some basic choices about equipment and who would play what roles, we gave our characters names and we were dropped into the game world with a very basic plot hook to “investigate the evil temple”. It all fell perfectly into place like dominos.

That moment I realized that this game had more story, those characters had more meaning and this game had more role-playing magic than everything I have done at the table for the last 20 years combined. I recall writing entire books of lore, of story, players writing 20-page backgrounds in preparation for a game, doing session 0’s, and endlessly preparing mass plots for my players and none of it compared to the simplicity of the game we were about to play. By comparison, those experiences were lifeless husks, meaningless, about the equivalent of doing your taxes for fun.

So, what was the secret? How did I go from RPG’s feeling dead inside to being back in 1985 as a 10-year-old playing and feeling Dungeons and Dragons again? What did this magical DM do to bring it all back?

Actually, it was pretty simple. It turns out, that it’s not nostalgia, it’s not age or some sort of expertise of the DM, there is no secret knowledge or method. It wasn’t even the system or an edition of the game really, though I do hold that 1st edition AD&D allows classic Fantasy Adventure to happen a lot easier. In the end it was just the simplicity of the role-playing philosophy the system brought to the forefront, plain and simple. It didn’t need to be AD&D and you didn’t need weird old-school rules, what you needed was a system that just got out of your way. That cleared the path for the imagination and allowed you to experience the world in your mind without a lot of input and rules to govern your thoughts and instruct you about what you can and cannot do.

In our game we didn’t have skills and feats and countless “buttons” to press. We had to make decisions, use our imagination, and form plans and our actions weren’t mechanical executions, they were narrative ones. This is what Fantasy Adventure was and in a sense, I feel always should be. I was filled with regret because I realized in that moment that we could have been doing this all along for the last 20 years. There was nothing keeping us from playing this way, but we got distracted and wasted 20 years of gaming out of stubbornness.

For years I had been playing every system under the sun, every game, under every DM, every format, every style, using every method you could imagine. Oddly enough, it never occurred to me to pick a system that just did a lot less, I always thought the more robust the mechanics and infrastructure of the game the more direction you had. So it was just about finding that right system that had the right balance of mechanics. It never occurred to me that the only thing that I actually ever had to do was just to apply the old Gygaxian philosophy about running an RPG, good old 1st edition AD&D thinking was all that was needed.

The feeling, the intangible quality, and the wonder of that moment that made D&D this unique, one-of-a-kind experience, it was all right there perfectly preserved and it wasn’t in rules so much as it was just a philosophy, a way to think and a method to approach the game.

Make a character, give them a name, drop him into the world and see what happens. That’s it…. that’s the magic.

The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural..

It’s true and I have to be honest about this, it was awkward. Playing 1st edition AD&D after years of modern mechanics felt strange but It was the philosophies of AD&D that made all the difference, which in modern game design and modern gaming culture are seen as barbaric and out of date. Hell some even consider using such philosophies antimine to role-playing, as if using them somehow makes you a terrible person.

Does that mean I like THAC0? Am I fan of descending armor class or 1 gold = 1 XP? Am I ok with female characters having reduced max strength or racial ability scores?

hmmm… I want to say no, I really do. I feel like AD&D is like the dark side of the force, that lures you to it by some dark power, some evil energy that is quick, dirty, and easy to attain. That somehow by using this game I have become a lesser man… but then I think about it and realize that…. well, it’s only a game and I think that is the trouble I have always had.

You see, in around the 90’s “being a role-player” became this very serious thing. It was an identity and there was a definitive “right way” to role-play and the right way to setup an RPG campaign. You had to write a really big backstory for your character, it was absolutely paramount. Your DM was expected to take those backstories and write a massive plot with twists and turns that incorporated your backstory into the campaign. You needed to have many many books of rules and options to make sure that the players could “fine-tune” the vision of their characters. There were so many new cultural RPG requirements, things that still persist to this very day that if you don’t follow you are not really role-playing, you are not a good GM or player and, probably you should just not be playing RPG’s if you can’t follow these cultural norms. It is considered virtuous to play this way, it makes you a better person. This is the weird mindset of modern gamers.

More than that, in modern gaming it has become synonymous with using old game systems like AD&D to be a bigot, sexist and homophobic, so not only are you not a virtuous person for not buying into modern gaming cultural norms and expectations, but you are clearly an evil person if you play these old games that teach this old philosophy.

I realized recently however that this is a hobby, I do it for fun, and I think a big part of the reason why I and so many role-players feel kind of lost in finding the game is that we have created way too many rules for ourselves as barriers to entry. Both culturally and literally. I mean as players and GM’s we have far too many expectations, and place far too many demands on the games and as gamers, we demand way too many rules and mechanics to “support role-playing”, a concept that should never even be part of a conversation about the game in my opinion. We have sort of broken the spirit of the original D&D game and modern games never really tried to understand, how and what this spirit was and so it never found its way into other RPG’s. We sort of killed the magic with our own ignorance and pride.

What I want is to feel the energy and the magic of D&D, that thing that Gary Gygax and his cohorts invented not how the pretenders that followed him tried and failed to re-invent. I want to have THE D&D experience and the only way I know how to do that is with these older systems like AD&D and B/X systems which have that magical simplicity instilled in them, but I don’t think that is the only way to do it.

Today gamers and game designers are making the same discoveries and it catching on. ShadowDark for example won 4 Ennie awards, a game that instills the classic gaming philosophies and uses a modern, digestible system to do it and actually does a masterful job of bringing that magic to the table.

For many years the only way to get the true Fantasy Adventure experience of old was through the original game or retro-clones, but today you have amazing new game designs that are modernizing the game while ensuring that the magic of D&D fantasy adventure is firmly built in. Its a great time to be a D&D fan.

I am Vinz, Vinz Clortho, Keymaster of Gozer. Volguus Zildrohar, Lord of the Sebouillia. Are you the Gatekeeper?

It’s the original, it’s the classic, it’s the only true D&D experience and this is not conjecture, it’s not opinion, it’s not even objective truth, it just is AD&D and games that follow its philosophy like ShadowDark. I know that sounds like gatekeeping but it really isn’t.

To gatekeep you have to want to keep people out and I’m trying to do the opposite, I’m trying to let people in on this strangely kept secret. There is a game that exists and you probably haven’t played it, even if you have been playing role-playing games for years, even if you have been playing D&D. It’s truly a magical experience but it only exists under one philosophy, using one very specific playstyle built into the classic game of D&D. Its a very explicit act to play AD&D and games like it, it doesn’t follow any of the cultural gaming rules of modern RPG’s and lives outside of the sphere of influences on which most modern RPG’s actually function today. Modern RPG’s are not based on AD&D, they are based on 3rd edition D&D which is an entirely different thing.

For this magical, intangible experience, there is only one path, only one way and it lays between the pages of the 1st edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide. It took me 40 years to realize it, hopefully, you won’t have to wait that long and thankfully that magic is finding its way into other modern games so you don’t even have to go out searching for copies of 1st edition AD&D.

Gaming Articles, Role-Player Game Reviews

GM Theory: Running A Good Game

In the last 30+ years, I have experienced a wide range of role-playing games both from the perspective of the GM and the perspective of a player. Many were successful, but quite a few were not while some only marginally so.

Today I’m going to talk about what I think separates a great campaign from a mediocre one, the pitfalls and traps that lead to failed campaigns, and perhaps most importantly what a good GM should be doing to ensure their campaign starts and ends on good footing.

Now I will admit that I have a very unique take on running role-playing games, it definitely does not fall into the “normal” advice category. I would imagine in fact that the instinct of most GM’s as they read this article will be to disagree and that is fine, it’s just an opinion in a sea of opinions. More advice is better than less advice, so I humbly submit my take on the subject, do with it what you will.

Role-playing games are not about story

We start with the most controversial but in my opinion, most objectively true thing about role-playing games and the universally hardest truth to bare for GM’s. Good role-playing games are never about good stories. They are always about gaming systems.

So here is the thing, if you ask any player why they want to play a role-playing game almost all will tell you “for the story” and in large part, I would imagine it’s also why most DM’s would claim they want to run a role-playing game. It’s the greatest lie always told, but it is always pure, unadulterated, utter and complete bullshit.

The test is quite simple, pick a system a player or group doesn’t like and see if they still want to play. They won’t want to play that game and even if they do, the game will fail no matter how good the story is. Why? If the game is about a story, why would what system you pick matter or cause your campaign to fail if you have done a great job on the story? Why do so many people choose D&D and not GURPS? Why do people pick complex systems like Pathfinder 2e, rather than simple systems like 1st Edition Basic?

If role-playing games were truly just about the story, systems like Pathfinder 2nd edition could simply never find success. There is absolutely no reason anyone chasing an RPG for story would ever need a 650 page rulebook to tell it. Any pathfinder player who tells you they play RPG’s for story is completetly full shit.

The answer is simple, system is everything. Role-playing games are first and foremost games, it’s the systems that get people to sit at the table, it’s what is exciting about the gaming experience and hobby that is role-playing. If I propose running 1st edition Basic to a 5e group, they will reject that game and likely viciously attack me for even suggesting that their precious 5th edition D&D could be replaced by another system. Vice versus, if I walk into an OSR group of old school gamers and suggest that we play Pathfinder 2e their would be absolutely no chance. They would simply rather burn all of their books and never play a role-playing game for the rest of their lives again, than play in a modern gaming system. System matters a lot to people, its not just a game often times, its practically an ID card, your identity as a role-player. People don’t just have strong opinions about what systems and playstyles they like, they are irredemably loyal to them.

Why? I’m a great DM, I have been running games for my gaming group that they themselves without any prompting from me called “the greatest role-playing experience of their lives”. Why would my group with so much faith in my ability to run a great role-playing experience outright reject a game I want to run based on the system I’ve chosen if the game is in fact about story?

The reality is that story is a byproduct, an important albeit side benefit of playing a role-paying game. We all love story, I do not question that, it’s very much a core desire/outcome of the game and why we are drawn to the game, even so far as to stretch the truth and claim it to be the main reason for wanting to play to begin with. The harsh reality is that RPG hobbyists are gamers first and foremost and the game mechanic is a central component of what creates the experience at the table. The story lives as a layer that becomes the output/outcome of the experience, but no one can ever be excited about entering into a gaming social contract without a system they are excited to execute it with. The story will never save your game, a good system always will.

Realistically if story was the most important element of RPG’s to everyone, GURPS would be the worlds only RPG. It has the simplest and most consistent core mechanic of any game in existance, its completetly scalable and functions with all genres. You buy one book and you can write and play any story, any setting, anything you can imagine forever.

Why is this important knowledge for any GM? It’s very simple. Never, under any circumstance convince yourself that the system you want to run is going to create a good role-playing experience for your players unless they are excited about the system as well. Your players have to choose the system, they have to be excited about it, and they have to love it and bare its torch. If a group has even the most minor complain about the system you have chosen, your campaign is already dead and you will never be able to do resolve that. It’s the single most important decision you will make that will define whether your campaign will find success or failure. The system matters that much, more than any other choice you make.

System and setting are often synonymous in RPG’s because most RPG’s are designed for a specific setting, but the same rules apply. If a group isn’t excited and in love with the setting, nothing will save your game. Run a Star Trek Adventures for a group of trekkies and its magic, talk a group of non-trekkies into playing it and neither the system or the story will save the game. A hard lesson I learned first hand. No matter how good of a GM you think you are, no one is that good.

Remember that, accept it, and embrace it. You can write a shitty, linear story in a system your players love and it will be a booming success, alternatively, you can write a masterpiece for a system your players hate and the game will fail miserably. Never forget that, it’s the best advice I can offer after 30+ years of running games. There is no fix for this and the reality is that most games that fail, fail because of this one reason. Don’t let it happen to you.

The busier the system, the shorter the campaign

Most GM’s, when they sit down to create a campaign for their players imagine playing it for years, spinning an epic tale that puts the players on a journey of discovery with twists and turns, exciting reveals, epic battles, shocking events and so on. We all dream about running that Lord of the Rings epic for the ages.

The issue is that the overwhelming majority of systems out there are very specifically designed not to allow that and the reason is quite simple, there is no money in it.

To give an example, I ran a nearly 3 year Vampire The Masquerade campaign for which all I ever purchased was a core rulebook and a setting book. That was it, that’s all white-wolf managed to get out of me for what amounted to hundreds of hours of entertainment. If a gaming group of 5 only buy 1 or 2 books every three to four years, all role-playing publishers become completely unsustainable, and even if they are set up for a low volume, they are not getting rich doing it.

As such, most modern systems are setup to be complex, with tons of design space to create “options” and that is the name of the game for modern RPG’s. Selling option books requires you to be constantly re-starting new campaigns, so you can create new characters and buy new adventure books and so on, all so that you have a desire for more options. It’s a cycle.

Wizards of the Coast and TSR with D&D are probobly the most famous examples of companies that produce a game designed to make sure campaigns fail and have to start over so that they can sell more books. No version of D&D has ever produced a game in which characters of 10th level or more were sustainable in a campaign. The shelf life of a typical D&D campaign is extremely short.

The reality is that complex systems with tons of options will usually result in what I like to call “dead system stops”. This means the system kills your campaign because it lacks the stamina and structure to survive a long campaign as power advancement is at the center of the core mechanic. This is particularly true for most class/level systems that become unwieldy and unbalanced as you rise in level. It is particularly a problem with these systems not just because the increases in level creates unbalance, but because the players have an expectation to constantly level up. They effectively push for the inevitable power creep that will end the campaign early. Play D&D for three months without leveling up and your players are going to start complaining.

The best systems are those that have progression without major impact and are simple so that the character sheet is just a “log” of your character, rather than an elaboration of what your character is and isn’t, or what they can and can’t do. What I mean by that is that if your players are constantly looking at their character sheet to see “what they can do” they are also finding a list of things “they can’t do”. You are playing in a busy system that is designed to create options for players so that they can do stuff, out-level the game and start over.

Original D&D probobly could not have predicted how leveling up, the class structure and focus on experience points would years later become the reason long campaigns would become unsustainable for D&D. In big part it was because these older versions of D&D had a high mortality rate and the high levels where more a carrot than anything anyone had any expectation to actually achieve. In short, high level campaigns were never supposed to be a thing.

A good role-playing system is not going to be about what the system does or doesn’t let your character do, it should be about what your players want their characters to do. It’s not about action economy, but about telling a story, taking “actions” should not be a mechanic in a role-playing system. What characters do should be a story definition, a conscious thought of a player imagining a scene and doing what comes naturally to them with any mechanical elements being customizable and reactive rather than something governed by strict (you can and can’t) rules.

Such systems are becoming rarer and rarer these days, people simply don’t make them that much anymore, which is why we have the OSR because there was a time in the hobbies history when all RPG’s were designed to be free-flowing and free-form story games. The character sheet was an outline of the player’s imagined avatar and it did not define them in any certain terms, it was just a sort of categorization, a layer upon which a player would create their character’s story and what actions they took had nothing to do with the system.

You picked “Fighter” and that could be anything from a Samurai to a Swashbuckler. You did not pick background, you created backgrounds through direct writing or through gameplay. You didn’t select feats and fighting styles, you imagined those things and brought them to the table through the narrative of your character’s interaction with the world. What your character could do was as much an invention of the story as the plot created by the GM. We talk about players always claiming to want the game to be about story, yet, they often choose systems that deny them the opportunity to be creative.

A system like that has no beginning or end, your character is the person you imagine and create and while they will have subtle growth in such a system, it will not offer much in the way of unlocking powers, actions or other gaming gymnastics. Your character is your avatar in such games, the one you created at the start and their progression is their story in the world they occupy, not the mechanical power level they achieve.

In such a system, your campaign can theoretically run forever.

While most players want D&D to be the never ending campaign game, the truth is that D&D is the absolute worst of the dead stop games, in fact, even as early as 1st edition AD&D, the concept of a “long campaign” was dead in the water and impossible under the system. The closes you would ever actually get was 1st edition BECMI, its power progression and advancement was so slow that campaigns could go on for a decade before things got out of hand.

My suggestion is that if you want to run a long campaign that stays healthy no matter how long you run it, stay away from systems that see character progression as a “power” element. That is usually the sign of a busy game not made for longevity, if advancement = power, the game has a definitive beginning and end and the faster that power creep is, the shorter the campaign will be.

At the very least you should asses the system and calculate how much life it will have, at what point you reach the dead stop so that you can plan for the campaign’s inevitable end.

Meta Gaming Is Where Good Stories Come From

As a long-time GM, one of the oddest gaming culture developments that has taken place over the last 30 years is player and GM attitudes towards meta-gaming.

For posterity, we should define what Meta-Gaming is, as there are quite a few definitions and variations of the term. To me, meta-gaming is the act of the players using player information to influence results in the game world. Meaning, the player knows what a typical Orcs AC is and they use that information to their advantage to illustrate the most basic of examples. More commonly the use of meta-gaming is less about the game mechanic and more about the game’s story. For example, a player knows that the prince is secretly a vampire, but their character doesn’t, however, they use their player knowledge to expose him as a vampire breaking the continuity of the game world. Their character is behaving as if they have information that they don’t, because the player does. A more complex example, but typically more along the lines of what people mean when they say meta-gaming.

The modern attitude and culture towards meta-gaming is that it is associated with a really negative result. Meaning, people get pissed about it and the insinuation is that it’s akin to cheating at role-playing.

I’m here to tell you that meta-gaming is the most positive thing you can add to your game and here is why.

The object of a role-playing game is to tell a cool story, but cool stories can’t be told consistently out of a vacuum or through random dice outcomes. Cool stories come from our imagination and that requires a certain level of control. Meaning if you want to make cool things happen, you simply need to decide that they do and this is the collaboration that should take place at the table between players and between players and the GM.

There is a very natural resistance by both players and GM’s to simply side with the system, despite any insistence that the story comes first. Often players and GM’s alike want to side with the dice results or with realism (what would really happen in a situation) or worse of all, with the intent to control the path of the story so as not to derail the pre-ordained set of events. In this struggle, gaming culture has vilified meta-gaming as a negative, but it’s meta-game information that actually allows cool things to happen.

The meta game argument is really old, I was 10 years old and watching this cartoon the first time I had it and I’m 50 now and it still comes up at my tables all the time.

What’s more interesting, a player having to pretend and act intentionally ignorant to the fact that the prince is actually a vampire, or a cool scene where the character appears to be a brilliant investigator and makes the discovery creating a feel-good and heroic moment? Who or what is hurt by the latter?

I don’t know about you, but I love feel-good moments. I want the players to succeed, to do unexpected and fun things that create unique story’s and outcomes. I want large story progressions with each session, I don’t want to delay or make players impatiently wait session after session, sitting on information they have as players because things haven’t worked out for them as characters or worse yet make them feel like they are being punished for being or acting foolish in an RPG.

There is hidden meaning in this quote, but basically what he is saying is that role-playing games aren’t really games, they are storytelling tools. Rules I think are important and so did Gary, but they just don’t apply to GM’s who has the burden of making sure the story is fun.

This also ties into the concept of “yes” GMing. Meaning, creating a game in which the players, no matter how silly and outrageous the things they do are, let them progress, succeed, and move forward, let things work. I don’t want to punish players for doing something stupid, I want everything to appear to be smart, I want everything to be a “Han Solo” plan, something so crazy and outrageous that it works, no matter how unrealistic it is, no matter what the dice say. I want the characters to be the stars of the show, not the victims of circumstance.

My point is that meta-gaming is THE best tool that the GM and players have in their tool bag for creating a great story. Let the story happen and not just that, but push it to happen, resolve the story in such a way so that it’s always a feel-good moment. That doesn’t mean everything that happens is positive, but that the story feels good, like that feeling you get when you just watched a great movie, whether it’s Lord of the Rings or Shindlers List. You want that great storytelling impact at every session, in every scene. It should be happening all the time and meta-gaming is a fantastic tool that allows the players to help you on collaboration of creating that effect at the table.

The Game Has To Feel Threatening

Fear of losing your character has to be foremost on everyone’s mind, you have to make that fear real but you should rarely ever execute anyone. Make an example to prove the point if needed, but remember that the game is all smoke and mirrors,

This last point is short and sweet and self-evident, the question I think that needs to be answered is why I think this is critical enough to put on the list of advice.

Before I answer however, I will say that this advice lands in the “style of play” preference category more than the rest which I consider “general good practices and advice”. Still, I’m quite convinced that my preference here stems from my experience of trying all the different methods and landing on this one by default of it being the most optimal and practical for any RPG.

The other thing to note is that this is not a system thing, it’s not about “choosing” a deadly system, quite to the contrary, I would advise against using that as a crutch, this is more about perception which can be created with any mechanic. It’s a conscious choice as a GM to create an environment of high risk, not a gameplay thing, this danger should not be decided by dice.

Ok enough disclosures, why do I think players should fear for their character’s lives. The answer is actually quite simple, it creates tension and drama at the table that exists in the minds of the players. By creating an environment where the players have a legitimate reason to fear losing their character at the hands of their enemy every time they fight or face other dangers, these things become a tough, dramatic choice that comes with potentially the ultimate consequences and this tension rises up the longer the campaign goes on. The more attached the players are to their characters, the greater the drama.

More than that though, players will steer their characters very differently with such high stakes at the table and this draws the game that much closer to a role-playing environment instead of a mechanical one. Further still, when fights break out in a high-risk game, players will have the natural tendency, as will you as a GM, to elaborate on the events of the fight. You are going to want to squeeze out that last ounce of story when you know that the story of your character may very well end right then and there. You are going to want to make every in that fight a scene of deliberate and player-driven (rather than mechanic-driven) actions. It’s how you make fights less a miniature combat game and more of a role-playing scene, even if the system itself is a very tactically oriented one.

Setting Specific Games Are Better

The final piece of advice which I know most people will hate hearing, but systems made as generic genre games like D&D is for fantasy are never even close to as good as specific games with mechanics designed specifically to a setting, for example what The One Ring is to the middle-earth setting.

The reasons are many but it boils down to the fact that a setting-specific game only needs to think about how the rules apply to that one world, theme and atmosphere. Generic systems need to have this broad coverage and you always end up with an overcooked system which despite being overcooked is missing a lot of stuff you may need once you choose the specific setting you will use in your campaign. Its the default problem that systems like D&D have.

Setting specific systems have such an overwhelming advantage over generic systems in the design space that even a really shitty system made for a specific setting is going to be overwhelmingly superior to the best generic system. When a system is actually good and for a specific setting like Alien RPG here, its pure fucking magic.

This is particularly true if you are using a setting that is pre-defined. For example lets say you want to run a campaign in Westeros, using the story of Game of Thrones as your backdrop. Now you have a lot of detail that whatever system you choose needs to cover. Could you run D&D for example using the Westeros setting? Sure, but there are no fireballs in Westeros, in fact, very little magic at all. How do you handle running your own house? Mass combat? You get the idea. The robust and complex system you picked, suddenly has massive gaps in the infrastructure you will need to run your setting and story.

A game designed to serve a specific setting is always going to give you much better results and what you will find is that most systems, even when they are in the generic category, serve a specific styleof play best. D&D for example is great for high fantasy adventure games, it is, its bread and butter.

My advice is always to do this. Figure out what world/setting and style of game you want and then pick the system that supports that, don’t try to squeeze shit into systems that are clearly not designed to support what your looking for. This advice is very much in turn with the opening advice for this article but this is a bit more specific.