As this Insider Insight goes online, the freebie ruleset that will come with May’s issue of Wargames Illustrated – Ruckus – is getting its final layout done before it heads to the printers.
I’ve worked closely with Mike Peters, the ruleset’s author, over several visits to Wi Tower and it’s been an absolute pleasure. Mike’s the kind of person, and gamer, who everyone wants to know. Excitable, funny, passionate, smart, and generally lovely. We’ve built up a great rapport and I hope that the excellent working connection we’ve made shows through in the freebie. No ruleset will ever be perfect or ‘finished’ upon release, but I sincerely believe that Mike’s initially brilliant game systems (along with a little of my editor’s eye) have made Ruckus into something that is about as perfectly imperfect as rulesets can get.
Obviously, I’m a bit biased, as I know the rules inside and out, but it’s clear that this is a game that is more than a match for other top-tier skirmish systems. You only need to see the playtesting feedback (less grumbling about systems, more people getting addicted to playing the game over and over for fun) to know Ruckus has huge appeal, massive replay value, and vast scope.
Regarding scope, Mike’s done a wonderful job condensing his now lengthy and expansive Ruckus rules into the freebie’s 32 pages. He has been admirably brave and steadfast as we’ve cut away sections of his work that, were it not for minimal space, would all be well worth publishing. The conversation between us will now move to how we get some of those extra sections out to players, either online or in magazine articles.*
A pleasant murdering of darlings
It’s a bit odd to come in at the end to cut down someone else’s passion project. Some authors can be reluctant to make any changes at all, and defensive when suggestions are made, but Mike couldn’t have been more open to ideas. Through the hours and days we’ve spent editing and re-editing his rules we’ve had lively discussions, refined phrasing, punched up a few existing rules, and even added some new ones that have then been tinkered with and refined.
When the name of a stat has been the biggest point of contention, and that was worked out over a cuppa in about five minutes, you’ve done well.**
Soon Ruckus will be out of our hands and in yours. It’s a game that will appeal to Billhooks players, who only need to take twelve figures from their existing army to be good to go, but this is a separate system from Andy Callan’s game with a few similar systems. You need not be a Billhooks player to enjoy it. You don’t even need to play the period. The Wars of the Roses is a great parallel to fantasy options (from goblins and ghouls to Game of Thrones***) and the rules can work with other historical ranges too; if you are too impatient to wait for Mike’s specific rules for them why not throw some Swiss or Border Reivers in here?
I’ll leave you with a look at some of the work-in-progress sculpts that are being developed, and will be produced in metal, to add character to your Ruckus Retinues. Bear in mind that these T-poses are at the earliest stages of sculpting, needing posing and refinement before they look their best.
I hope that on his next visit, I can finally play a game of Ruckus against Mike! I’ve overseen various battles he’s been involved in or umpired at Wi Tower, but we’ve always been too busy with rules work to face off against each other!
* There’s horse riding, extra campaign rules, whole new Theatres of conflict, connected scenarios for Sherwood Forest-dwelling Outlaws, and much more.
** Mike kept ‘health’ over my suggestion to use the more universal ‘wounds’. We sipped our teas, had a brief debate, and ultimately (in part because he’d been so open to everything else that I’d suggested!) I was more than happy for that name to stay as he wanted.
*** Which is pretty much the Wars of the Roses anyway, just with a less narratively satisfying ending!
