Bang bang! I shot you!

In the excellent Terminator 2, the philosopher of our age, John Connor, realises it is in our nature to destroy each other as he watches two younger boys playing with toy guns. I was reminded of the scene when I was in a toy store with my youngest the other day. Looking around the "boys" toys (the gender stereotype on toys is another discussion) I realised how many were guns, swords, fighting robots etc.

Now I well aware of the parental philosophy of refuse to buy your children toy guns and they will just use sticks anyway, I for one have bought toy lightsabres as they are actually safer than the alternative that were being used (marble run tubes) but why or how do we teach our children to play this way?
Now I'm not trying to start a moral debate, I'm more just intellectually interested in why we do this. As a parent I tell my children violence is bad, but then we watch Ninja and Superhero cartoons. The current trend of Superhero films include characters that try to resolve issues without guns, but then these are fantasy films. In real life there obviously is a need for some firearms, who should have them is a difficult question.The gun debate is a long and detailed discussion not for this blogger to delve into.

So, when I wargame, and these days my sons are more interested in what I do, how do I describe it to them? I once heard of a manager in a certain toy soldier retail company banning the word "dead" and instead staff were asked to use the word "casualty". (I'm not sure how true this was.) Should I be treading this carefully? I think there is a definite need to differentiate between fantasy and real life. I explain to my son that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can do what they do because they are professionally trained to a high level and also because they are not real. Real life is more dangerous.

Obviously historical wargaming does have some educational merit and older children should learn about war. Otherwise, as a wiser man than I said, we are doomed to repeat it. So with that in mind should one choose one over the other for the younger minds?

I'm pretty sure that young minds are cleverer than we sometimes give credit. They understand the distinction between a game and real life. Maybe playing at War is some deep down natural survival instinct. I for one have never really had a love of violence in real life, but give me a bag of dice and a table of miniatures and I will turn into a bloodthirsty general.

Osprey, Osprey, Osprey!

I have more rulebooks than time to play.

So, I am pretty sure I am not the only one who has a new addiction. Osprey rulebooks. They are just so easily affordable, only a tenner will get you a complete ruleset that is not manufacturer specific. I spend so much time at warfare shows saying, "that looks like an awesome model, but I have no use for it."
I can now use any fantasy models I like with Dragon Rampant, any cool sci-fi models with Rogue Stars. (Hasslefree miniatures is also an addiction of mine so that's perfect.)With Chosen Men, I can use my 28mm Napoleonic collection without having to cover a giant twelve foot table to take into account the rules being designed for brigade level encounters. 

So, this weekend I played some Rogue Stars. This game is harsh. When the designer Andrea Sfiligoi suggests this is a very shooty game and to keep your head down and take cover, he wasn't exaggerating. There's no injury table for this campaign system, if you don't drag your buddies corpse off the table before he bleeds out, he's dead. If you shoot someone in the head with a lucky shot, no medic roll is going to save him.

After a few pitched battles we got adventurous and tried a mission in a derelict spaceship. Out came the Space Hulk set. During the firefight the ship tilted twice sending everyone sliding across the deck, a nuclear explosion ripped through a quarter of the board instantly killing one guy, the gravity failed leaving everyone floating about and finally the entire ship exploded, meaning only three individuals from the entire game survived by finding escape pods. This game does not pull the punches.

I really like how quick it is to pick up the rules. I especially like the activate/reaction system. By allowing your opponent to make an attempt at an action before you for each activation you fail, neither player gets a chance to stand and just watch their team get shot to ribbons. (Although they will get shot a lot.) The campaign experience rules mean that no one gang becomes overpowered as they keep winning, (I'm looking at you Necromunda and Mordheim) so no-one feels they are doomed after one match.

My fellow dice rollers have had multiple ideas for teams to build and I think this is a system we will be playing again.

Where it all began

You can keep your D20's, I like to roll a D12.
It all started with a trip to a friends house. He had excitingly promised me a look at his "Space Orks." My first sight of some GW models, I immediately knew this was for me, I also realised he had done a terrible job of sticking them together and I definitely knew I could do a better job.
Not having access to a local hobby store, living in a market town in the eighties, my trip into town to look for something similar only presented me with something called Advanced Heroquest. I had previously dabbled with Gibson Games' Sorcerers Cave with my siblings so was familiar with the dungeon delving trope. I had a crisp £20 note from working one day at the local agricultural show, (I am sounding so English right now.) so I made what I can confidently say one of the best value transactions I have made in my life.

This dungeon exploring system took over my summers with two of my friends for a good couple of years. Yes the only monsters it came with were 20 identical Shaven warriors. (Ratmen to the un-initiated.) but that didn't stop us. We used cardboard standees for extra monsters, (a pair of scissors, cereal card and some copies of White Dwarf magazine came in handy.) I even managed to find a couple of Ral Partha metal goblins at my local Beatties store.
This was also the beginning of my Love of "house rules" although I didn't call them that then. We wrote our own magic items and spells, created stats for extra monsters and even came up with a sci fi version including beefing up our characters stats with "Bionics".
I still love Advanced Heroquest. I have recently played it again with a new group, with a proper mix of monsters this time from my now extensive collection. We even tried a new sci fi version I have rewritten. The system is a bit clunkier than I remembered, (spellcasters suffer from sitting on their hands until the "big boss" to save spell components. Doorways can become bottle necks.) but it still holds up. I have added to my dungeon tiles with Terraclips and now our heroes can kill Skaven on multiple levels. When my boys are older I hope to fish it out again and take them on a dungeon exploration of their own.