The New End Phase (Used To Be The Starting Phase)

Finished up the new End Phase yesterday. What's different?

Setting Up A Game

Yeah, on Sunday I said that I was done with the "Basic Rules" chapter. But then I decided that chapter needed a section on how to set up a battle (which was mostly done already) and that it should include the very basic "Training Day" mission.

Why?

New D10 Rolling Overview

(click to enlarge)

Some of the die-rolling mechanics have caused a bit of confusion for testers, particularly the concept of rolling low with one or all dice. So I've pulled all of the test definitions out of the turn sections, and put them all together in the "WarStrike Basics" introductory section. So that there's one place for a player to go to compare how the various tests work.

We're Confirmed For Gencon!

I've just received confirmation that WarStrike is a go for the First Exposure Playtest Hall. I don't have a schedule yet, but if our time is distributed evenly, then we'll be testing for 4 hours each day of Gencon! 

Thoughts?

New Play Overview

(Click to Enlarge)

I've been a busy beaver these last few days. Deleting lots of rules that we don't need, adding a few that we do, and working on presenting some of the new/odd things in our game that players won't be used to from playing other games, and dealing with bad rules interactions that Stelek has helped me find. The next Pre-Alpha PDF release is going to be quite different indeed.

Ok... Maybe One Rules Overhaul... And Gencon!

Ok, so I was making notes in iBooks Author for the relatively simple rules tweaks that I was planning to make as a result of last weekend's testing. But as I was doing that, I thought back to the demos I'd just done, and what players had stumbled over conceptually.

A Great Weekend of Testing!

Local gamer Alex Fetts after winning a VERY enjoyable game of WarStrike.

I spent 16 hours at Family Time Games this past weekend, where I ran 5 games of WarStrike, and 7 quick gameplay introductions, to various past and present 40K players. The results were extremely encouraging. With a solid majority of the players not only liking the game, but actually using words like "Fantastic", and "It really feels fair" to describe the experience.

Alpha Feedback, And A Shift In Focus

Just wanted to give a quick update on what's been going on with the project, while I work on filling out some of our fluff for presentation in the next Pre-Alpha release.

Making Forward Progress...

I'm not quite free yet from having to deal with my father's estate, but I have been making some good progress on the game. I'm glad to report that we now have the first pre-alpha release done, and it's been distributed to the WarStrike staff, and some selected local testers.

Getting Past Obstacles...

My last post was back in August, when I laid out some obstacles I'm facing that were pulling me away from the project. So here's an update on that, and more.

The short of it is that I'm still stuck in a mire of crap that I'd rather not have to be doing. But things are shaping up to resolve themselves by (probably) about February. At which point I should be able to dive back into working on the game.