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[HOE] Fwd: [WW] The Wild Card System
Hey Guys and Gals,
This post came from Shane on the Wierd Wars list. I figure it really
generic PEG info, so I figured you all might want to see. The new system
sounds like it could be really cool.
Dan
>From: PEGShane@aol.com
>Reply-To: weirdwars@gamerz.net
>To: weirdwars@gamerz.net
>Subject: [WW] The Wild Card System
>Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2002 12:05:19 EDT
>
>The current Weird War Two schedule takes us through at least August of this
>year.
>
>After that, the Weird War Two *D20* line may continue on its own, depending
>on sales.
>
>Around late summer of this year, the new and absolutely free Wild Card
>System
>will appear on our website. It is *planned* that printed free rules--with 4
>different scenarios in 4 different genres--will be sent to stores, bagged
>in
>magazines, etc. This depends on how sales go this summer, of course, as
>this
>is quite expensive.
>
>Around March of 2003, the Wild Card Advanced Rules will be released along
>with the first new Weird Wars setting--The Crusades--written by yours
>truly.
>After that, about every three months or so, comes: Blood Feuds (Civil War,
>by
>Chris McGlothlin), then "The 'Nam," by Teller. A book on American colonial
>wars by Matt DeForrest and the Boxer Rebellion by Frank Frey are planned
>after that.
>
>July of 2003 sees a whole new line called "Blood Moon," which I'm not ready
>to talk about yet. It uses the Wild Card System, and should be quite
>revolutionary in *many* ways. ;)
>
>So What the Hell is the Wild Card System?
>
>It is *NOT* the Deadlands system. It is loosely *based* on the Rail Wars
>system, which allows you to have dozens of characters/NPCs/bad
>guys/monsters
>out on the table at once and resolve *huge* combats in less than 20
>minutes.
>
>Best of all, the Wild Card basic rules will be *free.* An Advanced Rule
>Book
>is how we'll make money on it, but you *will* be able to play *any genre*
>with the four-page basic rules.
>
>These will be distributed everywhere, and should get us around the most
>common complaint about new games: "My group just doesn't want to try
>anything
>new." If the rules are simple enough, they will. Wild Cards has an
>incredibly
>simple "spine" system. You can then add on as many cool things to it as you
>want without changing the basic simple system at its core.
>
>I hinted recently about a big decision I had made on my midwestern trip.
>This
>is it. I didn't start the trip with this purpose in mind, but I had
>considered using it to figure some things out. After playing a certain new,
>non-Pinnacle game at my first stop (Mark Metzner's house) that
>was--fatiguing
>at best--despite Mark's excellent gamemastering, I decided to try this on
>them. We started at 11PM, made characters, and played the entire adventure
>from Dead From Above, including 3 large fights, by 2AM. And Mark's group
>*loved* it.
>
>Two more stops along the way, two more long conversations with die-hard
>gamers, and the decision was made.
>
>Back home, we've used the Wild Card System to play: Weird French and Indian
>War, the Witchfire Trilogy (D20), Vietnam, and have been playing in a
>Legend
>of the Five Rings campaign (6 sessions now). Our playtest groups have
>played
>Weird Boxer Rebellion, Warhammer Fantasy, and Pulp Adventure. In every
>case,
>the GM has been able to get set up and going in 5 minutes.
>
>Wild Cards is designed to be a GM's dream. There's no keeping track of
>wounds, hit points, or any of that stuff for NPCs/ bad guys. The tagline is
>Fast/Furious/Fun.
>
>Best of all, in games like Weird Wars where you often have lots of friendly
>NPCs around, the *players* control them. They share basic statistics but
>get
>assigned random personalities to help you get to know them. And believe
>me--you will. In our Vietnam game, I played a Lt. Some of the other players
>were privates, some were NCOs, whatever. And we had about 8 other NPCs--one
>of which was the crusty old Sgt. We assigned random personalities to them
>and
>I was able to look at my simple little list and say "Okay. I'm sending the
>gung ho guy to the rear of our ambush site. If things go south, I want him
>to
>charge through, firing up the bad guys as much as he can, and rally with
>us."
>I was also able to say. "Hmm. These two guys are slackers. I'll split them
>up
>during night watch."
>
>Here's some more tidbits. In the French and Indian War game I ran, Zeke was
>a
>Ranger captain and had 20 Rangers under him! Jason was the British officer
>assigned to lead them. They split the NPCs up during combat (even though
>they're all still under Jason's *character*) and whooped up on some
>Couriers
>De Bois who tried to ambush them. We had 33 combatants and finished the
>fight
>in about 15 minutes.
>
>In our L5R game, Jason led a group of daidoji (spelling?)--kinda commando
>types in Rokugan. We tangled with a Phoenix "platoon" of about 20 grunts,
>three samurai, and a shugenja. All told, there were 57 figure on the board.
>We finished the battle in 30 minutes--and it was epic!
>
>Some might be saying, if it's that simple, how much depth can there be! All
>I
>can say is "trust me." You'll be able to look it over for yourself *for
>free.* Heroes (and champion types) suffer detailed wounds. Everyone else is
>either up, down, or off the table. It's that simple.
>
>SOOOOO. . . .
>
>In short, I'm the guy who has to write, edit, pay for, and literally *live*
>this stuff. So I need to do it my way. I want a system that is:
>
>A) SUPER easy for the GM.
>B) Allows players to make use of friendly NPCs.
>C) Isn't a chore to write and edit (those of you who recently complained
>about how hard it was to write the D20 stat blocks for the Weird Wars D20
>Gurus contest know what I mean!)
>D) Allows for great character advancement. D20 does this well--and we've
>taken some of the best ideas and worked them into our system.
>
>I'll be putting up a "Making of" article on the website soon--much as we
>did
>with Weird Wars.
>
>For those of you who are absolutely in love with D20, more power to you.
>And
>we're still doing some D20 products, including Deadlands and Hell on Earth
>dual-stat books, Hostile Climes, and of course the rest of the Weird War
>Two
>line (and no, there isn't a Wild Card WW2 book anywhere on the schedule
>anytime soon). There are also conversion rules in Wild Card should you
>decide
>to play one of the new genres with D20.
>
>I'll post a more succinct version of these two messages on Tuesday's web
>update.
>
>Love ya all. Dissenters and supporters alike. ;)
>
>Shane
>
>
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>
"God Might Forgive You, We will not" - Senator John McCain
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