jacar
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 345
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Post by jacar on Apr 24, 2009 13:31:52 GMT -6
Hi all,
New to the group and looooooonnng time gamer with my original taste of DnD going back to the mid 70s.
I have fond memories of Chainmail. I believe the copy I own is 3rd edition. It does have its problems but it is still a pretty well thought out game.
I am thinking about re-writing the game for my own purposes at least.
Things I like...
Massed combat rules are great! the post combat morale phase is not so bad and makes a lot of sense.
The fantasy supplement is very good. My copy still has some of the Tolkienesque stuff in it.
The straight forwardness of the rules. The game is just not overly complicated. The way it integrates into ODnD is fantastic.
Things I don't like...
Some of the rules are a bit incomplete or vague. Many of my questions have been answered by posts here. Thanks for that!
The shooting is a bit too powerful.
The rules are not very structured. By this I mean it seems like some of the special rules were sort of bolted on without regard to the effect they have on the rest of the game.
The things I would change are the things I don't like (duh!) and I'd clarify as much of the game as possible. I'd also like to simplify the rules and make them more structured.
Now, does the WotC OGL license cover the original Chainmail game? If not, then this project will strictly be mine alone. If it does, then i will likely post the rules somewhere for all to enjoy.
Glad to see others are still enjoying the rules after all these years.
John
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Post by Finarvyn on Apr 24, 2009 16:29:53 GMT -6
Welcome to the boards! Have an EXALT for your first post! Now, does the WotC OGL license cover the original Chainmail game? If not, then this project will strictly be mine alone. If it does, then i will likely post the rules somewhere for all to enjoy. I'd say that the OGL doesn't specifically cover any game in particular. It's a set of universal rules and terminology that gamers can use to create their own rules sets. Castles & Crusades, for example, takes the OGL and strips away many of the 3E-ish features to create something a lot more AD&D-like. So I don't see any reason why you couldn't create a Chainmail-like game using the OGL as a foundation. The problem would be to know what to include and what to avoid, and it might be difficult to make things much like any particular game since the OGL starts more like 3E. Recapturing the feel of a miniatures game may be tricky when you start with rules for a RPG, or you may find that everything just falls into place for you. I'd say give it a shot, and then share what you do with the rest of us! ;D |
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jacar
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 345
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Post by jacar on Apr 24, 2009 18:57:35 GMT -6
Exalt!? You're not going to bury me in a pyramid or something are you?!  Here is my first whack at melee. I'll post here for comments but I do plan on making everything into a nice neat PDF. The massed combat of the original game used dice per "men" which equals dice per figure. G & D were not very precise in their writing. These dice including the to-hit numbers were based on match-up. In general cavalry got more dice per figure than infantry when fighting infantry but the same amount when fighting cavalry. Leaving any special cases out we can classify everything as follows. Light-Unarmored troops who are either armed with missile weapons or melee weapons Heavy-Troops with some sort of protection, usually helmet, shield and melee weapon. Armored-Fully armored troop dependant on the period you are playing. In the early Medieval, for instance, these troops would have mail, shield and a weapon. When doing the match ups, melee between like troops would be relatively even. 1 die per man. This can be adjusted up or down based on the match up. Light vs Heavy 1 die per 2 men Light vs Armored 1 die per 3 men...maybe per 4 men. Needs testing. The logic follows the same throughout. Heavy vs light 2 dice per man Heavy vs armored is 1 die per 2 men. Extrapolate the rest and you have a single, small fine logical table. Now we only need to come up with hit numbers. The basic hit number is 6. As I stated before, cavalry gets about twice the number of dice as their footmen counterparts. Instead of rolling more dice, we can just double the chance to hit when cavalry hits infantry. So they hit on a 5+. So Cav vs Inf 5+ Any other 6+ Each hit causes a casualty. Obviously, there will be other situations where the 5+ won't hold up (pole arms vs cavalry for instance) I'll leave the special cases out for now. I'll post my thoughts on missile fire later. This section will be a complete rewrite. John |
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Post by Finarvyn on Apr 24, 2009 20:24:19 GMT -6
Exalt!? You're not going to bury me in a pyramid or something are you?! Nah. On the boards you can EXALT someone and give them a +1 to their "Karma" score, or you can SMITE someong and give them a -1. In general, we discourage using the SMITE function but encourage folks to EXALT posters who do a good job. Oh, and if you EXALT someone you probably ought to tell them why. :-) |
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jacar
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 345
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Post by jacar on Apr 24, 2009 20:44:23 GMT -6
Exalt!? You're not going to bury me in a pyramid or something are you?! Nah. On the boards you can EXALT someone and give them a +1 to their "Karma" score, or you can SMITE someong and give them a -1. In general, we discourage using the SMITE function but encourage folks to EXALT posters who do a good job. Oh, and if you EXALT someone you probably ought to tell them why. :-) Well then...Cheers! ;D |
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jacar
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 345
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Post by jacar on Apr 24, 2009 20:57:02 GMT -6
Missile Shooting
In the original game, missile shooting was very powerful. Too powerful IMHO. 10 figures could inflict 5 casualties 2/3 of the time against unarmored targets and 4 casualties the rest of the time. I'd just assume throw out all of missile fire and start fresh using the same mechanics for melee.
We only have to base this on the targets class. If the target is Light you roll 1 die per 2 figures shooting. If the target is heavy, you roll 1 die per 3 figures shooting. If the target is armored, you roll 1 die per 4 figures shooting. The target number is always 6.
Longbows and Crossbows treat the target as 1 less than they are. Armored targets become heavy targets. Heavy targets become light targets. No extra effect on light targets.
Crossbow armed troops may move or shoot. Other missile armed troops may move and shoot. (up to half maybe?)
Bow armed troops may fire overhead of a front rank. Dice are halved to do this. Longbows lose there extra "punch" if they fire over head.
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jacar
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 345
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Post by jacar on Apr 24, 2009 21:05:10 GMT -6
Fatigue
Fatigue is a decent rule only muddled by a vague presentation. Slight change for clarity.
Each unit can accumulate 5 fatigue points. You gain 1 fatigue point by doing any of the following:
Moving
Meleeing
Charging
Each action causes a fatigue and you can accumulate more than 1 point in a turn.
Example: A cavalry unit charges home 1 fatigue. It then melees. 1 Fatigue. So it has taken 2 fatigue total. The unit could perform 3 more actions before it is exhausted.
5 might be too many points but it will be a good starting point for now. Maybe chargin should be 2 fatigue points. It is a faster than normal move.
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