Song Of Blasters Ponderings

Hi!

I've had an unexpected week of holidays and have spent much of it off out enjoying the equally unexpectedly nice weather we've been having so must admit that hobby time has been rather limited. What little time I've had spare has been dedicated to lots of illustrations and background scribblings for my Somewhere on the Border project but I've been pondering my ad hoc ruleset Song of Blasters and some of the possibilities it has.

I had originally based it loosely on Song of Blades and Heroes but with a few tweaks as I never really liked the fact that close combat seemed to involve lots of pushing and shoving and actually removing a model as a casualty was surprisingly difficult. Over the last year or so, the rules seem to have developed a bit of a life of their own and have morphed considerably.

Song of Blasters SD Scale

Instead of the two stats of Quality and Combat that Song of Blades had, along with the assorted special abilities which gave each model some more character, Song of Blasters has Quality, Move, Shoot, Combat and Armour as well as special abilities. I felt that the extra stats were needed as I found they worked better but still kept things simple while allowing for a game to run in about half an hour with a reasonable number of figures.

Song of Blasters in 15mm

As things developed, I tried the rules with 15mm sci-fi, Epic scale and my SD scaled stuff and found it worked fairly well for what I was looking for in a game. I've since added more crunchy bits for magic which makes things a bit more interesting without requiring much record keeping or faff. I've also tinkered with using different kinds of dice for this and that and each little revision has brought me closer to what I'm looking for in a game.

Song of Blasters 6mm scale

I must admit it's been hugely entertaining as I play around with the rules but I've been tempted to give it a try with some more RPG Lite elements with smaller numbers of figures (possibly half a dozen a side) with multiple wounds and more in depth abilities such as different modes of attack and defence with everything based around a heavily scenario driven approach.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this project but I'm interested to see how it develops as I'm tempted to use it to paint up some small warbands that I've had kicking around for a while and seeing how things develop. Hopefully I'll be able to post a sample battle report in the coming week or so once I've got myself sorted out but I also need to start compiling my notes as much of the rules are scribbled on bits of paper or stored haphazardly in my rather poor memory and I could really do with putting it all into some sort of order and seeing how I get on...

Having re-read this rambling, I realise it's a bit of a drabble but I kind of wanted to get my thoughts in order and always find posting something on my blog helps so apologies for the meander and thanks for putting up with it!

All the best!

Looking Back

Hi!

I've been rather busy with Ye Reale Life shenanigans over the last couple of weeks but I've also spent a bit of time looking back over my blog.

It's hard to believe that it's been running for ten years in various guises and in that time I seem to have meandered along from my old Stainless Steel Rat project to Leviathan to 15mm Rogue Trader to Epic skirmish and SD scale fantasy. Now 2mm fantasy and Flintloque has joined the mix leaving me with a rather eclectic selection of posts.

28mm Gubbins

Over the last few years it's become increasingly evident that I simply cannot paint 28mm scale figures anymore. I thrash around and give it a try every few months and give up again soon after as time and time again I cannot get the figure to look anything like what it should (and indeed what I used to be able to make it look like!).

Epic scale Ultramarines

15mm scale Cultists

On the other hand, I seem to really enjoy working in smaller scales, especially 6mm and 15mm which don't seem to pose any challenge for me to paint to a standard I am happy with. Similarly, I've had great enjoyment from painting my own SD stylised sculpts. Maybe it's because I have a strong idea of how they should look painted or maybe I'm just awkward but I can't help feel that this is a bit of a sign that I've identified the scales I enjoy and should possibly stick to them!

SD Boar Company!

Gaming wise, I seem to have flitted around in a similar fashion with Rogue Trader, No Limits, Star Mogul, Leviathan, Epic 40k and Song of Blades and Heroes being tried out down the years. Interestingly I seem to have stumbled over my own ruleset along the way. Song of Blasters is a bit simple and somewhat rough and ready but it does allow me to play quick skirmishes with whatever I have to hand and continues to mildly obsess me as I thrash out new options, special rules and new ways to incorporate some of the more crunchy elements.

Song of Blasters in action

It's also allowing me to actually get some games played! I seem to have played more in the last 18 months than I had in the previous eight years which is proving to be really heartening and despite a few fits and starts, I hope to be able to stick with it and get a goodly number of games in in the coming weeks and months!

Speaking of which, I do have some slightly nebulus plans for some SD scale sci-fi gubbins in the coming months too. While Song of Blasters is proving to be an entertaining development, I have a hankering to try one or two old rulesets too! I'm particularly fond of Star Mogul which was a great little game released about ten or so years back and had some fascinating concepts and some rather original races to boot.

I'm also hoping to build some more impressive forces for my somewhat neglected 15mm sci-fi stuff too as I finished the Ork Nobz in December and haven't got round to painting them...

Gosh! I seem to have begun rambling a bit so I may call it a night but hopefully I'll still be blathering away in another ten years with more eclectic gubbins and thankyou all for putting up with my goldfish like attention span and rambling nonsense!

All the best!

Richard