B.Y.O.B. Wargaming
Brainstorm this morning. I happened to be browsing online at some low-end 3d printers and was a little bit astounded at how cheap they are now. This got me thinking about how I should really try to unload my entire Heroclix collection, because I’m pretty sure that at some point we’ll be able to use a recyclable clump of polymer to fabricate a miniature we need, then re-process the clump when we no longer need a Superman and need a Shazam.
This got me thinking about miniature companies, the amount of free information online, and I’m sure that soon you will be able to find any 3d model you may need and print it yourself. If my re-usable polymer dream comes to fruition, then goodbye massive collections of miniatures. And goodbye some game companies.
I never did much in the way of miniature wargaming (because I don’t typically have an extra $2000 lying around to field a Warhammer army. Just like I never did much except dabble with Magic The Gathering; playing with common cards that dudes were just giving away. I did collect Heroclix, because superheroes are awesome.
Back to that brainstorm I mentioned.
The next iteration of tabletop wargames. BYOB. Build Your Own Battalion. And when I say build, I mean design and build each individual unit. The unit’s appearance (3d printing), as well as their stats (modular point-buy system). Since I’ve never played any miniature wargames besides Heroclix, maybe I’m not the best person to design something like this, but then again the Glock was designed by a watchmaker. And I think simpler is better.
Some random brain scrambles in my pan:
UNIT designs:
- “Grunt” units. Basically anything that is a duplicate model. They get treated like minions.
- “Veteran” units. Similar to grunts but with some variation in uniforms or weapons.
- “Elite” units. Pretty much anything besides your leader that is a custom unit.
- 1 Unique unit or Leader. Point-buy statistics along with certain special abilities. And since I was big into RPGA “Living” campaigns, I think there should be some actual XP to be gained for at least the Unique leader.
When I played Heroclix, some of the figures were classified as “unique” and since I understand English, my first thought was “No, they ain’t!” But if all the figures and statistics are self-created you can truly have a unique unit. I figure by this time next year most gamers will own a 3d printer, and if they don’t, most local game shops would buy one that customers can pay to use (especially if this game idea takes off).
There should be some standardized rules for miniatures. Health/Strength of Unit depends on its actual size/height. Since I understand that aesthetics are an important factor for some wargamers, painted units should get a minor defense bump. Since all stats are custom made within the rule framework, there should be some limitations to determine the units actual capabilities based on its appearance, like winged creatures can fly and guys carrying rifles have ranged attacks. “Discreet” non-obvious abilities should cost more to keep someone from fielding an army of numbered cubes.
Everything here is very rough so far, but I like the do-it-yourself concept behind an open source miniature wargame. I figure I have some time to get this all worked out since 3d printers aren’t exactly ubiquitous yet. I also don’t see making any money at this since we wouldn’t actually be creating anything for sale. But I would like to see what I could do with this idea. I envision a free set of downloadable rules, a database with rankings of players, a place to browse and download 3d models for those that aren’t great at designing their own. Similar to Magic the Gathering, I figure about half the skill should be in designing your army and the other half in actual tactical play.
And the good news is, designing your army is a level playing field if each side gets X points to build their individual units and aren’t shackled by having to buy a specific miniature that has its own specific stats and requires $500 worth of metal and a $50 book to play. And an additional $550 to play a different army. Also, sometimes all the books will just change and you will require new ones.