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About

This is a place for me to post my ideas, rules, stories, and criticisms.

Narrative tabletop and roleplaying games are, by definition, intensely interpersonal experiences that require group buy-in and consensus, but also require clear vision and leadership, typically from Games Masters. The games that we like are not always the games that others like, and that is okay.

Myself, I'm deeply interested in the history of revolutions, Christianity, and class and social/cultural dynamics. I have worked as a union organiser and volunteer for socialist political parties. I wear my politics on my sleeve, and they inform my understanding of the world, just like yours do. They also inflect my work in writing and playing games.

For games, I like rules that inform the world. The base of any game is its rules. They are the conditions in which we play. All of the ways the game is played and the kind of play that emerges, is the superstructure that sits on top of those rules. Different rules create different subjectivities; this is part of the fun of writing rules, homebrewing, and experimenting with other rulesets.

This blog will be a place for experimentation in the intersections between history, revolution, class, and games.

Konstantin Yuon, New Planet


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Return to Mordheim, Part 1

It's been a very long time since I played tabletop wargames. This year, I finally made it back. My oldest memory of Warhammer was my primary school friends splitting a box of Warhammer Fantasy Battles 6th Edition. I wasn't interested in Bretonnians or Lizardmen. I wanted goblins. Lots of goblins.  Night Goblins specifically. It was something about their creepy little cloaks, the caves they lived in, and all those mushrooms. I thought the Fanatic was awesome, with their ball and chain that was bigger than them. I just fielded unit after unit of Night Goblin spearmen and archers with Fanatics. I would lose every game. But I didn't care. I played Night Goblins because I loved the freaky little guys, not because I expected to win games.  A friend and I used to play Necromunda with his older brother's boxed set. I knew there was something different about Necromunda. It felt just a bit more mature. Grittier. Almost like we were too young to be playing it, like it deserved an
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Return to Mordheim, Part 2: Modernising the Rules

Mordheim is a wonderful game. It is perhaps more popular today than it was a quarter of a century ago when it was initally released and supported. The world and the rules create a grim and gritty play experience, where actions have real consequences and support a narrative style of play. For myself, and probably many in the community, it also has a powerful nostalgic pull. It not only takes me back to a time where I was young and free enough to spend all my pocket money and weekends at Games Workshop creating, painting, and playing. But also for a time in Games Workshop's past where they hadn't perfected the profit-making machine that GW has become; where a 13-year-old could legitimately engage with the hobby with just their pocket money and a train ticket. 1 But say what you will about Games Workshop, they do write good games. Their contemporary games like Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, Kill Team and Warcry have smart and fun rules. Going back and exploring the Mordheim rules toda
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Mordheim Scenario: Wyrdstone Hunt

Games of Mordheim have a tendency to become a huge brawl in the centre of the table. Many of the newer interventions in tabletop wargames, like objectives and victory points, are not present in Mordheim. Quite often the only victory condition in Mordheim is "when the other warband routs".  There are many improvements to be made to Mordheim by bringing newer ideas like objectives and victory points into the game. Not only to improve gameplay, but also from a narrative perspective. Having objectives beyond "beat the shit out of the other warband" creates more narrative play, as motivations become more complex  With this in mind, below is the first of many updated scenarios for Mordheim. I have taken an already existing scenario, the Wyrdstone Hunt, and updated it with new ideas and gameplay mechanics. I have been putting together some Trench Crusade games, and I have drawn heavily from the rules there. 
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