Heirs to Heartbreak
Mar. 30th, 2008 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
So one of the exhibitors at Gamestorm this weekend was an outfit called Countess Games which I'd never heard of and which had some product coming out called "Heirs of Olympia".
Apparently, this company just got started and it's main products haven't yet come out. So, to be fair, I can't really judge any of their stuff beyond the promo materials I picked up. But this is just screaming Fantasy Heartbreaker to me.
Why? Well, the website is up there, but just a few of the warning signs that I picked out:
So this game makes me nervous. However:
Attention female gamers and miniature gamers in general!
The first line of products from Countess games are miniatures. And they're really quite good. They appear to be "true" 25mm figures which means they're a little small compared to most of the stuff you see nowadays. However, this gives them a nice "retro" feel.
More importantly every female warrior is properly armed and armored. They're mostly wearing heavy chain shirts and helms. They've got boobs, but they're not ludicrous boobs and it can be hard to distinguish male from female on first glance (which is about what you'd expect). Even if you don't want to use the miniatures for the actual game, they'd be great for all kinds of historical/fantasy skirmish gaming. I'm sorely tempted to pick up a couple, esepcially the female knight with the mace.
So, the game itself has me concerned but the minis look fantastic and I can only hope they find their niche in that realm. Again, I haven't seen any finished product (and their demo packet material is well-designed/presented), but I'll be very curious to see how this one does.
later
Tom
So one of the exhibitors at Gamestorm this weekend was an outfit called Countess Games which I'd never heard of and which had some product coming out called "Heirs of Olympia".
Apparently, this company just got started and it's main products haven't yet come out. So, to be fair, I can't really judge any of their stuff beyond the promo materials I picked up. But this is just screaming Fantasy Heartbreaker to me.
Why? Well, the website is up there, but just a few of the warning signs that I picked out:
- Rules for RPG/LARP/Miniatures -- all in one book. I would argue that a game can be great in one arena, good in two, but all three is pretty much impossible. You could argue that D&D has done well in all three arenas, but I would counter that there are only D&D-like LARP rules, no official D&D LARP rules and that most of the better fantasy-adventure LARPS dispense with a lot of the things that make D&D what it is. But the core rulebook will have all these disparate rulesets incorporated.
- It's just like Warhammer, but different! -- The demo rules for the miniature combat portion shows a huge GW influence (I'm told that the designer worked for them for awhile). It's not a one-for-one copy. Indeed, there are some neat things about the short mini demo I played that show some inventive thinking. But the stats just read like GW to me.
- Does this campaign world look familar? Hmmm...the game is called Heirs of Olympia and there's this Olympia right near a very distinctive looking bay or sound of some sort. Yeah...that doesn't bode well.
- The designer is a History Major -- So, on the one hand, probably a slightly more coherent world and indeed, the web blurbs suggest a more Game of Thrones and less Owlbear, but on the other hand sometimes the facts get in the way of a good game.
So this game makes me nervous. However:
Attention female gamers and miniature gamers in general!
The first line of products from Countess games are miniatures. And they're really quite good. They appear to be "true" 25mm figures which means they're a little small compared to most of the stuff you see nowadays. However, this gives them a nice "retro" feel.
More importantly every female warrior is properly armed and armored. They're mostly wearing heavy chain shirts and helms. They've got boobs, but they're not ludicrous boobs and it can be hard to distinguish male from female on first glance (which is about what you'd expect). Even if you don't want to use the miniatures for the actual game, they'd be great for all kinds of historical/fantasy skirmish gaming. I'm sorely tempted to pick up a couple, esepcially the female knight with the mace.
So, the game itself has me concerned but the minis look fantastic and I can only hope they find their niche in that realm. Again, I haven't seen any finished product (and their demo packet material is well-designed/presented), but I'll be very curious to see how this one does.
later
Tom
