Deep Thoughts: Make Your Fun

Local gaming clubs build a sense of friendship and community over time. Players will gravitate towards a core of like minded players who naturally think about the game and play the game with similar taste. Over time, playing with the same group of players, with the same armies and the same terrain can become a bit boring. New codex’s help for a bit, trying out different point levels and adding new units also keeps things interesting, but ultimately our hobby doesn’t update at an alarming rate, leading to what can be described as ‘gaming malaise’.

One way to combat this is by asking a simple question: ‘Why do we limit ourselves to the special characters listed in our army codex books?’

In my last two gaming circles we introduced an interesting idea, custom character events. Custom characters require that fluff be written, special attributes be assigned, points cost be determined and a model be created. Of all these things determining points costs can be the most difficult so I will describe how we, as a group, arrived at our costs using my example below.

I started with the points cost for a Vanquisher and subtracted the cost of a Leman Russ to determine what the ‘upgrade cost’ is. I then subtracted the cost of a Dreadnought from a Venerable Dreadnought to determine what the ‘upgrade cost’ is to get the cost of the ‘re-roll damage’ skill. Then I used the old Armored Company list to get the Tank Ace points to represent the upgrade to ballistic skill of 4. Once I had all my upgrades determined I then added in a couple of negative things to make it a bit more random. Coming in from reserve and taking the place of a Leman Russ were two things that help balance out the positive attributes.

After I had determined what I thought were appropriate points I then sent it to my gaming circle for review in a PDF file like so:

(Click on Image for a readable version)

After emailing the PDF file to the rest of the gaming circle members I wait for their review and any adjustments to points they might have. At the same time they are sending out any special characters they want to use so that I can review and adjust the points of their creations if necessary. If people suggest different point values they are then averaged into the cost determining the final cost prior to being played at the 'Special Character Event'.

It’s a pretty simple and self regulating system for introducing some variety into your games while keeping people from burning out on playing the same armies week in and week out. The unit entry is created with a word document that I will happily email to anyone who might like to try it out in their own circles.

Cheers,

Tallarn