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Here are some suggestions. Miniatures Handbook For the non-matrix rules, I personally recommend the D&D Miniatures Handbook. It include rules for skirmish, squad, and mass battles. You can use these rules as the basis for things like initiative, movement, morale, commanders, victory conditions, scenarios, etc. If you’re familiar with D&D already, you’ll be able to make sense of the special abilities and such so that you can translate them to the matrix system. A key rule that I recommend for multiplayer play is that you win by scoring kills rather than for surviving. That way you’re rewarded for attacking rather than for avoiding battle. It’s a little tricky to score kills without a cost system to rate the value of a kill, but it’s still got to be better than “last man standing.” Costs Determining armies randomly is going to be rough because then you need good costs on the miniatures to keep the armies balanced. Allow me to propose and alternative. Set up multiple armies that look roughly equivalent. Get all players to agree on the armies. Then assign each player and army randomly. Don’t worry about costs. Instead balance army lists. That will get you started. If an army is too strong or weak, add or subtract miniatures. Once you’ve played a few games, then worry about the costs of individual miniatures. Restrict Miniature Types To start with, treat a large number of miniatures as the same. For example, if you have a bunch of trolls, giants, and ogres, treat them all as having the same stats. That’s easier to keep track of, and it helps you test those stats better. Again, once you have some experience, you can include more unique creatures, such as an elite giant or a firebreathing giant. Commanders Commanders as bearers of special abilities is a fun element to add to your game system. The Miniatures Handbook has rules for commander effects. Commanders amount to an extra level of rules, but I’ve found them to add a lot to play. You might start playing without commanders and then add them once you’re looking for another level of game interaction. Consider D6s If you’re going to use squads or mass units, consider switching to d6s. The problem with 2d6 is that you can’t roll multiple attacks at once because you don’t know which d6 goes with which. Convert the chart to d6, d8, or d10. If d6s work, that’s you best bet because it means that every bonus of +1 is going to count for a lot. The peaked probability of 2d6 is sort of neat. If you keep it, you can use color-coded pairs of dice to make multiple, simultaneous rolls. Miniatures I can’t help but recommend that you go buy some new D&D miniatures. There are some great pieces out there that you’d be happy to add to your collection. The more the merrier. Jump In The best way to think about what to do is to do it. Jump in as soon as you can and then use the experience to inform your design. Let me know what you come up with —JoT |
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