Reply To: The Intersection of Simulation and Beer & Pretzels

[Sparker]

Bandit wrote:

If I buy a set of rules, I want a set of rules. Not a flippin’ toolkit.

Well of course that’s exactly what you get with Black Powder straight out of the box – in spades! The toolkit add-ons should you later wish to ‘customise’ your game for a particular campaign or scenario are a big billy bonus!

Reminds me of a story about Admiral ‘Jacky’ Fisher, the irascible Admiral who put the Royal Navy into shape for WW1. He reinvented the concept of  a monitor – a no frills platform whose sole purpose was to provide Naval Gunfire Support – no armour, no communications and flag suite, no boat deck, no ‘admiral’s walk’. On being shown around the first in class by its enthusiastic Captain, the latter waxed lyrical about its new mixed fuel propulsion plant. Jacky struck the rail in disgust and was said to have expleted: Damn your fancy engines, all I wanted was a simple bloody hull built around the biggest bloody pair of guns they could find!

The deflated 4 -ringer rallied bravely and enquired of the exasperated First Lord where he was to find tugboats that would tow his guns to within effective range of an enemy coast!

(To Jacky’s credit, the story is that he saw the funny side!)

http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
Matthew 5:9