Walt O’Hara, tireless advocate of gaming in a gentler time, offers hsi Le Grande Cirque rules. Walt writes:
The Grand Circuit Races (aka ‘Le Grand Cirque’ by the French and everyone else) is a game of “Conveyance racing” in a weird but whimsical Victorian age loaded with technological possibilities. Players assume the role of racers, competing on behalf of their nation or political faction.
Jim Wright’s Adventures in Jimland is a set of rules for conducting expeditions into the fantastic worlds of Darkest Africa. It’s a massive work, with 35 pages of rules, playcharts, encounter cards and more.
The South London Warlords have a terrific page about their Cloudships of Mars game, which they presented at Salute Zero Five and SELWG 2005. The are quite a few photos of their amazing ships, plus rules for playing the game, which include some nicely done ships’ control panels.
Well worth a visit!
Malcolm Randle’s Back To Bog-A_Ten is a set of rules for an adventure game in an alternate colonial reality. He writes that each player plays a competing crew of explorers:
Basically, each crew has to try to recover the idol of Bog-A-Ten from the central island. There is a temple upon the central island primed with many a trap. Players visit the other islands of the lagoon to find clues to navigating the safest route in and out or said temple. These are represented by red and black tokens, that counteract a trap of that colour when drawn. The team must then escape from the map, through a pre-determined exit point. The exit point must be in a deep section of the playing area.
Tanzanica is a set of free wargames rules for Darkest Africa adventures by Brett Abbott. The rules actually are a variant of Games Workshop's Mordheim miniatures rules, which are themselves free at the Games Workshop living rules archive. Mordheim is a neat set of rules for the kind of game where each player controls a small group of characters, with one uber-character and several flunkies.
Miniature Wargaming is part of the "adventure games" hobby, which includes r ole p laying and board games. Wargamers recreate battles on the tabletop with toy soldiers, like a more complicated game of chess. Models range in height from 6mm to 28mm tall, with 15mm and 25mm being the most popular. There also is a growing interest in toy soldiers and military models, such as the 1/32 and 1/35 scale plastic soldiers from Conte, and Marx.
The most popular miniature wargames are fantasy and science fiction based, such as Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and The Lord of the Rings. World War II games such as Flames of War and Axis and Allies are new favorites. Other favorite historical periods include Napoleonics, the American Civil War, and ancients, such as Romans or Greeks. Other gamers enjoy miniature naval wargames, recreating battles like Trafalgar, Jutland and the Coral Sea.
Hobbyists research historical periods and paint their tiny soldiers in accurate uniforms. Others develop "historically realistic" rules sets or build scale battlefield terrain using model railroad techniques.
For pictures, visit the gallery.
Some of the bigger hobby companies are Games Workshop, which produces Warhammer, Wargames Foundry and Old Glory Miniatures. Wizards of the Coast produces several lines of pre-painted miniatures games, such as the Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons miniatures games, and a historical game with pre-painted miniatures: The new Axis and Allies game. Wizkids produces a fantasy collectable miniatures game, such as the Mage Knight and Heroclick fantasy games, the science fiction games MechWarrior and Rocketmen, as well as the quasi-historical Pirates of the Spanish Main.
