The basic game-system design of Dresda is very similar in many ways to Alternative Armies' popular 'Black Powder' fantasy skirmish system, Flintloque - The Skirmish. This is intentional, for several reasons. Firstly, it seemed silly to 're-invent the wheel' - the system works well, and as mentioned is also very popular. Secondly, by using the same basic system, there is no reason why gamers cannot combine both games, allowing them to pit 'traditional' fantasy units from Dresda against the 'Black Powder' fantasy units from Flintloque - indeed, it is now possible to re-create the massacre of Otto V's Dresdan Relief Army described at the start of Flintloque.
Also, as with Flintloque, the intention remained to keep the basic game simple and fun. True, Dresda doesn't cover every eventuality - a game may throw up bizarre and unforeseen occurrences which means that players may actually need to use their common sense from time to time (or ask the GM, or even toss a coin, if they cannot agree), but as with Flintloque, we think you'll find this preferable to wading through pages of rules, sub-clauses and modifiers, for instance when trying to find out the effects of rain and a crosswind on an experienced Elven archer (with a headache) firing at an Orc who has run between two buildings (over a muddy road). (For completists, though, it's -432%. Honest.)
The major difference between the two games is in Unit creation (and maintenance). Flintloque is set in a time of standing armies, and recruitment and maintenance is not the problem of the unit commander. In Dresda, it is...
Some other games in the Fantasy/Science-Fiction genre have also used the idea of using money to raise a unit, but essentially this is only a glorified points system and stops when the unit is drawn up.
With Dresda, I wanted to take the idea through to its logical continuation, i.e. paying and maintaining a unit, and giving the player the headaches of trying to make ends meet from week to week.
Obviously, a lot of the real problems that a commander would have to face have been simplified, but I still think that players will find this part of the game extremely challenging.
As one playtester pointed out, the system is does nothing to reward a commander for nurturing and 'training-up' troops, indeed, it actually penalises him. Quite right! Life's a bitch, and as commander you will want to make as much money as cheaply as you can. Why waste it on expensive troops when cheap ones take a sword in the guts just as easily?
No matter what the industry, employers never hang on to all their experienced employees, and the higher up the ladder you get, the more expensive you are to employ and the fewer opportunities for advancement exist... If you run out of ladder, you try and switch to another one with a different employer.
It should also be noted that the 'Groat' prices are not a points system and intentionally do not balance. Terrain, conditions and scenario conditions in any game are such that points balanced games are never truly balanced, and Dresda makes no pretence on this score. Like Flintloque, this game has no points system, and has no intention of providing one. The point of both games is to create a unit and see it develop through a series of battles, not just play isolated games with no real point (sorry!) to them other than being a dice rolling exercise. In Dresda, your actions in one battle with impact on your position in subsequent battles, so like a real life commander, you need to minimise casualties, and unlike most games you cannot just (unrealistically) sacrifice over half your unit to 'win' the game.
Whatever, the idea of this game is that you enjoy yourself, so after a few battles feel free to tinker with the rules, discard ones you don't like and add new ones if you feel they are necessary. We're not going to tell you that 'the only way to play the game is our way'.
Remember, games like Dresda are for recreation and fun, and if played in the right spirit, you'll find as much enjoyment can be had out of one close defeat against all odds, than a hundred easy, one-sided victories.
I saw a Prince of the Middlelands once - a Prince of the Doomgarde, resplendent in gold and crimson. His banner snapped crisp in the wind, his trumpeter and drummer strode at his side, I thought him to be the noblest creature I ever saw. Then I heard it was the same man who took 1000 Groats to sack the town of Arrengo...
The Diaries of Francisco Annis
Webmasters Notes
The above article was first printed in the original Dresda rulebook in 1996 and is included here with the kind permission of the authors. |
