With Jamie Gordon about Outremer: Faith and Blood
Betatesting Outremer was one of the best thing I participate in my wargaming carries. Here we were able to join the teem of likeminded individuals and help tu publish a new game. Never I did it before, and I am not sure I will be able in the future. Anyway, it brings me joy to meet new people and discuss the hobby and meet the creative process. I have to thank for this opportunity to Jamie Gordon, writer of the Outremer: Faith and Blood a new Osprey Wargames Game (popular Blue Series) set during the early Crusades.
I have asked Jamie, if he would be so kind to answer some questions about the game itself via email. Those questions are not only my own, but collection of them from our clubmates. So enjoy, and I hope you will like the game, as we did during testing.
Dalcor
“Q”: Can
you tell us something about yourself, your wargaming or RPG history?
Yeah
absolutely; I’ve been wargaming for nearly 30 years (since 1990)… wow I feel
old. I’ve played a wide range of games including historic, fantasy and sci-fi.
I think my first exposure to gaming was the original Space Hulk and Space
Crusade. I have served in the military, including operational duty in
Afghanistan and now work in Law Enforcement.
“Q”: From
the chat during betatesting you told us, that you are part of historic
re-enactment group. Could you be specific?
I’ve
been a member of a couple of groups over the years always focusing on the early
medieval and crusader period. Unfortunately now I’m older with so many
commitments I tend to have less time to spare so I focus mainly on wargaming.
Occasionally I like to break out my Knight Hospitaller kit and swing my sword
arm for a bit though.
“Q”: I
understand that you are an extremely busy man, so our wives, who are actively
playing games with us are asking if you have the same support from your family,
especially during the writing process which consumes a lot of time, right?
I
am really lucky that my family and close friends are really supportive of me.
Even those who aren’t gamers themselves know how important the hobby is to me
and so offer their support and advice. I suppose most gamers are fairly
obsessive around the hobby so all our close friends and family are usually
aware of how much we love our toy soldiers. I have to admit towards the end of
the writing process I became a bit of a nightmare as I was up late every night
getting stuff finalised and it made me a bit grumpy, so my thanks to all those
who had to put up with me.
“Q”:What is
the process of writing a game for Osprey Publishing. How did this all started?
I
made contact with Osprey Games for something completely different and after
chatting with the Head of Osprey Games (Phil Smith…wonderful guy) I was offered
the chance to write a rulebook for their wargames series. I have also painted
up some display models for their best seller; ‘Frostgrave’ which was a nice
opportunity.
“Q”: For
how long have you been working on the rules?
Two
years, and it has been two years of hard but really rewarding work! Especially
as I got to meet great guys like yourselves during the play testing phase, for
which I am really grateful.
“Q”: How
does the support from Osprey look like, how are they involved in the game
creation process?
They
are really supportive and offer as much or as little input as authors want. I
was in frequent communications with Phil and the team. That being said the
creative process was all mine and I was left alone to write the game I wanted
with no interference. They are a great publisher to write for as I felt my
creativity was allowed to guide the project.
“Q”: How
did the betatest process work for Outremer? I know I was part of it and will
tell something about it if allowed. But a lot of people are interested in how
does this work.
I
had numerous approaches. One was to ask for volunteers on the forums such as
LAF and others which is where I met you guys and that was great and provided me
a really wide perspective, it’s also great to work with international players
to ensure my rules translate well and are understandable.
I
also have a large wargaming group in the UK that I play with who all took part
with me and played numerous games to finalise the rules. This was also helpful
in a different way as it allowed me to actually play the game with people and
ensure that it was a game that I would actually like to play.
“Q”: Blue
Osprey Wargames series is quite limited on page numbers as it is a typical
Osprey format. What did not come to the final cut, if any?
Yeah
there were a few things that I had to cu;; the key ones are some army lists for
other factions and a number of additional mercenary characters. However I just
didn’t have the space to fit these in the book.
I
am still planning on releasing these as time progresses and if you keep your
eye on the main wargaming magazines in the next few months you may see some
additional material for Outremer being released!
“Q”: OK,
that’s about the writing process, let’s speak about the game. Can you introduce
the game to us?
The
game is essentially the game that I have always wanted to play and that my
friends have always wanted to play. It is set during the Crusades and allows
players to command small warbands of hardened fighters as they go to battle in
the name of their God and a quest for glory.
“Q”: You
have selected small skirmish (man-to-man) format for the game. Why is that so?
I
love the idea of small bands of heroes fighting to the death, where every
single model is a character and you end up feeling a sense of loss every time
one of your men dies. The game is designed to be played as a campaign so each
of your warriors will develop a story and personality.
Also
I love movies and books about the Crusades so the chance to emulate characters
like Balian d’Ibelin (from 2004 Movie Kingdom of Heaven) or Knight-Commander
William Campbell from Robyn Young’s Brethren books is a real bonus.
“Q”: What
are the core mechanics – as much as you can give us before release?
The
game is a heavily character driven combat game. Model activation is unique in
that each fighter is allocated a card from a standard deck of cards and these
are all collected together in what is known as the activation deck. Each time a
warrior’s card is drawn he can undertake two actions (move, rest, melee,
ranged, rally or hide) for this turn, this means players never know when their
fighters will be activated and so they need to plan their deployments carefully
around this. I felt this mechanic worked well as it added an air of uncertainty
that is common to most battlefields.
The
game is also designed so that powerful characters are suitably potent in combat;
however they can quickly become swamped by more numerous lesser foes, so elite
warriors like Military Order Knights need to be careful that they are not
brought down by a pack common folk.
“Q”: You
choose card actiovation, which is not well known in our part of the world. Why
is that so, and what are the benefit of it. I have to say from our playtersting
it works surprisingly well, even though we did not have experience with card
activations.
I’ve
also only had limited contact with card activation before as most of the games
I play tend be the usual I-Go; U-Go type. However this system just didn’t fit
with the intensity and apprehension that I wanted to create in Outremer.
I
found the card activation that I devised added a strong layer of suspense and
also meant that players had to think more tactically when planning their moves.
Also it stops one side dominating the game simply because they had the first
turn which can be a real risk with Skirmish games. I’m really happy with how it
turned out and I’m glad you guys liked it!
“Q”: You
selected specifically the early Crusades as a setting for your game. There are
a lot of skirmish games about crusades, well known Deus Vult or Saga for
example. So what lead you to this era?
Those
are both excellent games which I play and offer great experiences for gamers;
however they both focus at slightly larger scale battles than those featured in
Outremer: Faith and Blood. I think Outremer is the only game for this
particular era that focuses on small groups and character development to this
level.
“Q”: There
are a lot of requests for additional expansions to the list. What will be next?
Byzantine? I suggest Baltic Crusades again, you know Kingdom of Bohemia were involved :-D.
I
have a few ideas in the back of my mind; I’ll probably focus on getting the
mercenaries/sell-swords done first then looking at the lists! I can confirm
I’ve always had an interest in the Baltic Crusades! J
“Q”: We
came to conclusion during the testing, that the game is quite gritty and
brutal, have you made some research on how brutal the fighting could have been
in the period?
Yes;
it has been a period of history that I have been enthusiastic about since I was
a kid and I have researched it heavily over the years. Combat was exceptionally
brutal during the period, and also usually quite one-sided, after all the
militia levies that were raised to fight on behalf of their feudal lords were
unlikely to fare well against heavily armoured and trained knights.
“Q”: What
do you feel is the strongest aspect of the game?
Two
things for me, the speed of play and brutal combat are key selling points. The
game is fast moving and players are rarely left waiting for something to
happen, the tempo is furious. Secondly the character development in the
campaign is really detailed and I think players will be able to develop some
fantastic and unique characters to individualise their forces.
“Q”: There
are tons of games on the shelves and web alike, so the key question is what is
the reason for a potential buyer to purchase the game, specifically why I have
to play just another Skirmish game? This is very strong question I feel, as I
asked in the past about it to some others and did not receive acceptable
answer. What do you think about it, how do you promote the game on already
overcrowded market?
For
me I don’t feel there is a game like Outremer
out there at the moment. There are some great games set during the Crusades but
they are all focussed on significantly larger battles rather than warband
action. Additionally for players who like an almost RPG like element of
character development and specialisation to their fighters then Outremer is a great choice. Also there
is only a small level of initial financial outlay required as warbands are
relatively small so only around ten models are required for an initial build.
If
any of your readers are interested in learning more then I’ll be releasing more
information and additional rules on the dedicated Outremer: Faith and Blood blog at: https://outremerfaithandblood.blogspot.co.uk/
Thank you very much Jamie, we wish you success with the game and I hope we will help with Bohemian faction for Baltic Crusades
Nice interview, it's been an interesting read. I'm keeping an eye on the game so I enjoy this kind of things. Thanks!
OdpovědětVymazatHello, thank you for your comment, I hope we will be able to provide more about the game
VymazatThat was a really interesting post, thankyou. I am just getting into the game and hope to see the Northern Crusades in the future also!
OdpovědětVymazat