Thanks to all who've contributed feedback, I think we're likely to have some great discussions in this forum. I propose that we get started next week, and the first series I think we should tackle is on "Game Mechanics", primarily because of its simplicity and ability for everyone to participate in the discussion. Within that series, I propose the following set of topics:
Week 1: July 19: "Action Point Allowance"
Week 2: July 26: "Roll and move/Following a track"
Week 3: August 2: "Tile laying"
Week 4: August 9: "Role selection"
There are plenty more mechanics we can discuss, but I think we want to switch discussion subjects often to keep interest high. After "mechanics", we can do a series on "common problems" (eg "kingmaker", "downtime", etc), and maybe after that "Player goals" (eg "race", "vp accumulation", etc.)
For the mechanics discussions, the following kinds of things are germane:
-- How the mechanic works
-- Games that feature this mechanic
-- What kind of player experience the mechanic creates
-- What kinds of problems the mechanic is prone to
-- etc
Whenever possible, when giving examples, use games that are well-known, and be somewhat specific. Feel free to reference your own games, but again being specific and if possible referring to games that have been discussed here, especially in the GDW. DO NOT ask for game creation help in this forum, even if you're trying to use the mechanic that is being discussed.
What I need are people to sign up to "moderate". This basically just involves writing a brief introductory post at the start of the week, and maybe, if you want, a "summary" of the discussion at the week end. Sign up in this thread to avoid redundancy.
Hope these discussions will be of interest to people! Of course, feel free to propose different series, or different sub-topics for the series we've already suggested!
-Jeff
Jeff,
I'd be delighted to moderate the "roll and move/follow a track" week.
Best wishes,
Richard.