Ruckus-latest news!

 

Well, I had a very productive couple of days at Wi Tower editing and rewriting parts of the free version of Ruckus with James Griffiths who really knows his stuff. We have developed an excellent working relationship and have become friends, and I have learnt a lot about how to frame and take photos and how to write rules in a manner that leaves little room for confusion (hopefully)

What we have is a 28-page booklet that includes the bulk of the rules minus steeds, campaigns, and a lot of the profiles, however, we should have seven or eight scenarios in there.

The game will look quite different to what we have become used to as the order of some things has changed and the wording is far more lawyerly than I would have used. And of course, some terminology has changed, its all Cunning Plans and Divers Alarums! There will be an introductory game where a smaller pre rolled Retinue is used to ease players into the complex game that Ruckus has become.

I have seen the cover art and it is rather lovely. A few details were incorrect, a 14th century dog face visor on a 15^th century sallet, gaps between the poleyns and the cuisses where the knee was exposed but these will be corrected. Overall, it looks really good, two knights duking it out with a crowd of Retainers looking on with half-timbered houses in the misty background…

I have seen some of the 3d art for the various figures and they are looking good too. We had an online chat with the sculptor in USA and I was able to give a few pointers about how the armour should look. And I held in my hand the first of the figures! I was a bit tempted to pocket it! There will eventually be a range of twenty-four or five of these available in metal as well as in stl form.

And while I was there the editor Dan gave the go ahead for 13, 000 copies to be published, 12, 000 to go in the magazine and a “Spare” 1,000 to be sold separately at shows and on line. Fantastic!

So, what next? Well, the edit goes to Spain, via the interweb, to Wi’s digital artist there who will fill in the gaps with illustrations and edge art and then the edit is returned to Wi who add the pictures and then its ready to go.

Date of publishing may be as early as 13^th April but will not be available for a week or two after that.

It all feels rather strange…