INTRODUCTION TO WARPSPAWN GAMES
Article by Tom Higgins (tom@wsmf.org), Main editor of Countermoves.
There are many ways to game as there are gamers to play them.
There are focused gamers who pick a theme and stick with it most
of their lives. There are die hard role players, hard dice roll
players and anti dice hard tech players. There are board game
aficionados and card game fanatics. There are folks who like to
move around the hexes and those who wont map the territory of
their playing.
Then there are those who like to mix it all up.
Precious few resources exist for this type of gamer, one such
resource though is Warp Spawn Games
(https://www.angelfire.com/games2/warpspawn/index.html)
Warp Spawn is home to a motley crew of game developers and
players who revel in creating games as much as they do in
playing them. The lead mad scientist in this laboratory of
gamming is Lloyd Krassner who has been running this site since
1997.
The site itself is spartan but what it lacks in graphics it
makes up for in game rules. Lloyd and the Warp Spawn regulars
have been churning out game rules at a break neck speed for the
last few years, the count for 2001 is now over 200 and climbing.
Game types range from your pure card game to your roll and move
board games to hex game to role-playing to combinations of all
of the above. There are lots of different types of game
mechanics to choose from as well. The rule sets are broken into
thematic sections; there are sections for SF, Fantasy,
Historical and the infamous Other as well as a place of
Universal Game Systems. More on this last one in another
article. Each of these sections is further broken down by time
period of subtype.
Many of the rule sets you will find are mostly straight text
files. Very few have any sort of graphics, maps or unit
counters. These are left for others to work on. In some cases
there are graphics available either as image files or as Thoth
game sets. The big advantage to a Thoth game set in this case is
that the individual graphical items are not hidden in the
gamebox, they are available to be manipulated and customized in
directories.
The good news is that over time and with more people using Warp
Spawn games the more ready-made graphics there are to play with.
If you cant find these ready made gems for the rules set you are
wanting to play then its up to you to create them and hopefully
offer them up to the site so that others can use them as well. A
lot of what goes on at Warp Spawn is centered on this act of
causal collaboration and sharing.
Sharing the games or variants you have created with the rest of
the Warp Spawn crew gets the game played more and thus it
becomes a better game for the playing. Play testing games is a
powerful tool in the developmental cycle of a game.
The act of making a game has become a game for the Warp Spawn
game makers. Trying out combinations of types, tweaking rules
sets, merging different mechanics and methods all are evident in
the rules sets found here. You can get a glimpse of what goes
on in one game developers mind on Llyod’s Brainstroming page.
There is also an open channel of discussion between the users
and developers. This comes in the form of a message board. It’s
a simple text only web message board but it works to get the
conversation and critiques flowing.
A Review and Essays page gives players and developers alike a
place to work out the workings of the games; the good, the bad
and the ugly. Often what doesn’t work can be has helpful to
making a better game as what does work. Hearing from the
developer and the players is a great way to get a look into some
of the games.
The biggest strengths Warp Spawn has going for it is not its
flashy graphics (there are none) or its professional publication
ready games (these games are as raw as they come, rivaling even
CheapAss Games) or even its detailed rule sets (some of these
games are as abstracted from their source material as a Pollack
canvas). What Warp Spawn has is a down in the muck attitude
where the game comes before the detail and the developing is as
much fun as the playing. It’s a schloberknocker no holds barred
game development site that offers as wide a range of game styles
as I have seen represented in any one place.
It has a core group of members who are quick to help and very
into the idea that everyone is a game developer just looking for
a chance to come out and play.