Designers Wanted

[Airlifter]

Hi fellas,
Mike Perryman, Jay Townsend, and the rest of the current designers are doing great work, but we could use your help. There are SO MANY campaigns that have not seen the light of day in PG (or IA or MG for that matter), and many of you are widely read in those campaigns. We'd like you to put pen to paper (well, fingers to keyboard anyway) and crank out a game attempt.

You don't have to worry too much about your writing skill--it does not have to be perfect, and my job is to help you make it into a fine game. What it usually takes is lots of detailed knowledge about a series of battles because you have to represent it at the tactical level. Often that means you, the designer, will interpret what you read because it just does not give you all the data in the book. For example, you read a great book like Army At Dawn, and it talks about the battle at Kasserine Pass, but it only talks about the division or maybe a brigade involved. If you can find the data on the lower level units form other sources, perfect. But if not, you may have to look at generic OOBs for that period of the US Army and make some assumptions about the forces (3x PLT per CO, 3xCO per BTN + mortar and heavy MG section, etc.

Plus Dr. B will pay you million in royalties...okay, no he won't. But you'll get your name in print and at least one free copy. :-)

So what would I like to see from you? Well, anything we have not done really, but some personal choices would be...

For PG
-Canadians taking the Scheldt estuary
-Japanese vs. Chinese
-Communist Chinese vs. Nationalist Chinese
-Stalingrad done right
-Crete
-Sicily
-Dieppe

For MG
-Vietnam (could be up to three+ games--Marines, Army, Laos/Cambodia, SOF, etc)
-Yom Kippur War '73
-Falklands
-Iran-Iraq War

For IA
Your pick, east or west front

Thank you for your interest in our games. And please keep talking to us and telling us what you like and don't like.
Cheers,
John Stafford
AP Designer/Developer for IA, PG, and MG

[Poor Yorek]

Plus Dr. B will pay you million in royalties...okay, no he won't. But you'll get your name in print and at least one free copy. :-)
Thank you for your interest in our games. And please keep talking to us and telling us what you like and don't like.
Cheers,
John Stafford
AP Designer/Developer for IA, PG, and MG

John,

I'm afraid my (fifteen at the time) stepson's (The Doctor here at PG-HQ) experience was not so sanguine as you would suggest here. He submitted (with documentation of sources) a ten-scenario set that centered on "The Brandenburgers" in the 1943 Kos battles and the 1944 anti-partisan actions (Tito) in the Balkans. Ironically, this was on 6 December 2012. We even had Jay take a look at a few of them prior to sending them on to APL so that they would have cleared a third-party review by someone familiar with PG game design: Jay's review was encouraging.

I certainly understand the proposed supplement concept being rejected for any number of reasons: but what I found particularly unprofessional and nekulturny was the lack of even an acknowledgment letter (or even email) in reply, particularly given that our cover letter indicated that The Doctor was a young teenager. This was quite discouraging given the significant effort he put in to reading available source material and constructing the scenarios in standard format.

[Airlifter]

John,

I'm afraid my (fifteen at the time) stepson's (The Doctor here at PG-HQ) experience was not so sanguine as you would suggest here. He submitted (with documentation of sources) a ten-scenario set that centered on "The Brandenburgers" in the 1943 Kos battles and the 1944 anti-partisan actions (Tito) in the Balkans. Ironically, this was on 6 December 2012. We even had Jay take a look at a few of them prior to sending them on to APL so that they would have cleared a third-party review by someone familiar with PG game design: Jay's review was encouraging.

I certainly understand the proposed supplement concept being rejected for any number of reasons: but what I found particularly unprofessional and nekulturny was the lack of even an acknowledgment letter (or even email) in reply, particularly given that our cover letter indicated that The Doctor was a young teenager. This was quite discouraging given the significant effort he put in to reading available source material and constructing the scenarios in standard format.

Wow, I'm sorry to hear that. I never saw the submission so I can't comment on it myself. I do know the recent emphasis is on standalone games that don't rely upon other games to play, so I can say that may have been the reason it has not seen print. I can also reveal that I submitted the original Sword of Israel (original name Sword of David) in 2009 and it just hit the market. So I can tell you from first hand experience it can be a SLOW process.

None of this excuses a lack of response though. For what it's worth, I would suspect its in Mike's slush pile that he paws through periodically looking for the next idea. I will say something to Mike, and hopefully you'll at least get a response. And please don't let it discourage you.
Spasiba.
Cheers.

[Diocletian]

That is an interesting proposal. I enjoy scenario design and half the games I play solitaire are custom scenarios I built myself. I like to read about battles and then design a scenario around it and play it out. My big interest in recent months has been 1944 Kohima Campaign in 1944 Burma/India. What I have done using a few historical references is trace the battles of the Japanese Imperial Army 58th regiment in the campaign. I have different scenarios covering the actions. I also use the Campaigns and Commanders rules from Kokida Trail to take Japanese officers through the string of battles to gain skills and points.

Not sure there is much gaming interest in Kohima with other gamers, but it is an interest of mine and I will keep building the scenarios and playing them for my own to take the 58th regiment from invasion to retreat. It would be neat if it could be published in some manner.

I am using counters from Desert Rats for Commonwealth Forces, Guadalcanal for Japanese. Maps from Guadalcanal for the Kohima Ridge, Kokida Trail and Saipan for the jungle routes to and from the ridge.

Scenarios are no large than a battalion or reinforced battalion sized on each side. Commonwealth has tanks in the form of Stewarts and Lee's in the later engagements.

[larry marak]

Bring it on. Kohima and Imphal were the other Battle of the Bulge. Ideal topic for a company platoon level game.

[campsawyer]

That is an interesting proposal. I enjoy scenario design and half the games I play solitaire are custom scenarios I built myself. I like to read about battles and then design a scenario around it and play it out. My big interest in recent months has been 1944 Kohima Campaign in 1944 Burma/India. What I have done using a few historical references is trace the battles of the Japanese Imperial Army 58th regiment in the campaign. I have different scenarios covering the actions. I also use the Campaigns and Commanders rules from Kokida Trail to take Japanese officers through the string of battles to gain skills and points.

Not sure there is much gaming interest in Kohima with other gamers, but it is an interest of mine and I will keep building the scenarios and playing them for my own to take the 58th regiment from invasion to retreat. It would be neat if it could be published in some manner.

I am using counters from Desert Rats for Commonwealth Forces, Guadalcanal for Japanese. Maps from Guadalcanal for the Kohima Ridge, Kokida Trail and Saipan for the jungle routes to and from the ridge.

Scenarios are no large than a battalion or reinforced battalion sized on each side. Commonwealth has tanks in the form of Stewarts and Lee's in the later engagements.

Burma is another of the untouched area of WWII and PG. Would be nice to see.

[JayTownsend]

>Kohima and Imphal were the other Battle of the Bulge.

Sounds like a good boxed game.

[Airlifter]

That is an interesting proposal. I enjoy scenario design and half the games I play solitaire are custom scenarios I built myself. I like to read about battles and then design a scenario around it and play it out. My big interest in recent months has been 1944 Kohima Campaign in 1944 Burma/India. What I have done using a few historical references is trace the battles of the Japanese Imperial Army 58th regiment in the campaign. I have different scenarios covering the actions. I also use the Campaigns and Commanders rules from Kokida Trail to take Japanese officers through the string of battles to gain skills and points.

Not sure there is much gaming interest in Kohima with other gamers, but it is an interest of mine and I will keep building the scenarios and playing them for my own to take the 58th regiment from invasion to retreat. It would be neat if it could be published in some manner.

I am using counters from Desert Rats for Commonwealth Forces, Guadalcanal for Japanese. Maps from Guadalcanal for the Kohima Ridge, Kokoda Trail and Saipan for the jungle routes to and from the ridge.

Scenarios are no large than a battalion or reinforced battalion sized on each side. Commonwealth has tanks in the form of Stewarts and Lee's in the later engagements.

Absolutely. Work it up to 20 scenarios or more, add in any special rules you think are required to add the right "flavor" of any "unique" aspects of the campaign, write out a unit list required to play them all, sketch out any maps that might be required, and send it over. Airlifter17@gmail.com

[zaarin7]

A rich source for a book supplement would be Hube's Pocket also known as the Kesselschlact. It happened at about the same time as the GD battles around Targul Formus. It would feature Oberst Dr. Bake's kamphgroup that was one of the most powerful formations the Heer formed in the spring of 1944. It could also include the Cherkasse breakout attempt as that happened shortly before Hube's Pocket.

[tanzerleader]

I tried to put something together a couple of years ago based on 3rd NZ divisions pacific campaign. I didn't get far unfortunately due to a lack of company plus engagements in their campaign (most actions being platoon size)
I am always trying to think of a new topic so I will keep this in mind.