The notion of doing a Second Edition of the Victory by Any Means Campaign System is something that has been kicked around internally for the last two years. When Jay Waschak began principle work on the Federation Admiral adaptation in 2008, it became apparent that not only was a Second Edition desirable, but necessary for the long-term health of the system.

While 1E was good, there was(is) plenty of room for improvement – not just because of Lessons Learned since 1E’s release in 2004, but because the Design Team has grown and matured as game designers in the last 5-6 years, and we’re eager to unleash our 133t skills!

As initial development talks began, our focus quickly settled on “streamlining” the system. What do we mean by that? Let me digress just a tad.

Almost any game (except for maybe Candyland), once stripped of its chrome, setting and aesthetics is about decisions and goals. Specifically, my primary goal, winning the game, is reached by making decisions on how best to achieve that goal by applying resources usually insufficient to do everything I feel is necessary to win. This juggling act creates tension and puts the outcome in doubt, particularly when all players of the game are doing the same juggling act and the shared experience is how the different juggling acts interact. Some would call this “fun.” We are among those, and hope that you are, too!

Now what can sometimes happen is that a game designer gets so wrapped up in the chrome, setting and aesthetics, that the core mechanics get obscured, and the tools becomes ends in and of themselves. The result is often mechanics that are overly complicated with elements that don’t actually enhance game play. An example of that in VBAM 1E would be the rules for Scouts. The 1E Scout ability is way too powerful and unbalanced relative to its cost. What we hope to accomplish by “streamlining” the system is removing those extraneous bits that add confusion to improve game play yet preserve the essential decisions that are part of the experience.

The first place we are applying this principle is in the organization of the rules themselves. We are directly incorporating the most commonly used optional rules in 1E into the 2E rules. For example, extended construction times will now be the default rule for shipbuilding. Further, as much as possible, we are pulling all relevant rules together into the same chapter, as well as those rules that will be presented as optional. There will be chapters on Maps and Movement, Star Systems (which will include system generation), Colonies, Empires & Governments, Economics, and so on (exact details subject to change at this point, of course). Hopefully, this will help cut down on the page flipping, but also make it easier to learn and apply the rules.

We also intend to have a fully integrated Sequence of Play highlighting all decision points and how they related to a player’s Turn Orders. We want to take the guess work out of figuring the system out, and ease the workload for the Campaign Moderator, too. If everyone clearly knows what happens when, their Turn Orders should reflect that.

Naturally, we’re not going to be able to distil everything from 1E down into one book, no matter how well organized. What we can do is take all those rules that have become essential, whether directly incorporated or presented as optional, and pull them together into a more coherent package. Those rules that are truly “optional,” that take game play in a different direction, or that add significant amounts of record-keeping, will be distributed to the follow-on supplements, such as the Moderator’s Companion, Engineering Manual, etc., but will follow the same general organizational scheme of the Campaign Guide.

Hopefully this peek into what we’re thinking will give you confidence that VBAM 2E is something you’ll want to experience. We do understand, though, that some players are very heavily invested in 1E and aren’t eager to “start over.” First, let me reassure you that VBAM 2E is intended to be an improvement in many different ways over 1E, but will still feature the same essential game play elements. That said, players will certainly be free to remain with 1E. The new CSCR will be released as free standalone, and the existing sourcebooks will have free updates allowing the ship lists to be used with the 2E CSCR.

We’re all pretty excited about the direction VBAM 2E is going. With these Design Journals, we intend to share what has us so excited, so that you can join us on this journey, and provide critical input along the way. Stay tuned for next time when we delve into the new Unit stat line!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 1:01 pm and is filed under News & Events, Playtesting, Products, Upcoming Game Status, VBAM Campaign Guide, VBAM Campaign System. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.