Happy New Year! Here is a free new game!

 

First I'd like to say thank you to those who took the time to join the site as a follower, I hope you find this little tactical game worth your effort!

Melee from Metagaming was the first true tactical game I played as a kid.  Although D&D talked about using figures in your game, the combat was abstract enough that it wasn't necessary.  In Melee, building a fighter for me became secondary to actually getting into the arena and fighting. 

I know that seems a bit strange, but we created a range of fighters and saved them on index cards.  Then when we wanted to play, we'd just pick from the pre-made characters.  Sure initially we spent time creating guys, but eventually you had monkeyed around enough to know that Arak the Unlucky wasn't a fighter that worked, you wanted GOR the Barbarian!  Using the battle map  we'd put all sorts of home made pillars, pits, coffins and real rocks on the map to create an interesting combat scene to fight on.

Using that game play as inspiration I decided to use the idea of standard playing cards as the engine for combat and movement in the game.  Like any card game, hand management and card play are critical to success.  Also like any card game the double blind tension between combatants adds another layer to game play.  

I also allowed (almost) every fighter to have both melee and ranged attacks.  How they attack (sword, daggers, bow, throwing knives, etc.) is left intentionally unsaid.  To me I think this allows you to use your imagination, whatever figures you like or have on hand, and let's you focus more on playing the game than modeling how far a dwarf can toss an axe.

The rules are only 2 pages long, but I think despite their brevity you will find an interesting tactical challenge every time you play. 

Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.

--Josh Billings

After you give it a shot, let me know what you think.