Blood in the Streets: A Fantasy Skirmish Game

[ZeltArruin]

I've been developing a tabletop skirmish game for quite a while now and figured I should let people see it.
Blood in the Streets Core Rules (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vmDtqpdoGIc2ZOM4jCSOr9qShBs2S1YmrYXh3t13XMk/edit?usp=sharing)
Blood in the Streets is a skirmish game where small teams called warbands battle one another with the idea of long form campaigns built in. Warbands gain money and experience after each mission, and can purchase new units or have their existing units advance in ability or gain new skills or equipment. However, units also have the possibility of permanently dying or gaining lingering injuries. There are plenty of weapon types, armor, and miscellaneous equipment to equip your units with to improve their performance.

The game is in a 100% playable state, but I do make gradual changes still. I intend to add a few more factions as well as add more flavor to the current ones. The rules and game are very lore-light as of right now, leaving it something of a blank canvas.

Feedback is always appreciated! I've been staring at this for a long time so it's quite likely that I can't tell when things aren't clear.
Thanks!

[JeenLeen]

I don't have time to read through it in detail right now, but this looks like the type of game I'd really enjoy and have been trying to think up myself.

That said, the one negative thing I see from a skim is that it looks rather daunting with the level of granularity and detail. Between levels, equipment, and special traits, it all seems a good bit overwhelming. That said, I can see it being cool once I have time to try to get a grasp of it. (This comment is more to give you perspective on someone new to this system's possible first reaction.)

If you don't already have it -- I just skimmed so mighta missed it -- a section on "building your first warband" and walking through some good models for making a starting band would be helpful. That can introduce you into equipment, magic, henchmen, etc. as is fitting, and as the player plays they can get more into it.
If the game can work such that "Just assume everyone uses melee weapon X and ranged weapon Y", and you just spend GP building level and other things, even better. That way players can play more simplistically if they want to.

I like that you have rout rules instead of just "kill everyone". Especially with the perma-death aspect, and an idea of you can continue play even if you lose. I could see making a fun campaign about gang warfare (or actual warfare) using this.
The idea of possibly rolling to determine what type of battle it is -- that last section showing different rules for different battles -- sounds cool and a way to keep players on their toes. Even in a campaign, I could see rolling between a few of the options to determine if the party is surprised, gets advantage, or is split when combat starts.

[ZeltArruin]

I could definitely write up a separate thing about building your first warband and playing your first game, an intro 'set' if you will. The game is quite broad and deep, but thankfully the rules and items roll in slowly as not only you gain experience with the game but your warband does as well. My friends that have been play-testing with me all have backgrounds in things like Warhammer and other tabletop games.

And yes, routing is sometimes the best option when facing a defeat, live to fight another day after all.

[JNAProductions]

No pre-measuring is an immediate turn-off. Why was that made a thing?

[ZeltArruin]

No pre-measuring is an immediate turn-off. Why was that made a thing?

You have an inherent risk of failure and unknown when you can't pre-measure. I also don't like the implication of having units stand just outside an enemies charge range because they just 'know' that it's safe. Should you ever play, feel free to play without it, I won't be mad.