Temptation - When to Resist and When to Give In

"I can resist everything except temptation" - Oscar Wilde

Recently a new member of my Facebook group, New (Model) Army 2019 posted some lovely pictures of his 10mm fantasy, which led to discussion of rules and got me thinking about dragging out my old Warmaster rulebook, or trying Battle of the Five Armies (which I owned, but never tried).

Eventually I decided against it (for now); I ran through a checklist which I am using whenever I am tempted by a new system or set of minis.

Given that I suspect most of us are subject to temptation with all the lovely new shiny minis and rule sets that seem to keep springing up, I thought I'd share it in case it's of any use to anyone else.
After all, we none of us have unlimited hobby time, and I suspect most of us have been in the position of buying a new game and preparing for it only for it to only get played once or twice, or even not at all.  There's a cognitive load involved with learning new rules, and I sometimes wonder if it's worth it, especially as I get older.

So I came up with this checklist that I try to go through.  Where possible I do some research, reading online reviews etc and see how many of these I can answer.

In no particular order;

Does it sound fun?

Will I get other people to play it?

Do I already have minis for it?

Do I already have terrain for it?

Reading reviews does it seem like a relatively simple system?

Is there some sort of tie in with other games?

Is it adaptable to different settings?

Are games relatively fast or would they take all day?

Do I already have something that I enjoy playing that does the same thing or similar?

OK, so its not a rigorously scientific system, but it gives me some basis on which to justify my decision.

I used this when I heard that Thud and Blunder was coming out.  This is a skirmish system from The Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare.  I have enjoyed their Blood Eagle game, and I have In Her Majesty's Name, which looks fun (someday I'll drag out my Empire of the Dead minis to try with IHMN). 

However, as I am playing Vanguard, I did wonder if it was worth getting a new system that looks like it does many of the same things.  This list helped me decide.

On a side note, and something else that has had me thinking, was an idea I heard about on a documentary on Hornby.  Apparently, plastic kit modellers (Hornby owns Airfix, in case you didn't know) refer to SABLE, or Stock Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy.  Maybe gamers have their own version, MABLE?

How do you decide if you want to start a new game?  Do you try to think it through or is it more of an impulse thing?  Comments below please.

Oh, and I will be looking for Thud and Blunder at Chillcon.  I liked Blood Eagle enough to give it a go, and I already have loads of suitable minis, in fact, I hope I can use my Vanguard warbands.  Warmaster/Battle of the Five Armies, on the other hand, didn't get enough positives, mostly due to the lack of minis and terrain, so that idea has been (reluctantly) put away for now.