Cult Of Games XLBS: Rulebooks – Lore Vs Rules; What’s The Balance?
May 17, 2026 by crew
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I have zero idea what the show was, because I’m poor; but I will say: lore over rules. GW lore is far more important than whatever rules they make.
All the talk of gas snakes and we know Gerry is on the shrooms again. No need to worry about Midsommar. A solid core rule book that is minimally fluffy with a secondary book for the faction/world fluff that is vague enough for “Gaming in the Gaps” is good. Studio Tomahawk seem to do a good job with this. The portions of material in the Pillage book is also good for the intro to gaming for skirmish. I applaud these publications
I have a few packs of the War and Empire ancient Spanish. The photos of the primed figures don’t do them justice .Tthey do paint up really well even with just blocked in colours and a soft tone wash
Great show. Lovely GBs, well done to the winners. I’ve just bought into KoW 4e and think the balance of rules to fluff is about right. I’m much more interested in the army lists which take up the majority of the book so its all good from my perspective.
Enjoy your holidays. As you are coming to Devon Ben I’m sure you know it is cream first, then jam. They are called Devon Cream Teas after all. Cornwall has pasties as their toponym foodstuff, no need for them to steal our scones as well.
Very interesting. My rulebook has the break out boxes with background on units. I really liked this in rulebooks too. The fluff is very minimal currently, mainly because I needed to get the rules sorted first. I’m thinking about having comic panels and battlereports rather than pages of text. We shall see how it develops. The mechs have me very distracted. I love the style. Well done to all the button winners.
The Forged in Battle figures are very nice; I have plenty of them in one of my projects. Unfortunately, I won’t be giving them any more of my money whilst pledges are still unfulfilled from their 2018 Kickstarter, or at the very least, they offer a refund for all of those still waiting on things. Heck, it would even just be nice if they posted an apology or explanation to all the waiting backers.
Some great button winners. Those Oil and Iron Mechas are lovely.
Now I know where to get my 15mm terrain from…
Thanks for the Button. Of Oil and Iron has been a lot of fun to hobby in. I heard your cry Gerry. I will paint the Trench next.
I hadn’t considered it before but I suppose that the potential lack of relevant historical information in most rules could be down to perceived knowledge. I often assume that people who have similar interests also have the same amount of background knowledge on a subject. I think Ben’s correct, in that Warlord does put enough historical reference in their books to make it interesting for new players and also in a way (pop outs) so that if you just want the rules it is easy to skip over it.
Hello Sunday
00:00 Stackbagers!
05:00 My ears tingle… Wirbelwind?
09:15 We need a counter on screen “how much money has been spend”
20:51 Rats!
48:00 John is out of focus. XD Greenscreen again? *g*
1:06:00 2nd Ork Codex is peak. Rules, fluff and lots of pretty pictures!
1:10:00 Axl Foliage – barely a cop.
Off to bed again! Huzzah!
@sundancer 2nd ed Ork Codex WAAAAGH!
Big up the time team. I still have my staff t shirt
i think for fantasy and sci fi games, a separate rulebook and a separate lore book are the way to go, and i’de go one further as well and say a separate scenario book as well. I dont really want to be flicking through a 300-400 page rulebook trying to find something, when the rules themselves are only 100-150 or so pages (looking at you warhammer world)
For historical games, i like the idea of small info sections, brief about about the period, then brief bits before each faction so you get an idea about what they do, i also like the idea of “would you like to know more” qr codes and so on
Alternatively, maybe a game can have 2 rulebooks, one big rulebook that looks nice on a bookshelf, has all the rules, lore scenarios and so on, then “gaming books” which are stripped back to just give you want you need when gaming
Rules / Lore. I really like the level of lore that Joseph A McCulloch provides. E.g. in the bestiary it’s not just stats, you get a a sentence or two description and back ground of a creature. From that I can kitbash or select a mini that suits my head cannon around that creature.
I had a game where the creature bestiary was just the name of the character type. If you don’t know the folklore the name can mean nothing to you and creates a disconnect.
Minis, rules, lore is probably my priorities with a game, because if the minis aren’t nice I won’t read the rules or the lore. If the minis are nice, but the rules look sketchy then maybe some nice lore might entice me to the game, but probably not. If the lore isn’t appealing, but I love the minis and some mechanics of the rules…. I am more likely to engage with the game and see if I can improve on the lore myself.