Matt Lohse
Member
We have given some thought to the question of the font/text size of the numbers on the WaW counters. There are several options that I want to mention and my/our thoughts on each of them. But given that this discussion has occasionally gotten a bit lively in the past, I want to begin by asking everyone to be civil to each other during the discussion and to understand that we may not be able to take your preferred course of action… or that if we can do your preferred solution that someone else is probably going to be unhappy. We want the solution that works as good as possible for the largest number of people and that is doesn’t work for the smallest number of people possible.
In any of the options discussed below, the plan would also be to be much more careful about issues that have caused problems in the past like how shiny or textured the counters are and the borders on/around the numbers.
1. Move to a larger counter (and also map) size going forward. This would render everything in the series to date obsolete and create a break where nothing new in the series would work with anything older in the series.
2. Keep the counters as is (at least size wise). To address the problem that some have had reading the counters, have a couple of printed sheets of player aid cards with larger versions of the front and back of all the different unit counters in that module for players to consult. In addition to putting these sheets in all modules, have them available on the LnL website for people who already have the modules to download for free. This wouldn’t happen for everything all at once… they would definitely be put together as items are reprinted and other modules would get them made as someone had the time to do so.
3. Keep the counters the same size, but do more drastic changes to help the readability. In addition to possible font changes, do something like have a fixed color box or other shape behind all AP/HE/Assault/Save values and then numbers of a color that shows up good on that background (so maybe a dark background and a light color number… say white numbers on a brown box). The new counter style would be used in reprints/new items. I don’t know if extra counters could be made for people who already have various modules to purchase. This might be coupled with the player aid suggested above. This doesn’t render old items obsolete, but it would still be a pretty big difference and would also mean the counters would probably look a LOT different than they do now. If there is broad interest in something like this, we could get mockups of a few example counters to show what this would look like in practice.
Now that I have mentioned the various options, what do I think is the best course going forward? Given the amount of stuff already in the series, I do not view option 1 as a viable solution or as fair to everyone who has already bought anything in the series. I also think that going with option 1 would instantly alienate a sizeable portion of the WaW community. So given that I don’t think option 1 is viable, what is the plan going forward? Personally, I prefer option 2 as it maintains continuity with all of the previous items. The player aid card(s) with the counters for each module are not a perfect solution but they are fairly straight forward and something that can easily be made available to people who already own WaW materials. It is not a perfect solution, but it attempts to address the problem while not rendering everything before now obsolete. That said, I wanted to see what people thought about option 3 and to see if we should at least look at counter prototypes of that style for comparison purposes.
So with all of that said, feel free to give your (hopefully civil) input.
In any of the options discussed below, the plan would also be to be much more careful about issues that have caused problems in the past like how shiny or textured the counters are and the borders on/around the numbers.
1. Move to a larger counter (and also map) size going forward. This would render everything in the series to date obsolete and create a break where nothing new in the series would work with anything older in the series.
2. Keep the counters as is (at least size wise). To address the problem that some have had reading the counters, have a couple of printed sheets of player aid cards with larger versions of the front and back of all the different unit counters in that module for players to consult. In addition to putting these sheets in all modules, have them available on the LnL website for people who already have the modules to download for free. This wouldn’t happen for everything all at once… they would definitely be put together as items are reprinted and other modules would get them made as someone had the time to do so.
3. Keep the counters the same size, but do more drastic changes to help the readability. In addition to possible font changes, do something like have a fixed color box or other shape behind all AP/HE/Assault/Save values and then numbers of a color that shows up good on that background (so maybe a dark background and a light color number… say white numbers on a brown box). The new counter style would be used in reprints/new items. I don’t know if extra counters could be made for people who already have various modules to purchase. This might be coupled with the player aid suggested above. This doesn’t render old items obsolete, but it would still be a pretty big difference and would also mean the counters would probably look a LOT different than they do now. If there is broad interest in something like this, we could get mockups of a few example counters to show what this would look like in practice.
Now that I have mentioned the various options, what do I think is the best course going forward? Given the amount of stuff already in the series, I do not view option 1 as a viable solution or as fair to everyone who has already bought anything in the series. I also think that going with option 1 would instantly alienate a sizeable portion of the WaW community. So given that I don’t think option 1 is viable, what is the plan going forward? Personally, I prefer option 2 as it maintains continuity with all of the previous items. The player aid card(s) with the counters for each module are not a perfect solution but they are fairly straight forward and something that can easily be made available to people who already own WaW materials. It is not a perfect solution, but it attempts to address the problem while not rendering everything before now obsolete. That said, I wanted to see what people thought about option 3 and to see if we should at least look at counter prototypes of that style for comparison purposes.
So with all of that said, feel free to give your (hopefully civil) input.
