My reason for building the tabletop game Forge comes from having less time to play games and wanting to make the experience more accessible for newcomers or those with limited time. I’ve drawn inspiration from games like Warhammer, Shatter Point, Ravaged Star, One Page Rules, and other simple games to distill the core elements into a set that can be taught in 10 to 15 minutes, with gameplay lasting under two hours.
A key part of speeding up the process is the app that is central to the system. My vision is to maintain flexibility while accelerating the game. The list-building feature will have built-in matchmaking and game tracking, so players don’t have to juggle cards and dice. The app will keep track of points, abilities, and other aspects during the game, and it will track games played to feed back into the system for rebalancing.
The concept of list building is designed so that whether you have one model or twenty, the points value makes them balanced against other units. Weapons are more generalized, with few specialized types. While this may seem overly simplified, depth is added back by giving each unit two or more unique abilities that empower them or allow extra actions on their turn. This introduces narrative elements, randomness, and strategic depth, requiring players to choose when and how to use abilities. I hope this approach will be engaging and enjoyable for players.
Last in terms of game size, because the points are scaled based on a units size, defense and equipped weapons, that means that the gave size is also scalable. As long as both players have about the same number of units ( recommended is 8-10) and their points value is close the game will be basically balanced. In face we have built a system in the app where you can test two of your lists against each other and it shows win probabilities. This all means you could play TT Forge as a skirmish game with each unit being one model all the way up to epic size armies with hundreds of models on the board.
