FASA Games, Inc.

Looking over the contents, any particular reason for 15mm?

Isn't Malifaux a very similar concept? Portal to new world, etc.

Is this still in production?

We're going with the Ral Partha Europe standard for minis size. We opted to go with a widely accepted standard rather than try to reinvent the wheel.

I'm not familiar with Mailfaux, but a quick glance at its website shows a different approach. Malifaux looks to me like a territorial defense game with some high concept character types, and a strong goth/punk aesthetic. We're going for a much more Victorian / Weird Science approach, with a war between two empires and an exploration and conquest model. We're also not just a minis game. The minis line and the RPG line tie in together, and can cross over, so that you can use the minis game for mass combat for the RPG, and the RPG to set up situations for mass combat in the minis game.

1879 is not yet in production. We're still developing it. We hope to release it at this coming GenCon. Follow the FASA blog at http://www.fasagames.com/blog/index.php for weekly releases from the Line Developer.

Malifaux connection more along the 'portal to new world, exploitation of resources' angles.

As a long time miniature fan and wore a number of hats for a chunk of the companies playtester/helper/worker/designer a bit; 15mm is going to be a hard sell for North America.

just warning yas.

Hey Roth, as I've been running some demos and will be running a ton of demos at conventions in the future I was curious what it is about 15mm that will be a hard sell in North America?

Thanks!

The gaming circles.

On the left you have North American miniature gaming, 'historical scale' 'heroic scale'. The overlap between the two schools of gaming in NA is minimal.
On the right is how Europe portrays itself.


What 1879 is trying to accomplish is

1. Heroic scale players
3. Historic players
7. Roleplayers

5. Sweet Spot.

Or to put it another way
Niche Hobby divided by Niche Hobby divided by Niche Hobby = Super Niche Hobby.

Thanks for the analysis! Yeah I see what you mean. Gaming in itself is pretty niche. We will definitely have our work cut out for us in terms of getting a player base built up.

Just running demos of the game have been pretty fun though so I am hoping that we'll get a little bit of traction going.

You guys are going to do what you're going to do. That has been made quite clear.
Just warning you about the big disappointment.

Way to stay positive, Roth!

On a serious note, those graphs were neat. Is 15 mm really so much more popular overseas? I've never gamed outside of the states, so it seems an interesting factoid.

I think that FASA breaking into minis games in general is going to be very difficult. It seems like a pretty flush market. I'm happy to see that they are trying to differentiate themselves with an rpg and a setting that hopefully matters. The 15mm is an interesting visual hook, but might scare away people due to its association with complex historical minis games. I guess time will tell.

Good luck guys! Don't put all your eggs in one basket!

I'm somewhat curious on the source for the information, or if it's just opinions formed from observation. Checking the links on the graphs, the first two are from an Australian math institute, and the third is from an elementary school site, so I kind of doubt the visual aids are directly linked to information on miniatures.

Regardless, this is alt history, so I don't believe straight up history buffs are really in the direct market (though I do hope it will appeal to them). That reduces the venn diagram complexity to two sets, heroic scale players and role-players. As has been stated before, we are developing the miniatures and the role-playing game together so that they can be used interchangeably. The miniatures can be used to play out large scale battles for the role-playing game, and the role-playing game can be used to play out small scale situations in the miniatures game. It is two different markets that have a smaller overlap, but we are putting out two different products to appeal to both, so we aren't taking just one shot to try and hit both targets.

I'll cap this off by noting that I'm not a marketing person, so this is all speculation on my part. I'll also note that I don't have any history of playing miniatures, so I don't have any direct experience of opinions on the original question, which is the scale being used. Whether or not that is a big deal of opinion within the industry, I can't give any bearing on one way or the other.