Interview with Allan Wright,
Designer of Blue Max Miniature Rules by GDW
Welcome to the new Interviews section of miniature-airplanes.com. A new feature to our website that will allow us
to meet the designers, sculptors, developers, and innovators that have made our miniature airplane wargaming hobby so
enjoyable.
Ever since I opened my first Avalon Hill Squad Leader box in 1982, I have dreamed of talking to the designers of the games that I
enjoyed so much growing up (and of course today!). I have always enjoyed reading the designer's notes of every game that I buy,
just to glimpse that little spark that might help me understand the history and the game that much more.
I took a chance and decided to start emailing the designers of the miniature airplane games that I have played, just to see what kind of
response I would get, and when I emailed Allan Wright about doing an interview for us, he replied within an hour.
Thank you Allan for taking the time to share your thoughts with us!
What do you do for a living? What is your profession?
I'm a systems programmer for the University of New Hampshire. I program web-based database applications for researchers here at UNH as well as maintaining other research-based programs I've developed over the past 15 years I've worked here. I hold a BS in computer science from UNH. I also have a small internet-based company that sells radio-control airplanes and accessories that I sell,
Wright Brothers R/C (http://www.wrightbrothersrc.com).
How did you get started/interested in wargames/miniature wargaming? (What age? Who introduced you to it? Did you have a local group/gamestore?)
I was introduced to military wargaming by my uncle around the age of 16. I joined the club, "The Northern Conspiracy" around the age of 20 and have been a member ever since. Our club has held meetings in libraries, church basements, restaurants but for the last 5 or so years has been renting function rooms at local hotels for our meetings. I've learned 99% of everything I know from this club and its members. They're great guys. There are gaming stores near where I live, but considering the amount of great gaming I get at our club meetings I've never found the need to game at a store.
What was the first wargame that you played/owned? How about your first miniatures game?
My first wargame was TacticsII from Avalon Hill, a gift from my Uncle. My first miniatures were probably some D&D fantasy figures, but my first real army was a 30 Years War Holy Roman Empire army for WRG Rennisance 2nd edition. I think I remember playing some Star Fleet Battles and Cry Havoc! skirmish games very early in my introduction to wargaming.
Were you a fan of board games before switching to miniature gaming? If so, what games did you play? What was/is your favorite?
Yes. Risk was popular as it was easy to teach to my friends. I played a lot of TacticsII with one friend in junior high school. Steve Jackson's Ogre, GEV and Car Wars were also in there early. If I had to pick a favorite back then, I guess it would be GEV.
What got you interested in aviation games? (Had
you always been a fan of aviation history, built
models, or attend air shows?)
I've always liked WWI air combat for some reason, maybe
Snoopy vs. The Red Baron song as a child? I got hooked on air games after playing Air Force at a local convention and meeting a friend with similar interests whom I'm still close friends with. I got hooked BIG TIME on WWI air combat after playing Aerodrome at Historicon the first year Stanley Kibiak presented it there. I bought several of his consoles to play, started buying miniatures and started up the World War I modeling maling list, which I still host. The mailing list and website are hosted at
http://www.wwi-models.org. The mailing list still has a monthly volume of over 200 messages. The website gets updated monthly with as many as 20 updates containing photos of models, museum photos of WWI subjects and other related items.
Before developing this game, had you designed/developed other games before?
Before Blue Max I wrote my own miniatures rules for the Rennisance period named
Halberdier (http://pease1.sr.unh.edu/hal/). We played them locally, and a few of us still play them occasionally, but they were never published. I stopped developing them when Volley & Bayonet came out as most of our club switched to V&B or eventually De Bellis Multitudinous for our Renaissance gaming.
What made you want to take on the project? What were your expectations when you started?
I wanted a little more complexity than Aerodrome offered and a friend told me about the Blue Max board game by Phil Hall. We started playing the board game with miniatures soon after. I ran a couple games at historicon and then started e-mailing Phil Hall about coming to Historicon to play in one of my games. Phil agreed and we met there. By this time I had written all the rules variations for early war, since the original game only covered 1917-1918, and the game I ran was 'Bloody April' and contained early war pushers for the allies and Fokker E-IIIs, Albatros D-I and D-II fighters for the Germans. Phil was so impressed we discussed and finally agreed upon cooperating on a miniatures edition of the Blue Max rules.
What difficulties or challenges did you encounter during development?
The main difficulty was that the publisher, GDW went out of business during the printing of Blue Max Miniatures Edition (BMME). In fact BMME was the very last thing GDW produced. Being an orphaned rule set produced sales of course weren't very good. Working with Phil Hall via e-mail was surprisingly productive as we both respected each others ideas and shared common views mostly when it came to the design elements.
What were some things that you learned during the development process?
The beauty of the Blue Max board game was it's simplicity while offering plenty of options for the gamer. During development I got a lot of input from players wanting to add a lot of detail to the level of minutiae. Early on I tried to add everything, but eventually the game became cumbersome and I had to pull back to a simpler view of things to retain the original board-game version's elegance. The lesson learned was you can't please all the people all the time, sometimes you need to stick to your goals.
Since the release of the game, what other projects have you worked on?
I have been really enjoying playing the many historical periods covered by Frank Chadwick's Volley & Bayonet rules. Our club has been playing, or some would call it play testing the new version of V&B for a couple of years now. Personally I haven't worked on any new rules, but have been approached by some club members to re-visit Halberdier again. I'm continuing to pursue my love of WWI through my radio controlled airplane hobby and in the future plan to release more WWI detail kits to supplement my Spandau gun kits that I sell on my website. Next up are Lewis and Parabellum guns.
What are your future plans? (games, add-ons, etc.)
I'll be hosting a Blue Max game as part of the 'Centuries of Conflict' 20th century theme at the Carnage on the Mountain convention this November. For more information you can visit this web page:
http://www.carnagecon.com/ When the event listing is published my game will be listed in the Centuries of Conflict section.
I'm still an avid wargamer and I still play several Blue Max games a year, but I don't have any plans to publish any new miniatures rules in the near future.
Do you attend any Cons on a regular basis?
I attend the carnage on the mountain every year. The Northern conspiracy hosts the 'Centuries of Conflict' historical theme games. This year I'll be running Blue Max for my 20th century game. I attend Historicon semi-regularly, and occasionally will attend Battlegroup Boston's convention HAVOC.
How did you get connected with GDW?
Because I was working with Phil Hall who already had a relationship with GDW (they published the boxed board game version) he worked with GDW. I submitted all my work to Phil who did the final editing and worked out the publishing details with GDW.
Does your current gaming group have a website?
Yes,
http://thenorthernconspiracy.org.
You can find some photos of some of my Blue Max games here:
Blue Max February 2006
and
Blue Max April 2003.
Thanks for your response Allan. Hope to see you next year at Historicon (if I can save my pennies that is!).
Johann