Nobody asked me to make a wargame. Nobody sat me down and said the world needed another set of rules for pushing plastic soldiers around a table. But here we are.

I've been rolling dice for forty years—cardboard counters, hex maps, and rulebooks thicker than a phonebook. I grew up in the glow of a CRT watching Red Dawn on repeat and getting my ass handed to me in Squad Leader by my old man, who treated a Saturday afternoon like the Tet Offensive. That shit gets into your blood.

Then I went and got a career writing television: Alias. Lost. Heroes. Hannibal. Star Trek. American Gods.

Decades of crafting stories where people get shot at, blown up, and pushed to the ragged edge. Somewhere along the way, I started doing narrative design for games, too—building worlds for Riot and crafting VR Predator experiences. Every one of those gigs taught me the same lesson: the best stories come from characters making impossible choices under pressure.

That's what I wanted on the tabletop. Not a spreadsheet simulator. I wanted that gut-punch moment where the plan falls apart and you have to improvise with whatever you've got left and pray it's enough.

At first, this was just for my kids. No grand ambitions. Just a dad who wanted to share the thing that lit him up as a kid. But then we played. It was the kind of fun where you forget to eat dinner. My kids were flanking, trash-talking, and pulling off moves that would make a Delta operator nod in respect. They were treating their minis like real people. I realized then: this is bigger than my kitchen table.

I come from a world where story is king. I brought that same ruthless editorial instinct to this game. Every rule in Operator Tactics has to earn its place. If it doesn't create a decision or generate tension, it gets the axe. I've cut more mechanics than most games ship with. The point wasn't to simulate ballistics; the point was to make you sweat, make you scream obscenities at your buddy, and then crack a beer and talk about the "war stories" afterward.

I made this because I spent my life loving this genre, and because my kids reminded me that none of it matters if it isn't fun.

So yeah. Nobody asked for this. I made it anyway. And if you're a foul-mouthed degenerate who loves a good story, I made it for you, too.