Nouns & Scenario Design

 “It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

I’m enjoying a spate of adventure design and writing as I prepare a Pulp Egypt scenario for an upcoming convention game. I haven’t run a roleplaying game session in a while; it’s been a few years since I penned one (and that’s still not seen publication). But I’ve wanted to run a new Pulp Egypt adventure for a while and this idea had been percolating in the back of my head for a while. I’d thought of writing it as a D6 System solitaire adventure (much like Trapped in the Museum, but a bit longer), with the character pursuing a mystery around notable locations in Cairo, but I wasn’t ready for another fully involved programmed adventure. So when friends asked me to run something at this upcoming convention, I started putting ideas on the page. It all proved an opportunity to try something different with my scenario design and writing process.

History & RPG Settings

 “History is a set of lies agreed upon.”

— Napoleon Bonaparte

The author in Landsknecht
regalia sweating it out
at the VA Renfaire.

I began my adventure gaming hobby journey more than 40 years ago with fantasy roleplaying games, but along the way I’ve also cultivated a growing interest in historical wargames linked to my enthusiasm for various historical periods. I have, on occasion, tried to merge the two, setting roleplaying game adventures in historical periods. These entertainments used historical elements as a backdrop for more cinematic action where the player’s heroes had the freedom to go anywhere and do anything, often beyond the historical and cultural norms, a core concept roleplaying games pioneered in the field of play (as highlighted in Jon Peterson’s groundbreaking work Playing at the World, expressed as the idea that “anything can be attempted”). Certainly there’s room for occasional — and often one-shot — historical roleplaying game experiences where accuracy enhances an exploration of more serious intellectual and emotional themes. But more frequently historical accuracy plays second fiddle (at best) to roleplaying game expedients placing the focus on the characters and their actions (and consequences) in the context of an engaging plot. It’s using history as window dressing for an entertaining story. Historical settings can tap players’ enthusiasm for various periods and provide environments based in some commonly understood reality, they work best in roleplaying games when infused with fantastic elements.

Gaming Great Bridge III: Interaction Factors

 “Principles and rules are intended to provide a thinking man with a frame of reference.”

— Carl von Clausewitz

Painting by Glenn Moore depicting
the British attack on the American
breastworks at the Battle of Great Bridge.

Now I’ve transposed the historical battle to the game board, the real challenge begins: determining how players interact with pieces and the map to simulate the engagement. All while keeping my original parameters in mind. In my past talks about historical strategy games I summarized core game processes as “Move, Attack, Morale.” Relying on my earlier research, I set out to define when and how players would command their forces within the framework of a turn sequence...my first design choice challenge.

Inspiration from Adventure Gaming Magazine

 “I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.”

— Hermann Hesse

As much as I have rambled on over the years about missing print magazines like TSR’s Dragon, that periodical was not the very first adventure gaming hobby magazine to which I was exposed. Way back in 1982 I’d just finished eighth grade in junior high school. A few months earlier I’d received the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set as an Easter present and immersed myself in the game. But now school was out for the summer. I took my hoarded allowance and biked down to the Branchville Hobby Shop to purchase the D&D Expert Set to fuel my summertime gaming exploits. After I paid, the clerk tossed an old issue of Adventure Gaming magazine into the bag. My first experience with a print gaming magazine was purely by chance, a “wandering monster” kind of encounter that gave me a new avenue through which to explore the hobby...one that started me down a road into writing and publishing.

Remembering Al Leonardi

 “A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Al Leonardi, from his interview
in Adventure Gaming #4, Oct. 1981,
a few years before I met him.

Last week we learned Alfred Leonardi passed away on July 12, 2025. He was a history teacher who used games to engage his students, yet among gamers is perhaps best known for his innovative “combat picture book games” like Ace of Aces and the Lost Worlds series. Leonardi’s obituary celebrates a man who loved teaching, loved games, and loved bringing history to life through games. He reminds me how a passion for teaching and learning can manifest itself through games to both entertain and educate. I met him back in 1985 at my first-ever game convention. Leonardi took the time to talk with a socially awkward teenager who exhibited near-uncontained exuberance for the adventure gaming hobby at the time. I only met him that once, far too briefly, yet in his own way Leonardi’s enthusiasm lurked in the back of my years of hobby activity. His dedication to games and education has been lurking in my subconscious ever since, quietly reminding me that using games remains an entertaining and effective method for learning.

Games in Magazines

 “Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.”

— Marcus Aurelius

On a recent trip to the local used book store I found several issues of Game Fix magazine, a slim wargaming periodical published in the mid 1990s. Every cover sported a banner declaring “Complete Game Included!” And indeed every issue contained a wargame, many hex-and-chit-style games, but some including card sheets to cut apart. Nothing huge like the old Avalon Hill bookcase games, but satisfying morsels on a variety of historical topics. They reminded me both of the much-lamented heyday of gaming magazines in the late 20th century as well as the early practice of including scenarios and games in those publications. Both trends have since disappeared in the electronic onslaught of the 21st century’s Internet Age — with a deluge of similar material currently available for free online, if you know where to find it — but my wistful nostalgia still pines for those days...and celebrates when I find artifacts of that lost gaming culture.

Museum Gift Shop Games

 “Many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased.”

— John Steinbeck

At the NASM in 2023 with my
favorite Grumman G-21 Gooose.

Summertime in our family always means trips to museums and historical sites. My parents frequently tried to expand our horizons and engage our interests on day trips and week-long vacations. As a parent myself I’ve tried to nurture curiosity in my son with similar excursions as best we’re able, notably weekly day trips during the summer months. Our visits often end in the gift shop seeking some souvenir of our experience...or more often books and other materials to help us explore a topic on our own at home. Related games, however, remain extremely rare finds in gift shops. Although I know other places to look to find games exploring topics found at museums and historical sites, other people might benefit from easy, affordable ludic introductions in expanding their horizons.*