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.*

Revisiting the Battle of Ridgefield

 “On the 27th in the morning the troops quitted Danbury, and met with little opposition until they came near to Ridgefield, which was occupied by Gen. Arnold.”

— General William Howe

James Sharp's "A Skirmish
in America" (1780).

It’s summertime, which means I give myself a little indulgence to miss a week’s posting or two, or three (as evidenced by my blog archive in the sidebar). Sometimes I just need time to recharge, as many of us do in the summer months. Other times we’re so busy with various activities I don’t have time for thoughtful reflection and writing about adventure game hobby issues. Yet I still manage to find some inspiration, whether through rest or exploration, I can channel into Hobby Games Recce. We recently returned from a trip visiting family and friends in New England, including a stop at my favorite independent bookshop, Books on the Common in Ridgefield, CT, where I picked up the most recent book about my hometown’s RevolutionaryWar battle; inspiration for my wargaming exploration of this small yet influential engagement.

Gaming Great Bridge II: Battle into Game

 “History is the interpretation of the significance that the past has for us.”

— Johan Huizinga

My whiteboard notes on the battle.

With some key considerations to bear in mind I started thinking how to abstract the battle’s historical elements into familiar game forms to simulate the engagement: a board representing the terrain; pieces for military units; and dice, with relevant rules, to adjudicate attack success. I made some general assumptions to make the experience easier for players to understand and enjoy. To do this, however, requires a large degree of abstraction that, with some framing for participants, can help immerse them in commanding forces in the historical battle.

Sources

I have a basic understanding of the Battle of Great Bridge, having lived in Culpeper some 20 years and seen (and read) material about the Culpeper Minutemen. But in designing a streamlined game about it, I needed to ask some questions to adapt the history into a game framework. Most pertain to nearly any battle one seeks to simulate. What did the terrain and troop deployment look like? (Useful for determining the board arrangement.) What forces were involved and how did they compare proportionately in size, number, and capabilities? (Necessary in figuring how many unit pieces to include and ruling how they move and attack.) What ranges and accuracy did Revolutionary war muskets and rifled muskets have? (At the battle the Culpeper Minutemen sent flanking fire into the British from beyond musket range because, as essentially frontier fighters, they used more accurate rifled muskets.)

Advice & Inspiration for Gaming Andor

“There will be times when the struggle seems impossible.”

— Nemik’s Manifesto

Watching the Star Wars series Andor has me thinking about running a D6 Star Wars Roleplaying Game campaign again (assuming I had any interested players...). Back in my younger years, toward the end of the 20th century, I would have hoped to see a specific roleplaying game sourcebook covering all elements we saw in Andor: planets, weapons, characters, locations, vehicles, starships, organizations, character templates, and gamemaster advice But after 30 years, multiple versions of an official Star Wars roleplaying game, and a flood of Star Wars media I’m encouraged I — and maybe the hobby overall — have grown from focusing on formally published game supplements to embracing the wealth of media resources available in today’s information landscape so fans can create their own do-it-yourself roleplaying game experiences in their favorite settings. So I’m re-watching the media, browsing through relevant sources (and eyeing new ones), and, in reflecting on the kinds of stories in a resistance-driven “Dawn of Rebellion” era, looking to similar, adjacent resources for knowledge and inspiration.

Gaming Great Bridge

 “I set little value upon my health, when put in competition with my duty to my country, and the glorious cause we are engaged in.”

— Lt. Colonel Charles Scott

I am developing a game about the Battle of Great Bridge from the American War of Independence (AWI) and decided I’d keep a design journal, both for my own reference and for others interested in the process I follow in researching and creating a game with specific parameters in mind. I have volunteered to design and run a short participation game at an event this October commemorating the 250th anniversary of the mustering of the Culpeper Minutemen. I’m working under several parameters for this activity as well as bearing in mind a few key issues in the Patriots’ success in the engagement. Although I plan on running the event using a small, wargaming-style diorama map with paper miniatures, I expect I’ll playtest it as a board wargame...and later make it more easily available in that format as a PDF.

So Much Star Wars

 “What if we could go anywhere we want in the whole galaxy?”

— Wim, Skeleton Crew

Despite detesting many indignities the 21st century has thus far forced upon us, I revel in the resurgence of Star Wars media. Where once fans had just three films — viewed repeatedly on VHS — now we have entire constellations of streaming content, live-action and cartoon, episodic television and movies. And that doesn’t even touch the subsidiary media of novels, comics, and games. Geek media in general has flourished as a result of greater societal acceptance and more methods for disseminating both professional and non-professional work. But Star Wars — with its long provenance and years of fans grasping at any content to satisfy their dearth of official film releases — has not only filled the market again but pushed the boundaries of the franchise into new directions, expanding the scope and emotional power of our favorite galaxy far, far away. Star Wars media found new life embracing an adage pioneered by West End Games’ Star Wars Roleplaying Game, where players didn’t simply focus on the core heroes from the films, but sought new adventures “just off screen,” exploring different characters, ordinary people caught up in the Rebellion, folks from other worlds and cultures, each with their own story to tell. And it made the Star Wars galaxy richer.