WEG Memoirs: The Worst Con Ever

 “I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.”

— John D. Rockefeller

The author, left, running a convention game.

Part of our duties as editors at West End Games included traveling to various game and fan conventions to promote the Star Wars Roleplaying Game and other lines. GenCon in Milwaukee (back in the 1990s) was the premiere convention and sometimes I accompanied the sales manager to the GAMA Trade Show; but we also attended a host of others cons, some as official company reps and others on our own (often generously hosted as guests). And then there was the most chaotic, insane convention in Chicago, with so many memorable and infamous moments it has fueled my West End story repertoire for three decades: the Big Bang science fiction convention, June 23-25, 1995, near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. The infamous “Big Bust.”

Near-Future Simulation Radar

 “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

— Benjamin Franklin

I try keeping my internet radar active searching for news about games. I comb a few news venues and numerous social media accounts to hear how people use games for learning, to find new and interesting titles reaching the market; and read about more mainstream use of serious “wargames” to explore outcomes in near-future conflicts. Games can offer abstract models of how our world works — for education, entertainment, analysis — and institutions of all kinds explore their applications. Two near-future conflicts stand out in my search for news about simulations exploring their outcomes: the upcoming American mid-term congressional elections and the looming threat of Russian action against eastern European nations. My internet radar’s picking up very little, if anything, about the former and plenty about the latter. The former perhaps reflects a lack of faith by American institutions in such exercises reaching useful conclusions and implementing strategies to respond to them. The latter seems not only driven by continued threats from Russia and its war against Ukraine but a result of decreased American influence on the world stage.

Distilling Historical Battles into Wargames

 “It’s like a bird. If he knew what he was doing, he would fall.”

— Carl Reiner

The Battle of the River Plate on the game
table; not quite as it actually happened.

Earlier on social media I shared the news I’m returning to the City of Chesapeake’s annual reenactment event for the Battle of Great Bridge Dec. 5-6, 2026. Once again I’ll bring along my terrain diorama (sectioned off into convenient board “spaces”), paper miniatures, dice, and signage asking “Can You Win the Battle of Great Bridge?” I invite event attendees to learn about the battle, survey what the area might have looked like 251 years ago, and, using extremely basic rules, play out the fight between British forces and Patriot militia. Last year 1,100-1,600 people passed through the event, and at times it seemed like many listened to my ramblings about history and tried their hand commanding miniature forces to see how they’d fare in this historical engagement. (Spoiler Alert: In most cases the Patriots gave the British a sound drubbing, much like the historical outcome, though occasionally with a few close calls.) In my social media post an old friend, gamer, and educator commented: “Do you have a process for using miniature battles to teach history? Not just tactics, but also the commander's motivation, personality and the battle's likely alternate outcomes.” And it started me thinking about how I distill historical battles into miniature wargames, especially with my focus on using games for learning and introducing wargames to young people and newcomers to the hobby.

Wingspan Pocket Just the Right Size

 “Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.”

— Robert Louis Stevenson

I recently picked up Elizabeth Hargrave’s Wingspan Pocket edition at a regional gaming store, one of several more mainline games on my radar beyond my usual fare of roleplaying games and historical wargames. Our Thursday family game nights have long ago vanished from the calendar in the onslaught of homework, personal projects, end-of-week weariness, and general ennui toward gaming. But I’m still always looking for games with themes to tempt family members to the game table. And Wingspan Pocket fit the bill. Concise in table space, rules, and gameplay with a satisfying depth and, of course, rich avian illustrations by Natalia Rojas and Ana María Martínez for which the Wingspan line remains famous. It’s a good match for casual gamers with an interest in birds but also works well as a taste of contemporary board game play style which forces players to make decisions based on available resources and strategies for maximizing victory points.

Rules Tinkering & Redesign

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

— Johan Huizinga

Papercraft Romans awaiting a playtest
battle with Germanic tribesmen.

This past week I started getting an idea for a new set of kid-friendly historical miniatures gaming rules. Having covered World War II tank combat in Panzer Kids and small unit action where individual soldiers each play a role in Skirmish Kids, I began wondering if I evolved the latter rules to accommodate full units in ancient, medieval, and pre-20th century battles on a larger scale. I started jotting down notes, typing out a few ideas, considering how elements of Skirmish Kids would have to change to accommodate battles with lines of infantry, cavalry charges, and artillery (and all that across the ages). I started drafting stats for various units I wanted to field in playtest games. And then I stopped myself. Does the world really need another set of wargaming rules? Do I really need that, even despite my personal design preferences for kid-friendly games? Haven’t I enough game projects requiring attention? Don’t we have enough rules already? Perhaps it’s the restless, unfulfilled creative drive within me, or my urge to share my interest in using games to help people learn about history, or that maybe this one might catch the attention of a publisher other than myself who can better produce and promote the game. And so I soldier onward, despite the leering shadows of doubt whispering “Why bother?”, ignoring my depleted reservoir of time and energy and enthusiasm, oblivious to the adventure gaming world’s inevitable indifference at yet another wargaming rule set.

Playing with Battle Box: Age of Sail

 “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”

— Seneca

I’ve dabbled in many historical wargaming periods over the years. The Age of Sail remains one for which I’ve never really found an accessible game — in both cost and rules — until now. Feral Wizard’s Battle Box: Age of Sail promises to deliver an intuitive game with plenty of tactical choices in a small package (much like its previous game, Battle Box: Napoleonic Wars). The game ran a successful Kickstarter back in the spring and should deliver physical components by the end of the year...but backers received the print-and-play component files when the campaign ended. So I printed out some cards and rules and played a few battles using my craft store sailing ships and my large-hex light-blue ocean canvas. After a few games to help me grasp the mechanics and strategies I found it offered a host of player choices to add depth to what seems on the surface a basic Age of Sail game.

What Do Games Tell Our Adversaries?

 “In our leisure we reveal what kind of people we are.”

— Ovid

Members of the Chinese PLA Navy play Sebastian
Bae’s Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacific wargame.

A recent social media post by Sebastian Bae — game designer, wargaming professor, defense analyst, former US Marine (among many other roles) — shared news that members of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) were playing his modern wargame Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacfic. “I did not have the PLA Navy playing my ‘Littoral Commander Indo-Pacific’ #wargame on one of their ships on my bingo card for 2026. Absolutely wild,” Bae posted. It is an interesting testament to our open-source internet age, where information and products travel the world for use by anyone who wants them...including our potential near-future adversaries. It certainly validates the quality and utility of Bae’s wargame. It also raises questions about what adversaries can learn from the games we ourselves design and use, how such games reflect both the designer’s knowledge of battlefield capabilities and assumptions about elements affecting the outcome of combat.