Forget 2020, Look to the New Year

 “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

– Seneca

The new year begins in only a few days. Although we want to forget the dumpster fire of 2020 and put it well behind us, its ruinous effects on various levels will unfortunately continue wreaking havoc with life as we know it well into the new year. For some it has and will continue to plunge them deeper into physical and economic hardship, a malicious result of America’s reliance on cruel capitalism for the masses and corporate welfare for the privileged few. In past New Year’s holidays I’ve waxed nostalgic about the prior year, reflecting on one as we stumble into the next. Looking back on what the world has lost in 2020 offers little comfort, especially knowing that the first months of 2021 hold more of the relentless challenges and upheavals we’ve endured since March. We must all reflect on how the pandemic has affected and will continue to impact our lives, communities, and world in our own way. Although I’ve looked back at how the pandemic has changed my own life, especially as related to the adventure gaming hobby, I take some comfort looking forward to the coming year when we can appreciate some of the adjustments we’ve made in these unprecedented times and anticipate an eventual return to cherished activities we suspended to survive the Year of the Pandemic.

The Light within the Darkness

 “The universe is monstrously indifferent to the presence of man.”

– Werner Herzog

The light and the cuddly darkness;
Vader the cat relaxes by our
faux fireplace.

Most holidays this time of year focus on the theme of a tiny light within the universe’s vast darkness. The candles on the Kwanzaa kinara. The twinkling lights on the Christmas tree. The procession of candles on the Hanukkah menorah. The Diwali lights in oil lamps, candles, and lanterns. The Yule log and bonfires. Finding hope in this especially bleak time in the Plague Year remains a challenge...and yet with the development of vaccines we find renewed hope amid a devastating pandemic. With the advent of this hope for humanity – as well as the hope in the light within the darkness we celebrate during this season – we can reflect on the bright spots that have kept us going. I expect I’m not alone in saying the adventure gaming hobby has certainly helped sustain me through America’s hellscape response to the covid-19 pandemic.

Skirmish Wargame for Kids

“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct.”

– Carl Jung

I’m off on another game-design diversion. Frequent readers know I’m a proponent of games suitable for kids and gaming newcomers. Goodness knows I’ve developed a few of them myself, most notably Valley of the Ape and Panzer Kids. This time I had some new motivation from my son, who has collected a few wargaming minis of his own. In my own gaming I often settle for playing with the toys I have, though I collect and try painting more to expand my options. In this vein I often have to compromise in the battles I fight, choosing smaller engagements. I’d explored a few skirmish games in the past; instead of a base or crowd of figures representing units like companies and regiments, each individual figure represents one soldier. These seemed like the perfect format for playing games with the wargaming toys my son already has...and will receive as part of his Yuletide holiday hoard of presents.

Exploring Thousand Suns

For one of my many pandemic diversions this year I picked up a copy of James Maliszewski’s Thousand Suns roleplaying game. It’s lingered on the periphery of my gaming radar for a while. I’m an admirer of the author’s Tékumel fanzine, The Excellent Travelling Volume, as well as his Grognardia blog. Having enjoyed classic Traveller back in the day – my “Golden Age of Roleplaying” in the early and mid 1980s – Thousand Suns’ allure of “imperial science fiction” appealed to my gaming nostalgia. So I ordered a print-on-demand copy of the second, more generously illustrated edition and started reading.

Giving Thanks in A Plague Year

Every year or so around this time I post a Thanksgiving-themed missive. Something like “Living Thanks,” “Step Up & Give Thanks,” “Gather at the Table,” or even after-action reports like “Thankful for Thanksgiving Gaming.” Despite the positive spirit and some game-related flavoring, they only garner a few page views compared to deeper articles on game issues or product features. And yet here I sit writing yet another Thanksgiving piece for Hobby Games Recce. Rather than offer broad exhortations for thankfulness with generosity toward those in need (at least until the last paragraph), I figure I’d indulge in some personal examples of gratefulness in my life during this truly awful 2020, Year of the Pandemic.

Winning & Losing Graciously

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.”

– Winston Churchill

Every now and then I draft some politically tinged missive, particularly where games serve as a mirror reflecting real-world events...and lessons we can learn and implement in our own lives. Games are wonderful teaching tools. We use them to reinforce academic lessons for kids. Roleplaying games help develop our teamwork and puzzle-solving skills. Board and war games teach us how to better manage resources and assess opportunities and risks. Most games offer players the chance to test and expand a host of skills. Given Kevin Maroney’s definition – “A game is a form of play with goals and structure” – achieving a game’s goal is usually a win, whether competitive or cooperative. Along with all the other lessons we can glean from playing games, how we handle victory and defeat remains the ultimate lesson in a play experience.

10 Years Blogging

“It is only through writing that I become myself”

– Werner Herzog

Ten years ago on November 11, 2010, I posted my first Hobby Games Recce blog feature, a piece on the local Borders bookstore finally stocking games like Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Forbidden Island. Since then I’ve written more than 400 blog articles on subjects ranging across the adventure gaming hobby: roleplaying games, board games, wargames, conventions, industry news and issues, product features, games for kids and newcomers, reminiscences of my time at West End Games, and nostalgia for the “Golden Age of Roleplaying” (for me the early 1980s). Much has changed about the hobby during 10 years and I’ve changed during that time, too. But somehow I’m still here blogging despite ups and downs, discouragement and low readership, and my relative obscurity in the infinitely vast cacophony of the internet.

The 2020 that Might Have Been

 “These so-called bleak times are necessary to go through in order to get to a much, much better place.”

– David Lynch

The insanity of the year 2020 certainly gives me cause to reflect on what could have been if the pandemic hadn’t completely disrupted life as we know it. Contemplating these lost experiences helps me comprehend the scope of our sacrifice and look forward to appreciating them that much more should the post-covid future allow us. Among the canceled vacations, game conventions, family gatherings, summer camps, blockbuster film premieres, and routine excursions to relieve real-world stress – disappointments no doubt shared by many – is one gaming opportunity I’d anticipated immensely, one that might still develop and flourish once America learns to responsibly deal with covid-19. But for now it languishes with the “might have beens” of 2020. I’d long planned to develop a “Wargaming History” talk for the local museum and had finally met with the director to pitch it, even had it scheduled on the calendar, when the pandemic shut everything down.

Games for Learning

 Reinforce Lessons, Inspire Curiosity

“Do not…keep children to their studies by compulsion but by play.”

– Plato

The apparent drudgery of schoolwork – even online as a result of America’s hellscape response to the covid-19 pandemic – reminds me of the important role games play in learning...one often overlooked in the official academic bureaucracy of standards of learning, state-endorsed policies, and administrative procedures. Our full-time online distance learning school year began toward the end of August; already the lament of “Why do I need to learn this?” has begun. As dad I get to supervise academic activity and enforce schedules, deadlines, and long-term projects, sort of an unpaid proxy teacher’s aid. It took about three weeks for the lessons to ramp up to something approximating full-steam, with two or three online class meets per day, a host of online exercises and resources (some game-like), and lots of prodding to stay on target academically within the lax environment of one’s own home. This year’s teacher impressed us with his ability to port his live classroom experience to an online format; though we regret our son can’t really enjoy this first-hand in a traditional classroom environment. Nonetheless I still wish schools integrated more games for learning to reinforce lessons and inspire curiosity beyond the bounds of even a virtual classroom.

A Horrifying Pandemic Halloween

Pretty much how I
feel about Halloween.

I’m not a huge fan of Halloween. Oh, sure, as a kid I loved it, mostly because we focused on creating fun costumes and wandering through the neighborhood collecting candy. But as an adult – especially seeing how some of Halloween focuses on the grisly, ghoulish, and outright horrific – I have little stomach for it. I bear much of it because the holiday remains important for my wife and son; our basement storage bins of Halloween decorations and kitsch rival our boxes of decorations for the yuletide holidays; and the subject of “What costume can I demand Mommy make me this year?” remains a prominent thought for my son as soon as school begins. So I grin and bear the Halloween season and its host of required traditional activities. Yet the pandemic challenges us this year to celebrate in a different, safer way.

Games for Learning: Sol O.P. Grand Prix

I’ve long been an advocate of introducing the adventure gaming hobby to kids and newcomers. I feel strongly that games can enrich our lives beyond their basic entertainment value. For a while I’ve hoped to engage with kids and educators about enhancing learning, reinforcing lessons, and encouraging a sense of curiosity through games. I’ve tried a few times to create games suitable for younger players: Panzer Kids, Valley of the Ape, even the solitaire Lord of the Two Lands. So when I realized my son needed help with his multiplication tables, I started thinking how I might turn a learning experience into a game. (I hated multiplication tables when I was in elementary school and it started a lifelong dislike of math.) But when the pandemic hit everything was canceled during America’s subsequent hellscape response. Including school. So my son’s teacher never had a chance to solidify his multiplication and math skills, teach much about Virginia in the American Civil War, or cover the solar system so kids could do the obligatory project for the canceled science fair. With the new year starting we’re facing more than challenges from full-time distance learning online...we’re dealing with having lost an entire quarter of his previous year’s learning, further diluted with a tedious summer without many of the usual summertime diversions. So I designed a game to help with math.

High Trust in Blossom Grove

Published adventures very rarely stand out as both entertaining fare to bring to the game table and paragons demonstrating design philosophy. One might argue the dungeon-delving paradigm embodied in B2 The Keep on the Borderlands accomplishes this. Certainly most of the adventures in Michael Prescott’s Trilemma Adventures (which I featured earlier) vividly present settings and situations characters can explore and with which they can freely interact. S. John Ross demonstrates his high-trust ideals in his latest adventure, Slimes in Blossom Grove. Intended for his Risus: The Anything RPG and his Uresia: Grave of Heaven world, it’s easily ported to any fantasy roleplaying game and setting. It demonstrates in written form elements to encourage high-trust gaming at the table regardless of system or setting and serves as an example of imbuing high-trust ideas into published adventures.

WEG Memoirs: Mister Donut

Several times during my five years working at West End Games I received an early morning phone call of the utmost importance. Since I had to supplement my meager salary with tons of freelance work (like most of the editorial and graphic design staffers) I was usually up early, anyway, to work in an hour’s writing before getting an early start at the office. So the phone call wasn’t waking me up or anything, but it required me to leave even earlier. Usually the caller was production manager Rich Hawran, though sometimes owner Scott Palter himself. They needed me to perform an extremely urgent task before coming in to work: buy doughnuts.

Same Great Experience, Smaller Package

The board game world offers some amazing experiences, but the prospect of learning a booklet of new rules and spending several hours immersing themselves in an hours-long game can discourage some newcomers from pursuing the hobby...and even longtime gamers don’t always have the patience or time to invest in comprehending and playing a new game. As an advocate of introducing gaming to newcomers and kids, I’m always looking for games that don’t seem too overwhelming or complex, yet still offer a satisfying play experience. So I was happy to discover a few titles one might consider lighter, younger siblings of well-established games – Ticket to Ride: New York and Pandemic: Hot Zone – North America – which provide similar themes and gameplay as the originals without taking several hours to learn and play.

Every Star A Destination

I’m constantly flattered when fans fondly recall West End Games’ Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. They spot references to West End creations in current Star Wars media. They remind us how much they enjoyed projects on which we worked. And occasionally we get to return to that period a long time ago (more than 20 years) far, far away (in remote Honesdale, PA) when we worked full-time and freelance to produce two or three Star Wars game products a month for a burgeoning crowd of gaming and film fans. I was lucky then for these opportunities and I’m lucky again to relive a little of that excitement creating game material to reach a similar audience. The recently released Star System: Every Star A Destination scenario collection includes an adventure I wrote, “The Jungle Prophet.” West End Star Wars line editor veteran Eric S. Trautmann approached me about contributing to the book – a D6 System homage to the popular Instant Adventures supplement suitable for sci-fi roleplaying games – to commemorate the game’s 30th anniversary and the re-issue of a slick reprint slipcase edition.

WEG Memoirs: Foreign Language Editions

Es war einmal vor langer Zeit

in einer weit, weit

entfernten Galaxis....

Back in the mid 1990s, when West End Games had the license to produce Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, the company also had the rights to sub-license its game materials to foreign publishers. The arrangements included the usual approvals process – especially for any changes in layout, format, and artwork deviating significantly from West End’s versions – after which West End received several copies of the published product, some of which we forwarded to Lucasfilm for its archives. I’m sure a copy went into whatever file or library West End kept at the time. As one of the few if only people on staff who had any knowledge of the German language, I usually received a spare copy of German releases from the publisher Welt der Spiel; eventually I acquired some products in other languages, too. All these years later I still have most of these foreign-language editions. They’re more nostalgic novelties now, but they remind me of the amazing reach the game once enjoyed

Adaptable One-Hour Wargames

I’m always looking around for new games and rules, particularly ones that can put to use game materials I already have – in this case, miniatures – and ones I can adapt to introduce the adventure gaming hobby to newcomers and kids. My brother gave me a copy of Neil Thomas’ One-HourWargames for my birthday; I finally managed to read it and give it a try at the wargaming table. Thomas offers a very basic game system to which he explains and adapts numerous historical periods. He also presents 30 period-neutral scenarios useful for any wargamer seeking easy set-up with meaningful objectives. As simplistic as the system seemed, it proved just the right pace for a one-hour game with my young gamer son, adapted to one of his preferred non-historical genres, Star Wars.

Twilight 2000...or 1945

As I write this a spiffy new version of Game Designer’s Workshop’s Twilight 2000 dominates the latest roleplaying game buzz at Kickstarter. Who would have thought a game founded on situations from the late 20th century cold war would find a new audience in the 2020s? Free League Publishing, which did an amazing job on games like Tales from the Loop and the latest Aliens roleplaying game, has a slate of quality components in the game, many unlocked as stretch goals; so I’m on the fence whether to back a game I might not play but one that looks interesting to explore with lots of fun components. (The Kickstarter campaign ends Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020.) I’ve discussed my occasional interest on post-apocalyptic games before. I’ve often wanted to dabble in Twilight 2000 after seeing the ad campaign and subsequent articles/scenarios in GDW’s late, lamented Challenge Magazine. I’m not really excited about the game’s modern setting, but the survivalist theme with a hex-crawl campaign style appeals to me. Then I start thinking...what if I found a way to use the new Twilight 2000’s resources – character backgrounds, encounters, maps, adventure ideas, locations – but ported to a game system I like with a premise centered on an alternate-history end to World War II (a period that engages me more deeply)? Something like Twilight 1945.

A Gaming Artifact from Trilemma

Artwork and production values in roleplaying game books vary greatly. They’re often constrained by the publisher’s limited budget, sometimes consuming even more financial resources than the actual content itself. Even then high production value and amazing artwork can’t make up for poor design and writing. Certainly Internet Age phenomena like Kickstarter and Patreon have enabled more creative people to release their gaming materials without the infrastructure of traditional print publishers...though quality on numerous fronts isn’t always consistent. But every once in a while a real gem emerges, something that satisfies on so many levels – substantive, graphic, qualitative – a treasure that stands out among the shelves of roleplaying game books. Michael Prescott’s Trilemma Adventures Companion Volume I is one of these amazing gaming artifacts.

Entertainment Can Inspire Learning

“And there’s a million things I haven’t done
But just you wait, just you wait....”

– Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton)

The July Fourth weekend – amid the pandemic wreaking havoc across the United States – we sat down in our impromptu yet cool basement home theater to watch the film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton: An American Musical. Though I’m not a fan of the rap and hip-hop musical styles, the songs, staging, and compelling story provided an immersive, emotional experience. Yet in reading about it online later I became aware of some criticism that it contained historical inaccuracies. Well of course. It’s a musical, not a documentary. This kind of media is meant to entertain, even when based on real people and events. But in some people it can inspire an urge to lean more and pursue their own self-education. It reminded me how games work the same way. They’re not accurate simulations of situations, but they can impart an interest in the subject and issues delving deeper than the action we play out on the game table. Board, card, wargames, and roleplaying games can inspire further learning on related subjects.

Our Family Plays Games

I’ve returned from my meditations at the Hermitage at the Edge of Oblivion having had some time to relax, reflect, and re-focus, though not as deeply as I would have liked. I haven’t managed to deal with the events and feelings that sent me packing to the Hermitage in the first place; but I don’t think any amount of meditation can or even should resolve those feelings. I have taken some solace, however, in games, books, history, media, and other distractions. A friend pointed me to the Our Family Plays Games channel on YouTube, a fulfilling combination of games and media. While I haven’t watched as many episodes as I would like, I realize it’s a welcome invitation to explore today’s numerous board games from a more diverse perspective.

Back to the Hermitage

“One can understand the pent-up feelings that may result from decades of repression and people who’ve had members of their family killed by that regime, for them to be taking their feelings out on that regime.”

– Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, April 12, 2003

I think it’s time for me to retreat once again to the Hermitage on the Edge of Oblivion.

It’s not for lack of material for Hobby Games Recce. Goodness knows I have pages of notes, bits of ideas, and a few paragraphs for numerous blog posts about various aspects of the adventure gaming hobby.

I am no doubt feeling the effects of the pandemic, of three months trying to stay safe and healthy, with my wife working from home and my son finishing the last semester of “school” at an amazingly minimal level. My parental duties require feeding the 10 year-old at irregular yet frequent intervals and entertaining him in lieu of other activities now eliminated by the pandemic. My overwhelming sense of spousal guilt has me working more on the seemingly infinite household and yard projects. I’ve not had much time or focus for myself or my gaming/writing endeavors; that level of non-fulfillment and dissatisfaction has drained much of my inspiration and energy.

Missing Out on A World in A Box

I’ll admit I’ve never really immersed myself in pre-made fantasy world settings, particularly those that emerged in the late 1980s and 1990s and grew exponentially from core boxed set concepts to entire continents of supplements and “splatbooks.” A few exceptions exist, but they come from my earliest days exploring the adventure gaming hobby and those years after college when I had money to pursue other games with engaging settings tied to specific, non-fantasy game systems. I think my perspective results from a confluence of circumstances: the content and marketing of these worlds with my inability to immerse myself in roleplaying games at the time they were released.

Playing to “Win” the Covid-19 Game

I don’t usually indulge in politics or other sensitive, real-life subjects here at Hobby Games Recce. If I do, it’s in some way related to games. So I’d like to propose that the current pandemic situation has some parallels to gaming; specifically how we play games, strategies we use to succeed, and what happens when we win or lose. So bear with me if you will or simply come back next time for a less-politically tinged feature. And if you’re the kind of person who takes offense at my sentiments on these subjects, well, sic transit mundus.

WEG Memoirs: “Mos Eisley Shoot-Out”

Recently the online classic game store Wayne’s Books posted the “Mos Eisley Shoot-Out” pamphlet under its home page’s “New Arrivals” banner. I always enjoy seeing West End Games material on the site. Nothing tells me more about how the gaming public views a title as the price listed at Wayne’s Books. It’s always nice to know people still appreciate the work we did long ago. Collector’s prices reflect a game book’s physical condition as well as the product quality and the demand among aficionados (and I’m sure a number of other considerations of which I’m unaware). I was somewhat surprised, then, that the 11x17-inch, double-sided, full-color folded brochure mini-game West End published and gave away for free in 1997 was listed at $25.99.

Game Activity during the Pandemic

For two months the covid-19 pandemic has altered how we live our lives, including our gaming habits. Most world governments imposed limitations on their population (followed more stringently in some places than others). In less than two months more Americans have died than in all the years of fighting in Vietnam. Depending on how soon scientists can develop more effective testing and tracking, vaccines, and treatments/cures, we may never really return to a semblance of “normal” we experienced before. In the face of this deadly pandemic most everyone’s trying to adapt to the new situation: businesses, conventions, individual gamers. No doubt we’ll continue adjusting as conditions change for better or worse. We just have to sit back and see how our efforts affect the pandemic...and until then, we can distract ourselves and find some respite from this grim reality through our modified adventure gaming hobby activities.

Cooperative Wargames...for Beginners?

I was talking with someone about historically themed wargames a while back and was asked if there were any cooperative wargames in which players worked together to defeat a common adversary. We were also talking about how to introduce the concept of historical wargaming to kids in fourth through eighth grades, their parents, and interested adults. We both knew the core cooperative board games like Forbidden Island and and Pandemic (oddly relevant in today’s situation). Although I know several very good wargames for solitaire play (and adaptable for group cooperative play), I admitted I couldn’t think of any that were both cooperative and suitable for a beginner audience. So I started looking for suitable solo or coop wargames and, barring that, seeking ones I might modify to fit my parameters of something cooperative for a newcomer audience.

Alone in the Infinite Cathedral

I really did mean to set aside work on programmed solitaire roleplaying game adventures after finishing The Asturia Incident. Even during that project I briefly detoured to revise my old Trapped in the Museum solo scenario for the OpenD6 system on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary. After those forays into solo adventure gamebook writing I’d wanted to return to my long-neglected Infinite Cathedral project: a medieval roleplaying game setting bound to no particular game engine. And yet I now find myself tackling the challenge of creating a system-neutral programmed solitaire scenario. At least it’s serving as an introduction to the Infinite Cathedral and will hopefully fuel my enthusiasm for the main project ahead.

RJ War Naval Battle After-Action Report

Tiny ships for small hands.

Last time I documented my efforts to bring Russo-Japanese War naval engagements to the tabletop. I finally pried my son from his tablet for an afternoon fighting a preliminary battle to learn the rules and get a sense of effective tactics. As mentioned before, we used a homemade ocean hex map, some ships from The Viking Forge I’d painted and based, and Bob Cordery’s Gridded Naval Wargames, with modifications from my own “Critical Damage Table” and a small historical adjustment in favor of the Japanese forces. The battle was close, the “Critical Damage Table” played a role in the action, and we learned some of the finer points about the rules.

The Tsushima Project

Even before the covid-19 pandemic shut down society as we know it I’d started a new project inspired by my son’s varied interests in history: wargaming naval actions from the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. After chancing upon some 1:2400 scale period Russian ships at the Williamsburg Muster game convention in mid-February I set out to acquire a small Japanese force, adapt some naval wargaming rules, and prep my play surface. It’s been a diverting side-project the past few weeks while my son’s been home, first with a mild illness, then with the state-wide shut-down of schools through March 27 (now extended through the end of the academic year...). So far I think we’re well on my way to some successful naval wargaming.

Solo Gaming in Pandemic Times

The covid-19 coronavirus seems like something from the intro to a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game. Or a night playing Pandemic. Anxiety remains high, especially with our 24/7 information highway overload and a problematic centralized federal government preparation and response. Hopefully everyone employs good hygiene practices and uses “self isolation” to whatever degree possible (I realize not everyone can engage in it, especially first responders and medical workers, but also those who have little choice but to report to work lest they lose paychecks and jobs). We need entertaining diversions to occupy our inflammably anxious minds and provide some positive, imaginative experiences. Solo gaming to the rescue!

Space Marine Adventures for Solo or Coop Play

I don’t recall where exactly I first heard of Space Marine Adventures: Labyrinth of the Necrons, but the concept of introductory solitaire and cooperative play grabbed my attention. I’m not a huge fan of Warhammer 40k, though in my distant past I dabbled with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (second edition) and found a used edition of the fantasy miniatures rules, more out of curiosity than any other motive. I have a vague awareness of what Space Marines are and that they apparently spend much of their time fanatically blasting things. So I’m in no way invested in the Warhammer 40k universe, but knowledgeable enough about its basics to enjoy an entertaining solo/coop game experience with high production values and good replay possibilities.

West End Memoirs: Scott Palter

On Monday, February 17, 2020, Daniel Scott Palter passed away. He was best-known as the founder and owner of West End Games, yet also infamously known as the person who sent the company into bankruptcy, losing the license for what was the groundbreaking first Star Wars roleplaying game. I’m sure some people – particularly those who lost jobs and opportunities with the company’s bankruptcy – hated him and never forgave him for what he did to West End in those final days. Over the years I’ve had to reconcile my feelings toward him. I have the natural animosity over West End’s demise. But I also realize he provided me with an opportunity to have my dream job: working full-time as a designer and editor at a roleplaying game company, and with the Star Wars franchise, no less. Despite all the frustration and drama, they remain the most fulfilling, productive five years of my professional life.

Father-Son History-Wargaming Weekend 2020

My son and I spent an extended weekend immersing ourselves in history and wargaming in what is becoming an annual tradition. I took him out of school on Friday so we could leave early and spend the afternoon at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, then attended the Williamsburg Muster wargaming convention, and finally visited Historic Jamestowne before heading home Sunday. (Our school system doesn’t get Presidents’ Day off....) Our son’s fourth grade curriculum includes “Virginia Studies” for social studies, a subject he already enjoys and which we’ve indulged with additional trips to historic sites during the past year. He’s also interested in games, including historical wargames, so the weekend provided an opportunity to engage with both history and games.

WEG Memoirs: Sabacc Proposal

I was doing some post-holiday tidying when I stumbled upon an old manuscript box with the words “Sabacc Proposal” scrawled in marker on the side. It’s filled with a hodge-podge of cards – two full-color deck for the proposal, one black-and-white deck with card backs I think I printed for later convention games – some credit chits and bills, a few “item” cards with values for when the stakes went high, and some copies of the rules. Kind of a mess, really. It’s a relic from my time working on the Star Wars Roleplaying Game at West End Games in the mid 1990s. My boss Rich Hawran and I had an opportunity – goodness knows how it came about – to present some Star Wars-based game designs to a development team at Hasbro, specifically the card game sabacc and the holo-chess game dejarik. We drafted rules, prototyped components, and did some basic playtesting, but overall we were little more than rank amateurs pitching game ideas with fueled by our fanboy enthusiasm for Star Wars.

Having Fun with Cruel Seas

I’d been on the fence about getting into Warlord Games’ Cruel Seas since it released in late 2018. The game focuses on small-craft naval engagements in World War II featuring such vessels as the American PT boats and German Schnell-boots (“fast boats,” or S-boats). I’d read about various issues folks had with the game, but eventually I put it on my wish list and received the starter boxed set as a gift during the holidays. I’ve played a few solitaire games to familiarize myself with the rules (though I haven’t managed to paint the ships yet), enough to formulate some opinions. Most of my issues with the game relate to elements I feel might have been handled differently, primarily from the perspective of catering to newcomers or improving the product quality. Despite the expense to buy into the game, Cruel Seas offers a beginner-friendly, accessible wargaming experience for those interested in this kind of WWII naval skirmish.

Fire & Ice: D6 Fantasy before Its Time

About 20 years ago I created a fantasy version of the D6 System for my own use, unimaginatively titled Fire & Ice. Those were the days after West End declared bankruptcy and laid off its staff, but a few years before its acquisition by Purgatory Publishing and the release of the D6 System trilogy D6 Fantasy, D6 Adventure, and D6 Space. This was the time in my life I refer to as my Desperate Freelancing Days as I scrambled to line up freelance game-writing work while holding down a part-time office job. Luckily I had a solid local gaming group to provide some imaginative diversion to my real-world troubles; so it was here that, seemingly on a whim, I returned to play around with my favorite D6 System in a more casual setting.

Schweig’s Gaming Events Early 2020

I finally got around to changing the calendars from 2019 to 2020 and – goodness gracious me! – realized I already have a number of gaming events lined up for the first two months of the New Year. Ten years ago I had several conventions I’d attend, primarily running roleplaying games. I’ve had to cut back on cons, particularly those farther afield. But with a son with an interest in history and gaming as well as my greater involvement in historical miniatures wargaming, I’ve settled into a general routine of regional conventions and events we can both enjoy. As my schedule shows, however, I’m not above testing the waters with new events to possibly add to my slowly growing repertoire of conventions.''

Yuletide Game Reflections

On January 7 we slip past the 12 Days of Christmas and back into the cold, dark, drudgery of the New Year, facing numerous tasks postponed by a month-long holiday preparation and celebration plus the inevitable disappointment when we break our New Year’s Resolutions (a ritual I’ve long since abandoned). It’s easy this time of year to descend into the depths contemplating the misery of reality, to allow the real-world anxieties to wash up over our temporary yet festive bulwark of holiday jubilation. So forgive me if I reflect on the fun game-related bits of this passing yuletide celebration in a futile attempt to prolong the uplifting spirit of the season.