My Favorite “Local” Game Stores

With the gift-giving season upon us I’m reminded (somewhat selfishly) of places we can go to find presents for the gamers in our lives. While consumers have increasingly turned to online venues for purchases, I still firmly believe our brick-and-mortar establishments have a great deal to offer. Like any gamer I have my roster of Friendly Local Game Stores (FLGS) I like to support, though in my case, they’re not as much “local” as “regional.” The nearest is a 30 minute drive, the farthest around two hours...meaning I usually make a day trip out of a visit. As a result I don’t shop at them as much as I’d like, but when I go I budget a small wad of cash to spend to support their efforts and add to my gaming library. Most were around before the pandemic; they managed to survive adapting to online orders and sidewalk pick-up, implementing careful masking and distancing protocols when allowed, cultivating a generous gaming community, and soldiering on with a staunch persistence. I try making the pilgrimage to the farthest ones once a year; the others I visit when I’m in the neighborhood. All remind me of the qualities for successful game stores and current trends in the adventure gaming hobby.

Immersive Experiences at the Spy Museum

My recent visit to the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, might not seem to have any relevance to the adventure gaming hobby. Yet its exhibits speak to a history occasionally covered in board games and its interactive experiences evoke the feelings of immersive roleplaying game episodes. Museums today constantly change, adapting to new display philosophies and technological advancements influencing the gallery experience. They work to present the broad context of history, explain the relevance of artifacts, and tell the stories of individuals who used those items and lived that history in an attempt to establish some connection with visitors. The International Spy Museum hits all those targets, showcasing some amazing objects, demonstrating firsthand many spycraft concepts, and presenting tales of spies throughout history...all in ways that actively engage visitors.

Solo Scene: a Gentle Rain

“Calm mind brings inner strength and self-confidence.”

— Dalai Lama

Finding calm in today’s world remains challenging. Our 21st century Internet Age keeps us constantly scrambling just to keep our heads above water. The cares of our incessantly demanding world often overwhelm us, giving us scant time for ourselves to recover, let alone to relish the few, small joys in life. We all have our methods of gaining a few moments of peace, of re-centering our views, of restoring our attitudes. I keep a singing bowl on my desk next to a tiny, smirking Buddhist monk figurine, though I rarely use the bowl for stress relief. I have little time to sit near my backyard prayer flag garden; more often I pull weeds and re-string flags. I read before bed every night, making the recent choice to return to escapist fiction instead of my more personally educational non-fiction history titles. Games, especially solitaire ones, also help divert me from my anxieties...when I find the time. I recently discovered a new solo game, one specifically designed as a calming activity: a Gentle Rain by Kevin Wilson. It’s a fantastic game ideal for anyone, even non-gamers, to help find a little momentary calm in these tumultuous times.

Releasing Skirmish Kids

 “The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”

– Carl Jung

At long last I finally released my latest game project this week. Skirmish Kids is a wargame with a low figure count, small play surface (compared to most miniature wargames), and basic core rules to which one can add a host of options to give the game more tactical depth. It includes a host of notes for using it for historical scenarios as well as a few more fantastic genres. You can find it in full-color PDF at both my Itch.io and Wargame Vault online storefronts and in print in black-and-white at Lulu and, a first for me, places like Amazon. Skirmish Kids is the culmination of a long interest in this kind of wargaming and years of tinkering to present rules and options at a level kids and newcomers to the hobby can understand and embrace.

Return to the Abbey of St. Leibowitz

 “So it was that, after the [Flame] Deluge, the Fallout, the plagues, the madness, the confusion of tongues, the rage, there began the bloodletting of the Simplification, when remnants of mankind had torn other remnants limb from limb, killing rulers, scientists, leaders, technicians, teachers, and whatever persons the leaders of the maddened mobs said deserved death for having helped to make the Earth what it had become.”

– A Canticle for Leibowitz

Time for me to read Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz again. It’s one of the books I reach for when I need a break...from my more serious non-fiction reading, from the news, from numerous stress vectors mercilessly bearing down on what’s left of my psyche. Like many, I find diversion and solace in books, an escape so we can (hopefully) find renewed strength and get up to face our toilsome, everyday challenges in reality.

Author Umberto Eco likened books in a good library to remedies a medicine cabinet:

“We understand that it is good to have many at home rather than a few: when you want to feel better, then you go to the ‘medicine closet’ and choose a book. Not a random one, but the right book for that moment.”

Exploring Vonnegut’s Lost Game

 “I admire anybody who finishes a work of art, no matter how awful it may be.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

I was intrigued when I discovered Geoff Engelstein writing online about a lost strategy game by renowned author Kurt Vonnegut. At first glance GHQ looked like a chess-type game using artillery and infantry, reflecting the author’s experience in northwest Europe during World War II. The design had a pleasingly mid-century aesthetic to it which felt practical for such a game. I enjoyed reading Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five years ago and have re-read it once or twice since; but I wouldn’t call myself a fan, though I’m aware of his cultural impact. The more I read about GHQ, though, the more I wanted to explore it as a gaming artifact: a game a then-fledgling author designed, tested, and tried marketing to a publishing company, to no avail, setting it aside, abandoned, for decades until, after his death, someone discovered it and finally released it to the world. Engelstein and the production team at Mars International have revived a lost treasure and provided historical context to better appreciate the game’s origins.

Solo Scene: Pacific War 1942

 “The enemy of our games was always Japan, and the courses were so thorough that after the start of World War II, nothing that happened in the Pacific was strange or unexpected.”

— Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

I love solitaire games of all kinds across the adventure gaming hobby. I enjoy exploring World War II history through wargames. And I’ve admired many games Worthington Publishing has released over the years, notably Tarawa 1943, Hidden Strike American Revolution, Chancellorsville 1863, and the Holdfast series of block games. So when I heard Worthington launched a Kickstarter for another series of three “travel” solitaire wargames, I figured I’d revisit one from the previous campaign. Pacific War 1942 demonstrates the compact innovations of this format that engage players in a satisfying wargame experience.

RPG City Settings

 “A great city is that which has the greatest men and women.”

— Walt Whitman

My interest in fantasy roleplaying game city settings came soon after I discovered Dungeons & Dragons. After receiving the basic set for Easter in 1982, I saved my allowance and, when summer break started that year, went to Branchville Hobby down the road and bought the Expert D&D boxed set. The clerk slipped a copy of Adventure Gaming magazine in the bag, a nice treat for a neophyte like me who hadn’t yet discovered Dragon magazine or other periodicals fueling my enthusiasm for a new hobby. Among the wonders inside (including an adventure by Gary Gygax!) was a review of Chaosium’s new boxed set based on the popular Thieves’ World short story anthologies...focusing on the shared setting City of Sanctuary and its inhabitants. This one article opened my eyes to a new environment for fantasy roleplaying which occasionally reached out to tempt me throughout the years.

The Asteroid Game

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

— Benjamin Franklin

It’s a presidential election year here in America...which means it’s time for a near-collision asteroid event! I know they occur more than we’d like to admit (the asteroids, anyway). We have ever-vigilant government agencies keeping watch: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), and the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). All of which host websites allowing us to track the size and distance of approaching asteroids. Media about asteroids hitting earth has long been and continues to remain a science fiction staple. Such a situation really doesn’t figure into games, unless it causes the cataclysm in some post-apocalyptic roleplaying game setting. But the PAXsims blog recently reported on tabletop exercises (TTXs) NASA conducted to help organizations prepare for and respond to an asteroid strike on earth. This kind of activity falls into the category of “serious games” used to explore outcomes of hypothetical conditions and events, the type of simulation governments use for a variety of purposes. The Planetary Defense Interagency Tabletop Exercise provides an insightful model for how such serious games can enable a variety of audiences simulate non-warfare crises.

Lifepaths & Templates

 “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

— George Bernard Shaw

Lifepaths and other background mechanics in roleplaying games help players gain some sense of the world their characters inhabit, even if they themselves just discovered it. They provide backstory and motivation, context for developing characters over future misadventures. Few games use them, despite their origins in the earliest days of the roleplaying game hobby. Many prefer to rely on genre stereotypes to define character roles, leaving the (often optional) job of developing a backstory to players, if they bother at all; some fill it in during play, but most focus on where their character is going, rather than where they’ve been. Lifepaths and templates serve as game mechanisms to provide some sense of a character’s past — even if only defined in terms of stats and equipment — but offer more story hooks to entice players to create more depth to their fictional personae.

HGR’s Notable Posts

I’ve not done any retrospective of my Hobby Games recce work in a while and wanted to provide a sampling of some of my best, most popular writing for those seeking a taste of my past work. I started blogging more-or-less weekly in November 2010. At first I’d hoped to write 700-900 words each week on some issue relevant to the adventure gaming hobby. Now the blog has more than 550 posts, with most above 1,200 words...meaning I’ve written more than half a million words here (the equivalent of about five novels). Not every post at Hobby Games Recce is my best work; sometimes finding a compelling subject and an interesting angle doesn’t quite come together (and I’ve missed weeks here and there for various reasons). Not every post engages every reader; my content ranges across the subjects of roleplaying, board, and war games, as well as a commentary on our overall gaming culture. But I wanted to highlight some of my best writing about adventure game hobby issues, both by the numbers and by my personal standards.

Wargames for Learning

 “A scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing how to act on any accident or emergency so that he is never taken by surprise.”

— Robert Baden-Powell

The video from People Make Games about “The Games Behind Your Government’s Next War” has caused quite a stir recently among professional and hobby wargamers. What initially started as a documentary about wargaming in the defense industry became an hour-long video essay presenting and exploring the “complete moral labyrinth” of using wargames to prepare for future conflicts. The video generated a lot of discussion, both in the video’s comments section and elsewhere; notably responses at the excellent PAXsims blog. I watched the video and was impressed with the thoughtful look at moral issues related to wargaming (despite its sometimes outraged delivery, which, I’ll admit, makes for an engaging presentation style). Frequent readers might recall I’ve occasionally reflected on the ethics of wargaming — especially with kids or hobby newcomers — usually asking questions about how we can have fun playing historical games about a real-world activity that resulted in death and destruction, how we might use them as learning tools, and how we could more thoughtfully approach this activity (once again, often with the younger set in mind). Part of me wanted to respond to various issues the video raised; which were many among the hairpin turns of the host Quinns’ at-times manic journey through the moral labyrinth. I will leave more informed reactions to the wargaming professionals (though I’ll admit I wouldn’t mind joining their ranks career-wise). Instead, after much reflection about what I might say, I felt I needed to elaborate on something the video didn’t really address. It focuses on the analysis role professional wargaming plays in military circles, creating models and simulations to explore emerging crises and evolving technology to formulate and test tactical solutions. But it doesn’t look at another major facet of professional military wargaming, and even hobby gaming: the educational role games play.

COTS Games for Learning

 “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”

— Benjamin Franklin

Those in the professional wargame sphere frequently rely on simulations intended for education or analysis, wargames requiring a custom design and implementation. Not all organizations have the resources for such projects, nor are such simulations always appropriate for every circumstance, especially when introducing wargaming in a professional environment to newcomers with time constraints. Sometimes they turn to existing resources, adapting them to particular missions and situations. They adapt “Commercial* Off The Shelf” or COTS games to their specific needs. One doesn’t have to be an innovator in the professional wargaming sphere to adapt COTS games — modifying them for a particular audience and objective — for experiential learning across other disciplines.

Tiny Brush Strokes on the Larger Canvas

 “There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

People sometimes say we need to see the bigger picture, the forest from the trees, the larger canvas. Such phrases always remind me of Georges Seurat’s masterpiece of pointillism, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Stand back and the viewer takes in the entire painting, which, at 10 feet wide, is quite a canvas. Step closer and one sees the tiny points of paint which make up tge larger characters, landscape, and the overall picture. Ferris Beuller’s Day Off artfully demonstrated this during the tourism montage scenes. Historically themed games allow us to explore new perspectives, form connections with the subject matter, and hopefully gain a greater understanding of events...notably the people involved. Many such games focus on the big picture — abstracted political factions, military units, entire regions of geography, and other broad generalizations — but a contrast between that and the finer details (and everything in between) helps us better appreciate the whole on different levels.

Solo/Co-op Games & the “Bad Guy” Dilemma

 “Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table.”

— W. H. Auden

I often grapple with the issue of playing the “bad guys” in historical wargames. Villains in our history have committed heinous atrocities and human rights violations, beyond the death and destruction war brings to soldiers and civilians alike.* I’ve explored the issue before, mostly in the case of using games to engage and teach kids about history or in examining delicate periods or perspectives. It’s all fun and games — literally, at the most basic level — until one takes a deeper look at the context of historical games and reflects on some of the weightier implications...and our involvement in them in the abstracted ways games allow us. In some cases I’ve included follow-up material to help students further consider on the consequences of their game actions (notably cards with historical information about their roles in the attack on Pearl Harbor). Sometimes switching sides can alleviate some of these concerns, with participants playing games or scenarios twice, so each gets a chance to experience the other’s perspective. As I veer more toward solitaire and cooperative games, I’m discovering their very one-sided nature can absolve players of taking the role of the “bad guys” and allow them some guilt-free game experiences...which ultimately might lead to the after-action reflection I feel remains necessary to learn from games.

“The Adventure Is Yours”

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

— Albert Einstein

I haven’t followed developments with Dungeons & Dragons for a while. Every so often some D&D news or controversy appears on my gaming radar; I take note but really don’t feel the need to voice my opinion (not that anyone would notice). D&D has evolved into a very different creature than what I knew growing up in the 1980s, what I turn to now in nostalgia. I dabbled with the third edition Wizards of the Coast released shortly after acquiring TSR, running a few adventures at a local game store and even writing some d20 products in the Open Game License (OGL) boom of the early 2000s. Hasbro’s acquisition of D&D caused the line to stumble a few times, usually from management prioritizing growing profits without understanding (or perhaps caring about) the game and its customers. After threatening to vanquish and reanimate the OGL as some unfriendly form of undead corporate contract, Hasbro now seems intent on turning D&D content away from physical publications to emphasize electronic materials accessible through subscription...aping the greedy corporate subscription model others use for software and media to feed an economic system based on infinite profit growth from a finite system. Yet some of D&D’s earliest advertising slogans remind us we don’t need every scenario and supplement, we don’t even need the core D&D rulebooks to enjoy the roleplaying game hobby. Because, as the old ad said, “The Adventure Is Yours.”

Ukraine 2022 Prepares Students for War

 “To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.”

— George Washington

A skirmish in Ukraine 2022.

My son just started high school last week (yes, August 7 is unreasonably early in America). After a carefree summer filled with a few fun road trips, various excursions, and just lounging around, he scrambled to get ready for the early onset of the academic year. What school supplies we didn’t scrounge from around the house or salvage from last year we ran out to purchase, from pencils and erasers to the obligatory new backpack. Sorted out the last-minute bus route schedule and inevitable blunders on the first day. Met a host of teachers at the open house, from the interesting electives my son chose like drama and interior design to more traditional English, science, geometry, and history (with a teacher who enjoys games, no less). He’s not taking any mandatory course to prepare him for combat against a belligerent nation currently invading his. But kids in Ukraine are...using a wargame for part of the course.

Games Offer First-Hand Perspective

 “You will always have partial points of view, and you’ll always have the story behind the story that hasn't come out yet.”

— Margaret Atwood

I’ve written recently about immersing ourselves in films, books, and games to help broaden our perception of a particular literary genre or historical period. It’s a different way to expand our experiences through diverse media; yet games put us in the moment in a deeper way than films and books. Most media begins and ends at fixed points, providing a step-by-step narrative that often helps us identify with the experience of individuals and their perspectives as the plot unfolds. Games start at a fixed point, too, but where they end — and how they get there — often remains uncertain until played out. As we take turns, we assess the “game state” at that moment, plot our moves, and ultimately see how they succeed. Games give us first-hand experience at estimating a situation and forming a plan of action in response to that situation in a way that “fixed” media relying on plots do not. They can immerse us in an event as it evolves; even though we might know how it turns out, the participants at that time and place did not. Games can offer us a taste of that experience as players try to comprehend and react to a developing situation.

Inspiring Citations

 “Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self.”

— Franz Kafka

I love reading books and even internet articles that reference their sources. Most of the non-fiction I read includes such handy research tools as foot- or endnotes and bibliographies. Many authors rely on these to document the information they used for their books. Internet writers use them to allow readers to cross-reference terms, concepts, and prior work beyond simply citing sources; a hyperlink can enable instant access to relevant material that might shed additional light on the topic and expose readers to new concepts they might wish to pursue on their own. Writers — even game designers — should include references not simply to substantiate their work but provide readers with inspiration. And readers — and game players — should seek them out to enhance and expand their own experiences.

Watch, Read, Play

 “I’m always learning new techniques and improving beyond my own knowledge because there is always something new to learn and new horizons to discover.”

— Jose Andres

I’m often looking for ways to engage people in learning through games. I believe games can provide experiences to expand our horizons and expose us to new or different perspectives; to better inform our lives, whether it’s simply spending time interacting with others or examining a more profound topic through play (and everything in between). But it’s sometimes a challenge to tempt people to play games at all, let alone entice them to try new ones, especially given our 21st century’s reliance on — and often obsession with — electronic devices and the diversions they offer. So many game experiences connect with other media, notably films/television and books (in all their varieties). Each of these forms varies in our engagement: our commitment of time, attention, and imagination. I think this trifecta of watching media, reading books, and playing games, all on a related topic, can help us immerse ourselves in something new, learn about it, and broaden our understanding through these different experiences.

The Ever-Growing Painting Pile

 “My failures have been errors in judgment, not of intent.”

— Ulysses S. Grant

At the beginning of this summer, as I evaluated my current gaming activities and future purchases, I made a resolution not to purchase any gaming miniatures that required painting. I have a long list of minis to paint (grognards often call it “The Pile of Shame”), some from ages ago, some more recently acquired. So I thought I’d try making a concerted effort to avoid purchasing anything I needed to paint, along with an effort to paint more regularly. Oh, I managed for a bit. I bought some old pre-painted plastic Lord of the Rings tradeable miniatures to rebase and use for Skirmish Kids playtesting and photos. But then I ran into an occasional and irresistible dilemma: the purchase of opportunity...those must-have items you might not find again or might forget about later. And after that, well, my resolve quickly faded.

Support Indie Bookstores

“The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.”

— Somerset Maugham 

After my recent missive on summer reading recommendations I came to realize I’ve been short-changing independent bookstores I usually link book references to Amazon, just as an unthinking default, because the Internet Age has programmed us to do that. As with most conditioning, it takes an awareness of why we do certain things and then a conscious effort to undo that thinking and adapt different behavior. Independent bookstores have always struggled against big-box retailers like Barnes & Noble and other chains; the prominence of online conglomerates that can well afford to offer discounts and free shipping further endangers them. Although not everyone can afford to pay a little more to support their book-buying habits through independent bookstores, every little bit helps. We can wean ourselves off ordering books on Amazon to divert some of the money we’d spend anyway to support local, community merchants who appreciate our love for reading.

Signs of Games Past

 “Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.”

— William Butler Yeats

I have two stand-up, flip page easel folios I use when running game events. They fold up flat, easily fold out into a standalone display, and inform attendees what game I’m hosting (and some other details, like rules summaries or historical context). I offered to loan them to my wife for a conference she was attending. So I had to remove all the letter-sized signs I’d slipped into the inserts; since I just keep adding signs and never really cleared it out, it reminded me of all the various games I’ve run over the past 10 years at regional game conventions and local game days.

Summer Reading Recommendations

“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.”

— W. Somerset Maugham

Summertime. Perhaps I’m old-fashioned, but these lazy days call for the simple pleasures of books. (Though I regret, for many adults in our time, “lazy days” never really exist in any season...). We take books with us on vacation, to read in the car, at the beach, or whenever we find a moment to kick back and relax. We subject our children to local public libraries and their summer reading programs. We hope, often in vain, they’ll pick up some titles from the suggested summer reading lists sent home at the end of the school year (though I’ve not seen one since the “Before Times” prior to the covid pandemic). Do kids still read books over the summer? Is summer reading still a thing in a culture increasingly focused on its cell phones and other electronic devices? (A discussion for another time, perhaps.) In musing on the fleeting joys of summer reading, I thought I might make a few recommendations for titles which reflect my own interests in history and gaming; books I’ve read in the past Hobby Games Recce readers might also enjoy.

Remembering Axis & Allies Miniatures

 “Success lasts only three seconds. After that, you’re the same as you were before you had it.”

— Robert Shaw

My recent missive on print magazines — particularly my efforts to clip the most relevant articles from years of WWII History — reminded me how much I liked Avalon Hill’s Axis & Allies Miniatures game years ago. (Mark Painter’s nose-art-inspired advertising artwork also reminded me how much I enjoyed the game.) I bought into it when it released in 2005 and purchased occasional booster packs for the original and subsequent sets. Using the point system to create forces consumed most of my time, as I imagine it would for any collectible game where one builds a deck or combat unit. I mostly engaged in solitaire play, commanding each side in turn. I don’t recall much about the mechanics, but I remember I liked numerous aspects of the game; though ultimately the randomized booster packs necessary to maintain the collectible aspect became untenable. Like many games, it’s come and gone, forgotten after the initial buzz and now difficult to find, either in the original starter sets and booster packs or as single figures with cards on the secondary market.

“Mind Your Manners”

“Always be tactful and well-mannered.... Avoid excessive sharpness or harshness of voice, which usually indicates the man who has shortcomings of his own to hide.”

— General Erwin Rommel

I don’t remember why I was paging through my copy of Panzer Kids Deluxe recently, but among all the tank stats, optional rules, and scenarios I noticed the “Mind Your Manners” page. My Skirmish Kids rules, perpetually nearing imminent completion, also include a similar section. Both offer these guidelines to set a baseline of behavior at the game table. We often expect certain courteous and helpful behaviors when we get together with strangers or friends to play games; unwritten rules to help everyone get along a little more clearly. It reminded me of the important role these concepts play in helping young gamers – and even more adult gamers – navigate the emotions that accompany winning and losing. They’re also good maxims to keep in mind as we interact with each other, strangers and friends, in person and online, in our everyday encounters.

Twilight of Print Magazines

 “I don’t expect to live forever, but I do intend to hang on as long as possible.”

— Isaac Asimov

I’m rearranging some shelves in the office — a periodic activity, given the volume of books I have and continue adding to my collection — and I’ve come across some racks with old copies of WWII History magazine. I decided to peruse them one more time, extract any articles that interest me to arrange in a binder, and recycle the rest. The process reminded me why I like (and miss) magazines along with a few other observations.

The Peaceful Protester Scenario

 “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

— Elie Wiesel

Once again I’m distraught seeing militarized police using brutal force against peaceful, unarmed protesters. Certainly my sensitive imagination and unfettered anxiety makes it easier to empathize with those speaking out against oppression (as if I ever had the immense courage to do so). I recognize the gross injustice deploying such heavily armed forces against those peacefully protesting for liberal and humanitarian causes while police sit back and tolerate right-wing fascist demonstrators equipped for potential violence (however unrealistically). Maybe it’s because I come from a field that values freedom of expression, free speech, and civil discussion to address the problems we collectively face. Perhaps I’m discouraged that I’ve seen forces of the militarized state used against otherwise peaceful or powerless populations before, both in my time and in barbarous episodes of our history. When I process these events, deal with the emotions and hopelessness they evoke, I often turn to games...usually as an escape, but in this case to reflect on the issue through the lens of gaming.

Modern Crisis Wargaming

 “Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.”

— David Bowie

I don’t usually promote Kickstarter campaigns for games, even ones I admire or back. A recent entry, however, demonstrates the value of wargames as tools to explore real-world issues. Usually we look back in time, examining conflicts from history with lots of established (and sometimes debated) research from which to draw information when crafting these simulation models. Professionals in the political/military sphere employ wargames to explore existing, developing, and future situations and possible outcomes. Sebastian Bae — a USMC veteran, wargaming consultant, and adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University — stands as one of the more visible designers at the forefront of this movement. Catastrophe Games is running a Kickstarter to produce Bae’s Crisis in Korea, a set of two “micro games” allowing players to examine the heightening tensions in that region. Both KTO Crisis and Loose Nukes promise to introduce current-issue wargames to a wider audience, from hobby wargamers and students to military and political professionals.

French & Indian War: Road Trip & Games

 “My mission is in jeopardy as my Indian allies have murdered a captured French officer in my care, violating Articles of War. Plus, the French are quickly closing in on our position, so it is a ‘necessity’ that a fort is quickly constructed to shield us from attack....”

— George Washington

View from Fort Ligonier with
fortifications and cannon.

Last week my son was off from school for spring break, so we planned a short overnight trip to some sights within driving distance that interested us: Fort Ligonier, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, and Fort Necessity...two of which catered to our interest in the French and Indian War. Last summer we visited Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point in New York state; we’ve also seen skirmish reenactments at Fort Frederick. So we wanted to round out our exploration of the period with two more locations that broadened our understanding of the overall conflict. It reminded me of numerous wargames covering the Seven Years War in America, many of which serve as good introductions for kids and newcomers to the hobby.

Willing to Wait for sha-Arthan

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Those who’ve followed James Maliszewski’s for a while know he’s quite knowledgeable about M.A.R. Barker’s Tékumel setting, having run a continuous campaign for nearly a decade and published a host of wonderful fanzines about the esoteric roleplaying game setting. But Barker’s creation — and its host of different game editions — carries the stain of his anti-Semitic novel Serpent’s Walk, published under a pseudonym in 1991 (as discovered through research by the Tékumel Foundation established to perpetuate his creative legacy). Fans have had to wrestle with this unearthed reality, some walking away from Tékumel, others continuing to embrace it, and many in between trying to find some acceptable balance between the creator and his creation. Maliszewski has discussed his betrayal at learning about Barker’s shocking past before, making many points no doubt shared with Tékumel fans grappling with this issue. Maliszewski has since channeled his creative energies into developing Secrets of sha-Arthan, a game evocative of Tékumel with his own interpretations and embellishments into a wholly original, more accessible setting. Who knows when it will be ready for release? All good things take time...and I am willing to keep my embers of enthusiasm burning as I wait however long to see it published.

Rules as Written, Game as Played

 “The essence of a role-playing game is that it is a group, cooperative experience.”

— Gary Gygax

Chevy Chase's character from
Community prepares to run D&D....

After last week’s missive about “rigid” and “free” rules I started thinking about the flexibility roleplaying games have always offered and the variable experience they provide when mixing a rules system with a setting, a particular gamemaster, and a certain group of individual players. Sure, all games provide some variability with different participants within the more rigid structure rules impose. But roleplaying games offer a lot of room for interpretation to suit different play styles: which rules a gamemaster relies on and which they use infrequently or even ignore completely; to what degree the participants focus on rules, character roles, or setting; where an adventure moves and how it involves players and their characters. Roleplaying games give us lots of freedom between the rules as written and how we run them, subject to interpretation and collaboration between everyone at the table. All these variables sometimes lead to inconsistent quality. Sometimes game sessions can be terrible; but with the right combinations, the experience can seem magical. Each person at the table and their interpretation of a game (internally as a mindset and externally through play) represents a wide-ranging variable...all of which can affect the course of the game and the satisfaction each person finds in it.

Rigid or Free?

 “A key issue from the outset was whether it was better to codify the game system within comprehensive rules and charts or to base the modelling of movement and combat on the wisdom and experience of an umpire.”

— Philip Sabin, Simulating War

Early wargame rules established two acceptable play formats: rigid and free. When military personnel started creating wargames in the early 19th century, an umpire or even a team of referees adjudicated wargame conflicts. Those in the “rigid” style adhered to carefully crafted rules governing many, if not all, possible actions and contests within a game scenario. The referee served as a knowledgeable intermediary, someone so immersed in the rules as to function as a reference when applying them consistently during play. This allowed players to focus on the action depicted on the wargaming table from the perspective of officers commanding troops in the field, much as they’d been trained. Those in the “free” style relied on their own military expertise and judgment to interpret the situations on the board, possibly also with some institutional doctrine and perhaps loose guidelines regarding conflicts on the battlefield. Free kriegspiel relied on an expert’s informed yet subjective opinion rather than established, comprehensive rules. As wargames evolved they branched in several directions, including professional and hobby as well as rigid and free. Free games continued to exist — especially in the military sphere or exercises like matrix games — but most games, especially in the growing hobby, skewed toward rigid. We can look at games in our own time through the lens of rigid and free play...but they primarily sustain the trend toward the rigid end of the spectrum.