Watch, Read, Play: French & Indian War

 “Fathers, both you and the English are white, we live in a Country between; therefore the Land belongs to neither one nor t’other.”

— Chief Tanaghrisson

French and Indian War provincial militia
re-enactors march forth at Fort Frederick.

I don’t expect many Americans to have much familiarity with the French and Indian War (1754–1763); Europeans might know it as one theater in the larger Seven Years War (1756–1763) which some historians consider the first true “world war.” It’s an interesting period in American colonial history. Major European powers continue to stake claims to lands in the New World, with the British and French clashing primarily on the frontiers in New England and the mid-Atlantic. British colonists remain subject to the crown, yet, being separated from their governing body by several months’ treacherous voyage over the ocean, have cultivated a sense of self-sufficiency bordering on entitled independence. Over my years of reading and playing games about it, I’ve come to realize it sets up many of the issues over which Americans fought for their independence from Great Britain and highlights many issues we still face. One can more easily investigate the French and Indian War through movies, books, and games to gain a greater understanding of the conflict’s many aspects and outcomes that influenced the American War of Independence...and beyond.

Designer’s Cards-or-Tables Dilemma

 “Random chance plays a huge part in everybody’s life.”

— Gary Gygax

To use cards or not to use cards? That’s a question some designers might consider when developing mechanics for a particular game. Cards can deliver a similar infusion of effects we get from rolling dice on random tables. Differences exist in the two systems, but the result — generating a randomized element from a thematic list — remains the same. I’m debating whether to use cards or tables for a game I’m in the early stages of developing, a solitaire simulation focusing on supplying the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. As a player I love cards: the tactile nature, the space for illustrations, blurbs of lore, and stylized icons for values and functions. But at this early stage, and from a designer’s perspective, I’m leaning toward random tables as an expedient to focus more on concepts and system rather than give in to my urge to obsess over physical components.

Degrees of Solitaire

“Solitude is independence.”

— Hermann Hesse

I have, out of recent necessity, focused more on the solitaire game experience across all aspects of my adventure gaming hobby. I haven’t had a regular gaming group for a while, but I still indulge in games on my own, enjoying the occasional afternoon with a few like-minded friends around a few board games or the rare instance I attempt to convince them to try a roleplaying game. I find some satisfaction engaging in solitary game activities most of us enjoy: reading and comprehending rules for new games (or reviewing old favorites); developing materials for roleplaying games; painting miniatures and crafting terrain; and reading historical non-fiction to support my gaming activities. But sometimes you just want to play a game. Doing so without other players provides varying degrees of satisfaction depending on the nature of the solitaire play. Looking back on my own experiences, I classified my solo gaming into three categories: player-versus-player (PVP), cooperative, and true solitaire.

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.

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.

Solo Games: Battle Cards

 “It looks very rough. If I get through this one I will be very lucky.”

– Major General James Gavin

After last week’s piece on solo games something new came across my gaming radar to remind me of one recent game I’d missed...and an opportunity to get more like it. I spotted Battle Card: Market Garden a few months ago over on Itch.io’s “Postcards from the Front” game jam. As I’m an aficionado of solo games of all kinds – even wargames – I downloaded it and a few others that seemed to cater to the intersection of my historical interests and rules preferences. Market Garden was the first I tried and I instantly loved the concept. And now I just caught wind the creators are designing five more similar historical solo wargames set in World War II...and I managed to back the project on Kickstarter before the campaign ends on Oct. 1. Five print-and-play solitaire wargames with innovative mechanics and WWII historical themes for $5? An excellent opportunity for anyone interested in any of those elements.

Solo Play: My Own Worst Enemy

I’ve always enjoyed solitaire games since I first discovered the adventure gaming hobby back in 1982. Purely solitaire experiences helped me engage with my gaming interests when other players weren’t available: titles like Avalon Hill’s B-17: Queen of the Skies, solo gamebooks from the Fighting Fantasy series, and, of course, solitaire roleplaying game modules like BSOLO Ghost of Lion Castle and XSOLO Lathan’s Gold. I also embarked on other solo endeavors where I played all the sides against myself, usually for board wargames like Kingmaker and occasionally in non-programmed forays into solo roleplaying. I’ve admired and authored solitaire tutorial adventures for roleplaying games as a means of introducing both game mechanics and theme to new players. Over the years more games – primarily board games and wargames – have integrated solitaire play into their rules, especially with the relatively recent development of cooperative games. I’ve indulged in them as much as I’m able. Although these “solo only” games offer exciting experiences crafted for a single player, they’re sometimes more frustrating and less satisfying than busting out an old favorite to play against myself.

Tower of the Faceless Clock

Or Challenges Extracting Rules Text from Solo Adventures

My discussion of the difficulties extracting system from setting in roleplaying game supplements reminded me of an abandoned project. It was an experiment to design a programmed solitaire adventure (with numbered paragraphs, like the Choose Your Own Adventure books) to present a specific setting without reference to a specific rules system. Having written plenty of solitaire tutorial adventures intended to teach game mechanics along the way, designing one without considerations for typical rules – how to run combat, procedures for skill checks, how to make saving throws, etc. – proved challenging.

Considering Bloody Tarawa

 “I cannot tell you what profound respect I have for these Marines who took Tarawa, the living and the dead. I do not believe any Americans ever fought more bravely or so unselfishly.”

– Robert Sherrod, Time-Life photographer

A few weeks ago I reflected how our wargaming experience might have more depth when we consider it more than simply playing a game, but give thought at some point to the history behind the battle, the ramifications for people who, on the board, often look like cardboard chits and playing pieces. Although that piece focused on issues of colonialism in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s passing, it also pertains to other issues, notably the human cost of war. I’m reading John Wukovits’ One Square Mile of Hell, an account of the battle for Tarawa in November, 1943, from its planning and training phases, through the ruthless fighting, and its aftermath with survivors and families. Coupled with my occasional visits to the National Museum of the Marine Corps and my enjoyment of Worthington Publishing’s solitaire Tarawa 1943 game, the book offered a vivid, painful reminder of the price we pay to wage war.

A Confluence of Solo Games

 “Solitude is independence.”

– Hermann Hesse

The yuletide season brought a confluence of solo games by means of holiday gifts, personal purchases, and sheer happy coincidences. My parents got me Ravensburger’s Alien: Fate of the Nostromo board game (for solo or cooperative play). As a holiday treat I bought two “bookgames” from Worthington Games, Waterloo Solitaire and Bismarck Solitaire, two releases with interesting origins in the pandemic privations. By sheer happenstance two Kickstarter games arrived just before the yuletide season got underway: Scott Almes’s Unsurmountable solo card game and Grant and Mike Wylie’s Tarawa 1943, also from Worthington Games. All these combined in this cautious, eternal season of the covid pandemic to provide some much-needed gaming diversions.

Why We Wargame

 “Explain to our boys in the Army why we are fighting, and the principles for which we are fighting.”

– General George C. Marshall

This week Worthington Publishing is wrapping up a Kickstarter campaign to fund its latest game, Tarawa 1943, a solitaire wargame of the US Marine Corps invasion of that Pacific island during World War II. Although I’m not a huge fan of the war in the Pacific, I was tempted by several factors: it offers me a chance to explore an aspect of WWII I’ve not dabbled in before; Worthington games have high production values; and I enjoy solitaire games. It brings to mind the numerous reasons why I – and presumably others – play historical wargames. These games also remind me of the turbulent times in human history when ordinary people were called (voluntarily or otherwise) to make courageous sacrifices.

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.

Game Conflict: “Man Against Game”

“Man is the unnatural animal, the rebel child of nature, and more and more does he turn himself against the harsh and fitful hand that reared him.”

– H.G. Wells

Wandering through Target’s toy and game section I couldn’t help but spot a surge of new games from Ravensburger, the German board game and puzzle company. Seems like the company recently started acquiring licenses to produce games based on popular media properties: Disney Villainous, Jurassic Park Danger!, a JAWS game, and Horrified, based on the Universal Studios monster movies...even Star Wars and Harry Potter re-skins of the company’s well-established Labyrinth game (not tied to the Labyrinth film). The ones that sparked my interest – JAWS and Jurassic Park – both seemed to offer opportunities for interesting cooperative gameplay, with players controlling the characters and the game rules determining the actions of the shark or dinosaurs. But when I took a closer look at these, it was clear one player ran the antagonists while the rest got stuck trying to survive.

Returning to the Solo Adventure Format

I’m wrapping up one project – finalizing layout and waiting on artwork for a system-neutral, medieval fantasy setting – so I’m starting to look toward the next concept to bring to publication. I have a long, oft-revised list of gaming ideas for development. I prioritize these on a number of qualifications, including their level of development and completion, size of expected complications, ease of acquiring artwork and other graphic elements, and suitability for various gaming markets. But I’m easily diverted from what might seem the next logical project, preferring to channel my immediate enthusiasm for an unexpected, exciting idea rather than slog away at something that doesn’t quite engage me at the moment. Right now I really should be reviewing and polishing material for an Infinite Cathedral Patreon (something I’ve considered for quite some time). So I’m naturally disappearing down the rabbit hole of an entirely unrelated project to capitalize on my immediate interest: a science fiction D6 solo adventure. Where the heck did that come from?

Solitaire Board Games on my Radar

I’ve talked about solitaire roleplaying game adventures and solo wargaming before, but not a whole lot about solitaire board games. Although the common perception places “games” in the realm of activities engaged with groups of people, I feel solitaire gaming across the broad spectrum of the adventure gaming hobby has value, whether to satisfy the urge for an interesting interactive story (“Curling Up with Solitaire Gamebooks”), teaching rules and introducing a setting (“Solitaire RPG Tutorial Adventures”), or any number of other beneficial applications. I’ve often lumped solo board games in with my occasional broad overviews of the state of solitaire gaming: “Celebrating Solitaire Play” and “Solitaire Play Addendum” come to mind. For whatever reason – my introversion, a lack of a stable gaming community, my slowly-increasing misanthropic tendencies – I’m exploring more solo board games these days. It certainly helps that I’m seeing more solitaire offerings in this field on my gaming radar.

Engaging Youth in History (& Games)

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

– Albert Einstein

Getting young adults interested in anything these days seems difficult. They’re distracted by a sometimes-overwhelming amount of schoolwork focused more on scoring well on standardized tests than actually developing learning skills. They’re immersed in the complex social intrigues of school and friends. They’re plugged in to smart phones and tablets (much like a rapidly growing segment of the adult population...). How do parents and teachers tempt them to explore and possibly engage with new experiences? It’s easier when parent gently share and nurture their own interests with their kids – adventure games, comic books, sports, reading, hobbies – but children reach an age where they want to head off on their own...a journey that doesn’t always result in the discovery of some engaging academic or extracurricular interest. I recently explored two resources to help inspire an interest in history (and perhaps even games with historical themes): interactive fiction and speculative fiction

Both forms of fiction inspired many gamers; they certainly informed my own youthful exploration of adventure gaming. Fantasy and science fiction inspired many players to investigate roleplaying games that in turn encouraged further exploration of these genres. The infamous “Appendix N” in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide provided a wealth of such resources to investigate...or even a validation of past works read. Since the earliest emergence of roleplaying games fantasy fiction genres have evolved (much as those games have). Where once readers had only a few flavors of science fiction and fantasy they now can indulge in numerous sub-genre like steampunk, urban fantasy, cyberpunk, and alternate history (among many others).

Halthrag Keep Hits the Solo OSR Spot

Frequent readers know I enjoy solitaire adventures and solo gamebooks; I’m also indulging in a recent enthusiasm for Old School Renaissance (OSR) materials. So Noah Stevens’ PDF of The Hounds of Halthrag Keep naturally tempted me. I downloaded it and started feeding odd characters through its meat-grinder programmed entries; I liked it so much I went ahead and ordered a a print-on-demand copy to add to my growing OSR shelf and solo gamebook collection.

Before I started reading and playing Halthrag Keep I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Sure, I’m always game for a solitaire adventure; that seemed about the only interesting quality about it for me. It was billed as a “funnel” adventure typical of the game whose system it uses, Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC), in which zero-level characters bumble through hideously lethal dungeons (in comparison to their low-level and inadequately equipped selves), with only a few surviving to become somewhat worthier first-level characters. I prefer games where players can craft meaningful characters who, by their very heroic nature, somehow survive adversity. So I’m not usually a fan of “funnels” or generally killing off scores of low level characters. I’d also developed an impression that Halthrag Keep and the Dungeon Crawl Classics game in general blended “gonzo” fantasy with over-the-top sci-fi elements, something I tend to avoid in my fantasy game adventuring.

Despite all this, I enjoyed Halthrag Keep so much that before I’d completed it with my third character I ordered the print-on-demand version.

Making Use of What We Have

As a gamer I keep long lists of games and components I’d like to add to the extensive collection of materials I already possess. But sometimes the urge to run a particular game hits me when I don’t quite have all the appropriate pieces; at these times I rummage through the components I have and “make do” with something close, crafting a new game experience to use what I have on hand. Some recent flea market acquisitions inspired me to take this approach on several levels to create an unexpectedly interesting game experience I’d otherwise never pursue.

A Panzer IV waits just inside the

Bois de Bavent behind the minefield.

The regional miniature wargaming convention I recently attended hosted a Sunday morning flea market where gamers could set up on a table to sell their unwanted wargames, painted miniatures, history books, and other wonderful diversions. An old friend had some zip baggies of various Axis & Allies Miniatures (okay, and some Star Wars capital ships from some Wizards of the Coast game I’d completely missed...that I couldn’t resist). The pre-painted vehicle minis work well with 15mm-scale World War II miniatures games like Flames of War (though I’m sure diehard players would cry heresy!) and my own Panzer Kids, still in the development pipeline and awaiting what time and focus I can pry away from real life. Since Panzer Kids focuses on tanks, I was naturally looking for armor; most vehicles I collected when I was buying into the game’s frustratingly randomized booster packs consisted of German and American tanks, with a scant few British ones.

20 Year-Old Books on Gaming

I recently took a look at two books about games written more than 20 year ago. Heroic Worlds and The Complete Wargames Handbook now provide extremely dated views of the adventure gaming hobby, particularly roleplaying games and traditional board-and-chit wargames (with some digression into the then-nascent computer games). Reading them again not only reminds one of the state of the hobby at their particular time, but how far we’ve come, what’s changed, and what hasn’t.

I acquired each book at different times of my gaming career. I found Heroic Worlds at a local bookstore when it first came out. It proved a solid reference in keeping track of games and supplements I already owned and as a guide giving me a glimpse into games I might want to buy. I recently found The Complete Wargames Handbook at a small wargaming convention’s flea market; it provided an interesting if dated look at the wargaming industry from one of its key creative personalities. Both offer interesting lessons about the adventure gaming hobby over time.

Heroic Worlds

Lawrence Schick’s Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games first appeared in 1991 from Prometheus Books. In the pre-Internet Age it served as a comprehensive and informative catalog of existing roleplaying games at the time. Some who are jaded by today’s Internet Age – where anyone with a computer and an internet connection can upload their own history of roleplaying games, lists of published materials for various games, and interviews with industry luminaries – might find Heroic Worlds rather dated, tame reading, though much of the information remains invaluable today in this handy, analog reference tome.

The 448-page masterpiece serves as an impressive monument to meticulous cataloging of the vast and diverse field of roleplaying games and supplements available at the time. The book features a host of elements that help it stand out as a reference work, even as one limited in its particular time:

Historiography: One of the first chapters offers what may stand as the first, published history of roleplaying games. It includes references to both key personalities and products in the development and advancement of the roleplaying game industry. Various subsections cover roleplaying games in the news, different “waves” of development, and the growth of different genre-based games. Certainly more recent work has covered this territory – and more than 20 years of subsequent development – more thoroughly, but Schick’s arguably remains the first.

Publisher Reference: Heroic Worlds includes an appendix listing all known roleplaying games publishers up to that time, including postal addresses where available, and lists of games each company published. Granted, it’s all woefully out of date today, but provides an interesting picture of the 15 year-old industry. What does it say about the adventure gaming hobby when this early reference work already makes a point of noting “NLA” – “No Longer Active” – after a host of company listings?

Award Listings: Another appendix lists “Award-Winning Games,” including Origins, H.G. Wells, and Charles Roberts Awards through 1990, notable roleplaying games mentioned in Games magazine’s annual list of the top 100 currently available titles, and Schick’s own list of top 10 games in Heroic Worlds (and an interesting top five list of “Appalling RPG Products”). Although more comprehensive and current listings live somewhere on the internet today, they reside at disparate websites; no doubt the list of appalling products has grown exponentially over the years.

Sample Artwork: Although extremely sparse, black-and-white artwork from cataloged projects peppers the tome, providing a small glimpse into various game lines’ graphic styles. Each illustration includes the artist’s name, title of the product in which it appeared, publisher and publication date, and copyright and permission citations.

Genre Summaries: The “Game Index” portion of Heroic Worlds – the bulk of the book – covers roleplaying games across numerous categories...and for each category Schick offers a brief, sometimes more substantive summary of the genre’s qualities and significant game titles contributing to the popular success of the field. Schick also includes his top five recommendations in each category. (Solo game aficionados might take interest that Schick deemed “Solo Gamebooks” a valid category.)

Insider Insight: Readers find short essays by industry luminaries scattered across the catalog listings. Most discuss the design behind particular game systems or general approaches to roleplaying game writing. The list of contributors looks impressive: Dave Arneson, Greg Gorden, Gary Gygax, Steve Jackson, Tom Moldvay, Sandy Petersen, Ken St. Andre, Michael A. Stackpole, Greg Stafford, and a host of others who aren’t “household” names but whose contributions to the adventure gaming hobby remain essential. These first-hand accounts remain essential to those seeking primary sources on the earliest days of roleplaying games, especially from luminaries who have since passed away.

Catalog Information: By far Heroic Worlds’ most impressive accomplishment remains its catalog listing of what seems like every roleplaying game product ever published through 1990. Entries include valuable publication reference information like authors, cover artists, interior artists, format, page count, publisher name, and publication date. Schick includes brief summaries of each product, expanding on the subject and contents, and occasionally including his own opinions...all contributing to small, insightful tidbits on nearly every item cataloged.

Author Lawrence Schick remains one of the key personalities of the roleplaying game industry’s early days – giving him an excellent perspective to assemble the catalog and contact fellow luminaries for the insights he included in Heroic Worlds – though he’s not as well-known as many others with more recognizable names. He served as head of design and development at TSR in the early 1980s (what I frequently call “The Golden Age of Roleplaying”) and was responsible for hiring such luminaries as Tom Moldvay and Dave Cook. His greatest claim to fame comes from designing the infamous Advanced Dungeons & Dragons module S2 White Plume Mountain. Like many of his fellow game designers of the period he later moved into the electronic gaming industry, including game-related work with America Online (AOL).

What can readers learn from Heroic Worlds today?

* Compiling a comprehensive catalog of every available product – complete with accurate author and product information – even back before the boom in roleplaying games during the 1990s was a Herculean task, and might prove daunting even with today’s technology.

* The internet helps find game information. In its time Heroic Worlds served as a great resource for gamers and collectors, documenting the products published to date with enough information to give customers an idea whether a game supplement was worth pursuing. Today publisher websites, game forums, and reviews help gamers make these decisions.

* A sense of wonder still comes from reading about early roleplaying game developments from the people who pioneered them.

* Even back then, in the early days of roleplaying games, companies and games came and went.

* Heroic Worlds offers an interesting perspective about the exponential growth of games (a subject I’ve discussed before); if all the game products published in the first 15 years of the roleplaying game industry could fill a 448-page book, how many pages could the games published in the hobby’s first 40 years fill?

The Complete Wargames Handbook

I’ve dabbled in wargames – both the board-and-chit as well as the miniatures varieties – for years, but never to the same degree as roleplaying games. But when I found a copy of James Dunnigan’s The Complete Wargames Handbook: How to Play, Design & Find Them (revised edition) at a recent convention flea market, I grabbed it to add to a small but growing collection of non-fiction books about gaming (my “academic” gaming bookshelf). Published in1992, it’s a contemporary volume to Heroic Worlds for a different aspect of the adventure gaming hobby...arguably one that’s been around for a little longer than roleplaying games.

The Complete Wargames Handbook offers a broad overview of the board-and-chit wargaming hobby, with a number of specific insights from the author’s involvement as founder of Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI), publisher of Strategy & Tactics magazine, and a prolific writer and game designer. Chapters cover such diverse subjects as “What Is A Wargame?” “How to Play,” why people play wargames, designing wargames, their history (up to the date of publication), a look at player demographics, computer wargames, and “Wargames at War.” Most chapters offer information useful to both players and designers. Dunnigan’s style remains conversational and easily digestible, as if he’s having a casual conversation with readers about wargames. He also demonstrates many concepts he discusses through a small wargame included within the book itself: The Drive on Metz: September 1944. Dunnigan devotes about a third of the book to computer wargames, though the lessons applied there derive from and inform development of analog board-and-chit wargames.

Dunnigan offers several insider revelations garnered from his years in wargame publishing and consumer surveys conducted through Strategy & Tactics magazine:

Rules Master: While discussing designing a wargame, Dunnigan reveals how at SPI they maintained a “rules master” file on computer with the core text of rules one could easily customize and modify for the current game. He attributes the practice to Avalon Hill’s Tom Shaw whom he once asked how to start writing the rules to a game. “It’s simple. You simply take the last game we published and use it as a model.” Many wargames using basic core concepts in the style of the one he provides in the book could easily fit into that mold, with existing rules updated and amended for the combatants, terrain, and period; but this technique would hardly suffice at all for today’s complex card, board, and roleplaying game rules.

Guidance: Dunnigan’s “Designing Wargames” chapter contains his 10 steps or guidelines to designing a wargame, each demonstrated using The Drive on Metz as an example. His advice includes “Keep It Simple” and “Plagiarize,” as he states, “a dramatic way of saying ‘Use available techniques’” (as demonstrated in his use of the “rules master”).

Solitaire Play: After having conducted numerous surveys from Strategy & Tactics readers, Dunnigan claims solitaire play is the preferred play style for wargamers:

“Playing wargames solitaire is by far the favorite mode for most wargamers. The most common reasons for playing solitaire are lack of an opponent or preference to play without an opponent, so that the player may exercise his own ideas about how either side in the game should be played without interference from another player.... For those players who do like to play with opponents, solitaire play is valued as a means of perfecting tactics and techniques in a particular game that will enhance the chances of success.”

Solo gamers across the adventure gaming hobby sometimes feel odd about playing multi-player games on their own. Dunnigan provides logical justification for solitaire gaming, both as a prelude to play against live opponents and as a purely solitary activity in the enjoyment of games (and study of history).

Historiography: Dunnigan offers an insider’s perspective on both the history of wargames and the challenges that plagued what at times has seemed like an ailing hobby. He also includes a list of “current” wargame publishers and magazines at the time, many of which no longer exist.

James Dunnigan is one of the luminaries of the wargaming industry. Besides his work with SPI and Strategy & Tactics he’s been inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame, written numerous books on military subjects, and designed an impressive host of games. BoardGameGeek.com called him “One of the most important figures in the history of wargaming.”

Readers can still learn a great deal from The Complete Wargames Handbook today. Dunnigan’s guidance in designing games – whether or not one uses the “rules master” technique – remains helpful, particularly toward those with “unpublished games” (as he says, “I deliberately refrain from calling them ‘amateur’ because I am consistently impressed by the quality of unpublished games compared to many of those that are published”). The Drive on Metz itself proves an easy introduction to board-and-chit wargaming. Unfortunately this aspect of the adventure gaming hobby has continued its decline, with a few notable surges, in the face of other far more successful and visible aspects like collectible card games, roleplaying games, and even historical miniatures wargames.

Alas, both Heroic Worlds and The Complete Wargames Handbook remain out of print and the realm of second-hand book dealers. James Dunnigan has made the text of his book available for free reading online. I am glad to own paper copies of both volumes, for they help fill out a slowly growing shelf holding books about games to better inform my meager game design efforts.

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