Inspiration from Adventure Gaming Magazine

 “I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.”

— Hermann Hesse

As much as I have rambled on over the years about missing print magazines like TSR’s Dragon, that periodical was not the very first adventure gaming hobby magazine to which I was exposed. Way back in 1982 I’d just finished eighth grade in junior high school. A few months earlier I’d received the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set as an Easter present and immersed myself in the game. But now school was out for the summer. I took my hoarded allowance and biked down to the Branchville Hobby Shop to purchase the D&D Expert Set to fuel my summertime gaming exploits. After I paid, the clerk tossed an old issue of Adventure Gaming magazine into the bag. My first experience with a print gaming magazine was purely by chance, a “wandering monster” kind of encounter that gave me a new avenue through which to explore the hobby...one that started me down a road into writing and publishing.

Remembering Al Leonardi

 “A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Al Leonardi, from his interview
in Adventure Gaming #4, Oct. 1981,
a few years before I met him.

Last week we learned Alfred Leonardi passed away on July 12, 2025. He was a history teacher who used games to engage his students, yet among gamers is perhaps best known for his innovative “combat picture book games” like Ace of Aces and the Lost Worlds series. Leonardi’s obituary celebrates a man who loved teaching, loved games, and loved bringing history to life through games. He reminds me how a passion for teaching and learning can manifest itself through games to both entertain and educate. I met him back in 1985 at my first-ever game convention. Leonardi took the time to talk with a socially awkward teenager who exhibited near-uncontained exuberance for the adventure gaming hobby at the time. I only met him that once, far too briefly, yet in his own way Leonardi’s enthusiasm lurked in the back of my years of hobby activity. His dedication to games and education has been lurking in my subconscious ever since, quietly reminding me that using games remains an entertaining and effective method for learning.

Games in Magazines

 “Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.”

— Marcus Aurelius

On a recent trip to the local used book store I found several issues of Game Fix magazine, a slim wargaming periodical published in the mid 1990s. Every cover sported a banner declaring “Complete Game Included!” And indeed every issue contained a wargame, many hex-and-chit-style games, but some including card sheets to cut apart. Nothing huge like the old Avalon Hill bookcase games, but satisfying morsels on a variety of historical topics. They reminded me both of the much-lamented heyday of gaming magazines in the late 20th century as well as the early practice of including scenarios and games in those publications. Both trends have since disappeared in the electronic onslaught of the 21st century’s Internet Age — with a deluge of similar material currently available for free online, if you know where to find it — but my wistful nostalgia still pines for those days...and celebrates when I find artifacts of that lost gaming culture.

Museum Gift Shop Games

 “Many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased.”

— John Steinbeck

At the NASM in 2023 with my
favorite Grumman G-21 Gooose.

Summertime in our family always means trips to museums and historical sites. My parents frequently tried to expand our horizons and engage our interests on day trips and week-long vacations. As a parent myself I’ve tried to nurture curiosity in my son with similar excursions as best we’re able, notably weekly day trips during the summer months. Our visits often end in the gift shop seeking some souvenir of our experience...or more often books and other materials to help us explore a topic on our own at home. Related games, however, remain extremely rare finds in gift shops. Although I know other places to look to find games exploring topics found at museums and historical sites, other people might benefit from easy, affordable ludic introductions in expanding their horizons.*

Revisiting the Battle of Ridgefield

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

— General William Howe

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

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

Gaming Great Bridge II: Battle into Game

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

— Johan Huizinga

My whiteboard notes on the battle.

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

Sources

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

Advice & Inspiration for Gaming Andor

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

— Nemik’s Manifesto

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