Reply To: What is a narrative wargame?

[Chris Engle]

Jonathan was right, there are some interesting people on this forum!

 

Sam: Great to hear from you! I came across my copy of your tank game last week – Battle Line? I really need to clean more often. As to your question.

 

I don’t think these kinds of games are good at teaching players about a period. They really need to know about it before starting. At least read a Sharpe novel before playing Napoleonics – but no need to read War and Peace (I haven’t). Fortunately most games come with a rich knowledge of periods. We could argue that most of what they know is wrong but they know enough to string together something coherent.

I think new players would do better in a non-historical game. I’m really interested in doing Sci Fi games (which will likely be hidden Vietnam war scenarios) with aliens. I want the players to get a “We really shouldn’t be here” vibe. If new players have seen a Sci Fi movie they know enough to play – loud booms, flashing lasers, soldiers falling down, argh. These games are not serious so people making up foolish stuff is not a problem.

Also I don’t see this as a style of play that will appeal broadly. It is not a test of tactical skill and the crunchy bits are non-existent. It is more of an experiment to show how war games can be run in a completely different way. They work and are fun but it is a different kind of fun.

 

Curiously the game is easier to teach to newbies because they don’t have the assumptions experienced gamers have. But it really isn’t hard to get experienced gamers to learn how to play. I just jump straight into play and teach the rules as I go. There aren’t many so it doesn’t take long. I guess that the games are not satisfying to players wanting a crunchy game. I remember reading Paddy Griffith’s explanation of the Mugger Game – that regular gamers felt they had been mugged and not gotten a real game. This is just a variant of that. The difference being that the dialog between players is all about the narrative, where as in a Mugger Game you discuss rules to handle situations (or at least that is what we did in the Mugger Game Howard Whitehouse ran that I played in).

 

I’m presently working on making Matrix game books to sell through stores. Each book allows for a lot of different games – sort of a mix and match scenario builder. One book per genre. First up Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraft’s Cthulhu horror stories. Later on I’ll do a Nazi spy one, Sci Fi, Pulp action, maybe a political intrigue one, and a D+D like fantasy town game. Oh, and a war game, but I don’t see that having a big audience. After I’m done with these I’ll just run games and push those products. I’m really satisfied with this game. I’m hoping I can be done with the infinite re-writing of rules that has been the last 15 years.

The books should be cool. I’m a decent book binder now so I can smyth sew them in house. They will be a pocket size book so I can print them B/W on a laser printer. Very inexpensive to make and when I put them in a hard case, should last for 50 to 100 years. Think I can make them for less that a dollar a unit. I’m excited!