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  • in reply to: What is a narrative wargame? #158834
    Avatar photoFred B
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    @Mike: The OSR (Old School Renaissance) is a movement in RPG that goes back to the roots of the hobby. Originally it was people making new materials for the old versions of D&D (including rewriting/reorganizing those old rules in new, more accessible ways), but it moved beyond that. Nowadays something doesn’t have to strictly adhere to OD&D mechanics or even its tropes to be considered OSR. New mechanics and settings can be OSR, as long as they keep the spirit of it. So we are talking light on rules, but heavy on rulings (GM making calls how to tackle current issue on the fly), pretty low powered characters (so players are forced to think inside the game world/narrative to find solutions VS looking at their character sheet for powers that will solve the issue for them) and general sense of adventure and exploration. When many new systems are “digital” (you need to have X skill/power/whatever to do Y), OSR games are more analogue (as long as you find a clever approach, you can do Y). Maze Rats (by Ben Milton) is a short and sweet OSR game that is a great example showing what OSR is about.

    But, here’s the kicker.

    It doesn’t *really* matter what the definition of OSR is. Because it’s a new term, you get am idea of what I am talking about even if you don’t know exactly what it is. What’s more important, you can ask and research it much easier. Sure, some details will differ between sources, but all will agree on what the “spirit” or “feel” of OSR is. This is what I would love to have for narrative wargaming.

    …but, as Martin says, it might be hard to achieve a consensus in wargaming world ๐Ÿ™‚

    in reply to: What is a narrative wargame? #158803
    Avatar photoFred B
    Participant

    New user (and wargamer!), so take this as you will, but I am coming with a kind of outsider perspective (I come from artsy-fartsy indie RPGs, just getting into wargames, especially *narrative* solo wargames).

    I am trying to get into wargames by means other than the big established games and doing my own research and I am finding the hobby jargon is really imprecise. From what I’ve seen there isn’t a clear consensus of what a “skirmish” game is (to some it’s each players only having few minis, to others, it’s not about the mini count, but that each figure = 1 man, and you can run skirmishes with dozens of men a side). This, of course, is not an issue unique to wargames, it happens with most decentralized topics. However, it is much more noticeable to someone like me who is trying to get started and understand enough to navigate this new world.

    Because of that we end up with almost as many definitions of a narrative wargame as there are narrative wargamers; just read through the topic to see how the opinions differ. After 5 years of posts we are nowhere close to consensus. I think the problem here is the nomenclature: we are using a term that is already “loaded” with meaning in peoples’ minds. This is why I really like what Chris has done with Matrix Games – a completely new term, no questions about what you mean. Similar practice can be found within RPG (which had its own narrative game boom), terms like storygame, OSR and FKR were created to clarify what kind of game we are talking about. I think it would be really helpful to have a term like that in wargames.

    After all, any game can create a narrative experience and even the most complex simulation is able to tell a story – I don’t think anyone is arguing against that. Maybe we should find a term for only those games where the story is the end goal and go from there?

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