"Passion for ROLE-PLAYING vs 'WARGAMING'" Topic

Wow, "Kill and keep" house rules that aren't explained to the new guy? Very poor form, and the "You'll never work in this town again" threat is just piles of immaturity on top of general idiocy. I'm glad you left and never went back, that's the response they deserved. That, and the pinkie twist. :)

Kinda reminds me of a game I played in college, although your example is far more extreme. Several friends and I had decided to pick up Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and one of my friends ran into a few people who played the future version. Warhammer 40k, I guess. Six of us met at one of their homes for a game, I and two friends and three of the 40k players. The game board they had was huge, and the battle they wanted to play was also huge. We didn't care much, we were there to learn the game and have a good time. After about 2 hours of set up and 2 more running the first two turns, things went horribly wrong. Hidden psionic cyclist units scattered all along their front dashed up to our approaching front and set off huge AOE psionic blasts. One of our hosts couldn't contain his excitement over the spanking we were being given and gibbered like an idiot with his fingers stuffed into his mouth. The lead guy on their side explained that these were units published in a White Dwarf magazine. This was my introduction to the GW sales philosophy of printing superior units in their house organ magazine to entice players to subscribe or be beaten by the unit power escalation which carries on for about 2 years before GW resets the cycle by publishing a new version of the game.

After they finished their attack I and my two friends declared them the victors (this was not sour grapes, our side was largely wiped out in by the psionic attacks), thanked them for the game, and left never to return. 4 hours of play just to set up an unbeatable ambush was just not the kind of gaming we were interested in.

We played many games of WHFB amongst ourselves and a few others after that, but always refused to allow any units not printed in the original game.

DWW,

Like most of us here, I have encountered bad gaming groups – but nothing like the bullies who introduced you to their "Win then Steal" SFB game. Rules lawyers, tournament nutsos, and even some Magic/Pokemon players will generally be on their best behavior with new players. Even drug dealers know that you won't hook new users if you don't give the first one away for free.

One of the nice things about living in a major metropolitan area is that there are other groups of gamers available if I don't like the personalities in one – although I might have to change what I play to change who I play with.

Luckily, I play a wide range of different games, and types of games.

I still dabble in the occasional RPG (and a have a nice CoC collection, plus Trail of Cthulhu), board wargame, or miniatures wargame (and still collect convert, and occasionally even paint miniatures), but have been spending most of my recent gaming time playing boardgames.

The reason for this is that I have decided that gaming is my social hobby, and the main point of any game is to play it with people that I enjoy being with. It is generally easier to find people to show up to play a game that is over in a few hours, and doesn't require them to do any real prep-work (like generating a character or collecting an army).

When I play minis games, they tend to be multiplayer battles, so that I can enjoy the companionship of the other players.

When I play RPGs, they tend to be "one-off" or "serial" style games, where it won't matter if some of the party can't make it to the next session.

In addition to my gaming friends that I meet over a table, I have an increasing number of friends that I meet through gaming forums, such as this one. These are people that I share knowledge, thoughts and ideas with, learn from, argue with, and generally get to know in their virtually personae. Oddly, I sometimes feel like I know these people better than some of those that I game with face to face every week.

I hope that you continue to find joy in this hobby, and wish you luck in finding your ideal Call of Cthulhu game.

It's a shame that some people don't understand that wargames are not war. When I fight, I fight to win. When I play, I play to have fun.

– Joe

Well, I'm susrpised that having played with those horrible petty people, you persevered, but good for you!

I hate that sort of attitude with games, where the people playing forget it is a game. People playing with fixed dice, people playing 'keepsies', people insist you buy and paint £400.00 GBP worth of miniatures before you play a game… people who basically lack imagination. Avoid these people, they are wrong-uns!

I like Skirmish games, but my real love is RPG, I'm currently trying to do something somewhere between the two. Even skirmish games have to have a story for me. I want to be invovled, take part in a story. Not talk about points all day and crush someone's army and then gloat about it. Then again, I think people shouldn't go too far the other way, and remember even rpg's are games.

A good game is one where even those on the losing side had a great time.

The trick is to find a really good group and ultimately, good friends. It's not easy, but if you do, then you can really fulfill the potential for fun.

I've struggled over the years, and believe me, finding like-minded, intelligent fun people is the key.

Keep looking, try games with people you meet on a small scale and then build on what you have.

Good luck!

Paul.

I started with good old Tractics -- TSRs WW2 wargame. Complex but fun, once you got the hang of it. I fell for D&D the same year.

I still play RPGs and an occasional wargame. RPGs have gone downhill since they have become so rule heavy. D&D 3 and 3.5 pretty much took a fun and imagination out of the hobby and made it into an overly complex skirmish wargame. D&D 4 is no better. $35 USD a book, they are dreaming if they think I'll waste that much cash on an inferior rule system. If you want to play a good skirmish wargame I suggest the original chainmail -- the silver book.

Give me CoC, LBB(little black book)Traveller and Basic or Old D&D any day. They had rules issues but every reasonable player knew to work with the DM and sort it out. Now we have a bunch of nagging rules lawers pretending to roleplay, which is the fast way to spoil a game. Simplify the rules, play and have fun I say.

I like fast and bloody wargames now, AK47 republic (Extremely bloody and chaotic), DBA, HOTT, Wings of War(try it, you will love it), Original Squad Leader in Miniature, Johnny Reb 3 (except for the charging rules which get tedious) -- Reasonably simple, fast and brutal.

When I wargame I like campaigns. One off battles are nice to get to know the rules. The problem with being a campaign player is trying to find wargamers interested in the same periods and willing to spend their weekends playing basically the same rules.

In addition some gamers, war and RPG, have problems with loosing, getting killed by a demon or watching their elite SS battalion get overrun by by a Soviet horde. They stop showing up because they got stomped and couldn't take it. Bunch of little girls crying over a chipped tea set.

Oh well, sorry about the rambling, just kevetching. I'm starting to get old and crotchety. Dang whipper-snappers!!

Keith

I started out with wargaming, and I do enjoy it, but I've not had a regular group to play against, or the local club clashes with other interests. However, over the last few years with a friend from work I got back into roleplaying and we play once a fortnight – 2 players, 1 gm. In between times I do feel like I am trying to go cold turkey, as it's the interaction whilst being part of a story as DWW talks about. Mind you, a good campaign with a good group of wargamers, and the right game/period/rules can generate the same thing too.