"Who is OSchmidt?" Topic

I've come across a lot of threads recently where OSchmidt contributes. At various times he claims to be a game designer and a prolific contributor to US based Wargames magazines. He certainly seems certain of his own abilities and the contribution he has made to the hobby.

My problem is that I can't find anything online about OSchmidt. If I search for his name and wargaming I don't get very much. If I search for Rick Priestly or a Richard Clarke who are UK based rule designers and magazine contributors I get pages and pages of response from Google. Is that Google being anti American?

Can anyone tell me what OSchmidt has actually produced or done? I am intrigued.

Perhaps he has valid reasons for a certain level on anonymity and I won't violate that. However, having one of his games at hand, he is a game designer. Can't speak to his participation with well known magazines but I have seen some of his writing (which might benefit from editing) but what I've seen is focused on fun and his own smaller clique of gaming friends so I'm okay with it.

And I can speak to him being a remarkably fresh breath of air in a hobby that was once almost entirely about friends sharing with very few businesses that is rapidly being consumed by an avalanching variety of businesses with questionable purpose. Though they have every right to exist and lose money, or maybe even make it, depending on the support they find within the hobby. But the hobby has changed and not always for the better. OS fights the good fight on the other side of the chasm and gives freely of what he creates – but at some expense to himself (more than many of the remarkably miserly multitude in this hobby would ever even give remote consideration to doing, let alone actually doing it – though being tinged with some optimism, I always hope for better, like those raising money for worthy charities).

So, while I may take exception to some of his stridency, I can assure you he deserves to have his voice in the great mix of discussion that is a part of this hobby. And, I, for one, am glad he is willing to raise it.

I find his condemnation of what he feels is "the wrong way to play wargames" very annoying.
His sneering at tournament players or points, for example.
Is intolerance of people who do not play with toy folders in his approved manner "fighting the good fight"?

Is this the first hagiography on this site?

O'Schmidt
probably a son of a German agent in Ireland.

Otto Schmidt is one of the old names in the American gaming scene. He wrote and contributed often to the old Courier magazine.

And he is one of the stalwarts of the Society of Daisy.

link

TMP link

Jim

Dear Tin Soldier man.

The name is Otto Schmidt.

Sorry my e-profile is non existant. I carefully avoid it.

I design many many games, but I don't publish them simply because I give them away. Designing games is the easy part, pushing them through the publishing process is hideously expensive and not likely to to produce much profit.

Most recently I developed a set of rules for very ancient warfare called "Honey I Sacraficed the Kids" I also designed rules for Between the Wars to early world war two called "The Shattered Century."
Perhaps the most well known is my OGABAS rules system which Is short for "Oh God Anything but a six." This is for the 18th century with differing versions for the seventeenth, sixteenth, fifteenth, and fourteenth.

I am the owner of the Society of Daisy, a Yahoo group dedicated to the promotion of humor and whimsy in the hobby, but also for the promotion of friendship and kameraderie in the hobby. I also publish a quarterly newsletter for the society devoted to the groups themes, called Saxe N'Violets, which is just completing two years of issues on implementing, designing, and creating and sustaining Imagi-Nations and humor in the hobby.

I also am the runner and chief cook and bottle washer and errand boy for "The Weekend" a convention held in late June of each year in Lancaster PA. it is a small convention but very high quality in the names and numbers of game designers and game masters from the major conventions. The games are always big extravaganzas, new designs, and quite creative. For example in the last year we had a full blown playtest of a new style of WWII naval game, my own ancient game above, and one GM, Mike Lorenzo, a prolific collector of Seven Years War troops who sues "Black Powder" put on a game called --- wait for it-- "Frederick the Great Invades Candyland" in which he used the Candyland board with his seven years War armies on it, along with gum-drop mountains, candy-cane and lollypop forests, a gingerbread castle, and gingerbread men.

Persons who are challenged in their sense of humor are advised to keep their distance.

My publishing career now is largely restricted to my newsletter, but back in the 70's to 90's I wrote dozens of articles for various game magazines, including Jack Scruby's Table Top Talk way back in the 60's The Avalon Hill General, The Historical Gamer, the Courier, HMGS journal, PW review, and others. Also did some work for regular scholarly journals, but we don't talk about that part of my life. Probably oh 80 articles or so I forget-- I'm getting old.

I also created a booklet as sort of an "omage" to Jack Scruby called " All about WArgames" which is a guide for clubs to hand out to newbies who hadn't heard about war games till fifteen minutes ago.This was used by some clubs, including the one I was involved in at the time when they had "open houses" as required by the town for using their facilities.

Oh yeah, I also was on the organizing team for TriaDCon back in the 0's which was a convention in Baltimore trying to unite board Games, War Games, and Role playing games again. That didn't work out. The miniature gamers did all the work and the board gamers got to play.

All of my publication of articles were back in the pre-internet era of the 90's and so not available on the net. The rules I do today I don't publish electronically or try and sell them. I give them away. I can't see how anyone can make money in war games today and so I put my money into real-estate which I did nicely in. This allows me to put some money back into the hobby, pay for postage for the conventions etc.

In other things, I also back in the 70's and 80's did three play by mail games for profit (very little of that by the way) which were Clustron, Bron, and Baroque. These all were pbm games with computer management programs. I wrote the code.

I also have been a vehement and fervent advocate of IWG's which are "International War Games" This is a game where each player is the head of a country and engages in trade, war, diplomacy, marriage alliances, blah blah blah, all that wonderful stuff. I have played in four of them and put on about ten over the Years. The Last one was on a full map (about 6 x 8 ft) in full color. Some of these were quite successful some not. It all depends on the mix of players. I am presently building another. What the heck, I'm 60, white, no kids, I don'thave a life so what else am I goign to do with my time.

I have been a regular GM at the Historicon and several other conventions, but that's just gaming.

In the issues of Saxe N' Violets two years ago we finished two years of issues which each had a board game in it which either was an expansion of an existing AH Board game or a new game entirely like "SPACE BABES" a game of war in interstellar space and empire building in a universe inhabited by all the denizens of the fantastically BAD sci-FI "B" movies of the 50's and 60's. Later that year we did another version called "LACE BABES" about the 18th century which featured not armies and conquests, but mistress' wives, -kissers, toadies, favorites, and backstairs gossips. You know, the REAL forces of history.

Let's see, have I left anything out? Ummm, no not really, those are the highlights, the rest is uninteresting.

Now, on to me as a person.

I will be quite frank with you.

I am arrogant, condescending, a snob, patronizing, highly educated, sometimes rude, crude, and lewd, and at my age I do not suffer fools at all let along gladly. I've been in Industrial management now for 45 years and had a snootful of it and I have at my age developed a fine sense of "Deja-Moo" which means "I've heard this bullkrap before." I presently am director of planning for an electronics industry making television broadcasting equipment. I
'd rather be playing wargames or designing games. It's much more rewarding. But I am not a nice person. I am quite tolerant and friendly with people who do things, but for those who do not live up to commitments I am not. But On the other hand I can sympathize and empathize with how people think and so long as they aren't doing anything dangerous I'm ok with it.

Politically I am a far right winger, and think the tea-party is too liberal but on the other hand I hold several beliefs that are far left as well. I am, in short, after several advanced degrees an intellectual who can justify anything. I operate on the principle enunciated by the carpenter from Galilee who said that we should judge people not by their words but by their deeds. "By their fruits ye shall know them, for a good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces only bad fruit and is fit only to be torn out by the roots and burned."

That's about it, I don't tell you my good side, anyone can do that. You have to discover that on your own and make your own assessment.

If there's anything I can do for you, send you copies of rules, campaign systems.. just write to me at

sigurd@eclipse.net

and give me your postal delivery address. I don't mind if it's in England.

Don't worry about postage, just do something nice for someone else in the hobby and that's repayment enough.

Let me know if you're interested in hearing more about "The Weekend Convention" I'm always flogging that. We publish a 48 page full color after-action report giving battle reports of each game we held (usually about a dozen) and the other activities (kickoff-dinner, MST2000, Modeling and Painting Contests. We do this instead of a pre-con booklet simply because we don't see the point of spending money on a publication that's valueless the day of the convention,

Oh yeah, I forgot I am also putting the finishing touches to a campaign system I designed. It allows very complex games with no record keeping.

By the way, everything any of my critics and detractors say about me is true. If you want more and worse just ask.

Oh yeah, I am a fan of classical music and besotted with Opera and get all my scenarios from the plots of grand opera.

Otto

PS dear Winston. I don't like tournaments and never play them and I do not think there is a "wrong way to play wargames." There are different ways to play wargames. I don't like some of them. I can't hate tournaments, I simply ignore them. I also never say they have to play games in the way I determine.

I'm like Prince Orlofsky.

Otto

Well, I think he fairly well introduced himself to the unknowing.

I can testify that I have received a hardcopy of "Oh God Anything but a six." from Otto, so I know there's a real person behind this account, and it's not just a chatbot :-)

Dear Phil

Want a copy of "Honey I sacrificed the kids?"

Otto

Its true he does run "The Weekend". He sent me a ton of stuff and at the last minute I couldn't attend due to a family loss. So I am sure he is real.

Thanks Otto for your post.
I too have see quite a number of your posts and wondered where you are and whom you've gamed with.
You have a good knowledge of Napoleonics which I'm busy painting at the moment.

I would like to get a copy of "Honey I sacrificed the kids" for our group, The White Rock Gamers. We play every Thursday, with 9 core members and 4 casual.

I'll send you an e-mail with my address and information.
Thanks.

Dear Wrgmr1

Thanks for the kind words. I reside in North Western NJ. I have games most of my life with a group of friends that gathers at my home or other games homes. I occasionally play with clubs but they usually don't last and break up. I have played in game stores but they go out of business too regularly. I guess it's me.

Anyway One correction. I have a poor knowledge of Napoleonics. It ONCE was my period but I don't keep up with it. Now I'm mostly in the 18th century but my "Oh God! Anything but a six can be used for it. My area of study was the Renaissance to the 18th century. Good luck on your painting.

As to people I game with they are

Mike Lorenzo
Peter Frechtling
George Deppner
Harrison Deppner
Sean Thorne
Col.Bill Gray (comes to the Weekend)
John Desmond
Ralph Krebs
Russell Etts
George Garifo
Gil Bates
Michael Bates
Mark Dawkins
Bob & Cleo Liebl
Todd Raffensperger
Bill Molyneaux
Eric Turner
Gary Landowski
Gary Richards

Oh yeah Bill Protz and Jim Purky and Bill Biles have met me. Also Pat Condray and Bob Giglio and Bob Coggins.

Lots of others. I don't know their names on TMP or even if they are on TMP but they've seen me, touched me, saw my image in a mirror, so I am real.

Weather I'm for real you will have to decide.

Pleased to send it out.

Otto

Dear List

Oh yes, Andy Turlington, Jim McWee, Walt O'Hara and Howeard Whitehous knows me and also Dennis Shorthouse of "Military Maters knows me as does Rick Massie and Dave Doty of Dayton Paintint Consortium. Art Fosse of Aide De Camp Books knows me and HEY ART! IF YOU'RE LISTENING, WHERE ARE THE BOOKS I ORDERED!

oTTO

That was a most impressive throw down. 10/10 for the ancient grognard.

Well hello Otto. Nice to meet you.

Hey Jcfrog you beshdad ; you beat me to it but wow does he talk a mean resume, hehe.

Hey Zargon,

the man asked.

Oschmidt is one if the reasons i check regularly this Site.

Greetings

Dear Rudi

Thank you very much, that's very kind of you!

Thanks

Otto

Dear TMP

You know, I have to say one thing here. I really don't understand the big deal or even the original question. My achievements aren't that special or out of the ordinary, Many, many more people have done much more and what I've done if you put it all in a pile doesn't even come close to what the greats of this hobby have done, Don Featherstone, Joe Moreschauser, Jack Scruby, Peter Young, Charles Grant, Wally Simon, Pat Condray, and a host of others too numerous to name.

But even then, each and every one of you can no doubt compile an equal resume of achievements in the rules you've written, the games you've put on, the sacrifices you've made for your fellow gamer, the good times you've been a part of . Each and everyone of you is a game designer, and each and every one of you has written stuff. Maybe it's not published, maybe it's not in a magazine somewhere. but it's written down! And you've all made collections, built terrain, entertained your friends. No doubt many of you have brought people into the hobby, advertised the hobby, spent money on others in the hobby. What I did is nothing special, no more than any of you.

I tell you one thing that really bothers me, and years ago I tried to interest the HMGS in this. It all began with the death of a wargame friend who I knew who was a far better gamer than I (MUCH better painter) and when he died all of his archives, all of his papers, all of his ideas and scenarios and games were tossed out. I dearly wish we could have saved those. What treasures that he must have had that, being just paper and print can be recorded, transferred, and read by many who might be able to glean some useful ideas from that. I always think of this when I look back at my old copies of Don Featherstone's War Games Annual and his newsletters. Many of them were clunky dumb little simple ideas, but they can be adapted developed, etc. I think of what battle reports were lost, what humor, what good times and the record of the same were forgotten.

You all do the same, you all have treasure troves of ideas and games that you've done and are no different. All of you in each and every way contribute to this hobby, maybe in different ways, maybe in ways that people can't see, but you all do. All of us are precious to the hobby and should be to each other. These archives and troves are positive proof of your achievements.

I have to tell you of another friend. Terry Manton was a game designer to put any to shame. He was a naval gamer and an expert not only on that, but on land warfare as well. He was a great guy, and a great friend, and he did wonderful work on games, and he BUILT!!! Built!! his own ship models out of balsa and basswood, wire and tape and paint and dowels and bits of card in 1:1200 and they were PERFECT! Better than anything you can buy commercially, and they were beautiful. He also was an award winning designer of lamps and home furnishings. He was a great guy, a great friend, a great gamer, a tremendous scorch, one of the funniest guys I ever knew, and a great father and husband. Oh yeah, he did pro-wrestling too!

Well 10 yeas ago he came over for a game, we played Cape Matapan, and we had the time of our lives. It was great.

The next weekend he died of a massive heart attack in his car. He never new what hit him and he didn't have any heart problems he knew of.

Well-- there it is! AsEmperor Joseph was wont to say.

Life is a series of meetings and partings and we are too late come amongst each other and too soon called out from our company. Terry had great accomplishments, published rules and was a great guy. But all of can say the same. The sad thing about Terry is all his records and files were lost when his wife threw them out.

We are all game designers, we HAVE TO BE! We deal in historical miniatures which means we are not like the board gamers who simply dump out the box and have a game. We have miniatures, we have terrain, we have rules, but it is up to us each and every one of us to put them together into a fun event. No one can dump the minis and terrain on the table top and get a game. We all have to design it, and so being a game designer is neither that hard.

You all do exactly the same thing.

There are no "big-names in wargames", this is an anarchistic and sometimes anti-social hobby, but it's in the end just a bunch of guys sitting around a table, having fun and playing a game, and if you rummaged around his archives you'd find out that he's a lot more than meets the eye.

Otto

He left out that if you have a question that he has the answer you might get a very quick response to your liking.

What an interesting thread…

Otto's one of the good guys on TMP. Manys a time I've opened a thread looking for some information, and if he was able to help he would always post a helpful reply.

I admit I didn't know the amount of effort he puts into this hobby, but if his rules are injecting some humour into a pastime that seems to lose a little with each set of new rules that hits the market, then more power to the man!

Dear respondants

Thank you all for the kind words, I am very flattered. The hobby is supposed to be about friendship and fun and helping each other. Thank you again.

Otto

If there's still anyone doubting, I have known Otto for
years and shared good Port with him at a number of
cons, albeit not for a decade or so.

Otto, an oversight I'm sure, but you didn't list as
gaming comrades the wonderfully wacky crew who brought
us 'A Knight To Dismember' and other wonderfully enjoyable
sets (Bruce, Bill, Charles, etc.).

I hope that it's not because those witty and creative
guys are no longer with us…

Can anyone tell me what OSchmidt has actually produced or done? I am intrigued

Let see…..

1) He organizes the Weekend.
2) Offers himself as a friend.
3) Creates wonderful games that people enjoy.

Hopefully that sums it up :)

I like to know more about the contributors here on TMP. After reading Otto's post I can now understand more of the context for his comments on the now infamous "game design" thread. I am interested in the OGABAS rules – something for WSS, WGA, ECW and TYW.

Otto is Awesome.

You absolutley have to love any one who will describe themself as a fictional opera character.

Perhaps Otto is my long lost brother as he described him self much as I would though I do try to be polite, something else that the carpenter said. Although I doubt it as I do all I can to avoid NJ other than several mandated trips to beautiful Ft Dix.

Hi,

Some time ago I also got a copy of "Oh God Anything but a six." from Otto, posted from the USA to Australia.

Very interesting set of rules it was.

IMO a good guy.

Cheers,
JohnG

Dear Ed Mohrmann

A thousand apologies, I was rushing through the post at work and I simply forgot. Thank you for the kind words. It was not an intentional slight, and I apologize again. Thank you for the kind words.

Thank you all for the kind words.

Otto

Dear Flatland Hillbilly and others.

Once again, pleased to send them to you. Just give me your snail mail postal address at

sigurd@eclipse.net

and I will send them out as soon as I can. Some of the rules (like for the modern stuff) means I have to manufacture significant game materials on card stock and that may take me a week or so, but I will get it to you.

You don't have to send me money for them or postage, and you don't even have to play them. If you want to do anyting, just be nice to some other gamer and help them along- I believe in "pass along" eventually it'll get back to me. I don't even care if you don't play them, but if you can get some useful ideas or a new wrinkle to use in gaming that's enough.

Otto

Dear List

Please, please-- I appreciate all the kind comments and salutes but my ego containment vessel is WAY over in the red zone, and in danger of a melt-down.

I'm not that important and you really should go back to talking about war games and having a good time.

Thanks again.

Otto

To save poor Otto's head from swelling too much I'll simply say that he's a cad and a bounder.

OK, not really, but this lovefest is going to need a hotel room at this rate.

On a serious note, I was quite interested by what Otto wrote about his take on the hobby, in particular the aspects related to camaraderie and humorous story telling, and I applaud it. I saw the photos of the Candyland project mentioned and they were inspirational. Our games should be fun first and foremost.

E-mail sent. Thanks.

Nice to see all this. Cheers Otto, lovely to see a real person behind a TMP account.

Happy gaming

I have no clue who you are, but you seem like an okay dude. The hobby needs more okay dudes :)

He's a Zombie

link

I have no clue who you are, but you seem like an okay dude. The hobby needs more okay dudes :)

The world need more okay dudes.

Otto,
Was Terry Manton and his ships present at the second Gen-Con?
There was a remarkable collection of hand made ships there and they inspired me to make several French cruisers (which weren't available at the time of if they were, I couldn't have purchased them).
My ships were not very good. :)

Just curious as that was one of my formative wargaming moments.

Thanks,

Pat

Dear Patric

I don't know if Terry was at the Gen Con you mention. Terrys collection was VAST from pre-dreadnoughts and iron clads to WWII. He could make anything. He made four French WWII cruisers that came into my possession along with a few other models that were not painted, but "blank" in that they wee finished up to paininting. I have not painted them either because I want to leave them as an exhibit to show how he did his marvelous craft.

As for your ships not being very good, let me just say this that if Terry will still with us he would have given you dozens of tips for improvement, but in all cases he would never say "they were not good." He always considered that if a person made something or built something it would be the best they could do THEN and that they would only improve as time whent on. I, following Terry's lead, made a lot of my own ship models too, from WWI and WWII and some of them I am very proud of and they are quite good. NOT ever as good at Terry's but that's not the point as Terry would have said. The point was that you made them. So I can only urge, you, keep trying, keep at it, you will only get better.

One other thing that Terry would say – "despise no medium." Use whatever works, dowels, aluminum or plastic tubing, soda straws, etc. We all used to marvel how Terry would put the armored belt on the ships. Not so hard he said, I cut a piece of index card. The materials for modeling are all around us. Try it. As Terry said "balsa wood sanding sealer covers a multitude of sins.

Remember, these are only tokens for a game.

Otto

In the past, I may have thought Otto a bit odd. Sorry Otto.
But now I am beginning to understand him. He has some nifty ideas about gaming. Wouldn't you think, Wargames Development as a comparison? And he puts on a nifty con that I want to attend someday. We need people like Otto. And the Society of Daisy needs you. Cow suit not included.

Dear Von Loudon

But I try to be odd. What's the point of this hobby if you can't be odd? It doesn't make sense-- after all--- everyone thinks we're whaco's so why not have the fun of acting like "whacko's."

Thanks for the compliment. We are planning the next "The Weekend" for June 19th of 2015. Would you like to be on the mailing list? If so send me your snail mail to me at sigurd@eclipse.net.

I might have your address already but it never hurts to verify.

Thanks for the kind words.

Otto

Very kind. I am on the list and just can't make it yet, but stay tuned. Times are changing.

Shows how much I look at TMP threads these days, I didn't know about this thread until today.

Otto is an old and valued friend I have known for roughly 15 years. Otto is the "Alpha Dog" behind the Society of the Daisy, a group that believes in spreading humor in gaming, as pretty much their sole raison d'etre. SocDaisy once gave out Daisy medals, which I once won for a game I co-ran long ago about Amish people.

Otto has been very supportive over the years-- very giving of his personal time, creativity and sometimes, fortunes. As Cold Wars director I tried to implement something called CLUBCON as a fair way for smaller clubs to share rooms at Cold Wars. Otto did the vast majority of the heavy lifting for this idea, taking it and running with it far beyond what I had initially conceived of, up to and including his own system of (often jocular) medals and awards.

He was also part of the four man "brain trust" behind TRIADCON, the two year attempt at creating a DC based convention we attempted back in the Oughts. It was an attempt to harken back to the great old days of Atlanticon by having an all inclusive game convention that had all kinds of gamers playing. We might have limped along for a while longer but it more or less boiled down to "Boardgamers play, Miniature guys pay", and that's a fair criticism.

Otto has always been a prolific designer and writer about games, though his approach has always been for fun, not profit. He will chew your ear off about philosophical implications of games, and that, in my mind, is an experience I treasure. I well recall a lengthy discussion about the MORAL and ETHICAL implications to video games, based on an article I had posted to the Daisy list.. He and I and our mutual friends have often had philosophical wrangles over the idea of gaming when we meet at conventions. Otto's preferred method of conversation is along the lines of the Greek Symposia, along the Platonic lines, with good friends and indifferent wine, and a heavy topic to dissect.

I remember one time I was presenting an idea that gradually morphed into what became a game that I ran called SERGEANT SLAUGHTER IN BUN-BUN LAND. What had started out as a game that featured a certain degree of player manipulation became a month long ramble where my humble efforts were being compared to Milgram and Zimbardo. Otto led the discussion on that one (which was pretty negative in places) and kept the assembled throng from lynching me whilst maintaining his abhorrence of my "thought experiment game".

For all his outward appearance of being an opinionated curmudgeon, don't let that fool you-- he's an opinionated curmudgeon with a heart of gold. :-D

V/R

Walt O'Hara

Dear Walt

Thanks very much for the kind words
Otto