""narrative," wargaming" Topic

Hi All,

If you've followed my previous thread you might know that I'm trying to get into traditional wargaming, using minis and so on. But I've also ben wondering about another approach, which wouldn't require so much time to set up beforehand, if nothing else. I come from a tabletop RPG background, and for whatever reason don't care for minis in, say, D&D tactical combat, possibly because I've felt unable to plan effectively when the tend to slide ll over the battle matt.

I'm wondering about a narrative approach to war gaming. It strikes me that the AARs I've read often take the form of a narrative anyway, whether with game mechanical bits inserted or not. So do we really need minis and rulers and so on? I think a lot of the tabletop RPGs recently have demonstrated that you can tell stories and even have a lot of detailed simulation without needing to resort to grids or measurement.

So I envision an idea where units have stats, much like RPG characters, numerical or otherwise. Terrain is described rather than needing to be laid out. You don't even need to sacrifice things like modifiers for movement because those can be taken into account by other rules.

I don't know if such a beast is possible or desirable for most here, but it would certainly be nice for me to have. I'd love a rulebook which didn't expect me to worry about scale and basing and so on, but focused on the fictional situation being depicted. I envision being able to write out an AAR of sorts without needing to set anything up on the table. I think the AAR and "war stories," for lack of a better term, are the principle thing which draws me into this hobby.

Sorry if this is a bit of a ramble. I've also been reading Featherstone's Solo Wargaming, so my style has perhaps been unfortunately influenced. It's a great book, but very dated in places, and somewhat scarring to my liberal soul. :)

Thanks for any input,
Zack.

Play by email might be a good start in your quest. Sometimes PBEM requires diagrams, but sometimes not and it is all narrartive.

Savage Worlds may be what you're looking for-combines role playing and skirmish combat with a multitude of conversions of other systems to their own worlds.

If you're thinking of company to division level look for some operational type wargames that have a basis of what you're looking for.

You should check out Kriegspiel gaming:

kriegsspiel.org.uk

Have a look at the mythic role playing system. It is set up as a GM-less role play, but In know wargamers using it to drive the background for campaigns.

The basic idea is that you describe a scene, brainstorm what might happen, assign it a probability, roll a dice, and then consult a table (or randomly use a dictionary or other source) for some key words that describe the next scene.

I fail to see where the OP's description of "narrative" wargaming is any different from RPG'ing. Is it just that there are more units in play?

From my perspective, it lacks that which makes wargaming magical. That is, miniatures and terrain. I love having a "narrative" and setting for my gamses, but I never could get into RPG's because of the lack of toys.

However, for your purposes, what level are you looking to play at? I think that battletech has some upper level campaign mechanics in one of the core expansions that essentially let you direct a galaxy-wide campaign. It might have a map, but it seems more like a narrative wargaming exercise.

Also, "Dawn of Worlds" might be something you'd be tangentially interested in. It's not a wargame, but a loosely structured way to create a gaming world cooperatively. Here's the PDF our group used when we did it. It's not a large file: PDF link

Thanks for the input, as always :) I have Mythic and some other similar stuff already, actually, and have thought about using it as a wargaming tool, if I get that far.

The point that I might as well be describing an RPG is well taken. I guess I tend to view wargaming as more focused on, well, warfare and strategy and so on, as compared with a plot or character-heavy RPG campaign.

Something to ponder, certainly. For what it's worth I'm going to try and run a THW scenario tonight, keeping extensive notes on how things go. I hope I don't lose steam halfway through.

There are lots of forms of war gaming, and I am hoping that you enjoy whatever you end up playing.

I would suggest you take part in some kriegspiel games as part of a team. – it might not be proper table top gaming, but it can be fun.

If you can have a helper, how good are they with helping and not just describing a handful of options to pick from.

Science vs Pluck or Too Much For the Mhadi is the best example that comes to my mind of a fusion between RPG and wargaming. The players take on the roles of officers in Her Majestey's service in the Colonial Sudan.

A Kriegspiel might also suit your wants. One other thing I will suggest is to look up "Matrix Gaming" in matrix games resolution is done narratively based on an evaluation of arguments for or against events happening.

As point of hobby history I find it interesting that you are coming full circle. RPGs started as Wargames to tell the stories of a small band of especially important or interesting little lead men out of the hordes on the tabletop.

I personally enjoy the modeling aspects of Wargaming. So I like painting armies, constructing terrain, etc. Getting the toys out to play is part of the fun for me.

I have played large scale games where much of the preliminary action took place narratively, usually with a map of the territory and notes of where and when armies and units were marching. Much the way that real war is conducted at higher levels of command.

The chief things needed for any successful wargame are a methodology for keeping track of who is where, what the status of units and individuals is , and what happens when they come into combat with others.

If you can find the old Victory Games' "Ambush" I think you would like it. It was solo and very RPG in that you had a book to follow. " See something. Roll a die and go to paragraph 2."

Good Luck

Joe

Hi there,

I've been curious about Victory Games for a while. I don't know if any of those titles are electronically available, but if so I might need to grab them.

In the mean time, I've been looking into matrix games, from hamsterpress.net The default format is kind of bare bones, but it's definitely something I feel like I could modify.

I've also been asking around about magnetic sheeting and the like, but haven't been to my local game shop yet. They don't stock a lot of wargaming stuff unfortunately. :(

Can anybody comment positively or otherwise on the Victory Games question? They sound like fun. :) Thanks!

BW,

they are not electronically available but should be on e-bay. They also made a few expansions.

Joe