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open-hearth-rpg · 11 months ago

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Ludography: Great RPG Mechanics #RPGMechanics: Week Nine

Continuing on with this week of meta-elements, I want to talk about ttrpgs and history. In the 21st Century, Old School Renaissance games would focus on the "Appendix N." As Dungeon Crawl Classics tells it, “Appendix N is the list of books that inspired Gary Gygax to create D&D. This bibliography first appeared as an appendix in the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide—specifically, Appendix N—which is why the list is known by that name...The books in Appendix N are a who’s-who of classic fantasy, sci-fi, and sword-and-sorcery fiction.” See this Goodman Games page here.

That’s a useful read for non-game sources. These dtories show where Gygax got the inspiration which helped him reshape the material he and Arneson had developed. If you want to bore down to the absolute specifics, Jon Peterson’s Playing at the World, hunts down many of the specific fictional sources and how they impacted design choices and art.

Peterson’s work is a real ludography, pulling together the various game design streams existing at the time and showing how they provided a foundation for what would become role-playing games. He analyzes the importance of Kriegspiel, play-by-post Diplomacy, and more to the community which would eventually arise. Is it useful for playing D&D (and its descendants)? Probably not unless you’re fetishizing originalism in ttrpg play.

But when I’m looking through a game, I appreciate when the designer spends time talking about their game sources. A bibliography is great– telling me the movies, comics, and novels which inspired the game helps. It helps center me on what the designer feels is the tone and genre we’re going to be engaging in. I can read the rules through the lens of those tropes– and I can often find something new to read. Sometimes it will tell me that a game isn’t really for me– or that the expectation set by the blurb isn’t quite what the game actually aims for.

But a ludography, a list of games (ttrpg and otherwise), is also really interesting to me. By this point there’s a huge body of work out there– some of it completely vanished. I appreciate these kinds of lists for three reasons. First, seeing what kinds of games the designer feels have operated in similar spaces. A game which cites Monster of the Week and Buffy: The Roleplaying Game, but not Hunter the Reckoning tells me something about the expected play.

Second, it can offer an acknowledgment of other games. If your rpg is about vampiric lives, power-plays, and coteries, ignoring the legacy of Vampire & World of Darkness feels a little disingenuous and a 1990s/2000s. By that I mean the host of copycat games where designers would deny any inspiration or influence from earlier rpgs. It was weird but I remember it happening more times than I would have expected. I also like this citation better than bashing other games (something we see less of these days in blurb text).

Third, it can give me a sense of the mechanical evolution of your game. It shows what kinds of systems it might draw on or the designer might have seen. That’s particularly useful for games building on a core system like Powered by the Apocalypse or Forged in the Dark. That can offer some context for the system choices. The “Gratitude” page at the back of Apocalypse Keys does a dynamite job of this. Though I can’t find it right now, Marshall Miller for a long time was doing meta-work with this– asking PbtA designers about their sources and inspirations. The +1 Forward Podcast also made this a cornerstone of their work.

But there’s another kind of tangential ludography I want to talk about, more important to me than these earlier forms. The “what’s different?” entry in ttrpg books. If I’m reading a second, revised, accelerated, or whatever version of a game: tell me what has changed. Reference the earlier game and talk about the design choices you’ve made. If it is just about adding in lore or expanding the timeline, that’s fine. But tell me so I’m not hunting through for the mechanical differences. Clearly the designer and/or publisher had some reasons for needing a new edition. They should be proud of those– and make clear how substantial they are. And if it is just a 1.5 with some errata corrections, they should be willing to say that. Buyers shouldn't feel like they’ve been tricked. Honestly when I see a new edition or version, this is the first thing I look for.

The other version of “what’s different?” comes from games working with an established system or OGL. If you are writing a PbtA or FitD game, it's super helpful to me as a reader if you tell me how your version of the system varies from the “core” or at least the typical version. This doesn’t have to be exhaustive, but I think it is important. If your game doesn’t have stats, does away with stress, inverts the rolling, etc. If I’m coming in with some system expectations from having played these kinds of games before, what should I be looking out for? I put two pages talking about this early on in Hearts of Wulin. Again, it is something I look for when I’m checking out new games.

(h/t to Evan Torner who has talked about the importance of ludographies before).

#ttrpg #rpg #rpg mechanics

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badtakesandbascinets · 29 days ago

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Just countered a major offensive in a kriegspiel by launching a risky assault to successfully seize a vital supply hub. I was going to say that I’m like if Alexander the Great was a queer but then I remembered something Rather Important about Alexander the Great.

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replicated · 9 months ago

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does anyone know what happened to unfolding-kriegspiel? we were mutuals for a long time and it seems like he deleted but idk if he ever remade or not

#i was in his discord server for a few years but left mid pandemic so i lost touch

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adventuresandshopping · 5 months ago

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OD&D and Kriegspiel.

#D&D

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drew-mga2022mi6014 · 5 months ago

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Research | The History of Wargames

Chess - The World's First Wargame

It is believed that the first variations of wargames were derivative of the game of chess; which hallmarked the use of maps and representational units to re-enact the major decision making of military engagements (or similar). The genre therefore unsurprisingly, dates back several centuries. The importance of wargaming was highlighted by success of the Prussian army in their war with France in 1870-71. These early wargames were played with dice, to represent “friction”, with an umpire present to offset bizarre turns of fortune as needed. However, despite multiple variations of the standard game of chess, games of the period were non-representational and didn't require the player to make decisions using the same types of logic that a real life military commander would.

Enter Baron von Reisswitz, who identified this conundrum and sought to reinvent the genre. The Baron decided to start from basics; instead of a map segmented into squares, he would use realistic terrain. After some thought he settled on a scale of 1:2373 - a seemingly odd number, which worked out to 3 cm = ~100 paces (armies of the 19th Century measured cadence, frontage, and distances in paces). Commonwealth sergeants-major today still carry pace sticks as a traditional badge of office; they still use them to form up ceremonial parades, but at one time, an army lived and died by how fast it could march or how well it formed into line of battle.

Establishing a common scale helped to solve many of the problems that are common to any wargame designer; how to regulate movement and combat. With a common scale, one only needed to regulate time - segmenting movement into units of time - and the distance that troops could move would be known instantly, given that men and horses both moved at commonly known rates of speed. Regulating combat could also be done from real world data; for example a 6-pounder cannon had an effective range when firing canister shot of 400 paces. The Baron segmented his game into a turn based system, each of two minutes in length.

The problem of command and control in wargames has always been hotly debated; the Baron addressed these questions through the use of what we today call a “double-blind” system; essentially turns were dictated by an unbiased third party (an "umpire", at the time, which would spread to other territories of gaming, the most noteworthy being the "dungeon-master" from Dungeons and Dragons). Both sides would write their orders down at the start of the game and pass them over to this umpire. They could implement them at the correct time, and since the orders had been already given they could advance the game move by move for both sides, so that they were in effect moving simultaneously. They would give reports back to the players, and receive fresh instructions in the light of these reports, which the other side would not be privy to.

Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia

Unlike modern wargames, combat was not resolved by chance, but solely by the umpire. This "game" (the Kriegspiel, as it came to be known) was not a recreational tool, but an undertaking by professional military officers as part of their individual training, or collective preparation for war. The rules only covered the movement of soldiers. Wargames were later converted into a recreational task when the Baron ended up showcasing the game to the Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm III, who quickly fell in love with the concept.

Later iterations of the game developed by the Baron Reisswitz' son would change the scale of a traditional playing board (1:8000 ; 8":1 mile). Incidentally, the act of playtesting originated from the younger Reisswitz and his colleagues - three other officers from the artillery and one of foot guards - meeting up once a week to test and improve the developments Reisswitz was making to the game. The playing surface was also changed from terrain tiles to an actual map. The advantage, aside from portability, was that in a double-blind system having two opposing teams, separate maps were necessary. Few modern wargames recognized this, but modern commercial wargame rules developed other ways of introducing “fog of war” and command and control issues, making the cumbersome system of double-blind or umpired play (and hence, duplicate maps) unnecessary.

It was in the 1890s when wargames were first made commercial, with the use of toy soldiers (miniatures) as playing pieces. A package set - soldiers and rules in the same box - appeared circa 1910 as The Great War Game, with the rule book titled separately as War Games for Boy Scouts. H.G. Wells also produced wargaming rules based on miniatures , first in Floor Games in 1911 and later Little Wars in 1913. He provided mainly a juvenile rule set for physical combat involving spring loaded miniature cannon, but also an appendix that captures the spirit of the earlier Prussian Kriegspiel.

In 1940, a Naval War Game was published by naval historian Fletcher Pratt. His Navy Game was a development of John Thomas Frederick Jane's, using wooden ships on a scale of 1:600 (or one inch equaling 50 feet). Mathematical formulas were used to calculate combat results, and though many rules were arbitrary, the results that the game provided were considered more realistic than Jane's. The disadvantage of miniatures-based game systems was expense; increases in leisure time and disposable income among average citizens in industrialized nations made the games more accessible. The first widely published rules and mass produced miniatures began to appear in the 1950s, when Jack Scruby started Scruby Miniatures in 1957 and his own magazine, War Game Digest.

Miniatures; 1:285 (June, 2007)

Modern militaries would also continue to use war games, though the terminology would change. In addition to field exercises, in which full scale rehearsals of maneuvers were conducted, simulations, or games, allowed commanders to manipulate models without the costs involved in deploying actual troops and other resources. These came to be known as sand table or cloth model exercises, or in the Commonwealth armies as TEWTs (Tactical Exercise Without Troops).

What conclusions about Wargames can be drawn from this? Simply that the style of gameplay in the past varies greatly from what is available today. However, some systems such as the turn-based "double-blind" could prove interesting in my own application of the concept, and that such things as time-based actions as in the first Kriegspiel could be a valuable idea to keep in mind.

References

Tacticalwargamer.com. (2024). The Origins of Wargaming. [online] Available at: https://tacticalwargamer.com/articles/gamehistory/gamehistory1.htm [Accessed 8 Jun. 2024].

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wainswright · 9 months ago

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this one is just to mess with ppl and start fights amongst yourselves i think: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegspiel_(chess)

#it turns into a 3 player spar i imagine

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sunder-the-gold · 2 years ago

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Additionally or alternatively, I would play on the dual-theme of Oripathy and Self-Sacrifice.

Not all operators are idealists, but Rhodes Island attracts idealists in the pursuit of its ideals. Blaze frequently pushes herself too hard. Ifrit is less of an idealist (though she becomes more of one as she emulates Saria) but similarly abuses her health by casting her fire from her Oripathy without her flame-thrower.

Amiya has to explicitly command her people to not throw their lives away for the sake of the mission, and I think it doesn’t actually stop anyone.

How horrible and horrifying might that look from the outside? Facing an extremely motivated, very self-sacrificing group of people who have nothing left to lose, who are defending the only home they have left in the world, who will burn their lives away for temporary power, who have the backing of excellent medics whose healing Arts keep them going just a little bit longer?

A little bit like fighting Mephisto and his Abominations again.

replicating the content under the 'Keep Reading' cut, for preservation purposes:

'Sage’s Obsidian Juggernaut’ - “A force of nature as unstoppable as it is unexplainable, not dissimilar to the Sage herself.” - Mon3tr. Effect: [Meltdown]: The Juggernaut’s Ranged attacks deal True Damage in a line, piercing through the targeted ally and hitting those behind them, leaving a damage over time effect for a few seconds. The Juggernaut’s Melee attacks deal high Physical damage. After being hit a number of times (10), the Juggernaut’s next attack will deal increased True damage and afflict the target with a longer damage over time effect that stacks. [Fallout]: Enemies defeated by True damage instances of the Juggernaut have increased redeployment time.

'Scholar’s Mate’* - “Unusually durable and tenacious pieces. They can be reused, over and over. Useful in disrupting enemy tactics.” -> W (Ranged Physical), Ines (Ranged Arts), and Hoederer (Melee Physical). They spawn at the same time. [Kriegspiel]**: All 'Scholar’s Mate’ must be defeated roughly at the same time, otherwise, they revive at 50% HP after a delay. [Queen’s Gambit]*: The red-horned 'Scholar’s Mate’ plants bombs on three units in range, detonating after 3 seconds. Units defeated by this attack or an attack shortly after [Queen’s Gambit] have increased redeployment time. [En Passant]*: The black-horned 'Scholar’s Mate’ presence in the battlefield slows down DP generation by 50%. Cannot be blocked, but moves slowly. [Albin Countergambit]*: The male 'Scholar’s Mate’ presence in the battlefield reduces SP Recovery rate by 30%. Attacks halt target’s SP recovery momentarily, and don’t reward SP to “Defensive” type Skills. *Various chess moves. **'Kriegspiel’ is also known as “blind chess”, in which two players play against each other 'blind’, that is, they can’t see the opponent’s pieces. For this purpose, a third person, an umpire, is necessary to oversee the game.

'The King’ - “The embodiment of tomorrow, incarnation of our hopes, and our dearest friend.” - Theresa. Effect: [Noblesse Oblige]: Raises the ATK and DEF of every enemy in the field. Effect increased for Leaders. [Civilight Eterna]: Swings sword in a circular area around herself, dealing high True damage and reducing Max HP and DEF of allies hit. Leaves a [Regal Pulsation] behind on each use. [Regal Pulsation]: Every time 'The King’ uses [Civilight Eterna], [Regal Pulsations] activate and replicate [Civilight Eterna] wherever they are. Can stack on top of each other. [Dead Position]*: 'The King’ pours powerful Sarkaz Arts into the closest Ranged tile to her position, inundating it with dangerous Arts and rendering the tile unusable for the rest of the map. Immediately retreats the unit standing on the tile, and starts spilling onto other tiles. If there’s Operators standing on these tiles, the spread is halted and they receive Arts damage continuously. If there’s no Operator in the tile, after a few seconds, [Dead Position] spills over and makes that tile unusable. Can spill to Melee tiles. All [Dead Positions] vanish and become reusable if 'The King’ is defeated. *A “dead position” is a position where neither player can mate the opponent’s king with any series of legal moves. Effectively a draw.

'King’s Pupa’ - “With time, she, too, can be a king.” -> Amiya. Effect: [Chimera]: 'King’s Pupa’ slowly charges SP over time. Receives SP each time an enemy is defeated and each time an ally is defeated. Once SP is full, activates [Pawn Ascension]. [Pawn Ascension]*: 'King’s Pupa’ turns into another 'The King’. Avoid this at all costs. *Pawn ascension or pawn promotion is when your pawn reaches the other side of the board in chess and you can promote it into another piece, such as a rook, bishop, etc. Most players, of course, promote their pawns into queens.

’[NULL]’ - “[CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. CLEARANCE IS INSUFFICIENT TO ACCESS THESE FILES. IN CASE OF ANY ERROR OR QUESTIONS, CONTACT THE SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR]” -> Doctor. Effect: [Resign]: ’[NULL]’ only appears after every other enemy has been defeated. No attacks, slowly trudges forward. They must be defeated to put an end to this. It was a good game.

I really would like to see the idea, the concept, of the current Doctor quite literally having a showdown with their past, current tactics vs past tactics, current ideals vs past ideals, to prove that today’s idealism isn’t mere bluster, that one needn’t rely on sacrifice to get to the finish line, that we can all get there, we simply need to find a way, because it’d be not only a showdown of morality and to prove one’s growth, it’d also entail having to defeat the shadows, plural, of the past, regrets, joys, all of it. Uproot the old, and change for the better, even if it means having to say one final farewell to beloved friends. Even if it means testing yourself against yourself, and them. It’s because you would test yourself against yourself that it means something, after all.

What are your thoughts of a possible Arknights event where you get to strategize against your own operators?

Like how W was a boss first but became an Operator, but it's you going against waves of Rhodes Island Reserve Ops (the no names) and occasionally Amiya or Texas or Kal'tsit + Mon3tr show up as the bosses.

I've thought about this, whether that be some sort of endgame "Doctor vs. Doctor" scenario or some what if event (something like PRTS replicating a perfect facsimile of pre-amnesia Doctor, or a battle-inside-the-mind existential showdown kind of deal, etc, plenty of ways one could provide context for this). Vigilo specifically made me think about this a lot, and I keep revisiting the concept in my brain palace now and then.

Regardless of how we get there, I'd love to see it. Personally, I'd lean into the vs. Pre-amnesia Doctor angle. Enemies would never really be referred to by name specifically, but gameplay and sprites would make it obvious, or at least indicative, as to who they are. Every enemy unit would have some sort of fuzzy mosaic effect covering their face.

Mooks would be Reserve Ops and the sort of RI/Babel Operator we see in cutscenes, the good ol' generics. Given how much Pre-Amnesia Doctor has been likened to a machine-like chessmaster, I think chess terminology would be fitting, although it needn't be used exclusively, especially for whenever it would be thematically appropriate not to use it. Generic footsoliders would be "Pawns", for example, and would very clearly be wearing Rhodes Island uniforms and colors (blue and black colors, mix of tactical gear and urban clothing). You'd have other more advanced units like snipers (Bishops), specialists (Knights), and hard-hitting, beefier units (Rooks).

There would be plenty of boss/midboss units, and their "tooltip" (the little pop up that appears mid-stage when a new units is introduced) would be entirely narrative. For example, you'd have:

'Ever-Marching Bulwark' - "The giant that carried the world if ordered to. No matter how grim the situation, he would always find a way to dispel the miasma." -> Ace. Effect: [Bulwark]: Ranged units will prioritize him if he's in range. Requires 2 Block to block. [Castled King]*: High HP, DEF and RES; Physical damage will raise his DEF, but decrease his RES. Arts damage will raise his RES, but decrease his DEF. *"Castling" is a chess technique used to protect the King.

'Unsung Champion' - "The hero killed and loved silently, like the shadow of a dear ghost. He could spot weakness in enemies as easily as virtue in friends." -> Scout. Effect: [Gaze of the Wraith]: Uses Ranged Physical attacks with no limit on range. Every 4 attacks, the next attack will target the unit with less DEF on the map. The amount of attacks needed to trigger this special ability decreases by 1 each time it is activated, also increasing damage dealt. Resets upon changing targets. [J'adoube]*: This enemy's route is determined by the number of allied units (the player's units) in its path. Unsung Champion will warp to the route with less units overall (melee and ranged) between it and the Defense Point (practically speaking, it checks every couple of seconds and warps to a tile equivalent to how much progress he's made). *"J'adoube" ("I knight"), or "adjust", is a special call in chess where you are letting your opponent know you're about to move a piece in the board, usually to center it on its square or if it gets otherwise displaced accidentally.

'Selfless Sage' - "Some could call her nosy, some could call her foolish, but the undeniable truth is that even if it dims her own fire, she'll fill this world with as much light as she can." -> Kal'tsit. Effect: [Selflessness & Spite]: Heals enemies at long range. Prioritizes 'Sage's Obsidian Juggernaut', then 'King's Pupa', then 'The King', then Leaders, and finally regular enemies. [Remorse & Rebirth]: Upon reaching 50% HP or if all active Leaders are defeated, spawns 'Sage's Obsidian Juggernaut'.

Making a cut here due to post length.

'Sage's Obsidian Juggernaut' - "A force of nature as unstoppable as it is unexplainable, not dissimilar to the Sage herself." - Mon3tr. Effect: [Meltdown]: The Juggernaut's Ranged attacks deal True Damage in a line, piercing through the targeted ally and hitting those behind them, leaving a damage over time effect for a few seconds. The Juggernaut's Melee attacks deal high Physical damage. After being hit a number of times (10), the Juggernaut's next attack will deal increased True damage and afflict the target with a longer damage over time effect that stacks. [Fallout]: Enemies defeated by True damage instances of the Juggernaut have increased redeployment time.

'Scholar's Mate'* - "Unusually durable and tenacious pieces. They can be reused, over and over. Useful in disrupting enemy tactics." -> W (Ranged Physical), Ines (Ranged Arts), and Hoederer (Melee Physical). They spawn at the same time. [Kriegspiel]**: All 'Scholar's Mate' must be defeated roughly at the same time, otherwise, they revive at 50% HP after a delay. [Queen's Gambit]*: The red-horned 'Scholar's Mate' plants bombs on three units in range, detonating after 3 seconds. Units defeated by this attack or an attack shortly after [Queen's Gambit] have increased redeployment time. [En Passant]*: The black-horned 'Scholar's Mate' presence in the battlefield slows down DP generation by 50%. Cannot be blocked, but moves slowly. [Albin Countergambit]*: The male 'Scholar's Mate' presence in the battlefield reduces SP Recovery rate by 30%. Attacks halt target's SP recovery momentarily, and don't reward SP to "Defensive" type Skills. *Various chess moves. **'Kriegspiel' is also known as "blind chess", in which two players play against each other 'blind', that is, they can't see the opponent's pieces. For this purpose, a third person, an umpire, is necessary to oversee the game.

'The King' - "The embodiment of tomorrow, incarnation of our hopes, and our dearest friend." - Theresa. Effect: [Noblesse Oblige]: Raises the ATK and DEF of every enemy in the field. Effect increased for Leaders. [Civilight Eterna]: Swings sword in a circular area around herself, dealing high True damage and reducing Max HP and DEF of allies hit. Leaves a [Regal Pulsation] behind on each use. [Regal Pulsation]: Every time 'The King' uses [Civilight Eterna], [Regal Pulsations] activate and replicate [Civilight Eterna] wherever they are. Can stack on top of each other. [Dead Position]*: 'The King' pours powerful Sarkaz Arts into the closest Ranged tile to her position, inundating it with dangerous Arts and rendering the tile unusable for the rest of the map. Immediately retreats the unit standing on the tile, and starts spilling onto other tiles. If there's Operators standing on these tiles, the spread is halted and they receive Arts damage continuously. If there's no Operator in the tile, after a few seconds, [Dead Position] spills over and makes that tile unusable. Can spill to Melee tiles. All [Dead Positions] vanish and become reusable if 'The King' is defeated. *A "dead position" is a position where neither player can mate the opponent’s king with any series of legal moves. Effectively a draw.

'King's Pupa' - "With time, she, too, can be a king." -> Amiya. Effect: [Chimera]: 'King's Pupa' slowly charges SP over time. Receives SP each time an enemy is defeated and each time an ally is defeated. Once SP is full, activates [Pawn Ascension]. [Pawn Ascension]*: 'King's Pupa' turns into another 'The King'. Avoid this at all costs. *Pawn ascension or pawn promotion is when your pawn reaches the other side of the board in chess and you can promote it into another piece, such as a rook, bishop, etc. Most players, of course, promote their pawns into queens.

'[NULL]' - "[CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. CLEARANCE IS INSUFFICIENT TO ACCESS THESE FILES. IN CASE OF ANY ERROR OR QUESTIONS, CONTACT THE SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR]" -> Doctor. Effect: [Resign]: '[NULL]' only appears after every other enemy has been defeated. No attacks, slowly trudges forward. They must be defeated to put an end to this. It was a good game.

I really would like to see the idea, the concept, of the current Doctor quite literally having a showdown with their past, current tactics vs past tactics, current ideals vs past ideals, to prove that today's idealism isn't mere bluster, that one needn't rely on sacrifice to get to the finish line, that we can all get there, we simply need to find a way, because it'd be not only a showdown of morality and to prove one's growth, it'd also entail having to defeat the shadows, plural, of the past, regrets, joys, all of it. Uproot the old, and change for the better, even if it means having to say one final farewell to beloved friends. Even if it means testing yourself against yourself, and them. It's because you would test yourself against yourself that it means something, after all.

#arknights #the doctor #amiya #kal'tsit #theresa

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