I'm not much of a wargamer -- thus making me a poser when it comes to the "grognard" title -- but I am very interested in the history of the hobby, both in general and in how it relates to the development of roleplaying games.
So, it's with great pleasure that I read Zach Houghton's post today that includes some fascinating historical documentation about Strategos, the post-Civil War era game that inspired the Braunstein scenarios run by Dave Wesley. This is very cool stuff and Zach's to be thanked for digging it up.
Wargaming started as a practical exercise to conduct planning when large manuevers were impractical, or to test different plans aginst one another. The US Navy has a long history of doing just that, and many of those who were involved with it spun off to making games more for fun than for "work," including the fantasy and sci fi authors I mentioend previously. A friend of mine who did his PhD dissertation on the US Navy before WW1 pointed this out to me (some reallly, really Old School!):
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Hi. Love your blog. Long time reader, first time caller, delurking to say: The military roots of wargaming and RPGs are intertwined in all sorts of interesting ways, only some of which have been fully explored. I started a series of posts on the Braunstein influences a few years ago, and wrote one on Charles Totten and Strategos (he was quite a character!) and one on Cold War gaming at RAND. I still haven't written the last two about the hippy New Games movement or the 1950s-70s spread of roleplaying scenarios from RAND to Harvard Business School into general education...
ReplyDeleteI started a series of posts on the Braunstein influences a few years ago, and wrote one on Charles Totten and Strategos (he was quite a character!) and one on Cold War gaming at RAND. I still haven't written the last two about the hippy New Games movement or the 1950s-70s spread of roleplaying scenarios from RAND to Harvard Business School into general education...
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome. Thanks for sharing it.