Creating a Narrative Wargames Campaign - Part 3: Game Prep

This post is the next in a short series inspired by a conversation between myself and @zakludick. It related to setting up a narrative campaign for a wargame.

I originally started out just writing this as a single post, but once I started writing down the headings for all the different topics, I rapidly realised that it needed a short series to do justice to the concept.

In the series, I'm not going to write up a set of fixed "rules" for setting up a narrative campaign. Rather, I'm going to highlight a number of topics which can be discussed with your friends as you set one up. There are no "right answers", it's just a case of thinking about what your game to be like, and creating a structure which is fun to play and minimises the inevitable differences of opinion.

Image created by AI in NightCafe Studio

Setting Up Your Game

Actually setting up your narrative campaign is the logical next step after the planning I covered in the last post.

There is a difference between the two. The planning part is where you decide what you want your game to look and feel like. The preparation part is where you put concrete mechanisms in place to make it happen, and create the assets you'll need to run the game.

Every game is different, of course, but the items I list below are things that could be needed. There's bound to be some discussion between players to make sure it all works for everyone !

A Map

Most narrative campaigns will need a map. I'd even go so far as to say I've never played in one that didn't have a map.

What the map looks like will depend entirely on the game. It might be a sector of space, a whole planet, or just the area around a single city that's being fought over. It could even be underground, or a totally abstract map that is just a kind of advance/retreat flow chart of battlefields. It can be super-elaborate or crudely drawn in 5 minutes.

But whatever the map looks like there are a couple of things I always consider.

Does it balance the game well in terms of access to land, resources, communications routes etc? Balance doesn't mean equality; a game where the goal is to see how long you can hold off an overwhelming enemy with insufficient resources can be amazing.
Does the map include bottlenecks and other constraints in terms of terrain, as well as obvious places that are going to be contested ?
Does it leave each player with exposed areas, constraints, risks and frustrations ?
Does it have scope to be modified, improved or added to during the game (for example if a new player joins) ?

Campaign Rules

As well as the actual set of wargames rules you've agreed to use to fight tabletop battles within the game, you'll need rules for the actual campaign parts.

This is where you need to consider all the aspects you agreed to include in the planning phase and put actual numbers around them. How many factories does it take to build an armoured division ? What resources do they need ? How do the rulers of each faction interact with each other ? Is civilian morale a factor ? What are the actual "victory conditions" if it's a closed campaign in actual numerical terms ?

Be warned, this is likely to be one of the most time-consuming and controversial bits !
There are three pieces of advice I can give on this.

First, keep it as simple as you possibly can. I've seen games collapse under their own weight because players get bogged down and bored working out the exact location of every ton of iron they've mined.
Second, make the rules crystal clear. There will always be that player who exploits any loophole they can find (Premier Bolokov, I'm looking at you....).
Third, have a mechanism that allows rules to be clarified, added to or modified during the course of the game in a way that gets player buy-in. We're hobbyists, not professional rule-writers, and unless we've run the campaign several times it's likely there will be room for improvement.

Make The Assets

Again, this is one of those topics where every game varies (are you getting a consistent thread yet....)

As well as the map and rules, you may well need other assets; order forms, counters to represent currency or economic resources, and counters to put on the map to represent armies, diplomats or other personalities.

An alternative is to laminate the map and use wipe-off markers, or have an online map that can be edited. But I've always kind of liked the idea that each player gets their own copy of the map (which may not be complete when it comes to showing what's in enemy territory...), and then the umpire has a "master map" set up with the whole picture on.

The ultimate expression of this is Kriegspiel, originally designed by the Prussian General Staff as a training wargame. It's well worth looking at for ideas on how to run a game where the players have limited visibility of what's going on.

Arranging Timescales

The final piece of game preparation is to arrange how orders are to be communicated, and how often. It might be the case of the game running in fixed turns, or alternatively in some variant of "real time".

With that sorted out, you'll need to work out how inter-player communication is carried out, and where and how you'll meet when it's time to fight tabletop battles.

Something to consider is both a "time freeze" when a battle needs to be played, and a way to resolve matters if the battle can't be fought within a certain time. Otherwise, the time freeze can become a real hindrance to progress for other players.

A mechanism I've used before is for the umpires to determine if it's one or both players at fault that the battle can't be fought. Then whoever's fault it is is assumed to have had a communication breakdown or mutiny in their army, and it retires from the battlefield in disorder, losing a percentage of troops equivalent to a minor defeat. Of course, it might affect both players !

Next post: the role of umpires

Previous Posts in this Series

https://peakd.com/hive-189497/@alonicus/creating-a-narrative-wargames-campaign-part-1-what-is-a-narrative-campaign
https://peakd.com/hive-189497/@alonicus/creating-a-narrative-wargames-campaign-part-2-planning-your-campaign