Trenches, tyrannosaurs and translating realities

Two recent battle reports show the potential emotional range of wargaming. Both were beautifully presented and both had their scenario details made freely available online.

• Night of the Hunter at Roundwood's World - scenario here

• Big Game Hunters' Safari on Venus at Laughing Ferret - scenario here

One is set very clearly in the Great War, the other a B-movie-style Venus. The first has me wondering how much respect is due when game elements have very real parallels, the second how to get the rules of a game to reflect a thing without those parallels.

In the first case, I think the way Sidney Roundwood goes about things is just about perfect. The impression I get from the blog is a deep awareness of what war is and a striving to better understand it, as well as a recognition of the value gaming it has.

He's one of game publishers TOOFATLardies and at Lard Island News recently there was a related post, Friction or Fiction, on rules design and reality. It's a masterclass.

The Venus game makes me think of the fun if potentially offensive Joesky post on dinosaurs in D&D, less for the outright silliness than the exuberance. Going gonzo can be a lot of fun, and the main issue is likely only getting the wackiness to work ruleswise.

There are guys pushing back the boundaries of weirdness in practical creature design using existing systems, for example Needles at Swords & Stitchery, NetherWerks at Zalchis and Justin S. Davis at A Field Guide To Doomsday. The systems are the RPGs Humanspace Empires, Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future, all free to download.

Having done some of this myself though, I worry only that too many special rules are needed, maybe too much reliance on a GM/DM, and that greatly different entities do still behave in a familiar way. Andy Hoare posted yesterday on a return to GM use. Linked with this is one by Greg Christopher making a point about player narrative control.

Both christian and Tim have been talking about GURPS lately too, here and here, and the approach and support is also well suited to explorations of the limits. The inspiration for Tim's giant he shows here and it's attractively unusual, a strange blend.

Talysman at The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms is also developing the old school RPG Liber Zero, which this update and his style suggest will have powerful creature design.

When it comes to wargaming, I've written before about the scope of ArmChairGeneral's When the Navy Walked, here, and if you're thinking weird creatures, Conflict on Mars! has extra bits and pieces. There could be a Venus and hollow Earth supplement too.

Without knowing anything about plans for unit building, the wargame Primeval Abyssian being developed at Outside the Universe Itself has some interesting protagonists, and for skirmish gaming Gotthammer's FireZone managed very well with the nanorg idea.

Tied in with this and the unified theory post, I'm wondering whether any system could allow pretty much anything, and how far it could at the same time minimise exceptions or long special rules, but without the need for increased activity by the GM/DM.

Taking into account the issues discussed in the Lard Island post, and with Needles way out there, NetherWerks exploring the oneiric and Trey at From the Sorcerer's Skull peering through the fabric of the real itself, could it be that a new generation of systems is needed to keep up with our growing understanding, and our passion for mashing?
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