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706 results for “technicalissues”
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Union Home Minister Amit Shah's Golakgunj rally cancelled due to technical issues in 2026. Read the latest updates on Assam election campaigning and BJP goals. https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/india/amit-shah-assam-election-rally-golakgunj-qe1p9sbi?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #AmitShah #Helicopter #Golakgunj #AssamRally #TechnicalGlitch
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Union Home Minister Amit Shah's Golakgunj rally cancelled due to technical issues in 2026. Read the latest updates on Assam election campaigning and BJP goals. https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/india/amit-shah-assam-election-rally-golakgunj-qe1p9sbi?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #AmitShah #Helicopter #Golakgunj #AssamRally #TechnicalGlitch
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We had the first part of a Session Zero today. We ran low on time, and had some technical issues. But we were doing some collaborative worldbuilding with #Downcrawl2E, and we were pretty well in sync with the vibe, so it was was quite a bit of fun.
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☎️ 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗸 𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟭𝟳, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹 𝗻𝗼𝗼𝗻.☎️
Due to a staffing issue the Technology Help Desk phone support line 582-HELP (4357) will be unavailable on May 17, 2024 until noon.If you experience technical issues during the morning you are urged to Report A Problem using TeamDynamix: https://csumb.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/1846/Portal/Requests/ServiceCatalog?CategoryID=18931
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Let's hope they also check the door bolts 🤔
"...slipped from February to April 2023 as the company works with #NASA to fix lingering technical issues from the #spacecraft's last uncrewed test flight" https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeings-first-crewed-starliner-spaceflight-slips-april-2023-2022-11-03/ -
Let's hope they also check the door bolts 🤔
"...slipped from February to April 2023 as the company works with #NASA to fix lingering technical issues from the #spacecraft's last uncrewed test flight" https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeings-first-crewed-starliner-spaceflight-slips-april-2023-2022-11-03/ -
Let's hope they also check the door bolts 🤔
"...slipped from February to April 2023 as the company works with #NASA to fix lingering technical issues from the #spacecraft's last uncrewed test flight" https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeings-first-crewed-starliner-spaceflight-slips-april-2023-2022-11-03/ -
Let's hope they also check the door bolts 🤔
"...slipped from February to April 2023 as the company works with #NASA to fix lingering technical issues from the #spacecraft's last uncrewed test flight" https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeings-first-crewed-starliner-spaceflight-slips-april-2023-2022-11-03/ -
Queensland government marks seven years until the Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games
One of Queensland’s leading environmental scientists says with the “right controls”, the Fitzroy River in central Queensland will…
#NewsBeep #News #Headlines #2032brisbaneolmypicgames #brisbaneolympics #brisbaneparalympics #fitzroyriver #Rockhampton #rowing #rowingaustralia #rowingcourse #technicalassessment #TopNews #TopStories #worldrowing
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/15877/ -
Staring Evil in the Face: Some Thoughts on Hanson’s “The Other Greeks”
Victor Davis Hanson, The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization (The Free Press: New York, 1995)
I hold then, that there never has yet existed a wealthy and civilized society in which one portion of the community did not, in point of fact, live on the labour of the other. Broad and general as is this assertion, it is fully borne out by history. This is not the proper occasion, but, if it were, it would not be difficult to trace the various devices by which the wealth of all civilized communities has been so unequally divided, and to show by what means so small a share has been allotted to those by whose labour it was produced, and so large a share given to the non-producing classes. The devices are almost innumerable, from the brute force and gross superstition of ancient times, to the subtle and artful fiscal contrivances of modern.
– John C. Calhoun, “Slavery a Positive Good,” 6 February 1837 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Slavery_a_Positive_Good
I finally read The Other Greeks by Victor Davis Hanson in summer 2018. This book, published in 1995, contains an argument that farmers working 9- to 13-acre (20-30 3 to 5 hectare) plots were key to Greek culture wrapped in two rants about the decline of the American family farm and the decadence of American academics. Victor Davis Hanson’s writings on ancient agrarianism are less famous than his political columns and his ideas about Greek warfare, but I enjoyed working through this book. Farming is obviously a topic that Hanson cares deeply about, and because he put so much care into this book I can tell that he sees some of the implications of his argument.
The ancient history in this book is interwoven with the story of a 40 acre farm near Selma, California which the Hansons have held for five generations (only three generations were able to make a living from it, his parents got jobs in town and he tried to keep the farm going after his grandfather retired but found that the only way was to use his salary and royalties from teaching and punditry to subsidize the farm). In his view, both classical Greek and modern US culture were at the best while society was dominated by rural small farmers, and any threat to this class is a threat to freedom and democracy.
To my knowledge, Victor Davis Hanson has never written about why his Swedish great great grandparents were able to take a share of “the richest farmland in the world” for a token price in 1875, just like Wikipedia estimates that the indigenous population of the San Joaquin Valley fell 93% from 1850 to 1900 but falls silent on what exactly happened (today all the nations of the Yokuts are a few thousand strong, about as many as one of the little farming towns Hanson loves).
There is a debate about what share of the population belonged to the traditional property-owning, hoplite-fighting, speaking-in-the-assembly class. If you read this book quickly, you will see that the families with 10 acres or so of land who he calls yeomen made up “half to a third” or “a near majority” of the free male population (pp. 207, 208, 459 et passim). At first that seems like a large proportion, but his yeomen have “small farms for a family and a slave or two” (pp. 207, 208, 459). He estimates 80-100,000 adult citizens, 10,000? adult metics, 80-150,000 slaves, total “perhaps nearly 200,000 adult residents of Attica” in the fifth century BCE (p. 209), and 12,000 hoplites out of 60-000-70,000 adult residents of Boeotia. So Hanson believes that there was a glorious age of freedom as long as Greece was run by “yeomen” farmers, and believes that his “yeomen” families made up 15-22% of the population of Attica and 13,000-25,000 adult men.
Many other experts think this is too high. In “The Myth of the Middle-Class Army” (p. 54), Hans Van Wees estimates that they comprised 9 to 30% of the citizens of Athens (between 3,000 and 10,000 adult men). In another article he argues that there were three slaves for every free person in Athens a few years after the death of Alexander (“Athens’ property classes and population in and before 317 BC: Demetrius and Draco,” Journal of Hellenic Studies (2011) 131 pp. 95-114.) In Men of Bronze, Lin Foxhall argued that there is no sign of a dense network of medium-sized farms in the archaeological record until the end of the sixth century BCE. Part of the dispute is technical issues such as whether half the grain fields were left uncultivated in a given year: Hanson’s “yeomen farms” are smaller than van Wees zeugitai farms because he thinks they could get more from a smaller piece of land, and Hanson relies mostly on literature whereas Foxhall focused on archaeology. But I want to focus on what Hanson is arguing, not whether he is correct.
If you read The Other Greeks carefully, you see that “a third to one half” of the citizens being yeomen farmers translates to a fifth or a sixth of the population. And while Hanson says again and again that he does not like big estates worked by gangs of slaves, in a footnote on page 457 he tells you how these one or two slaves fit into the lives of his yeoman farmers with 10 or 12 acres:
Agricultural slavery, even more than homestead residence, made intensive agriculture possible. It prevented the spread of helotage. It sharply defined the independence and freedom of the rising Greek yeoman in a way not found elsewhere.
And he also admires the way Greek colonists gave each other equal plots of land in a beautiful grid designed with Greek geometrical science (pp. 194-196). He does not have a lot to say about whose land it was before they arrived, but readers of The Western Way of War or Carnage and Culture can get the general idea. When Macedonian or Persian barbarians threaten to conquer “westerners” Hanson launches into a flow of eloquent speech about freedom and slavery, but when “westerners” are about to conquer and murder or enslave foreigners he slips into a flat descriptive mode or just drops the subject. And he is very frank about the tyranny of ancient and modern farmers over their wives (pp. 130-135).
So when you look closely, The Other Greeks is arguing that its wonderful balanced regimes of homesteaders were ruled by about 15-20% of the population. We hear about a widow spinning for piece-work pay in the Iliad, and male and female labourers hired by the year in Hesiod’s Works and Days, but Hanson seems to think it was important for Greek freedom that these lowly free workers were replaced with slaves: he describes the poor Athenians who accepted pay for jury service as “the mob on the dole” (p. 5) and hired farm workers as “shiftless” (p. 70). And he thinks that slaves may well have formed the majority of the population of Attica in this period. That kind of argument that slavery is a positive good and necessary for anyone to live a civilized life was last current before the American Civil War, although Hanson does not approve of large plantations or race-based slavery.
“Agricultural slavery … sharply defined the independence and freedom of the rising Greek yeoman”? I think Hanson has read and understood the ideas of thinkers like Samuel Johnson (“How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?”) or Edmund Morgan (American Slavery, American Freedom) who observe that people who talk about freedom often mean the freedom to dominate and enslave. He just does not find that kind of freedom despicable.
Underlying and fundamental to our most basic philosophy is our concern and respect for the dignity of the individual. … Upon reflection, it is easy for us to realize that our conception of the dignity of the individual could have originated only in Christianity. … the Christian religion, born on the border of East and West, found its acceptance in the West, and became a part of the heritage and culture of the West, as contrasted to the East of the Orientals. … There are also those in this world who are the devisees of a totally different heritage and with whom we have no identity in either antiquity or modern times…. Our society may well be said to be… the exemplification of the maximum development of the Western civilization…. At the opposite extreme exists the Eastern heritage, different in every essential, not necessarily in a way that it is inferior, but different…. The chasm of difference between the two… is in heritage, the force that shapes the man to form unchangeable, except, if at all, by the infinite passage of time…. Oriental and Hawaiian groups constitute in excess of 70% of Hawaii’s population. This large segment of the population has a heritage… in a word, Eastern…. There is serious doubt in my mind as to whether the Hawaiian people would not be seriously handicapped, possibly even precluded, in defending themselves from such as the communist-dominated Longshoremans Union by the imposition upon them of Western institutions of government, since their heritage has not equipped them to comprehend the philosophy essential to the effective operation of these institutions. … There is even greater doubt in my mind that the Hawaiian people could contribute to the degree of harmony remaining in the conduct of affairs of our Federated Republic…. An abandonment of the United States of America in favor of a United States of America and Pacific— precedenting a United States of the World— would actually benefit no one but toll the death-knell of our Federated Republic…
– US Senator (for South Carolina) Strom Thurmond, a prominent opponent of the Civil Rights Act and supporter of racial segregation who angrily denied that he was a racist, “Against Hawaii Statehood” (1959) https://delong.typepad.com/files/thurmond-hawaii.pdf
In sum, the Greek agrarian city-state had been able to fashion an unusually egalitarian social, political, and military system, but one (like many modern liberal states) closed to the larger, ever-present (and growing) world of have-nots surrounding the polis, the other who desperately wanted the economic and social advantages of polis life. Herein lay the dilemma. To open up the discriminatory gates of polis citizenship was- as modern states have often discovered- to corrupt the carefully constructed equilibrium and the unifying agricultural heritage that had evolved over two centuries of agrarianism. For the Greek geôrgoi to refashion the traditional polis for all residents might just as likely lose it for everyone.
– Victor Davis Hanson, The Other Greeks (1995), p. 364
To Hanson (and Thurmond) creating the good community for some requires holding others outside or keeping them as hewers of wood and drawers of water. And at some point, whether you define those others in terms of race, “heritage,” religion, or culture is an academic quibble. Most people look, talk, and worship like their parents and schoolmates, so talking about race, culture, or religion lets you exclude the same people. As Roel Konijnendijk has written, Hanson’s vision of the good society is white supremacist in practice, even though he firmly rejects racial theories. If you poke around in the darker corners of the internet, you can find open racists like F. Roger Devlin lecturing him for lacking the courage to push his arguments as far as they can go or begging him to contribute to their journals (both links are to the Wayback Machine- ed.)
One of the reasons for the primacy of violence is that, unlike the industrial world, in the agrarian world wealth can generally be acquired more easily and quickly through coercion and predation than through production. Consequently ‘specialists in violence are generally endowed with a rank higher than that of specialists in production.’
– Moshe Berent, “Anthropology and the Classics: War, Violence, and the Stateless Polis,” The Classical Quarterly 50.1 (2000), p. 258 (thanks Josho Brouwers)
If you know some world history or ethnography, you know that there are plenty of societies where most families have about the same size of house, the same quality of diet, and bury their dead with the same things as most people of the same age and gender (and yes Mr. Thurmond, there were millions of Christians in Egypt, Ethiopia, Syria, and India before the first white Anglo-Saxon Protestant arrived). Those societies were not always organized around patriarchy and private land ownership, and sometimes they even let women work in the fields, but they didn’t leave a lot of writing because until recently the materials were too expensive (and because settler states in the 19th and 20th century often destroyed their records, or just declared them irrelevant so that eventually someone threw out grandpa’s box of old books to make room for a new television). If civilization, however defined, is going to survive this century, I think that self-organized communities of equals committed to humane values are more likely to save it than Hanson’s violent farmers who care about nothing more than passing on the farm better than their father left it to them (and there is a lot of inspiration for those communities in classical Greek texts, just not the bits of those texts which are cited in this book). I think we need to look forward to the way we can make a changing world as consistent with our values as possible, not pump ourselves up with stories of a vanished golden age and higher cultures erasing lower ones. (And The Other Greeks sort of agrees, there is praise for Parent-Teacher Associations and farmers’ co-ops alongside the warnings that political action is useless, your neighbours will steal your water and your vine-props, and the family farm in the United States is doomed). But I think it is important to be frank that our disagreements are not just about what the ancient world was like, but about what kinds of social order are worth defending, and that you can’t divide Hanson’s books into some that describe the past and others which try to change the present.
This blog is not funded by a public-sector pension or The National Review Online, just by my gentle readers
This post was written in ?2018? and edited and scheduled at the beginning of 2020 before the present tragic situation in Europe. I delayed it from its scheduled publication date of 21 March.
Further Reading: If you want works on early agriculture by someone who believes that early Greek and Roman small farmers achieved something special but doesn’t argue that slavery was a positive good, check out the works of Geoffrey Kron (although I am a bit concerned to read a 33 page article on the classical Greek economy which focused on “equality” but does not mention slaves in Greece at all and only mentions serfs in Greece once). Two Oxen Ahead by Paul Halstead sounds fun and describes actual Greek farmers raising staple crops. And if you want a direct attack on this kind of politics, check out Gwynne Dyer’s Waiting for the Canadian Hordes (2004) or Gabriel Schoenfeld’s Sophistry in the Service of Evil (2019).
If I ever publish these ideas in print, I may track down and talk about a passage on “whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not prevail numerically?” in “Editorial: Why the South Must Prevail,” William F. Buckley Jr. ‘s The National Review, 24 August 1957
Edit 2020-04-29: Corrected the figure in hectares (although I don’t have a paper copy of the book available to check)
Edit 2021-04-16: For another statement by a far-right American that the ideal government would be run by the richest 20%, see David Forbes, “The Secret Authoritarian History of Science Fiction” https://www.vice.com/en/article/9ak7y5/the-secret-authoritarian-history-of-science-fiction “In ‘Constitution for Utopia,’ written in 1961, (editor and crank John W.) Campbell (Jr.) argued outright that the best possible government would only allow the wealthy—specifically the wealthiest fifth of the population—to vote.” This essay was reprinted by other hard-right science fiction writers like Jerry Pournelle.
Edit 2021-09-28: converted to block editor after migrating to self-hosted wordpress
Edit 2021-10-21: fixed links which were broken when WordPress introduced the block editor
Edit 2014-08-24: some more threads to pull on the relationship between Greek slavery and Greek freedom
This invites comparison to the frequently noted relationship between the growth of both personal freedom and civic rights, on the one hand, and chattel slavery, on the other, in Greek poleis: these two trends not merely coincided but reinforced each other (Finley (1981), (1998); O. Patterson (1991)).
Walter Scheidel, “Monogamy and Polygyny,” in Beryl Rawson, ed., A Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds (Wiley 2010) pp. 112, 113
#ancient #bookReview #earlyGreekWarfare #modern #settlerColonialism #slavery #victorDavisHanson
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Staring Evil in the Face: Some Thoughts on Hanson’s “The Other Greeks”
Victor Davis Hanson, The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization (The Free Press: New York, 1995)
I hold then, that there never has yet existed a wealthy and civilized society in which one portion of the community did not, in point of fact, live on the labour of the other. Broad and general as is this assertion, it is fully borne out by history. This is not the proper occasion, but, if it were, it would not be difficult to trace the various devices by which the wealth of all civilized communities has been so unequally divided, and to show by what means so small a share has been allotted to those by whose labour it was produced, and so large a share given to the non-producing classes. The devices are almost innumerable, from the brute force and gross superstition of ancient times, to the subtle and artful fiscal contrivances of modern.
– John C. Calhoun, “Slavery a Positive Good,” 6 February 1837 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Slavery_a_Positive_Good
I finally read The Other Greeks by Victor Davis Hanson in summer 2018. This book, published in 1995, contains an argument that farmers working 9- to 13-acre (20-30 3 to 5 hectare) plots were key to Greek culture wrapped in two rants about the decline of the American family farm and the decadence of American academics. Victor Davis Hanson’s writings on ancient agrarianism are less famous than his political columns and his ideas about Greek warfare, but I enjoyed working through this book. Farming is obviously a topic that Hanson cares deeply about, and because he put so much care into this book I can tell that he sees some of the implications of his argument.
The ancient history in this book is interwoven with the story of a 40 acre farm near Selma, California which the Hansons have held for five generations (only three generations were able to make a living from it, his parents got jobs in town and he tried to keep the farm going after his grandfather retired but found that the only way was to use his salary and royalties from teaching and punditry to subsidize the farm). In his view, both classical Greek and modern US culture were at the best while society was dominated by rural small farmers, and any threat to this class is a threat to freedom and democracy.
To my knowledge, Victor Davis Hanson has never written about why his Swedish great great grandparents were able to take a share of “the richest farmland in the world” for a token price in 1875, just like Wikipedia estimates that the indigenous population of the San Joaquin Valley fell 93% from 1850 to 1900 but falls silent on what exactly happened (today all the nations of the Yokuts are a few thousand strong, about as many as one of the little farming towns Hanson loves).
There is a debate about what share of the population belonged to the traditional property-owning, hoplite-fighting, speaking-in-the-assembly class. If you read this book quickly, you will see that the families with 10 acres or so of land who he calls yeomen made up “half to a third” or “a near majority” of the free male population (pp. 207, 208, 459 et passim). At first that seems like a large proportion, but his yeomen have “small farms for a family and a slave or two” (pp. 207, 208, 459). He estimates 80-100,000 adult citizens, 10,000? adult metics, 80-150,000 slaves, total “perhaps nearly 200,000 adult residents of Attica” in the fifth century BCE (p. 209), and 12,000 hoplites out of 60-000-70,000 adult residents of Boeotia. So Hanson believes that there was a glorious age of freedom as long as Greece was run by “yeomen” farmers, and believes that his “yeomen” families made up 15-22% of the population of Attica and 13,000-25,000 adult men.
Many other experts think this is too high. In “The Myth of the Middle-Class Army” (p. 54), Hans Van Wees estimates that they comprised 9 to 30% of the citizens of Athens (between 3,000 and 10,000 adult men). In another article he argues that there were three slaves for every free person in Athens a few years after the death of Alexander (“Athens’ property classes and population in and before 317 BC: Demetrius and Draco,” Journal of Hellenic Studies (2011) 131 pp. 95-114.) In Men of Bronze, Lin Foxhall argued that there is no sign of a dense network of medium-sized farms in the archaeological record until the end of the sixth century BCE. Part of the dispute is technical issues such as whether half the grain fields were left uncultivated in a given year: Hanson’s “yeomen farms” are smaller than van Wees zeugitai farms because he thinks they could get more from a smaller piece of land, and Hanson relies mostly on literature whereas Foxhall focused on archaeology. But I want to focus on what Hanson is arguing, not whether he is correct.
If you read The Other Greeks carefully, you see that “a third to one half” of the citizens being yeomen farmers translates to a fifth or a sixth of the population. And while Hanson says again and again that he does not like big estates worked by gangs of slaves, in a footnote on page 457 he tells you how these one or two slaves fit into the lives of his yeoman farmers with 10 or 12 acres:
Agricultural slavery, even more than homestead residence, made intensive agriculture possible. It prevented the spread of helotage. It sharply defined the independence and freedom of the rising Greek yeoman in a way not found elsewhere.
And he also admires the way Greek colonists gave each other equal plots of land in a beautiful grid designed with Greek geometrical science (pp. 194-196). He does not have a lot to say about whose land it was before they arrived, but readers of The Western Way of War or Carnage and Culture can get the general idea. When Macedonian or Persian barbarians threaten to conquer “westerners” Hanson launches into a flow of eloquent speech about freedom and slavery, but when “westerners” are about to conquer and murder or enslave foreigners he slips into a flat descriptive mode or just drops the subject. And he is very frank about the tyranny of ancient and modern farmers over their wives (pp. 130-135).
So when you look closely, The Other Greeks is arguing that its wonderful balanced regimes of homesteaders were ruled by about 15-20% of the population. We hear about a widow spinning for piece-work pay in the Iliad, and male and female labourers hired by the year in Hesiod’s Works and Days, but Hanson seems to think it was important for Greek freedom that these lowly free workers were replaced with slaves: he describes the poor Athenians who accepted pay for jury service as “the mob on the dole” (p. 5) and hired farm workers as “shiftless” (p. 70). And he thinks that slaves may well have formed the majority of the population of Attica in this period. That kind of argument that slavery is a positive good and necessary for anyone to live a civilized life was last current before the American Civil War, although Hanson does not approve of large plantations or race-based slavery.
“Agricultural slavery … sharply defined the independence and freedom of the rising Greek yeoman”? I think Hanson has read and understood the ideas of thinkers like Samuel Johnson (“How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?”) or Edmund Morgan (American Slavery, American Freedom) who observe that people who talk about freedom often mean the freedom to dominate and enslave. He just does not find that kind of freedom despicable.
Underlying and fundamental to our most basic philosophy is our concern and respect for the dignity of the individual. … Upon reflection, it is easy for us to realize that our conception of the dignity of the individual could have originated only in Christianity. … the Christian religion, born on the border of East and West, found its acceptance in the West, and became a part of the heritage and culture of the West, as contrasted to the East of the Orientals. … There are also those in this world who are the devisees of a totally different heritage and with whom we have no identity in either antiquity or modern times…. Our society may well be said to be… the exemplification of the maximum development of the Western civilization…. At the opposite extreme exists the Eastern heritage, different in every essential, not necessarily in a way that it is inferior, but different…. The chasm of difference between the two… is in heritage, the force that shapes the man to form unchangeable, except, if at all, by the infinite passage of time…. Oriental and Hawaiian groups constitute in excess of 70% of Hawaii’s population. This large segment of the population has a heritage… in a word, Eastern…. There is serious doubt in my mind as to whether the Hawaiian people would not be seriously handicapped, possibly even precluded, in defending themselves from such as the communist-dominated Longshoremans Union by the imposition upon them of Western institutions of government, since their heritage has not equipped them to comprehend the philosophy essential to the effective operation of these institutions. … There is even greater doubt in my mind that the Hawaiian people could contribute to the degree of harmony remaining in the conduct of affairs of our Federated Republic…. An abandonment of the United States of America in favor of a United States of America and Pacific— precedenting a United States of the World— would actually benefit no one but toll the death-knell of our Federated Republic…
– US Senator (for South Carolina) Strom Thurmond, a prominent opponent of the Civil Rights Act and supporter of racial segregation who angrily denied that he was a racist, “Against Hawaii Statehood” (1959) https://delong.typepad.com/files/thurmond-hawaii.pdf
In sum, the Greek agrarian city-state had been able to fashion an unusually egalitarian social, political, and military system, but one (like many modern liberal states) closed to the larger, ever-present (and growing) world of have-nots surrounding the polis, the other who desperately wanted the economic and social advantages of polis life. Herein lay the dilemma. To open up the discriminatory gates of polis citizenship was- as modern states have often discovered- to corrupt the carefully constructed equilibrium and the unifying agricultural heritage that had evolved over two centuries of agrarianism. For the Greek geôrgoi to refashion the traditional polis for all residents might just as likely lose it for everyone.
– Victor Davis Hanson, The Other Greeks (1995), p. 364
-To Hanson (and Thurmond) creating the good community for some requires holding others outside or keeping them as hewers of wood and drawers of water. And at some point, whether you define those others in terms of race, “heritage,” religion, or culture is an academic quibble. Most people look, talk, and worship like their parents and schoolmates, so talking about race, culture, or religion lets you exclude the same people. As Roel Konijnendijk has written, Hanson’s vision of the good society is white supremacist in practice, even though he firmly rejects racial theories. If you poke around in the darker corners of the internet, you can find open racists like F. Roger Devlin lecturing him for lacking the courage to push his arguments as far as they can go or begging him to contribute to their journals (both links are to the Wayback Machine- ed.)
One of the reasons for the primacy of violence is that, unlike the industrial world, in the agrarian world wealth can generally be acquired more easily and quickly through coercion and predation than through production. Consequently ‘specialists in violence are generally endowed with a rank higher than that of specialists in production.’
– Moshe Berent, “Anthropology and the Classics: War, Violence, and the Stateless Polis,” The Classical Quarterly 50.1 (2000), p. 258 (thanks Josho Brouwers)
If you know some world history or ethnography, you know that there are plenty of societies where most families have about the same size of house, the same quality of diet, and bury their dead with the same things as most people of the same age and gender (and yes Mr. Thurmond, there were millions of Christians in Egypt, Ethiopia, Syria, and India before the first white Anglo-Saxon Protestant arrived). Those societies were not always organized around patriarchy and private land ownership, and sometimes they even let women work in the fields, but they didn’t leave a lot of writing because until recently the materials were too expensive (and because settler states in the 19th and 20th century often destroyed their records, or just declared them irrelevant so that eventually someone threw out grandpa’s box of old books to make room for a new television). If civilization, however defined, is going to survive this century, I think that self-organized communities of equals committed to humane values are more likely to save it than Hanson’s violent farmers who care about nothing more than passing on the farm better than their father left it to them (and there is a lot of inspiration for those communities in classical Greek texts, just not the bits of those texts which are cited in this book). I think we need to look forward to the way we can make a changing world as consistent with our values as possible, not pump ourselves up with stories of a vanished golden age and higher cultures erasing lower ones. (And The Other Greeks sort of agrees, there is praise for Parent-Teacher Associations and farmers’ co-ops alongside the warnings that political action is useless, your neighbours will steal your water and your vine-props, and the family farm in the United States is doomed). But I think it is important to be frank that our disagreements are not just about what the ancient world was like, but about what kinds of social order are worth defending, and that you can’t divide Hanson’s books into some that describe the past and others which try to change the present.
This blog is not funded by a public-sector pension or The National Review Online, just by my gentle readers
This post was written in ?2018? and edited and scheduled at the beginning of 2020 before the present tragic situation in Europe. I delayed it from its scheduled publication date of 21 March.
Further Reading: If you want works on early agriculture by someone who believes that early Greek and Roman small farmers achieved something special but doesn’t argue that slavery was a positive good, check out the works of Geoffrey Kron (although I am a bit concerned to read a 33 page article on the classical Greek economy which focused on “equality” but does not mention slaves in Greece at all and only mentions serfs in Greece once). Two Oxen Ahead by Paul Halstead sounds fun and describes actual Greek farmers raising staple crops. And if you want a direct attack on this kind of politics, check out Gwynne Dyer’s Waiting for the Canadian Hordes (2004) or Gabriel Schoenfeld’s Sophistry in the Service of Evil (2019).
If I ever publish these ideas in print, I may track down and talk about a passage on “whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not prevail numerically?” in “Editorial: Why the South Must Prevail,” William F. Buckley Jr. ‘s The National Review, 24 August 1957
Edit 2020-04-29: Corrected the figure in hectares (although I don’t have a paper copy of the book available to check)
Edit 2021-04-16: For another statement by a far-right American that the ideal government would be run by the richest 20%, see David Forbes, “The Secret Authoritarian History of Science Fiction” https://www.vice.com/en/article/9ak7y5/the-secret-authoritarian-history-of-science-fiction “In ‘Constitution for Utopia,’ written in 1961, (editor and crank John W.) Campbell (Jr.) argued outright that the best possible government would only allow the wealthy—specifically the wealthiest fifth of the population—to vote.” This essay was reprinted by other hard-right science fiction writers like Jerry Pournelle.
Edit 2021-09-28: converted to block editor after migrating to self-hosted wordpress
Edit 2021-10-21: fixed links which were broken when WordPress introduced the block editor
Edit 2014-08-24: some more threads to pull on the relationship between Greek slavery and Greek freedom
This invites comparison to the frequently noted relationship between the growth of both personal freedom and civic rights, on the one hand, and chattel slavery, on the other, in Greek poleis: these two trends not merely coincided but reinforced each other (Finley (1981), (1998); O. Patterson (1991)).
Walter Scheidel, “Monogamy and Polygyny,” in Beryl Rawson, ed., A Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds (Wiley 2010) pp. 112, 113
#ancient #bookReview #earlyGreekWarfare #modern #settlerColonialism #slavery #victorDavisHanson
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Staring Evil in the Face: Some Thoughts on Hanson’s “The Other Greeks”
Victor Davis Hanson, The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization (The Free Press: New York, 1995)
I hold then, that there never has yet existed a wealthy and civilized society in which one portion of the community did not, in point of fact, live on the labour of the other. Broad and general as is this assertion, it is fully borne out by history. This is not the proper occasion, but, if it were, it would not be difficult to trace the various devices by which the wealth of all civilized communities has been so unequally divided, and to show by what means so small a share has been allotted to those by whose labour it was produced, and so large a share given to the non-producing classes. The devices are almost innumerable, from the brute force and gross superstition of ancient times, to the subtle and artful fiscal contrivances of modern.
– John C. Calhoun, “Slavery a Positive Good,” 6 February 1837 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Slavery_a_Positive_Good
I finally read The Other Greeks by Victor Davis Hanson in summer 2018. This book, published in 1995, contains an argument that farmers working 9- to 13-acre (20-30 3 to 5 hectare) plots were key to Greek culture wrapped in two rants about the decline of the American family farm and the decadence of American academics. Victor Davis Hanson’s writings on ancient agrarianism are less famous than his political columns and his ideas about Greek warfare, but I enjoyed working through this book. Farming is obviously a topic that Hanson cares deeply about, and because he put so much care into this book I can tell that he sees some of the implications of his argument.
The ancient history in this book is interwoven with the story of a 40 acre farm near Selma, California which the Hansons have held for five generations (only three generations were able to make a living from it, his parents got jobs in town and he tried to keep the farm going after his grandfather retired but found that the only way was to use his salary and royalties from teaching and punditry to subsidize the farm). In his view, both classical Greek and modern US culture were at the best while society was dominated by rural small farmers, and any threat to this class is a threat to freedom and democracy.
To my knowledge, Victor Davis Hanson has never written about why his Swedish great great grandparents were able to take a share of “the richest farmland in the world” for a token price in 1875, just like Wikipedia estimates that the indigenous population of the San Joaquin Valley fell 93% from 1850 to 1900 but falls silent on what exactly happened (today all the nations of the Yokuts are a few thousand strong, about as many as one of the little farming towns Hanson loves).
There is a debate about what share of the population belonged to the traditional property-owning, hoplite-fighting, speaking-in-the-assembly class. If you read this book quickly, you will see that the families with 10 acres or so of land who he calls yeomen made up “half to a third” or “a near majority” of the free male population (pp. 207, 208, 459 et passim). At first that seems like a large proportion, but his yeomen have “small farms for a family and a slave or two” (pp. 207, 208, 459). He estimates 80-100,000 adult citizens, 10,000? adult metics, 80-150,000 slaves, total “perhaps nearly 200,000 adult residents of Attica” in the fifth century BCE (p. 209), and 12,000 hoplites out of 60-000-70,000 adult residents of Boeotia. So Hanson believes that there was a glorious age of freedom as long as Greece was run by “yeomen” farmers, and believes that his “yeomen” families made up 15-22% of the population of Attica and 13,000-25,000 adult men.
Many other experts think this is too high. In “The Myth of the Middle-Class Army” (p. 54), Hans Van Wees estimates that they comprised 9 to 30% of the citizens of Athens (between 3,000 and 10,000 adult men). In another article he argues that there were three slaves for every free person in Athens a few years after the death of Alexander (“Athens’ property classes and population in and before 317 BC: Demetrius and Draco,” Journal of Hellenic Studies (2011) 131 pp. 95-114.) In Men of Bronze, Lin Foxhall argued that there is no sign of a dense network of medium-sized farms in the archaeological record until the end of the sixth century BCE. Part of the dispute is technical issues such as whether half the grain fields were left uncultivated in a given year: Hanson’s “yeomen farms” are smaller than van Wees zeugitai farms because he thinks they could get more from a smaller piece of land, and Hanson relies mostly on literature whereas Foxhall focused on archaeology. But I want to focus on what Hanson is arguing, not whether he is correct.
If you read The Other Greeks carefully, you see that “a third to one half” of the citizens being yeomen farmers translates to a fifth or a sixth of the population. And while Hanson says again and again that he does not like big estates worked by gangs of slaves, in a footnote on page 457 he tells you how these one or two slaves fit into the lives of his yeoman farmers with 10 or 12 acres:
Agricultural slavery, even more than homestead residence, made intensive agriculture possible. It prevented the spread of helotage. It sharply defined the independence and freedom of the rising Greek yeoman in a way not found elsewhere.
And he also admires the way Greek colonists gave each other equal plots of land in a beautiful grid designed with Greek geometrical science (pp. 194-196). He does not have a lot to say about whose land it was before they arrived, but readers of The Western Way of War or Carnage and Culture can get the general idea. When Macedonian or Persian barbarians threaten to conquer “westerners” Hanson launches into a flow of eloquent speech about freedom and slavery, but when “westerners” are about to conquer and murder or enslave foreigners he slips into a flat descriptive mode or just drops the subject. And he is very frank about the tyranny of ancient and modern farmers over their wives (pp. 130-135).
So when you look closely, The Other Greeks is arguing that its wonderful balanced regimes of homesteaders were ruled by about 15-20% of the population. We hear about a widow spinning for piece-work pay in the Iliad, and male and female labourers hired by the year in Hesiod’s Works and Days, but Hanson seems to think it was important for Greek freedom that these lowly free workers were replaced with slaves: he describes the poor Athenians who accepted pay for jury service as “the mob on the dole” (p. 5) and hired farm workers as “shiftless” (p. 70). And he thinks that slaves may well have formed the majority of the population of Attica in this period. That kind of argument that slavery is a positive good and necessary for anyone to live a civilized life was last current before the American Civil War, although Hanson does not approve of large plantations or race-based slavery.
“Agricultural slavery … sharply defined the independence and freedom of the rising Greek yeoman”? I think Hanson has read and understood the ideas of thinkers like Samuel Johnson (“How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?”) or Edmund Morgan (American Slavery, American Freedom) who observe that people who talk about freedom often mean the freedom to dominate and enslave. He just does not find that kind of freedom despicable.
Underlying and fundamental to our most basic philosophy is our concern and respect for the dignity of the individual. … Upon reflection, it is easy for us to realize that our conception of the dignity of the individual could have originated only in Christianity. … the Christian religion, born on the border of East and West, found its acceptance in the West, and became a part of the heritage and culture of the West, as contrasted to the East of the Orientals. … There are also those in this world who are the devisees of a totally different heritage and with whom we have no identity in either antiquity or modern times…. Our society may well be said to be… the exemplification of the maximum development of the Western civilization…. At the opposite extreme exists the Eastern heritage, different in every essential, not necessarily in a way that it is inferior, but different…. The chasm of difference between the two… is in heritage, the force that shapes the man to form unchangeable, except, if at all, by the infinite passage of time…. Oriental and Hawaiian groups constitute in excess of 70% of Hawaii’s population. This large segment of the population has a heritage… in a word, Eastern…. There is serious doubt in my mind as to whether the Hawaiian people would not be seriously handicapped, possibly even precluded, in defending themselves from such as the communist-dominated Longshoremans Union by the imposition upon them of Western institutions of government, since their heritage has not equipped them to comprehend the philosophy essential to the effective operation of these institutions. … There is even greater doubt in my mind that the Hawaiian people could contribute to the degree of harmony remaining in the conduct of affairs of our Federated Republic…. An abandonment of the United States of America in favor of a United States of America and Pacific— precedenting a United States of the World— would actually benefit no one but toll the death-knell of our Federated Republic…
– US Senator (for South Carolina) Strom Thurmond, a prominent opponent of the Civil Rights Act and supporter of racial segregation who angrily denied that he was a racist, “Against Hawaii Statehood” (1959) https://delong.typepad.com/files/thurmond-hawaii.pdf
In sum, the Greek agrarian city-state had been able to fashion an unusually egalitarian social, political, and military system, but one (like many modern liberal states) closed to the larger, ever-present (and growing) world of have-nots surrounding the polis, the other who desperately wanted the economic and social advantages of polis life. Herein lay the dilemma. To open up the discriminatory gates of polis citizenship was- as modern states have often discovered- to corrupt the carefully constructed equilibrium and the unifying agricultural heritage that had evolved over two centuries of agrarianism. For the Greek geôrgoi to refashion the traditional polis for all residents might just as likely lose it for everyone.
– Victor Davis Hanson, The Other Greeks (1995), p. 364
-To Hanson (and Thurmond) creating the good community for some requires holding others outside or keeping them as hewers of wood and drawers of water. And at some point, whether you define those others in terms of race, “heritage,” religion, or culture is an academic quibble. Most people look, talk, and worship like their parents and schoolmates, so talking about race, culture, or religion lets you exclude the same people. As Roel Konijnendijk has written, Hanson’s vision of the good society is white supremacist in practice, even though he firmly rejects racial theories. If you poke around in the darker corners of the internet, you can find open racists like F. Roger Devlin lecturing him for lacking the courage to push his arguments as far as they can go or begging him to contribute to their journals (both links are to the Wayback Machine- ed.)
One of the reasons for the primacy of violence is that, unlike the industrial world, in the agrarian world wealth can generally be acquired more easily and quickly through coercion and predation than through production. Consequently ‘specialists in violence are generally endowed with a rank higher than that of specialists in production.’
– Moshe Berent, “Anthropology and the Classics: War, Violence, and the Stateless Polis,” The Classical Quarterly 50.1 (2000), p. 258 (thanks Josho Brouwers)
If you know some world history or ethnography, you know that there are plenty of societies where most families have about the same size of house, the same quality of diet, and bury their dead with the same things as most people of the same age and gender (and yes Mr. Thurmond, there were millions of Christians in Egypt, Ethiopia, Syria, and India before the first white Anglo-Saxon Protestant arrived). Those societies were not always organized around patriarchy and private land ownership, and sometimes they even let women work in the fields, but they didn’t leave a lot of writing because until recently the materials were too expensive (and because settler states in the 19th and 20th century often destroyed their records, or just declared them irrelevant so that eventually someone threw out grandpa’s box of old books to make room for a new television). If civilization, however defined, is going to survive this century, I think that self-organized communities of equals committed to humane values are more likely to save it than Hanson’s violent farmers who care about nothing more than passing on the farm better than their father left it to them (and there is a lot of inspiration for those communities in classical Greek texts, just not the bits of those texts which are cited in this book). I think we need to look forward to the way we can make a changing world as consistent with our values as possible, not pump ourselves up with stories of a vanished golden age and higher cultures erasing lower ones. (And The Other Greeks sort of agrees, there is praise for Parent-Teacher Associations and farmers’ co-ops alongside the warnings that political action is useless, your neighbours will steal your water and your vine-props, and the family farm in the United States is doomed). But I think it is important to be frank that our disagreements are not just about what the ancient world was like, but about what kinds of social order are worth defending, and that you can’t divide Hanson’s books into some that describe the past and others which try to change the present.
This blog is not funded by a public-sector pension or The National Review Online, just by my gentle readers
This post was written in ?2018? and edited and scheduled at the beginning of 2020 before the present tragic situation in Europe. I delayed it from its scheduled publication date of 21 March.
Further Reading: If you want works on early agriculture by someone who believes that early Greek and Roman small farmers achieved something special but doesn’t argue that slavery was a positive good, check out the works of Geoffrey Kron (although I am a bit concerned to read a 33 page article on the classical Greek economy which focused on “equality” but does not mention slaves in Greece at all and only mentions serfs in Greece once). Two Oxen Ahead by Paul Halstead sounds fun and describes actual Greek farmers raising staple crops. And if you want a direct attack on this kind of politics, check out Gwynne Dyer’s Waiting for the Canadian Hordes (2004) or Gabriel Schoenfeld’s Sophistry in the Service of Evil (2019).
If I ever publish these ideas in print, I may track down and talk about a passage on “whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not prevail numerically?” in “Editorial: Why the South Must Prevail,” William F. Buckley Jr. ‘s The National Review, 24 August 1957
Edit 2020-04-29: Corrected the figure in hectares (although I don’t have a paper copy of the book available to check)
Edit 2021-04-16: For another statement by a far-right American that the ideal government would be run by the richest 20%, see David Forbes, “The Secret Authoritarian History of Science Fiction” https://www.vice.com/en/article/9ak7y5/the-secret-authoritarian-history-of-science-fiction “In ‘Constitution for Utopia,’ written in 1961, (editor and crank John W.) Campbell (Jr.) argued outright that the best possible government would only allow the wealthy—specifically the wealthiest fifth of the population—to vote.” This essay was reprinted by other hard-right science fiction writers like Jerry Pournelle.
Edit 2021-09-28: converted to block editor after migrating to self-hosted wordpress
Edit 2021-10-21: fixed links which were broken when WordPress introduced the block editor
Edit 2014-08-24: some more threads to pull on the relationship between Greek slavery and Greek freedom
This invites comparison to the frequently noted relationship between the growth of both personal freedom and civic rights, on the one hand, and chattel slavery, on the other, in Greek poleis: these two trends not merely coincided but reinforced each other (Finley (1981), (1998); O. Patterson (1991)).
Walter Scheidel, “Monogamy and Polygyny,” in Beryl Rawson, ed., A Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds (Wiley 2010) pp. 112, 113
#ancient #bookReview #earlyGreekWarfare #modern #settlerColonialism #slavery #victorDavisHanson
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Enclave RPG: A Perfect Narrative Tabletop Experience
Disclaimer
I was sent a free copy of the the Enclave 1st Edition core rulebook to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review. Make sure you check out the Kickstarter for the 2nd edition and the game’s first expansion launching on October 10th.
What is Enclave?
Enclave is a unique narrative-driven TTRPG that doesn’t use dice. Players play through one-shot style adventures assigned to them by the Enclave, and facilitated by their Conduit. Longer campaigns are possible with this system, but it the design is for one-shots. This gives players and Conduits a freedom to always try something new and different, or grow throughout the myriad of missions that come their way.
Enclave first edition includes six unique classes, with six new classes being introduced in the game’s first expansion. A successful campaign could mean even more classes to explore. With an almost unlimited amount of builds and an expansive world to explore, there is always something to do in the world of Manifold, and you don’t even have to roll to get into it.
The Flavor
You are a mercenary hired by The Enclave to deal with whatever issue, big or small, that arises in the expansive world of Manifold. The Enclave is a massive secret organization that deals with worlds problems, provided there is something to profit. The Enclave does not only seek gold, but information, favors, and anything else there is to gain in this world. This gives them the freedom to set off any type of adventure, and the nearly infinite resources to make them work. The world of Manifold is a massive multiverse of possibilities, only limited the a tables imagination. Whether you are embarking on the one of the books included adventures, joining one on the official discord, or creating your own, a fantastic story awaits. You just have to make it up.
Gameplay
The Loop
Players are briefed on their mission in where they are given all the information they need to be successful. They are then teleported to the missions location where they must use their skills and creativity to complete the mission’s objectives. Players will then roleplay and describe what they do to complete the mission, and it is up to the conduit to make things happen. Unlike other systems, there is no random chance to shape the narrative. In Enclave, the story is written by how well the players roleplay their character. This doesn’t mean that the player has to be good at acting or using voices, but those who can create a tangible character and get creative with their actions are rewarded.
While Enclave gives a table the freedom of limitless adventure, there are limits to keep things somewhat grounded. Actions need to be plausible, with the appropriate stats to back them up. A Conduit can always tell players no, if there is reason to. There may not be critical failures baked into this system, but players can fail their actions. Actions have consequences. A player can set off an alert, or get caught in a lie that loses the party a valuable lead. Most importantly, players can die. There is a system in place for players to leave a mission at any time, but the chance of death is always present, and death is permanent.
Whether a mission ends in success or failure, there is always a new adventure for the next session.
Liveplay
Games like these are always better to learn by watching. The Old Warlock have a great video I recommend you watch. It s a good resource if you want to learn how to play the game or run the game. I found it very helpful when I was researching for my first run of the game. Make sure you give them a like and subscribe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOoAZE8FIVM
The Review
Enclave is a fantastic RPG that deserves more attention. If you play TTRPGs for the story, there is no better system. The game is easy to learn, easier to teach, and quick to setup. I found it to be a fantastic change of pace that I didn’t know we needed.
The Table
At my table, we are a group of busy dads who try to get together every Wednesday to catch up and play roleplaying games. My party will play anything I ask them to, but I can’t be too complicated. They barely remember what happened last session. The group is made up of three people, exluding myself. There is one person who is always ready to roleplay, one who meta games and plays optimally, and one who casually shows up for the comradery. Each one has their unique take on every game we play, and its been fun to see how they adjust to each new system. I was not ready for what Enclave had in store for us.
What it had in store
This was the fastest onboarding I’ve had of any game. My players usually struggle with the rules at the beginning. The first session is usually spent on looking up rules. We got right into the thick of things with Enclave, and my players enjoyed the freedom. The more we played the game, the more invested they became. I don’t think I’ve had a game where they remembered everything from the previous session, or be as invested in the world building as they were with the system. Your mileage will vary. We have been together five years and have a level of comfort that made the game fun.
The Session
I ran two missions, and each mission took 2 days each. I ran The Tragedy of House Gaulegvok mission included in the book, and I made up heist. The system is open to any genre and setting, with the only limit being the Conduit’s imagination.
From the Book
The prewritten adventure is a fantastic place to start if you are new to the game (after watching the video or joining a game on the official Discord channel). Players are hired by their patron to look into the villige’s mysterious disappearances. The book gives Conduits key points, NPCS, and a few ideas for encounters, but doesn’t railroad. This gave us the freedom to shape our story, and I loved it. Our games tend to be sillier, and the darker setting was a nice change of pace. It was also a perfect way to start October. If you need ideas, running The Tragedy of House Gaulegvok is a great place to start.
From the Dome
Once I got the hang of things, I was ready to create my own mission. The prep was very easy. I came up with the scenario, jotted down some plausible threats and details, and created the NPCs the players would interact with. This was the easiest game to prep for because I didn’t need to spend time balancing encounters or looking for maps, but the freedom the system gives you was a little intimidating. In most systems, I have that crutch of a dice roll, but here it would be all me. This time I couldn’t insert some random stat to buy some time, but it didn’t matter. Either because I’ve been doing this long enough, or i just naturally vibe with the system, I found Enclave easy and enjoyable to run. I was worried for nothing.
The Game
The game does get some getting used to if you’re coming from a system with a table. How do you as a conduit decide what happens? How hard do I need to make things? For me, as long as it was cool and plausible, I let it happen. Is it the right way of doing things? We had fun, so I’d argue yes. But every table is different, and the game does have an advanced ruleset to adjust the gameplay if needed.
I was a little worried going into this game because Enclave needs everyone to participate in the story telling. I was surprised to see my players start getting into character. It was nice to see my players do something because it was what their character would do and not the correct thing to do.
With games like Dungeons and Dragons, I found that my players were always worried about solving the encounter with numbers. Stats become more important than the exploration. While I did enjoy our time with D&D, I did not enjoy being bogged down by all that math. Enclave was the first time I saw my players try something different, but I will definitely need to run more games to get them to be weird.
The Art
The game includes art by the very talented Greg Taylor, and I will be including it throughout the article. I am a huge fan of the unique flavor and style, and find it fitting. I also like the collection of fan art that creator proudly displays throughout the server. If you want to help a game grow and make a tangible impact, make sure you join the Discord.
The classes
Enclave has fun and unique classes. I love the amount of flavor that goes into each class ability, and how they break away from the traditional style of class you see in other systems. For example, the Librarian class has an ability where they can come up with a piece of lore or information by making it up on the spot. They have to say it out loud in character, and if it makes sense, it becomes true. Not only is this an ability you would expect from a Librarian, but it gives players an incentive to get into character and help shape the world. There are a lot of other builds and flavors to choose from, and the one-shot style missions allows players to try them all.
Type of Game
Enclave doesn’t have an explicit setting or genre. The Conduit has the flexibility to create whatever world and adventure they want, in what ever genre they want. Horror, western, high fantasy, the game can be adjusted for any type of campaign and any kind of adventure you can think of, and that is a very good start to adventure. Best of all, the one-shot style type missions make it so you can always try something new. What makes Enclave unique is that a session doesn’t always need to be a mission and experience doesn’t need to come from a session.
Conduits can run casual events like parties where players come in character to roleplay without any mission objectives. Despite that, players can earn an item, ability, or something unique to help them on their future missions. I didn’t get to run this type of session, but I can see the value it has on world building. Players can also earn useful perks outside of the game by creating art or music, or having private in-character conversations with each other (so long as there is a witness). It is a very cool way to get players to not only get invested in the world, but get to the build it as well.
What I enjoyed most
I loved that there was no dice rolling. As much as I love the massive collection of dice I’ve accumulated over the years, it was nice to not be bogged down with all the rolling. We do a bit of theater of the mind already, and it was nicer to not have to deal with as many technical issues. Instead, we could focus on the story.
Creating the story was a lot of fun. There was a bit of awkwardness in the beginning as we got comfortable with the system, but narrative eventually started flowing. I found it helpful to ask follow-up questions about an action to get players to describe, or throwing a random NPC to spark some roleplay in the beginning. It didn’t take long to get into character. I enjoyed watching my players work through problems in character and getting invested in the world. Enclave is easily my favorite game to run because of the freedom it gave us to sit down and tell a story, even if it was a ridiculous one.
The Problem
The lack of dice can be a problem. Players need to be comfortable with roleplaying and improvisation because without player agency, there is no story. As a Conduit, you will need to do some heavy lifting in the beginning (especially with newer players) to get the table comfortable enough to roleplay. But I would argue this is true in any system you try. I would argue that not having a session bogged down by dice rolls definitely had its benefits.
The Community
If you are curious about the game but don’t have the friends to play with, Enclave has an active growing community on their official Discord. They run regular games, including non-mission ones, and enough knowledgeable people to answer any questions. The Discord is also a great place to keep up with any news or updates about the game.
What do I think?
Enclave is a fantastic system that deserves more attention, but it is not fit for every table. Everyone has their reason for playing ttrpgs, and some players won’t vibe with system. There is nothing wrong with that. Some players just want to roll dice and feel like they are winning encounters and that is a very valid way to play a TTRPG, so long as everyone is enjoying it. For everyone else, Enclave is a fantastic ttrpg experience. Enclave is easy to learn, teach and set up. If you want to sit down with your friends and create a fun story and have a good time, there is no better system than Enclave.
The Kickstarter
If you’ve made it this far, the best place to start is with the Kickstarter. The game will get its 2nd Edition and first expansion. I am sure players wouldn’t mind using the older rules, but the game has had two years to mature, and the updates The Kickstarter for Enclave Advent 2nd Edition and the game’s first expansion Aspirent should be live by the time you read this review. Make sure you go support and follow.
Enclave in Six Minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9a-j_Bpb3M
#2025 #blog #blogger #blogging #enclave #entertainment #fantasy #gameReview #gaming #gamingBlog #internet #Reviews #roleplay #rpg #SCIFI #tableTop #tabletopGaming #watch #wordpress #writing
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Enclave RPG: A Perfect Narrative Tabletop Experience
Disclaimer
I was sent a free copy of the the Enclave 1st Edition core rulebook to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review. Make sure you check out the Kickstarter for the 2nd edition and the game’s first expansion launching on October 10th.
What is Enclave?
Enclave is a unique narrative-driven TTRPG that doesn’t use dice. Players play through one-shot style adventures assigned to them by the Enclave, and facilitated by their Conduit. Longer campaigns are possible with this system, but it the design is for one-shots. This gives players and Conduits a freedom to always try something new and different, or grow throughout the myriad of missions that come their way.
Enclave first edition includes six unique classes, with six new classes being introduced in the game’s first expansion. A successful campaign could mean even more classes to explore. With an almost unlimited amount of builds and an expansive world to explore, there is always something to do in the world of Manifold, and you don’t even have to roll to get into it.
The Flavor
You are a mercenary hired by The Enclave to deal with whatever issue, big or small, that arises in the expansive world of Manifold. The Enclave is a massive secret organization that deals with worlds problems, provided there is something to profit. The Enclave does not only seek gold, but information, favors, and anything else there is to gain in this world. This gives them the freedom to set off any type of adventure, and the nearly infinite resources to make them work. The world of Manifold is a massive multiverse of possibilities, only limited the a tables imagination. Whether you are embarking on the one of the books included adventures, joining one on the official discord, or creating your own, a fantastic story awaits. You just have to make it up.
Gameplay
The Loop
Players are briefed on their mission in where they are given all the information they need to be successful. They are then teleported to the missions location where they must use their skills and creativity to complete the mission’s objectives. Players will then roleplay and describe what they do to complete the mission, and it is up to the conduit to make things happen. Unlike other systems, there is no random chance to shape the narrative. In Enclave, the story is written by how well the players roleplay their character. This doesn’t mean that the player has to be good at acting or using voices, but those who can create a tangible character and get creative with their actions are rewarded.
While Enclave gives a table the freedom of limitless adventure, there are limits to keep things somewhat grounded. Actions need to be plausible, with the appropriate stats to back them up. A Conduit can always tell players no, if there is reason to. There may not be critical failures baked into this system, but players can fail their actions. Actions have consequences. A player can set off an alert, or get caught in a lie that loses the party a valuable lead. Most importantly, players can die. There is a system in place for players to leave a mission at any time, but the chance of death is always present, and death is permanent.
Whether a mission ends in success or failure, there is always a new adventure for the next session.
Liveplay
Games like these are always better to learn by watching. The Old Warlock have a great video I recommend you watch. It s a good resource if you want to learn how to play the game or run the game. I found it very helpful when I was researching for my first run of the game. Make sure you give them a like and subscribe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOoAZE8FIVM
The Review
Enclave is a fantastic RPG that deserves more attention. If you play TTRPGs for the story, there is no better system. The game is easy to learn, easier to teach, and quick to setup. I found it to be a fantastic change of pace that I didn’t know we needed.
The Table
At my table, we are a group of busy dads who try to get together every Wednesday to catch up and play roleplaying games. My party will play anything I ask them to, but I can’t be too complicated. They barely remember what happened last session. The group is made up of three people, exluding myself. There is one person who is always ready to roleplay, one who meta games and plays optimally, and one who casually shows up for the comradery. Each one has their unique take on every game we play, and its been fun to see how they adjust to each new system. I was not ready for what Enclave had in store for us.
What it had in store
This was the fastest onboarding I’ve had of any game. My players usually struggle with the rules at the beginning. The first session is usually spent on looking up rules. We got right into the thick of things with Enclave, and my players enjoyed the freedom. The more we played the game, the more invested they became. I don’t think I’ve had a game where they remembered everything from the previous session, or be as invested in the world building as they were with the system. Your mileage will vary. We have been together five years and have a level of comfort that made the game fun.
The Session
I ran two missions, and each mission took 2 days each. I ran The Tragedy of House Gaulegvok mission included in the book, and I made up heist. The system is open to any genre and setting, with the only limit being the Conduit’s imagination.
From the Book
The prewritten adventure is a fantastic place to start if you are new to the game (after watching the video or joining a game on the official Discord channel). Players are hired by their patron to look into the villige’s mysterious disappearances. The book gives Conduits key points, NPCS, and a few ideas for encounters, but doesn’t railroad. This gave us the freedom to shape our story, and I loved it. Our games tend to be sillier, and the darker setting was a nice change of pace. It was also a perfect way to start October. If you need ideas, running The Tragedy of House Gaulegvok is a great place to start.
From the Dome
Once I got the hang of things, I was ready to create my own mission. The prep was very easy. I came up with the scenario, jotted down some plausible threats and details, and created the NPCs the players would interact with. This was the easiest game to prep for because I didn’t need to spend time balancing encounters or looking for maps, but the freedom the system gives you was a little intimidating. In most systems, I have that crutch of a dice roll, but here it would be all me. This time I couldn’t insert some random stat to buy some time, but it didn’t matter. Either because I’ve been doing this long enough, or i just naturally vibe with the system, I found Enclave easy and enjoyable to run. I was worried for nothing.
The Game
The game does get some getting used to if you’re coming from a system with a table. How do you as a conduit decide what happens? How hard do I need to make things? For me, as long as it was cool and plausible, I let it happen. Is it the right way of doing things? We had fun, so I’d argue yes. But every table is different, and the game does have an advanced ruleset to adjust the gameplay if needed.
I was a little worried going into this game because Enclave needs everyone to participate in the story telling. I was surprised to see my players start getting into character. It was nice to see my players do something because it was what their character would do and not the correct thing to do.
With games like Dungeons and Dragons, I found that my players were always worried about solving the encounter with numbers. Stats become more important than the exploration. While I did enjoy our time with D&D, I did not enjoy being bogged down by all that math. Enclave was the first time I saw my players try something different, but I will definitely need to run more games to get them to be weird.
The Art
The game includes art by the very talented Greg Taylor, and I will be including it throughout the article. I am a huge fan of the unique flavor and style, and find it fitting. I also like the collection of fan art that creator proudly displays throughout the server. If you want to help a game grow and make a tangible impact, make sure you join the Discord.
The classes
Enclave has fun and unique classes. I love the amount of flavor that goes into each class ability, and how they break away from the traditional style of class you see in other systems. For example, the Librarian class has an ability where they can come up with a piece of lore or information by making it up on the spot. They have to say it out loud in character, and if it makes sense, it becomes true. Not only is this an ability you would expect from a Librarian, but it gives players an incentive to get into character and help shape the world. There are a lot of other builds and flavors to choose from, and the one-shot style missions allows players to try them all.
Type of Game
Enclave doesn’t have an explicit setting or genre. The Conduit has the flexibility to create whatever world and adventure they want, in what ever genre they want. Horror, western, high fantasy, the game can be adjusted for any type of campaign and any kind of adventure you can think of, and that is a very good start to adventure. Best of all, the one-shot style type missions make it so you can always try something new. What makes Enclave unique is that a session doesn’t always need to be a mission and experience doesn’t need to come from a session.
Conduits can run casual events like parties where players come in character to roleplay without any mission objectives. Despite that, players can earn an item, ability, or something unique to help them on their future missions. I didn’t get to run this type of session, but I can see the value it has on world building. Players can also earn useful perks outside of the game by creating art or music, or having private in-character conversations with each other (so long as there is a witness). It is a very cool way to get players to not only get invested in the world, but get to the build it as well.
What I enjoyed most
I loved that there was no dice rolling. As much as I love the massive collection of dice I’ve accumulated over the years, it was nice to not be bogged down with all the rolling. We do a bit of theater of the mind already, and it was nicer to not have to deal with as many technical issues. Instead, we could focus on the story.
Creating the story was a lot of fun. There was a bit of awkwardness in the beginning as we got comfortable with the system, but narrative eventually started flowing. I found it helpful to ask follow-up questions about an action to get players to describe, or throwing a random NPC to spark some roleplay in the beginning. It didn’t take long to get into character. I enjoyed watching my players work through problems in character and getting invested in the world. Enclave is easily my favorite game to run because of the freedom it gave us to sit down and tell a story, even if it was a ridiculous one.
The Problem
The lack of dice can be a problem. Players need to be comfortable with roleplaying and improvisation because without player agency, there is no story. As a Conduit, you will need to do some heavy lifting in the beginning (especially with newer players) to get the table comfortable enough to roleplay. But I would argue this is true in any system you try. I would argue that not having a session bogged down by dice rolls definitely had its benefits.
The Community
If you are curious about the game but don’t have the friends to play with, Enclave has an active growing community on their official Discord. They run regular games, including non-mission ones, and enough knowledgeable people to answer any questions. The Discord is also a great place to keep up with any news or updates about the game.
What do I think?
Enclave is a fantastic system that deserves more attention, but it is not fit for every table. Everyone has their reason for playing ttrpgs, and some players won’t vibe with system. There is nothing wrong with that. Some players just want to roll dice and feel like they are winning encounters and that is a very valid way to play a TTRPG, so long as everyone is enjoying it. For everyone else, Enclave is a fantastic ttrpg experience. Enclave is easy to learn, teach and set up. If you want to sit down with your friends and create a fun story and have a good time, there is no better system than Enclave.
The Kickstarter
If you’ve made it this far, the best place to start is with the Kickstarter. The game will get its 2nd Edition and first expansion. I am sure players wouldn’t mind using the older rules, but the game has had two years to mature, and the updates The Kickstarter for Enclave Advent 2nd Edition and the game’s first expansion Aspirent should be live by the time you read this review. Make sure you go support and follow.
Enclave in Six Minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9a-j_Bpb3M
#2025 #blog #blogger #blogging #enclave #entertainment #fantasy #gameReview #gaming #gamingBlog #internet #Reviews #roleplay #rpg #SCIFI #tableTop #tabletopGaming #watch #wordpress #writing
-
Enclave RPG: A Perfect Narrative Tabletop Experience
Disclaimer
I was sent a free copy of the the Enclave 1st Edition core rulebook to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review. Make sure you check out the Kickstarter for the 2nd edition and the game’s first expansion launching on October 10th.
What is Enclave?
Enclave is a unique narrative-driven TTRPG that doesn’t use dice. Players play through one-shot style adventures assigned to them by the Enclave, and facilitated by their Conduit. Longer campaigns are possible with this system, but it the design is for one-shots. This gives players and Conduits a freedom to always try something new and different, or grow throughout the myriad of missions that come their way.
Enclave first edition includes six unique classes, with six new classes being introduced in the game’s first expansion. A successful campaign could mean even more classes to explore. With an almost unlimited amount of builds and an expansive world to explore, there is always something to do in the world of Manifold, and you don’t even have to roll to get into it.
The Flavor
You are a mercenary hired by The Enclave to deal with whatever issue, big or small, that arises in the expansive world of Manifold. The Enclave is a massive secret organization that deals with worlds problems, provided there is something to profit. The Enclave does not only seek gold, but information, favors, and anything else there is to gain in this world. This gives them the freedom to set off any type of adventure, and the nearly infinite resources to make them work. The world of Manifold is a massive multiverse of possibilities, only limited the a tables imagination. Whether you are embarking on the one of the books included adventures, joining one on the official discord, or creating your own, a fantastic story awaits. You just have to make it up.
Gameplay
The Loop
Players are briefed on their mission in where they are given all the information they need to be successful. They are then teleported to the missions location where they must use their skills and creativity to complete the mission’s objectives. Players will then roleplay and describe what they do to complete the mission, and it is up to the conduit to make things happen. Unlike other systems, there is no random chance to shape the narrative. In Enclave, the story is written by how well the players roleplay their character. This doesn’t mean that the player has to be good at acting or using voices, but those who can create a tangible character and get creative with their actions are rewarded.
While Enclave gives a table the freedom of limitless adventure, there are limits to keep things somewhat grounded. Actions need to be plausible, with the appropriate stats to back them up. A Conduit can always tell players no, if there is reason to. There may not be critical failures baked into this system, but players can fail their actions. Actions have consequences. A player can set off an alert, or get caught in a lie that loses the party a valuable lead. Most importantly, players can die. There is a system in place for players to leave a mission at any time, but the chance of death is always present, and death is permanent.
Whether a mission ends in success or failure, there is always a new adventure for the next session.
Liveplay
Games like these are always better to learn by watching. The Old Warlock have a great video I recommend you watch. It s a good resource if you want to learn how to play the game or run the game. I found it very helpful when I was researching for my first run of the game. Make sure you give them a like and subscribe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOoAZE8FIVM
The Review
Enclave is a fantastic RPG that deserves more attention. If you play TTRPGs for the story, there is no better system. The game is easy to learn, easier to teach, and quick to setup. I found it to be a fantastic change of pace that I didn’t know we needed.
The Table
At my table, we are a group of busy dads who try to get together every Wednesday to catch up and play roleplaying games. My party will play anything I ask them to, but I can’t be too complicated. They barely remember what happened last session. The group is made up of three people, exluding myself. There is one person who is always ready to roleplay, one who meta games and plays optimally, and one who casually shows up for the comradery. Each one has their unique take on every game we play, and its been fun to see how they adjust to each new system. I was not ready for what Enclave had in store for us.
What it had in store
This was the fastest onboarding I’ve had of any game. My players usually struggle with the rules at the beginning. The first session is usually spent on looking up rules. We got right into the thick of things with Enclave, and my players enjoyed the freedom. The more we played the game, the more invested they became. I don’t think I’ve had a game where they remembered everything from the previous session, or be as invested in the world building as they were with the system. Your mileage will vary. We have been together five years and have a level of comfort that made the game fun.
The Session
I ran two missions, and each mission took 2 days each. I ran The Tragedy of House Gaulegvok mission included in the book, and I made up heist. The system is open to any genre and setting, with the only limit being the Conduit’s imagination.
From the Book
The prewritten adventure is a fantastic place to start if you are new to the game (after watching the video or joining a game on the official Discord channel). Players are hired by their patron to look into the villige’s mysterious disappearances. The book gives Conduits key points, NPCS, and a few ideas for encounters, but doesn’t railroad. This gave us the freedom to shape our story, and I loved it. Our games tend to be sillier, and the darker setting was a nice change of pace. It was also a perfect way to start October. If you need ideas, running The Tragedy of House Gaulegvok is a great place to start.
From the Dome
Once I got the hang of things, I was ready to create my own mission. The prep was very easy. I came up with the scenario, jotted down some plausible threats and details, and created the NPCs the players would interact with. This was the easiest game to prep for because I didn’t need to spend time balancing encounters or looking for maps, but the freedom the system gives you was a little intimidating. In most systems, I have that crutch of a dice roll, but here it would be all me. This time I couldn’t insert some random stat to buy some time, but it didn’t matter. Either because I’ve been doing this long enough, or i just naturally vibe with the system, I found Enclave easy and enjoyable to run. I was worried for nothing.
The Game
The game does get some getting used to if you’re coming from a system with a table. How do you as a conduit decide what happens? How hard do I need to make things? For me, as long as it was cool and plausible, I let it happen. Is it the right way of doing things? We had fun, so I’d argue yes. But every table is different, and the game does have an advanced ruleset to adjust the gameplay if needed.
I was a little worried going into this game because Enclave needs everyone to participate in the story telling. I was surprised to see my players start getting into character. It was nice to see my players do something because it was what their character would do and not the correct thing to do.
With games like Dungeons and Dragons, I found that my players were always worried about solving the encounter with numbers. Stats become more important than the exploration. While I did enjoy our time with D&D, I did not enjoy being bogged down by all that math. Enclave was the first time I saw my players try something different, but I will definitely need to run more games to get them to be weird.
The Art
The game includes art by the very talented Greg Taylor, and I will be including it throughout the article. I am a huge fan of the unique flavor and style, and find it fitting. I also like the collection of fan art that creator proudly displays throughout the server. If you want to help a game grow and make a tangible impact, make sure you join the Discord.
The classes
Enclave has fun and unique classes. I love the amount of flavor that goes into each class ability, and how they break away from the traditional style of class you see in other systems. For example, the Librarian class has an ability where they can come up with a piece of lore or information by making it up on the spot. They have to say it out loud in character, and if it makes sense, it becomes true. Not only is this an ability you would expect from a Librarian, but it gives players an incentive to get into character and help shape the world. There are a lot of other builds and flavors to choose from, and the one-shot style missions allows players to try them all.
Type of Game
Enclave doesn’t have an explicit setting or genre. The Conduit has the flexibility to create whatever world and adventure they want, in what ever genre they want. Horror, western, high fantasy, the game can be adjusted for any type of campaign and any kind of adventure you can think of, and that is a very good start to adventure. Best of all, the one-shot style type missions make it so you can always try something new. What makes Enclave unique is that a session doesn’t always need to be a mission and experience doesn’t need to come from a session.
Conduits can run casual events like parties where players come in character to roleplay without any mission objectives. Despite that, players can earn an item, ability, or something unique to help them on their future missions. I didn’t get to run this type of session, but I can see the value it has on world building. Players can also earn useful perks outside of the game by creating art or music, or having private in-character conversations with each other (so long as there is a witness). It is a very cool way to get players to not only get invested in the world, but get to the build it as well.
What I enjoyed most
I loved that there was no dice rolling. As much as I love the massive collection of dice I’ve accumulated over the years, it was nice to not be bogged down with all the rolling. We do a bit of theater of the mind already, and it was nicer to not have to deal with as many technical issues. Instead, we could focus on the story.
Creating the story was a lot of fun. There was a bit of awkwardness in the beginning as we got comfortable with the system, but narrative eventually started flowing. I found it helpful to ask follow-up questions about an action to get players to describe, or throwing a random NPC to spark some roleplay in the beginning. It didn’t take long to get into character. I enjoyed watching my players work through problems in character and getting invested in the world. Enclave is easily my favorite game to run because of the freedom it gave us to sit down and tell a story, even if it was a ridiculous one.
The Problem
The lack of dice can be a problem. Players need to be comfortable with roleplaying and improvisation because without player agency, there is no story. As a Conduit, you will need to do some heavy lifting in the beginning (especially with newer players) to get the table comfortable enough to roleplay. But I would argue this is true in any system you try. I would argue that not having a session bogged down by dice rolls definitely had its benefits.
The Community
If you are curious about the game but don’t have the friends to play with, Enclave has an active growing community on their official Discord. They run regular games, including non-mission ones, and enough knowledgeable people to answer any questions. The Discord is also a great place to keep up with any news or updates about the game.
What do I think?
Enclave is a fantastic system that deserves more attention, but it is not fit for every table. Everyone has their reason for playing ttrpgs, and some players won’t vibe with system. There is nothing wrong with that. Some players just want to roll dice and feel like they are winning encounters and that is a very valid way to play a TTRPG, so long as everyone is enjoying it. For everyone else, Enclave is a fantastic ttrpg experience. Enclave is easy to learn, teach and set up. If you want to sit down with your friends and create a fun story and have a good time, there is no better system than Enclave.
The Kickstarter
If you’ve made it this far, the best place to start is with the Kickstarter. The game will get its 2nd Edition and first expansion. I am sure players wouldn’t mind using the older rules, but the game has had two years to mature, and the updates The Kickstarter for Enclave Advent 2nd Edition and the game’s first expansion Aspirent should be live by the time you read this review. Make sure you go support and follow.
Enclave in Six Minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9a-j_Bpb3M
#2025 #blog #blogger #blogging #enclave #entertainment #fantasy #gameReview #gaming #gamingBlog #internet #Reviews #roleplay #rpg #SCIFI #tableTop #tabletopGaming #watch #wordpress #writing
-
Enclave RPG: A Perfect Narrative Tabletop Experience
Disclaimer
I was sent a free copy of the the Enclave 1st Edition core rulebook to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review. Make sure you check out the Kickstarter for the 2nd edition and the game’s first expansion launching on October 10th.
What is Enclave?
Enclave is a unique narrative-driven TTRPG that doesn’t use dice. Players play through one-shot style adventures assigned to them by the Enclave, and facilitated by their Conduit. Longer campaigns are possible with this system, but it the design is for one-shots. This gives players and Conduits a freedom to always try something new and different, or grow throughout the myriad of missions that come their way.
Enclave first edition includes six unique classes, with six new classes being introduced in the game’s first expansion. A successful campaign could mean even more classes to explore. With an almost unlimited amount of builds and an expansive world to explore, there is always something to do in the world of Manifold, and you don’t even have to roll to get into it.
The Flavor
You are a mercenary hired by The Enclave to deal with whatever issue, big or small, that arises in the expansive world of Manifold. The Enclave is a massive secret organization that deals with worlds problems, provided there is something to profit. The Enclave does not only seek gold, but information, favors, and anything else there is to gain in this world. This gives them the freedom to set off any type of adventure, and the nearly infinite resources to make them work. The world of Manifold is a massive multiverse of possibilities, only limited the a tables imagination. Whether you are embarking on the one of the books included adventures, joining one on the official discord, or creating your own, a fantastic story awaits. You just have to make it up.
Gameplay
The Loop
Players are briefed on their mission in where they are given all the information they need to be successful. They are then teleported to the missions location where they must use their skills and creativity to complete the mission’s objectives. Players will then roleplay and describe what they do to complete the mission, and it is up to the conduit to make things happen. Unlike other systems, there is no random chance to shape the narrative. In Enclave, the story is written by how well the players roleplay their character. This doesn’t mean that the player has to be good at acting or using voices, but those who can create a tangible character and get creative with their actions are rewarded.
While Enclave gives a table the freedom of limitless adventure, there are limits to keep things somewhat grounded. Actions need to be plausible, with the appropriate stats to back them up. A Conduit can always tell players no, if there is reason to. There may not be critical failures baked into this system, but players can fail their actions. Actions have consequences. A player can set off an alert, or get caught in a lie that loses the party a valuable lead. Most importantly, players can die. There is a system in place for players to leave a mission at any time, but the chance of death is always present, and death is permanent.
Whether a mission ends in success or failure, there is always a new adventure for the next session.
Liveplay
Games like these are always better to learn by watching. The Old Warlock have a great video I recommend you watch. It s a good resource if you want to learn how to play the game or run the game. I found it very helpful when I was researching for my first run of the game. Make sure you give them a like and subscribe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOoAZE8FIVM
The Review
Enclave is a fantastic RPG that deserves more attention. If you play TTRPGs for the story, there is no better system. The game is easy to learn, easier to teach, and quick to setup. I found it to be a fantastic change of pace that I didn’t know we needed.
The Table
At my table, we are a group of busy dads who try to get together every Wednesday to catch up and play roleplaying games. My party will play anything I ask them to, but I can’t be too complicated. They barely remember what happened last session. The group is made up of three people, exluding myself. There is one person who is always ready to roleplay, one who meta games and plays optimally, and one who casually shows up for the comradery. Each one has their unique take on every game we play, and its been fun to see how they adjust to each new system. I was not ready for what Enclave had in store for us.
What it had in store
This was the fastest onboarding I’ve had of any game. My players usually struggle with the rules at the beginning. The first session is usually spent on looking up rules. We got right into the thick of things with Enclave, and my players enjoyed the freedom. The more we played the game, the more invested they became. I don’t think I’ve had a game where they remembered everything from the previous session, or be as invested in the world building as they were with the system. Your mileage will vary. We have been together five years and have a level of comfort that made the game fun.
The Session
I ran two missions, and each mission took 2 days each. I ran The Tragedy of House Gaulegvok mission included in the book, and I made up heist. The system is open to any genre and setting, with the only limit being the Conduit’s imagination.
From the Book
The prewritten adventure is a fantastic place to start if you are new to the game (after watching the video or joining a game on the official Discord channel). Players are hired by their patron to look into the villige’s mysterious disappearances. The book gives Conduits key points, NPCS, and a few ideas for encounters, but doesn’t railroad. This gave us the freedom to shape our story, and I loved it. Our games tend to be sillier, and the darker setting was a nice change of pace. It was also a perfect way to start October. If you need ideas, running The Tragedy of House Gaulegvok is a great place to start.
From the Dome
Once I got the hang of things, I was ready to create my own mission. The prep was very easy. I came up with the scenario, jotted down some plausible threats and details, and created the NPCs the players would interact with. This was the easiest game to prep for because I didn’t need to spend time balancing encounters or looking for maps, but the freedom the system gives you was a little intimidating. In most systems, I have that crutch of a dice roll, but here it would be all me. This time I couldn’t insert some random stat to buy some time, but it didn’t matter. Either because I’ve been doing this long enough, or i just naturally vibe with the system, I found Enclave easy and enjoyable to run. I was worried for nothing.
The Game
The game does get some getting used to if you’re coming from a system with a table. How do you as a conduit decide what happens? How hard do I need to make things? For me, as long as it was cool and plausible, I let it happen. Is it the right way of doing things? We had fun, so I’d argue yes. But every table is different, and the game does have an advanced ruleset to adjust the gameplay if needed.
I was a little worried going into this game because Enclave needs everyone to participate in the story telling. I was surprised to see my players start getting into character. It was nice to see my players do something because it was what their character would do and not the correct thing to do.
With games like Dungeons and Dragons, I found that my players were always worried about solving the encounter with numbers. Stats become more important than the exploration. While I did enjoy our time with D&D, I did not enjoy being bogged down by all that math. Enclave was the first time I saw my players try something different, but I will definitely need to run more games to get them to be weird.
The Art
The game includes art by the very talented Greg Taylor, and I will be including it throughout the article. I am a huge fan of the unique flavor and style, and find it fitting. I also like the collection of fan art that creator proudly displays throughout the server. If you want to help a game grow and make a tangible impact, make sure you join the Discord.
The classes
Enclave has fun and unique classes. I love the amount of flavor that goes into each class ability, and how they break away from the traditional style of class you see in other systems. For example, the Librarian class has an ability where they can come up with a piece of lore or information by making it up on the spot. They have to say it out loud in character, and if it makes sense, it becomes true. Not only is this an ability you would expect from a Librarian, but it gives players an incentive to get into character and help shape the world. There are a lot of other builds and flavors to choose from, and the one-shot style missions allows players to try them all.
Type of Game
Enclave doesn’t have an explicit setting or genre. The Conduit has the flexibility to create whatever world and adventure they want, in what ever genre they want. Horror, western, high fantasy, the game can be adjusted for any type of campaign and any kind of adventure you can think of, and that is a very good start to adventure. Best of all, the one-shot style type missions make it so you can always try something new. What makes Enclave unique is that a session doesn’t always need to be a mission and experience doesn’t need to come from a session.
Conduits can run casual events like parties where players come in character to roleplay without any mission objectives. Despite that, players can earn an item, ability, or something unique to help them on their future missions. I didn’t get to run this type of session, but I can see the value it has on world building. Players can also earn useful perks outside of the game by creating art or music, or having private in-character conversations with each other (so long as there is a witness). It is a very cool way to get players to not only get invested in the world, but get to the build it as well.
What I enjoyed most
I loved that there was no dice rolling. As much as I love the massive collection of dice I’ve accumulated over the years, it was nice to not be bogged down with all the rolling. We do a bit of theater of the mind already, and it was nicer to not have to deal with as many technical issues. Instead, we could focus on the story.
Creating the story was a lot of fun. There was a bit of awkwardness in the beginning as we got comfortable with the system, but narrative eventually started flowing. I found it helpful to ask follow-up questions about an action to get players to describe, or throwing a random NPC to spark some roleplay in the beginning. It didn’t take long to get into character. I enjoyed watching my players work through problems in character and getting invested in the world. Enclave is easily my favorite game to run because of the freedom it gave us to sit down and tell a story, even if it was a ridiculous one.
The Problem
The lack of dice can be a problem. Players need to be comfortable with roleplaying and improvisation because without player agency, there is no story. As a Conduit, you will need to do some heavy lifting in the beginning (especially with newer players) to get the table comfortable enough to roleplay. But I would argue this is true in any system you try. I would argue that not having a session bogged down by dice rolls definitely had its benefits.
The Community
If you are curious about the game but don’t have the friends to play with, Enclave has an active growing community on their official Discord. They run regular games, including non-mission ones, and enough knowledgeable people to answer any questions. The Discord is also a great place to keep up with any news or updates about the game.
What do I think?
Enclave is a fantastic system that deserves more attention, but it is not fit for every table. Everyone has their reason for playing ttrpgs, and some players won’t vibe with system. There is nothing wrong with that. Some players just want to roll dice and feel like they are winning encounters and that is a very valid way to play a TTRPG, so long as everyone is enjoying it. For everyone else, Enclave is a fantastic ttrpg experience. Enclave is easy to learn, teach and set up. If you want to sit down with your friends and create a fun story and have a good time, there is no better system than Enclave.
The Kickstarter
If you’ve made it this far, the best place to start is with the Kickstarter. The game will get its 2nd Edition and first expansion. I am sure players wouldn’t mind using the older rules, but the game has had two years to mature, and the updates The Kickstarter for Enclave Advent 2nd Edition and the game’s first expansion Aspirent should be live by the time you read this review. Make sure you go support and follow.
Enclave in Six Minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9a-j_Bpb3M
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Information update. Dear Joomla Community, we are currently navigating through some technical issues with our email provider. This might temporarily affect certain services across joomla.org and its subdomains, especially if you are trying to use 'forgot password' or 'forgot username' functions. Our team is working on a solution to resolve this ASAP. Very sorry. Stay tuned for updates, and thank you for your patience and understanding.
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Information update. Dear Joomla Community, we are currently navigating through some technical issues with our email provider. This might temporarily affect certain services across joomla.org and its subdomains, especially if you are trying to use 'forgot password' or 'forgot username' functions. Our team is working on a solution to resolve this ASAP. Very sorry. Stay tuned for updates, and thank you for your patience and understanding.
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Information update. Dear Joomla Community, we are currently navigating through some technical issues with our email provider. This might temporarily affect certain services across joomla.org and its subdomains, especially if you are trying to use 'forgot password' or 'forgot username' functions. Our team is working on a solution to resolve this ASAP. Very sorry. Stay tuned for updates, and thank you for your patience and understanding.
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Information update. Dear Joomla Community, we are currently navigating through some technical issues with our email provider. This might temporarily affect certain services across joomla.org and its subdomains, especially if you are trying to use 'forgot password' or 'forgot username' functions. Our team is working on a solution to resolve this ASAP. Very sorry. Stay tuned for updates, and thank you for your patience and understanding.
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Snap Inc. shares plunged 19% after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q2 results, citing technical issues in its ad platform and lagging advertising growth compared to rivals.
#YonhapInfomax #SnapInc #Q2Results #AdvertisingGrowth #RevenueMiss #SharePriceDrop #Economics #FinancialMarkets #Banking #Securities #Bonds #StockMarket
https://en.infomaxai.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=75921 -
Snap Inc. shares plunged 19% after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q2 results, citing technical issues in its ad platform and lagging advertising growth compared to rivals.
#YonhapInfomax #SnapInc #Q2Results #AdvertisingGrowth #RevenueMiss #SharePriceDrop #Economics #FinancialMarkets #Banking #Securities #Bonds #StockMarket
https://en.infomaxai.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=75921 -
Snap Inc. shares plunged 19% after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q2 results, citing technical issues in its ad platform and lagging advertising growth compared to rivals.
#YonhapInfomax #SnapInc #Q2Results #AdvertisingGrowth #RevenueMiss #SharePriceDrop #Economics #FinancialMarkets #Banking #Securities #Bonds #StockMarket
https://en.infomaxai.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=75921 -
Snap Inc. shares plunged 19% after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q2 results, citing technical issues in its ad platform and lagging advertising growth compared to rivals.
#YonhapInfomax #SnapInc #Q2Results #AdvertisingGrowth #RevenueMiss #SharePriceDrop #Economics #FinancialMarkets #Banking #Securities #Bonds #StockMarket
https://en.infomaxai.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=75921 -
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I'm terribly sorry, it looks like Cloudflair, one of the World's leading Internet security companies, is experiencing technical issues, just like Amazon did the other day. Lots of websites are currently affected, including markstothard.photography
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I'm terribly sorry, it looks like Cloudflair, one of the World's leading Internet security companies, is experiencing technical issues, just like Amazon did the other day. Lots of websites are currently affected, including markstothard.photography
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I'm terribly sorry, it looks like Cloudflair, one of the World's leading Internet security companies, is experiencing technical issues, just like Amazon did the other day. Lots of websites are currently affected, including markstothard.photography
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MSNBC Faces ‘Morning Woe’ After Tech Problems Cause A.M. Glitch
#Variety #News #JonathanLemire #MorningJoe #Msnbchttps://variety.com/2023/tv/news/msnbc-morning-joe-technical-issues-jonathan-lemire-1235834850/
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MSNBC Faces ‘Morning Woe’ After Tech Problems Cause A.M. Glitch
#Variety #News #JonathanLemire #MorningJoe #Msnbchttps://variety.com/2023/tv/news/msnbc-morning-joe-technical-issues-jonathan-lemire-1235834850/