#ramblings — Public Fediverse posts

So on the recent XLBS the question was

What Is A Narrative Wargame?

and the discussion always seems to revolve around tournament players vs campaign players and I feel there is more to this. I’ll try to do a list.

• tournament players – always ears on the ground, chasing the meta and the latest way to cheese the game in order to win.
• campaign/narrative players – setting up a scenario or campaign with (relative) strict rules and setup in order to enjoy a long play
• historical players – recreate a battle from history with all limitations, events etc in order to re-enact the battle/war and maybe even change the course of history
• casual players – just some gamers who like the setting, the models, the fluff and like to battle it out. No big digging in old tomes and chasing meta and any advantage they can get but more „rule of cool“ and a nice day with friends at the table

I think those are the main groups of people gaming companies try to address. Historical players are, well, the easiest. History is written only the rule system matters. And as long as everything stays within what history has said all is fine and good.

Campaign/narrative players, as long as the rules are mostly balanced and every faction has their ups and downs all is good and gaming is easy.

For tournament players rules should be (IMHO) play-tested to hell and back again. Every Army should have the same chances to win so that really only the brain behind creating the army list and implementing the tactics is the deciding factor on who wins. Like in racing games when everybody uses the same car and engine and only the driver makes a difference.

Now casual players. Rules shouldn’t be to much out of balance but a great backstory, fluff and flair makes all the difference. Fun first, rules second but everybody should be on the same side on how to resolve the outcome on the table.

Where do I see myself? Personally I think I’m mostly a casual player. Winning is nice but having fun is much more important. If a game (like Frostgrave) has an RPG element I also like campaigns but that is the exception to the rule. Tournaments tend to be too much stress and history… well, that just doesn’t tickle my fancy.

What about you?