The Sun Tzu’s Art of War says that there are only three maneuvers in war – advance, stay and retreat, but those are enough to form countless strategies, much as how seven notes are enough for an infinity amount of music.
So far, conflicts in RPG has been largely physical in scope – combat and mass battles. Combat in RPG is a very well developed area – from D&D’s tactical take to more cinematic offerings such as Fengshui, Weapons of the God and the upcoming Spellbound Kingdoms. Recently, another form of conflict has entered the fray – social conflicts. Instead of armour and physical weakness, you look out for secrets which will give you an edge-up over your opponent – who has the most influence on him? What does he value the most?
Those conflicts, however, are largely tactical. When I read Romance of the Three Kingdoms and a Song of Ice and Fire, I am wondering if there is a way to have political conflicts, a match in strategies and so on. Conflicts that take place over a vast area, instead of being confined to an area.
Two games promise that…REIGN and House of the Blooded; I have to admit I have yet to read them, but they give me a feeling of “hands-off, top-down”, which I am not sure if it is the mood I want. If players are going to role-play as emperors, rulers or guild leaders, maybe they should be playing RISK, Age of Empire (the board game) or something else? What good does role-playing add to these types of large scale conflicts?
One idea to consider is what if the player goes against each other?
For another project, I have been charged with the task of a prototyping a real-time strategy game. One of the important feature about such games is usually the fog of war, and more so in this project. How do I go about preparing a board-game prototype with a fog of war? When it is the next player’s turn, even if he putting down some tokens face down, you know that he is doing something. Worse still, without computers, you don’t even know if he is cheating.
There is a problem with such a players vs. players RPG with an epic scope is that the GM has to hide secrets. This may be acceptable for play by email, but how much more fun is this than Diplomacy? Is the GM just the piece of barrier like in a Battleship game? Secondly, if the players are present and they are the enemies of each other — well, is this the way people want to spend an evening relaxing? There’s a fine line in presenting a challenge and grieving when it comes to the game table, especially for a RPG where there more actions possible than a board game.
One idea I have been toying with is to mix board game mechanics with RPG resolution. Actions made on a marco level influences the players while they are role-playing, and those high-level decisions may generate random encounters, influences reactions of NPCs and avaliability of allies. Of course, the GM must be quick to adapt as well! If the board game level indicate that the city which the party is supposed to be visiting is under siege, and it wasn’t so before the campagin start, then the GM must be fast enough to adapt to the new environment.
