Recently I introduced a war into my home game. Two factions aligned against each other and they began fighting in the capital of Bissel, Thornward. The immediate action was easy to narrate. I described scenes of chaos and fighting around the players. Explosions happened down streets, dead bodies were left behind and the sounds of combat could be heard off in the distance.
Where things get difficult is when you begin to have the war exist outside the players immediate awareness. Where are the forces? Who is winning? Who are the good guys?
These are questions I'm struggling with at the current moment, but I'm thinking that looking to war gaming for the answer may provide me with a way to resolve all this. Maybe.
I am curious about, even a little confused by, some of the question you're asking.
ReplyDeleteHow would you not know who the 'good guys' are if you determined who's fighting the war? Where are the forces? Wouldn't they be located at key target areas? One side is trying to cut off supplies of the other side. The other side is trying to protect those routes 'cause they need those supplies. Who is winning? Well, no one truly wins in war but ostensibly the one with more dead people and less resources than it started with is losing.
Why is it you are struggling with these questions? Perhaps a better way to put it would be, 'what makes determining these things tricky'?
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DeleteTo expand, all these answers occur naturally from the well built/understood campaign setting. And you can't really have a full campaign style war(even if it's in the background) without having that that campaign setting in the first place. You don't need a wargame to simulate this, though if the players are involved they may want to use a wargame to get involved, but not strictly necessary.
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