Game in the Brain

Plans for Game Writing. Low Tech being out and probing the forums as to any future releases regarding any material that work on the details I find important in telling the story. Details that help illustrate the underlying organizational mechanics for running Mass Combat and major Operations. I think this is important, well its important to me, in the least. Since there seems to be no one else interested and I’m the only one interested, then I guess it is not market viable for GURPS to pursue. I guess that leaves me to make them, despite how confusing the opportunity and the lack of support in the direction I want can make me feel.

News is that the next Low Tech add-on is Instant Armors, by Dan Howard. I do like having several tables for armors in detail and transmitting some last minute corrections that didn’t make the cutting room floor. Although sadly thats it.

My personal need is making Mass Combat more useful and easier to use. Again I like the idea of working with Land Assets which was partially covered by Hal’s thread, and method of drawing up villages where key strategic details can be used, either at the level of village or the level of the Principality or the Fief (group of villages).

So I find myself looking forward to some real material to write about. At least if I’m not gibber-gabbering about “Meta” stuff.

Personal Load outs Levels of detail, particularly drawn out of historical sources or infered because of biometrics, necessities, and context of survival conditions. Particularly when applying survival skills, terrain, and personal logistics to the load out.

Larger Organizational Load outs. Squad level equipment and larger organizational levels and their equipment is something that is not tackled and I don’t think will be. I’m getting more into it, because I’m trying to reconstruct historical scenes of great war leaders and powerful households because of my experience in being part of a “house hold” as well as drawing more from Archeological sources that detail the household, with the emphasis how the household affects organization and limitations of adventuring or major operations.

One of the interesting things I realized from my work is how I have to visualize every part of the steps I’m going to do, because I have to communicate it to my superiors through presentation, and that in every step where I don’t know what I’m doing I have a method or time to ask questions and draw from someone else’s expertise.

Personnel and Retainers. This is something like Load Outs, but in terms of People: it answers the question: What are the Expertise or Experts I need to accomplish this Action Plan? This is really drawn from work again, drawing from the projects I’ve been tasked to do and finding a pattern to the kind of experts employed and the limitations of multi-tasking (wearing so many hats).

I plan to draw from Historical Texts and work forensically from military organization at the time, as to speculate what could it mean by having certain experts. I find this ability to look at a group’s organization and find how their tasks and responsibilities are organized a skill for both gaming and real life. For gaming, its really helpful in looking at Entourage, Commes (Companions), Power distribution among peers or near equals, and Households.