Game in the Brain

Finished Happy Jacks RPG Podcast se01ep01,
I was honestly pessimistic, but it was a GURPS GM so I had to try. And I was not disappointed, i could relate and they remind me of my favorite GMs of years gone by. I even found myself laughing out loud. sigh… and we all grew up.

I tried the Ancient Warfare Magazine Podcast, and it

Open Mass Combat System
Bascially its made up of a standard of a “professional soldier”; the professional soldier is set as an arbitrary no. Over time and technology, the cost to quality of the soldier improves as better institutions and infra allow better economies of scale training and indoctrination to the warrior profession.

Now; what makes this system generic is how modular it is. Certain parameters will be abstracted: formation (open vs closed), encumbrance (light vs heavy), and descriptors of the weapons (sword and board, pike, bows). The descriptors is where I have to organize it a bit, so that I can group and make certain aspects interchangeable.

A big advancement in the concept of open and closed formations. being a scout, I have a better grasp of open formation. It is versatile, loose, while being highly coordinated. It takes a lot of familiarization and doctrine to develop open formations. A great example of open formations are in cavlary and particularly mongols. Mongols can’t hold a rigid formation, and they frequently serve a scouts. Despite that they are highly independent and autonomous, they are organized. thats the thing about scouts; you gotta have great comm skills to keep organized. you can’t just stealthy and perceptive.

Closed formation is discipline and trained structure; open formation is versatility and familiarity. they have much in common, but those mentioned are what stick out.

So what how does that relate to this system? There is no Light or Heavy infantry; there are A LOT of warriors that don’t fit that standard. one is the macedonian phalanx, they are Closed Formation but Light Encumbrance. Breaking up the force into its economic components is something that will be different and intuitive in certain approaches. I hope that it can be considered an open system, and having pegged this approach no one can copy right it and anyone can use such a methodology.

Another project I have to get around to… once I finish my quota. Ugg,

After seeing World War Z Trailer, I want to run a survival game again. It also helps that we’ve been on a airsoft high doing much better in the games. This is an arm-chair general doing scouting actions. HAHA! nothing like implementing a plan and seeing all your assumptions go out the window. I really have this sado-masochistic relationship with reality – using sound reason to assess and predict, while getting excited when the plan falls terribly short and I have to improvise…

Improvisation, an RPG staple. The ability to improvise depends on the ability to prepare and analyze, while at the same time maintaining a cool level of calculation and detachment to one’s plan. (something some claim as sociopathic… sigh).