Adding RPG-Lite Elements to Wargames

[Eric Farrington]

Long time readers of the blog will know that I have an interest in RPG or Role-Playing Games. Therefore, I also have an interest in the overlap between wargaming and RPG games. In RPG games, a player often only controls a single player in the game, while in a Wargame the player controls multiple characters. Therefore, there is a big difference between the play experiences. Wargames came first, and RPGs grew out of the wargaming scene by changing the "scale" of the games. The closely linked nature of the two types of games is interesting to me.

What is RPG-Lite

Typically, a wargame is interested in resolving the 4Ms within the game. Those 4Ms are Movement, Missiles, Melee, and Morale. When you add RPG-Lite elements you are adding a few more pillars into game play, and adding more options a player can follow to resolve the game.

Typically, RPGs have a different set of criteria beyond the 4Ms. Those are commonly referred to as the Pillars of Gameplay. In this case, RPGs use the following as the basic forms of the game; Exploration, Social, Combat, and Intrigues.

When a wargame includes elements of RPG-lite it is allowing players to resolve conflicts within the game outside of just the 4M process and instead dip into the RPG Pillars of Gameplay as a form of resolution.

So, typically in a wargame you resolve a challenge by either shooting it or hitting it with a stick. If you are adding elements of RPG-Lite a player could resolve a challenge with a social ability, Intrigue, or even exploration.

Here is an example in gameplay. Player A has a unit standing on the objective. Player B moves his unit up, and the commander of that unit tries to "bribe" the unit holding the objective to move. The game has a mechanism to resolve the bribe attempt, and the result is Player A's unit leaves the objective, and Player B's unit occupies it. The challenge of moving Player A's unit off the objective was not resolved by shooting or melee. It was resolved by an intrigue. This is RPG-Lite in a wargame.



If this topic interests you, take a look on the blog for some more thoughts on the subject. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your thoughts on the topic.
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