Post by Eric Farrington on Sept 1, 2021 13:26:53 GMT
In addition to wargaming, I also play Role-Playing Games (RPGs) and board games. One of the most interesting aspects of RPGs is how individual characters can interact with the game world to achieve their objectives. This at a high-level is not much different from war games, and in fact RPGs are a "modern" off shoot of wargaming. The roots of RPG is in wargaming.
Of course, in an RPG two mechanically identical characters can end up being completely different characters. This differentiation is done via the "role" part of Role-Playing Games. There are a variety of tricks and characterizations decent role-players can bring to a character to make each one feel incredibly different. However, most RPGs also use mechanics to help shape different roles or archetypes that players can fulfill, such as the bard, barbarian, thief, and wizard archetypes.
In wargaming, there is very limited "Role-Playing" elements. However, as designers, you still want to capture the idea that individual models or units are "unique". Typically, gamers do not want to play a number of faceless, joyless, boring, goons all the time. No instead they want to play the 14th Uhlans, the Iron Brigade, Astro-dog, the Joy Hill Gang, etc. Thankfully, as designers there are a few ways to add this level of "character" to your games.
You can read the rest of the post at the blog!
bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2021/08/wargame-design-creating-character-in.html
