...these are the posts I was looking for earlier: thought I'd bung them in their own thread so I can find them easily again
Note: these are *not* mine, but posted to the 6mm_Minis Yahoo group by 'robdab' in May 2009 [no wonder it took me a while to find them!]
Note: these are from a game referee's perspective [I'd love to play in one of his games...] but the ideas are great...
FIRST POST:
"I've done well with the Irregular civilian stuff over the years. We've run several wargames where the press van, reporters and TV crew were in the thick of the action.
Their modern firetruck model brought home the reality of recent warfare to my gaming group when it detonated amidst the first responders to an urban market car bombing scenario that I was running. None of the players had thought to check that "official looking" big truckbomb as it arrived on scene, with a swarm of other ambulances/firetrucks from all points of the city compass. Even the player running the fire department vehicles was silenced when I called everyone's attention to that market area with a laser pointer and then triggered the hidden (top of the neighbouring mosque tower) camera flashbulb that simulated the completely unexpected second blast ...
At the same time I also turned on a LOUD tape of a Vietnam era firefight recorded over the Rolling Stone's version of "Paint It Black", with sub-woofer base help, to further dis-orient them.
Two of the five government players were immediately switched over to running small bands of insurgents (thus making it 3 players against 3 instead of 5 against 1) since their original "command stand figures" had been at the newly established field CP where the "firetruck" went off. The game got really wild when I SHOUTED (before the 6 players could even see clearly again) that all of the previous victory conditions were cancelled and that they now had to write down their own new individual ones within 30 seconds, without talking to each other first. Nothing written meant no victory points could be earned. You snooze, you lose! Pressure, pressure, pressure ... and a very tiny taste of the non-stop reality for my club.
Most interesting was the effect of those choices on the differing sects of the 3 insurgent players ...
Our modern contests haven't been gamed the same way since."
SECOND POST:
"Just watch the TV news most any evening with a pencil and pad of paper to hand ... Outside of Norh America, the World is a crazy place.
Remember to keep any scenario somewhat balanced (even if it doesn't initially appear that way as my market bombing scenario shows). Most gamers want to have a chance of winning, at least until they become more hardcore and can enjoy losing, while doing it well.
The problem with running nasty wargame scenarios such as mine is that each idea has a VERY short shelf life. Word spreads like wildfire and gamers remember. Seven years later I still can't field a yellow school bus model in a scenario without having my players instantly shoot the crap out of it, on sight.
Ditto for any scenario where I place thin metal tubes under my roadways to simulate drainage culverts in the roadside ditches. Such detail takes a tiny bit more time for me to create and place during tabletop set-up but I derive much entertainment from watching my players strain their brains while trying to figure out how any newly appearing terrain piece might screw them over. Usually it's only another terrain piece but just often enough to keep them nervous its a ...
An NKVD security 'jeep' roaming around in the rear areas drives a spike of fear into my Russian players ever since I started "replacing" commanders who appeared reluctant to attack, vigorously. As a scenario referee, you are allowed, indeed are encouraged, to have fun too.
I have players who will still spend a turn to check every roadside telephone pole model. This greatly slows the usual wargamer's tactic of just charging headlong down the unexplored road ahead.
Add heavy rain to a previously gamed dry scenario and watch as the players struggle to adapt to the reduced firing ranges and mobility resulting. Desert wadiis often flashflood too.
See how a column of civilian refugee vehicles totally clogs a roadway and have a TV crew at hand to "film" (with victory points + or - awarded) how the players deal with their own need to get down that road too.
Add night.
Add sound. It is often 'enlightening' to scouting players when they turn off their own vehicle engines and hear the rumble of opposition tank engines coming from an unexpected flank, town or woods. Sound carries.
Few in my scenarios just roll across a bridge anymore without inspecting beneath first. My players now ASK for recon scout troops rather than charging blindly in a line, fender to fender, towards the enemy's last seen position.
If you want to see horror on your player's faces, something as simple as telling them that they have to roll for bogging down in the mud at the centre of a field that they didn't bother to scout before sending in the tanks, will do it. Right after the first 88 has just opened up from the hedgerow at the far end of that same field. It's even better if there is no mud there. Your players don't have to know that they'd have to roll an 11 on a d10 to get stuck. But it is unlikely that any of them will just charge across unknown ground ever again.
A scenario turns around instantly when a live 50,000 volt powerline drops onto a road column of otherwise unstoppable tanks.
An F-16 and a (golden) Eagle don't do well if they inhabit the exact same airspace, at the exact same time.
Do your players know that riverbed fords can be mined? 'Tis good to expand their educations.
Be creative with victory points. Usually it's just something simple like "ten points for hill #321" and "one point for every enemy tank killed" but this is a wonderful opportunity to "encourage" your players to game with more realism. Obviously nowhere near every aspect of modern combat can be demonstrated on the tabletop but it is easy, with victory points, to limit artillery fire by giving each side a set number of ammunition trucks (with recorded loads) to drive to meet their guns. How many scenarios feature fuel trucks advancing to "gas up" an armoured company so that it can continue it's advance? With unexpected delays. Mine do. This forces players to keep a (usually missing in tabletop games) reserve behind the front lines to ensure artillery and supply convoy security. Or else. It also gives your players the option of using some of their force points to buy helicopter-borne raiders for use behind enemy lines. A much more realistic fight then unfolds than what one usually sees on tabletop battlefields.
Last but not least, at least once every 6 months, run an entire afternoon wargame where nothing happens, almost. Long Vietnam style supply convoy movements down the table length from a base at one end of the table to another base at the far end of the table are good for that. Watch as your players get more and more jumpy as the end of the scenario draws near and the convoy gets closer and closer to its destination. Which is just when the convoy's origin base gets hit instead.
As referee, be creative and do the logical but also do the unexpected and mundane too. Make your players roll for vehicle accidents when they charge around at maximum speed. Do die rolls for breakdowns to see just how many of a company's vehicles are REALLY ready for combat each morning. A tanker truck might arrive but can be carrying the wrong fuel.
Have some fun with bending your player' minds by...