Dread Delgath wrote:Those are some good points, Samwise. I must say that for as little actual wargaming I've done, every time I have, the group would set up a particular scenario, play it out, notice serious flaws in strategy & tactics, and on occasion, play it again.
I started as a wargamer, and I always did that.
With the group of gamers I had in the mid 90's, playing the GH Wars boardgame was a fun past-time, and it was a game that this group could grok easily enough. Battlesystem would have overwhelmed them, however. We played several scenarios from the game book included and then played a couple of them over just for fun. I could have written the events into the background of my GH campaign, but I didn't take notes.
The problem with GH Wars was its simplicity getting in the way of various "natural" alliances. Compare it to X10 Red Arrow, Black Shield. While that got a bit too complex with the military units, the diplomacy system was massively better integrated for such a game than GH Wars.
[quote]Twilight 2000 & TORG: I'd forgotten about these games. T2k was great, but I only played in the first module released. I never knew that the series of mods for it were actually world changing events. Good to know for future opportunities.
[quote]Well, they were not so much world changing as just campaign changing. They developed the story to account for a full withdrawal of all American troops in Europe, and thus transition to adventures and storylines set in the U.S.
As a general note, that to me is the key for good products.
The must tell a real and engaging story, and they must be directly usable adventures, not mere seeds to be developed or endless character options. If you can manage those you can lead the story, and thus the players, almost anywhere you wish.
As for issues of railroading, I prefer the "magician's choice". Set things up so that no matter what choice is made the story proceeds reasonably down the path set up. It does not force a choice, it just means make sure the story does not disintegrate into the players supporting the evil overlord in his campaign to kick fluffy bunnies. A good writer can set that up simply by the language used in the presentation, and that is what D&D needs a lot more of.