If you do not know who they are you are not alone. As a group we are not very visible, but you undoubtedly have been touched by our ideas. A goodly number of the writing gamers are, or have been WDers. WD Is originally a British organisation.- One of its founders, Paddy Griffith, has been very vocal in spreading the news in US Journals. You may have read his work, and disagreed with it (What! no miniatures?! Black Wargames!?!) but at least he made you think. At least a few of us sent our money overseas and joined up. Now the time has come when us North Americans must break away. WD has picked up several goals over the years that in some way define what it stands for. Like EGG, they want new Ideas, but they also have worked on the following Ideas... Mega Games Black Wargames Variable Length Turn Wargames without Miniatures After Dinner Games Very Large Bottle Games All I want to accomplish in this issue is to briefly describe these different ideas and invite response. MEGA GAMES: These suckers are games that have lots of people In them. (of course). They test the limits of commertial games by overloading them. They explore large group game rules that correct for these problems. I would love to play In one of these. BLACKWARGAMES: Are games with a moral lesson. So you play Vietnam games to show the horror of it all. These have drawn WD and Paddy G. a lot of flak. Donald Featherstone staunchly maintains that they are just toy soldiers and nothing more. Others fall in between. We will not resolve third subject here. I ask you only to think about it and make up you mind on where you stand. VARIABLE LENGTH TURN: I don't know that this came out of WD but they certainly have made efforts to use it. In brief, it is the idea that turns should move form critical event to critical event rather than by a set number of minutes. I use VLT ideas in Matrix Games. The idea cuts out those many hours spent moving armies together 1 inch at a time. WARGAMES WITHOUT MINIATURES: This is not really as radical an idea as it sounds (to miniature players). Boardgames have always moved in this direction. Role playing (despite all its fancy figures) is - also often centered away from the diorama. The advent of Computer wargames lead to many Hex games and RPGs but NO miniatures games. So, obviously, toy soldiers ate not vital. They are just very nice, and I love to use them. AFTER DINNER GAMES: quite obviously are played after dinner (at the annual Conference on Wargames, over in England). The idea is to have a game that will aid the digestion. A gentlemans sport, that is unlikely to lead to any duels. VERY LARGE BOTTLE GAMES: Are also played after dinner, but this time with a large brandy in hand. They test the command control problems that do actually develope in battle, by liberally lubricating the brains of the players with substances. Not my scene really (I do addictions counseling for my living) but I'm certain it has a place. I'm probably leaving out lots about what WD is and has done, so feel free to correct me. What is really important though is for us to make Wargame Developments here. Not idea is too small, and though you may weird me out with some alien philosophy or something, this is a place to air you thoughts. Back to Experimental Games Group # 4 Table of Contents Back to Experimental Games Group List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1989 by Chris Engle This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com