1) Allow yourself time to get into the game. The first thing one must do when joining a game is learn the way the GM thinks: the things that are important and those that are not, and how best to get the most out of a game. This can best be done by trial and error and so there are no real shortcuts, unless you can meet the GM personally. The best way is simply t( experiment by trying different things in your orders and seeing what happens, what gets ignored, what gets picked up and so on.
2) Invest effort in your game. Research the period, develop side-aspects o: your character, state, whatever, like heraldic devices, castle plans, genealogies etc. This golden rule say that the more one puts into the game, the more one is likely to get out of it. I make it a basic part of my gaming always to develop parts of the game which the rules leave undeveloped. I also try to read novels, history books etc of the time and place of the game.
3) Use your imagination. Try to visualise the situation - the castle, city, character, gang or whatever. I use a lot of "Visual imagination": I screw up my eyes and try to "seem the army marching off or the bustle of the market. Putting oneself into the role in this way also has spinoff in enabling one to think of more imaginative orders to write.
4) Have patience. Don't expect instant results. Try to have a longterm view of the game. Hold back before launching off into some wild attack on your nearest neighbour. Make some defensive moves first, or go for alliance- building, exploration, dynastic marriages or whatever so that you get a feeling for the game before launching some major enterprise.
5) Develop a consistent line and stick to it. Try to work out a main strategy, which you can develop over the first few moves. Then stick to whatever you decide, rather than chopping and changing all all the time. Gradual and systematic buildup is far better than a gadfly approach. Gadding is fine to start with, while experimenting, but soon leads to boredom and superficiality.
6) Do not put too much ego into *winning". Remember that the enjoyment is in playing, rather than the outcome when the game is over. Sure, everyone likes to win, but not everyone can win every game. So it's better to set some intermediate goal, and then if that is achieved raise one's sights. I normally set my own goals, quite independently from those the GM might set, and play the game according to what I want to do or achieve or whatever.
7) Keep your distance from the game. It may fold. Always remember that GM9 are human and their interests may change. Even when you are at the height of involvement in a game it is wise to remind yourself that this may be the last move you make. Try to imagine your life without the game you are now involved in. Sure, there will be a hole in it, but it can easily be filled again.
8) Don't let the game totally dominate your life. It is sometimes easy to be so taken up with a game that one's mind is constantly running over one's next moves, or waiting feverishly for the postman to arrive, and generally living in a complete "postal world" in which one's family, job, friends etc cease to be "real" and get neglected as one wanders through the day in a daze. Either take periodic *holidays" from the game, or limit the amount of time devoted to it and then shut it out of mind.
9) Expect major GM errors. It's a fact of life that GMs are human and can and usually do - make mistakes. Expect this to happen regularly and accept it as a fact of life. It is worth pointing out simple errors, but sometime major ones that cannot be rectified happen too. It is useful to develop a certain amount of fatalism about this and not abandon the game in a huff. if it can be seen as "the fates" then it can be accepted just as fate deals harshly in real life.
10) Don't rely on player alliance. It is easy to build up one's whole gaming strategy around player alliances. This is dangerous as players come and go and alliances collapse, sometimes at the merest push of opposition. I have more that once found my game ruined because I allowed my whole strategy to be dictated by an alliance "policy". When the players dropped out, I was left with the ruins of a strategy and a spoiled game.
Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #108
Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1994 by Solo Wargamers Association.
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