The world needs more postal games. That’s my personal bias. As much as I like postal games, I’m not particularly good at them. As a player I have won some and lost some. As a game master I have run only one postal game that was as satisfying experience for all concerned. This is it. There are all kinds of reasons to like postal games. They are a way for a solo wargamer to play against a live opponent or opponents. Solo gamers are very inventive about ways to use cards, computers or dice to program an opponent, but there is still the limit of only one imagination involved. We all have our unconscious blind spots and our assumptions. We write the rules, the tables of chance events etc. within our limits. Only another player can show you a new idea. Postal play is also a great way to get in touch with an expert. Every game master I have played with has been an expert on the era gamed. Each also had a sense of humor, a necessity for coping with my blunders. Postal play is more realistic than most board games or table top miniatures. The player sits alone poring over maps and reports; then writes orders. Very few generals were able to see the whole battlefield including clearly identified enemy units, so they had to study maps, read reports and write orders. Postal play has a built-in fog of war. I seem to have written myself into a corner because the game “Hail Caesar!” is not a battlefield game, and strictly speaking it was not a postal game either. Oh well, moving right along…. “Hail Caesar!” is a game about the politics around a Roman emperor. One player is the emperor while others are various people who can advise, flatter, amuse, help, serve, irritate, manipulate, plot against or assassinate the emperor. Players may be striving for power, wealth, or a long peaceful life. The emperor is trying to stay in power and die a natural death. Some moves may result in wars or battles, but more likely, there will be conspiracies, alliances, and double crosses seasoned by the occasional execution. The original game took place in a world history classroom. There was no need for e-mail or snail mail. Students just handed me written moves and I returned results by hand, but the game was run as if it were a postal game. There was some informal talking, but otherwise the game ran on paper just like a postal game. Let’s take a look at the list of roles and the steps in play. Then I will elaborate a bit on each step and briefly recap the game as I remember it. Hail Caesar! List of Roles: 1. Emperor 2. Emperor’s wife 3. Emperor’s son 4. Senator 5. Commander Praetorian Guard 6. Gladiator 7. Provincial governor 8. Senator 9. leader of tribe ruled by the empire 10. Senator 11. Gladiator 12. Provincial Governor 13. Leader of tribe ruled by the empire 14. Senator Steps in Play: 1. Set up game. Assign roles and distribute rules; explain as needed. 2. Players write their moves and a justification arguing that their moves are historical or otherwise probable. These are turned in to Control. 3. Control evaluates the moves and decides what happens. 4. Control reports what has happened in public to all players and may report some private information to selected players. 5. Players may communicate among themselves. 6. Repeat steps 2 through 5. The game runs as long as Control decides. Set up is simple. Pass out a list of roles and indicate which role each player is playing. The list is in priority order. It’s feasible to play with as few as four players, but seven players is a full set. The rest of the list just allows for more players and makes plotting more likely and more complex. Control may choose to assign roles based on personality, on players’ choice or simply first to sign up is the emperor, second is his wife and so forth. Also pass out Steps in Play. Explain details like: When are moves due? Will we use e-mail? Yes, players may communicate with other players without going through control. A player is part of a conspiracy only if he informs Control in writing. This little wrinkle sets up some lovely double crosses by a player who tells others he will join them but does not. Each player may set his own goals. No player is required to do anything, but inactivity may have consequences. After all, innocent bystanders often get hurt. The emperor has absolute power. The rest are at his mercy if any. Players may do or attempt anything that was done in history or anything that is probable given their role. Players write their moves and send them to Control. My rule was the player has to justify his move in 25 words or less. They cannot make moves for other people. Moves need to state clearly what the players will do. Moves must be delivered promptly. Control Then Evaluates the Moves The first step is to read each move and assign it a number 1 to 6 depending on its historical accuracy or probability. For example, the Emperor’s wife has a good chance to poison him, but a senator is less likely to succeed as a poisoner. If the senator decides to do it in the Senate with a dagger, however…. Evaluation can get a bit arbitrary, and it can also result in every player getting high marks. Control may decide nobody ever gets rated higher than 5. Once all the entries have been evaluated, roll a D-6. If the roll is less than the evaluation number, the move survives and may be allowed. If a set of mutually exclusive events comes up, roll again for each. Low score prevails. It is okay if the gladiators start a revolt at the same time as a provincial governor faces a revolt by a tribal leader, but the senators can’t assassinate the emperor in the Senate if he is leading his army into the provinces to put down a revolt. When in doubt, let the dice decide. The Control prepares a narrative describing the public events. If members of the Senate attempt an assassination, Control reports that. A failed poisoning could result in the Emperor experiencing a mild stomach upset, so far as the public report goes. The emperor might or might not know he was poisoned. If he knows, he is told in a private report. Presumably later moves will involve arrests or executions, but that is the emperor’s decision. A few other players may also get private briefings. Now Control returns these results to the p[layers and specifies the due date for the next moves. Between moves, the players may communicate. Control should schedule enough time for them to plot a bit. Control cannot limit plotting, but it’s only real when it shows up as actions. At this point the game has completed one cycle. Repeat the cycles until the game is over. Control may decide to play a set number of cycles. Control may or may not announce the number in advance. It is also possible the game will reach a logical conclusion. If the old emperor dies or is killed, that may or may not end the game. After all, the new emperor faces some of the same challenges. As I recall, my game produced a lot of plotting and little action. One senator was arrested on suspicion, but was simply held prisoner for most of the game. There was a revolt in the provinces, but it was put down. The players were quite pleased with the game and enjoyed the suspense. We simply ran out of time and had to move on to the Middle Ages. The game has some omissions. Players were not given a specific goal or any historical background. It was run in a history class which was studying Roman history. Within that context each player could use his or her imagination. Control did not have any sets of tables, charts or rules for evaluating events. It was left to my best judgment. Of course, the dice could overrule my judgment, and the dice are always right. This system or lack of it, made the game relatively simple to manage. If I use defined rules for postal campaigns, I tend to get tangled up in details and give up. This style of gaming owes a lot to matrix gaming as invented by Chris Engle. Another influence is Frie Kriegspiel, and the “let the dice decide” ideas from Joseph Morschauser’s How to Play Wargames in Miniature. There are lots of modern history books on the Roman Empire, but some ancient books are very helpful. Plutarch’s Lives and Suetonius, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars are both full of detail. Looking back at the game, I know see that the same system could fit any situation where a ruler is surrounded by a complex of personalities and issues. At the risk of trespass into Kenn’s territory, ancient Egypt in the reign of Ikhnaton at Amarna looks like it fits. There is a pharaoh, his queen, a young “Tut”, the priests, the subjugated territories, and the Hittites. In English history, the court of Henry VIII looks like a prospect. There is the king, all those past, present, and future wives, Parliament, churchmen, Thomas Moore, Francis I of France, Spain, and it goes on. What a tangle! In Chinese history there are several good prospects. My first thought is China in 1910. It starts with the emperor, the empress dowager, Sun Yat Sen, foreign powers with spheres of influence – Britain, Russia, Japan, the United States, and there may be more. This is just a sample of the possibilities. The more I think about it, the more occurs to me, but that doesn’t count. What counts is what occurs to you. I hope some of you will be tempted to run a postal game like this. Of course, you will make improvements. 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