I was at a party recently with John Cash. Naturally we got talking about his up coming Paashendale game. John, a floklorist/ non-gamer, spoke of what he is interested in a game. The game he wants is not about being a general or commanding bodies of troops. He does not see himself as Napoleon nor is he interested in that. Instead, he wants to give people the feel of what it was like to be the small guy. To be ourselves in history. Despite John's lack of interest in war, he recognizes that other people do want to be the general. The question is how to do this without becoming just another war game. The solution John came up with is a lot like the way I use Matrix Games in psychotherapy. All the players join together to run one character - the general. In effect becoming the general's brain! HITLER'S BRAIN Imagine a group of eight players sitting around a table playing a game set in Nazi Germany. They are all Hitler. Each turn the referee presents them with a decision Hitler must make. They all come up with an argument for what they think Hitler should do. These arguments are automatically in competition. A big dice rolling Contest ensues and one argument wins. Hitler's decision is made. The players are exploring the mental processes of one of histories great mad men. They get to see how certain parts of Hitler's thinking are rational and goal oriented. While other parts(players) lead Adolph in to drug addiction and paranoia! This is not a realistic game. We don't really know how people think but the notion of self talk, cognitive dissonance, and having many voices in one's head are pretty widely accepted theories. If nothing else the game promises to be a hoot to play. ROBERT E. LEE'S BRAIN John says he does not know enough about Hitler to be able to run a Nazi Brain game, but he does know Civil War history. So he was wondering what a game about Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg would be like. We speculated wildly! As we talked other games and potential titles came up. LEE'S BRAIN - A SLAVE TO DUTY HITLER'S BRAIN - OR "LETS INVADE RUSSIA! THAT SOUNDS SMART!" HAIG'S BRAIN - VICTORY IN 1917! NIXON'S BRAIN - CHINA, DIRTY TRICKS AND WATERGATE THE PRESIDENT'S BRAIN - "OOPS!" And the list goes on and on. We will have to do one of these games on the internet!!! Back to Table of Contents -- Matrix Gamer #16 To Matrix Gamer List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 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