This looks like a neat game and I am really looking forward to trying it!!! Its subject is the whole world. It's time frame, an entire century. It is clearly in the trend of using the Matrix Game as a world builder. I am certain that it will work and be fun. But it will not be for everyone. What I see missing is a single clearly focused story. Clearly this is a political game, that will track the progress of the Second American Revolution. That would be a focused story (espeically if it concentrated on the first few months or the first year). But Paul wants to do an epic scale game. Not only the entire world, but ranging over the entire century. What can happen is that the players will not focus on a single story line and thus not reach a critical mass of energy. Too many directions, too defuse the energy, leads to players losing interest. I ran a Cowboys and Indians Matrix Game in 1989 in which I threw a lot of interesting characters into a world but did not say what they were to do. The game worked, but it lacked focus. That taught me that each scenario has to be narrow and clearly show the players the way. Too much freedom of choice leads to anarchy. So my games have tended to focus on narrow topics with action happening over a couple of days or a few months. One idea that might help is to use the language of films. Close ups, scene setting shots, flashbacks, action sequences, tension building scenes etc. That helps people know a little more about how they are suppose to make arguments. Another area that will likely pop up is time line. Say I make an argument about what Indiana Jones does in 1936. The other players may still be in 1917. If the argument goes through then we know Jones must be alive in 19 years. So that means he can't die in between! And events in 1936 can't be allowed to influence earlier times. But is that possible? Players are always influenced by past events. And I think that is okay. After all did Indiana Jones mention previous run ins with Bela in the Lost Ark movie? That suggests a story that could be done later in the game. The only limit being that Jones and Bela can't die. So I think Pauls game will be very enlightening for a lot of people about Matrix Games. But it is not one game. What Paul has done is create the door way to hundreds of games, any one of which could be its own four hour stand alone session. Oh, and by the way, Paul has asked me to be Debbs. And I've been playing political Matrix Games for years so I know exactly what to do to consolidate and spread my power. Trotsky my be my buddy now, but wait till my assasins catch up with him in Mexico! Back to Table of Contents -- Matrix Gamer #6 To Matrix Gamer List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 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