Name: Christopher E. Parker

Genius: Designer: Day of Battle Miniatures Rules for Feudal Era

Bio: Additional designs, awards, past credits, recognitions or other accomplishments? with dates if possible...

1979, Opened The Toy Soldier in Newburyport, Mass. Over the next ten years the "Soldier" brought in a lot of gamers into the world. I ran 14 New England-based game conventions called "Wargamers Weekend." Still the most successful gaming conventions of all times in New England. In 1989, The Toy Soldier was sold and folded within one year.
1990 Saw it reopened in its present day form by myself. Upon closing, I went into the wholesale hobby industry. This has given me a whole new look on our hobby. I have since worked for three major hobby distributors.

Designer: Knighthood And The Middle Ages (1979 Historical Research Publishing)
Author: Medieval Warfare (1990, TSL Publishing)

Current job (and title): What do you do for a living?

I work for Liberty Hobby Distributors. They are located in Lakeland FL and Atlanta GA. I'm the NE sales representative for them working out of a home based office. I make sales calls to game, comic and hobby stores selling them the goods that they stock and that many of your readers inevitably buy.

Previously I worked for Greenfield Hobby Distributors as their NE sales and branch manager, and A.J. Gonsalves Distributors as a sales person.

Where did you get the inspiration for Day of Battle?

As one can see I've been writing Medieval Rules forever. Slowly arriving at Day Of Battle. My inspiration comes from my older childhood when I first started playing with plastic soldiers. As 8th-12th graders my best friend Ray Estabrook and I played "medievals" in his ficticious world of England. Looking back it was a wonderful time with many warm feelings. I have tried to write a set of rules that will leave me with those same warm feelings in that same period.

What makes it such a cutting edge game?

Cutting Edge is a good definition for the game. Some of the mechanisms that I've designed have been in print since the 80's. The one that comes to mind is "Proximity To The Enemy Movement". This a marvelous way to represent the speeding up and slowing down of units on the field. It is based loosley on the idea that the further away from a known enemy a unit (less cautious) is the faster it will move. And in the reverse the closer the unit is the slower ( more cautious) it will move. I've had good comments on it but I've never seen it copied.

DOB has many other novel ideas. With Harrassing Morale your able opponent tells you when to may a check. This cuts the number of auto checks down to just three. Not many rules can do that.

In creating Day of Battle, how did your design philosophy evolve? Did something trigger the proverbial lightbulb to light up over your head during design and testing?

My original mansucript was to be printed by the now defunct Soldiers & Swords game company. In the end all had was two years out of my life gone and some paper in my hand. Next I went to Ral Partha miniatures. They felt that historicals were dead and didn't want to publish anyting but they did allow me to use their cover and pictures as a tie in. They also agreed to carry the product but backed out of theat promise after I went to press.

I had intended to have them printed and ready for Historicon 96. In the end my editor Ray convinced me they were not ready. Fortunately, I listened to him and waited. I ran 6 events there and used the data as a field test of the game. Then I came home and tested them. The game you now have is almost entirely new since then.

The final inspiration came while having a few coctails with my wife Suzannes. She had watched the game be demonstrated at Ray's store, All About Games, in Belfast Maine. She said it was a shame it was so complicated. At that point the light-bulb went on. We talked and talked and I did an complete rewrite of the game. Not so much the rules themselves but their presentation. I redesinged the layout and procedures with the total novice in mind. All the basic rules were kept at a minimum, fleshing out the game with the advanced. this new approach is what allows it to be so easily taught and learned.

What do you believe was the greatest success of the design? The most noticeable flaw?

The success of design is the flow of the game. It doesn't play like most games. The turn sequence is as rigid as most. You don't do the usual of Move, charge, fire, melee, morale as in most games. Instead a leader is given a specific number of commands at the start of his turn. Almost like messengers or staff. he uses them until he they are all used up (sent off) or all his units have played. The difference in DOB is this. When he uses a command on a unit the command is carried out to the end. So if he charges whith his knights they advance, deal with reaction, crash into the enemy (or not) fight out the melee and determine a loser. All this is done as the rest of the armies watch. this is very realistic and makes for coordiation of units difficult.

What were some other influences as you developed the system?

Believe it or not Pinnacle Press released their Wild West Horror game called "Deadlands". The game itself didn't effect me but the graphic layout and story telling design did. It is a brilliant product.

How long did Day of Battle take from inspiration to final product? Did you get any faster as you continued?

This version was started in July of 96 and went to press in January of 97. I usually need about 6 months to write a game.

When in design mode, what's your favorite snack food?

Coffee.

Do you play computer games?

Once in awhile I play Avalon Hill's DDay. I'd like to try Kingmaker but I use the dreaded Macintosh.

What type of system do you have?

I have a Motorola Star Max compute, Sony 15 monitor, 1meg Zip Drive and a US Robotics Modem. I use this with MS Word and Page Maker to do my writing on. I have an older Mac Centris that I use with a Paperport scanner for my image scanning.

What piece of hardware--real or imaginary--would you add to it?

Probably a color scanner. Color sells.

In general, do you think board wargames make the leap to computer screens effectively? Why or why not?

Yes I do. Time is getting tighter and tighter all the time. It is now the norm to have at least two jobs and usually two primary bread winners in the home. I myself work a 9-5 job. In addition I own half of a game store called The Toy Soldier 3.0 and I'm a working musician playing in 3 different bands. As our society moves down this avenue, the amount of leisure time is squeezed. Therefore I think the need for better computer games is on the way, eliminating the need for a face to face or Play By Mail opponent.

How would you like to see Day of Battle presented on a computer screen, if at all?

I think it would work really well in the format of Kingmaker. Where the battle field is set up and the soldiers are in clumps. I understand that for the IBM world there are some very nice 3d sort of Waterloo and Gettysburg games with that look. Leaders would be represented by a mounted man and a few soldiers and they would have a card at the bottom of the page with vital statistics. It would look great, don't get me started on another project.

If you were going to be represented on a computer screen by an icon, what would it be?

I have the perfect cartoon picture of me in the game. "Sir Christopher " is his name. He is a smiling knight mounted on a great charger with a rounded face, and an ever rounding belly.

Computer games are becoming an extension of Hollywood--games based on movies or movie characters. Do you believe the Hollywoodized games to be better, worse, or about equal to ones created from original material? Why?

Neither. A set of rules must come from an idea. I don't think it matters where the idea comes from as long as it is planted. if the idea can turn into a working game that is based on somthing from another media then all the better. Look at our Role Playing cousins. A lot of their games computer and printed have come from movies. The tie is great, and many times will bring in a none gamer who is curious. And let's face it, we need all the new blood we can get in this hobby, particulary historical miniatures.

What was the last movie (theater) you watched? Last videotape rental?

The last movie I went to was "Braveheart." Man, what battle scenes. It took me back to the very first time I watched the main attack in "Zulu". They both made me feel like I was one of the participants, and it just wouldn't end. I don't often rent videos but I think the last was the new version of HENRY V.

Is there a movie you'd like to do a game of?

Yes a squad leader level game of "Kelly's Heroes"

Given unlimited resources but present day technology, what would you design and why would it be cool?

For a few years I ran four Play-By-Mail games set in the Feudal World. The world itself covered Northern Europe, Byzantine, Coastal Africa as well as the Crusader lands and some of the Steppes or modern day Russia. This game was a 7 player game interactive game. The mechanisms we're a combination of Risk, Diplomacy, Kingmaker and Axis & Allies. I would make this an interactive game using EMail and with sight technology and real time results.

They say everyone needs a hobby. How do you decompress outside of game designing/playing?

I get up on stage and play my heart out. My main instrument is the Bass Guitar. Most people don't know what it really is but I must if it is played tastefully it can be the heart beat of a song. I play it very well which allows the music to flow right through me. It is very soothing. The money isn't so bad either.

Where was the last place you visited on vacation? What's your next vacation spot?

I went back to England about 2 years ago. I'm getting into the Horse & Musket thing again so I may wander up north to Saratoga and that area soon.

If not bound by time or space, where would you go...and why?

Probably back to the time Frederick The Great. This period is my second passion. I choose it over Medieval Times because the living conditions are a heck of a lot better. Assuming of course I can choose my social level.

Excluding your own creations, what three games (of any type) would you take with you to the proverbial desert island? What three books?

Any "Lovejoy" novel by Jonathon Gash, His Britanic's Majesty's Army In The Seven Years War, JRR Tolkiens "Lord Of The Rings".

We see the emergence of online gaming as putting the social aspect (and the smarts of a real-live opponent) into gaming on a world-wide scale. Good or bad? Why?

Both, on the positive side it allows gamers to be able play and thing when they have the time. The negative is the further seperation of persons in our society from face to face contact. I feel the latter is a very essential ingrediant in gaming.

Do you have a favorite poster or cartoon hanging by your desk? What is it and what makes it your favorite?

Sports Illustrated Calender. You tell me?

What epitath would you want encoded on your (hopefully far in the future) digital tombstone?

Here lies a person who felt that a good game wasn't in the rules, or the look of the painted soldiers, but in the players themselves. And he didn't succumb to the six sided dice, he went on to the twenty sided.

What question did we leave out that you would like to answer?

You didn't ask me why I give a +5 modifier to being flanked in Morale.

Any last omniscient thoughts for MagWeb members?

I see this new media "The Web" through two different doors. MagWeb is an example of positive use of this new service. Unfortunately, I also see it as another nail in the retail store coffin. As we who are in the hobby now get older or "grey" as they call it in the Model Train hobby, we must reach out and introduce the young and the interested into our hobby. And we must look around to those small enclaves of hope called game stores and offer them a leg up in the form of business. Because without both of them the future of our hobby is doomed. How often have you heard "support your local game store". Well take a good look around. There aren't many around. The reason why is simple. Our hobby never supported them like they should have. Most gamers mail order, copy or pirate their goods. It doesn't effect me because I'm a very good merchant with a day job. But it hurts a lot of others.

Related

Chapter One-Der: Day of Battle Introduction
Review: Day of Battle