Name: Robert L. Haworth

Designs: An Army of Professionals: AWI Scenarios for Busy People (Stenhouse Game Productions, 1998);
Fight for the Delaware (AWI operational-tactical boardgame, 1980);
Hear Me, My Chiefs! (Nez Perce War tactical boardgame), 1977;
Several "home-grown" scenarios for Call of Cthulhu, 1987-1997.

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

Information Systems Engineer (Senior), MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA. I collect and analyze all-source data on the Information Operations (IO)-related targets, doctrine, and capabilities of leading countries, with emphasis on the vulnerability of US and coalition computer systems and networks to IO attack.

Where did you get the inspiration for Painted Sunset?

I have been fascinated by the Indian Wars since childhood. By age 15, when I visited Little Bighorn (then Custer-) National Battlefield Park, MT, for the first time, I had already begun to accumulate what has since become an impressive library of books, games, and videos relating to the forcible opening of the 19th-Century American frontier.

I wrote Painted Sunset to fill a gap in the literature of the Old West period of historical miniatures wargaming. In the hypothetical and often hastily-contrived situations all too common today, overwhelming emphasis is usually placed on "color" and playability, at the expense of historical accuracy. I contend that, if carefully interpreted, the record of actual military clashes between the US Army and Indians suggests a great number of wargaming scenarios that are both dramatic and playable.

Why did you pick these scenarios?

First, I decided that all my scenarios had to involve the US Army as the "white" side, and take place in the period 1850-1890. I was therefore obliged to pass over some otherwise promising potential scenarios which involved attacks made by, for example, the Mexican Army (on Apaches); civilian trappers in 1832 (the Pierre's Hole Fight), bands of armed miners (Pyramid Lake) and Mormon-allied Paiutes on an emigrant wagon train (Mountain Meadows, 1857).

Second, I looked for historical actions that were neither too small nor too large. I wanted Painted Sunset to be compatible with Yellow Ribbon (YR), Greg Novak's excellent and widely-used rules set for Western skirmish actions, which I used throughout playtesting. Therefore, I worked within the parameters of those rules. YR allows one to vary the figure scale from action to action, from a low of one figure per two men (1:2) to a maximum of about 1:10, and it is not hard over concerning ground scale (though the latter is nominally 1" = 10 yards). Thus I had a lot of room to work with in scenario design, especially after I discovered that not all forces or units present on both sides were actually engaged during many of the most famous Army-Indian fights. Unengaged units could be safely ignored, in many cases, and still yield a historical result. Army supply trains, for example, were usually kept out of harm's way under a strong guard—thus taking both the trains and escort out of the order-of-battle for scenario purposes and reducing the dimensions of a scenario to manageable proportions. Further, many Indians who showed up on the field apparently decided never to engage (viz.: the Wolf Mountains fight, 1877). In any event, the Army routinely overestimated the number of Indians present, and the Army (which could write) is responsible for most of what has entered the history books on the subject of Indian numbers. Finally, there proved to be a few instances in which a single piece or phase of a larger, farther-flung, or more protracted historical action could yield a satisfying game.

As a result of all this, each of the historical situations depicted in Painted Sunset calls for a relatively small number of units and can be depicted on a single, 6'x8' (or, in some cases, 8'x10') tabletop.

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

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

Painted Sunset's scenarios provide the average Wild West gamer or game club with access to authentic, solidly researched Western history in a game format. They are compatible with the most widely used set of battle rules on the market today, and have been so constructed as not to require tons of figures, space, or terrain pieces. Set-up, take-down, and playing times are thus significantly reduced. In addition, the booklet is perhaps the most literate and best-edited of any Western supplement out there. To date, the readability problem has been a significant one in our hobby, at least in this genre.

I regret only that for economic reasons, I was not able to include more than eight scenarios and retain the format I wanted. A second scenario book, already in design, will take care of six or eight more.

What were some other influences as you developed the system?

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How long did Painted Sunset take from inspiration to final product? Did you get any faster as you continued?

After playtesting was complete, the final writeup, editing, and production only took about four months. I had recently finished another booklet (An Army of Professionals: AWI Scenarios for Busy People), and was able to capitalize on the experience I had developed doing that.

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

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Do you play computer games?

Only now and then. I tend to like puzzle- and the lower-key arcade-type games, vice individual combat games like Doom and its ilk. Not only does the latter stuff have the potential to be psychologically destructive to the individual player, but when someone boots up Doom at the small-group gaming events I favor, the concentration of all other players present tends to go out the window!

What type of system do you have?

My wife and I have set up a two-unit LAN in our home office: her machine (a Pentium II/300) runs proxy server software for my relatively dumb terminal (586/133). We share her machine's large hard drive and CD-ROM; there is also a laser printer and color scanner on the network. The proxy server enables my (modemless) machine to reach the Internet. We both have lots of RAM and 17" SVGA monitors. I use this setup to create all my books and other products.

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

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

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How would you like to see Painted Sunset presented on a computer screen, if at all?

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

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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?

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

Armageddon, The Maltese Falcon

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

Night of the Living Dead (game already in development)

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

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

Reading military history (AWI, Wild West, WWI, Vietnam), Painting miniatures, Walking on treadmill, and Vodka and ginger ale.

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

Barcelona (and vicinity), Spain, 1997. Next is US Mountain West (WY, SD, MT, CO), 1999.

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

I would take a look at the framing of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. I am amazed that the framers could have come up with such a well balanced system as our own.

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

Survive (Parker Bros.) A House Divided (GDW), and Sniper! (SPI). Books: The Guns of August (Barbara Tuchman), The Great Game (Peter Hopkirk), and The Sabres of Paradise (Lesley Blanch).

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?

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

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

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

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Any last omniscient thoughts for MagWeb members?

Board wargaming is dead--it just hasn't fallen down yet. Sell while you can.
HMGS-East has only the demand and volunteers enough to put on two quality conventions per year.
The HMGS National Board of Directors should be abolished forthwith.
MagWeb is a fantastic innovation that provides a very valuable service to gamers and military historians alike.

Short Bio of accomplishments outside game design:

Born 1961.
B.A., International Relations and Russian: U. of Delaware, 1983.
M.A., National Security Studies (concentration in Eurasian Military Affairs): Georgetown U., 1988.
Ph.d preparatory study in Public Policy (concentration in US Military Policy): RAND Graduate Institute, ABD 1989.
Have worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, RAND, US Army intelligence (as a civilian analyst), and MITRE.
Married to Paula Dosch-Haworth, 1993; no children.

For More Information

E-mail: rhaworth@mitre.org