The recent 3E Boardgame thread got me thinking about other ways to play D&D.
D&D has strong wargaming roots. Have you ever played with the DM as referee, one player (or team) against another?
I've already heard of Birthright play-by-e-mail games pitting regents against one another (a la Diplomacy). Political wars of assassins could be great fun. You could also play both sides of the "reverse dungeon": goblins vs. humans.
For instance, a typical D&D campaign might involve our party of adventurers tracking down the goblins to their hideout while the town guards hold down the fort. The DM presents the party with just enough of a challenge at each step along the way, he tries to not quite kill them, he escalates the threat, he throws in a plot twist, etc.
It might make an interesting campaign if the goblins aren't under DM control. The goblin players decide how to attack the town, when and where to leave ambushes and scouting parties, etc. The human players do the same for the town.
Each team gets a handful of 6th-level leaders, some 3rd-level sergeants, and lots of 1st-level spear-carriers -- but not to use in one big fight on a manicured battlefield (a la Chainmail).
It would all be quite open-ended yet goal-oriented at the same time.
Since the players wouldn't all be on the same plot-protected team, certainly one team or the other would be losing characters all the time, but those would generally be spear-carriers (or "red shirts"). Think of them as extended hit points.
D&D has strong wargaming roots. Have you ever played with the DM as referee, one player (or team) against another?
I've already heard of Birthright play-by-e-mail games pitting regents against one another (a la Diplomacy). Political wars of assassins could be great fun. You could also play both sides of the "reverse dungeon": goblins vs. humans.
For instance, a typical D&D campaign might involve our party of adventurers tracking down the goblins to their hideout while the town guards hold down the fort. The DM presents the party with just enough of a challenge at each step along the way, he tries to not quite kill them, he escalates the threat, he throws in a plot twist, etc.
It might make an interesting campaign if the goblins aren't under DM control. The goblin players decide how to attack the town, when and where to leave ambushes and scouting parties, etc. The human players do the same for the town.
Each team gets a handful of 6th-level leaders, some 3rd-level sergeants, and lots of 1st-level spear-carriers -- but not to use in one big fight on a manicured battlefield (a la Chainmail).
It would all be quite open-ended yet goal-oriented at the same time.
Since the players wouldn't all be on the same plot-protected team, certainly one team or the other would be losing characters all the time, but those would generally be spear-carriers (or "red shirts"). Think of them as extended hit points.
