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Message: <blockquote data-quote="chaochou" data-source="post: 8396969" data-attributes="member: 99817">I agree with this.Kriegspiel (free or not) has a number of critical difference with RPGs:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the neutral umpire isn't playing one of the sides</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the neutral umpire isn't there to generate story, tension, drama or pacing</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the neutral umpire isn't invested in the set-up or concept of the game</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the range of adjudications required of the umpire is contained to known military practicalities - deployment times, movement rates, written order interpretation, combat effectiveness - done so through the lens of lived experience</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the purpose of military wargames is to to test reasoning and decision-making, not to pretend the game outcomes are simulative</li> </ul>Neutral 'umpire' style GM-ing in RPGs is compromised by all of these pretty much out of the gate. Banale repetition to 'trust' the GM doesn't make it any less the case.In short, the 'Free' in the title of Free Kriegspiel makes it absolutely nothing like the adjudication process in games which give the GM complete freedom, any more than the 'advanced' in Advanced Squad Leader makes umpiring a game of that the same as running 'Advanced' Dungeons and Dragons.</blockquote>