German board game that changed the face of war

[aco175]

 

[MNblockhead]

It’s closer to Kriegsspiel, Free Kriegsspiel, Strategos, Braunstein, Blackmoor, D&D.

Gary Gygax (D&D) got the idea from Dave Arneson (Blackmoor), who got the idea from David Wesely (Braunstein), who got the idea from Totten (Strategos), who got the idea from Meckel and Verdy (free Kriegsspiel), who got the idea from Reisswitz (Kriegsspiel).

Kriegsspiel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It’s closer to Kriegsspiel, Free Kriegsspiel, Strategos, Little Wars (HG Wells's miniature wargame created for leisure not military study), Braunstein, Blackmoor, D&D.

I think Little Wars is important in the development of the hobby as it took was was taken a serious war study and made a simpler war game that was made solely for fun. There may have been others before then but not with the name recognition and distribution that Wells had. From there you eventually have a number of hobby publishers and making war games boxed sets and miniature rules, and that eventually led to the TTRPGs.

 

[overgeeked]

It’s closer to Kriegsspiel, Free Kriegsspiel, Strategos, Little Wars (HG Wells's miniature wargame created for leisure not military study), Braunstein, Blackmoor, D&D.

I think Little Wars is important in the development of the hobby as it took was was taken a serious war study and made a simpler war game that was made solely for fun. There may have been others before then but not with the name recognition and distribution that Wells had. From there you eventually have a number of hobby publishers and making war games boxed sets and miniature rules, and that eventually led to the TTRPGs.

I'm not saying Little Wars isn't important to wargames or the history of wargames. It just doesn't factor that much into the direct lineage of D&D. Which is what I was talking about.

According to David Wesely, he found Strategos in his college library and learned about the role of umpire allowing for players trying anything. He took that and transformed it into the referee of Braunstein. And they played one player to one character instead of one player to one army. That's the origin of RPGs right there. Wesely got it from Strategos. Strategos was a direct offshoot of Free Kriegsspiel, which was a branch of Kriegsspiel. Hence the line of games I wrote out.

Again, not knocking Little Wars or saying it doesn't matter. It's just not a crucial piece to the origin story of D&D.

 

[MNblockhead]

I'm not saying Little Wars isn't important to wargames or the history of wargames. It just doesn't factor that much into the direct lineage of D&D. Which is what I was talking about.

According to David Wesely, he found Strategos in his college library and learned about the role of umpire allowing for players trying anything. He took that and transformed it into the referee of Braunstein. And they played one player to one character instead of one player to one army. That's the origin of RPGs right there. Wesely got it from Strategos. Strategos was a direct offshoot of Free Kriegsspiel, which was a branch of Kriegsspiel. Hence the line of games I wrote out.

Again, not knocking Little Wars or saying it doesn't matter. It's just not a crucial piece to the origin story of D&D.

That is just not born out by what we know of the history of the hobby and its development. While the Midwest Military Simulation Association (MMSA) were made up (mostly?) of university students who were history buffs and wargaming enthusiast, that would certainly be drawn to a Strategos, a wargame that was one of the last pre-computer battle simulation systems developed and used by the military, it wasn't the discovery of that dusty tome in the U of MN library that got them into wargaming. They were already playing leisure war games from publishers like Avalon Hill (Arneson became interested in the hobby when his parent bought him Gettysburg by Avalon Hill.

The link between battle simulation systems like Kriegspiel and Strategos to leisure strategy games like those put out by Avalon Hill, was Little Wars.* Wells and Jerome K. Jerome literally set out to make a "Kriegspiel-like" game with simplified rules that children could play. An appendix in that book, "Little Wars and Kriegspiel", provides advanced rules for older players. It was in circulation and reprinted over a long period of time from 1913 until 2004 (not sure if there were later printings, just going off of Wikipedia here). The book was hugely influence among the sci fi, fantasy, and early wargame communities. Isaac Asimov wrote the preface to the 1974 reprint. Gary Gygax, in his preface to the 2004 reprint, credited the book with "start(ing) the hobby of military miniatures war-gaming." Gary Gygax's Foreword to 'H.G. Wells' Little Wars' — d-Infinity. Gary isn't a historian but most academics who have written on the subject back up Gary's statement.** He also writes about the influence Little Wars had on him, when a friend lent it to him in 1960s. He wrote that it "influenced [his] development of both the Chainmail miniatures rules and the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game" (id.).

Every serious history of TTRPGs cites the important influence of Little Wars in the birth of TTRPGs. I highly doubt that only Gary, Perren, and the Lake Geneva crowd were familiar with Little Wars. I'm too lazy to find cites, but I would be very surprised if Wesely, Arneson, and other members of the MMSA hadn't played it. But even if that were the case, the Avalon Hills games and various other leisure war games that brought them into the hobby, owe much to Little Wars for bringing wargaming to amateurs and helping create the wargame hobby.


* Full name: Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books (a fun title with a cringey final phrase, though for 1913, I think it was rather progressive to think of marketing this to girls at all).

** E.g., https://content.ucpress.edu/chapters/12896.ch01.pdf, and Jon Peterson, Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons (which states that Little Wars was the primary inspiration for miniature war games and the strategy games published by Avalon Hill and SPI). Just two examples, but there are many more. Any history of the hobby would be incomplete without discussing Little Wars.

 

[overgeeked]

That is just not born out by what we know of the history of the hobby and its development. While the Midwest Military Simulation Association (MMSA) were made up (mostly?) of university students who were history buffs and wargaming enthusiast, that would certainly be drawn to a Strategos, a wargame that was one of the last pre-computer battle simulation systems developed and used by the military, it wasn't the discovery of that dusty tome in the U of MN library that got them into wargaming. They were already playing leisure war games from publishers like Avalon Hill (Arneson became interested in the hobby when his parent bought him Gettysburg by Avalon Hill.

Yes, of course, without commercial, hobbyist wargames there would be no D&D. That's not up for debate. But that's just as beside the point as the fact that without axial tilt, tidal forces, or gasoline there'd be no D&D.

Every serious history of TTRPGs...

Slow down. There's been, what...maybe six of those. And 3-4 of those written by one guy.

You're arguing about whether a bunch of wargamers needed to have a wargaming hobby to exist for them to get into wargaming. What I'm talking about is direct design lineage. Where the ideas came from. Wesely got the idea of an umpire and free-form action declarations from Strategos, not Little Wars. Those two components, when combined with players taking on a specific role rather than running an entire army, is the literal birth of the RPG as we know it.

D&D was based on Blackmoor. Which was based on Braunstein. Which was based on Strategos. Which was based on free Kriegsspiel. Which was based on Kriegsspiel.

Regardless. Tschüss.