An Occasional (as opposed to a Periodical) font of infalliable wisdom concerning, well, mostly boardgames, books, and life as a navel-gazing pseudointellecutal thirty-year-old hip-deep in grad school.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

A Foray into RPGs?

I recently stumbled across a combination miniatures ruleset-roleplaying game called "Science vs Pluck." Each of the players represents an officer in the British colonial army in the Soudan in the late 19th century, with the Umpire/GM playing the Mahdi, the forces of nature, other (rival?) officers, Cruel Fate, etc. As in life, the player-officers have numerous concerns. They have to plan the campaigns--including the logistical difficulties, manage their men on the march, lead them in battle, perform heroically, write up after-action reports deflecting blame elsewhere--and carefully grooming their reputation, both in the army and back in England. To that end, there are rules for promotion--and a possibility for a player to represent a war correspondent rather than an officer.

It's currently in its third edition, and is available here; a previous edition of the game is now "freeware" and can be had here. As of now, I only have the freeware version.

Now, the goal is to rope some folks into playing the thing...