Idea Is there a "market" for this here? Dice rolling tactical or strategic "wargaming"

[Winter_Wolf]

So years ago I was a member of the Armchair General Forums, corresponding to the military history magazine Armchair General, which itself included some "We Put YOU In Command" RP/wargaming type scenarios for the 'armchair generals' out there. Anyways on the forums it was common to do turn based "wargames" as we called them, basically picking a historical time and place, and taking command of a unit or units of varying size. For instance in one I controlled a US Navy fleet in WWI where the US joined the Central Powers (so it was alt history), and could send in "orders" to the GM, who would resolve them and post results of the turn. Others were during the Finnish Civil War, Pyrrhic War, Napoleonic conflicts, etc.

I'm not sure I've seen something quite like this on here? I've been working on a few variations of a generally Victorian era Regiment(s) vs Regiment(s) land battle resolution system but wanted to know if there's a "market" here for this kind of thing. I suppose it doesn't usually/always involve the typical character RP ("so and so did x, as they y'd....") but in a sense you RP through your own tactical and strategic decisions. I don't know if this makes sense.

 

[Idea]

The simple answer is "yes, that market exists , but it's extremely niche."

The more complex answer is that you'll find that in two different places. Historical war RPers or military RPers can provide the most common ground to get to what you want. The second place is nation building RPs, which often feature you at the head of a nation as a result of being about that nation, and wars naturally are a common occurrence.

Of course, both of these carry baggage and many types of players. Furthermore, they are niche genres with very loyal and fervent following, but not very expansive in terms of player base. As a result, if you want to dive into that market, it exists, but you'll have to be able to do compromises if you want to try it out in any sustainable manner.


Hope you find this post useful. Good luck and happy RPing!

 

[adrian_]

The Nation RP subsection of looking for groups or 1x1 is exactly what you're looking for, go there. I'm setting up a role-switched Cold War one rn if you want to join.

 

[Winter_Wolf]

The Nation RP subsection of looking for groups or 1x1 is exactly what you're looking for, go there. I'm setting up a role-switched Cold War one rn if you want to join.

Hmm sounds like it could be interesting. I'm in.

 

[Shuusuke]

I feel like most recommendations I'd give were already given, but I'd just like to add another one.

...and could send in "orders" to the GM, who would resolve them and post results of the turn.

This part here also sounds like it would work as a quest RP. It's a rather niche part of the forums too, not a lot of people seem to go there and I wouldn't be surprised if most don't really know what a quest RP is. But it is similar to what you described, as in the GM is the only one who posts, but the "players" influence the story not by posting themselves, but through PMs or voting on a poll. The latter can even let you have literally anyone that happened to check your thread to vote and try to affect the story, if that's what you want. Maybe you could let the players control the major powers' strategies but the "anyone" part decide what the general population is doing, if they are supportive of the leader or are considered rebelling, something like that, to add one more factor to the RP.

Just a suggestion though. I'm not really historically knowledgeable in most areas, I mostly know stuff about the Japanese Sengoku era and some stuff from the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which has some fantasy mixed in into it. But your idea sounds interesting, good luck and hopefully it works out.