I feel like, with the OSR movement, one aspect of old-school play (namely its wargame origins) are underplayed, or rather not getting enough attention since D&D itself was a paradigm shift into a more theatre-of-mind style play and I see that it gives more freedom and flow. And I appreciate and use it most of the time as well.
Yet, I believe coming from current gaming culture, players often overlook the intricacies of tactical play that come with wargaming. And the use of miniatures (and environmental props –i.e. ‘terrain’) only adds to feed and grow that kind of playstyle.
So my questions are:
Do you use miniatures? And if so, do you make good use of the environment? Is your table crowded with terrain features or do they always fight on flat surfaces with no obstacles or cover-objects, etc.?
Would this work: I’m thinking of making a free (as in freedom and as in free beer) skirmish game (called Moldvay’s Maw for the time being) using the combat rules as the engagement rules, and the monster list as the factions from Moldvay Basic as summer project. My intention is to link back to the tactical aspect of tabletop rpg that comes from wargaming, as well as a pedagogical tool for people to help them familiarize themselves with B/X combat rules. I’m thinking of something akin to Mordheim with a mega-dungeon as a setting, so it should also allow campaign play. I believe, since of all the rules, combat is most fully-developed in B/X, it might serve as a smoother introduction than asking newbies to go directly into full-fledged ttrpg play. Would that work?
When i ran my OD&D campaign I used miniatures (and tokens since I didn’t have enough setting appropriate minis) but I did not use a battle map or a grid, as I find those kind of off-putting most of the time. Instead I ran more complex fights as actual wargames - we had a tape measure at the table and would literally measure the inches that figures could move. There was usually no terrain except some vague outlines of it using some wooden cubes.
I’ve also ran the game using pure theater of the mind, and also an in-between version which I have settled on for my last few games. I use small wooden cubes either as single or multiple ones glued together to form larger sections. I then use those to build out the dungeon as the party explore it, which both helps the mapper get a more accurate idea of the layout and also takes me about as much time to set up as just explaining proper dimensions would.
I then use small tokens and meeples to represent the party and any monsters or interesting elements of the rooms. The combat is still generally speaking theater of the mind, but I use the terrain and tokens as a way to help visualization and make sure everyone knows what is going on.
No, although I’d like to try it (using tape measure rather than gridded movement). But I’m only playing online right now and I hate dealing with tokens on VTTs.
I’m not fully understanding your pitch. It’s just the combat of B/X?
Yeah, more or less it’s to be a skirmish wargame extracted from Moldvay Basic presented in a mega-dungeon as setting with factions from the ‘Monsters’ section.
This is probably just my ignorance of skirmish games showing, but does that mean there would be objective-based scenarios and a strategic layer of sorts?
Yea, beyond the standard head-to-head clashes, there would be scenarios such as ‘control 2/3 of control points by turn X’ or ‘hold the gate for X turns’ etc.
Strategic layer –quite in simple form but yes like the zones the gangs control in ‘Necromunda’ probably.
Sounds interesting to me! I’m imagining you could even use it as a companion game where the skirmishes determine how the dungeon changes while a separate group of adventurers venture in using full B/X rules.