The Culture: The True Nature Of The Game Is A Wargame

By now it is clear that there is a pattern in the rules for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition regarding how the game is meant to be played.

Regardless of who or what your character is, it is clear that the game puts your character into a position where he is expected to slowly develop the means required to be taken seriously as a power-player in the setting when he reaches Name Level (or, for demi-humans, as close as you can get to that).

As I have said previously, this means that the game as it is expects players to put in work via their characters to develop the physical economies of their characters' areas of operation; strongholds, temples, marketplaces, etc. do not spawn out of nowhere when a character hits Name Level.

The biggest reason for why this has been missed is due to the dominance of adventure modules and commercial settings, both of which usurp this duty from Player Characters and obviate the need for such economics to be developed in (and as a direct consequence of) play.

Once again the truth is laid bare: AD&D IS A WARGAME!

Campaigns Are About The Economy

In wargame terms, Player Characters are Hero Figures that stand apart from the rank and file; they are the champions, generals, sovereigns, high priests, archmages, etc. in traditional tabletop wargaming that command the troops or are able (via special rules) to shape the battlefield.

In a proper wargame campaign, the effects of one game carry over to the next; this is how real-world military campaigns are abstracted into something playable. The player is responsible for doing what is required to replace lost men and material, which means that he is required to deal with logistics and politics- and that comes down to dealing with economics.

No, not just looking at an expense sheet. I mean figuring out where the food, water, shelter, etc. are coming from and how he will secure access to what he needs to replace those losses and refine their quality and morale into the best possible fighting force. All of that, in turn, takes time to establish and accomplish- and, in turn, opens up avenues for the enemy to attack.

Your character is not some hapless hobo scraping for coin while looting ruins for widgets and secrets. He is a would-be warlord, a potential player in the world's affairs, a man of respect- both by other men, and maybe even by powers more than mortal. This is why the game is an outgrowth of Braunstein. Your character is meant to lead, not to be an endless homeless serial killer.

This is why the D&D game is correctly called a campaign. They are to establish and pursue objectives (what a campaign is about), and doing that requires having the infrastructure to do so; this requires finding what is required to get what they want done, then doing what it takes to get it done, and once they have the resources required they go get it.

This is not a passive game, where players just react to what is put before them. To succeed at the game, players need to be the active party--to seize the initiative--and do what it takes to make that happen. The Referee, in turn, has to ensure that campaign events turn on the economic question; regardless of who the character is, or what they want, they need stuff that they don't have to make it happen.

All of this talk of Fighters growing their armies, Clerics their followers, Thieves their gangs, and Magic-Users their magical creation capacity is entirely reliant on economics. This is above and beyond merely paying for Training to advance in level, or recruiting and equipping Henchmen. You want a safe place between adventures? Build it. Want a source of Holy Water? Build it. Making Potions? Find an Alchemist and put him in a lab that you built. Don't wait on the Referee to just gin that up for you.

That's what I conclude after all of this review and examination. Braunstein that is the foundation of this game, and successful campaigners don't sit and wait for things to be handed to them; they take and make what they need, and deal for what they can't do themselves, making do in the meantime until those needs are fulfilled or the objective is achieved.

This is what RPGs are meant to be. It's no wonder that the Theater Kids and similar losers can't handle what has been brought back from the Memory Hole; now they have to confront the threat that (a) this is a real game and therefore (b) they can actually lose because there are objective standards to be measured by AND THEY DON'T MEASURE UP!.

Maybe they ought to learn how to #winatdnd.