The Culture: The Wargame Is Not Hard To Comprehend

"Okay, AD&D is a wargame. So? I'm 1st level with sweet fuck-all to my name. How am I going to do that?"

This is where you put down Howard, Leiber, and Burroughs and go pick up some history- or, at the least, well-researched historical fiction.

Real men, in real life, successfully built themselves up from nothing to become world-shaking collosi. You will not go wrong if you read their accounts, take notes on what they did and how they did it, and copy what they did as best as your man can in the campaign.

Why should you do this?

In this context, for a very obvious reason: to confront the fact that real people, who had sweet fuck-all to their name, figured out how to do it.

If those real people, who really lived, and build up kingdoms, empires, religions, etc. by their own hands could do this for real, where failure meant death or worse, you can figure out how to do it for fun in a simulated wargame campaign.

This is not a failure of imagination on the part of the naysayer. This is a failure of knowledge, if not a denial of reality.

Great kingdoms did not arise because a random roll on a chart said so. They arose because a great man gathered about him a body of reliable followers, and through them amassed the military might needed to carve a kingdom out of a wilderness or clean out a rotten regime that is no longer fit for purpose.

Great religions did more than just healbot and sell potions; it solved real problems that people have had and shall always have.

Criminal syndicates arise when legitimate institutions cannot or will not accomodate the reality of the state's polity. Cultures become strong when they fulfill a purpose, and decay when that purpose is removed by whatever means.

Pay attention in particular to the leaders whose deeds take him from leading a gang to leading an army or becoming Emperor. See what that man had to do, how he financed his operations, what deals he had to make to secure what he required (and how he dealt with those obligations), and how he dealt with unexpected events that upset his plans.

In these stories, no matter who or what your character is, you will find answers to "How am I going to do that?"

You will not like some of those answers. Tough. That's how it is, and a well-run campaign will ensure that you get to show your man's worth by demonstrating how he deals with it.

The best fiction that deals in such affairs will be grounded in these real life examples, as Yoshiki Tanaka shows with Legend of the Galactic Heroes. (books, OVA, series)

And if you want something more grounded, Sharpe.

Unlike the real world, you only suffer the inconvenience of having to roll up a new man if you fuck up and die or something outside your control screws your man over and kills him. Lots of people, past and present, take their shot at becoming someone that needs to be reckoned with; most of them fail, and that usually means getting ganked when it doesn't mean getting imprisoned and forgotten about. Some few escape and try again somewhere else.

This is not a hobby for people who expect someone else to entertain them, or to be punching bags for Theater Kid faggotry. This is a hobby for people with ambition, determination, and an entrepreneurial spirit. Those who have what it takes to turn being broke while fresh off the boat into a continent-spanning business empire are those who have what it takes to #winatrpgs.

And seeing that play out, even if it is only a simulation, is a big deal that can change the minds of those who pull it off. No wonder certain parties feel threatened by the #BROSR.