The Tony Bath Style Sci Fi Wargame

Looking to the past to solve modern problems

Greetings Travellers it’s Ross at the Outlaw Void clubhouse!

This post is primarily for the members of the Outlaw Void clubhouse but I’m hoping that it also can serve as something useful to those considering a Science Fiction Braunstein Wargaming Club or for anyone interested in 1977 Traveller, or anyone considering joining the Outlaw Void club.

We are coming up on our first month soon and the submission of your second round of orders.

So far we’ve seen chases down alleyways from robed men, joining space vikings, criminal dealings and a whole lot of terrorism.

The game has still served, from the perspective of the host that gets to see all of the gameplay, as a superior form of science fiction pencil and paper gaming.

For the participants though things have varied. For some, they’ve gotten to see a lot of action in a short period of time. Some have submitted simple orders and immediately gotten the satisfaction of subsector spanning results whether success or failure.

For other participants things have been confusing. I’ve spoken to each of you personally and I promised you that the shift from conventional gaming to this requires a very open mind and a huge paradigm shift. Some of you have experienced that. One member was kicked out for crashing out. Several members felt overwhelmed and confused or weren’t sure where to start. In some form or another many people still thought this would be a conventional tabletop game despite my promises and exposition on how it would. Not. Meet. Those expectations.

But for most, they have adhered to the stated experiment and the experiment has gone well.

What is the Outlaw Void clubhouse?

Outlaw Void is a science fiction adventure, wargame and simulations clubhouse dedicated to pulp science fiction. For us, that mostly means 1977 Traveller. Not Traveller, not 1981 Traveller, but 1977 Traveller according to the text.

What is Voidstein 3?

Voidstein 3 is the third in a series of experimental game campaigns.

Voidstein 1 was a solar system wide 1981 Classic Traveller Braunstein that wanted to test the constraints around time, distance and space travel in a competitive Braunstein environment. It was a huge success and yes you can have a Braunstein campaign where jumps take 1 week and the distances of space matters!

Voidstein 2 was a Chris Engle’s Matrix game which took the faction of the solar system and pitted them against each other in weekly orders. The experiment was designed to test the social technology of the Braunstein and see how minimal the rules could be, supported entirely by fog of war and competition. The experiment was also a huge success and demonstrated much could be resolved in the open system IF a fog of war was institutes with participants operating in opposition.

Voidstein 3 is the current experiment and was intended to further stress the rules of 1977 Traveller. Page 1 of 1977 Traveller says the game is for “up to 40 players” and page 2 says that no Referee is required! For that reason, the entire subsector map is employed and the game is conducted strictly by the book. Patrons operate in a layer similar to Voidstein 2 while Traveller do pencil and paper adventure gameply, negotiating with encounters on planets while seeking a patron.

The intention of Voidstein 3 was to simply test this gameplay loop of Travelling, on a subsector map, with a large number of participants simultaneously.

So far, it’s worked great!

However.

As the experiment has unfolded, and as we’ve revisited Pulp Sci Fi texts in our book club, I’ve begun to gain a sense of what 1977 Traveller could actually be.

If Traveller were divorced from the nit-noid assumptions of soon to be released GDW and Judge’s Guild products, you’d have something very cinematic, very space opera, and more concerned with the drama and competition between participants.

When we began Voidstein 3 we established 3 modes of play just like page 2 of Book 1 says:

There’s the campaign, which is the total experience with dozens of participants on the subsector map all at once.

There’s solitaire play, which Travellers conduct as they survive planet-to-planet seeking a patron.

Then there’s scenario play, or basically that mode which we commonly understand as tabletop sessions today.

For scenarios, when they arise, I offer several means of resolving them. Ideally, this is done through adventure session play scheduled weekly. But of course, I’ve got lots of other projects and work a lot during the week and have an unpredictable schedule. For that reason, players may either have someone else Referee the adventure scenario, or they may resolve it play-by-post. Often I can establish the parameters of the scenario and then they can finish it in solitaire play. The least desirable outcome is an abstraction such as a simple dice roll, but the campaign comes first.

Now, in conventional table play this campaign would have ended the way 99% of all RPG campaigns end: The Gamesmaster is burnt out and too busy.

Fortunately, this is a clubhouse game, and the GM is not really the point at all! It’s up to the participants to decide their fun among themselves. It helps to have a Referee who makes themselves available regularly during the week, but it’s not required. The participants are here because of what THEY want, not what someone else can provide for them.

What the game could be

That being said what has happened with Travelling is there’s basically too much adventure. Yup, that is the problem! People encounter weird groups, get in trouble and screw up the plans of patrons across the sub sector. It would provide endless, endless scenario play if we wanted. Of course, that’s impossible for a conventional group, it would be hard for a clubhouse that had multiple Referees. We don’t have multiple referees.

Where OD&D has worked as a wargame with occasional high octane adventure gameplay, Traveller is just nonstop adventure, adventure, adventure.

Here the Type IV Braunstein described by Bdubs shows itself the hero. The Referee scheduled a day in the week and anyone can come. All over the subsector map he resolves everything in a Braunstein right then and there. Total non-stop Braunstein.

The problem? I don’t have one day a week. I had initially though this would work like OD&D and I would simply allow myself two dockets a month with my busy schedule, similar to what I’ve seen some other Bros do. Then other participants in the club would offer to Referee and help others too.

This game has been different. It really seems to emphasize lots of adventure. Two nights a month scheduled ad hoc with members in 4 different time zones will not work to resolve things.

If I did have one night a week this game would make a superb Type IV Braunstein with participants permitted to come once a week at scheduled and consistent times to conduct simultaneous actions across the subsector then we resolve them. Scenario gameplay could still be rich, again, this isn’t conventional play that’s not always the “GM”’s job.

What the game is by necessity

Since we have a club membership spanning the planet from Eastern Europe, to New Zealand to Belgium and since the host of the Braunstein isn’t available once per week, we by necessity need to take a different approach. The club will still be great, we will still get lots of experimentation done but up front I have to warn you:

• It will require a love of 1977 Traveller

• It will require low time preference

What we can do is a Tony Bath Wargame in Space!

A Tony Bath Style Wargame in space

Ton Bath’s Hyboria campaign is one of the most significant parts of the history of gaming that would become D&D and adventure wargaming. It’s also a fascinating living world. Hyboria launched in 1959 and Bath would process hundreds of orders, publishing the results in a “Hyborian Newspaper” monthly for decades, the game lasted until around 1984! 26 years.

Hyboria was a play-by-mail game, similar to play-by-post today but participants had to wait for results in the published hyborian newspaper based on their orders.

Tony Bath today inspires Braunstein School Renaissance campaign play perhaps even more than the designers of D&D.

Play-by-mail, but with scheduled orders and Free Kreigspeil style resolution

Bath used a wargame technique called the Free Kriegspiel, where the adjudication was primarily up to the Referee.

The advantage of this style is most anyone can play, and you can make decisions mostly on a conceptual basis.

So for the foreseeable future Voidstein 3 will become a Tony Bath Style Sci Fi Wargame!

• Orders become bi-weekly for Travellers and Patrons. If needed you can make a monthly order, but keep in mind your opponent get’s a second turn! Let’s flex around people’s lives, just communicate if you need a 1.5 month standing order.

• I will begin recruiting for new members on this basis

• Scenario play will need to be driven by participants. Otherwise I will use a simple abstraction for the results.

• Scheduled scenario play with me hosting will become rare, anyone in the club may referee others though

• For Travellers, you’ll still need to track your consumption of food and ammo in accordance with Book 3 and other items. You’ll have to keep up with your money, posting it in each of your bi-weekly orders your current money and where it’s being spent. You’ll need to apply the rules for encounters, travelling etc. just like you’ve already done

• On this basis, the campaign itself and your decisions are more important than resolutions in combat or in scenarios. You have total freedom now! Try and do anything whatsoever, this is now a free kriegspeil wargame

I’m excited to continue to referee this club in a Tony Bath style way! I’ll see you all out there in the Void.

(Here is a video version for those that prefer that)