A RPG and wargame ancestor from 1812

GhanBuriGhan

Wose extraordinaire
Original Sin Donor
Joined
October 18, 2006
Messages
3,508
I found this surprising and rather amazing article on Spiegel Online, a major german news portal:

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/spielzeug/0,1518,625745,00.html

It's in german, but it may warrant some babelfish hilarity to read. It talks about a wargame invented in 1812 in Prussia, Germany, that anticipates many of the mechanics of later wargaming and RPG's, including using dice to decide encounters, rastered maps, and even a "Dungeon Master" of sorts.

And apparently this was already as addicting as today's games - for the Prussian King himself and his family, who stayed up to the wee hours to play!
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
3,508
Bah, newbies.

voynich_manuscript.png
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
8,540
Military wargames are older than that, the Swedish king Charles XII (1682-1718) was very fond of them, IIRC, and I hardly think they were a new invention at the time. That Prussian commode might be more advanced though, and it sure looks nice.
 
Joined
Nov 18, 2006
Messages
525
Location
Sweden
In a certain sense chess developed from the kind of "wargames" they played some tens of centuries ago.

Edit: By the way there were even variants with a kind of "initiative" rolls with W4 dice, see Wikipedia.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Dec 26, 2007
Messages
1,786
Chatturanga, the ancestor to chess was invented in India around 600 AD using an old style 64 square backgammon board. It literally means "Four Corps" and the piece to play is decided by throwing the dice. From there it moved to Persia who were fascinated by chess puzzles sans dice like crosswords and then the Moors in Spain. There were still rules for dice as the poor monk who was imprisoned knew in 1100 AD. He justified his playing against the law by saying he wasn't using dice. His inquisitor was buying it and argued that he knew very well what hte spirit of the law was. The Pope has since forgiven the poor fellow.

--

What was that game in the old DM's Guide, wallets & paycheques?
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
5,212
Location
The Uncanny Valley
Back
Top Bottom