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What is Fire Zone?... |
Fire Zone
is a tabletop miniatures and roleplaying game about the experience of the
soldier in the 20th century. This mission statement, though, doesn't give
a sense of the
comprehensive character of the game.
Fire Zone
is a labour of love. It has been a massive undertaking. It
tackles a massive subject. And so it has been an intensive exercise in
experimental game design R&D.
It has been in
development since 1995. Three iterations have been produced: in 1996 an initial
black-and-white manual (200 pages); in 1998 a full-colour mock-up (275
pages) with all rules and artwork; and later still in 1998 a third iteration,
black-and-white (200 pages). In addition, we have played it
intensively since the beginning (and had a lot of fun doing so).
The first two years of development were conducted full-time. This involved paving the basic game vision, producing the first iteration, and doing the playtesting. This first game model was developed essentially along the lines of existing roleplaying and miniatures tabletop game systems – comparable to the extremely popular Warhammer 40,000 series.However, during this time in-depth research was conducted in military science and history, and experimental game design – and the author drew on his own experience as an infanteer. (We often conducted play-test sessions with former Canadian Forces colleagues, adding to the game’s veracity.) Some of the best material ever written on modern footsoldiering were read (such as With The Old Breed, by E.B. Sledge - generally recognized as the best memoir of combat written by a soldier in the modern period).Through this research and development it soon became apparent the game model initially being built was inadequate for the needs of the subject. The essential challenges of this project were then laid bare – the reasons why no one to date has produced an adequate tabletop game (or digital game for that matter) depicting the full experience of the 20th century soldier. Essentially, Fire Zone is a “monster game” – a very ambitious game project in that it is an attempt to do this.* * *The Main ChallengesTwo major challenges in the Fire Zone
vision have been discovered. (Any designer who tries to do a game like Fire Zone will face them too.)
They strain the limits of what can be an enthralling game of this nature:
1.) The first challenge is the need to develop a game system - a core language - that strikes the right balance between an abstract or detailed representation of the chaotic combat environment, and the de-individualizing military environment. Too much abstraction can lead to a game that dehumanizes the soldiers and alienates players’ sympathies with them; but too much detail can lead to a game that is psychologically overwhelming and intimidating to a player.2.) The second
challenge is the need for
a core architecture that can represent the vast breadth of technologies
the soldier has seen over the course of the 20th century – i.e. that
can resolve probability issues covering a immense number of issues, from
Lee-Enfield single-shot rifles in 1900, to AS-30 laser-guided smart
missiles in 2000.
* * *Development ObjectivesThe aesthetic and
business objectives of the Fire Zone project have been...
A.) HIGH SUBJECT
INTEGRITY: Today the topic of ground-warfare has been thrust into the
spotlight – partly owing to recent events, but also due to the release
of motion pictures such as Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, which have
tapped a powerful zeitgeist. (The Fire Zone project was
undertaken before these – so it is not tapping some “flavour-of-the-month”.)
Society’s renewed interest in military subjects has spawned a slew of
games about war, yet most of these are very limited in understanding and
scope - or focus so highly on the details that as a general depiction of
war they are ludicrous (case-in-point: Battlefield 1942). (So the current trend toward high-end computer graphics does not solve
this - it merely creates the illusion of realism. Very few current
war-oriented games have substance.) Since the emergence of the premise game as a strong
entertainment form in the 1970s (then in the guise of tabletop roleplaying
and wargames), and leading up to today’s spate of digital games on the
topic, there has never been a premise game that adequately expressed the
broad scope of the soldier’s experience. This project has aimed for high design integrity
– to accurately represent the scope of its topic
while succeeding as an enthralling game.
B.) DESIGN ELEGANCE: The goal of subject-integrity has been difficult to achieve, in part because Fire Zone is a tabletop game: it requires elegant rules to balance the “realistic” elements against the need for playability and simplicity (since the players must “do their own math” instead of relying on a computer). Many tabletop and digital games that have attempted the tactical ground warfare subject are monstrosities, as the approach has been to tack on more and more rules (menus and controls, in the digital realm) as each new aspect of the complex quilt of modern warfare is comprehended, broadening the scope until the whole becomes an incomprehensible patchwork.The approach with Fire
Zone has been to develop a core, elegant and simple architecture that covers the
whole of the game – so that players need only understand a few key rules
to start playing (learning additional ones only on an as-needed basis); and so new elements may be added to the Fire Zone franchise at
later times without having to overhaul the entire game, or clumsily patch things
up. This balance of game design structure with ergonomics has
influenced other XFunc/NightVision projects as well.
C.) COMPREHENSIVE
SCOPE: The aim of Fire Zone from the get-go is to cover the full range of experience of the soldier.
Other tactical wargames (digital or tabletop)
are focused on combat. Fire Zone goes beyond this. It
covers the "story-telling" dimensions of its subject. (This is
something you can do MUCH better with a tabletop in-the-flesh game.)
D.) TRADITIONAL GAME DESIGN: Fire Zone has been undertaken in the tradition of “pure game design” – the interpretation of a subject in symbolic game language, with abstract procedures and tokens to enhance understanding about something, rather than merely mechanistically simulating it. This project has been an exercise in the honing of traditional strategy game design skills.Most digital strategy “game design”, by contrast, has deteriorated in today’s spate of rehashed game models. Today most “game design” is not game design at all, but the redressing of old models with different graphics. It may be interactive writing, or event scripting, or level design, but game design it is not.Fire Zone does not take a derivative approach - systems and rules based on the evaluations, "guestimates" and misinterpretations of other wargames. Rather, it is a direct encounter with its subject – the 20th century soldier’s experience. Whenever possible, procedures have been designed through research of real-world sources: historical accounts, scientific studies of weapons, combat psychology, military culture, soldiers' memoirs, and so on. This project scrapped everything and started from scratch.This approach is
paying off. We
have playtested it with great success. It has paid off in
non-war-oriented game design as well (e.g. it was
manifest in the Banks In Action project) - in our ability to break a
really intimidating game design challenge.
E.) PRESERVATION
OF THE TABLETOP MEDIUM: Fire Zone
will be published
as a tabletop game (though it will also be franchised as a digital game).
Part of the goal here is the preservation of the
tabletop premise game medium in today's age of digital games. This is a very worthwhile goal.
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