Games

Wargames come in many varieties, including military strategy board games, military miniatures, military card games and computer wargames. My main interest is in the board game variety, although I also play other types.

I have been playing wargames since 1972. My first wargame was France 1940 (AH). My favorite subjects are WWII, ACW and Napoleonics, though ancients are slowly moving up. For reasons of space and time, I like one-mappers which last about 8 hours or less. I prefer face-to-face playing, rather than solitaire or play-by-mail. I seem to spend too much time on errata, sorting and home made play-aids. Wargaming also seems to be an excuse to buy a lot of office supplies. I fancy myself as a budding game developer, but I haven't actually done any commercial wargame design or development.

I have played many different role-playing games, but my favorite genre is science fiction. My favorites are Traveller (in its various editions) and Era Ten.

I helped develop the Era Ten series of science fiction role-playing games published in Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer magazine (during the Better Games period). (My nickname in that world is "Doc".) I was one of the developers of Battleborn (Issue 1) and Guardians of Sol (Issue 5). These issues are out of print, but they can usually be found in the used game/magazine market.

My interest in the Harpoon miniatures rules, led me to play the computer version of Harpoon. In 1990, I founded and moderated the original version of the Convergence Zone (CZ), an e-mail list discussing the Harpoon naval wargame series and related topics.

Old issues of the original CZ are available for download as follows.

Before moving to Los Angeles, I attended the two Origins conventions in Chester, PA in 1979 and 1980. After moving to LA, I also attended Origins 1986 and 1989. In the Los Angeles area, there are game conventions held on a regular basis. I go to most of these conventions. I used to run some science fiction roleplaying games using the Better Games system (Battleborn, Guardians of Sol, Independents) at these conventions. However, recently, I have tended to concentrate on military strategy board games at conventions.

My CONSIM-L reports on game conventions are available for download as follows.

The best web site for board wargames is Web-Grognards. Wargames are discussed on Consim World and on the CONSIM-L (Conflict Simulation listserv) email list.

The current version of the Harpoon miniatures rules is published by Clash of Arms. Information on how to sign up with the current incarnation of CZ can be found in this listing of publically accessible mailing lists.

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