Just out of curiosity, a couple of questions:
1. Does anyone know what are the preferred games of roleplayers in the military? I'm assuming that D&D is tops, I was wondering if any other game was even in the running, or any other game particularly popular that wasn't as popular in the general population.
2. Does any other nations' military have gaming fanatics in the same proportions as the US military?
RPGPundit
I live right next door to a large military base and am an old airforce brat. It goes something like this:
1st D&D
2nd D20 Modern
3rd everything else
I can't really determine a winner in the 3rd spot even from where I sit.
The ones that have stopped by the store have pretty much mentioned it this way :
Dungeons & Dragons is the tops with them....mostly the D20/OGL version.
Shadowrun has a lot of players over in Afghanistan and Iraq amongst the troops.
One of our customers did mention that GURPS seems to have a noticeable percentage over there...its just that they are not as vocal about their preference.
Keep in mind , this is just tip-of-the-iceberg sampling of Soldiers and Marines from the mid-West who take their leave in the Cincinnati or Southern Ohio area.
Several of them said they discovered D&D "over there" (in Iraq or Afghanistan) or have re-discovered their like for it. (older servicemen for that 2nd categorey) One soldier picked out 8 to 10 books off of our shelf and had them shipped to a base in Iraq ahead of time - he already knew where he was going to be serving and asked his wife to stop by the store and get anything that came out "new" while he was gone. This happened back around July of this year.
When that Gaming convention was held in Iraq back in June I sent 50 to 100 copies of GURPS Lite 4th/e as part of our store's donation contribution. these weren't "FREE" to me...had to spend at least 40 bucks getting them printed up.
- Ed C.
The Air Force tends toward Hero and Gurps--the fiddlier games. The Army doesn't always go to the field with the games they want. They go with the games they have. I've never noticed a trend there. They seem to like games in the same percentages othes do. The Navy gamers I've known served on aircraft carriers, and apparently had a great deal of time to play. They played a wide variety of games, but not as many that were brand new.
Quote from: RPGPundit1. Does anyone know what are the preferred games of roleplayers in the military? I'm assuming that D&D is tops, I was wondering if any other game was even in the running, or any other game particularly popular that wasn't as popular in the general population.
Canada here. We played AD&D, Twilight 2000, Recon, and everything in between including homebrews. I wouldn't say D&D was tops for us. In fact, the only ongoing campaign degenerated into a mess. We had a lot more fun playing Twilight 2000. Strategy board games were much more popular than RPGs.
My brother is still in. He occasionally plays D&D 3.0 with his buddies. They are huge Warhammer miniature fanatics.
Canadian here too and we played Twilight: 2000 and Aftermath in the mid-80s with a dusting of other games.
From what I've seen on the Army side of the fence, we'll play what you put in front of us.
We're just like that, y'know.
But, and this is an anecdotal kind of observation, I've yet to find a soldier who doesn't like Battletech too. Go figure.
The person who got me into gaming was in the military. He ran a lot of Twilight 2000 (which was also the first game I ever played). Of course this has been a long while back.
Quote from: peteramthorThe person who got me into gaming was in the military. He ran a lot of Twilight 2000
You know, back in the 80s, I knew quite a lot of military reservists who were mad for
Twilight: 2000, which rather mystified me at the time. I mean, why such an interest in playing a game that was about what you had to do for a job anyway? Was it just wish-fulfillment about finally getting some hot action in an otherwise cold war?
!i!
Quote from: Ian AbsentiaYou know, back in the 80s, I knew quite a lot of military reservists who were mad for Twilight: 2000, which rather mystified me at the time. I mean, why such an interest in playing a game that was about what you had to do for a job anyway? Was it just wish-fulfillment about finally getting some hot action in an otherwise cold war?
Superficially that's probably true, but the important thing for us was that it was about us. What would we do cut loose from authority, armed, and faced with a shattered world? There aren't many groups who can honestly say they have a game that's about them, unadorned, and it's still fun.
I was huge into gaming when in the USAF, and never had issues finding a group.
In my experience (gaming in stateside assignments, several worldwide deployments, the sandbox, Spain, and Korea):
-D&D was the lingua franca, but was nowhere near the monopoly you might expect.
-2nd place from all my time in? Rifts, far and away. A serious amount of military gamers I met seemed to have started with either Robotech, TMNT, or Palladium Fantasy. From all my assignments, White Wolf fared somewhat worse among military folks than they do in the public at large. Again, that very well may just have been luck of the draw. Shadowrun also got some decent playtime.
-Traveller, Rolemaster, 1st Ed D&D, and Warhammer all had serious grognard factions.
As for question 2, on one of my deployments, we gamed with some Brits, who were cool as hell, and all seemed way heavy into the Cthulhu mythos. That's all I can speak to on that.
Quote from: RPGPunditJust out of curiosity, a couple of questions:
1. Does anyone know what are the preferred games of roleplayers in the military? I'm assuming that D&D is tops, I was wondering if any other game was even in the running, or any other game particularly popular that wasn't as popular in the general population.
I learned Rolemaster from a guy who'd just gotten out of the Marines. Apart from a few short breaks for Spacemaster it was all he'd run. Apparently when you've got ship duty there's not a lot to do besides game and paint minis, so he got a lot of converts.
He used to join D&D groups, play a few sessions, and then offer to run Rolemaster. It didn't take long for them to be hooked. That's what he did to our group, that magnificent bastard.
Kevin, if you're reading this, keep it up. :)
Quote from: James McMurrayI learned Rolemaster from a guy who'd just gotten out of the Marines. Apart from a few short breaks for Spacemaster it was all he'd run. Apparently when you've got ship duty there's not a lot to do besides game and paint minis, so he got a lot of converts.
He used to join D&D groups, play a few sessions, and then offer to run Rolemaster. It didn't take long for them to be hooked. That's what he did to our group, that magnificent bastard.
Kevin, if you're reading this, keep it up. :)
Rolemaster definitely has a serious military following, from all I've seen.
A quick survey of my old Air Force buddies (not in the military myself but I have lots of friends that are):
DnD
RQ (older editions). In fairness my friends are older and probably are hanging onto old habits so RQ may not be as popular with the younger folk.
Shadowrun
They have tried lots of other games as well but those three stand out.
My US Army friend did D&D (3rd ed?) and Hero in Afghanistan. I don't know if there were other games running there also.
I used to check the forums for the "upcoming" new edition of T2K regularly, and every other poster's location started with "Fort."
Good explanation as to why, Halfjack! It used to mystify me also.
I played in Iraq just about every night for several months, but only D&D. One of the players had gotten an entire set of core books for free from WOTC just by mentioning his pending deployment. Of the five of us only two (myself and the GM) had any expirence prior.
Mostly I've seen D&D groups actually on bases and deployments, but gaming in military towns I've done Mechwarrior, Warhammer fantasy and, yes, Twilight 2000. Of course, I watched someone take SLA Industries to Haiti, so make what you will of that. I had a GM who was a medic at the aide station that ran Vampire back in the day, and had the worst example of GMPCitius I've ever seen, but was otherwise an awesome GM. (for the record? Third generation via diablrie Tremere uber-mage... We just addressed him as God and went on with our unlives....and we did wear trenchcoats and sunglasses, katana were much in evidence, along with shotguns. Vampires are the Matrix....)
Quote from: SpikeOne of the players had gotten an entire set of core books for free from WOTC just by mentioning his pending deployment.
And people call WotC evil. Remind me to go buy a D&D book this weekend. :)
A guy I used to know in the US Marines used to run CP2020 with guys in his platoon. Many of the Twilight 2000 players I've met over the interweb have ex-military backgrounds.
Quote from: James McMurrayAnd people call WotC evil.
That's neither good nor evil -- it's good marketing.
One set of books sent out this way makes a lot of new gamers who, when back home, will buy a lot more books.