Musings

Several days have gone since the penny clicked regarding the imagi-nations concept. I've amused myself with my musings, and have wandered around the web, seeing what others have been up to in this field of human endeavour. To force me to be clearer in my thoughts and ambitions, thought I'd use some time now to post a few of them (in no particular order).

Period - well, I have a bunch of 6mm Spanish Civil War figures and scenery all ready to go. And I have long been interested in the military and political history of the first half of the twentieth century. So, I will center myself into the nineteen thirties.

Scale and type of game - the nominal point of an imagi-nation for a wargamer is the gaming of the situations the imagi-nation thows up as it evolves. I'm not particularly limited to gaming with miniatures, though for any battles that occur I think that the 6mm scale is fantastic to have considering my limited space and time. If that's not practical, I can use John Tiller's 'West Front' to set up a scenario (albeit with forces pretty well limited to those of historical conflicts of the time) or even - if I wish to put the time into learning the editor function - The Operational Art of War III. With my own story telling proclivities and active imagination, RolePlay type 'board/card/dice' games are always a possibility also. So, if I'm versatile and patient enough, it should cater to most of my gaming needs. And, if my focus changes to another era of history, I'm sure there's a whole backstory to be filled with colonial, napoleonic, 17th century, medieval, etc gaming experiences to be explored!

The ethics of it - I have at times had pause to consider that from which my gaming is drawing its inspiration, the experience of war. While conflict interests me intellectually, I do not wish for war. The fact of it leaves me unsettled and disturbed. Be that as it may, the gaming of it sometimes creates ethical issues for me. Playing an imagined nation should reduce the occasional angst and give less cause for upset.

The socio-politics of it (I know this is getting obscure, but heh it's my blog :)) - the whole imagi-nationsphere is pretty diffuse. One can track it through such 'hubs' as Emporer v Elector, Interbellum or Imagi-nations (warning: non wargamer site) and the blog rolls of individual sites, but it has no real centre. Each is, in a sense, an island, true to itself yet part of the main due the wonderful internet. It's a non-hierarchical network of imaginary creations based on the principle of non-interference (the only real ethic I've identified is - don't presume upon others' imagi-nations). The transactions and inspirations that occur are really interesting to me for their own sake, praxis made visible (in a sense).

To return to more mundane things, I believe that it is the way to go for me for now. An imagi-nation set in the thirties with some affinities to the situation of Spain during its civil war. The next challenge was to break away from the historical cast of my thinking about the era and come up with a coherent narrative entity to function as my imagi-nation.

More to come...

In my musings, the following sites grabbed my attention:

Imagi-nations - the site that gave the concept a name back in 1997!
Morts 1938 Scrapbook - a ripping yarn indeed (on my blog scroll), with some designer notes.
For God, England and King Edward - another example of 'A Very British Coup' campaign setting used by Mort, though set in different part of Mort's england.
Crisis in Alcovia - modern day eastern european imagi-nation, with designer notes.
Vehiculos y blindados de la guerra civil espanola (in spanish, but not much text) - hundreds of pictures of a bewildering variety of locally and mass produced armoured trucks and cars and trains, ambulances, tanks of the SCW.
Military Aspects of the Spanish Civil War - another extensive Mitch Williamson reference site.