Re: (TFT) WWI Airplane production story

[Jay Carlisle <maou.tsaou@gmail.com>]

On Tuesday, September 27, 2011, Peter wrote:
> That's a great account of WWI American aircraft development. Did you write
it or borrow it from somewhere?
>

Hi Peter,

The figures came from a 7 volume set of books called The Source Records of
the Great War published in 1931.
Specifically it comes from volume 7 in the last section entitled The War
With Germany a statistical summery by Leonard P. Ayres Colonel, General
Staff, Chief of the Statistics Branch of the General Staff.
I... uhhh, summarized it from the section dealing with aircraft production.

> I am interested in such things and do think they have a place in a
campaign, to the extent that the players (including and mainly the GM) are
willing to think about them. At the least, they are elements of the campaign
world history and what conditions exist from time to time, whether or not
they are tracked in detail or even gamed, or merely appear in occasional
mentions from scholars or others who express an opinion of their view of
what is going on in the game world.
>
> One counterpoint might be that 1917 industry, technology and
communications were far faster than exist in typical fantasy/medieval
cultures.
>

Got you, but then there's magic.
Slippery Floor might negate the castor oil problem altogether for example...

> Another might be that player characters might tend to have little or no
view into the details of such changes.
>

Agreed, though if they are in a German cockpit when the new De Havilland's
start to show...

> But it's a great story and I love such considerations myself. I just think
there's a limit to how much detail a player or GM can get into before they
are mired in details.
>
> For example, I picked up the computer game Hearts of Iron III for $5 or so
at Half Price Software. It is a World War II conquest game where you can
play any nation in the world and manage pretty much all aspects of a
nation's military, industry, politics, research, espionage, etc. Despite my
interest in the subject, I found it freakin' overwhelming (and inaccurate,
so what would even be the point except to indulge rabid detail maniacs?). (I
hear Hearts of Iron II is slightly less insane, BTW.)

Yes... I probably wouldn't ever try something like a world war with a top
down approach.
Too much work for a likely "overwhelming" result with too many details
trying to be forced into play.
However, if I put players in leadership positions and they formed a house of
cards alliance then I figure it's good to have some ideas of what happened
historically in a similar situation to judge from.
Half the point of being King is war it seems.
=====
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