Societies

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Role-playing and War Games Society

Aaron Stead, a third-year Maths with Computer Science student, reveals all about the joys of war games and role-play.

'We do three different things in the society: war gaming, role-playing and card gaming.

War gaming is where you collect an army of models, paint them up, put them together, and you have fantasy battles against each other using different systems. At the moment we're running a fantasy campaign where we use our armies to take over territories, mapping out who's winning. Generally it's every man for himself, but there is a possibility of joining up armies to battle against each other. The way the actual battles are fought is using dice to determine moves: you chose your army, use tactics to put your units where you think you need them, and then you roll dice to see what move you need to make.

Whereas the war games are on-off, role-playing is something which we do from week to week. There's a Gamesmaster - or DM, there are many names for it - who designs a story or adventure, and makes up special characters for that adventure. Anyone can be a DM, if they have a system they are interested in which other people are interested in too. They act out those characters, like in a play.

The role-plays are done within a system, which is like an imaginary fantasy world. There are lots of different systems - Vampires and Masquerades involves vampires in a world of darkness which is similar to this one. Then there's Marvel Superheroes, where the players are acting out superhero roles in the Marvel comic style. There's also Deadlands, set in the 'Weird West', where there are all sorts of ghosts and strange things happening. At the moment we act these out by sitting around telling stories rather than acting them out with costumes, but you can use costumes and sets and everything. You can even do it at night in real-life spooky conditions.

In a way, card gaming is different. It's basically collecting cards from different systems, and you make your own deck with certain cards to a different style to it and then you play games against each other. They're like battle games as well. The main one we do is magical gathering, where you can summon creatures using charms and spells to defeat your enemy, and use land cards to cast these spells.

It is quite a fun society. You get to know a lot of people, and we see each other outside our meetings. It might sound a bit weird, but it's well worth a try.'

Factfile

Name: The Role-Playing and War Games Society (RAW).

Age: The society's been going since 1998.

Membership: Around 30-40 members. Of these, only three are female. Members are mainly students, but staff are welcome.

Time and place: Wednesday afternoons, 6.00pm until 9.00pm. Meetings begin at the Mandela Hall balcony, but the games themselves take place in student rooms on campus.

Cost: £3 joining fee, plus £1 extra to take part in war gaming. Costs come with equipment.

Special equipment: At first you can join a role-playing group where the DM already has all the equipment. But to be a DM, you will need to buy books from your system. They can cost up to £20, and supplementary books can cost around £10. To take part in the war gaming, you'll need to buy your own models. They cost around £5 each, but some are less.

How to join: Anyone is welcome. You can join any time, but role-play games can run for several weeks, so you might have to wait for a new one to start. Contact: Aaron Stead, email aaronst@central.susx.ac.uk