A megagame (sometimes capitalised as Megagame or MegaGame) is a type of large-scale simulation which can contain elements of

role-playing games A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...

tabletop games Tabletop games or tabletops are games that are normally played on a table or other flat surface, such as board games, card games, dice games, miniature wargames, or tile-based games. Classification according to equipment used Tabletop games c ...

, LARPs and

wargames ''WarGames'' is a 1983 American science fiction techno-thriller film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film, which stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Ally Sheedy, follows Dav ...

. Megagames are typically played by 30-100 players over the course of a full day. Participants are often arranged into hierarchies of teams cooperating or competing towards various objectives.

History

Megagames have their roots in

war games A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

and have been played since the 1970s, primarily in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. The megagame format originated with wargame designers

Paddy Griffith Paddy Griffith (4 February 1947, Liverpool, England – 25 June 2010) was a British military theorist and historian, who authored numerous books in the field of War Studies. He was also a wargame designer for the UK Ministry of Defence, and a le ...

and Jim Wallman, who designed wargames which involved small teams with unique objectives. Wallman has since designed more than 80 megagames. In 2014, board game website

Shut Up & Sit Down Shut Up & Sit Down (often abbreviated to SUSD) is a board game review website and YouTube channel headed by Quintin Smith, Matt Lees, and Tom Brewster. The channel formerly had Paul Dean as a member, and has featured Ava Foxfort, Philippa Warr of ...

published a video documenting their experiences of playing a megagame, which has been credited for prompting renewed interest in designing and playing megagames. After the video went viral, Wallman says his group of regular players grew from hundreds to thousands of people. The first group outside the UK to run a Megagame after the video were the New York MegaGame Society.

Gameplay

The typical gameplay structure of a megagame is one in which dozens of players compete or cooperate within a set of tabletop and role-playing games. Individual players are typically members of small teams, and must interact with both the game's systems as well as other participating players. Because of the large scale involved, individual players never have all the information about the state of the game, often relying instead on hierarchies and reports to understand the larger context of the game or what other teams have been doing. Megagames typically involve 30-100 players, though some have been played with hundreds of people, and often last a full day. Megagames can encompass a wide range of different settings, scenarios, and rules, including military, historical intrigue, and alien invasions. Jim Wallman, designer of ''Watch the Skies'', describes the rules of megagames as a "framework", from which the game's designers and referees (known as "control members") can make rulings on the fly, like a Dungeon Master. During the course of the game, referees might announce rule clarifications or new events, and often have to create new rules to respond to player desires. Other megagames have a greater focus on specific rules, with less need for adjudications by control members. While most megagames are played at a single venue, some, such as the 2017 ''Urban Nightmare: State of Chaos'' megagame have been played across multiple locations.

Watch the Skies

''Watch the Skies'' has been credited as the most popular megagame, having been played around the world. In ''Watch the Skies'', players are split into small teams representing world countries, with each player having an individual role within their team, such as

head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...

UN ambassador A permanent representative to the United Nations (sometimes called a "UN ambassador")"History of Ambassadors", United States Mission to the United Nations, March 2011, webpagUSUN-a. is the head of a country's diplomatic mission to the United Nati ...

. In addition to playing in their own teams, players also join committees and engage with members of other countries, while playing mini-games to determine the outcome for their country. ''Watch the Skies'' includes a group of players in

press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a fam ...

organisations who share news stories about what teams have been doing.

References

{{Tabletop games by type Megagames Tabletop games