Author Archives: Paul Vebber

About Paul Vebber

"If you read about something, you have learned about it. If you can teach something, you have mastered it. Designing a useful game about something however, requires developing a deep understanding of how it relates to other things."

MUST READ! Changing DoD’s Analysis Paradigm – The Science of War Gaming and Combat/Campaign Simulation by Dr. John Hanley

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Paul Vebber

There are times when the right person, who has been at the right places, puts that experience together and says something really important that “speaks truth to power” as they say. Dr. John Hanley’s piece in the new Naval War … Continue reading →

Posted in Strategy and Policy | 3 Comments

Wargaming and Innovation part II

Posted on September 13, 2016 by Paul Vebber

I ended part I with the slide above showing how various types of games make up the spectrum between Experimentation and Analysis. Where these games are cooperative and have players working together to solve a problem, or what in many … Continue reading →

Posted in Connections conference, Design, I was too lazy to categorize this post, Technology | Leave a comment

Wargaming and Technology Innovation

Posted on September 11, 2016 by Paul Vebber

Connections UK was a tremendous experience this year. Being part of one of the panels was particularly enjoyable.  Thanks to Graham Longley-Brown and Dr. Stephen Downes-Martin for including me as a presenter and panel member! I guess it pays to … Continue reading →

Posted in Connections conference, Technology | 1 Comment

Connections UK AAR

Posted on September 10, 2016 by Paul Vebber

I was privileged to participate as a panelist on “Wargaming for Innovation” this past week at King’s College in London. A wonderful set of AAR’s on the “Civil War in Binni” mega-game and the full conference are available on Rex … Continue reading →

Posted in Community Development, Connections conference, Professionalization | Leave a comment

Battle of Jutland Centennial #2

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Paul Vebber

The Naval War College put on the truly historical Jutland game – using a version of the actual 1916 war College rules. Over at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, as the kickoff game in our Historic Naval Battles series, we … Continue reading →

Posted in Community Development, Educational, History | 6 Comments

The Battle to Teach Wargaming

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Paul Vebber

In a War on the Rocks piece a couple of weeks ago Dr. Jim Lacy  recounts the travails and successes of using wargaming as a teaching tool in his Marine Corps War College classes. It caused a bit of a dust up … Continue reading →

Posted in Community Development, Game Implementation | 6 Comments

Connections Wargaming Conference Panel Announcements

Posted on May 3, 2016 by Paul Vebber

Dr. Stephen Downes-Martin has put out a request for panel members for the panel he is chairing with Dr. David Banks. Rex Brynan has posted the announcement here at PaxSims. The announcement for the panel I am chairing is below: Wargames as … Continue reading →

Posted in Connections conference | Leave a comment

A Wargamer, an Analyst and a Warfighter walk into a bar.

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Paul Vebber

The MORS Special Meeting on Professional Gaming last week was quite interesting. Rex Brynan posted some great reporting at PAXSims. One of the undercurrents that flowed through the event was what some would call a misunderstanding, others something ranging from ignorance … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Design, General Games | 2 Comments

MORS Wargaming Community of Practice Brown Bag – Fleet Battle School

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Paul Vebber

I gave a presentation on Thursday to discuss the customization and “mod-ability” of the game.  This covered: The database editor to create new weapons and platforms, fbdata The OOB editor to create force structures, fbobe The Chart Editor to create maps, with … Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Game Implementation | 1 Comment

A2ADventure Update

Posted on August 20, 2015 by Paul Vebber

The Game Lab at this years Connections Conference examined my “A2ADventure” game – a fairly abstract game of operational naval combat in an “Anti-Access, Area Denial” context. There was a lot of great feedback that I have attempted to incorporate … Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Game Implementation | Leave a comment