Setting the Stage
Decision Games: A Handbook for Marines (7 of 7)
A decision game begins with a description of the situation in which the problem (or problems) at the heart of the game take place. The amount of information provided in this “setting of the stage” will depend upon the back ground knowledge of the players. Those who know something about the historical event in which a decision-forcing case is set will need less information than those who are new to that particular time and place. Likewise, players who are familiar with the units, equipment, or location depicted in a speculative decision game can make do with a shorter introduction than those who have yet to learn about those things.
As a rule, the setting of the stage should be as brief as possible. To this end, it should contain nothing that players already know, nothing that they can figure out for themselves, and nothing that will be provided at a later stage in the game. In other words, rather than providing players with all of the facts and figures that might be useful to them in the course of the game, the set ting of the stage should only provide the knowledge that they need to get started.
All particulars included in the setting of the stage should be provided from the point of view of the protagonist of the exercise. Thus, to begin with, it should consist entirely of things that the protagonist knew, or, could reasonably have known, prior to making the first decision of the game. It should also be phrased in a way that reminds players that much of the information provided is subjective, incomplete, and, at times, less than entirely reliable.
‘I found that the ordinary form of our tactical problems committed two deadly sins, relieving the student from the greatest difficulties of his tactical task in warfare of movement. The information of the enemy was about 80 percent too complete. And the requirement called for his decision at a pictured moment, when the real problem is usually when to make a decision and not what the decision should be.’
George C. Marshall, letter to Stuart Heintzelman (4 December, 1933) quoted in Forrest C. Pogue Marshal: Education of a General, 1880-1939 (New York: Viking, 1963) page 251 (Internet Archive)
‘He hammered incessantly on the theme of simplicity: no long lectures containing only school-approved doctrine, no exercises dependent upon possessing elaborate maps, no beautifully detailed orders stifling initiative, no over blown intelligence estimates that harried commanders had no time to read, and no field procedures so complex that tired citizen-soldiers could not perform them. He said, ‘get down to the essentials, make clear the real difficulties, and expunge the bunk, complications and ponderosities.’
Larry I. Bland ‘George C. Marshall and the Education of Army Leaders’ Military Review (October 1988) page 34 (CARL)Source
This post concludes the seven part serialization of a revised version of Decision Games: A Handbook for Marines. You can find links to the first edition of this pamphlet on the following page.
