Over War (Part 1)

It is over, reader; I have the high war.

Over War is a game by Richard Kelly and published by Blackoath Entertainment.

1. Every Individual Component Is The Best

In our analysis, we consider every individual artistic element of a game the best; we don’t find bad or good useful. So, the Split/Party framework assumes it is the best art, best layout, best writing, best design. This is an acknowledgment that nobody makes “bad” art on purpose; any given element is the best art that could have been produced at that point, restricted by its material conditions and constraints of time and effort. This is also because saying something is good/bad art is the most useless criticism that can be given. In practical terms, this section is for things we will not touch on the review but merit acknowledgment.

Brad

So let's talk about something a little different. Let’s talk about Over War: Monarch Edition. This fascinating little game came to my attention for its pitch as a strategy RPG TTRPG. I was immediately fascinated and so read it and its expansion Ballark in Flames and immediately rushed over to talk to Lhuzie about it.

Over War is a deliciously sized game, being all meat and no fat. Even with Ballark In Flames it is a lean mean rpg’ing machine, with a simple but pleasing art direction.

Lhuzie

For details which we will go over in later sections, this critic will treat Over War: Monarch Edition and its supplement Ballark in Flames as a single game. Over War: Monarch Edition + Ballark in Flames is an amazing experience and a must-get roleplaying game for lovers of strategy and moving around little guys, who want their Old School Renaissance to include SNES Fire Emblem and Kriesgspiel.

To get to this point, there was a lot of effort in testing the mechanics, polishing the game elements, and fine-tuning it until it became the special thing we can play today. I am very grateful for every game that is generously pushed to this point. That work kept being done to it until it reached the current implementation is nothing short of remarkable.

2. Meet The Game At The Level It Is At

Each game comes with certain expectations and tone. To properly break it down, we have to meet the game at the level it is: not lament its choice of premise and wish it was something else, nor resent for not conforming with our politics, not letting “missed opportunities” stand in our way of applying the critical framework relentlessly. It also includes not working with the game as marketed or how it exists in our desires, but as it is.

Brad

So, Over War: Monarch edition and Ballark In Flames set out to do something that is rather difficult. Can you put the Strategy Role Playing Game¹ onto the tabletop. This is something that has a rich basis in goals for early editions of the dragon game, with fighters eventually establishing strongholds and gathering followers. It only seems logical to eventually gamify this experience rather than just handwave it as a thing that occurs in the background.

Over War goes a step further, it looks at its contemporaries and focusses on establishing a rule set for gothic combat as enemies descend from the sky. Now, I am wargames and board game guy and in this field I couldn’t even argue its success, a ttrpg that plays like a wargame is exactly what we got out of Monarch Edition. Ballark In Flames really finished the recipe though, fulfilling its promise of a tabletop wargame role-playing game.

Lhuzie

So, why are we talking of the collected omnibus version of the game plus a supplement? The game struggled through the condition of an OSR game, and as such, it took various steps until it became “a game”. The first versions of Over War were built on assumptions of OSR, offering additional rules for the Omnigame Adventuconquistador rulesets the artistic movement of the OSR operates on. These rulesets (I think you are suppose to politely call them rulings) were condensed into rules/a game in the Monarch Edition. This was quite awkward.

The Monarch Edition highlighted two things: Over War was something really special and highlighted a lot of potential unexplored in the OSR artistic movement — while at the same time evolving into something else that could not be carried with the assumptions of the Adventuconquistador Omnigame. In one hand, it was not enough as it was on its page for someone “de novo” creating a culture of play for Over War and play an artistically fulfilling game; on the other hand, the fully matured Over War could not be something you played with generic OSR modules and did not play well with most of their rulesets, making it of limited use for many.

Ballark in Flames pushed Over War from this awkward place of not really being fulfilling for the OSR movement or an audience outside of it; rather than a quirky curiosity, it became an astonishing display of the art. Ballark identified the holes missing from the experience and provided additional context—and the roleplaying for the roleplaying game part of TTRPG! The land of Ballark, com a vague generic frontier fantasyland campform for adventuconquistador stuff (avec armies) was promoted to an actual place, with real peoples and cultures. There was vision, there were themes, there were levers to pull; this was now an experience.

As such, despite the apparent assumption of OSR one may encounter reading the Monarch Edition, the Over War that we are discussing does not require familiarity with that culture of play and/or materials. It does require maybe a bit more cognitive load than those games, a bit similar to that of the average tabletop wargame — so don’t worry, the game does not require you to be the computer for a paper Fire Emblem. Compared with Warlord Ascendant, a similar solo strategic TTRPG, it is remarkably easy on cognitive-load.

This is a war game, a war story, and you are someone who is an agent in bringing war and its violence to the land of Ballark. As Over War was further polished, the game became one of the best at dealing with what it means to adventuconquer all over the place. What it means to be a Man Of Violence and how you interact with the world.

3. Identify What The Game Says It Is About

Games are about things. Usually. Mostly. That is often the same thing they market themselves as. This often means to establish the relationship of the game with systems, mechanical frameworks, genre, etc. This is how games establish exceptions about the nature of play and establish a common space for creation.

Brad

Over War is about fantasy commanders fighting for control of a patchwork land of fantasy kingdoms.

Lhuzie

Over War is a game about gothic warfare: play as commanders from distant floating islands making their fortunes in the war-torn — now I wonder whose fault that is — lands of Ballack.

4. Uncover What The Game Is REALLY About

What the game says it is about is not always what the game is about. This is where we look at all the weird interactions, examining the system that game creates, how the way mechanics interact with the text and art, how it exists in a given context, how well parts flow together or get in the way. This creates a much richer environment that the original design could ever imagine once a game hits the table.

Brad

Over War is something so rare. Over War is about combat as a delicious sporting experience. This is still a game of luck and death, more Rollerball than NFL, but it is something with rules that both you and your enemies follow. You play at top level against other dangers and must rely on your teams abilities to really win you the day, but you are constantly learning, tinkering and adjusting your abilities into a tightly oiled machine of combat… Only to discover that the next faction uses and entirely different set of abilities and so it’s time to take a different run at them.

Lhuzie

It is about making Kriesgspeil in the XXI century, but fun.

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1. With key examples being your Fire Emblems, Tactics Ogres, and Final Fantasy Tactics.