Wargamer's Profile Worksheet

Ted Haskell's Wargamer's Profile Worksheet (The Courier, 1971)

Article originally from Blunders on the Danube, with grateful thanks for starting this conversation.



Teds article was almost more of a drawing - all handwritten! It was in tabular form, as seen below. In the original, each box contained a description of that level,. I tried, but I couldn't reproduce it in a legible fashion, so I'll present it in list form. The idea was that you would then take the grid and place a mark in one box for each of the 5 categories (thus allowing for a 4.5, say)

	HISTORIAN	CRAFTSMAN	COLLECTOR	RULESMITH	GAMESMAN
5
4
3
2
1

HISTORIAN

5: Well versed in 5+ Armies, 5+ periods, 5+ battles, or combination;

     Large Private Library, files

     Some original sources

     Loves History!

     Professional Historian

4: Well versed in 4+ Armies, 4+ periods, 4+ battles, or combination;

    Small Private Library

    Public Library

    Secondary Sources

    Personal Files

    Semi-Pro Historian

3: Well versed in 3+ Armies, 3+ periods, 3+ battles, or combination;

    Public Library

    Personal Files

    Professional Magazines

    Amateur Historian

2: Well versed in 2+ Armies, 2+ periods, 2+ battles, or combination;

    Public Library

    Magazines

    Files

1: Well versed in 1+ Armies, 1+ periods, `1+ battles, or combination;

    Reading only

CRAFTSMAN

5: Troops - Original Designs, Casts, Converts, Paints very well

     Terrain - Original Designs, Builds, Paints very well

4: Troops - Casts, Converts, Paints with shading

     Terrain - Builds, Paints with shading

3: Troops - Converts, Paints details "finished"

     Terrain - 3-D Topography with purchased materials

2: Troops - Paints with many colors; "semi-finished"

     Terrain - Maps as game boards (re; Shambattle); Avalon Hill

1: Troops - Spray Paint; "rough detail"

     Terrain - Chalk, Blocks, books in piles

COLLECTOR

5: Troops in 5+ Periods, 5+ scales, or combination

    Accurate and artistic pieces

     Made to Order

    Superlative Painting

    1000+ figures

4: Troops in 4+ Periods, 4+ scales, or combination

    Accurate castings

    Excellent painting

3: Troops in 3+ Periods, 3+ scales, or combination

    Good castings

    Good painting

2: Troops in 2+ Periods, 2+ scales, or combination

    Production castings

    Average painting

    Cardboard stands

1: Troops in 1+ Periods, 1+ scales, or combination

    Toy style castings

    Passable painting

    Production painting

    1 to 100 figures

RULESMITH

5: Complex: books

    Games 8 hrs +

    High Skill %

    Low Chance %

    Multi-level, large team play

4: Complex: book

    Games 6-8 hrs

    Medium Skill %

    Medium Chance %

    Multi-level, small team play

3: Complex: Pamphlet

    Games 3-6 hrs

    Medium Skill %

    Medium Chance %

    Multi-level, 2-4 players

    

2: Simple: 2-5 pages

    Games 3-6 hrs

    Medium Skill %

    High Chance %

    Two-level, 2-4 players

    

1: Simple: "Back of a Postcard"

    Games 1-3 hrs

    Low Skill %

    High Chance %

    Single level, 2 player

GAMESMAN

5: Plays Often

    2 games/week+

    Legalistic and Statistical

    Plays for blood@!

    Loves Math  ?@#!

4: Plays Often    

    1 game/week

    Legalistic

    Plays for fun... with sharp weapons

    Slide rules, logarithmic tables, etc.

3: Plays Regularly

    1 game/month

    Negotiator

    Plays for fun with buttoned foils

2: Plays Infrequently

    2-3 games/year

    Agreeable

    Plays for fun with slapsticks

3: Plays Seldom

    1 game/year

    Doormat

    Plays for fun

Ted further elaborated:

SCALES:

54mm Rounds

40mm Rounds

30mm Rounds and Flats

25mm Rounds

20mm Rounds and Flats

Avalon Hill et al.

MODES:

Land

Sea

Air

Space

MAJOR PERIODS:

Ancient

Medieval

Pike and Shot

18th Century

Napoleonic

Crimean

Colonial

America Civil War

Kaiser's War

Hitler and Tojo's War

Modern and beyond

LEVELS:
Tactical

Grand Tactical

Strategic

Diplomatic

    Of course Ted was writing more than a little bit tongue in cheek, and a rating of "5" might be less than desirable in  some areas. I don't think this is exactly how I'd look at our involvement in our hobby (more on that another time), but it's a fun exercise to at least try some self rating a la Haskell... although he proposed it be used for others to rate us!

 

Rating myself in High School:

HISTORIAN - 2

CRAFTSMAN - 1 (I did role-playing games like D&D and GURPS)
COLLECTOR - 1 (I was in HIGH SCOOL, remember?)

RULESMITH  - 5 (if I count the RPG stuff; if only minis 1)

GAMESMAN - 5 (three times per week if we could do it!)

 

During Military training:

HISTORIAN - 3

CRAFTSMAN - 0 (anyone that has done the OJT and other things ought to understand)
COLLECTOR - 0

RULESMITH  - 1 (no real writing was going on in this period)

GAMESMAN - 3

 

After Wings Graduation:

HISTORIAN - 3

CRAFTSMAN - 1 (I got access to my tools again)
COLLECTOR - 1 (the meager collection came back into my hands)

RULESMITH - 5 (again mostly RPG; the minis were 3)

GAMESMAN - 3

 

After Home purchase:

HISTORIAN - 4

CRAFTSMAN  - 4 (I was casting my own minis and converting nearly everything, just to learn)
COLLECTOR - 3 (now had space to store the collections)

RULESMITH - 3 (for some reason the writing urge was gone)

GAMESMAN - 3.5 (not always getting in that game each week, yet one per month was normal)

 

After Military Retirement:

HISTORIAN - 4

CRAFTSMAN - 5 (my casting conversions turned to sculpting)
COLLECTOR - 4

RULESMITH - 5 (now for both Minis and RPG)

GAMESMAN - 2.5 (there were spells with fewer games, yet the game times were 8-12 hours long)

 

Past Ten Years:

HISTORIAN - 5 (I have one original source now)

CRAFTSMAN - 5 (I have sold off 5 times more than I have now of my own sculpted castings)
COLLECTOR - 5 (I only qualify for this because of the 1000 plus rule, I have sold off my Medieval collection)

RULESMITH - 5 (designed and written campaigns for internet play, the Leipzig one took two years to play)

GAMESMAN - 3 (kind of a holding pattern right now, sometimes a few months will go by, then I will have periods of 3-6 days of nearly continuous games)

Ted's article, read 45 years later, is also interesting from a historical standpoint: no 15/18mm. 10mm, N Gauge, 6mm, or God forbid, 2 mm troops existed, and both 54mm and Flats are included. Now days we'd have to include paper armies, too!  Note also the heavy emphasis on design and casting of your own troops - common up to that time, but fast becoming very much the exception rather than the rule even by the early 1970's. Ted also pretty much assumes that EVERYONE writes at least some of their own rules. Finally, the omission of Science fiction and Fantasy genres is striking.