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Here’s the game: “You players are the congress. You over there, you’re the Cabinet.
You folks in the corner are the Joint Chiefs. This guy’s the President. The scenario is:
it’s the world of 1961. Fix it. Now GO!”
The National Security Decision Making (NSDM) Game is a fast-paced, challenging simulation of contemporary
politics and eternal strategic principles. It is modeled after the simulations used by senior U.S.
Government officials to explore geopolitical options. NSDM originated at the U.S. Naval War College
and has been presented at the U.S. Air University, the Rochester Institute of Technology, Ashland
University, and a variety of civilian venues such as GenCon Indy and GenCon SoCal, DragonCon,
Origins, FALL IN!, COLD WARS, HISTORICON, Call to Arms, Border Wars, DexCon and Dreamation.
NSDM is part seminar game and part live action role-playing. Each of the players in this
political-military-economic simulation occupies a role in which he or she can affect the formulation
of national policy in their country. Most players find NSDM to be intellectually stimulating,
vigorously competitive, and unlike any other gaming opportunity they have ever had.
Players will receive instruction on the NSDM Game from an international control staff that includes
former game directors from the U.S. Naval War College and personnel with experience in the Departments
of Defense, State, Energy, and subject matter experts from private industry and academia.
Players are assigned to individual roles within a variety of nations. A player in the U.S. cell might
be a powerful congressional leader, a cabinet Secretary, or a chief of one of the armed services. A
player in China might represent the Communist Party, internal security forces, the Peoples' Liberation
Army, entrepreneurs, or Muslim Uighur separatists in Xinkiang. Iranian players might represent the
theocracy, bureaucracy, industry, or military. We have rules for dozens of countries, each with
unique political, economic and security issues, offering a consistently interesting experience as
well as an opportunity to experience the world from the standpoint of another culture. No two games
are ever alike.
Within each nation, players will inevitably find themselves aligned with some players in the pursuit
of common goals, and against others as each seeks to obtain advantages for their interest group and
achieve personal political ascendancy.
Meanwhile, overlapping national objectives inexorably draw these nations toward cooperation in some
areas and conflict in others.
Concurrently, the game control group will inject stimuli that challenge the players’ abilities
to react, such as regional wars, massive outbreaks of disease, or major natural catastrophes causing
heavy loss of life and property.
And unlike other war games where one "team" of players defeats other teams, in the
NSDM Game all players are individually ranked by the degree to which they gain advantage for the
group they represent.
Try our four-hour short-format games. One game Friday night and one on Saturday night with brisk
scenarios and accelerated adjudication procedures.
We roll the clock back to the early 1960s: the Soviets are ahead in the space race, and the U.S.
has not committed to going to the Moon. The echoes of gunfire are still dying off in Hungary, and
at the Bay of Pigs. We call them Red China, they don’t have the Bomb, and their rift with the
Soviets is not irreconcilable. Israel is not a U.S. client. The U.S. has a handful of advisors in
Vietnam, and is running U-2 flights over Cuba. Each player will have to see if he or she can achieve
his or her personal objectives…without destroying mankind! And there’s probably a spy
in your cell.
Our game schedule – check the following link for updates at
www.nsdmg.org
– is as follows. Every game has new scenarios, new countries in play, and new challenges.
There’s always room for more players, we’re never sold out. Walk-ins welcome.
NSDM Cold Wars 1960s
Friday 7 PM, 5 hrs, Top Flight Room
NSDM’s political, military and economic role-playing game. Take positions in the U.S.,
Soviets, Israel, or Red China. The scenario – It’s 1961. But the future isn’t
set. Can you achieve your goals? Can you achieve your nation’s goals? Can you duck-and-cover?
New issues and problems in every game.
NSDM Cold Wars 1960s
Saturday 6:30 PM, 6 hrs, Top Flight Room
NSDM’s political, military and economic role-playing game. Take positions in the U.S.,
Soviets, Israel, or Red China. The scenario – It’s 1961. But the future isn’t
set. Can you achieve your goals? Can you achieve your nation’s goals? Can you duck-and-cover?
New issues and problems in every game.
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