Designing A Strange Game: A Nuclear Wargame for the 21st Century
Abstract
Although the Cold War has become a distant memory, nations continue to rely on nuclear weapons as the ultimate deterrent against large-scale adversarial attacks. Despite this, however, there has been a gradual decline in the understanding of nuclear dynamics within the U.S. national security enterprise since the early 1990s. This has put the United States at a potentially dangerous disadvantage in a new era of strategic competition with near-peer countries. To assist the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and other stakeholders addressing the subsiding interest in and knowledge of a continued threat, RAND Corporation game designers and subject-area experts developed A Strange Game, named in reference to the 1983 technothriller movie, Wargames, which presents thermonuclear war as a conflict that no one can win. A Strange Game, however, very much concerns the present day and the future in that it gives players an opportunity to explore the problems of near- or longer-term future intra-war deterrence where the taboo against the use of nuclear weapons has broken down. This report provides the scientific and theoretical background that informed the creation of the A Strange Game prototype. It is important to note that it is not a simple how-to-play guide; that is provided with the game package. Instead, this report offers relevant context that went into game design. Therefore, it is useful to those considering adopting the game, game masters who will want to conduct fully informed gaming sessions, and players wanting a first-hand account of the diplomatic and military concepts used in the game. The information can also assist other game designers as they work toward the development of further games that immerse participants in environments designed to improve decisionmaking before, during, and after conflict.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 29, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1215654
Entities
People
- David A. Shlapak
- David R. Frelinger
- Jenny Oberholtzer
- Katherine Pfrommer
- Kelly E. Eusebi
- Stephen M. Worman
Organizations
- RAND Corporation