I moved the 2007 playtest version of the rules to this site. You can find them at:
That will have to do until I get around to updating them.
Anti-government protesters in Thailand
The BBC has pictures of the anti-government protesters in Thailand. They want Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and his cabinet to resign. The BBC claims that the protesters want to end Thailand's democracy and allow the military a large roll in the government.
Thousands occupied government buildings and a state-run TV station.
A thought about what to update in By Will Alone
Thankfully during my period of inactivity w.r.t. By Will Alone, my subconscious has been thinking. One thing I need to add is some way to determine who "won". My subconscious suggested that the winner of a confrontation should get a certain number of "victory" points. If the winner resorted to violence, then the get fewer "victory" points as they used more violence to win the confrontation.
The presence of media would serve to magnify the gain or loss. If the winner was nonviolent, then their points would be magnified. If they used violence, then the loss of points due to the use of violence would be magnified.
Another possibility would be to weigh the gain or loss depending on who is doing the reporting. Media friendly to the government would reduce the loss of victory points due to its use of violence. Media opposing the government would magnify the loss of victory points.
By Will Alone is Reborn
Well it has been awhile since I last posted. I decided that this blog should focus on By Will Alone, my miniatures game on nonviolent direct action. As a result, I registered the domain bywillalone.org, and pointed it at this site. Both bywillalone.org and www.bywillalone.org will get here.
So welcome to the reborn site. Over the next few months I will update the By Will Alone rules and post occasionally about nonviolent direct action – where it is occurring, how to do it, where it might be applied, etc. Enjoy!
Escalating the level of nonviolence
My son recently engaged in nonviolent direct action when he took over the bathroom after he was denied dessert. I decided to escalate the level of nonviolence by threatening to deal with one's personal needs in his room. He relented and I ended up reading him Saul Alinsky's retelling of the threatened O'Hare Airport Poop-in . We both laughed very hard and a lesson was learned, hopefully.
1st Convention Game of By Will Alone
After two playtests of the rules, I finally ran a convention game using the By Will Alone rules at Havoc XXIII. The rules can be found at the rules website. While pictures from the game are here.
A good time was had by all, but more remains to be done including:
- polish the rule book;
- improve the winning conditions;
- possibly revise the conflict results to better deal with prolonged fraternization and the effectiveness of violence by authority forces;
- write up scenarios.
More on Lebanon
The link from SBS below about what is happening in (generally) nonviolent struggle in Lebanon hasn't been updated, so for more info I suggest you read Robert Fisk from the Independent in the UK.
By Will Alone rules / Havoc game playtests
I'll be running a play test of my nonviolent action rules, By Will Alone, on Sunday, April 1st. It will likely at my house.
On Sunday, April 15th, I will be running a play test of my Havoc game, In the shadow of Gdańsk, at the Hobby Bunker in Malden. Here is the game description:
Solidarność (Soldarity) rejoices its success at reversing Jaruzelski's attempt to impose martial law in Poland. While coup plotters flee to the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact invades. With NATO unable and unwilling to intervene, union workers and their allies ready
themselves to stop the onslaught with the only tools at their disposal: their wits and determination.
Please contact me if you would like to help play test the rules and/or game at jokeefe at(nospam) jamesokeefe dot org. Thanks!
Coverage of nonviolent attempt to topple Lebanese government
Sophie McNeill, a reporter with SBS Television Australia, has a blog with her reports on the nonviolent attempt to bring down the Lebanese government by Hezbollah and Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement. Her coverage seems pretty even handed.
Nonviolent action conferences in the Middle East
I found the article Nonviolence can work wonders – even in the Middle East from the Christian Science Monitor about a gathering of nonviolence activists in Jordan. Interesting article.
There was another gathering called Celebrating Nonviolent Resistance held in Bethlehem in December 2005. I found out about it from this conference update.