Effective wargaming is not driven by tools alone. It depends on disciplined design, clear facilitation, and structured decision-making. WarPaths is designed to support these principles by reducing friction, enforcing consistency, and capturing insight—but it does not replace sound judgment.

This section outlines best practices that apply to professional wargaming in general, with specific guidance on how to apply them within WarPaths.

1. Start With a Clear Purpose, Not a Scenario

Best Practice

A wargame should be designed to answer specific questions, not to simulate reality for its own sake. Common failures occur when teams build rich scenarios without agreeing on what decisions, risks, or assumptions they are testing.

In WarPaths

• Define the purpose of the game before finalizing scenario detail.
• Use the scenario design phase to explicitly capture:
  • Key uncertainties
  • Strategic choices under stress
  • Assumptions to be tested
• Avoid overloading early turns with detail that does not support the core questions.

Rule of thumb: If you cannot articulate what insight the game is meant to produce, the scenario is not ready.

2. Constrain Scope to Preserve Signal

Best Practice

Overly broad games dilute insight. Effective games deliberately limit geography, time horizon, actors, and decision authority.

In WarPaths

• Use scenarios and game setup to bound:
  • Who can act
  • What types of actions are allowed
  • What success or failure looks like
• Prefer shorter, well-defined games over sprawling, open-ended ones.
• Let the structure do the constraining rather than relying on facilitator intervention.

WarPaths’ structured objects (scenarios, teams, turns, narrative updates) are intended to reinforce these boundaries.