YOUNGSTOWN War games are claim to fame for former history teacher

'A Dark and Bloody Ground' is the first game on a 1790 Ohio battle.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- It all started when history teacher Paul Rohrbaugh created the "Deterrence D & eacute;tente" Cold War game for his middle school classes at St. Rose School in Girard.
The pupils were placed in two groups to represent America and the Soviet Union. The goal: to prevent World War III. The aftereffect: a better understanding of history and war.
Since the former teacher used the game with his pupils in the 1980s, it has been published under the title "Peace on the Edge" by Academic Gaming Review. And Rohrbaugh has created 25 more games that have been accepted for publication by various companies. He's working on eight others.
"They show how fragile history is. Things can turn on the smallest things in life," said Rohrbaugh, who now serves as the Wilcox Curriculum Resource Center librarian at Youngstown State University's Beeghly College of Education.
"I think my games show how futile warfare can be. It decides some issues in life, but for a lot of others it's illusionary."
A favorite
One of Rohrbaugh's newest, and favorites, is "Vall & eacute;e de la mort," based on the 1954 siege of Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam, between the French and the Vietminh. Players take on the role of either the French commander of the Dien Bien Phu fortress or the role of Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, who commanded the Vietminh forces laying siege.
One reason that Rohrbaugh is so fond of the game is because of an unexpected e-mail he received from another of the game's biggest fans. Vo Nguyen Giap himself, 92 and now retired, had contacted the game's publisher.
"He loved it," Rohrbaugh said. "He bought 100 copies."
Giap has played it, gave a copy to a Vietnamese museum for display, and signed a copy of the rule booklet for Rohrbaugh. "Much success and good luck," the former general wrote.
"You could have blown me over with a snowflake," Rohrbaugh said.
Game details
The game includes a historical map of the area, rules that include historical facts and square markers that represent various air and ground units, replacement troops, supplies, assaults, casualties, tanks, mines and weather. The markers contain letters, numbers, drawings and colors. (The French pieces are blue; the Vietminh are red.)
Players use dice to determine various factors, including the outcome of assaults.
Rohrbaugh spends about a year doing research for each game. He adds notes throughout rules and bibliographies to add a further educational dimension, and some games include historical articles. For example, he includes the following historical note in "Vall & eacute;e de la mort."
"While both sides fought to a bloody standstill to the east, the Viet Minh's attacks to the west ground steadily on. Casualties were atrocious on both sides with fighting often being conducted at point-blank range and hand-to-hand."
Battle buff
Rohrbaugh said he loves teaching history and has been fascinated with battle since he played with toy Army soldiers as a boy. When he was 12, the Austintown native received two games, Avalon Hill's "Afrika Korps" and "Bismarck." He was hooked, and his hobby took off.
Rohrbaugh sells hundreds of games each year, working with Microgame Design Group of Canada and Schutze Game of Australia, publishing companies that sell his games primarily on the Internet and at hobby shops in large cities. Other games have been published in the "Against the Odds" military magazine, for which Rohrbaugh works as an editor. ("Peace on the Edge" can be downloaded for free at www.gis.net/~pldr/index.html; other games sell for $12 to $15 at such sites as ConsimWorld.com and grognard.com.)
The market for the games used to be baby boomers, but Rohrbaugh has seen that change over the years as the games attract younger people, especially those interested in computer games. His games offer more interaction, not only socially, but also intellectually, Rohrbaugh said.
At a recent gaming convention in Columbus, he saw as many young people as adults standing together around gaming tables.
"As an educator, I think that is wonderful," he said.
Unique approach
Rohrbaugh tries to focus on battles that have never before been turned into games. His "A Dark and Bloody Ground" is the first game made on a 1790 battle between the U.S. Army and American Indians in Ohio. A publisher, expecting high demand, is printing 2,000 copies.
Rohrbaugh's goal is to teach history and get people to talk about it, become interested in it and ask: "Why did they do this? What does this mean for us today?"
"We're just pushing around cardboard pieces here," he said, "but we're talking about real human beings."