Vol. III No.

TESSERACTS
Or
Making Meticulous Mapmakers Mad
by Gary Jordan

A tesseract, as everyone (or at least readers of Robert A. Heinlein)

knows, is a four dimensional cube or “hypercube”. Which means a
cube extended in a direction simultaneously perpendicular to all three
of its axes so that each cube of a tesseract shares a common side and
four common edges with each cube adjacent to it and with each cube
immediately adjacent to the adjacent cube.
Confused? Wondering what in the name of Anubis this has to do
with D&D and mapmaking? All will be made clear, at least as clear as is
necessary to make use of the idea — most Americans can’t completely
explain the internal combustion engine but we keep right on driving
cars anyway.
The tesseract is a mathematical abstraction whose math escapes
my high school algebra but whose properties are known and easily ap-
plied and adaptable to D&D. Look at figure 1. Bear in mind that each

FIG. 3
FIG.1
such as figure 3, which gives him the basic floor plan of his tesseract.
of the shapes shown is in fact a perfect square, which is meant to repre- The arrows show the relationships of the walls well enough and still al-
sent a floor plan of a cubical room. Therefore we have a central room low the DM to furnish the rooms in the proper dimensions. This floor
(C), an eastern room (E), a southern room (S), a western room (W), a plan also shows the rooms directly above and below the central room,
northern room (N), and another room we’ll call the frame room (F). to which some access should be planned. These two rooms present
Not shown are the upper room (U) and lower room (L) which border some interesting problems I’ll elaborate later. For now, let’s look at
the top and bottom of the central room. our basic plan. Suppose a party meanders down one of the corridors
Rereading the first paragraph, we can see (that since E is adjacent shown in figure 2. After checking for traps, listening at the door, etc.
to C, it must share a wall with N and a wall with S. As represented, each the party enters room C. (Room C is always the room which occupies
room does the same thing with adjacent rooms. Now for the real mind- the square shown in figure 2.) So long as any door remains open, the
boggler: room F. F is adjacent to E; the rooms immediately adjacent to tesseract is not activated! ! ! Opening a second door will allow the party
E are N and S; therefore F shares a wall with N and a wall with S. But to pass through room C as though the others didn’t exist. If, however,
sharing a wall makes the rooms adjacent, and W is adjacent to both N all four doors are allowed to be closed at the same time, no matter how
and S, so F must share its fourth and final wall with W, which means briefly . . . thereafter all doors will lead to the next room of the tesser-
that room F is the room outside the square formed by the outer walls of act.
E, N, W, and S. . . Of course, some method should be provided for eventual escape —
Never mind. For the purposes of the DM, all he need do is make a magical item, such as a ring or bracelet which will allow the wearer
some such notation as exhibited in figure 2 and keep a separate map and those around him to pass through one of the doors of room C into
the dungeon beyond. Such a device would be usable only in this tesser-
act, naturally. The crueller DM’s amongst us would no doubt leave out
such frills, forcing the hapless party to rely on teleport spells, wishes,
knock spells (if anyone would ever conceive of using one on a door
which opens easily — to another room that is), or even divine interven-
tion. Note that a dispel1 magic spell would cause every room except C to
instantly disappear, along with anyone in them.
As previously mentioned, rooms U and L present peculiar prob-
lems. Looking at figure 4, a side view of your tesseract with ‘w’ mean-
ing walls, ‘c’ for ceiling and ‘f’ for floors, an anomaly may become ap-
parent; if one enters F by climbing through the ceiling of U, one finds
oneself climbing through the ceiling of F upside down! And of course
the corollary holds true for room L.
Unless you’re the type of DM who delights in having people fall on
their heads, it is highly recommended that you not bother to design in
an access between L or U and F. (Nor between L or U and any other
cont. on pg 22
FIG. 2 20
 Vol. III No. 3

Threat: Total destruction. Expect to see plenty of units being

OGRE destroyed before it reaches the command post, if it does at all.
Prey: Everybody.
PIECE BY PIECE Range: 0-5 hexes. The Ogre is known for it’s hard hull when it
rams another unit. Ask any infantry unit how hard it hits.
by Jerry Epperson Result after combat: A kill half the time; all the time with infan-
try if enough anti-personnel guns are used.
OGRE is one of those games that get their hook in you the minute Friends: No one.
you play them. Some of the reasons why this happens are: 1 — the Enemies: Everyone.
game can be learned in less than an hour; 2 — it doesn’t take a long Fate: Considerable damage, but should survive.
time to play a single game; 3 — it doesn’t take-up a lot of space (you Loss: The Ogre player will lose the game.
can set the game up in a 1 x 1 foot area). But hidden in the game are Placement: Anywhere it wants to be. Try to get a bead on the
small subtleties that can only be found after playing OGRE several Command Post and head straight for it stopping only to destroy the
times. units around you.
The combat results table is extra bloody; a 2-1 will give a 50% Comments: The most important items on an Ogre are it’s mis-
chance of destroying the weapon or unit attacked. There is a variability siles, main battery, and it’s antipersonnel guns. Use the missiles only
in the forces involved in each scenario so that it is possible to never get for the important stuff. The main battery should be used as much as
the same set-up again. The map is easy to maneuver in. And then there possible against the armored units while using the antipersonnel guns to
are the counters. destroy the infantry. One of the favorite tactics of mine is to rush up on
OGRE counters are fantastic. Each unit has a different type of the front units, ram a close unit, then sit there and blast away the in-
use. Some have silhouettes and the type of unit it is printed on it; others fantry and missile tanks before they can move out of the way. This little
have symbols and their type on it. The four different numbers printed trick does wonders for breaking an opponent’s morale. Another trick is
on the pieces correspond to that unit’s ability to fight, move, defend, to drive straight for the C.P. and stop for nothing, using your guns and
and it’s range. And in those numbers are that unit’s weaknesses and missiles as needed.
strengths. THE INFANTRY
After playing the game many times these things become apparent The poor bloody infantry are something of a cushion for the Ogres
and they seem to form natural links to each other. Some units are to (hopefully) chew up and thus slowing down the progress of the cy-
found that work well together and others are loners. But each type of bernetic tank. This is hardly the answer to the problem and so infantry
unit has a different psychological effect on the players which further is sometimes disregarded. To the player who uses infantry to its full po-
complicates the tactics that should be used. tential, I give him the game because infantry are decisive in the skirmish
The object of this article is to help you as wargamers to get the and thus must be used for their designed purpose; defense.
most out of your OGRE pieces. And to help your opponent go crazy.
One more thing before I go into detail about the OGRE units; Steve
Jackson, thank you for such an enjoyable game.
THE OGRES
The Ogres are the biggest units mostly because they are computer- 2. Infantry
ized and can handle all of the weapons given to it all at once. If the Strong points: Movement; it can move as fast as a tank.
Ogre were controlled by humans inside of it, the Ogre would be nothing Weakness: Attack and Defense Factors.
more than a big tank. If you don’t believe me do what I did; The Ogre Uses: The function is to protect land. They should give it up only
can only fire one weapon at a time. It just isn’t the same game. at the cost of the Ogre’s movement points and antipersonnel guns.
Threat: Mobilizing/antagonizing.
Prey: Ogre treads and antipersonnel guns.
Range: 1 hex.
Result after combat: A small dent in your treads.
Mark 5: Mark 3 Friends: Howitzers and other infantry.
Strong Points: Movement; a non-motile Ogre is no threat to any- Enemies: Just the Ogre.
thing out of its range. Fate: Blown up by a main battery.
Weakness: Weapons are easily destroyed. The defense strengths Loss: Shruggable.
are low enough that the smaller units can eliminate something from the Placement: Out in the open when out of range, behind crests
Ogre before being destroyed. (rubble) when in range of the Ogres.
Uses: The major objective in the game, for the Ogre, is to de- Comments: The infantry should be used to reduce the Ogre’s
stroy the command post. In a perverse way they are also used to protect movement capability down to nothing or close to it. They should stay
the command post. under cover until they can move into assault position. Remember: 1 —

Tesseracts (continued from page 20)

room except C, since L’s walls are E, N, W, and S’s floors, and U’s
walls are their ceilings.) The tesseract is complex enough without add-
ing these unnecessary frills.
Now that the basics have been established, draw one up and play it
solo, populating it as your whims dictate, just to get the feel of it. Get
used to saying left and right instead of north, west, etc., since you’ve
seen that a straight line can take you in all four directions in a matter of
four rooms.
I first designed this fiendish set of rooms nearly a year ago, after a
close encounter with a member of that semi-intelligent species, papy-
riosus meticulosus, whose habits are well known; to wit, they must have
every detail of a dungeon set to parchment, every nook, crack, cranny,
or stain. I wasn’t the DM — I was one of the bored players whose time
he was wasting. After careful consultation, the DM included one in his
dungeon. I learned a valuable lesson — never call on Thor in a moment FIG. 4
of weakness — and the mapmaker should be out of the sanitarium early
next year. Good luck with your own mapmakers.
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