Chris Crawford on Game Design

Volkerwanderung

This German word describes the historical period from about 200 AD through 600 AD when different peoples (“volk”) wandered (“wanderung”) all over Europe, fighting and conquering. What strikes me about this period is the blending of peoples and cultures. France, for example, was Celtic with Roman cultural elements, and then it was overrun by Germanic peoples; the France of today still harbors many Celtic elements. England, on the other hand, was less deeply Celtic when the Romans arrived, and the Germanic invasions eliminated a great many Celts; this, along with the later Norman invasion, led to a population with strong Germanic elements colored by rare Celtic elements.

In this game, the player would represent a higher-level abstraction ...