Obit: Peter Perla, 1951-2024
January 21, 2024 6 Comments
(at the inaugural Connections-UK conference in 2013, Peter giving the second day’s keynote address on “The Once and Future Kriegspiel”)
Today I heard that Peter Perla died suddenly last night.
I first met Peter at the first Connections conference I attended, at Orlando in 2008; he was showing his pre-WW I naval tech-tree game On Seapower, which unfortunately was never published.
We met only at Connections conferences or MORS events (East Coast/ West Coast) but corresponded from time to time in between.
He was literally a genius and moreover, a genius who could write clearly.
He was also a good person: unfailingly kind, humourous and generous with his time to encourage others and advance the art (> science) of professional wargaming.
I will miss him greatly.
About brtrain
brtrain 
Very sad news, as I said on my post I only spoke to him twice but he was a perfect gent each time.
A leading light has done.
Cheers,
Pete.
Brian, yes it is sad. He seemed like a good guy. Fortunately CTP got his “The Pratzen” game published last year, so that is a high-point.
His obit page unfortunately is a spam machine, so I will have to wait for a better obit in a local paper or something.
Peter wrote me off and on over the years about his long-term project to create a diceless game system for tactical Napoleonic combat that would replace the old SPI game Grenadier.
I think The Pratzen is as close as he got.
His other design credits on Boardgamegeek include Ben Hur (a PnP chariot racing game), Risorgimento 1859 (with Richard Berg, a testament to his patience and good humour), They Met at Gettysburg and Bloodiest day: Antietam (both used a variation of the Breakout Normandy system which he quite liked).
What a loss! One of the great ones in the renaissance of wargaming.
He stood at the intersection of hobby and professional for decades. Winner of the Perfidious Albion 150,000th post Prize
A great guy. I played a few games with him in Alexandria, Virginia in the late 1990s. I recall that he crushed me in Paths of Glory one time. This is very sad news.