About ShadowBox Decision Games: Warfighters
ShadowBox Decision Games: Warfighters is an interactive Substack series designed to sharpen tactical judgment through Tactical Decision Games (TDGs)—short, realistic scenarios that challenge you to think fast, make tough calls, and defend your decisions.
TDGs have been a core part of military training for decades, but we’re bringing them online to make high-quality decision training accessible to anyone who wants to improve their ability to think under pressure. Whether you’re military or civilian, a seasoned veteran or still in school, you are invited to read and make decisions.
Who we are
ShadowBox Decision Games: Warfighters is built by the team behind ShadowBox, led by experts in tactical decision-making and cognitive training.
John Schmitt is a former Marine and the originator of modern Tactical Decision Games in the U.S. military. He authored MCDP 1: Warfighting, the Marine Corps’ foundational doctrine on maneuver warfare, and has spent decades designing training that sharpens tactical judgment under pressure. His work has influenced how military leaders develop decision-making skills in dynamic, high-stakes environments.
Gary Klein is a pioneer in the field of Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM)—the study of how experts make rapid, high-stakes decisions in real-world environments. His research has shaped decision training in military command, firefighting, healthcare, and emergency response. Klein’s work on recognition-primed decision-making has been foundational in understanding how people make fast, effective decisions when time is short and uncertainty is high.
ShadowBox is a cognitive skills training company dedicated to improving decision-making in complex, uncertain environments. We develop scenario-based learning tools that reflect how people actually think under pressure—not just how they perform in controlled lab experiments. Our methods, built on years of research into expert performance and decision-making, are used in military, law enforcement, emergency response, and beyond. (For more information and resources, check out our website and our new Learning Center)
What We Do
Every 2–4 weeks, we post a new Tactical Decision Game (TDG) for readers to analyze, respond to, and debate. Each TDG is built to:
🔹 Challenge your decision-making under pressure
🔹 Teach tactical thinking through real-world scenarios
🔹 Simulate experience before it counts
🔹 Foster debate and learning through peer discussion
We follow three simple rules:
If you’re in the room, you’re in the game.
No sideline commentary from those who have not given their orders. If you’re here, you’re a decision-maker.All decisions must be given in the form of the orders you will issue.
Don’t explain what you would do—give the actual orders you’d issue in the moment, as a comment under each post. Save the discussion until after you’ve made your call.Leave your rank at the door.
Decisions, not rank, win wars. Whether you’re military or civilian, a seasoned veteran or still in school, the only thing that matters is the quality of your decision.
Get Involved
Subscribe to receive new TDGs in your inbox.
Post your decision in the comments—your frag order and reasoning.
Compare and debate different approaches with fellow warfighters.
Submit your own TDG—we’re accepting reader-created scenarios.
Become a paid subscriber for access to live TDGs with John Schmitt and other experts, plus exclusive webinars on designing and running TDGs.
Help expand the series—we’re looking for new domains. If you want to bring TDGs to your field, get in touch. ShadowBox Decision Games is just getting started.
This isn’t theory—it’s practical training for how you think, decide, and lead before you have to make real tactical decisions.
No rank. No excuses. Just decisions.
