GladiusVCreed
2015-10-24, 11:56 PM
I just finished running a World War 2 themed test run...
This "game" is just an encounter with an objective. Defend this area, Take this area, assassinate this person, assault this bunker. The players strategize their approach, and execute it. The Game Master, or War Master as I named it, is in charge of enemy plans and execution. I use a visual map so its easy to keep track of people, and the game is won or lost based on the execution and adaptation of the players strategy. I do have a commander class who overrules all decisions, and it must be made in a short amount of time or I move the game along and that opportunity may have closed because I move the enemy to new positions. ALl this was on one map I called "Corner store".
I wrote in a separate map for D-day, and that was my fatal mistake. Of course they chose this map, its a prominent battle in WW2. I wanted it to be realistic, so I gave the commander 36 troops (how many fit in the boats) and that was the death limit until they lost.
If the commander died, I allowed them to just take a loss of another man, rather than the next player become in charge (after all, this was a test run and by the time they made it to the sand dune that was about 50 feet from the landing zone they were down to 17 men). But thats the problem: 19 men were killed by random rolls of a 1d6 to determine who was hit by the MG42s stream of hot lead. Thats a lot to keep track of, and on top of that I have players making Perception rolls and not knowing what to do next. That was the whole base of my game, that the group would have a plan and execute it. One they made up... D-day is pretty straight up. Take that bunker. Run forward, dashing from cover to cover. Lose 19 men within the first 10 seconds if game world time, which took about 7 minutes real time. It was a mad bull rush. It was messy and choppy. Every bullet that flew toward and actual PC took three rolls. Anything towards the remaining NPCs (those poor 13 men alongside the 4 PCs) I rolled a 1d6, and if the number was 4, 4 NPCs died. By the time they took the bunker system they were responsible, 6 men were left. 4 Pcs and two NPCs. Realistic? A bit, yes. Successful test run? No. Any game to do with guns, is hard. Adding 32 friendly NPCs to the battle was insane, not to mention the 4 MG nest men and 12 others inside the bunker who came out to fight when the group successfully flanked (all of whom were killed by grenades, which dont get me started on how I measured that because its a broken system that needs desperate attention)
Any thoughts?
This "game" is just an encounter with an objective. Defend this area, Take this area, assassinate this person, assault this bunker. The players strategize their approach, and execute it. The Game Master, or War Master as I named it, is in charge of enemy plans and execution. I use a visual map so its easy to keep track of people, and the game is won or lost based on the execution and adaptation of the players strategy. I do have a commander class who overrules all decisions, and it must be made in a short amount of time or I move the game along and that opportunity may have closed because I move the enemy to new positions. ALl this was on one map I called "Corner store".
I wrote in a separate map for D-day, and that was my fatal mistake. Of course they chose this map, its a prominent battle in WW2. I wanted it to be realistic, so I gave the commander 36 troops (how many fit in the boats) and that was the death limit until they lost.
If the commander died, I allowed them to just take a loss of another man, rather than the next player become in charge (after all, this was a test run and by the time they made it to the sand dune that was about 50 feet from the landing zone they were down to 17 men). But thats the problem: 19 men were killed by random rolls of a 1d6 to determine who was hit by the MG42s stream of hot lead. Thats a lot to keep track of, and on top of that I have players making Perception rolls and not knowing what to do next. That was the whole base of my game, that the group would have a plan and execute it. One they made up... D-day is pretty straight up. Take that bunker. Run forward, dashing from cover to cover. Lose 19 men within the first 10 seconds if game world time, which took about 7 minutes real time. It was a mad bull rush. It was messy and choppy. Every bullet that flew toward and actual PC took three rolls. Anything towards the remaining NPCs (those poor 13 men alongside the 4 PCs) I rolled a 1d6, and if the number was 4, 4 NPCs died. By the time they took the bunker system they were responsible, 6 men were left. 4 Pcs and two NPCs. Realistic? A bit, yes. Successful test run? No. Any game to do with guns, is hard. Adding 32 friendly NPCs to the battle was insane, not to mention the 4 MG nest men and 12 others inside the bunker who came out to fight when the group successfully flanked (all of whom were killed by grenades, which dont get me started on how I measured that because its a broken system that needs desperate attention)
Any thoughts?