Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Future Wars => Topic started by: AndrewBeasley on September 26, 2017, 11:05:58 PM
-
I've seen some wonderful terrain created for PA gaming but I'm stuck as to what you would game...
The main scenarios I can think of are:
Zombies - survive the hordes
Find tech
Rescue some one
Fight off the aliens
Gain territory
What else do you do?
The reason I ask is with Necromunda coming soon, I want more than just a stand up fight and what I assume will be a limited list of game types to create a campaign...
TIA
Andrew
-
Scavenging missions do seem to be the order of the day in most Post Apoc settings. Resources are scarce and they're ultimately what's being fought over, so I guess any sort of scenario would be resolving the conflicts over that. Grabbing the most look and getting the heck out of there whilst hopefully braining a few enemies, etc...
Then again, if you think about it, you'd be quite attached to every member of your little gang/band of survivors. You could have all sorts of reasons for fighting such as rescue missions, assassinations, gathering intel about the enemy etc. One fun thing you could do is give each side a secret objective that wins them the scenario like you can see in 40k's new Open War card deck. Keeps the players on their toes and they'd be more about trying to achieve their own objectives whilst figuring out what their opponent is up to rather than just trying to kill everyone.
You could also have incursions into other gangs' territory to sabotage vital bits of gear and such!
Depending on your chosen setting, you could have random AI/GM controlled monsters/enemies appear at various junctures as well. We played a Fallout game once that allowed for the random appearance of Ghouls, Giant Scorpions and such, with rudimentary rules for how they were to be controlled. The same would definitely work well for Necromunda. I bet the galaxy's sprawling hives are full of horrors lurking in the rusty and slimey underbelly.
-
I've seen some wonderful terrain created for PA gaming but I'm stuck as to what you would game...
The main scenarios I can think of are:
Zombies - survive the hordes
Find tech
Rescue some one
Fight off the aliens
Gain territory
What else do you do?
Safely transport your loot/foraged goods home
Hunt a beast
Patrol your turf
Travel to/from allies with gifts/trade goods or ambassadors.
(Punitive) Raids and/or cattle/resource raids.
Escape from or infiltrate into an area controlled by a more powerful enemy.
High speed vehicle chase.
Pilgrimage to a certain place/person.
Ideological conflict (Topple their blasphemous totems!)
Explore a pre-apocalypse complex or place. (because dungeoncrawls are cool...)
Stake a claim on a recently discovered pre-apocalypse area or item.
Basically, any reason for conflict you see in PA fiction. But look at history and mythology as well, especially towards eras and areas where small scale conflict was common: Celtic/Nordic legend, early European/Asian medieval period, island or jungle cultures, etc... Humans have always fought for similar reasons or causes, look for these "archetypes of conflict" in similar conditions (small population/harsh enviroment/scarce resources) and adapt them to your specific setting.
-
I don't really do PA gaming, but some of the settings in homegrown sci fi games are similar.
Here is a list of missions that I created that I think could work for your question. When part of a campaign, many of them only play out conditionally. In other words, iif the player's forces are trying to recover some sort of fusion gimlet, say, they roll some sort of test first to determine whether there are enemies in the area. If they do, they have to fight their way to where the gimlet may or may not be. If no enemies nearby, then they roll to see if they find the gimlet. Then they roll to see if they run into enemies on the way out. In that way, I can get a lot more variability out of a single mission type
Mission types:
Travel to Location to Recruit Troops/Characters (check for ambushes on way to/from)
Travel to Location to Purchase Equipment/Vehicles (check for ambushes on way to/from)
Transport Goods through Hostile Terrain (check for ambushes on way to/from)
Repair Malfunctioning Technology at Nearby Outpost (enemies may show up
Shuttle VIPs to Destination (check for ambushes on way to/from)
Investigate Distress Signal (this could play out many different ways, from being a lure for an ambush to leading to the rescue of a recruitable character or unit to finding tech)
Rescue Stranded Crew
Salvage Wreckage from Crashed Starship
Rescue Informant (infiltration)
Locate and Rescue Missing VIP
Raid Enemy Outpost
Collect Bounty on Local Scallywag
Hack Mainframe and Steal Data (infiltration)
Rescue Defector (infiltration)
Provide Escort/Security for Pilgrims or Refugees
Recover Equipment from Ancient Structure
Defend Settlement
Rescue Outpost Garrison that is Under Siege (can recruit any members of the garrison who survive)
Protect Diplomatic Meeting
Steal Light Starship/Vehiclle (infiltration)
Defend Installation/Outpost from Raiders
Steal Technology
Aid Friendly Faction Unit Under Siege
Seize Enemy VIP in Transit
Free Detained VIPs
Sabotage Enemy Installation (infiltration)
Transport Sensitive Materials (check for ambushes)
Transport Important VIP
Deliver Supplies to Insurgents
Aid Insurgents Ambushing Warlord's Convoy
Rescue Friendly Operative
Destroy Enemy Military Unit
Destroy Reaver/Raider Base
Seize Enemy Commander
Destroy Command Center
Find Lost Artifact
Patrol Wasteland/Settlement/Outpost
Transport Rare Technology
Destroy Warlord's Fortress
-
Those lists are cool and actually this touches on something I was looking for a while back.
There seems to be a lack of 'generic' skirmish scenario backgrounds/setups. So independent of the system (or setting) having loads different skirmish scenario seeds to build games around would be really useful. This looks to be a great start but I'd love to see more as well.
-
I like to try mixing scenarios, each player having a different one & trying to figure out what the opposition were up to.
This is an idea I have stolen from that excellent Wargames Research Group game 'Sea-strike'
-
Ta muchly for those :)
I've just seen the new 4Ground ruined MDF 'kits' http://4groundforums.com/showthread.php?146-BOOM-!-here-s-one-of-the-new-HOMELAND-APOCALYPSE-damage-range (http://4groundforums.com/showthread.php?146-BOOM-!-here-s-one-of-the-new-HOMELAND-APOCALYPSE-damage-range) so this is bookmarked for 2018...
-
Honestly, a scenario idea set would be a good thing to have.
-
You can always crossover fantasy games. Frostgrave is a good example, all the scenarios are basically loot gathering but with different settings/locations.
For example the Masoleum game has a few skeletons kicking about, replace them with whatever guardians you like. There is a game with a well, which grants additional exp when drunk from, change that to a computer console and there is something else going on as well as the loot gathering.
Finally, the recent addition of the Ulterior Motives card deck has added another layer. Each side draws from the deck bafore the game and has a further objective to complete. So in one game I played in, there was loot to gather, the basic game premise, the scenario had 2 rampaging monster defending their respective territories, the monsters were pretty powerful and either needed to be avoided or taken on in strength and then my Motive card told me I had to get upto 2 members of my party of my opponents board edge to fetch gear to take away a particularly bulky piece of loot. So the game then becomes layered, do you concentrate on grabbing loot, do you weaken your party by making a dedicated effort to get 2 guys off for help or do you take on the beasties? Plus of course the other warband is doing the same thing but with his own Motive, he had to open a trapdoor, which then suck a number of warband members down it and out of play. I'd really recommend having a look at the Ulterior Motive cards, the extra layer of decision making has move Frostgrave from a very good game to an excellent game and its always fun.
-
Interesting idea - I've seen a few games now coming out with scenario cards and hidden objectives but not considered the genre crossover :o
-
Why would a future based game have any more restrictions in terms of scenarios than one set in the past. Presumably there are less constraints than something historical. I can'tsee why you couldn't storm La Haye Sainte, hold the pass at Thermopolaye, capture Arnhem Bridge or hold a farmstead against serried ranks of zombies if it took your fancy.
-
Apologies if I missed this, but I'm intrigued by a meeting 'gone bad.'
Say, gangs get together to trade something, and one side or the other, or preferably both or neither, such at intruders appearing to be an ambush or the like. Canned set up starts as two groups appearing to be casually dispersed, though watching each other warily. Planted turncoats would make it even more a cluster. ;D
Not that I've ever tried, outside of a weird Full Thrust game many years ago. Several groups of ships, each with secret agendas. Made my head spin, but it was GLORIOUS.
Doug
-
Add gladiatorial games and death races! :D
-
Perfect response
Agreed and done similar things for years. "Battlegames Tabletop Teasers" http://www.wargamevault.com/product/68983/Battlegames-Table-Top-Teasers-Volume-1 (http://www.wargamevault.com/product/68983/Battlegames-Table-Top-Teasers-Volume-1) Also if you can get it at a reasonable price "Scenarios for Wargames" by Charles Stewart Grant is well worth the effort.
-
The reason I ask is with Necromunda coming soon, I want more than just a stand up fight and what I assume will be a limited list of game types to create a campaign...
So you want scenarios for Necromunda...
https://yaktribe.org/community/vault/categories/scenarios.5/
Youre welcome.
:D
-
:o
-
Most PA media I've seen, the setting works a lot like pre-medieval civilization, with tribes, small city states, etc. On occasion (insert New Vegas reference here) you have something that's functionally similar to a frontier, colonial, or banana wars setting.
So to me it seems like one could easily port many common historical and fantasy scenarios into the PA setting just by changing names and such.
-
At a certain point though, the apocalypse just becomes history. I mean the fall of Rome was arguable pretty apocalyptic in its day (and region, I suppose), but we wouldn't consider medieval Europe PA, much less the modern day, even if they were in many ways founded on the aftermath.
-
And in modern times, we have real PA settings in several places of the world! :'(
-
Yeah, unfortunately true. Between natural disasters, and 3rd world warlord "governments", there's modern day stuff that fits as well.
-
And in modern times, we have real PA settings in several places of the world! :'(
I take it that you have been to Adelaide then?
-
I take it that you have been to Adelaide then?
Not yet... but heard some horror stories! :o
-
If you think about it PA has almost the same levels of freedom a genre like Sci Fi gives the gamer.
One could even quite successfully argue 40k is a post apoc sci fi game. The apocalypse being the chaos led civil war in the 30K's
I definitely agree about the freedom. I personally lean toward a Mad-Max'ish PA where there's enough lacking to be worth fighting for, but also enough tech around to be interesting. However, there's so many great variations on PA that it's a great sandbox to play in.
As for 40k, it's a fair argument, but if civilization has recovered enough "Post Apocalypse" to be more advanced than modern times than I'd call it Science Fiction. It's an arbitrary distinction, but it helps to avoid confusion. After all a HUGE amount of Sci-Fi has a timeline that includes some sort of catastrophic apoclypse and a rebuilding.
-
is not the 41st century a dark age where technology exists because knowledge is retained by rote and all that? Also is the tech not a mere shadow of what they once had and finding a STC is quite a momentous thing as it might reintroduce lost tech?
To a tech priest saying the prayer of awakening is just as important as anointing the most sacred joints with the oil of holy lubrication and flicking the switches in the most holy and correct order as set out by the liturgy of powerup when activating some old robot in the 41c for example. What is just nonsense jibber jabber and what is actually part of an ancient activation manual is lost in time.
anyways miles off track now but a most interesting discussion.
Sounds like a pretty accurate description to me.
I only push it into general Sci-Fi (I've actually described it to many folks as Sci-fantasy) since so much of the technology is still beyond what we have today, there are aliens and it has space travel.
-
...
anyways miles off track now but a most interesting discussion.
Worry not it’s still part of the original question as we need to understand the fall and how it creates the scenarios. Let’s see where we end up :)
-
Hi Andrew,
The old Traveller: The New Era RPG is a great example of post-apoc science fiction background. An interstellar empire was brought low by an intelligent computer virus. With communication travelling at the speed of ships, very often the ships bringing the bad news were the bearers of the infection as well. Only distant backwater sectors, low tech worlds, or worlds behind travel bottlenecks had time to prepare their defences.
Players were members of the exploration and military arm of a group of 12 worlds that had dragged themselves back up to the level of interstellar travel.... oh ok, they were basically Starfleet. There were a number of themes to the game, so it's worth mentioning them:
* Exploration and re-exploration;
* Recovering lost tech (with the possible risk of reactivating the virus);
* Re-civilising the wilds - more than occasionally at the point of a gun. A chance to find many weird and wonderful civilisations, from techno-dictatorships to mad machine-worshipping natives or machine empires);
* Trade and tech-swap if you want it;
* Adventures at a human scale - with the high-tech seen as a source of danger, and with the players often being the "only ship in the sector", their actions were what made the difference;
* No backup - your decisions have consequences, and sometimes you have to retreat, lie low and take a different approach;
* Planning, building a base, expanding slowly is an option, or you can go for "planet of the week";
* Not repeating the mistakes of the past (and not unleashing it again). Players as the "rats in the walls" of a mighty fallen civilisation;
* Finding out what had become of the virus-infected ships and planets, dealing with them (sometimes aggressively, sometimes peacefully - remember, a lot of that old kit is far more capable than the players).
The game rules were rubbish, but many of the supplements became classics.
So:
* Play goals can be extremely varied, even within the scope of a single campaign. Survival, loot, negotiation, firefights, exploration: all can be important at different stages;
* Player agency - their ability to effect events - is high;
* Consequently, player decisions are important. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses and run;
* Everyone loves cool loot and new toys. Even if it occasionally eats you;
* Fancy something different this week - here you go!
* Here be dragons...
The survival angle is often underplayed in campaigns - maybe I've played too many survival computer games recently. I'd recommend the campaigns in Two Hour Wargames' rules as a good example of rulesets that provide for "negotiations gone good (or bad)", resources and base-building, looting trips and showdowns. They offer some extra survivability to the main heroes in each group, and work well as co-operative games too.
Cheers,
Derek
-
As for 40k, it's a fair argument, but if civilization has recovered enough "Post Apocalypse" to be more advanced than modern times than I'd call it Science Fiction. It's an arbitrary distinction, but it helps to avoid confusion. After all a HUGE amount of Sci-Fi has a timeline that includes some sort of catastrophic apoclypse and a rebuilding.
I'd argue that it's not an either/or thing, but rather a combination thing. Like how a Sci-Fi story can also be, say, romance, or horror. You wouldn't split hairs over whether "Alien" is a horror film OR a sci-fi film, 'cause it's both at the same time.
For me, 40K is more in the same category as "Dune": not post-apocalyptic anymore, but permanently influenced (or scarred if you like) by the events.
Aaah, for those who haven't read "Dune": in that universe there was an apocalyptic Terminator/Matrix style machine war around 10,000 years before the events of the books, which resulted in a deep cultural taboo against computer tech (the boundaries are not clear, but I always read it as "analog good, digital bad"), which in turn is the reason why society in Dune is oppressively neofeudal and all the kit seems like a weird retro flavor of high-tech.