[To Playtest] War in Khale
Eero Tuovinen:
Heh, quite nice! I'll have to point this out to the Helsinki group who are going to start this campaign in a couple of weeks. They'll be needing specific places, factions and characters anyway, so this'll surely useful in that regard.
Also, I'll need to think of adapting a lightweight version of this factioning method for the titular "The Shadow of Yesterday" campaign frame...
Paul T:
Eero,
This is quite an interesting method for a war campaign. I like it, and will try it out, at least in part, at some point in the future.
Just to be clear, is this how you envision it going down:
A player's character decides they want to work towards a certain goal: let'say, "Control the Waterways". They buy the Secret of Incubation, then we play it out until the issue is settled. If they succeed, they swap that Secret for "Secret of Waterway Control" (or whatever).
If so, I wonder why the "Incubation" is a Secret? It seems like it should play out better as a Key ("Key of the Mission: Control the Waterways"). That is, after all, what Keys should be for isn't it? Can you explain this choice?
Eero Tuovinen:
Well, you could have at least some parts of the map represented by Secrets which are then meted out according to the Secret of Incubation. It's optional, though - the more important part is that the map is available as a source of stakes and consequences in the game. The map is effectively a list of conditions and strategic relationships: if you control A, you can try to control B, but if you don't, you have to try to control C or lose the war altogether. And if you control A and B, that opens up the option to go for D. By putting these things on paper the SG can make the flow of the war non-arbitrary.
As for the Secret of Incubation, it's not a Key simply because it concerns itself with a special, mechanized requirement for gaining some other crunch, which is not what Keys do. You could well have the Key of the Mission on the side - in fact, the Helsinki group are playing this campaign right now and they seem to have the Key of the Mission in the mix. But that's not the same as the Secret of Incubation.
shadowcourt:
Eero,
I've been looking over the war crunch, and been giddy about its potential for use in Maldor and other locales. I don't know how familiar you are with Greg Stolze's "Reign", but one of the ransomed supplements has a mid-level wargame rules-set, called "Die, Men!" which has some pretty easy adaptability to TSOY. Of course, that's part of the beauty of "Reign", which has so much modularity to it that it's practically designed to lay over another game if you want it to.
Looking at it and your War crunch rules got me tinkering a little, and led to some questions. Specifically:
1.) Is it just me, is the Secret of the Army less potent than the Secret of the Horde? Is this because a Horde requires so much incubation and in-game work, whereas the Army can be scooped up within two Secrets? A lot of this centers on the fact that "a split horde is still a horde", whereas in most respects a split army does not seem to be as robust as an unsplit army.
2.) I'm unclear on what the Secret of the Guard gets you, but maybe this is me being unclear on Effects-as-equipment in general? I've tried to follow the various threads about this, but it always leaves me a little spun:
Quote
The band needs to be represented as an Effect which provides equipment ratings for the character as long as it remains. The band has ratings equal to the value of the Effect, with one rating chosen by the player and the rest by the SG. The band Effect is created by Battle (R).
So, if I roll a Battle check and get a Legendary (5) result, that means that I basically have 5 "effect dice" to distribute between equipment ratings? So my personal detail of men could have swell "+3 weapons to kill Duke Westerlake," and then the Storyguide would dictate any other ratings, giving them perhaps "+2 shields against the Duke's guards", or "+1 knives for dueling" and also "+1 armor against smashing attacks"? How long do these Effects linger? Like other effects, I take it they're maintained by 1 Reason, and they stick around until I refresh my Reason, when they have to be re-invested in or else they fade?
Maybe it's because weapons don't just fall out of the sky in the games I've played, but that seems pretty darn potent. Most people who can conjure up the +3 effects seem like they drop the bomb on their intended targets pretty handily. Particularly if, at the end of the day, the effect goes back in he box when I refresh Reason, to be called up again the next time some other local lord gets in my face. Yowza.
But, then, maybe that's just me, and other games have +3 ratings all over the place. It must make for swift BDTP though. When your lowest tagged Harm level is guaranteed to be 3, things get Bloodied darn fast.
This might be an attempt to represent "elite" units in all sorts of ways, such as archers and cavalry and pikemen and whatnot. Maybe it works better than I realize, but for the moment, I instinctively fear it.
3.) Depending on the direction you go with this, I have some Secret suggestions which might come in handy, particularly if this gets expanded into a Maldorite war crunch section.
Secret of the General
You can coordinate troops with tremendous skill, showing them by example how to When in direct command of a warband, you can use them as a conduit for any other Secret you already know, for instance granting them the option to use the Secret of Sudden Strike against an enemy unit. You can also purchase Secrets with normal Advances which are applied to all units under your direct command, such as granting them all the Secret of Imbuement or the Secret of Ability Enhancement for a specific Ability. Cost: +1 Reason to use the warband as a conduit for a Secret you know. No special cost for granting them Secrets of their own. Prerequisite: Secret of Discipline, Secret of Tactics.
Secret of Fearsome Reputation
You are well known for your cruelty and lethality as a military commander, and your reputation for what you do with captives and/or those who compel you to take them by force has spread far and wide. You can use Intimidate in lieu of Battle or Orate when inspiring troops, creating appropriate Effects. When facing a military force larger than your own, if you can beat the leader's Battle check with an Intimidate check of your own, they are not automatically considered to have superior leverage, though you may face penalty dice to the enemy force's size. This option to reduce a group's leverage requires the enemy force to know you are at the lead of your own units, requiring some appropriate justification in the game fiction or a deliberate terror campaign.
Secret of the War Historian
You've studied ancient history and tactics, and you know how famous battles were won and lost and campaigns managed and mismanaged. This insight allows you to chain appropriate academic and history Abilities to the Battle checks you or others make, acting as a military advisor and aide-de-camp.
(That's something I wanted to add in so the more academic-minded PC's can throw themselves into the mix if someone's running a crazy war-heavy game in Maldor, for instance.)
Secret of Guerrilla Tactics (maybe needs a better name; I'd honestly rather call THIS the Secret of Tactics, and rename the Secret of Tactics as something else, a la the "Secret of the Warlord" or something, but that's probably just me picking nits)
You can use a unit you control to attack and undermine the preparations of an enemy force. This requires 1 Reason and a Battle check. Each Success Level achieved removes a Battle effect die from an enemy force. This is typically performed before an actual clash of forces, but can be done if you have the option to split off units to perform this action during warfare, by outflanking foes, cutting off supply lines or retreat options, or other inventive tactics. Cost: 1 Reason. Prerequisite: Secret of Discipline
Secret of Strategy
You have studied the finer points of strategic warfare, and have certain scenarios at which you excel. You have a Style Matrix of imbued bonuses you can call upon when commanding units, spending Battle Effect dice to achieve these imbued bonuses, on a 1-die per rating basis (so achieving a +3 imbued rating on a single Ability check would cost you 3 Battle Effect dice). The Style Matrix is created when you first take this Secret, and should be appropriate to the culture your character hails from and the methods of fighting he is used to. Alternately, he might be some sort of strange genius who understands guerrilla warfare in a culture who has never practiced it before. Cost: 1 Battle Effect die per rating level invoked on a check.
Some sample Strategy Matrices:
Guerrilla/Resistance Fighter Strategy Matrix
+1 when making hit-and-run strikes against enemies+1 when organizing peasantry from your homeland+1 when fighting with simple, makeshift weapons+2 when attacking supply lines or other non-military targets (food warehouses)+2 when using features of your homeland to move stealthily+3 when defending a home base against discovery by enemies
Maldorite War College Strategy Matrix
+1 on clashes of mass battle (conventional warfare on a relatively open field)+1 when organizing enlisted men or mercenaries+1 when storming an enemy's defenses+2 when "healing" reduced forces via conscription+2 when defending a fortified position (i.e. a fortress, a bridge, etc.)+3 when targeting enemy leaders for single combat
I can imagine you could easily create Oranid cavalry ones, and something for the maritime combat scenarios, just as well, if those are people's thing in a game. These may need some work, but they're me attempting to go Martial Arts Style Matrix with something else, as I love those mechanics, and don't want them to only be in one place.
As always, comments and criticism are quite welcome.
-shadowcourt (aka Josh)
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