Military Campaign

[Eldos]

Hi Everyone

 

I was thinking of starting a military campaign for my players, there's quite a few of them in d20 Modern, but that's a pretty inferior system to Hero. I was just wondering if any of the experts here have any advice on this.

[Alibear]

Re: Military Campaign

 

You're not being very specific. What kind of genre are you talking about?

 

And welcome btw.

[Eldos]

Re: Military Campaign

 

Okay, fair enough. I was thinking of a Heroic (as opposed to super heroic) campaign. The genre is basically military - the PCs are (modern day?) soldiers that will be engaged in fighting battles against enemies. It will probably be somewhat combat heavy but there will be a fair bit of story telling and role play (as opposed to roll play) involved.

 

I was thinking of using the truly massive list of weapons from Dark Champions and providing the PCs with some fairly hefty package deals. While I'll be using Dark Champions, the mood should be different but that's probably the closest to genre that it would be.

 

What I'm looking for is probably in terms of general advice. While I like the Hero System, I'm a little new to it and the players are pretty experienced with it - so if I get things wrong, they'll crucify me and the game will flounder.

[Frenchman]

Re: Military Campaign

 

Dark Champions is the place to be - but you might also consider checking out Alien Wars if a futuristic setting doesn't turn you off.

[Alibear]

Re: Military Campaign

 

I think you might want to think about a Special Forces unit rather than infantry as you'll have a greater scope for scenarios.

 

Perhaps even, a Rainbow unit drawing forces from all over the place to counter a threat be that terrorism, Aliens, the Chinese or whoever you have planned as the bad guys.

 

That way you can have a bit more variety. Spetsnaz, Seal team, SAS, Gurkha etc.

 

After that you'll want to make sure they each have their own schtick. Sniper, frogman, heavy weapons, medic, radioman etc.

 

Points-wise if you do decide to go the Special Forces route I'd reccomend a higher point total. 100 + 100.

 

They're are loads of ex-Army/ Navy guys who can help with specifics if need be.

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Military Campaign

 

Yes playing in the 'military' can become a tad bit boring for the players as well as the GM.

 

Penn

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Military Campaign

 

Oh. You mean, "Like all those games that guy with the name that gets mistaken for a small country" runs. Hi.

 

I am THE Lord Captain Thia Halmades. Pleasedtomeetcha! Don't worry. I bite. Er. Don't. Whichever. Anyway.

 

I run 'fantasy military' and other 'hard tactics' type games, so this is pretty much all I do. Some basic tips include:

 

Use the Dark Champions resource pools. This will keep gear balanced among team members. Be liberal with it; i.e., once their in the field, they'll pick up whatever's lying around and probably not discard their old weapons like they should; this is fine, just make sure that what they carry is reasonable and when they get back, but before they deploy, they give you a load out sheet.

 

Keeping the numbers strictly Heroic (75+75) and encouraging them to specialize will go a long way from keeping people from stepping on each other's toes. Then you can into specific MOS types, including demolitions, grenadier, rifleman and sniper. Resource pools are granted at base levels, and then bought up by the PCs later.

 

Don't be afraid to change things up; as the game expands, they may talk their way out of certain situations. Use genre tropes, especially early on. The Hawt Double Agent who's really working with the PCs but really really working for another agency is always fun. Work out a couple of pre-determined combat locations early on; trees, boxes, and other cover should be available to the bullets don't pierce their lithe, supple flesh.

 

KNOW THE COMBAT RULES. And the autofire rules. Suggest people take Krav Maga, Commando or similar Martial Art styles to augment their ranged ability. You may also put together a string of (comparative) milk run missions to get their feet wet (limited engagements with low-level targets) before breaking the board over their head, blowing up half a facility and having them standing around to tell the tale, when they get noticed by a higher agency, such as Clancy's Rainbow or Ghost Recon units.

 

The guns are great; use the ammo adjustment rules as written, they're very good. Make sure people purchase armor of some kind, even if it's Combat Luck. OH. Because I personally find it unbalancing and unrealistic, I use a variant on Combat Luck; Custom Limitation, "Does Not Stack, -1/2" means that it only works if they have no other equipment. And, because I'm a jerk, "Must be aware of incoming attack, -1/2" means it doesn't work while they're unconscious or sleeping, etc. This (for many people) defeats the purpose, but it works with what I run.

 

Does any of that help?

[Roter Baron]

Re: Military Campaign

 

I ran a pretty fun D20 Modern Special Ops/ Mercenary campaign, but regardless of game mechanics here is my €uro-cent about military campaigns:

Make up your mind wether it is mercenary or special ops. Okay, shooting is shoooting is shooting, but the kinds of adventures are different.

Do you want the Pcs to have support by secret services, don't bother too much about organizing a mission and money, then go for special ops. Everybody is in a team, everybody is a team player, betrayal by the agency is zero to low. But the scenarios are all a little "railroaded": Briefing, mission, debriefing, end of adventure. Repeat. Gets boring after a while.

 

Mercenaries on the other hand have to worry about: Is the patron trustworthy (think of "the Wild Geese")? How do we get the weapons in? How do WE get out after the mission? How much do we charge (and how much is too much?)? Do we work for anybody or do we have "moral principles"? If we have, define them!

Her you have to work out a lot (weapons dealer, contacts etc.) and it usually takes more time to get the mission going. And mercenaries usualy are a motley crew and given the shady backgrounds are usually not as able to work together as a team like the Special Ops characters.

 

That given forget about running a part Special Ops, part mercenary campaign: Don't count that your Special Ops commandos work for Don Marcelli to do a hit on some Columbian rival, don't think that drug-pushing, assassinating mercenaries suddenly work for the DEA.

 

Play it "heroic" but gritty. War is hell and while your PC are well-trained war-specialist (and there opponents sometimes just run-of-the-mill-grunts) a grenate or autofire from a Kalashnikov can mean injury and death. No "Surprise! The cavalry is coming to save your day"-pulpisms.

 

Make them pay for mistakes. If they have to free hostages and they blunder around, have the hostages be killed. If they don't defuse a mine - BOOOM! They are fighting in enemy territory - make them feel that.

 

Okay, so much from me.

[Doc]

Re: Military Campaign

 

I think you might want to think about a Special Forces unit rather than infantry as you'll have a greater scope for scenarios.

 

Perhaps even, a Rainbow unit drawing forces from all over the place to counter a threat be that terrorism, Aliens, the Chinese or whoever you have planned as the bad guys.

 

That way you can have a bit more variety. Spetsnaz, Seal team, SAS, Gurkha etc.

 

After that you'll want to make sure they each have their own schtick. Sniper, frogman, heavy weapons, medic, radioman etc.

 

Points-wise if you do decide to go the Special Forces route I'd reccomend a higher point total. 100 + 100.

 

They're are loads of ex-Army/ Navy guys who can help with specifics if need be.

 

Yes playing in the 'military' can become a tad bit boring for the players as well as the GM.

 

Penn

 

 

So very true. Nothing is more boring than a game where military units become the characters you play during combat, and a full scale mass combat isn't really so if you don't include unit movement, tactics, etc. If you don't want your players to be special forces or anything like this, you could focus your campain over a series of tactical objectives, the one a section alone is able to fullfill, but that are necessary for the outgoing of the more massive battle. You could listen at When Trumpets Fade for this kind of feel.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Military Campaign

 

So very true. Nothing is more boring than a game where military units become the characters you play during combat' date=' and a full scale mass combat isn't really so if you don't include unit movement, tactics, etc. If you don't want your players to be special forces or anything like this, you could focus your campain over a series of tactical objectives, the one a section alone is able to fullfill, but that are necessary for the outgoing of the more massive battle. You could listen at [i']When Trumpets Fade [/i]for this kind of feel.

 

This is mentioned in Steve's phenomenal Fantasy HERO text; he talks about the sort of massive scale battles that are common to this genre, but they work just as well for extended engagements with large groups of units in a modern setting. What Steve points out, basically, is that no one wants a 'birds eye view' of the fight, because you're now playing a war game, and not an RPG.

 

However, being given the "real" objective while the grunts engage the enemy directly is compelling. While the main forces engage directly, you, the players, are going to run interference. There are two C&C outposts located deep in enemy territory. At night, under the cover of friendly fire and the chaos of battle, you will breach enemy lines, using your judgment to eliminate targets of opportunity, until you reach your objective, where you will plant a listening/scrambler device at Outpost 1, then make your way to Outpost 2, which you will promptly level.

 

This gives everyone an opportunity to do something; the Technician gets to fiddle with electronics on an extended skill roll while the rest of the team fends off waves of attackers; it's also a great opportunity to introduce some new characters, Metal Gear Solid style, including possible new contacts or old enemies/Hunteds who "just happen" to be in the same place. This kind of mission can take anywhere from a half session to three sessions, depending on how complex you make it.

 

Also another nifty trick picked up from videogamedom, don't hesitate to throw in "secret objectives" such as a recently used terminal that may still have critical information on it (especially if the tech previously using it is now bleeding out from 14 new air holes). This will serve to hook in the next portion of the adventure as the players get closer to 'the conspiracy' or the truth at the center of the conflict, and so on.

[The Monster]

Re: Military Campaign

 

Okay, fair enough. I was thinking of a Heroic (as opposed to super heroic) campaign. The genre is basically military - the PCs are (modern day?) soldiers that will be engaged in fighting battles against enemies. It will probably be somewhat combat heavy but there will be a fair bit of story telling and role play (as opposed to roll play) involved.

 

I was thinking of using the truly massive list of weapons from Dark Champions and providing the PCs with some fairly hefty package deals. While I'll be using Dark Champions, the mood should be different but that's probably the closest to genre that it would be.

 

What I'm looking for is probably in terms of general advice. While I like the Hero System, I'm a little new to it and the players are pretty experienced with it - so if I get things wrong, they'll crucify me and the game will flounder.

 

 

I run most of my games at "Heroic" level - 50 to 75 points to start. I've found that Hero works very well at that level, without magic or superpowers or anything. So I highly recommend Hero system for a campaign like this. (While I've read the rules, I've never played d20 Modern, so I can't really offer a fair comparison.)

 

As far as different player-experience levels, I don't know that I'd worry too much about it. One advantage of playing non-magic/super campaigns is that the range of weapons, powers, etc., are much more limited, and, as Yogi Berra said, "you can learn a lot just by observing;" that is, you can take real-world experience and study, and know basically what to expect from a given item or situation. The combat-rules details are fun to use, but for most bad guys, few are necessary, in terms of tactical options. Presumably, the PCs would be some kind of elites up against "regular" troops, so having them exploit rules and options, while the bad guys just sit and shoot, actually fits the heroic mold perfectly. Also, the rules are highly modular: you can set complexity at just about any level you want. So if you really want to get gritty, you can use Bleeding, Injury, Stunning, and all that, but it's not necessary - generally, the fewer of those rules you use, the more "cinematic" the feel. Season to taste and need. (For my games, I usually go for cinematic, but I do use hit locations - too much flavor is lost otherwise, and it makes guns truly dangerous; even a .22 pistol has a slight chance of making a kill in one shot.)

 

At low power levels, it's also easy to make important distinctions between PC heroes and everybody else: the easiest is with SPD. Make the PCs all SPD 3-4, and just about everybody else SPD 2. That alone gives them a big edge, even if all other stats and equipment are identical. Then enemy elites and special NPCs can also be SPD 3-4. But even a point or two of skill or OCV, or a few martial-arts maneuvers, can make a significant difference.

 

As far as campaign-background stuff, I doubt you really need much advice: I assume your request is about system rather than campaign. In planning, note that it is pretty hard to kill people outright in Hero (given a lick of sense and no awful luck); generally, people fall to STUN damage, or being put into negative BODY - and then there's usually plenty of time for a fellow PC to administer first aid. So if there's access to medical help, the PCs shouldn't have a high casualty rate.

[Eldos]

Re: Military Campaign

 

Thanks for all the help everyone. I've got a much clearer idea of what I'll be doing now.

 

The campaign won't start for a little while but this is pretty much what I'm planning.

- Heroic campaign (75/75) starting points

- Military, PCs are soldiers in an alternate world where extreme elements have taken over/subverting many South East Asian countries. Game sessions will be mission, goal based but definitely told from the PCs POV. The war will be going on around them but they will only see part of it.

- I will assign some skills/abilities to reflect required training.

- There will be an equipment pool which the PCs will choose from.

 

Feel free to keep providing advice as it is greatly appreciated.