Battle Events

[atgxtg]

I need some suggestions for a list of events that could take place during a battle. Not any details, just a general description of something special that could happen during a movie style big battle in a Star Wars game, along with a quality modifier like, good. very good, excellent (or bad, very, bad, catastrophic, depending on which side one is rooting for). Stuff like an Ambush, Reinforcements, ISD blows up. THat kind of thing.

I'm working on a way of using battles as a backdrop for the PCs squadron during a big fleet battle, and need to add a little color.

[Fallon Kell]

[thedemonapostle]

yes detail would be most helpful for us. subterranean, surface, air, orbit, deep space, etc. approximate numbers/size would be helpful. im guessing the era would be nice too. the whole whose fighting whom would be awesome too.
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Thedemonapostle Star Wars Crossovers

[atgxtg]

Uh. Everything.

You see what I am doing is putting together a tool to help run a battle, but still being centered around the PCs.

What I got is a rating, that shows how the battle is going. When it gets higher, it gets bad for the PCs side, and when it gets lower, the PCs side is winning. THe value fluctuates a little randomly each turn, and can also be affectred by the PCs actions. So the players have a way of seeing how the battle is going and what effect they are having.

But, I want the events to give a narrative justification for some of the shifts. So rather than just seeing that the score dropped 10 points, the PCs will see a SSD go up in flames or some such.


THe events can be for any type of battle. I hope to adapt the tool for differernt types of battle, from a genric space battle, to the assault on Hoth, to the Death Star Trench run. What I did was make a table with a mix of random enemies the PCs could encounter. For example, in a typical rebellion era space battle, there will be a lot of TIE/ln, maybe some TIE Interceptors, perhaps a TIE bomber, TIE/fc or TIE/rc, and a Star Destroyer or two. A battle can be customized by swapping out the table.

So events could range from generic to specific too.


Oh, and while I'm picking everyone's brains for ideas, I could use some good mission goals. With the tool, the PCs will ususally have some mission that they are supposed to achieve (i.e. blow up the Death Star, protect the hostpial frigate, intercept the TIE bombers, etc.), and I could use a few more ideas there too.

Again, I just need the descriptive stuff. I got most of the mechanics hammered out already. That is they got to get from Point A to Point B, deal with any enemy troops that get in the way, dodge FlaK or artillery, and accomplish the mission.

Thanks.

[thedemonapostle]

goals: most scifi mission goals ive seen are usually so vague and so braid that one could define them as being unachievable. i prefer goals that are much more reasonable. examples:
*infiltrate, extract valuable data, plant false info, observe subject x found in valuable data, extract subject x using stolen data, rtb
*steal info on star destroyer personnel, befriend SD commanding officer(s), convince SD officer that empire is going to kill him for X reason(s), convince Officer that only choice is to strike back hard against his/her superiors, rtb (secondary objectives might be to steal something on board the SD)(i been watching a lot of burn notice on netflicks lately...)
*pose as a tie wing commander, during a mission lead tie fighters against another SD, survival will rely upon the characters ingenuity. rtb
*acquire over sized magnetic docking coupler, an astromech droid, an over powered(for ship size) hyperdrive engine, a baffled ion drive; attach all to some kind of starship frame; program droid with hyper space coordinates and to fly the 'ship' and 'attach' to a star destroyer and jump away with it; effectively stealing/destroying the SD.
*hit and run on supply lines, permanently disable a star destroyers sensors and hyperdrive and than do whatever you want with it.



the kinds of things that can go on during a battle are immense and very diverse.
during a ground battle the players could be trying to lead a movement to outflank the enemy. but the heavy weapons emplacement operators could have an issue with snipers. no heavy weapons means weaker defense/offense. but if the players are very successful in flanking the enemy the heavy weapons wont be as needed, but the snipers will still be there.

just occurred to me that since im thinking a lot about war movies and my own military experiences that it might be a good idea to look at war movies/books. the movie and or book black hawk down is a good one about how a simple mission with basically simple goals can turn all to crap and still be a partial success in the end. use the basic idea of it for a campaign.
another good one for big battles and goals is saving private ryan. using the back drop of WWII fits fairly well into star wars and having a major offensive into enemy territory like d-day was and then using a small number to go and find someone of value for whatever reason is a good bit of info for players.


look in history books
as i recall there was a few wars in early America that had people watching on the sidelines because theyd never seen a war before, and if i remember correctly some of those aristocratic spectators became victims of the battles.


in a space battle there will be numerous support ships that carry tons of supplies: fuel, food, equipment, ammo, replacement parts, extra troops, etc. look up how many ships are in a real world air craft carrier battle group, not including the air craft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_strike_group#Typical_CSG_composition
http://science.howstuffworks.com/carrier-group2.htm
_________________
Aim low, shoot high
I'm a pirate, need I say more?

d6holocron.com: Thedemonapostle

Thedemonapostle Star Wars Crossovers

[atgxtg]

I think I need to claify what I'm looking for a bit more.

THe goals I am thinking of are things that a group could be assigned and expected to attempt during the coruse of a battle. By battle I mean a large scale fight, with lots of people and/or vehicles-not a small scale fight, like the PCs get into all the time.

Things like befriending a commader, g, posing as a wing commander, and such are more like adventures that the PCs go on before the battle that could affect how the battle later plays out, but for the most part, aren't the sort of things that people could pull off during the actual battle.

What I'm looking for are specfic mission goals that a squad could be assigned, such as destroying a given target, search & rescue, proving close air support, flying cover for another unit and so on. Stuff like outflanking and maneuvering are ways that the group could attempt accomplish their goals, but generally are not goals in and of them self.




And as far as the events go, the stuff I am looking for are the sort of cut scenes we see on screen that show to the audience which side is winning.

For example, in ANH, we see the various X and Y-Wing fighters get destroyed as the fight progresses, some gun towers get blown up. That sort of thing. In ESB, we get to see snowspeeders crash, shield generators blown up, rebel troops scattered and overwhelmed, and even the destruction of the occasional AT-AT.

What I'm lokking for are little "snippets' of action that I can intercut with the player's actions to add life to the battle. What I got is that both sides in the battle make a roll, and the winner gets to shift the difficulty of the battle in his side's favor, and that difficulty affects the PCs. Whart I want are little things to say to the players besides "the difficulty went up by 2 points".