"'Survival' motivation for players" Topic

re: player's 'in-character' behavior during a skirmish game where they control one to three characters.

(NOTE: I'm specifically looking for advice for a WW1 dogfight game this coming Sunday involving the Voss v 56 Squadron anniversary YouTube link – but think it could have generic application.)

I was wondering whether to create a type of victory-point system to assess the winner of the game (other than Voss escaping or dying) based on the amount of damage done to/by each side. Assigning victory aside, do you think such a system would instill an (albeit artificial) sense of survival in the British pilots insofar as they wouldn't risk getting within gun-range of Voss (and thus preventing him from accumulating more 'victory points')?

First blush of the idea strikes me as a tad (or more?) cheesy, but what do you think? Would it serve to prevent a one-time game becoming a potential suicide run for those involved?

Try a balance between the two….points for the kill and points for survival.

Campaign survival motivation is tricky. Elmo was once in a WWI air campaign where players ran squadrons and tracked pilot experience.

Once the pilots became aces, they flew off after the first bullet did damage so as not to get killed.

"Try a balance…"

Hmmm…that might work, provided I make the ratio correct. Any suggestions?

"Campaign survival motivation is tricky."

Agreed. Since this is a one-off, anniversary-marking game, it becomes even trickier!

More points for survival, and/or the losers have to buy the drinks, or dinner afterwards, for the winners.

Game with kids – survival is not a major motivator!

Here is a suggestion I made on a naval thread about motivating players not to fight to the death. The suggestion garnered me two stifles, so perhaps it is not such a great idea.

Each pilot has something like a "guts rating". When damage to a plane reaches x percent (that percent would be up to you), then the pilot must pass a gut check before going back into the fray. If he fails, he must fly away from the action in the most direct way possible. The next turn he may roll again to see if he re-joins the fight, otherwise he continues to fly away from the battle. Once he has passed the gut check he is free to re-join the fight until he is hit again, at which time the whole process repeats itself.
Modifiers could be veteran status, ace status and perhaps number of comrades left in action.
The disclaimer is that this just popped into my head the other day, and I have not tried it at all in any type of game, so donīt blame me if the whole thing is stupid. Well, okay, you can blame me, but donīt sue me.

As for any other system the pilot would begin the battle with enough morale to last the battle. Adverse situations would affect a morale status roll. This would include damage to plane, any pilot wounds and the loss of friendly pilots. A positive of course would be any planes shot down.

A simple d10 roll should work. A minor morale hesitation may be an action hesitation (loss a turn in firing) rather fleeing the area at the first negative situation.

That is a good idea too Rudy, and I forgot to include wounds (a not insignificant morale squasher!).

Thanks for the ideas – sound good.

I made a similar scenario for In Clouds of glory.

This sysmem operates with a morale system where significant damage to the AC or pilot forces the pilot to roll a morale check against remaining stamina in order to stay in combat – a missed roll equals "forced home".

The two sides had very different victory conditions.

The lone wolf (Voss in this case) would score points for:
Staying alive – 1/2 point for each turn after turn 5 (10 turn game)
Hitting EA -1/2 for each separate EA hit
Forcing EA home – 1 point
Downing EA – 3 points
Surviving on the game board until end of turn 10 – 2 points
Leaving the game board before turn 6 – instant loss

RFC scoring:
Not hitting the German plane at all during the combat – automatic loss
Forcing the German plane home- 1 point
Downing the German plane – 3 points

2 points surplus or more is needed to win. All other results is a draw.

If you get killed and your plane smashes into the ground take hammer to the mini :) its the only thing that works unless you want to play for blood and stab a needle into the dead players finger every time a plane gets shot down. :)

Ouzel von Schwartzwolfe: You are on to something – Actually playing for money would work!… All players places a small but still sligtly significant amount of money. Get paid for getting victories and pay up for getting shot down….