"Playing around with ideas: RPG and skirmishing" Topic

I made some notes when I was considering running something like All Things Zombie with role playing rules. Now I'm thinking of using something like this for a historical samurai campaign. Note the board gaming influences as well, which are used to randomize the goings, if playing without a plot.

I'd like to discuss some of these concepts with interested folks. Hopefully you find the topic interesting.

Notes:

How to skirmish with RPG flavor
===============================

- GMless game: use dice rolls to decide what happens. Plan initial scenarios with another player, it could be anything.

- Points Of Interest: gaming table has locations that hold something special or noteworthy. Roll to randomize the result about what happens next, or create cards that define the POI and it's contents. Each character can examine a different point of interest, no team work required. Exploring POI in teams is safer and faster. (new notes: This could simply be a map of the area the story happens in.)

- Characters can travel to points of interest one at a time, and resolve the POI challenge with a skill roll, or an attribute roll. There are different kinds of POI, and every one of them has their own table to be rolled on.

- Possible enemy forces. Depends on the scenario and danger level. At campaign start PEF are resolved on less risky tables. PEF move around the table until Line of Sight is established, which is when the PEF is activated and rolled for on a table.

- Plot elements: Players are awarded plot element points which can be used to create advantages for your own team or disadvantages for the enemy team. Critical rolls create plot elements during a scenario.

?- Campaign elements: Won scenarios award players campaign elements which can be used to create fortunate events for the characters in a team and that will take the story forward. Campaign element points can be stored or used immediately after a scenario.

New notes: When playing with RPG rules, obviously the characters themselves will receive advancement points and develop during the campaign.

Possible POI tasks
==================

- Require an attribute test

- Require a specific skill test

- Require a multi-turn action

- Require co-operation

Possible POI risks
==================

- you find hostile people

- you find zombies/monsters (new notes: or animals)

- you trigger a trap

Possible POI rewards
====================

- you find a weapon

- you find a survival item (food, water, gasoline)

- you find a luxury item

- you find tools

- you find ammunition

- you find people

Objectives
==========

Each scenario has an objective or several objectives. It could be anything from finding an item or a person to destroying something or killing a person. It could be a multi-part objective that is spread around the playing area in parts to solve or collect. Starting objectives should be easy and quick, to give the players a sense of the game to start with.

Have you checked the THW forum or the Yahoo Group? I've seen folks there before talking about applying rules like Swordplay, Warrior Heroes, and Legends of Araby to Samurai-era gaming.

I've checked out THW rules but I'd like to retain the relative depth of RPG combat rules, with different maneuvers and things being tracked.

Nothing is set in stone, but I ordered a physical copy of the Sengoku rules from ebay, and I'm probably going to use them for my games. I'd like to do something involving either a globe-trotting adventure where the players play foot soldiers and travel to Korea to wage war and return as battle-hardened veterans (and wearing civilian clothing) to their homeland only to face new problems involving clan wars or westerners ("barbarians") causing trouble. Something long and involved to keep me occupied for a while (and to finish a large project).

Advanced Heroquest used similar ideas

Thanks for the link Terrement! I wasn't aware such a book existed.

Another +1 for Mythic, and another for THW's scenario and campaign rules, you don't necessarily need to use their rules on the table, but to set up a skirmish they're great. I'd recommend the pulp ones (Larger Than Life) as they're the most flexible IMO, I've started on converting them to Star Wars campaigns, for instance. They send the characters all over the world (or galaxy) to resolve enough clues to get to a key skirmish here or there, ending with a showdown with the "Big Bad".

Another +1 for Mythic, and another for THW's scenario and campaign rules, you don't necessarily need to use their rules on the table, but to set up a skirmish they're great.

Take a look at Legends of Araby by THW, it has a pretty comprehensive mission/quest/encounter generator that you could use, and then use PEFs and NPE movement until you have an actual encounter that you can then play out with your preferred RPG/combat system. Another idea from THW is the "Talk the Talk" system that could help you determine what happens during an encounter that involves NPCs you can, well, talk to before combat.

Yep, Mythic is great, and also has tables with varying degrees of danger like you mention as well.

GM-less, so good for just creating games on the fly.

I've checked out THW rules but I'd like to retain the relative depth of RPG combat rules, with different maneuvers and things being tracked.

That depends upon the rules you're using. That's a common misconception that all THW games use the same game mechanics. While they share some mechanics, some of the rules that focus on RPG aspects have detailed combat.

Like in By Savvy and Steel and And a Bottle of Rum that have the Duel Mechanics where you move from table to table and not where one die roll is used to fight a melee.

link

bpmasher, a couple of us in our gaming group have run
these sorts of games for years.

One of our best is 'Temperance Tantrum,' in which the
ladies of a Midwestern town circa 1900 march from their
church to a newly opened local saloon in an attempt
to close it down.

They encounter various things (other players, NPC's,
situations, etc.) along the way. As an example, Nelly
Bly, the famous newspaper woman, is in town and happens
upon the march.

Carrie Nation (complete with hatchet) joins the march
along the way.

And so forth and so on.

We have probably a dozen or so games of this type,
and have run many of them at H'con and other HM
shows.

On the topic fo Mythic, it does come with a complete system for characters and all, but we've used the GM emulation bit with everything from creating ww2 skirmish scenarios to fantasy RPG campaigns.