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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 2:02 pm
by Dallid
I don’t see multi-minute time skills used during a firefight, no. Hacking a UAV is something you’d do if you suspect the enemy is near – such as when you’re approaching a hostile base.
I’m not worried about people forging their own tags. Don’t think I know a LARPer willing to cheat that blatently. Lamination adds cost and construction complexity we just don’t need.
Mercenaries won’t have the resources to have their own UAVs or satellites. They’ll need to steal such intel. That’s why they’ll have strictly limited use of them. It also means we won’t have constant calls of “Reveal! Reveal! Reveal!”
I’m thinking there will be two types of SAMs, too. But shoulder-mounted launchers are plenty capable of knocking out jets. The personal launcher will counter a single air-support action, while a SAM emplacement will make an area immune to enemy air support.
Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 2:53 pm
by General Maximus
The way to control the use of UAV's and special global attacks was through there cost. Thwy will not be cheap, but will be very useful. The Merc's are renting out the use of this equipment.
As for the laminated cards, they are reusable and inexpensive to make and upkeep. I was planning on doing all that fun stuff. With the NPC camp giving out the cards and the PC's turning them in, it will be a semi closed loop. Should be able to get a lot of use of them.
And yes, there are larpers who cheat that bad and I want to make a stance stating cheaters are not welcome to the game. I prefer to run a game with a handful of honest players than having a large group with some blanet cheaters. You get a warning, maybe two, and then the person is kicked out! I have no issue doing so.
As for different RPG's, do we reaaly need them. It's going to be hard enough to come up with a Good RPG physrep. Needing them to carry additional ones seems overly complicated. But more talk is needed.
We really need to get a conferecne call going to dicuss. It's faster. How about skype? We should be able to get all 3 of us on at once. What day and time works for you two?
Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 3:15 pm
by dier_cire
I'd avoid immunities like the plague personally. The idea of the Stinger is to take out the cheaper airstrike cheaply (though still expensive) and without too much fuss. The SAM system would be more expensive but allow for a single coverage of any airstrike.
Also, any ground strike (ala from an oog tank) can be countered via a fast mover airstrike or another ground stike. Helicopters the players have access to just don't carry anti-tank weaponry.
EMP might also be something nice to throw in. Basically disables all strikes, UAVs, etc for both sides. I'd skip people turning off the red dots and local radios since that's more of a pain than it's worth.
As for multiple calls, if you bank up and can afford them, who cares? Same thing for grenades. If someone banks up 30 grenades and lays waste to a combat, good for them. Basically, someone burns a year worth of income to do something stupid, let em.
The more I think on this the more it's just normal airsoft / paintball with some very few added fun rules and stuff to do inbetween field battles to either access a new field battle or change some of the parameters.
Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 7:29 am
by General Maximus
Perks
You will be able to choose extra little bonus at odd levels of you combat reflex’s and body attribute.
You might be able to choose extra little bonus at every level of brains if we can come up with ideas.
Body Perks
1. Can run when carrying a person. Incapacitated person only needs to have 1 hand on the carriers shoulder and can run next to them.
Combat Reflexes Perks
1. Can use a dead or incapacitated person as a shield. Can only use a pistol while doing this. The carrier can place the incapacitated person any where they want but must keep a hand them on at all times.
Brains
1. Income 1 – Get some extra cash or credits when checking in
General Rules
Skills everyone can do
1. Use a spring airsoft pistol
2. Use a knife
3. Carry a dead or incapacitated person. Can only walk and can not use any weapon when doing this. Incapacitated person needs to walk behind the carrier and place there hands on the carriers shoulders.
4. Two people can run with a dead or incapacitated person. Can not use any weapon when doing this. Incapacitated person needs to walk/run between carriers.
Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 10:18 am
by Dallid
Income skills are bad. This isn’t an RP game where a given even t may be light on plots and/or rewards. There will always be missions available and every mission has a payout. The core focus of this game is to earn money through mercenary work – any other method of income only waters down the player’s sole motivation. Downtime expenses, sure. Downtime income, no way.
The carrying of wounded is something to consider. Special forces train while running with a fellow soldier slung over his back. However, it can’t be assumed mercenary characters have done similarly. So some skill or other prereq should be required to run with a wounded soldier. Maybe just a Body stat of 3 or higher will do.
Using a body as a shield would just be cruel to the fallen player. Also, often NPCs must move on to play more enemy troops and can’t be spared to phys-rep a shield. This would also open up a can-o-worms involving other improvised shields such as logs or debris.
From what I’ve seen, when a second person moves in to help transport a wounded soldier, the task becomes easier, but not much faster. Not unless they’re using a stretcher. If players want to actually use a stretcher to move a fallen player, they can move as fast as they’re able.
I’m against perks, in general. That’s just another layer (complication) to the rules.
Immunities can cause problems, sure. But I'm not worried about 'Reveal'. It's not a damage call, nor does immunity to that even counter the mark one eyeball or ear. There's no way that could contribute to a combo making a player nigh invulnerable.
Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 11:20 am
by General Maximus
Yeah, using folks as shields would piss folks off. I think it needs to be changed to you can use a pistol while carrying a person.
Where going want to have depth to the rules to cater to the masses. Make them to simple and they will get stale very quickly. Perks is jsut an idea to add in some simple skills that are not full skill worthy. Escpically with Eric's idea of making skills cost more, the more that you have.
As for a stretcher, great idea, but I do not want to force people to carry one around or spend the money on it. I would like to keep the cost for PC down as much as possible.
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 7:24 am
by General Maximus
Doug,
What is your idea on how the status in different factions will work. How many factions will there be? And what are your thoughts on vechciles? I'm looking to start to put mechanics behind these two concepts and want to know what your thoughts are.
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 12:00 pm
by dier_cire
perks are there to give something when buying level 3 in a attribute. Buying level 3 and 4 just for an extra body or luck will be a hard sell most likely.
Using a body as a shield is only for people willing to get pelted. This would not be a forced on you deal, and NPCs would obviously not be willing normally. And yeah, all shield use = pistol only. Again, this is for flavor and would be optional similar to limb crippling.
As for carrying people, someone with level 3 body should be considering in top shape enough to carry someone and run. Having to have a hand on the shoulder (I would say the carrier also needs to have a hand on the wounded person as well, to make firing more difficult) means you are not running fast.
And no on stretchers. It will end in someone getting dropped on their head. Think of wounded more like in the movies with the guy down but his buddy comes to rescue him and they get him up and hobble off. Stretchers are never used until after combat is resolved (at which point they are unecessary for this game).
Also the reason to not have immunities isn't just for invunerable players. It's another call or complication in that one call might be for multiple things. Having everything be single attack and counter is very easy to count and the opposition knows what is going on. If one side throws out a UAV and gets countered, either you add a call to denote the players are immune or you have people wasting multiple items on something without real good info why.
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 12:32 pm
by Dallid
Don’t have the number of factions finalized, yet, but there will be a good many – two dozen plus. Each faction has allies and enemies of varying degrees. Harm a faction, and you’ll lose a specified amount of reputation. You’ll also lose a small fraction of that rep with allies of that faction. You’ll gain a small fraction of that rep with enemies of that faction. Help a faction, and you’ll similarly gain a specified amount of reputation. You’ll gain a fraction of that rep with allies of that faction, and lose a fraction of that rep with enemy factions. Help China, and Chinese corporations will also like you better. Just about everyone else will be slightly miffed, though.
The computer will have a table tracking inter-faction relations. The Gm will simply type in the specified change in rep for a merc company when they harm or help a faction, and the computer will adjust all related faction reputations accordingly.
Reputation is applied to the merc company – with all members subject to it. Should an individual character quit one company and join another, his rep with all factions will change accordingly. As such, all players must be a member of a merc company. Multiple companies may cooperate on the same mission, but individuals will not be supported. GMs will also control the number of merc companies active in-game, just as Serenity controls the number of ship crews active in-game. After a mission, NPC Camp should only have to take a minute to adjust rep for one or two companies, rather than half an hour adjusting rep for 20 individuals. Each mission will typically be helping one faction and harming another.
Reputation level will affect mission availability for a given faction. For the domanant faction in the given region, it will also affect equipment prices.
May allow merc companies to pay reparations to a faction to repair negative reputation.
As we don’t want to put vehicles in a situation where they may be physically damaged by airsoft pellets, they’ll need to stay a good distance from the fighting. However, we still want PCs (and NPCs) to be able to drive from one location to another, carrying their teammates and gear. Ambushing a vehicle is the greatest concern, here. May just handle ambushes OOG. Say the PCs are on their way to an objective, when NPCs ambush them. The PC driver may have the skill to simply bypass this obstacle. If not, An NPC can say “Two RPGs are fired at your vehicle. Can you negate them with vehicle defense cards?” If yes, the ambush is avoided. If not, the vehicle is disabled, damage to the occupants is resolved, then the PCs get out of and move away from the vehicle, set up barriers representing the vehicle, and a game on is called with the now-stranded PCs fighting the ambushers.
As for entrance and egress from a battle zone, we’ve talked about designating vehicle locations. When PCs reach such locations, they can go out-of-game as they enter the vehicle. Maybe leave them in-game and let them fire from behind barricades representing the vehicle. Once the driver declares the vehicle in motion, the PCs and vehicle are removed from the scene – provided NPCs can’t bring anti-vehicle weapontry immediately to bear.
Tanks and other similarly armed vehicles will be represented on battlefields by stationary barriers – effectively operating as heavy-weapon platforms. May be possible to work out limited mobility rules here with players moving the barriers representing the vehicle.
Vehicle on vehicle combat (such as tank clashes or chases), can occur with actual vehicles and damage calls over the radio.
All this and more must be detailed through rules and mechanics for vehicles. Have at it!
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 3:09 pm
by dier_cire
Reputation stuff - eh, I can see it though not convinced we need 'guilds' for mercs. It'll end up needing all kinds of ridiculous rules determining when and how often people can switch, rep loss from switching, etc. Let the players create their own groups but I wouldn't tie any rules to it. I think the rules on FH went overboard in this aspect and CARPS is minimal but cludgy. I'd make this aspect of the game very small overall. Basically, it'd be like a percentage multiplier on payouts. The more missions you (personally) do for X, the more they pay you per mission. However, you get less from Y and Z.
As far as vehicles, I really don't think we want people actually driving at all combat or otherwise. Travel I see being completely OOG. Think of it like travel in a old school computer RPG. You walk around and then if the game deems it, you enter combat. In this world, it would be you and your crew are traveling to some location. This mission has 3 possible travel encounters and 1 mandatory. The 3 possibles are handled by simple give me a number between 1 and X (based on percentage of likelihood). If an encounter is chosen, the players are told and asked if they have the counter. If so, move on, if not, you all get out to the field and the scene is described and you battle it out. This battle could consist of anything from your car got bombed and is a flaming ball to a roadblock. Once combat is over you'll handle any vehicle damage issues (perhaps the encounter resulted in gaining a vehicle temporarily, or you need a pickup, etc) and move forward. The mandatory one would just be go out and fight it out.
If we need to drive to the field to fight, then that's done just as an OOG group.
Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 10:17 am
by dier_cire
stuff Nelkie and I discussed last night:
Reputation:
Basically do a star pattern for major factions (say 5 to start, must go up in odd increments). Each faction has two opposing factions.
Base reputation is 100% in each.
Getting a bonus to one faction equals half minus to the two opposing (ie +10% equals -5% in two opposing)
Min reputation in a faction would be 50%
Max would be 300%
If an opposing group is at minimum then the +% is cut in half (ie no +10% and -5% total loss).
Based on a +10% bonus per mission and 5 factions, it would take 45 missions performed in the correct order and for the correct factions to get to 300%.
This means that a person's total will always be 100% x # of factions. So it's easy to track mistakes.
Some missions would have a min (or max) reputation to go on. Max reputation missions would be ones where the players are considered expendable. You don't send your favorites on those.
Players would track their own bonuses with plenty of time to update the sheet post mission.
Brains perk: +/-10% reputation when trying to get access to a mission.
Brains perk: +5% reputation when recieving payment for a mission (more on this below)
Minor factions (and major on occasion) would give out 'chits' or some such, which is basically either a +/-% rep when accessing or +% when getting paid. These are used before a mission is started and lost if the mission is failed.
Now what does reputation do?
Lets you access more/better missions for a particular faction.
Is a multiplier on how much you get paid upon completing a mission.
Two ways payment can work.
1) each mission has a pay ranges and everyone is paid individually with their personal reputation affecting their pay. Ie: base payment=$1000/per (1-5 people), $500/per (6-10), $300 (11-15), $200 (16+). If someone had 75% and it was only 4 people total, they'd get $750
2) when a mission is started, a leader is chosen. Their modifier is used on the payment and that payment is just a flat rate, disregarding number of people. If the leader dies during the mission, payment could be lost, perhaps.
- either way the reputation swing (+10%, -5%, -5%) would occur for all people on the mission.
Minor factions are lumped into one group, or could be split up for 'chit' purposes. Since they aren't on the star form, their missions may or may not have an effect on it (it'd be based on what the mission is.) They would always give chits for successful missions.
Chit bonuses would be very handy on getting someone who didn't have the necessary rep into a special mission. This would be done when you need a special skill set not in your current group going on the mission.
May want to cap number of chits useable, still undecided on this.
Misc:
Possible Intel skill that would give info about what bonus items, objectives, etc may exist on a mission. This would cost $$$, but could give more than it costs.
Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 7:03 am
by General Maximus
I know what the title of the game should be
F.N.R Merc's
Fesko Nelkie Reid Mercenary's
It works on so many levels!
Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 7:50 am
by dier_cire
That's as bad as NOUP...
Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 8:22 am
by General Maximus
Hey guys,
Do we want vechiles to be able to be blown up and are cheap to get, or have them cost a lot and can not be blown up?
Here is my thoughts on vechile damage. Vechiles take only blast damage.
Vechiles will have an armor rating of 0-5 You subtract the armor rating from the blast and all in the vechile take the remaing damage.
But I think vechiles can only take so many blasts before they are disabled and need to be repaired before they can move again. Maybe it can take armor rating +1 worth of blasts before it is damaged.
So a tank would take 6 gernades before it stops working. A normal car would be distroyed with 1 RPG.
A vechile would have 3 status. Working, Damaged (Can't move and systems are down), Blown Up (Need a new one). It will cost money and mechanic to repair a vechile in the field. Or just call in a tower to get it back to base camp and have a local mechanic repair it for a higher cost.
If you sneak up to a vechile and plant explosives, you will have to leave a tag telling the owner of the vechile it has been damaged. Not sure If I fan of this, so what other ideas do people have.
Idea for Driver Skill
Level 1 - Can drive any vechile
Level 2 - Hot wire - Can spend 10 minutes locating a standard vechile and get it working. Vechile last until you get back to home base. (aka, it stops working or you return it after use)
Level 3 - Evac. Can get out of a combat area asap and stop taking damage.
Level 4 - Avoid danager. Get X amount of resists when it comes to not taking damage, getting around obsticales, etc..
Note: All vechile scenes will be narrated. A driver will be able to by pass some obsticales with a high enough level. If a driver runs into a problem, the PC's will than have to run the scene.
More to come
Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 8:10 am
by General Maximus
Recap on what we have done to date
1. Political system
2. Leveling system
3. attributes system
4. Start on skill list
5. start on equipment list
What we need to be done
1. More perks
2. equipment list
3. flush out skill list
4. Start writing up plot senerio's