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In lugnet.org.us.nelug, Shaun Sullivan wrote:
>
> The Masses (aka Civilian Cannon Fodder):
> To be controlled in conjunction with a fun little random-esque algorithm being
> developed. Both sides will have partial control of said civvies, much like
> sheep in a long-past medieval game.
This post is being crossposted to .gaming.brikwars, for the purposes of
discussing quasi-random civilian actions.
Our upcoming BubbleGum Crisis Themed TL6 battle takes place in an urban
environment, meaning there will be lots of room for dodging, hiding, creeping,
crawling, and so on and so forth. When the game starts, there will be a
(large?) number of civilians throughout the layout, going about their
civilian-esque lives. Walking, talking on the phone, sitting in the office,
buying groeries, etc.
One team of combatants are villians. They don't mind killing civilians. They
enjoy killing vigiliantes. And they don't care about killing police.
Another team of combatants are vigilantes. They don't mind killing villians,
but they are loathe to kill civilians and police.
A last combatant is the police. They are comfortable and psyched to kill
vigiliantes and villians, but never civilians.
So, how to incorporate civilians into the game? Who controls them?
Her's the proposal:
At the start of each team's turn, they roll 1d6 and 1d4-1. The 1d6 roll
represents the number of civilians they can move. And they can basically do
anything with them:
Villians will probably have the civilians run haphazardly into the lines of
vigilante fire, creating human shields. Perhaps they'll have civilians jump off
skyscrapers in terror. They might even find a gun somewhere, and shoot at the
vigilantes (think Harry Osborne - a civilian who hates Spider-Man - see, it
works!)
Vigilantes may have the civilians get in between the police and them, knowing
the police won't shoot through civilians. Or they might have them flee out of
the way. Or pick up a gun and start shooting at the villians.
The police probably want the civilians running into safe, out-of-the-way areas.
Perhaps picking up guns and firing at vigilantes and villians, but primarily,
keeping them safe and sound.
NOW, here's the fun part. The second roll, the 1d4-1 roll, represents the
number of civilians you maintain *sole* control of for the rest of the turn.
That is, even when the next team rolls to move civilians, they cannot control
one that you've designated as "locked out". This minimizes the "spastic
jitter", wherein two teams alternate having the same civilian run into a
building and out of a building over and over. It allows a civilian to do
multi-turn tasks ... move into a store, grab a gun off the wall, and bring it
outside to shoot - as long as the team controlling the civvie designates him as
one that no-one else can control.
(An easy way to designate is to have a colored 1x1 plate stuck on the back of
the leg - a different color for each team)
Ones that aren't "locked out" can be taken over and controlled by the other
teams.
In general, here are some of the effects:
(1) There will be about 2x as many "good" civilians as there are evil
civilians. That is, the police and vigilante civilians will eb twice as
numerous as the villianous, miscreant civilians. This seems a good ratio.
(2) Some civilians could conceivably run incredible distances very quickly -
for example, a civilian who is controlled by one team to run, but not "locked
out". And then controlled by the next team, but not "locked out". And lastly,
controlled by the last team. Of course, they'd probably have different agendas,
so the total travel would probably not be in the same direction. But even so,
cumulative movement can be attributed to super-panic.
(3) When civilians start become fewer and farther between, as their ranks are
thinned out, nobody is guaranteed a monopoly on the remaining units. There is
always the possibility of rolling a "1" on the lockout roll, meaning that no
units can be locked out, essentially giving control back to the other team.
(4) Civilians who swap sides and activities are undergoing severe emotional
stress in the combat environment. They are FREAKING OUT. That's funny.
(5) If your lockout roll is higher than your quantity roll, then you can
"lockout" civilians without moving or controlling them. These ones are frozen
in terror, since the opponent cannot move them either.
If your quantity roll is higher than the number of civilians left who can be
moved (those being ones who are alive and unlocked), tough beans ... you can
only move up to the maximum available civilians. Consider yourself lucky to
have even that, you worthless sack of megabloks.
Of course, depending on the number of civilians, these die rolls can be
increased. 2d6 and 1d6-1, for example. 1d20 and 1d12-1. This patent proposal
is for the methodology of the "Quantity Roll" and the "Lockout Roll" - clearly
other variations on the theme are possible.
So ... what do people think? Suggestions? Comments? Loopholes? I think this
could be a really fun addition to a game, where the environment is suddenly more
of a contributor to the events. Plus, the small dice rolls proposed above (1d6,
1d4-1) will keep turn durations down.
-s
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Message has 2 Replies:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: BubbleBrick Crisis - TL6 Brikwars
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| (...) All right, here's what we have for teams so far: The Baddies (aka Evil Corporate Villains): Joe "BellySticker" Comeau Dan "BrainBiter" Boger Travis "StumpGiver" Kunce The Upstarts (aka Vigilante Justice): Jorge "GroinKicker" Fernandez Jenn (...) (21 years ago, 5-Sep-03, to lugnet.org.us.nelug)
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