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[Fniff]

And sometimes, you'll be wondering if the soldiers are real, or if they're also figments of your imagination...

Maybe have things start out being real most of the time, and then the imaginary things get more and more common as the character slowly goes insane...

And it all reaches a crescendo when a battle finally occurs near your lighthouse/you finally have a total psychotic break?

And sometimes, you'll be wondering if the soldiers are real, or if they're also figments of your imagination...

Maybe have things start out being real most of the time, and then the imaginary things get more and more common as the character slowly goes insane...

Yeah, this in a nutshell. I'm thinking of placing this in New Jersey, unless there's a location that's closer to the border and to the sea. Ideas?

New Jersey seems like a good spot.

[monk12]

It'd be interesting if the meetings weren't direct for the most part. He's a lighthouse keeper, so mostly he just hangs out and watches Union/Confederate ships navigate around the rocks and do their thing. At night, however, the silhouettes and deck lights of the ships take on increasingly sinister casts, perhaps influenced by whatever the lighthousekeeper is thinking about each side during the conflict. For example, maybe at the beginning he's slightly pro-Union and sees Confederate smuggling ships trying to run the blockade as evil shades of the night, but then the Union bombards a nearby town, making him afraid of fire and seeing the Union frigates passing by as malevolent leviathans. Get shades of Lovecraft in there, where the horrors are less monsters trying to eat him specifically and are more terrible forces beyond his control that could crush him in an instant if he were not so insignificant. Of course, as the madness takes hold he starts doing things to try and avoid their attention... like messing with the lighthouse, which results in shipwrecks, which results in broken ships and broken men washing up on his island, which does not help with the whole madness situation and adds that personal "I killed these men and now they want revenge from beyond the grave!" element to it.

Dunno how much room there is for gameplay in there, but it'd make a heck of a short story anyway.

And sometimes, you'll be wondering if the soldiers are real, or if they're also figments of your imagination...

Maybe have things start out being real most of the time, and then the imaginary things get more and more common as the character slowly goes insane...

Yeah, this in a nutshell. I'm thinking of placing this in New Jersey, unless there's a location that's closer to the border and to the sea. Ideas?

I went on vacation to the Outer Banks in North Carolina recently, one of the attractions being all the lighthouses that date back to the Civil War. I'd set it more towards the South than the North if it were me, just because that's where the action in the Anaconda Plan was (well, that and the Mississippi, but I don't know how many lighthouses are on the river.) New Jersey was a Union state, and I don't think there was any Confederate activity there.

[Salsacookies]

Yeah, that sounds great, liking how it sounds so far. I was definitely trying for that sort of horror you described, so I imagine this game will go great with you all on board. Alright, going to go ahead and get this running. Settings also not really important, just trying to set up a good place to have decent exposure between the two sides.

[Salsacookies]

Would anyone be interested in playing a Suggestion Game where you take turns playing the members of a garage band consisting of supernatural creatures?

The emphasis of the suggestion game, based off the Monsterhearts system, would not to have it result in victory but in interesting stories. The players would be encouraged to play the characters like stolen cars: you can't keep them, so drive fast and have an interesting car crash when you play them out.

Dibs for Jotun bassist

[escaped lurker]

About that lighthouse story, I do like what has been said about it so far.
Just gonna add some of my own ideas - creative brainstorming seldom hurts, afaic.

For Isolation to "work", maybe the lighthouse is his "exile"? If so, it would most likely be a social one, as they certainly wouldn't trust the task to someone criminal. Or rather, maybe it was one he choose himself? Well, either way, it might be good if there is a valid reason why he doesn't leave the lighthouse, even as the events unfold.

That lighthouse, could even be one of those, that are "in" the sea, on some rock portruding there. That could severly limit the accessability, not only due to the number of row-boats that would even make the trip, but also access might only be safe at low tide / lowest low tide.

Obviously, then there would also be need of a caretaker, which brings him the occasional neccesseties. Likely some old fishermen or somesuch. While one might think that could ease up the isolation, he could also be a devils advocate - I feel Lovecraft had many of those, no? - which claims to have seen similiar things, or at least isn't fazed by the stories of the keeper.

About misleading "enemy" ships, that could very well be an order? Obstructing navigation, especially depending on the state of the war, could be a viable tactic. Possibly make it so that confederates have not many ships left, and won't spend those on offense, thus the order.
Well, if such an order ever existed, that is ;3

[Salsacookies]

So something like Quaker solitary confinement. The idea behind it was to make it so the person would only have God to focus on and become a better person afterwards. It usually resulted in insanity instead. That sounds really interesting, just need to think of what he did to have him be exiled to reaffirm his faith in God.

[Salsacookies]

Here's the game

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=152488.0

[escaped lurker]

Well then - there is currently something in the works, where I would consider "Strategical Combat".
As I have little experience with "larger troop combat", I would like some advice from those that did similiar things in the past. Or any input on how to better my current train of thought.

20 Spearmen VS 20 Swordmen
20HP, 1 Armour, 7 DMG // 25 HP, 2 Armour, 5 DMG
Spearmen have initiative
1 Side of dice for each individual = D20
D20 = 14 / 14x (7-2[Swordmen Armour]) = 70 DMG
Result = 18 Swordmen left, 430 HP left

That would be what I came up with for now. I'd most likely throw in some saving roll for the dead to become wounded "after" battle, but thats another story.

With a homogenous army, it sounds nice enough, that I'd take it. But who has uniform armies with only 1 unit? So we come to this;

20 Spearmen VS 10 Swordmen, 5 Axemen, 3 Bowmen, 2 Knights
20HP, 1 Armour, 7 DMG // 25 HP, 2 Armour, 5 DMG // 15 HP, 1 Armour, 9 DMG // 10 HP, 15 DMG // 30 HP, 4 Armour, 12 DMG
Spearman have initiative, again 1 Side of dice for each individual / D20
D20 = 18, Attack is now split, starting against the most numerous units
D18 VS Swordmen = 10 // 10x (7-2) = 50 // = 2 Swordmen dead
D8 VS Axemen = 4 // 4x (7-1) = 24 // 1 Axeman dead, 1 wounded to 11 HP
D4 VS Bowmen = 4 // 4x (71-) = 24 // 2 Bowmen dead, 1 wounded to 6 HP
"D0" VS Knights / no "dice" left towards the "smallest unit"

Now, that still looks like a good system, but it is becoming increasingly cumbersome. Throw in some additional rules like "ranks", leading to only ranged units being able to attack those "further inward", or some units having even more complicated rules (think of knight charges, spear phalanxes), different terrain, and it becomes a daunting roll and book-keeping fest.

Getting back to the matter, I would welcome any suggestions on how to make that system "better", or links to / descriptions of more promising systems that already have been explored.

[GiglameshDespair]

Perhaps homogenise the armies into cavalry, ranged, infantry.
On a larger scale, the precise ratio of swords to spears in your infantry becomes unimportant.

This may sound a little cumbersome at first, but bare with me.

Instead of having spearmen, swordsmen, axemen, glaivesmen, etc, have light, medium and heavy infantry. The ratio determines the main stats of the infantry block. Each type will have a different damage/armour ratio, which is either averaged or added together. HP increased with number of men per unit. Terrain gives the units advantages.

Infantry can attack infantry and ranged if the enemy infantry are gone.
Cavalry can attack infantry and ranged if the enemy cavalry are gone
Ranged can attack any.

This roughly represents the unit's roles in combat; the infantry, as the main block of forces, protects the ranged from the enemy infantry. The cavalry, as the most manoeuvrable unit, can either interfere with the enemy cavalry or act as shock forces against the enemy infantry. The ranged are, obviously, support, and highly vulnerable to direct combat.

I would recommend rolling turns simultaneously for both sides. After all, they're trying to kill each other at the same time. This allows defensive actions as something that work rather than a disadvantage.

[escaped lurker]

The more I think about it, the more I like it.

Most importantly, only having "a few" units, would shift the focus of the workload away from rolling their respective indivudal damage, and allow one to give thought to more important matters. Things like morale, tactics, formation and terrain.

Seems like the best way to go about bigger battles. Have my thanks, giglamesh ;3

Spoiler: My thoughts in more detail (click to show/hide)

Different kind of formations, would give different "buffs", possibly two-edged ones. (A closed formation would do good in melee, but would make the troops very suspectible to enemy fire, as the most obvious example)

About simultaneous rolls, sure enough - there might be a fraction of combat wounds that are immediately fatal, but trying to include those in the calculations, would be overcomplicating things.

For damage "spread", I guess one would set a percentage of mortality, with the rest of the damage only being wounds. As combat drags on, this mortality rate would increase due to pre-existing wounds. Actually, having only a single "unit", would also give easy access to moral & exhaustion based combat de/buffs.


Even in a homogenous unit, it's "makeup" can still become an important matter. If 20% are spearmen, and the formation is charged by cavalry, well d'oh, just give the unit +20% damage. Or, if in formation, an additional -40% chance of the cavalry being able to break through them.
Ranged formation consists of 30% longbows? Well, those 30% get to attack the charging enemy troops 2-3 turns earlier than the 40% shortbows.

In the end, it boils down to having a cohesive "rock, paper scissors" system in place for the different tactical maneuvres and "troop types" on offer.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

For space themed games do people care about slightly unrealistic weapons being used or is it something that people don't like?

[Funk]

As long as weapons are internally consistent and make a little sense im fine with them.
Does one care that a lightsabre  would burn lukes hand every time he used it? or how it's powered?
No as long as the idea makes sense im fine with unrealistic weapons.

[Empiricist]

For space themed games do people care about slightly unrealistic weapons being used or is it something that people don't like?

I wouldn't think so, unless it's also meant to be a hard sci-fi. And even then, some liberties are permitted so long as, (as stated by Funk), there is internal consistency.

[Fniff]

I was wondering if any of you could help me with a problem.

I posted an experimental suggestion game, and unfortunately it's gone unnoticed. I'm shamelessly advertising here for it to pick up a little more traffic and see if anyone is interested.

If you could have a look at it, I'd greatly appreciate it. Here it is.

[kilakan]

I'm confused, read the intro twice.  How did you want a response laid out?

In song or rhyme?  As a caller this time? What sort of line?