PBEM RPG Tips part 2 From: kamerym@CAM.ORG (Louis Fillion) Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 00:00:00 +0000 Hello. This is a continuation from part 1... Here is an answer to a question that was posted on alt.fan.furry about a year ago. Tacked at the end is a sample of battle taken from a final report (each player has his/her customized report). A word of explanation: Albedo is a RPG game in which the characters are anthropomorphic animals (bipedal, four-fingered hands, and intelligent). 200 years ago, the inhabitants of the homeworld woke up with no remembrance of yesterday, on a planet where the flora and fauna had no genetical resemblance to them. They had equipment, and expertise, however. Seeking their origins, they have reached the stars, and colonized. In the expansion, power groups emerged, the ILR (rabbits) clashing with its neighbors in order to expand. The ConFed was formed to oppose them, which led to the discovery of war with some serious bungles. Wiser, and outnumbered, the Republic learned new skills: like covert operations, deception, and going through proxies... which led to a cold war, and eventually a cataclismic war which wiped out whole planets. Now twenty years after the war, the players attempt to stay the fall of civilization as supply lines are broken and industrial production grinds to a halt. ------->Old message from a year ago... Meant to post this much earlier, but had posting problems. A few tips, mostly. Someone mentioned the Gurps Albedo rules: you can find them in Refractions #2. The author also lurks here, but it's his decision to reveal himself :) rwillis@mercury.interpath.net (Richard P. Willis) wrote > I am trying to run a campaign, but I am having trouble with the combat > system. I would LOVE to see an example or house rules concerning > what the different melee skills are worth (ie: wrestling vs boxing) and > how to resolve wounds and the like. Info on handling ties would be > great too. :) I have been running an Albedo email campaing for about 15 months now. The one thing I learned early on is that battles can be extremely hard to run, more so if you have a large group and that all are somehow involved. In such a case, best option consists on splitting the players in small groups if you can manage it. That way, you don't have to wait for the responses of all the others to X's move. It does make for a large number of groups to run, but that is the lesser of two evils. Best is to keep battles from occuring too often. Besides, role-play suffers significantly unless you have excellent players. But to answer your question: I think that rolling dices is not a very good idea. Go by eye, and roll dices now and again to keep some randomness in. Don't be too random, though: a good player doing good job should be rewarded. Likewise, a negligent player should pay the price if negligence occurs too often. Factor in character skill in the action. The enemy is not dumb, and theirs are not Hollywood rifles and grenades. Email games are excellent for Fog of War. In my opinion, Email games should be kept blind with a few NPCs. No one knows who is a player and who is not. More work for GM, though. More enjoyment all around. Errors from GM frequent, so put in deliberate errors so that players don't know when that little slip really is one. Don't do anything that would cause confusion. Descriptions: if you have the time, add flavor. Ears twitch forward, tails wag. Smells. Etc... Encourage dialogs between players. Very slow. Most conversations can be held with unrelated topics runned in parallel. Usually in a sizable groups, you will have people lagging behind because they are slower or doing something that requires many mail exchanges: don't wait for them unless their actions will impact on the others and they need the information before proceeding. To reduce your work, try to output general partials that can be mailed to everyone. Modularity helps: it may sound unlikely, but it can be done easily with practice. Some players generate action: give them priority if they can keep up with the mail: it will greatly cut out your work as the player does most of it by creating situations that will drag others into more role-play. Some players are too slow: try to involve them more. If it does not work, talk it out. If no solution can be found, throw less action to the player that requires fast answers, more so if in multi-player situations: slow players will lag and the game may lose momentum. You don't want that. Some of the best stuff comes from player to player discussions. Don't forget body language and encourage players to include it in their responses so that your work is cut out. Impose your own answering format to players who don't answer in ways that require a lot of formatting. Copy/pasting is great! Ties/Antipathies... Email is the best system I know to handle this with a little skill. You can color the views of a character just by adding that meaningful glance, or that (perceived) disdaining sneer. Be subtle. It really works, and good players will often play by what their character perceives. If you know that a given player is very good, there is no reason why he should not be given more responsibilities. Officer springs to mind. You have to be careful, and the player must agree that you may step in at any time or offer strong suggestions. Leaders are pivotal and you need to retain some control. Good players: they are worth a lot. Find them. Keep them. Suggestion: the postwar era is a great time. Just about anything can happen. Crew on board of a spaceship get to see a lot. If you want to stay them at one point, it's easy to find reasons to do it so that they can do the scenario you planned. My favorite is an infantry detachment aboard a medium to large ship. Very versatile. You can move them around in Known space, and you can send them down in just about any situation you design. A good starting background is a must. If a player finds new skills to add to his repertoire, and it would be in character, let him add it if it does not conflict with previously written matter. Keep in mind that adding a skill will often generate more action, add depth and flavor to the character. It's hard to think of everything from the first, and this is usually limited to fringe skills, like, say, fire-camp songs. Unlike a live game, email games allow you to *think* ahead. Use that. I have given hints of situations to come RL months in advance. When things fall together, it seems well planned, even though you have only a shady idea of what will occur beyond the main events. Uncertainty: if there's a bad guy, but it looks like the blame could be carried on someone else's shoulders, don't decide who is the bad one until you actually have too. If you don't know, neither can the players. Theirs to ask the right questions and find the appropriate answers. Likewise, if bad guys are trying some deception, like infiltrating your camp by looking like lost civvies, well, there is no reason why they should not actually be civvies if the players do something rash without the data that would have allowed them to fire, knowing their targets. Don't contradict yourself, though: if a player saw a weapon and, another, unsure does fire, well that one got lucky. Today. If you want, I have a few files I can send to those of you who are interested. Of more interest are probably the planetary files: 2 or 3 of them were never used, and I never polished them. One is quite usable as it was actually used. Hmm. My news service is sometimes shifty, and I don't get all the news the system should give me: if you want to contact me, a direct mail might be best. Louis Fillion kamerym@cam.org PS: Following is a part of a turn report to show what a role-played battle can look like. And yes, as this is a blind game, some work has gone into the following to preserve the ID of players :) Players might be reading this. <Snicker> -- You are at the main gate with Lara, Affansherpando and Cassandra when a convoy of three trucks can be heard, then seen approaching the gate on the road. They are late, as they were expected an hour ago. The lead truck is a big 8-wheeler with a ram plate, while the second also has one. You note that the second truck has no front windshield. Must be cold to drive without one in this weather. As for the third truck, it is hidden behind swirls of snow. Cassandra signals the trucks to slow down, and the lead truck begins to slow, but not quickly and it bears down on the truck blocking the way. Cassandra takes a few steps back unslinging her rifle, and Affansher- pando hunkers down behind the GPMG. The truck apparently won't be able to stop soon enough on the slippery pavement, and the driver swerves his vehicle left and right, trying to stop in time. The other trucks behind seem to have better brakes, or better drivers. Another thing you note is that each truck has a passenger beside the driver, but you are not sure that this is not the normal way for them to travel. "I think they are hostile!" Yells Cassandra, aiming her rifle, taking more steps back and getting cover by using the truck. Affan seems tense and is tracking the lead truck with his MG, while Lara had the same thought as you and looks at them with her binoculars. During that time, you have examined the trucks: Truck 1: Driver: Male Black Bear. Passenger: Male Deer. Both are bracing, looking tense. Truck 2: Driver: Male Lion. Passenger: Large canine, sex and breed unknown. The dog seems to be holding something with both hands on his knees. Both are swaddled in clothing, and you can't see much of their face as their face is masked by their scarf (to protect them from the wind, presumably). Truck 3: Unable to tell, but apparently two in the cab. As it becomes apparent that the first truck may not be able to stop on time, Car says on the radio "General alert! We have a potential situation here... Major, what should we do?" His voice is cool, but a little excited. You can then hear him yell something from the rooftop, but you can't unders- tand, and he has covered his mouthpiece. "Where?" Xeria's voice immediately answer his call. "Three trucks at the gate!" Affansherpando answers next to you. He starts to say more but stops as Zemlyk speaks. "Car, more info." Zemlyk's voice is calm, and he speaks clearly. The first truck can't stop now, it is certain. You ready your rifle, bracing against the sandbags and aiming at the second truck. The first truck is still swerving, and getting close. Seeing that he can't avoid the obstructing truck, the driver leaves the road. Except that instead of going on braking, he suddenly accelerates, and hits your position. You don't even have the time to fire as you jump clear. Affansher- pando seemed to have prepared for this, and he jumps back, saving the MG as he does so. Car comments as the situation unfolds "Three trucks. At least two with ramplates. Second truck has no windshield. Passenger of second truck has *something* in his hands, can't make out what. Can't tag truck three. Too much snow. First truck can't stop! DAMN! Lead truck hit Affan's position" At the same time, the other trucks accelerate, and the passenger of the second truck whips out a rifle and begins firing short bursts toward Lara and Cassandra. The driver is giving as small a target as he can. As you roll, you see Lara take cover as bullets whine over her head, but only after she managed to fire a few shots. You bring up your own rifle to fire as you come to a prone position. Flipping the switch to full auto, you rake the cabin with your fire. Behind you, you can hear the first truck tearing through the fence: if there are soldiers in it, you are in it deep... "Weapons free! Keep your heads. Coming." Zemlyk's voice. "Kio! *HOSTILES!*" Car yells on the radio, at the same time the passenger from the second truck whips out his rifle. "Fire! Fire! Fire!" As your clip drops, empty, Lara jumps over the sandbags, and turns to fire a few more shots, but she is hit by fire from the first truck. Looking as you reload, you see that there are people in the back of it, and they are firing at you for all they are worth. Sub-machineguns, pistols. They are not well armed. Lara looks a little dazed, but none of the bullets made it through the vixen's armor. Out of sight, but close, you hear the ugly staccato of Affansherpando's MG. Cassandra is also returning fire. As you go up to one knee to fire again, the second truck hits Lara's fortification, though not head on, sending sandbags flying in all direction. Part of the sandbag wall collapses on Lara, half burrying her. A hail of bullets hail you as you show signs of life, one glancing off, and another hitting you squarely on the shoulder, sending you back to the ground, pain shooting through your arm. Gritting your teeth against the pain, you roll under the truck and manage to get out of harm's way. Your arm is half-useless, even though the bullet did not penetrate. Screams from Cassandra make you look in her general direction, you see her collapse as she is taken in the crossfire. There are LMGs in the back of the second truck. Cassandra screams for a few seconds before becoming inaudible. While you try to get into a more advan- tageous position, you have to be cautious as the gunners spray the area with their fire. You also note that the second truck, went on its way at full speed, straight ahead toward one of the factory's wall. As for the first truck, it is nowhere to be seen. The third truck is moving toward the building where the meeting is being held. "ETA, 15 seconds" you hear over the radio, Xeria's voice. "Incoming aero! Two factory aeros, coming quickly! Tagging them as hostiles" Jilinal, over the radio. "Three trucks all inside compound. First out of sight, second headed toward factory, third toward meeting. Third truck has full unit inside, at least two LMG's. Cassandra looks down. I'm going to check on her." Lara calls over the radio, struggling with the bags pinning her down. The situ- ation less hot, you wiggle from under the truck. As you are taking your first steps toward the fallen Cassandra, you hear a *loud* crash. Looking that way, you see that the second truck has rammed the factory wall at full speed, collapsing part of the wall. You see a body fall over the tailgate, not moving, and someone dropping to the ground besides, trying to stand, stumbling and staggering. They are about a 150 meters away, and you see more movement from within the truck. You duck a little when you hear close machine-gun fire, but are relieved to find out that Affansherpando, who has reloaded with a fresh belt, is enacting some revenge of his won. Tracers lead to the second truck, and you see the figure that was stumbling crumple to the ground. The horse is playing his fire into the wreck of the truck, and several persons struggle and stumble out, only a few of them making it safely out of his field of fire. Either out of ammo or without target, the horse stops firing. Cassandra looks bad, but you have to take her out of sight first. Grabbing her by her harness, you pull her to safety. "Xeria, we got a runaway, making for the meeting hall! Can you take 'im? Truck Three has troopers in it. Inside the complex against the wall. Returning fire... Affan may be down... we need some backup, ASAP!" "Trying to..." from Xeria You give Cassandra a quick lookover. There are several impacts on her vest, but none seem to have punched through. The legs however, are another story. "Whoever you are up there, nail that truck heading for the compound... it's got explosives in it! Protect the delegates!" Car again. There are quite a few holes in her lower legs, and she is bleeding profusely, although the cold helps a little (-35 Celsius). By the way, the first truck is about 400 meters from the meeting building, going full tilt. Now that a relative silence holds over your sector, you can hear the sounds of reactors pushed beyond their limits... From that direction, you hear MG fire. Lara joins you. "Scheisse!" the medic mutters as she takes of her gloves in a hurry and quickly sets to work trying to save Cassandra. From Car's position, you hear single shots coming at short intervals, then some MG fire from somewhere in the compound. Car's rifle becomes silent. You also hear something in the distance that sounds like miniguns... You are helping Lara in her work. It is a quick and dirty job, but Lara seems to know her business. "Xanadu, they're firing on your Aero... I'm pinned down. We need some -serious- help here... Aeros have miniguns." Cars say, as Lara ties ano- ther bandage. "Cassandra is down, badly wounded. Need to evac her ASAP!" Lara says into her radio headset. She has barely said this that bullets impact the truck besides you. You are taking fire from the goons at the second truck, and Affansherpando's MG is still silent. You look for the horse, and you see him hidden behind one of the truck's large tires, slumped against it, MG laying at his feet. Lara swears, pulling the camel, with some difficulty, while you offer some return fire to the enemy. "Sterph, Innak and doctor pinned down. Aero seriously damaged. Lit- zekzel probably dead. Garou unknown. Elvan, Kane to meeting hall. Request assistance." Sterph over the radio. You can hear things exploding and impacts from numerous bullets as background noise. You hunker down behind a pile of collapsed sandbags and affix a rifle grenade to your rifle. Let them chew on that and see if they like it. Lara is speaking to Cassandra, who seems to have regained conscious- ness "Your legs are badly shot up, but the rest of you is fine. If we can get you to one of the medtanks, you'll be fine, but they're over by the meeting building over there. In any case, you're not walking anywhere just yet." She is obviously in pain, and Lara gives her a mild pain-killer. Grenade affixed, you risk a quick look: two bandits, are coming your way, spread out. You duck down, a few instants before covering fire comes your way. "Jilinal, incoming! Shoot for the pilot! I got the gunner..." Car's voice on the radio. You risk a quick glance toward his position, and you can see parts of him huddled behind a chimney, and there's some sporadic fire kee- ping him pinned down. The fire seems to come from Truck #3 which is stopped against a wall. Just then, over the radio, from Xeria "Truck in sight...firing... score one for the DAMN" there's a big flash of light as Xeria's voice suddenly goes off the air. That is followed seconds after by the sound from a gigantic explosion. Looking that way, you see debris projected in the air, and one of the factory buildings close to the explosion partially collapses. You don't think it comes from the meeting hall building, although it must have been close. "Wow! Xeria, talk to me!" Car's voice. There is no answer. "The AFV is dx'd. Doesn't look breached... Xeria. Djeban. You still with us? Kane, Elvan, you have bandits heading towards the meeting hall. 450 meters. About twenty. I don't suppose you can have a suitable welcoming committee for them?" Still no answer from Xeria or Djeban. "Damn. Grenades incoming...dropping...now...now...now" From close to truck#2, you hear the blast of a stun grenade, you quickly look over the sand- bags, and see some smoke around the truck, and the three who were coming your way are on the ground, one on his knees, the other seated, both with hands pressed on their ears. Seizing the opportunity, Lara jumps over the obstructing sandbags, yelling for you to cover her, running and dodging toward the MG. You oblige: the others at the truck don't seem to know where the grenades came from, and are a bit distraught. Grenade and rifle fire cause them to overlook Lara's figure. Completing her evasive maneuvers with a slide in the snow that brings her just beside the MG, Lara grabs the MG, then drops it. You can see that the second ammo belt is used up. She then rushes to Affan. After a quick inspection, grunting with the effort, she pulls him on her shoulders, staggering under the stallion's weight, running slowly to the sandbags. You grab the rifle Lara left behind as you burn through your last clip. You are burning ammo fast, but it keeps heads down, which is what really counts just now. "Cassandra hurt but conscious. Affan in bad shape, unconscious." Lara reports, letting the horse drop gently to the ground next to Cassandra, then takes cover. Not a moment too soon, as fire from the third truck forces you to take cover. The second truck's survivors join in the fun. Most of the goons from truck three are going toward the meeting hall. "At least they still live. How are *you* doing Lara?" Car's voice "Sorry guys, but the aero is completely out of it." Xanadu's voice: there is a lot of anger in it. "Roger that, Xanadu. Hopefully Ratan can work more of that voodoo and get you a better one..." Is that supposed to be a joke? At least, Xanadu refrains from answering. "Not bad. Infantry moving toward meeting hall. About 400 meters from it." Lara says, checking Affan in more detail. With your unexpert eye, you deduce that the bullets that made it through the tire and his armor were slowed enough not to do fatal damage, but one of seems to have perforated a lung. "Team...Watch out for...factory personel...got jumped by some here." Zemlyk's voice, he is panting heavily, and his voice is hoarse. "Got the two who were coming here" Says Cassandra. "Don't know if I hit the others." then, over the radio "Car, can you blow them with more gre- nades?" You did not notice it, but Cass, despite her wounds, shot too. "Negative. Got one smoke, and one stun. They are yours if you want." Is Car's answer. Lara breaks in, saying "Would not mind them." "Sure. Anything for the lovely ladies of the EDF." is his answer, and he tosses a stun grenade down. No one gets out from behind cover, and, after a few seconds, Car tosses a smoke grenade. Not long after that, from Jilinal "Scratch one aero." "Nice shooting... what's your ammo situation like? Can you do anything to get rid of some of the other bastards?" Car's voice. "Will see." from the tiger. Also, for a second time Sterph speaks up "We are ok. Lizekzel confir- med dead..." Now that you are more or less safe from the goons of truck #2, you start to sporadically exchange fire with the goons of truck 3, mindful of the ammo. Unfortunately, you can't really aim, and you are only annoying them. Cassandra, meanwhile, has been rummaging under the sandbags, and you look at her when she snickers wickedly, setting up your missile launcher. You nod at her and make sure that the machine-gunner's head is down as she aims, then fire the missile. Because of the smoke, you can't see the results, but if there was anyone there, they probably have a serious headache right now. This draws a lot of attention, and the three of you are forced to duck down as the two LMGs shift their fire your way. And what is worse is that you can hear the sounds of the second aero's reactors. Still, the fire from the LMGs do not last long: there is the sharp bark of a 12mm rifle, close together. This must be Jilinal with his sniper rifle. One of the LMGs is silent, and the other one is gunning for Jilinal. You risk a quick look: the aero is making for the snipers, making sure that they do not have an angle to shoot the pilot, and jinking a little to protect the gunner from an aimed shot. You and Lara work feverishly to find, then free the second missile. You quickly put it in the launcher. The launcher's self-test system indicates that there is a partial guidance system failure. The two of you decide to fire it anyway, but it misses. Still, it is not without some results as the pilot reacts violently to this. Too violently for a civilian aero, and the aircraft loses much altitude in a short time, ripping a chimney in a screech of tortured metal as it does so. It has barely managed to right itself when another streak of smoke and fire passes close to it. You think it was fired from the general area of the meeting building, and that this was a rocket, not a missile. Tired of this, the aero goes to hide behind a nearby building, popping up from cover at times to spray fire the rooftops where the snipers are to cover the retreat of their soldiers. The infantry retreats quickly, losing only two or three to the snipers and fire from the direction of the meeting building. You also note that there is some smoke coming from that direction. Soon after, the aero, with a screech of reactors departs for frien- dlier skies, with reason as two smoke streaks reach for it, then miss, one passing particularly close. No proximity fuse, so they must be RPGs. An irreal silence floats over the area, until Zemlyk finally declares the situation over "Ok people. I think they are gone. But stay sharp, they probably have a few of them left behind. Bring the woundeds in, but don't come too quickly, we have a few trigger happy guards over here..." "Someone had better get Xeria and Djeban out of the AFV... that thing could blow up at any time..." Says car. "Garou's wounded. Bringing him in." from Sterph. "We not gonna blow..." from Xeria, her voice is very slurred, and she stops speaking to retch. Crunch. Snap. Rattle. "The only surprise in this attack is that they haven't opened fire on us yet." - Draclod McDraco, Commando Extraordinaire, PC Special Weapons. Up