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Scenarios > Aurora
Multiplayer Scenario Ideas
RedKing:
One thing that I find speeds up multiplayer is to have players create "standard rules of engagement" for how their ships are to respond tactically. That way, I don't have to go back every time there's a radar contact and get each side's micromanagement of the battle. I can just play out the battle, following the rules each side has set.
If you want an added twist, you can have rules for some of the personality traits as chances that they ignore parts of the standing orders. Aggressive or Risk-Taker might give an increased chance of attacking even if SOP tells them not to, Methodical or Inflexible and Dogmatic might mean 0% chance to deviate from SOP, even if common sense would dictate otherwise, and Dynamic or Insightful might give the GM more discretion to make tactical choices based on the situation rather than standing orders. Suddenly, you have more to consider than just numerical stats when assigning captains.
Plus it adds to the feeling that the player is a fleet admiral rather an omnipresent ship captain. That layer of abstraction, the "indirect god game" is very much in vogue nowadays.
A favorite scenario of mine (even in single-player mode) is to have a fairly bog-standard Terran Federation on Earth, and (with Real Stars) an alien race some distance from Earth (I usually play ~15-20LY) with a single goal: Conquer Earth. Problem is, they have to find it first. With a fair bit of astronomical knowledge, you can get a general idea of whether a series of jumplanes is heading in the right direction or not. But because of the way Aurora creates jumplanes, it's not a guarantee. You might find Alpha Centauri but then Earth could be 1-4 jumps away depending on how it plays out.
Tends to lead to the Terrans building up defenses and early warning stations, while the Aliens are building and deploying scouts like crazy. If the Terrans can find and destroy the scouts before they find Earth, they have the advantage. If the Aliens find Earth, they can switch into War Fleet mode and build up a conquering armada. Which leaves the Terrans with all sorts of strategic decisions to make. Do they turn Sol into a fortress? Do they build a counter-armada? Do they try to reinforce strategic chokepoints on the jumplanes and whittle down the armada? Do they try a daring preemptive strike before the armada can be built (if they've found out where the alien homeworld is)?
And if it settles into a long slog, both sides will need to create a logistics network to find and exploit additional resources. One side could conceivably win by attacking supply lines and colonies to deny the other the raw materials for their war effort.
Xelanthol:
--- Quote from: RedKing on November 25, 2013, 11:35:04 AM ---One thing that I find speeds up multiplayer is to have players create "standard rules of engagement" for how their ships are to respond tactically. That way, I don't have to go back every time there's a radar contact and get each side's micromanagement of the battle. I can just play out the battle, following the rules each side has set.
If you want an added twist, you can have rules for some of the personality traits as chances that they ignore parts of the standing orders. Aggressive or Risk-Taker might give an increased chance of attacking even if SOP tells them not to, Methodical or Inflexible and Dogmatic might mean 0% chance to deviate from SOP, even if common sense would dictate otherwise, and Dynamic or Insightful might give the GM more discretion to make tactical choices based on the situation rather than standing orders. Suddenly, you have more to consider than just numerical stats when assigning captains.
Plus it adds to the feeling that the player is a fleet admiral rather an omnipresent ship captain. That layer of abstraction, the "indirect god game" is very much in vogue nowadays.
A favorite scenario of mine (even in single-player mode) is to have a fairly bog-standard Terran Federation on Earth, and (with Real Stars) an alien race some distance from Earth (I usually play ~15-20LY) with a single goal: Conquer Earth. Problem is, they have to find it first. With a fair bit of astronomical knowledge, you can get a general idea of whether a series of jumplanes is heading in the right direction or not. But because of the way Aurora creates jumplanes, it's not a guarantee. You might find Alpha Centauri but then Earth could be 1-4 jumps away depending on how it plays out.
Tends to lead to the Terrans building up defenses and early warning stations, while the Aliens are building and deploying scouts like crazy. If the Terrans can find and destroy the scouts before they find Earth, they have the advantage. If the Aliens find Earth, they can switch into War Fleet mode and build up a conquering armada. Which leaves the Terrans with all sorts of strategic decisions to make. Do they turn Sol into a fortress? Do they build a counter-armada? Do they try to reinforce strategic chokepoints on the jumplanes and whittle down the armada? Do they try a daring preemptive strike before the armada can be built (if they've found out where the alien homeworld is)?
And if it settles into a long slog, both sides will need to create a logistics network to find and exploit additional resources. One side could conceivably win by attacking supply lines and colonies to deny the other the raw materials for their war effort.
--- End quote ---
I actually really like this idea.Sometime in December I'm starting up a game GM'ing for my friends-I will control nearly everything but I do need a system in place that handles how they want their commanders/economy to react so I don't need to keep going back to them.
Thanks for the ideas!
TheDeadlyShoe:
The Let's Play (/Bgreman) style seems the most practical to me, the GM plays the enemy while the players fractiously quarrel and collectively constitute the 'player faction'.
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