Event Idea: Actually Playing the "Offscreen" Battle

[Gandian Ravenscroft]

This I posted about this in the other thread, but decided it would probably be better off as its own post for discussing (so as not to potentially confuse the two subjects for each other).

I've often thought about something I would love to see for a one-day faire event: An all-NPC event used to simulate some otherwise "offscreen" battle or whatever that takes place far from where the PCs are, with the results of the event being related to how the campaign progresses onward. The way I envision it would be in the wake of the PCs arranging for various offscreen assistance to an NPC ally (arranging a shipment of weapons to a militia, sending healing supplies to the militia, convincing a local monstrous race to lend some assistance for a battle, etc.), then have the players all be NPCs at a Faire and actually play out the fight in question, so it's not pre-determined how the fight will end (and how it might end potentially varying drastically depending on the variables inputted by the PCs ahead of time). The players represent combat forces of notable size and have multiple spawns when they die, though the amount of spawns/healing/protectives are limited depending on the size/resources of the forces in question. There would be a "protagonist/PC-equivalent" side and an "antagonist/NPC" side, both directed by some Plot team member(s) on their side (and potentially not having very little information on what the other side is capable of, which I think would make it even cooler and more engaging).

I don't know about y'all, but I reckon it would be super cool for players and be a really organic way of determining how the resources contributed by the PCs' actions actually helped out their ally's battle rather than plot just arbitrarily deciding on a victory or a loss. Some details still need to be fully hammered out, and if anyone would like to offer their ideas on making it run smoothly, I'd love to hear it.

Thoughts?

 

[Avaran]

When JP was head of plot in Oregon, we did something pretty close to what you're describing, though we gave the players an option of playing their PC the whole day, or PC'ing for part of the day and NPC'ing an important character for another part, or NPC'ing all day. There may have been another option, but I don't recall it. Anyway, we had several missions/modules, each with two sides (Harks vs Landfall & Allies); each mission had a certain number of points awarded based on how well each side did, and in the end the outcome assisted the PC's and their allies move the campaign forward. JP could explain it better since it was his brain child. I think it worked fairly well.

It was a lot of fun from my end (I was an assistant plot then), I'm pretty sure it was a decent time for the PC's, but one of them would have to chime in.

 

[stonegolem]

We have done this very thing at faire days in NH. The winning side of the battle dictated future plot for the PCs at the traditional events. It's a really fun way to make plot happen, and the players really enjoyed it.

 

[KyleSchmelz]

I can say as one of your players, I'd have a lot of fun with this. Then again I really like NPCing. If it's something that PCs could reasonably engage in, I'd like to see the option for PCs to jump in as long as it's communicated well if the odds might be against them, the situation isn't necessarily fair, the loot may not be good, etc.

 

[jpariury]

We ran a "War Day", in which people could NPC for the Good Guys®, PC as their character starting out on the Good Guys® side, or NPC as normal. At any point, people who PC'd were allowed to swap out to NPC for the Good Guys®.

I did my best to warn people that it was intended to be a brutal day (twice, even). We did have some fairly new players get completely creamed in at least one encounter that put them off a bit. We had high level characters lose valued treasure, though they escaped with their lives, and a number of people rezzed.

It wasn't a particularly high roleplaying event, which some players commented on; that wasn't really the point. From a storytelling perspective, it accomplished what I wanted for moving the campaign forward. Personally, my hope is that the follow-up roleplay that occurred at the next event balanced out any hard feelings that may have been experienced from some of the worst results (fallen heroes were honored during a ceremony, etc.). I liked what it did for the overarching story, but I think I could have pressed the point a bit harder to set expectations. There's a few technical, logistical things that could have been worked out better (a less public park would have been good, for example... we had a brief conversation with the cops when they were called in), and I actually had plans for running another one, but it never came around.

 

[Gandian Ravenscroft]

Super cool! If the time ever arises in my chapter when this sort of event might happen, I'd definitely love to chat with you for tips about how y'all pulled it off and what you would suggest doing differently from what you did (if anything).

 

[Muir]

It sounds interesting, but not really like something I'd probably go to myself, given the travel times. A bit over 10 hours driving, round trip, is hard to justify to not PC.

That said, my biggest concern would be tying it strongly into your world, because otherwise it starts to seem like Any Other Battle Game (Dagohir/Amptgard/Belegarth) random fights, with a combat system that's really not built for them.

 

[Mike Ventrella]

We did this way back in the days of NERO.

We divided the players up into two teams. Each team had a designated general. The general had a box of cards for stats, with an infinite amount of basic grunt fighters, a smaller amount of spellcasters, and an even smaller amount of rogues. There were also a few "elites" (corporals, sergeants, etc.) but very very few. There were a few magic items the General could assign to his players. The General could decide who to assign each part and when to send them out.

Each team was given a home base. When your character died, you lost your magic item (no, the opposing team didn't get it) and you went back to your home base. The marshal at home base would, every half an hour, allow those who were "dead" to come back out as a new character. The times were staggered. (Team A sent its people out at 10:15, Team B at 10:30).

We also gave each team papers and pens to allow their spies to make maps of the land and otherwise send messages to the front.

Scattered through the woods were tents. Inside each tent was a marshal with a stopwatch.

The goal was to (a) find the tents, which represented strongholds and (b) hold them as long as possible. At the end of the day, we added up all the times for each tent and the team that held the most tents for the longest period was the winner.

I suppose you could do this and not tell each team who they represent so that they don't try to throw it in one direction or the other. Alternatively, you could do the opposite and let players know that one team is the Bad Guy team allowed to use necromancy or whatever...

 

[Dan Nickname Beshers]

As Evan said, New Hampshire has done this. We played out several different scenarios related to ongoing plot lines; a food riot (with waves of peasants against a few guards and a baron), an assassination attempt (one life for the princess and her guards and the enemy assassins), an invasion of orcs by vampires (both sides got multiple lives for all characters) and a race to cast rituals which was loosely like capture the flag (many minions, limited bosses). Everything was tied into current story and the outcomes were canon; the food riots were a bloodbath, the vampires were held off at terrible cost, the Biata city successfully cast out their extraplanar enemies. Most impactful of all, the crown princess and her retinue of guards all died at the hands of radicals from a tenuous ally nation, the princess permanently so, which dramatically affected the governmental landscape of our game. At no point did I ever hold a concern that anyone assigned to a "bad" team was trying to throw an outcome.

I would say that it's not something we will do frequently. If you're a person who plays primarily for role play, it's not going to be your bag, and we definitely had lower attendance than a full event. In the future we will probably pair the battle day with a traditional faire day in order to give people a chance to play their actual characters and make a full weekend out of it, since one day of playing can be harder to justify travel-wise. That said, I would also call it a successful enterprise; an excellent learning experience and something we WILL continue to do going forward. Alexander, (or anyone), if you're interested in logistical details and other staff-related things, I'd be happy to field PMs on the subject.