GM Exercise - Space Fleet Battle
With thanks to The Dolent Chronicle for the suggestion, which is pretty straightforward in the face of it:
Two space armadas face off in battle!
I told Dante, when he graciously provided this idea, that this is a very interesting situation to consider, mostly because it is, in fact, a number of completely different scenarios depending on which point-of-view you get to experience the battle from. So while some of these archetypal situations are more generic than others, this one is particularly broad in how many distinct situations it contains, given how different the experience of play will be depending on who the PCs are, where they fit into the battle, and what they can do.
It is also not unusual for people to want an entire bespoke system to cover this situation - which isn’t wrong, by any means! But it is worth it to ask yourself first what you want the players’ experience to be before you start trying to calculate the effects of gravitational rail-guns on photonic ablative shields or whatever strikes your fancy. Which is why, while normally I start with a list of generic questions, this time I have a few questions about this specific situation that I think are more important to consider first:
- Where do you envision the PCs taking part in this battle? Are they admirals and commanders, trying to see the big picture of how the battle is going? Are they part of the crew of a dreadnought that is moving to the front line? Are they in light assault crafts, engaging in dogfights amidst the heavy fire? Are they a secret boarding unit, trying to sneak into an enemy ship to complete a crucial objective? Are they civilians who somehow got caught in the middle of it all?
- Are all of the PCs working together from the same position? Or are they split across the battle, each experiencing it from a different perspective? Can they communicate? Which ones can move between different positions? Could any of them be forced to go from one position to another? Are all the PCs fighting for the same side?
As usual for these exercises, the questions don’t necessarily need to be answered in detail - it is more important to consider the breadth of possibilities available to your game. But once you’ve established a particular point-of-view from which the PCs will experience the battle, it is easier to truly consider if and how you’d want to run it, so now we turn to the usual questions:
- Would the stakes of this situation be at all meaningful for the game?
- Would it be worth it to include such a situation in the game?
- What would it take to introduce a situation of this kind to the game?
- What more would you need to know about the situation to adjudicate it?
- What mechanics, if any, would you employ to resolve the situation?
- What information would a player need in order to make good tactical decisions in this situation, and how can they get it?
- What aspects of this situation do you feel capable of improvising?
- How much time would you want to spend resolving this situation in this game?
- Which roles would it be fun for the player characters to assume in the situation?
- Would this situation be engaging to all players at the table, or would it leave some bored on the sidelines? Would it offend anyone at the table? Would it bring back past trauma?
Finally, round out the exercise with these questions:
- Can the PCs affect the outcome of the battle through their individual actions? By how much? What do they need to do to swing things in their favor? What do they need to do to ensure they survive even if the tide turns against them?
- What is at stake in this battle for the opposing forces? What is at stake in this battle for the PCs personally? What, if anything, does it take to make one side or the other cut their losses and retreat? What is pushing the PCs to take part in the battle? What happens when morale breaks - at an individual level, at a crew level, at a spaceship level, at a faction level?
- Are there any NPC the players care about caught in this battle? Is the survival or well-being of any of them at risk? How will you decide their fate?
- Can the PCs reach the people they want to harm or protect in the battlefield? When a PC meets another important character in the battle, how do you decide where they are, and how they’re faring?
- How will the outcome of this battle affect the setting, and the PCs’ lives, going forward? Is it important to track how many lives and resources each side lost? How do the actions of the PCs affect these outcomes?