Campaign system idea for discussion.

[Fullhouse]

Ok so campaign systems have been discussed before and the same various problems seem to always arise. The chief of these seem to be:

1: Maintaining the interest of players, several of whom might not be playing at any one time.

2: Administration

3: Majority of Battles being largely uncontested as one force retreats in the face of superior numbers.

Now I think I have a campaign idea that totaly solves two of those problems and for a large part should automate most of the administration.

I dont know how many of you have played with or used Robbos quick campaign generator? (Avialable from CMODS search for ROQC in CMBB) If you have you might be able to see where I am going all ready, but for those that havnt I will briefly describe it.

ROQC is a single player campaign system that allows you to take command of a company/armoured platoon or bigger and fight with them from June 41 all the way to the end of the war in 45.

Battles are determined by a number of Dice rolls that have modifiers that effect weather, battle type opfor composition, experience ammo and fitness and the like relative to what period it is during the war and how you performed in your last battle. Players earn prestige that they can use to request support units like armour and artillery for use in Battle or even to swerve battles completely if they look a bit hazardous.

The dice rolls have been totally automated in an Excel spreadsheet where you can track your battles and the history of your core force. The scope and variation of the battles generated are very varied and you can find yourself in many tactical situations you will never encounter in standard H2H play.

Now I had some fun with ROQC but found it had one major shortcoming. I had to play against the AI. Situations arose where I was on paper quite up against it (Heavy counter attacks from armoured/mechanized forces etc,) but no problem, the ineptitude of the AI saved my ass time and time again and gave me lots of prestige with which to request perks from HQ.

So really I am suggesting that a way be found to remove this one glaring weakness, ROQC needs to go MULTIPLAYER.

This would remove many of the problems mentioned above. Players involved would always have a game. All situations require that the player stand and fight for at least as long as he realizes the situation is totally pointless, immediate retreats mean prestige hits in a big way and if he has to retreat it is normally in a break out kinda way if you catch my drift.

Also if the spreadsheets could be adapted by an excel jedi (not me I am afraid) then much of the administration would be automated for the GM.

I envisage a tourney come campaign system with strong RPG elements and massive AAR potential.

You have two teams who compete to score the most prestige over the course of the war or specific campaigns in the war. Players would play both there own core forces and the random forces rolled up to play against the opposing teams. They would thus seek to succeed with there forces and frustrate the opposing team in there rolled up battles. Perhaps if certain conditions are met core forces would collide on the battlefield for a showdown perhaps without the players even knowing it.

This would provide players with massively varied playing experiences where perhaps the get given conscripts with no ammo etc but must seek to hurt the enemy as much as possible (instead of just running away) to make sure that prestige gained is at a minimum, and if they can cause casualties to the core force all the better.

Battles in ROQC are allways rolled up Random force + Core force v Random force. With the random forces being determined by the die rolls for division type etc etc.

Anyway lots of waffle, not much further I can go if no one is that interested in this idea, it would be cool if any one interested in developing this idea downloaded ROQC so they had some idea what I was talking about and gave some input.

I think there is way to arrive at a good solid mulitplayer campaign system, but that can be achieved by abadoning the idea of an uber realistic strategic layer and replacing it with a fun strategic layer simulator that is less complex but still generates a multitude of very varied tactical situations and gives the player a reason to play those situations out.