Ideas:
Roll leadership test to activate. Fail, don't activate.
Roll a 1 - enemy player may take action with your unit (not shoot
your own guys, but pretty much anything else - someone thinks they've
got an order to do something, and they're really lost)
Low mission motivation
Low quality in some cases
Low leadership in others
Technology being poorly maintained, whenever a piece of tech kit is called on
(GMS launcher, PIG, laser rifle, vehicle), roll Dx (x determined by how bad
the force is). On a roll of 2, the item is malfunctional that round. On a 1,
it is breaks down but good (depot repair required). This can be annoying if
you need that particular item badly.
Position X percent of your forces, let the other player position the remainder
for game start.
There's some ideas..... (that don't involve the Ref necessarily whacking into
the fray himself by changing orders, which is quite cool too)
(another neat effect for you RPG geeks is give all orders out written in
really crappy handwriting and making vague references to map grids (which
might or might not be on the map) and to towns (things like
"the town" - which one?) or giving all orders via a voice distorter
or static inducer.... "Say again Piper Two One. I read back: Mix the
<unprintable> and moo to elsie?" (Original: Fix the Truck and Move to
LZ))
Assign a political commissar to the unit. The unit leader and the commissar
both roll 1d6; if they agree on a number the unit activates with high morale.
If the commissar rolls higher the unit moves in accordance to a strict mission
plan (something realistic like "never retreat") with low morale. If the unit
leader is higher the unit leader is at once a casualty and a new leader is
designated by the commissar.
on 02.9.12 11:51 AM, kaladorn@magma.ca at kaladorn@magma.ca scribbleth:
> Roll leadership test to activate. Fail, don't activate.
One of the times I changed one side's orders part way through a game, the two
players of that side got ticked off and accused me of not knowing what the
heck I was doing as GM of that scenario!
I do have a great computer font, called Top Secret (I think) that looks like
something a really crappy printer would put out. I've used that a couple of
times to deliver briefing material to one side or another. It's
legible, but not terribly clear! (This was freeware from some website -
no idea where, though.)
Some people seem to be entirely too used to having entirely clear-cut
objectives & intel, and think you're jerking them around or being a lazy GM
when you refuse to spill every detail before the scenario starts...
It's this response that's restrained a couple of my more RPGish scenario
ideas, really.
TomB said:
> Roll leadership test to activate. Fail, don't activate.
(and so forth)
Good ideas. One other mechanism I thought of was to give one side two (or
more) leaders capable of reactivating; the CRUD side has a leader (in the
sense of penalties if he's killed) but gets no reactivations.
> Low mission motivation
After tracking down my rulebook and looking through it some more, I think "all
units start the game at SHAKEN" ought to do nicely.