Author Topic: War in table top RPG's?  (Read 33325 times)

sarendt

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War in table top RPG's?
« on: March 04, 2010, 04:02:08 PM »
So I was reading this article on io9 and got to thinking this would make an interesting subject for RPPR forums.

http://io9.com/5481380/your-military-science-fiction-isnt-really-military-science-fiction

Has anyone been in or run a game with a war going on?  Was it believeable?  What aspects of the game made the war feel more or less believeable?  Any other thoughts?

-Scott
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Order66

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Re: War in table top RPG's?
« Reply #1 on: March 04, 2010, 04:04:53 PM »
So I was reading this article on io9 and got to thinking this would make an interesting subject for RPPR forums.

http://io9.com/5481380/your-military-science-fiction-isnt-really-military-science-fiction

Has anyone been in or run a game with a war going on?  Was it believeable?  What aspects of the game made the war feel more or less believeable?  Any other thoughts?

-Scott

i have not done so but i have thought of it
but my pcs are probaly gona make the war themselves

Setherick

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Re: War in table top RPG's?
« Reply #2 on: March 04, 2010, 04:17:19 PM »
So I was reading this article on io9 and got to thinking this would make an interesting subject for RPPR forums.

http://io9.com/5481380/your-military-science-fiction-isnt-really-military-science-fiction

Has anyone been in or run a game with a war going on?  Was it believeable?  What aspects of the game made the war feel more or less believeable?  Any other thoughts?

-Scott

The new New World campaign that hasn't started will focus on war and revolution. A few years back, Ross ran an epic game that featured a war as its subtext. All the players were epic level commanders that had their own armies and were having to join forces to fight off an invasion.
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clockworkjoe

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Re: War in table top RPG's?
« Reply #3 on: March 04, 2010, 04:22:46 PM »
The reason military sci-fi is basically retreads of WW2 with sci-fi dressing is because military sci-fi fans have huge boners for WW2 and will never get sick of re-reading the battle of the bulge but with robots.

Order66

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Re: War in table top RPG's?
« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2010, 04:25:40 PM »
The reason military sci-fi is basically retreads of WW2 with sci-fi dressing is because military sci-fi fans have huge boners for WW2 and will never get sick of re-reading the battle of the bulge but with robots.

hmmm

Charlie72

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Re: War in table top RPG's?
« Reply #5 on: March 04, 2010, 04:28:13 PM »
The reason military sci-fi is basically retreads of WW2 with sci-fi dressing is because military sci-fi fans have huge boners for WW2 and will never get sick of re-reading the battle of the bulge but with robots.
Giant or Regular sized robots?

sarendt

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Re: War in table top RPG's?
« Reply #6 on: March 04, 2010, 04:34:06 PM »
Quote
The new New World campaign that hasn't started will focus on war and revolution. A few years back, Ross ran an epic game that featured a war as its subtext. All the players were epic level commanders that had their own armies and were having to join forces to fight off an invasion.

Could you give more details about it?  What system was it in?  Did it feature large tables full of mini's to represent the battles?  Did you have to mod the rules to make the battles work?  What type of events (roleplaying or just back story) led up to the war?  What type of narative or characters in game made it a believealbe war setting? 

-Scott
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Mckma

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Re: War in table top RPG's?
« Reply #7 on: March 04, 2010, 05:01:13 PM »
Haven't read the article yet, but the current game I am running in theory eventually devolves into a world war.  I think the biggest trick is going to be putting the players in some big battles without it getting really bogged down.  The rest of the time I am planning on mostly using it as a backdrop to make things interesting as they run around adventuring.

I've read the Heroes of Battle or whatever from DnD 3.5 and found that useful and helpful.

clockworkjoe

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Re: War in table top RPG's?
« Reply #8 on: March 04, 2010, 05:09:10 PM »
The reason military sci-fi is basically retreads of WW2 with sci-fi dressing is because military sci-fi fans have huge boners for WW2 and will never get sick of re-reading the battle of the bulge but with robots.

hmmm

it's true you know it

Order66

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Re: War in table top RPG's?
« Reply #9 on: March 04, 2010, 05:10:30 PM »
The reason military sci-fi is basically retreads of WW2 with sci-fi dressing is because military sci-fi fans have huge boners for WW2 and will never get sick of re-reading the battle of the bulge but with robots.

hmmm

it's true you know it


very intreasting hoe does that make you feel?

robotkarateman

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Re: War in table top RPG's?
« Reply #10 on: March 04, 2010, 05:25:01 PM »
The reason military sci-fi is basically retreads of WW2 with sci-fi dressing is because military sci-fi fans have huge boners for WW2 and will never get sick of re-reading the battle of the bulge but with robots.

That's a goddamned dirty lie.

All of my RPG battles have been retreads of the Battle of the Five Armies.
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Setherick

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Re: War in table top RPG's?
« Reply #11 on: March 04, 2010, 05:37:27 PM »
Quote
The new New World campaign that hasn't started will focus on war and revolution. A few years back, Ross ran an epic game that featured a war as its subtext. All the players were epic level commanders that had their own armies and were having to join forces to fight off an invasion.

Could you give more details about it?  What system was it in?  Did it feature large tables full of mini's to represent the battles?  Did you have to mod the rules to make the battles work?  What type of events (roleplaying or just back story) led up to the war?  What type of narative or characters in game made it a believealbe war setting? 

-Scott

In the epic campaign, we had one battle with a map full of minis. The other battles were done tactically without using a map and involved describing troop movements, fortifications, treaties, etc.
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Tadanori Oyama

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Re: War in table top RPG's?
« Reply #12 on: March 04, 2010, 05:50:05 PM »
The reason military sci-fi is basically retreads of WW2 with sci-fi dressing is because military sci-fi fans have huge boners for WW2 and will never get sick of re-reading the battle of the bulge but with robots.

Well I like World War 2 and now I have a boner so I guess I can't argue.

Anyway I've tried war several times in my games. My original D&D game, the first thing I ran, spent it's last quarter detailing a war between the PC's country and the evil nation nearby ruled by an evil dragon. That was pretty vague since it was a first time game and everyone was in high school.

Lately I've found myself flirting with war often. My Epic D&D game recently was entirely about war. My PCs where not interested in the specifics of the war, though I offered them the positions of generals and tacticaians in the setting. They only wanted to kill dudes of their own level so they got turned into a NAVY Seals style unit.

CthulhuTech is all about war, several different ones occuring at the same time infact. Tried to push that but about half my players didn't want to deal with what they considered a depressing setting (it's based on the Cthulhu Mythos so humanity is losing the war). So we played a Tager game that was more akin to supernatural superheroes.

So, yes, I want to do war but my players won't let me.

*sigh*

clockworkjoe

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Re: War in table top RPG's?
« Reply #13 on: March 04, 2010, 07:20:12 PM »
The reason military sci-fi is basically retreads of WW2 with sci-fi dressing is because military sci-fi fans have huge boners for WW2 and will never get sick of re-reading the battle of the bulge but with robots.

That's a goddamned dirty lie.

All of my RPG battles have been retreads of the Battle of the Five Armies.

trap sprung

LOTR is WW2

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: War in table top RPG's?
« Reply #14 on: March 04, 2010, 07:24:56 PM »
The reason military sci-fi is basically retreads of WW2 with sci-fi dressing is because military sci-fi fans have huge boners for WW2 and will never get sick of re-reading the battle of the bulge but with robots.

That's a goddamned dirty lie.

All of my RPG battles have been retreads of the Battle of the Five Armies.

trap sprung

LOTR is WW2

I think that's a little extreme. I mean, Lord of the Rings is really a story of an alliance of countries on the west side against an alliance of countries on the east side and... crap.