Milspec Action in an SR Game, Flames/Constructive Comments Appreciated! Options

[Aria]

Ok, I’ve started a similar thread in the past and the following Events where what came out of those discussions: trying to give a military feel to a game without having to stat every foe or resource that the PCs have available to them. The key thing was to keep the PCs in the limelight and not have NPCs do all their work for them.

In Game Events

[ Spoiler ]

• To reflect the military nature of the game the group will have a number of points to spend on Events that will provide a tactical advantage at some point in the game or a ‘get out of jail free’ card (these don’t need to be predetermined). These represent the your reserves or other forces not directly engaged.
• The number of points will be determined by the average edge of the group + the average leadership skill (+1 if someone has leadership 5 and/or a tactics specialisation and +2 if someone has leadership 6). Points can be used at any time in the game for an event and some cost more than others, depending on relative effectiveness.

1 Point Event

• Unguided Mortar Strike (thermal smoke or similar to create a distraction or cover)
• Guided Mortar Strike (get some use out of those laser designators to rain fire on the foe)
• Friendly Infantry Unit (to provide some brief covering fire)
• Drone Distraction (to set off alarms or draw fire)
• Emergency Evac (for when the shit has really hit the fan, a suitable extract vehicle will pick you up)

2 Point Event

• Armour or Helicopter Gunship Attack (Having a tank or chopper swing by at just the right moment…easier than using your man portable heavy weapons for a significant target)
• Air Strike (Love the smell of napalm in the morning!)

3 Point Event

• Artillery Strike (sustained fire to obliterate a hardened target!)
• Comm Blackout (company hackers actively jam all enemy comms over the battlefield)

The players will get one free Event which is the mission insertion. The players can choose from the following list or request some other method I haven’t thought of. It’s up to the players whether they want to use stealth or shock and awe!

• Ground insertion via APC and then either on foot or with the APC driving to the door
• Waterborne insertion via mini sub or stealth boat
• Airborne insertion via VTOL or LAV
• HALO drop, wing suit or stealth glider (Players will have a free skill in its use with no rolls required – a bit pointless if the PC dies before the game begins and I’ve yet to see anyone want to spend points in parachuting when they are scarce enough as it is)
• Mage drop using the mass levitate spell

So, can anyone think of any more events like “Comm Blackout” that don’t just revolve around blowing shit up?

As I’ve had a player drop off recently I also want to expand this list to include the actions of the squad the PCs are with (as I’m currently down to two PCs). I still want the PCs to be the focus but with a couple of freebie leadership points I’ve bumped them to the key decision makers and they will be ordering their squad as they see fit. I’ll probably make these a separate pool of points from the Events as they are intended to be much smaller scale interventions. Thoughts on what I should include here would be very welcome! I still want it to be fairly loose and stat free so that they can decide the course of the battle without me throwing mountains of dice. If they have a finite number of times to rely on NPCs doing things for them, hopefully they will do most things themselves – but obviously there will be skill bases they just can’t cover. I’m assuming that the squad will be firing at the enemy, this should represent special actions…

Squad Actions (1 point)

• Forward scout (either matrix/drone, physical or astral)
• Sniper fire (to take out a sentry or similar isolated target)
• Draw fire (distraction to draw enemy fire away)

Squad Actions (2 points)

• Medical attention (team medic patches a PC with mundane / magical means)
• ?

Squad Actions (3 points)

• Fire team cross fire (concentrated fire to eliminate a foe)
• Heavy weapon (anti-tank missile, assault cannon, whatever seems appropriate)
• Trap (draw enemy forces into a trap, could be a crossfire, a mined area or similar)

As before, are there any non-combat actions in particular that would do well added to this list?

Thanks

A