Stress, Fear and Terror
Another topic that interests me is morale, stress and fear. Most wargames are all about 'kill em all' - morale rules added as an afterthought. Real combat, morale plays a bigger role. And that's fine - we don't want realism if it's boring. If every fight ended after only a few casualties our wargames would hardly be worth setting up!
However I have an ongoing interest in morale rules as I am interested in sci fi horror a la Alien meets the demon possession of the Denzel Washington movie Fallen - where morale plays a strong role.
I've been experimenting trying to codify 'fear' and stress levels. Here's one attempt:
1 Stress - You have Decent Control
This includes suppressive fire - bullets whistling nearby. A mini is stressed but still has a fair bit of agency. Training is still working. Perhaps a Willpower roll if you intend to push up into enemy fire/out of cover, but it is possible. Mild -1 debuffs generally, but maybe a mild boost to awareness? The bushes are shaking - do we push on into the raptor enclosure?
Roll to be allowed to choose what action to do.
2 Fear/Panic - You have Limited Control
This is fear of death, injury - isolation from seeing friends go down. Similar debuffs as 'stressed.' Nearby explosions, flamethrowers can trigger this - and friends being injured or panicking nearby. Maybe pass a Willpower roll to avoid falling back; also triggers some panic responses i.e. fire is spray-n-pray rather than carefully aimed. The T-rex has appeared - do you hold your ground waving the flare or chuck it away and leg it?
Roll to avoid a forced action?
3 Terror - Fight /Flee/ Freeze / Flop - You have No Control
This is where pure terror sets in. The T-rex has just bitten your friend in half - only yards away. The zombies have broken through the door and are munching on your room mate. This triggers an automatic response - perhaps randomized - where your mini will freeze in place, flee heedlessly, attack crazily or flop unconscious .
Roll randomly to get an automatic negative choice.
For horror games, I'm considering a final level - Insanity - triggered by sustained terror - maybe permanent for the rest of the game and could result in catatonic state or even being controlled by enemy players; attacking erstwhile friends in a paranoid frenzy. Their mind is broken.
Gaining/losing fear levels - a mini can jump straight to a higher level instantly; while losing levels is more gradual as it 'calms down.'
For example, a fear-inducing monster may trigger a Willpower test; a pass means the mini is merely stressed (degrading the impact to the level below) but a fail means the mini is fearful (the fear/panic level).
If next turn the mini is still confronted with the monster, he must roll again. However if the mini manages to retreat, he may attempt to remove a single level if he is not confronted with a stress/fear causing action or opponent his next activation.
Anyway, the above 3 levels is an example I've used to 'game-ify' some battlefield reactions. I'm not too knowledgable out the topic, apart from skimming some google articles like "The Worm Revisited" and "The Normal Battlefield Reaction" so I'd welcome cool game ideas (or even better articles to reference). Maybe some horror RPGs may prove useful for systems/inspiration?
In the Pipeline
I've got my 15mm out for a "Desert Sci Fi with Mages" - which I originally created as an example last post, but my son is interested in the idea so I'm going to flesh it out into proper rules. He liked the idea of "there are no good guys, everyone is led by a powerful Sith who can face down a mecha 1 on 1."
So naturally he has been pawing through my 15mm boxes making 'setups'...
*Yes, the rubbery brown thing in the back is a fake poop. Maybe it is a sandworm casting full of rare minerals or spice? 9 year olds and their toilet humour...
But what is this in my prep box? Is this 3D printed Battlefleet Gothic cruisers and escorts I see?
Don't expect to see them finished in a hurry - I'm always paralysed by magnetizing - I tend to procrastinate, then not have the right magnets, then double-guess myself with how to best mount them... Currently I'm thinking 'drill all the way through, put a magnet in the middle, and use a staple on the inside of the weapons pods.' But I'll need to stare at them a while first to gee myself up...
In other news I've been doing that DIY classic - building a homebrew generic sci fi skirmish (how original!) that I can use for my kids'Necrounda minis AND incorporate my own disused Infinity models. The interesting bit for me is how much you can simpify/strip it back while retaining a similar 'feel' (actually not hard with Infinity - which has sometimes literally a dozen minor variations on the same special rule!).
The RPG Library
I never play RPGs. There's too much talking and not enough cool toys and pew-pewing swooping cool minis about. That said, yesterday when looking through my sci fi rules I realise I've got a few:
Scum & Villainy, Blue Planet, Alien, Coriolis, Eclipse Phase, Mindjammer, Traveller, Mothership, Numenera, Rifts, StarswithoutNumber, Those Dark Places, Tales from the Loop. And those are just the ones downloaded on my new computer - quite a few did not come across (I'm pretty sure you can redownload from DriveThruRPG though).
I'm currently skimming through them for inspiration, especially for fear/morale and tech. So far the freebie Eclipse Phase has the most interesting ideas (mostly in the vein of Altered Carbon resleeving/cortical stacks). I don't think any wargame has leant into this very much. Heck, even hacking, drones and e-warfare isn't much of a thing.
Hmm, maybe a future project.