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2015/05/17 23:03:33
Subject: Would Like Some Help Writing My Campaign Rules
This summer, I plan on playing a campaign with my brother over a home-brew hive city planet that I will write the fluff for when school ends (So close its agonizing now ) and I've been writing rules for it. I hope there aren't too many holes in them.
Prepare yourselves for my wall of text:
Spoiler:
Terms: These are things I made up to use as names for the metrics in my campaign rules
Terrain Points: roughly analogous to victory points in the actual games of 40k. Will be used to score and are the main determination of who is winning; there is intentionally no discrete objective in my campaign system because I don't know how long my brother and I will want to play this for.
Campaign Points: "currency," so to speak; can be used to buy neat little gubbins in between games (discussed later).
Scoring: used with respect to a map tile; can be formatted as Scoring (x), where x is the number of territory points it awards per campaign turn. Modifiers potentially applied to this are formatted similarly. For instance, One tile could be marked "Scoring (2)," which would mean that that particular tile awards 2 Territory Points. Another tile could be marked something along the lines of "Adjacent tiles are Scoring (+1)," which means that if the aforementioned tile were adjacent to this one, it would now be worth 3 Territory points, assuming I owned them both. The vast majority of Scoring tiles are unmarked, which implies they are Scoring (1).
Victory Margins; How bad did I beat my little brother at toy soldiers? Consult the chart below:
+Marginal Victory | won by 1 victory point
+Solid Victory | won by 2-3 VP
+Landslide | won by 4 or more Victory points
Pre-game stuff:
+All HQs that each player intends to use must be selected first. Only these ones can be used in the 40k games involved in the campaign.
+ Warlord traits only apply if one or more players are using their Campaign Warlord.
+ The Campaign Warlord is an HQ selected from the pool of HQs decided upon prior to starting the campaign.
+ Warlord traits and psychic powers are rolled for before the campaign begins; re-rolls gained through special abilities and command benefits and such can be saved and used throughout the campaign.
The first game of the campaign will be a 250 point Kill Team game using the Heralds or Ruin rules.
After this, the winner of that game is able to select any tile and claim it. They now own that tile and all directly adjacent tiles. The player to pick his base second now does that same thing and will own as many tiles to start, but must select a base such that no tile they own is closer than 20 tiles to tiles now owned by their opponent.
Actual Games: the meat and potatoes of the campaign!
The campaign is played in turns. The looser of the initial kill team game has the first campaign turn. Select an enemy tile and play a game.
All games are 400 points larger than the last one played. This includes Kill team games that will happen from time to time, such that a kill team game will essentially reset the points escalation of the campaign games. Every game of Kill Team is 50 points larger than the last, including the ice- breaker game played before the campaign starts, so a hypothetical second Kill Team deployed for this campaign would be played at 300 points. This is capped at 400 points and reset at the point they reach that size.
After the game is played, generate Campaign points. base Campaign point generation is 2d6 points. Winners generate points with one more d6 per margin of victory they win by. So, a marginal victory would generate 3d6 campaign points (2d6 base + 1d6 for winning by 1 VP), a solid victory would generate 4d6 Campaign points and a landslide victory would generate 5d6 campaign points.
The winner also is allocated more points in the next game in accordance with the margin of victory as such:
+Marginal | 5% more points
+Solid Victory | 10% more points
+Landslide | 15% more points
Finally, the players consolidate and claim tiles, if the invader (the turn player who selected the tile to be played on) wins, he claims that tile and two unclaimed adjacent tiles. If there are no unclaimed adjacent tiles, the tile being fought over directly this turn is Scoring (+1). If the invader looses, the defender reclaims the tile being fought over and three adjacent unclaimed tiles. The defender who wins also is the invader for an additional, consecutive turn.
Tiles and effects:
+Wasteland: most common; non- scoring
+City Hab-block: second most common; Scoring (1) unless marked otherwise.
+Adminstratum Tile: non- scoring, grant additional warlord traits to the campaign warlord; must claim all adjacent tiles of this kind in order to gain the benefit of any particular Admin tile. Warlord traits gained this way are not lost when the enemy claims an admin block from you.
+Srines: Ecclisiarchy- operated city districts; non- scoring, adjacent tiles are scoring (+1)
+Manufactorum: industrial districts; non- scoring, increase campaign point generation by 1d6.
Campaign Points Can Be Spent on:
+ Spec op Token ( 20 campaign points): played after a tile to be invaded is declared, but before mission is determined. Play a kill team game instead. The winner of this game is the invader in subsequent campaign turns automatically until they loose a game.
+ Convert to game points: One campaign point is worth 5 game points. Apply this as a permanent bonus to the point allocation of an army list in subsequent rounds.
+ Claim territory (5 campaign points): select one unclaimed tile adjacent to territory you have already claimed and claim it.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/05/17 23:04:10
I went to Hershey Park in central PA this year, and I have to say I was more than a little disappointed. I fully expected the entire theme park to be make entirely of chocolate, but no. Here in America, we have "building codes," and some other nonsense about chocolate melting if don't store it someplace kept below room temperature.
2015/05/21 10:50:38
Subject: Would Like Some Help Writing My Campaign Rules
I went to Hershey Park in central PA this year, and I have to say I was more than a little disappointed. I fully expected the entire theme park to be make entirely of chocolate, but no. Here in America, we have "building codes," and some other nonsense about chocolate melting if don't store it someplace kept below room temperature.
2015/05/21 15:54:32
Subject: Would Like Some Help Writing My Campaign Rules
Phew....not gonna lie to you but this is a daunting system. I think you're vastly over complicating it and making a LOT of extra bookkeeping work for yourself. I'd trim down the effects some.
It's definitely very elaborate for a 2 player campaign, most likely overly so.
Another thought is that if it runs for any length of time, it's fairly likely that one of you will regret being locked in for an HQ. Between deciding to try new strategies or acquiring new models, this is just too much of a limitation to keep up. I also think it's overly restrictive to only grant a warlord trait for the campaign warlord. That either makes the traits empty, or entails someone using the same guy throughout (which isn't necessarily a problem). You definitely though shouldn't roll the trait at the start of the game. That would mean somebody could have a really weak ability for the entire campaign, which is much too punitive.
I'd strongly advise against giving the winner more points.
Would advise something more like this;
~play game, winner gets some perk for the big fight
~play game, winner gets some perk for the big fight
~play game, winner gets some perk for the big fight
~play game, winner gets some perk for the big fight
~apocalypse battle w/ various perks for each side
Maybe let the winners choose the next battle? You gonna go after their supply chain or attack the surface to orbit laser battery?
2015/05/22 01:49:36
Subject: Re:Would Like Some Help Writing My Campaign Rules
Thanks for the feedback. I think I will go back to the drawing board on this one. I think I will cut the campaign points entirely because I can't come up with anything interesting to actually spend it on. I figured the HQ pool/ set warlord traits are too restrictive but it seemed like a good idea when I wrote it down. When I rewrite my rules, I think I will focus the gameplay on the map and revolve everything around the territory that is won and lost.
I want to involve a mild character progression system, where things that happen to our characters affect performance later on.
I also want to make the map itself interesting. What makes me want to attack one tile and not another? what is particularly interesting about this piece of land that makes it strategically important? Any ideas on that?
I went to Hershey Park in central PA this year, and I have to say I was more than a little disappointed. I fully expected the entire theme park to be make entirely of chocolate, but no. Here in America, we have "building codes," and some other nonsense about chocolate melting if don't store it someplace kept below room temperature.
2015/05/22 02:20:48
Subject: Re:Would Like Some Help Writing My Campaign Rules
~Your warlord can increase in skill as the campaign progresses
~If during a battle, the warlord or a unit containing the warlord wipes out another unit (optional: or defeats it in close combat) the warlord will gain 1 EXP (Optional: Allocate EXP based on the value of what you kill. 1 for worthless units, 2 for decent ones, and 3 for very powerful units. Optional: Gain EXP from winning a challenge as well, declined challenges count as a victory for the challenger)
~When your warlord reaches X EXP, you may select at the end of the game one warlord table that they have access to, and roll on it. The warlord will have all traits that have been rolled in such a fashion. Re-roll any traits you already possess, and by player consent, any that are useless.
Can be expanded on to include all characters or even units. In this case, rather than warlord traits, allow them to roll for or buy stat increases or various universal special rules.
I would suggest a scaling XP requirement for levelling up. ie) 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 total exp to level up.
Can easily be applied to characters and units too, simply substituting warlord traits for a collection of stat buffs (+1 strength etc) and universal special rules (furious charge etc)
If you want to go faction specific you might be able to use each faction's maelstorm cards as a basis.
~~
Maps are a great way to overcomplicate things. If you do want to use them, then each area could provide an asset for the 'final battle' under the system I suggested earlier. In that case, I would suggest each player has a number of armies that are either small, medium, or large, and which can move around the map. Larger armies automatically defeat smaller ones, and defeated armies are pushed back, but several smaller armies can combine their force and attack the same location with the strength of a larger army. Play out battles only between equal strength armies. Allows for some strategic elements without making it too complicated.
Whats very important IMO is that you don't waste time fighting battles between large and small armies.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/05/22 02:23:54
2015/05/22 08:05:52
Subject: Would Like Some Help Writing My Campaign Rules
) and I've been writing rules for it. I hope there aren't too many holes in them.
