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I'm a big fan of the Open War cards. They're not always balanced, but they keep things interesting and usually add a little flavor to a scenario. They help "forge the narrative," if you will. However, the random missions they generate don't always feel completely inkeeping with the fluff of a given army. A mission where everything is fearless and gets a bonus to its number of attacks is rad, but it doesn't feel especially appropriate for a Tau army, for instance.

So with that in mind, below is the high concept for a method of generating random missions that directly call upon the fluff of a given army. The basic idea is as follows:

*All major factions (marines, chaos marines, eldar, dark eldar, orks, etc.) have a list of missions that evoke something about their fluff. So the dark eldar mission list might feature a mission where you're taking slaves. A marine mission list might feature a mission where you're surrounded and holding off waves of enemies. That sort of thing. These missions feature preset deployment zones, and the primary objective in these missions are always worth X points.

* All major factions have an Edge list. This is a list of special rules similar to Twists in the Open War deck that modify the main mission in a way that is beneficial to the faction. Edges might introduce secondary objectives worth Y points that favor the faction, or they might grant the faction access to a new stratagem for the game. For instance, a dark eldar Edge might cause some variation of the Night Fighting rules to be in play or let them treat the game round as 1 higher for Power From Pain purposes. Craftworlders might have a "Spirit Stone Retrieval" secondary objective that creates new objectives as their units die. If their opponent holds more of these objectives than they do at the end of the game, their opponent scores Y VP. You get the idea.

* All major factions have a Complication list. These are basically Edges that are detrimental rather than helpful. A Complication might introduce a secondary objective worth Y points that favors (or is only achievable by) your opponent, or they might provide your opponent with a unique stratagem. For instance, a dark eldar Complication might be "Pain Starved" which makes them treat the game round as 1 lower than normal for purposes of Power From Pain and/or might force drukhari infantry to charge during any turn in which they're within 12" of an enemy model.

1. Roll off pregame to decide which player gets to roll for the main mission.

2. The player who wins the roll off rolls on their faction's mission list. If your army includes multiple major factions, you can decide prior to rolling which faction seems most appropriate for your army.

3. The player who wins the roll off rolls for 1 of their own advantages and 1 of their opponent's disadvantages and then chooses which of those special rules will be used during the game. (The other is ignored.)

4. The player who lost the roll off rolls for 1 of their own advantages and 1 of their opponent's disadvantages and then chooses which of those special rules will be used during the game. (The other is ignored).

And there you have it. That gives you a basic mission that hopefully feels appropriate for one of the factions involved and 2 special rules that tie directly into the lore of the armies involved. I've worried that trying to make basic missions that represent the fluff of various factions might result in missions that are more or less difficult for the faction than usual. If this ends up being the case, I might consider having some missions give the player the mission disfavors an extra roll on the Edge/Complication tables or something.

To make it easier to actually develop this, most of the basic missions would be recycled between factions. So for instance, Space Wolves and Orks might both end up with a kill points mission that encourages them to focus on killing characters. Tau and Eldar might both get an assassination mission.

As a stretch goal, I like the idea of letting various chapters, craftworlds, septs, etc. have their own unique missions, Edges, and Complications that you can add to your tables in place of a different option. But as I said, that would be a stretch goal to be pursued if the basic idea comes together.

Thoughts?

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UPDATE 07-21-2019
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Below are some examples of what the missions, edges, and complications might look like. I'd love some feedback both on the balance of the rules and on whether or not they "feel" appropriate for their faction. Note that missions don't have to be balanced to a tournament-level degree, but players shouldn't feel so disadvantaged by a mission that it ruins their fun in a casual game. I'll try to format the missions in as readable a fashion as I can.


MARINES
MISSIONS


MARINE COMPLICATIONS



MARINE EDGES

Wyldhunt wrote:
I'm a big fan of the Open War cards. They're not always balanced, but they keep things interesting and usually add a little flavor to a scenario. They help "forge the narrative," if you will. However, the random missions they generate don't always feel completely inkeeping with the fluff of a given army. A mission where everything is fearless and gets a bonus to its number of attacks is rad, but it doesn't feel especially appropriate for a Tau army, for instance.

So with that in mind, below is the high concept for a method of generating random missions that directly call upon the fluff of a given army. The basic idea is as follows:

*All major factions (marines, chaos marines, eldar, dark eldar, orks, etc.) have a list of missions that evoke something about their fluff. So the dark eldar mission list might feature a mission where you're taking slaves. A marine mission list might feature a mission where you're surrounded and holding off waves of enemies. That sort of thing. These missions feature preset deployment zones, and the primary objective in these missions are always worth X points.

* All major factions have an Edge list. This is a list of special rules similar to Twists in the Open War deck that modify the main mission in a way that is beneficial to the faction. Edges might introduce secondary objectives worth Y points that favor the faction, or they might grant the faction access to a new stratagem for the game. For instance, a dark eldar Edge might cause some variation of the Night Fighting rules to be in play or let them treat the game round as 1 higher for Power From Pain purposes. Craftworlders might have a "Spirit Stone Retrieval" secondary objective that creates new objectives as their units die. If their opponent holds more of these objectives than they do at the end of the game, their opponent scores Y VP. You get the idea.

* All major factions have a Complication list. These are basically Edges that are detrimental rather than helpful. A Complication might introduce a secondary objective worth Y points that favors (or is only achievable by) your opponent, or they might provide your opponent with a unique stratagem. For instance, a dark eldar Complication might be "Pain Starved" which makes them treat the game round as 1 lower than normal for purposes of Power From Pain and/or might force drukhari infantry to charge during any turn in which they're within 12" of an enemy model.

1. Roll off pregame to decide which player gets to roll for the main mission.

2. The player who wins the roll off rolls on their faction's mission list. If your army includes multiple major factions, you can decide prior to rolling which faction seems most appropriate for your army.

3. The player who wins the roll off rolls for 1 of their own advantages and 1 of their opponent's disadvantages and then chooses which of those special rules will be used during the game. (The other is ignored.)

4. The player who lost the roll off rolls for 1 of their own advantages and 1 of their opponent's disadvantages and then chooses which of those special rules will be used during the game. (The other is ignored).

And there you have it. That gives you a basic mission that hopefully feels appropriate for one of the factions involved and 2 special rules that tie directly into the lore of the armies involved. I've worried that trying to make basic missions that represent the fluff of various factions might result in missions that are more or less difficult for the faction than usual. If this ends up being the case, I might consider having some missions give the player the mission disfavors an extra roll on the Edge/Complication tables or something.

To make it easier to actually develop this, most of the basic missions would be recycled between factions. So for instance, Space Wolves and Orks might both end up with a kill points mission that encourages them to focus on killing characters. Tau and Eldar might both get an assassination mission.

As a stretch goal, I like the idea of letting various chapters, craftworlds, septs, etc. have their own unique missions, Edges, and Complications that you can add to your tables in place of a different option. But as I said, that would be a stretch goal to be pursued if the basic idea comes together.

Thoughts?

Sounds rather neat. It reminds me of the faction missions that come out of the specific Killteam boxes. Individual chapters/regiments/etc would be almost necessary, I think, due to the existence of splinter or special factions in some codices, such of the Militarum Tempestus out of the Astra Militarum codex.

UPDATE: Added the marine missions, Edges, and Complications to give an example of what this might look like. Am I on the right track?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Sounds rather neat. It reminds me of the faction missions that come out of the specific Killteam boxes. Individual chapters/regiments/etc would be almost necessary, I think, due to the existence of splinter or special factions in some codices, such of the Militarum Tempestus out of the Astra Militarum codex.

I'd love to do rules for subfactions. The way the Alpha Legion and the World Eaters operate is night and day, and being able to reflect that in your games would really make it feel like you're playing your army's narrative rather than a generic chaos marine one.