Hello Sir Poley! You mention stronghold dilemas? what about: -the [structural thing] needs reinforcement or it will break; -the enemy has found a way in, but we don't know where it is; -Someone among us is a spy (who plans to open the gates from inside? is

Awesome! This is all really good stuff! I’m writing it down. Some of it may end up in the final game. If you (or anyone else following this blog) have suggestions, this is a great way to give them to me. Here’s the kind of things I’m looking for:

Note: Remember that the Missions I’m going to include for the Alpha release are Strongpoint Assault, Strongpoint Defence, Convoy Escort, and Convoy Ambush. Future versions will include Sweep and Clear (as in, clearing out a building full of enemies), Assassination (kill an enemy leader or traitor), Bodyguard Detail (the inverse of Assassination), Dungeon Crawl (traditional RPG adventure, except the ‘heroes’ aren’t anywhere near qualified for the task), Giant Monster Rampage (a huge monster is rampaging through a town, you have to stop it), and anything else I can come up with.

-Dilemmas: (situations where the Party have to choose between two or more clear options, such as two bad ones, two good ones, or a risky one with chance of reward and a save one). Example: The bunker you’re defending is being shelled by enemy mortars. Do you head out to take out the mortars (leaving the base temporarily underdefended) or weather the storm (getting shelled in future battlers)? Alternatively: you find a broken down vehicle. Do you stay and try to fix it (chance of wandering monster while you do so, but you get to use it after) or do you leave it?

-Intermissions: This is an event that happens right before the climax, and its supposed to inject a little vigor into the squad. They could get reinforcements, find a local doctor living out in the woods who can tend their injuries, stumble across a magic weapon, that kinda thing.

-Scenarios: every different Mission will have 6 scenarios. The GM rolls 1d6 to pick one randomly if she’s doing the random mission generation. Scenarios are basically the ‘flavour text’ of what you’re doing. For example, here’s the five I have right now from Convoy Escort:

1. The convoy holds a shipment of ore headed for Eve’s factories, and must be escorted through contested territory.

2. The convoy holds medical supplies being sent through contested territory to a holding of Feral allies as part of a treaty with Eve. The shipment’s arrival is critical in maintaining their allegiance. The medical supplies can be used as an essentially-unlimited quantity of First-Aid Kits at the cost of 1 Prestige Point per use to the whole Squad (squandering the supplies in this way is shameful).

3. The convoy holds the household furniture and valuable art supplies of a noble moving to a country estate. The estate is secured by the noble’s personal forces, but the distance in between is not.

4. The convoy holds food destined for Eve’s citizens from an outlying agricultural settlement.

5. The Squad is escorting a convoy holding medicine desperately needed to stamp out a smallpox outbreak in one of Eve’s colonies, but the fastest route requires the convoy to break through a fortified enemy checkpoint.

6. ?????

There’s a separate table for Convoy Escort to see what kind of treacherous terrain the convoy goes through (follows a river, through a narrow mountain pass, etc.)

Coming up with a variety of interesting spins on a similar Mission theme is actually weirdly hard for me, for some reason. If I got one good suggestion there from one person in every thousand who reads Harry Potter and the Natural 20, I’d be good to go.

-Wandering Monsters: These are monsters/baddies that aren’t part of any particular faction, and will eat/attack pretty much anybody for any reason. Right now I only have a handful, and honestly, many of them aren’t that inspired. I’ve got bandits, giant spiders, ogres, giants, titans, giant worms (think Tremors), hydras, and dragons. I don’t know how much ‘fantasy’ this setting will have yet (will there be orcs? Are goblins more David Bowie, or more Dwarf Fortress?), so deciding what kind of monsters are stomping around is difficult. But I want more than I have. There’s enough for Alpha currently, but I want way more later. (Seriously—there’s a 1 in 8 chance of fighting a freaking dragon every time there’s a wandering monster simply because the table is so sparse).

Once the Alpha is released (which will be Real Soon Now), you guys will have a much clearer idea of what kind of suggestions will be helpful, and I’ll have a more straightforward way for you to make them (probably a forum and/or subreddit).

At this point, any input I can get at all, even if you don’t think it will be, is super helpful!