[Torg] Skill Challenge

[Jeff Clough]

Salvador A. Melo wrote:
> I was browsing some old WEG forum threads and came across one 
> discussing mass combat. As a subscriber to DDI I remember a recent 
> article about how to use 4E D&D's Skill Challenge system for mass 
> combats, and more specifically, the (major) effect PCs have on them. 
> This got me thinking, could TORG utilize D&D's skill challenge system, 
> or a modified version thereof? It's a skill based system, after all, 
> and something like that could potentially make it much easier to 
> resolve non-combat situations for when we don't want to (or can't) 
> just roleplay the whole thing.
>

I have a general approach I take in pretty much all games when it comes 
to mass combat (which forms the foundation of the mass combat rules my 
own system is going to use, but that's another story), because I've 
never seen a mass combat system in a game that I've liked.  I can't see 
a reason why this couldn't be adapted to other uses.  On the surface, I 
see some similarities with what you are talking about, so I'll toss it 
out there, perhaps as inspiration for someone to merge the idea in with 
a complete solution.

My approach relies on two concepts:  Objectives and Victory Points.

When I plan to run a mass battle, the set of plot 
twists/scenes/encounters/whatever I put together for the session are 
fairly atomic battle scenes that have a clear, in-game effect on the 
battle.  An example might be a need to take out a particularly effective 
lieutenant who's pushing hard against your allies' flanks.  Or there's a 
group of archers well-placed on the cliffs that is wrecking havoc with 
your line and needs to be dealt with.  Or a bridge that needs to be 
destroyed to prevent reinforcements from arriving to help the enemies.

Each of these scenes is an "Objective", and depending on how difficult 
the Objective might be to accomplish, or how important it is to the 
overall battle, I assign the Objective a number of "Victory Points", 
usually from one to three to keep things simple.  If the PCs are able to 
win the Objective, they get the points for it.  If they lose the 
Objective, the enemies get the points.  The only time Victory Points are 
up for grabs is when the PCs are involved in the scene, so their 
presence *always* determines the outcome of the battle, one way or 
another, as I think it should when you have heroes involved.

While the game is moving forward, I keep track of the Victory Points 
both sides have and adjust how I present the battle as a whole to the 
players based on this information.  I might describe strategic retreats, 
routing troops or other such things that move the battle along and let 
the players know how they are doing.

At the end, I look at the Victory Points to determine who won, how 
soundly or not so soundly they defeated their enemies, what we have for 
casualties, etc. and resolve the whole conflict accordingly.  So far 
this system succeeds in keeping battles manageable, dramatic and 
maintains the focus on the players.

I think this system can work with no modifications for those kinds of 
lengthy actions that can be broken into a set of well-defined steps and 
there is an antagonist attempting to prevent your success.  If the 
players are trying to accomplish a goal that is hard in and of itself, 
with no one trying to thwart them, you could simply assign a Victory 
Point total the PCs must reach in order to succeed, and determine how 
well they succeeded or failed based on what they actually got as 
compared to what they needed.

Just my two cents.

Jeff

-- 

Author of the Genesys System
A "free" universal role-playing game.
http://www.chaosphere.com/genesys/