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In Which Sketch Makes Games

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Okay, let's see what kind of hilarious nonsense I can get by rolling on those tables.

So Communist Rebels want to destroy a Government Building, which will Destroy Freedom.

Presumably the building is called Freedom. Or is like, the SOURCE OF ALL FREEDOMS. It broadcasts a LIBERTY SIGNAL THAT MAKES PEOPLE FREEDUMB.
Arcus threw 4 6-faced dice. Reason: Dumb Plot Total: 16
5 5 2 2 6 6 3 3
 
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Arcus2611 said:
Okay, let's see what kind of hilarious nonsense I can get by rolling on those tables.

So Communist Rebels want to destroy a Government Building, which will Destroy Freedom.

Presumably the building is called Freedom. Or is like, the SOURCE OF ALL FREEDOMS. It broadcasts a LIBERTY SIGNAL THAT MAKES PEOPLE FREEDUMB.
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No, no. Obviously they've taken over a missile silo, or nuclear-armed naval cruiser.

There's always a nuke. Always.
 
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That's definitely a "good thing I caught that before publication" moment.
 
So once again, I ran the playtest of PATROL with my Skype group. Important things we learned:
-It is a bad idea to let my characters have naval fire support.
-I cannot trick my players into using a W-23 shell when requesting naval bombardment.
-As written, flamethrowers are amazing sniping weapons. (Saigon Gothic makes a great excuse to roll with RAW when RAW doesn't make any sense)
-The Room-to-Room rules make my group want to burn down the structure.
-I cannot manage to ambush my players, because the VC sniper FUBAR'd his stealth roll.
-Really, there need to be FUBAR results for stealthy things.
-Prisoners force my players to have an IC argument about proper conduct vs. the resources tied up by prisoners. Conclusion: Kill enemies quickly before they can surrender.
-Flamethrowers really dick the rest of the squad over on fatigue
-My group doesn't like how the alignment chart works with a majority-pragmatic squad.
-My group decided that they're all going to buy the Arson skill so that the Point and the Marksman can get VPs for lighting everything on fire.
- By draining most of his tank, the Firebug got to roll 41(!) dice for Arson and set everything on fire. Again.
-My players were more concerned with looting the batmobile and a fancy croquet set than actually performing a sweep-and-clear on an old plantation.

This time, the group had widely varying totals of fatigue and VP, ranging form our firebug who had 7VP and 0 Fatigue to the Marksman who came in with ~9 and 9 but got awarded the purple heart.

And yes, Base Commander Fez showed up, and other elements included the squad hitchhikihng with a convoy of military bulldozers, the area in question being a Free Fire Zone from 0900 to 1700 local and Restrictive at all other times, the artillery crews at the firebase moving around large quantities of pumpkins and squash, and the fact that the plantation manor was still standing after naval bombardment and may have had exterior walls made out of inches-thick battleship steel.
 
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samdamandias said:
-My group doesn't like how the alignment chart works with a majority-pragmatic squad.
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Our squad is Pragmatic, Pragmatic, and Egocentric. This made half of my VP-gaining actions (at 9 Fatigue) completely non-functional.
By comparison, the other alignments just have VP-gaining actions that are kind of dickish to other players (and NPCs, but they won't be complaining out-of-character).
The base action is very strong, but having completely non-functional actions for most of them is... frustrating.
 
azoicennead said:
Our squad is Pragmatic, Pragmatic, and Egocentric. This made half of my VP-gaining actions (at 9 Fatigue) completely non-functional.
By comparison, the other alignments just have VP-gaining actions that are kind of dickish to other players (and NPCs, but they won't be complaining out-of-character).
The base action is very strong, but having completely non-functional actions for most of them is... frustrating.
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PATROL seems to me to be a game that's designed to not only accommodate, but encourage PvP. It's about a squad falling apart from the stress more than it is about objectives.
 
Well, there's two elements to it. The main thing is that Pragmatic troops are supposed to accelerate the fragmentation of the Squad by taking sides, ganging up and making things worse. The tendency for squads to largely take Pragmatic over the other alignments is thus a bit frustrating. And yes, it isn't good when players are denied options because of it.

I'm going to try and make it a bit better on that front and give Pragmatic characters some more active options, while keeping the idea that Pragmatic characters do primarily act as a catalyst for other terrible people. I'll update you shortly.
 
Alright, after reviewing the structure-storming/arson rules, I've done some pretty extensive rewrites.


This can be you!

First of all, I added a chart to the Structure rules that dictate how much damage from Burn or Blast it takes to destroy a Small Structure made from various material, from grass huts to concrete buildings. The Burn rating is also the difficulty you need to roll for Arson checks; burning a grass hut is easy, but you might want an accelerant if you're trying to burn down a modern building. This also means that flamethrower guys can now burn down a structure at a distance!

I have, however, drastically reduced the effectiveness of Fuel on Arson.


Just do what comes natural.

Large Structures are much more concrete now in their interaction with the rules. Basically, every Room in a large structure is treated as a Small Structure, meaning you can destroy them individually. You now light individual rooms on fire as well, and as they burn down they'll catch the next rooms as well. A Large Structure collapses when half its rooms total, or all the rooms on a lower floor, have been destroyed.


Pictured: The new structure destruction.

Very large bomb blasts and stuff will level multiple rooms, so if you have pile a bunch of satchel charges or something in a basement, you can still collapse a building in one go.

Finally, in room to room fighting and such, I've added a few more options. Doors can be closed between rooms, Overwatch is explicitly allowed for the next step, and the slightly higher To-Hit difficulty from the earlier rebalancing should all contribute to making room-to-room fighting tense without being a suicide pact for everyone involved.


Like this!
 
samdamandias said:
Awwwww.

Let me guess, changing it so that the bonus once, rather than it being a bonus per unit of fuel consumed?
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Nah. It's a flat 1 Autosuccess + 1 Failure. That way it's easier without making FUBAR any less likely.

EDIT: I think I've fixed the Pragmatic alignment as well. I compressed the Righteous/Egotistical part together as the 4 VP action. The 3 VP is action is now "Neutralize an ally who is endangering others", while the 5 VP action is "Neutralize an ally who is acting out of line." This one is sufficiently open as to enable the Pragmatic guys to take (and define) sides in any PvP conflict.

Speaking of, I'm making a major experimental change. Over the duration of a single mission, Fatigue will go up, but it will never go down until you get home and get your boots off. That prevents some of the cheesing, and it makes a lot more sense now to use various narcotics, especially opiates! If you suspect you're going to be taking Injury, running out of Ammo, etc, then not taking or reducing your Doubt so that you don't go over your current Fatigue makes a ton of sense.

Inside each Status Effect box is a small number. This is the Fatigue that Status Effect causes. Fatigue is a way of tracking an aggregate picture of your soldier's overall condition, and how desperate their situation has made them. Fatigue is more than just being tired; it is the weariness one feels in your very soul when exposed to the realities of war.

At the end of each turn, after you've had a chance to negate Status Effects with supplies, your Character's Fatigue is measured by adding up the Fatigue value associated with the highest level of each Status Effect you have. This total gives you a picture of your Character's mental state. Your Fatigue total never goes down from the highest its been so far in the Mission.
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open_sketchbook said:
Nah. It's a flat 1 Autosuccess + 1 Failure. That way it's easier without making FUBAR any less likely.
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Challenge accepted!

open_sketchbook said:
EDIT: I think I've fixed the Pragmatic alignment as well. I compressed the Righteous/Egotistical part together as the 4 VP action. The 3 VP is action is now "Neutralize an ally who is endangering others", while the 5 VP action is "Neutralize an ally who is acting out of line." This one is sufficiently open as to enable the Pragmatic guys to take (and define) sides in any PvP conflict.
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... Well that should be interesting. I'm a bit sad that "Shirk your duties to safeguard your squadmates" is gone from the 3 VP slot, but I could probably have argued myself into 3 VP last session, anyway.
 
samdamandias said:
So once again, I ran the playtest of PATROL with my Skype group. Important things we learned:
-It is a bad idea to let my characters have naval fire support.
-I cannot trick my players into using a W-23 shell when requesting naval bombardment.
-As written, flamethrowers are amazing sniping weapons. (Saigon Gothic makes a great excuse to roll with RAW when RAW doesn't make any sense)
-The Room-to-Room rules make my group want to burn down the structure.
-I cannot manage to ambush my players, because the VC sniper FUBAR'd his stealth roll.
-Really, there need to be FUBAR results for stealthy things.
-Prisoners force my players to have an IC argument about proper conduct vs. the resources tied up by prisoners. Conclusion: Kill enemies quickly before they can surrender.
-Flamethrowers really dick the rest of the squad over on fatigue
-My group doesn't like how the alignment chart works with a majority-pragmatic squad.
-My group decided that they're all going to buy the Arson skill so that the Point and the Marksman can get VPs for lighting everything on fire.
- By draining most of his tank, the Firebug got to roll 41(!) dice for Arson and set everything on fire. Again.
-My players were more concerned with looting the batmobile and a fancy croquet set than actually performing a sweep-and-clear on an old plantation.

This time, the group had widely varying totals of fatigue and VP, ranging form our firebug who had 7VP and 0 Fatigue to the Marksman who came in with ~9 and 9 but got awarded the purple heart.

And yes, Base Commander Fez showed up, and other elements included the squad hitchhikihng with a convoy of military bulldozers, the area in question being a Free Fire Zone from 0900 to 1700 local and Restrictive at all other times, the artillery crews at the firebase moving around large quantities of pumpkins and squash, and the fact that the plantation manor was still standing after naval bombardment and may have had exterior walls made out of inches-thick battleship steel.
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Click to shrink...

Re: Prisoners, I think I've made it a bit easier. Restraints are no longer an item; your character is presumed to be carrying the materials needed to restrain and blindfold a character. There is now the ability to tie a character down on a location, too, so you could leave the prisoners to be picked up, providing they don't escape.

I've made Observation a little less reliable, but given smart players an out to deal with their lying GMs.

I've reduced the Doubt taken on that big chart for most things, because Doubt is so much meaner now, as is Fatigue in general.

I've been added a bunch of fun new stuff. Ruff Puffs and Regional Forces? Sure. Royal Thai army? Yep. Mercenaries? You bet. Updated VC profiles, NVA stuff, civilian stuff, this part of the book is edging towards complete at a rapid rate.

Other fun additions.

- Death Cards and the return of Leaflets! Leaflet shells, too.
- Further Narcotics rebalance. Opiates are now much more attractive, especially for medical application.
- Sniper scopes can now function as binoculars.
- Fatigue from ammo now only takes effect if you run out, basically. But its a mean penalty (5 Fatigue).
- General Fatigue table rebalance.

Finally... I just want it known there are ten ways to play South Vietnamese fighters in this book.
 
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