Thought I’d post some of what I had in mind for this game. I appreciate the questions about the setting but that’s not important at this point. What I need to know is what people think of this concept as a game.
In terms of narrative I’m styling this game on war films and series with Band of Brothers and Jarhead being my two biggest influences. So, the first game is the training camp, the second game is dispatch and arrival where the army needs you and so on. There will be a leap forward in time between each game as obviously we don’t have time to role-play an entire military training regime. With this in mind, what I currently have planned for the plot would take place over about four games; five at a stretch.
I haven’t changed the mechanics from what I speculated on in my original post. They’d be subject to change based on concepts that may be introduced as the game progresses but I want to keep it as simple as possible and trust people to role-play appropriately. So a gunshot will take a person down and cause a serious wound.
The game itself would be more intense than most of our weekend events. I’m not aiming to put anyone through anything I wouldn’t do myself, but this could involve running in a formation or doing obstacle course runs climbing over a wall, running through tires, crawling under a net and all being done while someone yells at you. Any activity like this will be broken up between classroom lessons, ranges, standing in formation getting lectured, rest times and meal times so please don’t get the impression I’m just going to attempt to run people to death.
I want an emotionally intense game more than a physical game. As you’ve probably already thought, there aren’t typically gunfights in training camps so the first weekend game especially is not a combat-focused game. This is where I think it gets hard to sell.
The tone and plot of the game relies heavily on the military theme, and being in the military means doing what you’re told and getting a lot of grief for it. On one hand we have some good points such as kitchen duty being a perfectly IC thing to do and even a quick respite for those characters from putting up with the abuse drill officers throw at them. But would people be comfortable obeying a strict lights-out time and getting up on an order? Are people fine with the verbal abuse that an officer is likely to treat recruits with? How would people react to being selected for night duty?
I’ve gotten a lot of questions and expressions of interest based on the setting, but in terms of playing the game I’ve had a response from three people all of whom I know are the kind to see this kind of challenge and step up to it. What I’ve listed may sound minor but it’s these kind of things that commitment gets broken on. I need to know where a military theme will fit alongside with what people will sign up for. I know there are people out there that will happily fight several pitched battles until three at the morning and be up by breakfast yet will hesitate at the suggestion they might be running and climbing and getting told to get up for breakfast.
) but i must confess in all my years of roman re-enactment i have never heard of them using bronze daggers.
