House Rules for Tactics and Battleplans

[Dr. Bidlo]

I realize there have been a lot of great ideas for house rules listed on this forum, but I figured I would post what I had developed and have been using in my games for the past several months:

Tactics Skill
The following actions can be performed during combat using the tactics skill or the appropriate (S) tactics skill.

Issue Battleplan: Time taken: one minute (12 rounds). If the character takes any other actions, including issuing commands, he will suffer the multiple action penalty when taking the tactics roll. A commander may issue a battle plan with a moderate tactics roll. An enemy commander may make an opposed tactics roll as a reaction skill. For opposed tactics rolls to develop a battle plan, the commander who rolled higher gains the bonus.

Tactics roll>Difficulty by: Perception Bonus
1-3: +1
4-6: +2
7-9: +1D
10-12: +1D+1
13-15: +1D+2
16+: +2D

[CRMcNeill]

Maybe rather than having it take a full minute, have it take one round at a decently high Difficulty, then give the Tactics character a +1D bonus to his Tactics roll every time he doubles the amount of time taken to explain. So if he explains it in one round, it's Tactics+0D; if he takes two rounds, it's Tactics+1D; four rounds and it's Tactics+2D, etcetera. This allows the tactician to rush giving orders if needs be or take his time and make sure the orders are conveyed properly.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Dr. Bidlo]

I purposely made the time 12 rounds because:
1) it does time to develop an actual plan, 2) the battle plans are typically developed before the battle starts as the Ccommanders assess their position and their enemy's position and/or while closing on each other, 3) changing a battle plan isn't instantaneous because a battle is chaotic and multiple issues would have to be ordered/changed, and 4) it allows a commander to set a trap for an unsuspecting opponent that if well played would give them the initiative advantage for a minute before the enemy commander gets his issues and plan together to counter the unexpected threat.

It has been working out exceedingly well in my games. In an earlier version, it took less time, even just one round, but it became ridiculous with the players trying to change the battle plan multiple times to get the advantage or a better advantage. I could impose penalties for multiple plans, but the 12 round battle Plan accomishes the same result more cleanly and effectively.

As for giving bonuses to the battle Plan roll - I do apply special modifiers based on game factors using the general guidance in the RAW without listing out all the conditions to keep it quick, as well as a maximum of +1D for preparing per the RAW when the commander takes at least 24 rounds (2 minutes) to prepare the battle Plan.

Of all the house rules I have developed with my tactical combat oriented game group, this is one I have been using the longest and am really happy with it.

[CRMcNeill]

The problem with a fixed 12-round time is that making tactical decisions will almost always take more or less depending on the circumstances, whether it's taking several days in the comfort of an HQ to come up with a detailed battle plan, or done on the fly in a foxhole with blaster bolts whizzing by overhead. As the old saying goes, "no plan survives contact with the enemy", which means you almost always have to improvise or come up with something new mid-battle, and you will almost never have a minute to just sit and think of something.

And if the enemy commander is allowed to make an opposed Tactics roll as a reaction, does he have to take the full minute?

Frankly, the best way to apply Tactics to the RAW would be to have the Tactics roll generate bonuses to Initiative and to Command (which in turn generates the coordination skill).
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Dr. Bidlo]

You did point out a flaw in my write-up. The enemy commander can also develop a battle plan using tactics and the battle plans are compared against each other, so it is not a reaction skill. The enemy commander has to take just as long to develop the battle plan. However, unless one commander gets surprised, both commanders are always afforded the time for the initial battle plan (sort of pre-game stuff). However, if they wish to modify the plan mid-battle, as conditions do change as you noted, it takes time.

I know tactics is a poorly explained skill in the RAW and there will be a lot of differing opinions, but this version really has been capturing the feel I am looking for in my games very well.

I have been using Command to give extra bonuses to the automatic combined actions of capital ship crews (primarily weapons batteries and fighter squadrons), so allowing tactics to give an extra bonus to Command doesn't work for me in my games. I can see the case for a number of different variants and house rules, especially in the context of one's own collection of house rules.

[CRMcNeill]

The problem is even deeper than that, in that almost no players have a real-life grasp of what tactics entail, and none of them have actual experience with space-based tactical operations in a futuristic setting. I wrestled with this for years, trying to come up with a way to translate Tactics rolls into viable in-universe tactics, and mainly just came away from it frustrated. In the end, as with so many of my other house rules, I boiled it down to what affect it had on the dice.

The thing with Tactics and Command is that it's arguably more important what happens before battle is ever joined, based on the job the commander has done training, drilling and motivating his unit to perform the task at hand. The Command rules in the RAW are more representative of what you'd get with a scratch group thrown together some time yesterday afternoon who have no feel for how to operate as a whole. With a military unit who have trained and worked together, Tactics is more a matter of making minor changes (based on the terrain and opposition) to a plan you and your team have already rehearsed dozens of times.

The end result is that, because of that practice, the team will react more quickly, be better equipped to take advantage of specifics in terrain, and will know how to perform a given action (modified for circumstances) on a moment's notice. That translates into Dice Bonuses applied to the actual skills being used.

I'm still working on how best to represent it, but I can speak with certainty that the application of Tactics is a lot less rigid than saying it takes exactly one minute to perform. Circumstances will almost always require it to happen faster or (much) slower.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Dr. Bidlo]

I hear your points and am interested to see your house rules when you have then at a point you are ready to share. However, I did want to clarify that the rule to develop a battleplan using the tactics skill is not the only use of tactics - it is just a house rule I developed that translates to an initiative bonus if one commander has a superior battleplan.

My players do also use tactics as a single round action for specific requests, such as how to outmaneuver a large ship so it cannot bring most of its weapons to bare, how to divide large groups of starfighters, etc. This is usually done with a combination of ideas expressed by the players and the tactics roll. A really good idea with a poor tactics roll may still provide a benefit... The benefits from tactics used this way varies greatly. Sometimes it is a dice bonus, sometimes it is a hint, sometime missed actions for the enemy, etc.

[CRMcNeill]

Gotcha. That clears up a lot of my misgivings.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[schnarre]

...I've found that having a few old military field manuals for perusal helps a bit for those not with a military background or similar grasp on what all goes into tactics.

...An easy option I used in days past was for them to roll Tactics for whatever maneuver they had in mind, & then let the opposing commander do so as well to see if they caught on to what the players had intended.

...In the Rules Companion (1st Ed.), the had in the chapter on Capital Ship Combat the options: Anticipate Enemy, & Deceive Enemy. I think you could adapt something like that in the short-term.

...just my two credits worth!
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The man who thinks he knows everything is most annoying for those of us that do.

[CRMcNeill]

[Dredwulf60]

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