Regarding Battle Interactives…

Never make any assumptions when you say val’Mehan…

(I will be one in Tier 5…)

~T

Hello,

I have mixed feelings about Battle Interactives, primarily because while I enjoy the event, the inevitable complaining that follow immediately after is disheartening – the fights were too hard, the fights were too easy, I wasn’t challenged enough, my GM sucked, the story personally offended me because (pick a psuedo-trigger), etc., etc., ad nasuseum.

I applaud the efforts of Tony, Joe, Matt and Cody in designing an event that created a hybrid LARP/BI, but we don’t have the ability to do that format at Origins, given we are also offering a LARP due to popular demand (and yet more complaining about its absence last year).

Additionally, due to the amount of grief Eric received from running last year’s Invasion of Tultipet, he will not be narrating this years BI. I will.

I am still designing the event, but here’s what you may expect:

This is a pure BATTLE INTERACTIVE – where warring factions clash to achieve an objective by (primarily) martial means.

While I am changing the format slightly there may or may not be moments for your non-combat Heroes to shine. If you have a diplomat, go to the LARP where roleplaying such a character will have its benefits. (I’m changing a few things there as well).

This is a LETHAL event. I will be using the Massive Damage Rules. Heroes may fall in this battle. If you do not want to take the chance of this happening with your character, don’t bring him/her to the BI.

These events take a lot of work and planning from a number of people and that’s not even counting the unsung heroes of every BI, the judges!

If you enjoy this sort of thing, then please join us at Origins. I will try to write a compelling adventure that strings together what I hope to be challenging fights.

But know this: NO ONE IS OUT TO KILL YOUR CHARACTER. Not me. Not the GM or Campaign Staff.

We like you (well, the vast majority of you) and speaking for myself, I do not like killing characters (unless you’re in my Home Game, then you’ll probably be mangled horribly). But this is war and good people (the Heroes) die in ugly ways.

One last thing – I have been told by some that the ubiquitous “THEY” have said that this is all predetermined; that the Heroes will always win.

This offends me.

I work out in advance what the most likely outcomes will be in case of a Win, Lose or Draw. I was perfectly willing for the Fiendish Expanse to roll down into the Hinterlands if you didn’t kill Uhxbractits. I was completely ready for the possibility of the First City being under siege by the Unholy Alliance of dwarves, giants, Tzizhet – controlled Voei and Malfelan elorii. It would have made certain stories rough to tell, but I had a plan for it. This takes extra effort and work on my part, so hearing such things bother me.

So yes – your victories do matter and the story line is affected by the outcomes of these Battle Interactives.

See you there!

Hi Henry,

That’s kind of funny. Because I too have a few mixed feelings about BIs. On the one hand they’re great flagship events that bring pretty much all the Arcaniacs at Origins into one room to fight or die as they leave a finger print on the fabric of the Arcanis Campaign. That’s close to pure awesome. I probably wouldn’t attend Origins w/o the Arcanis Special events. But on the other hand I worry that the time and energy that goes into them wouldn’t be better spent at the moment putting out another 5ish 1 round modules for home campaign over the year. In Oregon developing the player base suffers from a lack of new material. And I also worry a little that people who don’t make Origins or Arcaniscon (ie. most players in Oregon and Washington) miss important elements of the story like Tultipet.

=/ It’s true you can’t please everyone all the time.

I think “Uncle Eric” has been a great narrator, and not just because we share the same name! I’m sorry to hear that there is a *They* out there that hasn’t enjoyed him leading the BIs. But story time with Uncle Henry has always been the best. So I’m really looking forward to seeing you there for the BI!

Can’t wait for the teasers.

Additionally, due to the amount of grief Eric received from running last year’s Invasion of Tultipet, he will not be narrating this years BI. I will.

See you there!

I wish to appologize for any griefing I may have contributed to last year. At times it is easy to forget that the person on the other end of the critizism is a person who is contributing to a hobbie in their spare time.

Some of my thoughts about BIs…

1) I have written them (or parts of them) for other (previous) campaigns so I understand AND appreciate the work that goes into them. So thanks to everyone that has taken that on and continues to do so.

2) I want to reinforce the notion that it is a complete waste of time to worry about the complaints and gripes of a small number of each group of players. Not that they should be ignored, but far more people are willing to expend great energy to complain than what they will to praise. And in some cases the complainers -should- be ignored, imo.
But I have also learned in my career that (constructive) criticism is a gift. Everyone can learn from it and improve their efforts. I have seen where some people get so close to their writings for a campaign (regular or special events) that they take comments far harder than they should.

3) I want BIs to -matter- in unique and original ways for the ongoing story of the campaign. I want every scene to have an impact on the outcome of the story for the specific BI, which should of course have some world impact. These events affecting the story on a much larger scale is what sets Arcanis apart of other campaigns.
I think for a while they came down to some pretty standard encounters – kill the scouts, capture some supplies, take the pass, hold the line, stop a ritual – until there was a final encounter (or 2) that really determined things.

4) I want them to be deadly. These are events of WAR, and that comes down to individuals and groups risking their hides in the chaos of battle.
These role/roll -playing games are best when there is a balance between the acting and the strategy of the rules. I like the randomness of rolling dice to determine outcomes. I like the effort put into designing a character that is social and combat effective (at some things, at least). I like the tactics one could use on the battle map. I like visuals like cool (accurate) minis and 3d terrain!
I for one loved the Tultipet BI. It had serious risk, there was progress towards pushing into the fortress. There were some good surprises and great combats (Josh tell people about the 4-5(?) time string of Eye For an Eyes we had with the Malfellans! We role-played and roll-played the crap out of that thing!!

5) I am now and have usually been part of a group of players that is familiar with each other (and their PCs). We want to be challenged in story and combat ways. We are efficient and effective in most situations. We are often outcome geared players and characters, we want to be on the edge of risk and reward. We want to feel that risk factor, its what heightens the enjoyment when the group succeeds.

I have more, but this is enough for now I ‘spose!

In past years (but not last year) I have organized a BI group in advance, and we have actually worked out tactics in advance of the BI, discussed what spells everyone has, planned for different contingencies. Some of my favourite RPG memories are at battle interactives. It is incredibly nerdy to say so, but there is a definite adrenaline rush knowing that you have a certain amount of time to reach your objective, and that you will be captured/killed if you fail.

There are ways to get around not having enough local players, if you reach out and plan in advance.

@Rick. Do you have any ideas for novel types of BI encounters? Especially that you’d like to see?

I remember being blown away by the first Battle of Semar because it was so well organized compared to any other BI I had ever seen…even the cool ones like Living City’s Naval BI. Its hard to imagine now but the LC Navy BI lacked discrete encounters. Things happened sequentially, in one of three locations, but it was fuzzy how PCs could get from one to the other…or how rounds from one area interacted with the others. The loudest players tended to dominate the event.

The encounter structure in Semar was well defined and at the time it was gloriously new. But we’re often victims of our own success. Most BIs i see now follow a similar format. What was once revolutionary has now become a norm. Not that LA has rested on its laurels. For example 4 Armies, Enpyben and Solonos Mor were all pretty unique for allowing PCs to fight on different sides. Still I don’t know how many BIs this campaign and others have done, but I’m guessing improvements and novelty is a lot harder these days.

Arcaniscon has done an amazing job the two years I have seen, of trying new things within this broad format. IMO the vault of Larissa was the most innovative and enjoyable design I’ve seen since Semar or Enpyben. Huge kudos there.

Origins being Origins we’re pretty much limited to a 8 hour slot (though we all know they often go long). That might limit some of the things that have gotten tried at Arcaniscon. But certainly not all.

So while we’re thinking about BIs, if anyone has cool ideas they want to suggest fire away.

I know it is a major pain for PCI, but possibly each BI could have a format similar to this:

Scene 1 – Common scene where all the heroes face the same foe/scenario. For example, “you are all outside the city after learning of an invasion and now have to return with enemies at your heels.”

Scene 2 – Variable encounter with three different missions which can be chosen by each table. Allow 5 minutes for players to change tables if they desire. For example, you could have the usual ‘hold the gates’ (melee-heavy), ‘hold the walls’ (ranged heavy), or ‘special mission’ (such as a roleplaying encounter to rally troops and negotiate tactics/command/etc).

Scene 3 – Common scene where all the Heroes from the previous Scene must face some kind of challenge. For example, “enemy troops have managed to find a tunnel into the city, and you have to defend X civilians who are trying to escape.” (sucks for ‘non-combat’ types, but sometimes you have to get your hands dirty I guess )

Scene 4 – Variable encounter with three different missions which can be chosen by each table. Allow 5 minutes for players to change tables if they desire. For example, you could have a ‘hold the city’ encounter (combat heavy), ‘infiltration’ (stealth-focused), and a ‘special mission’ for some plot device allowed by only a single table based on success rate (as reported by GMs)?

MEAL BREAK

Continue this alternating scheme after the break, until we reach the crescendo!

I know a lot of BI’s already do this to one extent or another, but I personally always feel rushed whenever I play and this gives people the option of switching tables. Hell, as with the example of ‘gate/wall/negotiating’ it can add variety for the next scene where you face common enemies based on where they were at the time. For example, anyone defending the gate will be plastered against the wall and have to fight their way out, people on the walls will be able to snipe enemies but otherwise let baddies kill civilians unchecked, and people ‘negotiating’ will have to defend NPC’s while the baddies swarm whatever building they are in (close quarters combat in a small room).

I know we can’t do cookie-cutter things, but it is a thought.