[Smiling Friendship Alpha Squad] New Game overview and a ?

[SPDuke]

Hi, folks!  Longtime lurker, here, finally ready to lay it on the line.  The following is a brief description of a game I've been working on a lot lately.  This is merely an overview.  These are the main concepts in the game, but this barely gets into the mechanics.  If you are interested in knowing more of how the mechanics work, let me know in your response.  I just wanted to give you guys enough to answer my questions:  Has this sort of thing been done a million times?  Is this interesting?  Does it make you curious to know more?

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Smiling Friendship Alpha Squad (working title)
Prospectus

1. Overview

1.1 Smiling Friendship Alpha Squad (SFAS) is a role-playing game focused on dungeon delving and physical conflict.  Players are welcome to embellish and develop their characters, but game mechanics are focused on conflict management and resolution.  SFAS uses a conventional 1 GM/1-or-more players structure.

1.2 Like most RPGs, SFAS narrative is focused on one character per player, the Hero(es), but each Hero must form a band of characters known as a Squad.  The Hero and the squad members are all known as Units, and a squad may have up to 5 units, including the Hero.  Units are recruited into the squad and developed as the squad gains experience.

1.3 In combat, rather than having each player decide what each of his units does during his combat turn, the squads all act as one, performing tactics.  The tactics available to a squad at any given time depends on which unit has been nominated as the squad's leader for the turn, with each unit having a unique set of tactics in their repertoire.

1.4 Although SFAS is combat and strategy-heavy, my goal was to make it fast-paced--more like a trading card game and less like a miniature game.  Therefore, all particulars of combat common to miniature games or DnD3 (distances, measuring, facing, terrain, etc. . .) have been discarded in favor of a few simple rules that can be kept track of without the use of a lot of physical space.

   1.4.1 Proximity.  Distances between squads noted by proximity, either Combat, Missile, Scouting, or Unengaged.  Certain tactics can only be used at certain proximity from other squads.
   1.4.2 Encounter Conditions.  Things like weather, light, type of terrain, etc. . . are all noted at the beginning of an encounter and apply standard modifiers.
   1.4.3 Tactical Advantage Points (TAPs)  Over the course of an encounter, a squad will gain and spend TAPs.  TAPs roughly measure how tactically fit a squad is.  Certain tactics will require squads to spend TAPs.  For example, in a miniature game you would have to physically position your character to flank an enemy.  In SFAS you may gain TAPs and then spend them to use a flanking tactic.

1.5 Tactics are divided into four traditional categories--Warfare, Expertise, Magic, Divinity (along the warrior, rogue, mage, priest paradigm).  Each unit is scored in each of these skills.  When a squad leader uses one of her Warfare tactics, for example, the squad's collective score in Warfare is factored into the success roll.  Damage and the like will depend on the tactic used and various other factors like weapons and armor.
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Thanks for reading and let me know!

Peace,

Steve

[mutex]

Hello,

Is it that each player has a squad of there own?
Why five members maximum?

I like the way they fight as a collective.  That's a good feature right there.  It reminds me of Breath of Fire 3.  Very configurable and whatnot.  However, unless you can break up squads for various delving purposes, you basically just end up with a highly configurable single character represented by multiple characters.  Hmmm, so maybe you can explore other ways in which the Squads are meaningful from a game standpoint.

[Jason Morningstar]

Welcome!

First of all the name completely rocks, but I expected something very different from what you are proposing based on it.  It sounds very Paranoia/goofy dystopia to me, or maybe whacked-out kung-fu movie.  Or book burners in a theocratic dictatorship.  Any of which would be awesome and entirely possible within your design constraints.

Maybe tell as a bt more about what the game is about, and what the players do.  I think I get what the characters are supposed to do. 

A general question - why a GM?  What does a GM do in SFAS?  It seems like a highly tactical game like this really doesn't need someone to fill that role. 

--Jason

[SPDuke]

Fantastic questions!  All of these are things I certainly need to think about.

Is it that each player has a squad of there own?
Why five members maximum?

Yes, each player has their own squad.  I'm exploring how much player squads should be able to support each other, but I'm fairly sure they will act very independently.  Five member max. is a fairly arbitrary "working" number at this point.  My thinking was that a player looking for a balanced squad could have 4 units dedicated to the 4 skills, plus the Hero.  However, I'm expecting a lot of players will want squad that aren't so balanced, but excel in certain situations.  Also, a unit develops by gaining Ranks.  A squad's relative strength equals the sum of all unit Ranks.  Initially I thought a level 20 squad with five Rank 4 units can easily beat a level 20 squad with ten Rank 2 units.  However, perhaps I should allow players (and myself) to explore the possibilities of the latter squad.  I'll definately look into that.

However, unless you can break up squads for various delving purposes, you basically just end up with a highly configurable single character represented by multiple characters.  Hmmm, so maybe you can explore other ways in which the Squads are meaningful from a game standpoint.

Frankly, I'd be satisfied with the "highly configurable single character" paradigm.  In fact, that was my original idea for the game, and I'm astonished by how easily you cut to the heart of it!  However, I've been thinking perhaps a player can have a pool of reserve unit from which she creates a squad for individual adventures.  (Perhaps all players share this pool but create individual squads from it.)  The parameters of the squad would be defined by the adventure.  For instance, one adventure could be level 25, and the players must form level 25 squads.  Perhaps the adventure calls for more Divinity-based units or more Expertise-type units.

First of all the name completely rocks, but I expected something very different from what you are proposing based on it.

I agree with both counts.  Smiling Friendship Alpha Squad was a I name I came up with only for the purposes of posting.  I thought it would stand out.  My real working title is "squads" which is infinitely forgetable and probably already taken on the boards.

Maybe tell as a bt more about what the game is about, and what the players do

. . . why a GM?  What does a GM do in SFAS?  It seems like a highly tactical game like this really doesn't need someone to fill that role.

The game world uses fantasy tropes formed loosely along the political lines of colonial America.  There are 9 factions grouped into 3 alliances-- the defending Natives (in this case gnomes, elves, trolls, orcs, faeries, etc. . .), the invading Empire, and the quickly-gaining-autonomy Colonists.  It's the Heroes' job to develop a crack squad that will further the agenda of their faction and alliance.  The GM's role is to present the players with different missions (each with various victory conditions) for the Heroes' squads, to further shape or focus the broader narrative story of the conflicting factions, and to play for the non-player squads (all monsters/enemies are technically formed into squads, even if only a squad of 1).  That said, it could certainly be fun for players to simply form up squads and go after each other, and in the final product (I'm thinking pdfs) perhaps I'll include a set of scenarios with various victory conditions if players would rather go that route.

Thanks again for all your input!  I'll let you know how things develop.

-Steve

[Bill Masek]

Steve,

From the little bit you've given us to work with, this game sounds great.  The idea of the available tactics being defined by the individual units sounds like a lot of fun.  Post a link with the rules so we can give you more feed back!

Best,
        Bill