Hi. I developed a very short set of rules for use of civilians in friendly games, which can be added pretty much to any mission in any system. The idea is to bring a little bit of chaos and uncertainty to the table - civilians in this set of rules are close to being an interactive terrain. I have not playtested it yet, but I thought I would share it a perhaps get some feedback from more experienced players. I have several other ideas that are similar in a way to this, but I have to rafine them before sharing ;) PDF with the rules is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11WOuGYfQj62C49ZljYuyJNy1aXepMag-/view?usp=sharing
Love "Artificial Idiocy"! Should definitely be a rule in its own right, e.g. "A Civilian must move towards the nearest model, (regardless of enemy/friendly/civilian), even getting into Base-to-Base if possible. However they must move directly away from whoever attacked them last." (Civilian: "Hello, can you help me?", Trooper: "Get away from me!" <thwack>, Civilian: "Help! Help!") Other than that bit of humour, it looks like a really good idea & solid basis; if I get a chance, I'll post some ideas for making it better/easier.
Is that really artificial? Sounds quite natural to me :D (anyway this interpratation of AI abreviation is not from my head. I read it somewhere long time ago - sound kinda like Pratchett, by I am not sure ;) ) The idea for this is to have it very streamlined so it does not slow down the game (well, at least not much). Also with the Scared rule it could be quite tactical as you can herd the civilians in positions that benefit you and actually hurt the opponent. I am glad you like it ;) Any thoughts and help is appreciated.
Just for fun: - Impersonators in panic area can attempt to re-enter IMP state even if enemy has LoF to them. In that case, however, they must pass WIP-6 roll. - AROs generated by this action are not resolved until roll is made, and are cancelled if WIP roll is passed. If any weapons with Disposable trait were declared to be used in that ARO, they will not expend any charges upon its cancellation. - Negative mod to WIP for this roll is reduced by 3 for every overlapping panic area after the first the impersonator is in contact with, up to a total WIP+0.
That is a great idea - vanishing in the crowd. Perhaps this could be applied also to reentering other marker states. It would still make sense, I think. Also perhaps troops with biosensor might by able to react immediately or nullify the possibility to do that alltogether.
Maybe. Alternatively, other environmental elements can be added for specific states. Yes, that crossed my mind, but I was just presenting a "cinematic" concept rather than some thought-out rule :P
Didn't have much time yesterday, so thought I'd just post that idea & then expand more today... Was mainly thinking "Artificial Idiocy" would replace "Scared", and just apply for AROs - whilst having a "Civilian Phase" sounds good, it might be better to try to avoid adding extra "phases". My other ideas were to streamline "Panic!" so that it's simply; Civilians don't block LoS/LoF. If you shoot through a Civilian's Silhouette then it counts as shooting into Close-Combat, (with the -6 being "hit the Civilian"). You could even give Civilians a slightly larger Silhouette to account for them running around. A few other possibilities; Civilians have a Flash Pulse, (camera), that they'll use on anyone they see activating :- "Oh wow! That's a great looking gun!" If you successfully heal a Civilian then you get +1OP, (or equivalent), thus redeeming yourself for accidentally wounding someone.
I see your point. But I am afraid that would slow the game down quite a bit - there might be quite a lot of AROs. Having a special phase just allows you to move the civilians a just have them standing there for the rest of the round with no need to care about when to move them or how to ARO. That is the idea of Panic! Y (the second bullet). As for the Silhouette, perhaps S4 could come in handy - it is wider (running around) but a little bit shorter then S2 (which could represent ducking). The bad thing is, it would also mean, you can actually shoot over them :/ Not blocking LoS/LoF is the current property of Civies (according to wiki), so I didn't mentioned it here. But you are right - it should be explicitly specified. Great! Perhaps the camera could work like a mine :) It would mean, there is no roll required from the Civie and it would also be resolved automaticaly (upon entering the trigger area) Also with these rules coming, I am thinking of making it modular so you could mix the rules you like and are fun for you (and also bringing variety to games). Of course, only one set of rules would be used in one game. I think I can try to design some simple cards to track the rules easily :) I know - I wanted it to be simple :) But your idea presented some aspects that can affect tactics quite a bit and it is worth to explore these possibilities ;)
So, I put together first draft of how it could work with the cards - basicaly there is a big "base card", that defines the alignment of the trooper a additional "rule cards" that customize the civilians for current game. You can basicaly mix the rules in any way you like. Currently I put together the cards for my original ruleset + the "man in the crowd" rule proposed by Barrogh. I'll put together the Mightymuffins "Instagramer" rule too as well as other "base card" with different alignment (the one that allows you to actually kill the civies).
