I'm going to be taking over an Age of Rebellion game soon, and I was thinking of having the PCs be Rebel agents sent to a system trying to drum up an insurgency against the local Imperials, and I came up with some thoughts on how to model managing the insurgency itself.
Obviously, the first step is to know that there is an insurgency/rebellion that is local that you can work with to achieve your goals. These missions are going to be a bit more standard, between tracking down, meeting with, negotiating with, and proving to your allies that you can help.
Insurgency Phase
So my idea is to have an "insurgency phase" at the beginning of the session. In this phase, the PCs will talk to the insurgent cell, and make a leadership check to make sure they will do what they are asked to do, and a Knowledge War to plan an operation.
The difficulty will be based on the "Threat Level" of the local Imperials. It will start low, so it won't be too hard to pull of simple actions.
I also wanted to track how long before the insurgency has enough momentum to topple the local Imperials, and the Imperials are weak enough for the final push. To this end, I want to track "victory points."
I also want different actions to do different things, and to have those actions be assigned when the Leadership check is made. For example:
Gather Supplies: 1 victory point if successful, threat level increases by 1 if unsuccessful.
Free Political Prisoners: 2 victory points if successful, threat level increases by 2 if unsuccessful.
Covertly Eliminate Corporate Assets: 3 victory points if successful, threat level increases by 3 if unsuccessful.
Covertly Eliminate Imperial Assets: 4 victory points if successful, threat level increases by 3 if unsuccessful, by 1 even if successful.
Overtly Take Out Corporate Asset: 4 victory points if successful, threat level increases by 3 if unsuccessful, by 1 even if successful.
Overtly Take out Imperial Asset: 5 victory points if successful, threat level goes up by 4 if successful, 2 if successful.
If the previous insurgent action was a failure, there is a setback die to the check. If the insurgency attempts the same action for two insurgency actions in a row, you gain a setback die. For each PC that doesn't participate in the Insurgency Action, the action takes a setback die.
I'm thinking about 100 victory points means the planet/system is ready to turn and you can move to your end game, which will be more standard adventures again. Once you take care of the insurgency action for the session, the PCs will still have a normal mission, possibly one that will help to ease the threat level before the next insurgency action is taken.
Each PC that takes part in the insurgency action makes a one roll combat check to see how they came out, which will likely affect them through the rest of the session on the "normal" mission. The one roll combat check doesn't need to be a combat check, however, just something that would make sense for what the character is doing to contribute to the mission as a whole.
Advantages might grant additional victory points, while a triumph on the Warfare check might yield a new asset that the party can use in their other missions. Threats on an unsuccessful check might erase victory points, and Despair might mean that members of the insurgency challenge the PCs violently, or a stealth squad of Imperials is waiting in the headquarters, or a bounty hunter has tracked them down, and this has to be dealt with before moving into the "normal" mission for the evening.
Threat Level
Threat level would start out at an appropriate level for the level of occupation on a world. If the Imperials are fairly certain they have a firm grip on the world, it might only start out at 2.
Once threat level reaches 5, each additional threat level actually upgrades the check. So a threat level 10 mission would require five red dice in opposition. Threat levels above 10 add setback dice for each level, so for a threat level 12 mission, you would roll five red dice and two black ones.
More Consequences
The other thing I'm thinking of doing is having the PCs make a fear check if they fail the insurgency phase, to reflect their shaken confidence in light of the overall insurgency goals, which would then affect them during their "normal" mission for the night.
Insurgency Phase
So my idea is to have an "insurgency phase" at the beginning of the session. In this phase, the PCs will talk to the insurgent cell, and make a leadership check to make sure they will do what they are asked to do, and a Knowledge War to plan an operation.
The difficulty will be based on the "Threat Level" of the local Imperials. It will start low, so it won't be too hard to pull of simple actions.
I also wanted to track how long before the insurgency has enough momentum to topple the local Imperials, and the Imperials are weak enough for the final push. To this end, I want to track "victory points."
I also want different actions to do different things, and to have those actions be assigned when the Leadership check is made. For example:
Gather Supplies: 1 victory point if successful, threat level increases by 1 if unsuccessful.
Free Political Prisoners: 2 victory points if successful, threat level increases by 2 if unsuccessful.
Covertly Eliminate Corporate Assets: 3 victory points if successful, threat level increases by 3 if unsuccessful.
Covertly Eliminate Imperial Assets: 4 victory points if successful, threat level increases by 3 if unsuccessful, by 1 even if successful.
Overtly Take Out Corporate Asset: 4 victory points if successful, threat level increases by 3 if unsuccessful, by 1 even if successful.
Overtly Take out Imperial Asset: 5 victory points if successful, threat level goes up by 4 if successful, 2 if successful.
If the previous insurgent action was a failure, there is a setback die to the check. If the insurgency attempts the same action for two insurgency actions in a row, you gain a setback die. For each PC that doesn't participate in the Insurgency Action, the action takes a setback die.
I'm thinking about 100 victory points means the planet/system is ready to turn and you can move to your end game, which will be more standard adventures again. Once you take care of the insurgency action for the session, the PCs will still have a normal mission, possibly one that will help to ease the threat level before the next insurgency action is taken.
Each PC that takes part in the insurgency action makes a one roll combat check to see how they came out, which will likely affect them through the rest of the session on the "normal" mission. The one roll combat check doesn't need to be a combat check, however, just something that would make sense for what the character is doing to contribute to the mission as a whole.
Advantages might grant additional victory points, while a triumph on the Warfare check might yield a new asset that the party can use in their other missions. Threats on an unsuccessful check might erase victory points, and Despair might mean that members of the insurgency challenge the PCs violently, or a stealth squad of Imperials is waiting in the headquarters, or a bounty hunter has tracked them down, and this has to be dealt with before moving into the "normal" mission for the evening.
Threat Level
Threat level would start out at an appropriate level for the level of occupation on a world. If the Imperials are fairly certain they have a firm grip on the world, it might only start out at 2.
Once threat level reaches 5, each additional threat level actually upgrades the check. So a threat level 10 mission would require five red dice in opposition. Threat levels above 10 add setback dice for each level, so for a threat level 12 mission, you would roll five red dice and two black ones.
More Consequences
The other thing I'm thinking of doing is having the PCs make a fear check if they fail the insurgency phase, to reflect their shaken confidence in light of the overall insurgency goals, which would then affect them during their "normal" mission for the night.
