OK, so this might be better suited in the AoR forums, but this one has by far a greater 'footfall'

I had a random idea.... for when my players join the Rebellion.

During large scale operations, where various activities by different groups might effect things for others, I was considering... putting the PCs to one side, dolling out a few specific but random NPC/PCs (For example starfighter squadron leaders), giving each player one of those, and a squadron, and fighting out a standalone battle... the outcome of which would effect the PCs.

The death or loss of said NPCs means little to the PCs, since its not the primary characters, so I wouldnt worry about TPKs, but depending on what they achieve may well effect the core group in the "story".

Do you think this would work? Is it that simple? Wheres the holes? How would I fix them? Am I dreaming of ideas that wouldnt work?

Thoughts?

RD

There's the Mass Combat rules in Onslaught at Arda.

The success of such a plan may depend greatly on your players. I know some people who would be all for playing a random mook though a side story. I also know people who would be bored or annoyed because they want to play their character/team's story, not the very short life of Mook 1138. I would definitely run it by your group before you put too much energy into the idea. In the end, honestly, I think it's a lot of game time for minimal gain.

Arda's mass combat rules are..... a little situational. You have to build the battle around them. You can do it, it works fine, I'm just saying it's not a clean plug n play is all. Be ready to do (roughly) the same amount of work as setting up an encounter string.

Edit: Just to expand on this:

The GM screen also has instructions for allowing a PC to lead Minion groups, and it's configured to work with both dismounted infantry as well as vehicle squadrons. It's good, works fine, but if the players are the type to get survivors guilt they my not like it as the system is designed to divert hits intended for the PCs over to the minions.

As for a "hole" let the players know you're planning this ahead of time so you can build the Alts to their liking and interest. I've done the "Here, you're playing this character for this scene" thing before and the players got along, but were a little confused about how to use the characters I'd handed them (even though they weren't really all that different from the player's mains).

I have a plan to finish my campaign in Battle of Hoth. I already sketched the whole base infiltration, and the outside battle, as mass combat... with plans for each character to participate in the battle in different sections, leading different parts of the battle. All in accordance with mass combat and squads/squadrons rules.

I encountered several problems and already have ideas to smooth things-

1. Separating the party. Each section of the battle will have a main PC, while the other players will play NPCs which are part of his squad or situation. Which will turn the end of the campaign to a 5 part arc, with each session dedicated to other PCs, eventually they all die heroically of course
   
2. The empire win. In accordance with my style of running, everything goes according to cannon, the PCs can not change the way the story ends. Hopefully this will be handled Out-of-Character, in a talk with the players, as we did so far with cannon heavy scenes and stories.
   
3. Overpowering the empire due to PCs level. Currently the almost all PCs have 500 xp on them, some of them are already in their 3rd specialization, and have the most advanced gear.
   
   Eventually each PC will encounter "cannon branching" enemies, which are already reacquiring to up the levels of enemies. Such as- Dark troopers, Inquisitors, battle droids, elite bounty hunters, prototype vehicles, monstrous creatures etc. All this did not participate in Battle of Hoth, but unfortunately the challenge needs to be great for the players to feel they are outmatched.

Eventually each PC will encounter "cannon branching" enemies, which are already reacquiring to up the levels of enemies. Such as- Dark troopers, Inquisitors, battle droids, elite bounty hunters, prototype vehicles, monstrous creatures etc. All this did not participate in Battle of Hoth, but unfortunately the challenge needs to be great for the players to feel they are outmatched.

That doesn't have to be the case at all though. In the particilar example of the battle of Hoth, the rebellions objectives was a quick evac. Thus the Rebellion isn't overly committed to fighting to the last man, even if the PC's are (thus they will be steadily withdrawing). The other exception is that the imperial's objectives on the ground are not to destory the rebellion necessarily; but to destory the sheild generator so that the superior air support can commence an immediate bombardment. No matter how good the PC's are, they can't hope to continue fighting forever. They will certainly be able to win the battles that they face (and make them aware of that; that their section was able to hold out way longer then expectations!) but that the evac order comes in and the remaining troops immediately begin a rapid pullback.

The best way to challange such players that are "beastly in combat" is to give them objectives that don't involve the wiping out of every foe. We are about to engage in our next epic battle (the Empire has taken an elite strikeforce to bring Hutt Space into the imperial fold, consisting of 4 Star Destoryers, including a intidictor and escorts.) where we intend to attack the flagship Star Destoryer to cripple their chain of command, Our objective is to kill or capture Admiral Rathbone, and possibly cripple the Star Destoryer, the "Rykenback." Our group might be exceptionally strong at ground combat, but theres no illusions that we could still well lose the battle, even if we succeed in taking the head of the snake off depending on how the Hutt Defence fleet preform. If we succeed, we can drastically shift the scales even though we can't end the battle, reflected in a loss of leadership/generation of advantage.

On that note: I think the idea of playing a different perspective is "cool", but I would try and keep it fairly simple. If the group do exceedingly well at their activity, then it either gives the core party an advantage, or otherwise gives the mass scale battle itself additional boost. I would only grant upgrades to the check if the actions sangificantly change the course of battle (for example, the battle of Alder1 crippling the leading walkers gave that bonus, as they were forced to proceed on foot. The rebellion overall had an outstanding advantage, but they weren't able to win.)

Thanks for the feedback, Lordbiscuit. You gave me a lot to think of.