Rotating Chair Campaign

By JJMicromegas, in Imperial Assault Campaign

Hello, I am considering running a 'rotating chair' campaign. The idea is to tailor the campaign to a large club where players can come in and out for each mission rather than a small group of dedicated players. Basically each interested player picks one of the six heroes, and whoever shows up on a given night will use their hero, all of the heroes will get XP and gear for each mission. There will still be one Imperial player.

I have only played the first mission of the campaign, does anyone foresee any problems with this?

I'm doing something similar, although so far we've had the same four heroes plus a fifth Rebel player using Fenn's skirmish card as an ally. Tonight one of the regulars is absent though, so I'm going to let Fenn's player upgrade to full hero status and give him xp/cash equal to the missing player to spend before the game.

I don't think it should really effect balance too much, the only issue would be managing how much extra equipment you let them buy. I'd suggest keeping equipment assigned to each hero, and only letting them swap between the heroes who are present for each mission, if that makes sense. Otherwise the extra cash might provide an accidental boost to the Rebel players.

I can see two issues. I am a strict Rules-As-Written player, so my issues are largely based on not being allowed to make any house rules.

Rebel gear is partly communal through the credits being awarded after completing missions. There is not enough credits doled out to allow every Hero to get every item. This could lead to whichever hero shows up the least also being the one with no upgrades (beyond the XP ones). Technically, you can share the credit-bought items between players, but most are not useful for all heroes. This would lead to weaker Rebel side later in the game as the credits meant for 4 heroes has been divided out amongst 6 heroes. Additionally, reward items can't be traded so whichever hero gets it, keeps it forever.

Secondly, how do you plan to deal with the specific Hero side missions? What if that Hero does not show up the day you run his or her side mission?

Edited: My suggestion would be to play with the same 4 Heroes throughout the campaign and then just let your Rebel players control whichever Hero they fancy that particular session.

Edited by tth

I would suggest get the campaign tracker app and save each group in it's own campaign so you can track their funds items and XP separately. When Group A does a mission, log it group B's campaign. That way they won't be spending each others money, and won't be under geared.

Edited by ArbitraryGamer

I can see two issues. I am a strict Rules-As-Written player, so my issues are largely based on not being allowed to make any house rules.

Rebel gear is partly communal through the credits being awarded after completing missions. There is not enough credits doled out to allow every Hero to get every item. This could lead to whichever hero shows up the least also being the one with no upgrades (beyond the XP ones). Technically, you can share the credit-bought items between players, but most are not useful for all heroes. This would lead to weaker Rebel side later in the game as the credits meant for 4 heroes has been divided out amongst 6 heroes. Additionally, reward items can't be traded so whichever hero gets it, keeps it forever.

Secondly, how do you plan to deal with the specific Hero side missions? What if that Hero does not show up the day you run his or her side mission?

Edited: My suggestion would be to play with the same 4 Heroes throughout the campaign and then just let your Rebel players control whichever Hero they fancy that particular session.

Thanks all for the feedback and for things to consider. I think a house rule or two would be fine as long as it doesn't significantly affect the campaign.

I think the gear problem will require a modification to the campaign rules so that items can be traded in for their full credit and can be swapped between heroes (kind of like a free trade agreement amongst rebels). To prevent abuse of the system, only heroes that aren't taking part in the current mission can sell their gear at full price, others must sell at half price as usual.

With regard to 'side missions', this is easier, if there is a side mission for a hero that doesn't show up in the active deck, replace it with a random hero's side mission of the ones that showed up.

I do think the easier thing to do is to just keep the four heroes though so I'll see what my players prefer.

Regards.