When you run an AoR campaign what are some examples of how much freedom the characters have to be out of touch with command? It seems like in movies like Rogue One you have the troops that are stationed on Yavin and are in full time war footing duty. They probably have duty shifts and sleep plan with a little bit of personal time squeezed in. This would seem to me to be the heaviest type of "leash" on the players, putting them in a situation where they are accountable for their whereabouts at all times.

But you could also have characters who barely ever hear from their handler and are more or less operating UNODIR. Espionage games, Privateer games, are some examples of characters being way off the leash.

And then I guess there would be hybrid games where the players are off the leash quite a bit but come back into the fold of command and the forces every so often. So what have been your best types of games for AoR concerning how much freedom the players have had?

2 hours ago, Archlyte said:

When you run an AoR campaign what are some examples of how much freedom the characters have to be out of touch with command? It seems like in movies like Rogue One you have the troops that are stationed on Yavin and are in full time war footing duty. They probably have duty shifts and sleep plan with a little bit of personal time squeezed in. This would seem to me to be the heaviest type of "leash" on the players, putting them in a situation where they are accountable for their whereabouts at all times.

But you could also have characters who barely ever hear from their handler and are more or less operating UNODIR. Espionage games, Privateer games, are some examples of characters being way off the leash.

And then I guess there would be hybrid games where the players are off the leash quite a bit but come back into the fold of command and the forces every so often. So what have been your best types of games for AoR concerning how much freedom the players have had?

I had to look up the unodir (UNless Otherwise DIRected) acronym.

Droids process reports and bringing what's most important to the attention of organics in charge would make the unodir practice less feasible

Oh now see I thought that was fun and anachronistic though

I've tried to run my AoR Campaign in the UNODIR fashion... I have to admit though I think I'm going to change things & introduce handler just to focus things a little more. I've been starting to think just lately that it's going to take a long time to get to the main point, i.e. what the main mission is, of the campaign if i don't do this. So I'm thinking of a few missions handed out to them that will reveal what's actually going on & get them thinking what they need to do to combat that will get things on track again.

I try & give my players as much freedom as possible most of the time but I'm finding running an AoR campaign to be more taxing in terms of coming up with stuff for them to do than I imagined... Whilst combat is exciting I don't feel I can keep throwing that at them as that's going to get stale for both me & my group pretty quickly.... we all like a bit of variety in our games.

It may be my fault in giving them too big an area to operate in (I designed a Sub Sector for them) I suppose.

I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around the UnODir acronym so I'm NOT going to use it . . . (Maybe).

I'm the GM for an AOR/FnD campaign and we've been at this for almost a year and while I'm scared that I'll run out of information and new stuff for the group to do that hasn't happened yet. Not even close.

There are a couple of assumptions that I've made as a GM that may be unique, but they are important to the flavor of the campaign.

1. FTL communication is expensive and difficult. Sure the Empire has access to the tech but it requires some expensive technology and it's inconvenient. So those wrist band holo comms that were used to talk peer to peer across the galaxy are OUT. Indeed, I figure that FTL audio visual communications require access to a bulky node that is all routed through a switch on Coruscant. So the Empire can communicate with A/V across the Galaxy but it's not the first choice. Similarly this tech is wonderful for transmitting batch data (Reports, invoices, text only docs, pdf's, jpeg's), but those can be lost in the bureaucratic shuffle.
2. There is an impenetrable wall between Hyperspace and Realspace that is breachable only with hyperdrives. The other assumption that I have is that objects in hyperspace do NOT interact with each-other. So a pair of X-Wings that are flying in formation from Point A to Point B through Hyperspace will not be able to communicate with each other. I also assume that if a Hyperdrive malfunctions while in hyperspace, the vessel drops right back out . . . or is lost forever (Roll up new characters).

The player characters in this campaign are members of a Special Operations Group (SOG) and they are tasked with working on special projects. They operate autonomously and based on the FLT travel & Comms limits in my campaign, pretty much as soon as they leave their base system, they are incommunicado. They can't call Star Fleet Command on a whim and get an update. If they get into trouble, there's no one to call for help.

I'm also relying on my NPC's to keep this campaign interesting. Everywhere they go, there's someone new to meet and I try to keep things interesting in that manner. I'm not afraid to stir in some local trouble and side quests as distractions.

And on pain of repeating myself, I try to set the tone for a new world by how the starports are operated. On Roon, there's not much traffic control and if anyone approaches the group it's to offer "protection." Sulust is a poisonous world and the starports are located underground and accessible via force field locks to keep the good air in and the bad air out. And since you've just flown through a toxic environment, solicitous helpful "cleaners" are available to scrub down your ship at a reasonable price. Queyta was a quaint agricultural world but it sports three competing starports. The cleaners are volunteers and most of them are more interested in getting OFF planet and anywhere more interesting than the flat agriplains of Queyta. Otherwise services are pretty cheap and people are warm and inviting. Bothawui has three or four very powerful fleets orbiting the planet in very distinct quadrants but the Bothans don't seem to have any military in site. Getting on world is easy enough and the port attendant just has a couple of simple and friendly questions. If you cooperate, they'll top off your ship at no cost. The first questions is invariably, "Who is your sponsor?" Nar Shaddaa isn't a bad place to visit. No really. No one is going to question you walking down the street with a heavy blaster but you won't be out of place. In fact, you'd probably better bring it along with you. Prices are a bit higher than everywhere else, but if you need something "rare" or "restricted" odds are that you can find a seller (or buyer) . . . for the right price. So Nar Shaddaa is a wonderful place to visit, unless you don't have a Hutt Patron . . . . Eriadu is a major nexus of traffic and is a highly industrial world with almost no consideration for environmental cleanliness. Factories belch smoke, strip mining is the norm and thousands of ships traverse and interact at the port daily. Transportation and starport services are highly efficient (out of necessity) but no one is going to make trouble if you don't. Pay your fees and ship out ASAP 'cause there's anther ship already waiting for that berth.

So I'm shaking things up by giving each world a unique "flavor."

What the player characters DO in that environment is up to them. For better or worse. Sometimes the characters complete their mission with minimal fuss and leave quietly. Sometimes they blast their way off with TIE Fighters screaming past them and Imperial Star Destroyers lobbing Heavy Turbo Laser blaster bolts at them. All based on how the PC's execute the mission and what decisions they make.

But in short, I give the players enough rope to tie a noose.

I typically set up the players as some kind of special mission team, allowing them to get their initial marching orders and then work out the details of the mission themselves.

That said... I'm working on applying a tighter-arced, more cinematic story structure these days, with one intent being to better apply adventures/stories to a wider variety of campaign scenarios. While Spec-Ops is certainly cool, I'd love to be able to run a campaign where the players are more conventional forces. You know, put the players in the trenches.