I am curious as to how you handle the usual briefings for your Kill-Teams. Do you provide them with primary, secondary and tertiary objectives designated as such ?

As a VERY simplified example: primary: get to the camp and eliminate the leader, secondary: destroy the armoury, tertiary: eliminate at least three squads worth of enemies, destroy the barracks, destroy the comm center.

From time to time it is nice to have hidden objectives, or having the kill team figure out what to do as they go. But it is the typical situation i am more interested in. Especially the disclosure of possible tertiaries is a big question for me.

tkis said:

In introductory scenarios I reveal all of them. Beyond that, it totally depends on the mission. Some primary objectives might become apparent in the course of action. Targets of Opportunity might be apparent at the time of briefing. Others might become only during the mission. Again, for starters it might be a good idea to tell newbie players 'This is a target of opportunity for you'. More experienced gamers will have to figure some stuff out for themselves.

Alex

I will read the players this briefing before we play the "Extraction" mission:

"As part of the campaign to save as much as possible from the fall of the Castobel system, your Kill-Team has been sent to the Resource Moon Tantalus, where a Magos Biologis named Zardos Vyakai has compiled a large amount of data on the bio-forms and attack patterns of Hive Fleet Dagon. Your mission is to rendezvous with the Magos and retrieve the data. If possible you will also rescue the Magos, as he is a valuable Mechanicus asset.
The rendezvous zone has been redesignated from the Northern Polar Spaceport to the Promethium Refinery at Pyroclast-Gamma-9, just south of the polar ice-caps, following the downing of the magos' personal vehicle.
In approximately five hours the main body of the swarm will reach the crash site, at which point retrieval of the datacore - and escape from the planet - becomes impossible."

Basically I will give them their main mission, and add a point about the secondary mission being there, but I will leave the targets of opportunity out, as I want them to be more up to the players.

I inform them of the primary and secondary but the tertiary are surprise bonuses. Means they have to think about what they do if they want the bonus XP and honour badges.

I use the U.S. Army's 5 paragraph Operations Order just 'cause that's what I used back in the day.

I Situation

II Mission

III Execution

IV Service Support

V Command and Signals

In the mission paragraph is where I give the the primary and secondary objectives. The tertiary they have to figure out for themselves.

They also have to plan paragraph III and parts of V.

A good recourse for this is at www.armystudyguide.com/content/army_board_study_guide_topics/training_the_force/the-operation-order-opord.shtml

When running the first mission (Extraction), I overtly told them (in the character of the Watch Captain) the Primary and Secondary Objectives (rescue the datacore, rescue the Magus). I informed them (out of character) about the existence of Tertiary Objectives (Targets of Opportunity) and suggested what some might be (kill a tyranid in HTH, rescue the Emperor's servants, etc). I also expressly told them that their characters might discover targets of opportunity, or might even suggest their own targets of opportunity.

In other missions, it's really going to vary by mission. In some, they are going to be completely misinformed. I'm going to run Final Sanction, and the mission they are going to be briefed on is going to completely change when they hit the ground. Of course, their contact will give them new objectives, and inform them about important goals in the city (the secondary objectives). Many of the tertiary objectives should be pretty obvious ("say, I wonder if we should kill these genestealers? I wonder if it would weaken the rebellion if we killed the rebel leaders? I wonder if it would help to have the support of the PDF?).

However, in most missions, I think that they are going to be getting a pretty clear picture of the Mission Objectives (at least the Primary ones). After all, the adventures are MISSIONS, and not just the day to day life of a Space Marine. You don't generally deploy a crack team of specialists into a situation with no instructions ("Go down there and look around, will ya?"). I think it is fairly realistic to the genre to get a briefing with the objectives, and even for that briefing to mention secondary and tertiary objectives ("Don't blow the mission to do it, but we would like to get samples of this thing").

As long as your players aren't confused (too much), and as long as they can have some freedom ("Hey, I want to duel the Nob!"), I think it will be OK.

I reveal Primary Objectives and Secondary Objectives. The Tertiary ones are for the players to work out, though A nod in the right direction is always a good idea.

FatPob said:

Yep, this is what I do.

I may reveal 1-2 Targets of Opportunity, but for the most part I tell them that they will make up their own Targets of Opportunity. Should they come across a particularly potent foe, one of the players takes an oath to hunt down and kill that foe. That just became a Target of Opportunity.

So really, I let them drive the Tertiary Objectives.