Campaign GM: tips and tricks and recommendations

[abou]

I am going to start GMing a campaign set in the SW era. If things go well, we might grow and advance along the timeline. I already plan on including the Maintenance & Repair rules, but what others are recommended?

The group is intermediate to advanced in their skill level. I imagine some of the advanced rules in TacOps are handy and seem easy to incorporate on the fly - eg. Today the map has swamp hexes. It is just all the other stuff that might bring a lot of flavor and variety, but I don't want to bog things down either.

So I appeal to the veterans to guide me here.

[Daryk]

For an enduring campaign like that, I'd definitely use AToW for at least the PCs (personally, I'd do all the NPCs too).

[Failure16]

Regardless of the actual ruleset being used, I would mentally prepare for taking on the bulk of the administrative and maintenance load/details yourself. The players should be involved in many of the decisions, but the actual bookkeeping seems to be an item of discontent for many players, especially for casual ones (or a lot of role-players).

[Daryk]

Seconded on that score too!  :thumbsup:

[abou]

Yeah, I am debating just how I want to proceed. Part of me is debating letting them be mercenaries and then using the Chaos Campaign.

The other part of me says we are better off just making them a house unit and relying on the difficulties of the maintenance rules alone to provide sufficient challenge.

[Daryk]

If you want any help making characters, just let me know!  :thumbsup:

[OatsAndHall]

Yeah, I am debating just how I want to proceed. Part of me is debating letting them be mercenaries and then using the Chaos Campaign.

The other part of me says we are better off just making them a house unit and relying on the difficulties of the maintenance rules alone to provide sufficient challenge.

I recommend the latter. Establishing a merc unit is fun and opens up more creative doors. But, IME, the GM needs to "Monty Hall" much of the logistics in order to keep things entertaining.

Running as a House unit takes pressure off of the GM in this aspect.

[AlphaMirage]

Running as a House unit takes pressure off of the GM in this aspect.

Unless its thematically relevant of course. House units could have plenty of supply problems on an extended campaign and the enemy does get a choice.

[Charistoph]

Unless its thematically relevant of course. House units could have plenty of supply problems on an extended campaign and the enemy does get a choice.

Or they are a unit that's pissed off the local lord so materiel shipping is lousy.

We're doing a guerilla campaign right now because the House lost air superiority.  That means that replacement equipment is literally only what we brought with us. 

And that doesn't even consider replacement of parts that are pretty much impossible to find in our setting without shipping issues, like for a damaged DHS in 3030's Confederation.

[Colt Ward]

Are you asking for things to do TO the PCs . . .

 . . . or ways to make things simpler as the GM?

[Daryk]

Agreed... those are two very different things!  :thumbsup:

[Natasha Kerensky]

Consider running two PC units on opposite sides of the campaign.  This creates a friendly rivalry between the two PC units and raises the stakes.  It also gets away from the same PCs versus GM opfor every weekend, which can quickly get burdensome for the GM and boring and old for the PCs, especially if the GM is a PC-killer or always pulls their punches for the sake of the campaign arc.  Even when the campaign requires one PC unit to play against an NPC unit, have the PCs for the unit that is not playing that game run the NPC unit, not the GM.  The GM stays the level of referee and storyteller (and maybe coach), letting the competition between the PCs determine the outcome of the campaign.

[Cannonshop]

Two things to keep in mind when you're running a campaign:

1. Missions should have objectives.  When you're structuring your missions, always have a way for the players to win without having to kill everything on the map, and a way for them to lose despite killing everything on the map.  Alternate these two fairly irregularly with the more normal, bog-standard "kill everything on the map" scenarios.

2. Keep in mind the Players' desires and work with or around them.  Depending on the system you use, if you can get your players to give you 'hooks' in the form of back-story, do it.  Tailor missions where they can shine.  *(iow if you have a tanker or ASF player, it doesn't hurt to occasionally give them something only they can do properly, just don't overdo it.)

3. "Mook Forces"-have a few sheets pre-filled and pre-printed for the faceless mook types they'll run into, and a few 'key villains' on the side that you can advance as the players advance to give them 'boss fights' periodically.

4. be creative with your scenarios.  Dig into the optional rules for things like environmental conditions, objectives to capture or destroy, and so on.  The more actively your players have to think and engage with your campaign, the less likely they are to decide to sod off game day and go watch sports.

[DOC_Agren]

I will second the use different PC units..
We at one point had 6 very different PC 3025 era Merc Units... 
1 was a lance of 3 Hatchetmen and and Centurion with AC20
1 was a lance of Shadownhawk, Phawk, 2 Stingers, and a Company of Savannah Masters
1 was a Battalion of Harassers
1 was a Armored Company with Patton and Rommel as the prime punching force
1 was a mess of "support" Arty and Infanty with VTOL asssets and 2 Aerospace Fighters
1 was Regularly killed and replaced... (Player Commander had the horrible Tactic Skill and the Dice to make it worse)

And when there was a combat mission, the Referee would select 1 of player to Command The Opfor (normally 1 of our better players) and then the PC Unit Commander would pick his next member and the Opfor.  So Very rarely did you get unbalanced player skill ability

[abou]

Thanks for the input, guys. I've been super busy with life and didn't get a chance to respond. I've taken a lot into account.

The good news is that their heavy lance almost got wrecked by a lance of Vedettes and lance of Bulldogs. I have to call it early with "forced withdrawal". Off to a good start.