BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Game Systems => A Time of War => Topic started by: E. Icaza on 19 October 2018, 20:01:23
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While designing some merc contract offers for some a BT/AToW game that I'm running, I realized that one of the contracts will put the player unit on Northwind during the 4th SW at the same time that Yorinaga Kurita is there hunting the Kell Hounds. While it is unlikely that they'll accept that particular one, as there is one that is far more tempting to my players, it got me to thinking of how other GMs handle their players encountering major players and significant dates. I've always subscribed to the idea that as soon as you start your campaign, you create an alternate universe where anything goes. I've played in games where the historical events are more "rigid" and you can't change them.
I can only think of two major events that my players have changed over the years...
In the first, one of my players was a Bloodnamed Jade Falcon Mechwarrior and challenged Vlad Ward to a Trial moments after he'd killed ilKhan Elias Crichell. My player soundly defeated Vlad in an unaugmented fight and proceeded to kill him.
The other was when playing the Great Refusal Trials, when Khan Karianna Schmitt headcapped Hohiro Kurita and the Blood Spirits won their Trial. Also, thanks to the Ice Hellion win over the Nova Cats, the Great Refusal upheld the Clan Invasion.
In both cases, the games didn't continue on long enough past those events to really change much. So, how have others handled such events?
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as I look at it there are really 2 ways to handle it.
the character can and do change some events and effectively create their own althernate history.
option 2 the players can have brushes with destiny, but can't really change the broad strokes of history.
to give an example.
If you watched the wonder woman movie consider the village she saved when they blew through no mans land, in a small level she changed those peoples lives, by taking out the german troops giving them a reason to have a party. In the grand scope, the village was wiped out by the gas attack. what they did didn't really change the fact that everyone died, it just changed how they died.
to use an example from real history, lets say for instance a unit never got on the beach at DDay, and you had characters at the landing, they do something that enables the unit to make it ashore more than likely its not going to significantly change the historical outcome overall, but it might change things for a few individuals.