============ OGREverse list, June 20th (Last: June 17th) ============= ===== Maneuver Warfare From: NVDoyle@aol.com ===== Ogres in Role-Playing Games From: "William Spencer" ===== Campaign Rules/Guidelines From: "Todd A. Zircher" ===== Forward Observers From: daniel@jaws.greatwhite.com ------------------------------ From: NVDoyle@aol.com Subject: Maneuver Warfare hcobb writes: << [From the Marine's theories of "Maneuver Warfare", the perfect soldier understands their commander's intent and follows that, rather than the letter of their orders. >> Given that most if not all Ogres became sentient over the period of the Last War, and that they are 'smarter' than humans (more processing power, better problem solving, attention to detail, etc), an Ogre would be a perfect soldier by that definition. Intent would be all that is needed by the Ogre. Ogres would work in groups (far more effective that way) each with it's own combat command of regular units for support. Eventually, the Ogres would be giving most of the tactical, then operational orders. The highest-level AIs would advise on strategy, then issue directives to the Ogres on what to acheive. Intent comes from the humans, plans & orders from the machines. At least that's how I would see it developing. Noah ----- [Now add an additional wrinkle, when the robots discover that people aren't perfect. The OGREs then won't count on their subordinates to follow their orders to the letter, but rather react to those orders in a predictable way. -HJC] ------------------------------ From: "William Spencer" Subject: Ogres in Role-Playing Games There has been talk, on and off, about doing OGRE/GEV as a role-playing game universe. Well, here's a couple of random thoughts: Role-Playing Ogres Since Ogres are so powerful, it's ridiculous to combine human and Ogre player-characters together. Ideas: Well, you could try writing solo adventures where one person plays an Ogre...perhaps a Mark I with a Descartes package, off on some advanced recon/strike mission far from the mainlines...the Amazon Combat Zone, the Arctic, the Sahara CZ, or somesuch. The player would pretty much have free reign to act as he pleased (do I blast the CP, or just spy on it?), but would have little support (unless he led a small contingent of human forces...but that's another story). Problem: only one player. Or, everyone could have an Ogre. A typical adventure would be a "small" action, like the invasion of Europe...each player would be separated by a distance of dozens to hundreds of kilometers, but they'd be in communication enough to ask for help. Someone who didn't want to be an Ogre could be Commander of an army corps. Advantage: everyone gets to play something of incredible power. Problem: everyone plays something of incredible power. A "small" engagement would be one player against an armor company - using some game systems, you'd be rolling dice all day. Or, everyone could be running ONE Ogre. That's right, it's an Ogre with multiple personalities (I don't know why. It was an experiment, the Ogre got shellshock, when it gained sentience, it went nuts, etc) Either each player controlled one system (Bob runs the treads and sensors, Eric gets the main batteries, and Sam gets the missile racks) and they argue over what do to ("Bob! Go a mile east, I've almost got a missile lock!" "But Eric wants me to go south, so we can hit that howitzer...") Or each player has different skills, but can only control one system at a time. This causes people to fight over who gets to control the Main Batteries, or who gets to drive...("I should get the guns! I have a skill of 15!" "But we need you to run the damage control systems right now." "I _never_ get a turn! It's not fair.") Just some ideas. Comments? Questions? ----- [There are things that OGREs cannot do. Have you read "The Lone GEV?" (http://www.sjgames.com/ogre/articles/biblio.html) -HJC] ------------------------------ From: "Todd A. Zircher" Subject: Campaign Rules/Guidelines Stephen Said said: > > (ii) First Scenario > I am working on one, but it is going to be one where I almost have > to act as a GM. Any suggestions on tools (especially mapping...) > that can keep track of battalion level units etc. Coolness. Check out the V_MAP home page for a generic mapping solution that has PBEM elements built-in. http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/6599/v_map.html > Could you please send this to the webpeon? >(mailto:awflower@midway.uchicago.edu) -HJC] Henry, please let us know when/if it gets posted. TAZ ----- [How would I ever know? ;-) -HJC] ------------------------------ From: daniel@jaws.greatwhite.com Subject: Forward Observers Henry, I'd like to subscribe to the Ogre mailing list. Also, I've been doing a lot of thinking over the last few days about FO's. Did they ever make it into the "official" version of Ogre? Dan ----- [No, and I have no idea why not. Didn't I cook the numbers well enough? Didn't I hide my tracks? Maybe if I rewrite the FO article nicely enough. (http://www.io.com/~hcobb/gev/1996/gev96jan.lzh) -HJC] Henry J. Cobb hcobb@io.com http://www.io.com/~hcobb All OGRE-related items Copyright (c) 1998, by Steve Jackson Games.