Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2016 7:10:17 GMT
I've been looking at Savage Worlds as a possible system to convert my campaign and setting to, as I heard one of its design elements is that it works for any setting. I was thinking of fun ways to take advantage of this, and remembered an interesting plot from one of Iain M. Banks serials from the Culture universe. This isn't something I'm planning on running anytime soon, but would be fun to try.
In Banks' setting, some political conflicts would be resolved in simulations. A third-party arbiter would run the simulation using the parameters agreed to by both sides. Whoever lost the simulated war would theoretically concede defeat in the real world without having to bother with all the destruction. Their soldiers were basically trained for combat in virtual reality in a variety of scenarios. If a soldier died, he simply couldn't participate in the simulation anymore.
The author didn't delve into the rules of simulated warfare much, but he did offer numerous examples of "battles." The parameters varied wildly from simulation to simulation, but again, they're abstractions of real world variables. So for instance, one simulation might be a conventional, small scale battle on a terrestrial battlefield using medieval technology. If one side in the real world conflict had more and better spaceships than their rivals, they might have superior cavalry in this virtual battle. Another scenario might have the soldiers be space jet fighter pilots, or pirates, or bacteria. Sometimes the governments involved would even try to cheat.
In any case, the premise for the campaign is an intentional exploration of genres under the guise of simulated combat operations. I don't have more than that, but then it's intended to be pretty open ended. Very episodic, flipping from genre to genre, though scenes between simulations could be used to show the overall progress of the conflict.
In Banks' setting, some political conflicts would be resolved in simulations. A third-party arbiter would run the simulation using the parameters agreed to by both sides. Whoever lost the simulated war would theoretically concede defeat in the real world without having to bother with all the destruction. Their soldiers were basically trained for combat in virtual reality in a variety of scenarios. If a soldier died, he simply couldn't participate in the simulation anymore.
The author didn't delve into the rules of simulated warfare much, but he did offer numerous examples of "battles." The parameters varied wildly from simulation to simulation, but again, they're abstractions of real world variables. So for instance, one simulation might be a conventional, small scale battle on a terrestrial battlefield using medieval technology. If one side in the real world conflict had more and better spaceships than their rivals, they might have superior cavalry in this virtual battle. Another scenario might have the soldiers be space jet fighter pilots, or pirates, or bacteria. Sometimes the governments involved would even try to cheat.
In any case, the premise for the campaign is an intentional exploration of genres under the guise of simulated combat operations. I don't have more than that, but then it's intended to be pretty open ended. Very episodic, flipping from genre to genre, though scenes between simulations could be used to show the overall progress of the conflict.