Milsim scenario library

evilrobotshane

This idea was brought up on the Limited Ammo thread - to have a repository of milsim scenarios that folks could download and run, rather than having to make them up all the time, which would lead to a lot of wheel-reinvention and has been claimed as one reason for the limited amount of milsimming going on.

I figure that what would be needed for this is:

• A standardised set of milsim rules
• A standard template format for scenarios
• Limited access storage facilities

Rules

There are loads of variations on milsim rules - ammo restrictions, bleed times, respawn availability, and all have their advantages and disadvantages (with the presumable exception of crap ones). Establishing a standardised set for this library to use would make it much easier to pick up and run such a game, which is the object of the exercise.

Ideally they'd also be at least somewhat modular, so that individual aspects can be easily changed and new ones plugged in. For example, a site might prefer shorter bleed times to the standard, or a different system of limiting ammo. This is probably just a formatting issue rather than rule design.

Alternative sets of rules could of course be designed and available too; but to start with, one generic one would be a very useful resource, the engine to power all this.


Scenario template

To ease the process of both creating a scenario for the library and of reading and running it, a blank universal template would ensure that all the necessary info gets entered, and would hopefully mean that people could just get the template and stick in the ideas they have or the games they've run or played in, rather than having to do everything from scratch without being sure how to approach it.

It'd include headers like "Time", "Backstory", "Teams", "Requirements", "Events", "Objectives", "Victory conditions" and so on. There'd also of course be the option of adding paper props like briefing documents, intelligence reports, encoded messages and anything else the imagination can conceive.


Limited access

In order to make intelligence an integral part of the game, there has to be stuff that one side knows and the other doesn't - at the simplest level, one anothers' objectives in some cases. Having all these scenarios up on the Internator for all to read would be neat, but anyone interested in milsim would probably be having a look and thus spoilerising things for themselves. It might well be worth having them stored off-line and available by request, rather than hosted on a webpage. That'd mean somebody'd need to be the librarian.


So that means...

To make this project go, we need to bash out a set of rules and a template format. I think the Rules of Engagement guys probably have the most experience with this jazz and I'd love to hear what they have to say. There's obviously loads of opinions out there about this, so let's do the web forum collaboration creation thing and make something deadly!

fayer

Nice idea!

You could host it on irishairsoft.info ? If the Admins of it would consent ?

Puding

nice idea

i resource of templates for people to use is alwasy good, i would not want to see milsim get to bogged down in rules thought, a simple set of templates e.g search and destroy, recon, fighting retreat, based on real world scenarios that people can then plug into a mil sim story line

i would always say as i say to anyone when i talk about milsim is that milsim is not made by the rules, milsim is about the mind sets of the players taking parts, milsim is not alwasy about winning and losing its more about how you go about the game in my eyes

evilrobotshane

Puding wrote: »

i would always say as i say to anyone when i talk about milsim is that milsim is not made by the rules, milsim is about the mind sets of the players taking parts, milsim is not alwasy about winning and losing its more about how you go about the game in my eyes

The rules should naturally encourage realistic tactics though, and reward realistic behaviour. You can go into a skirmish with a milsim mindset but the rules will result in you losing and probably not having a huge amount of fun while you're doing so. At the most basic level, in a skirmish you have effectively infinite reinforcements, in a milsim getting hit is a big deal so you need to be cautious and sneaky - because of the rules.

In redcoat days, standing in a line and volley firing was the way it was done because it was the most effective way to do things - if you didn't do that, you lost battles. Tactics evolve to suit the facts, and in airsoft the facts are simulated by rules (as well as weapon characteristics, of course).

Puding

The rules should naturally encourage realistic tactics though, and reward realistic behaviour. You can go into a skirmish with a milsim mindset but the rules will result in you losing and probably not having a huge amount of fun while you're doing so.

i think you missed a little bit of the point i was trying to make but i think we are both coming from the same book so alls good

rules provide a structure which is great but for me rules in a 'skirmish game' and rules in a 'milsim game' are two differant animals, for me rules in milsim are not there to make a 'fair game' as would be in a commetative enviroment but in milsim the rules are there to guide players thought the experiance

some of the best milsim games i;ve had have been forlor hopes, one side greatly out numbering where the rules sets are not balanced between players, for me that is about playing a senario not playing a game ( in this example a game is where both teams would have an equal and balanced chance of winning

but it all depends on what your looking for and what you want out of it

evilrobotshane

Right, I get what you're saying, it's just a case of different definitions of terms used. Whenever I've said "rules" previously, I've meant the rules that exist to simulate the bits of reality that the nature of airsoft doesn't - such as, when you get hit your arm doesn't fly off and you start bleeding out. So, the rules will determine if you drop and wait ten minutes, or immediately run to respawn.

When I say "scenario" that's the in-game specifics of the individual game being played, so that'd lay out things like objectives and side balance. So you can have the same set of rules work in a scenario with equal sides, and with very unequal.

A scenario could include special rules, such as in a skirmish that you don't run to respawn but call a team-mate to tag you, or in a milsim that the hostage doesn't respond to normal medic procedure but if hit must be carried on a stretcher, or whatever.

I guess having a standardised set of terms will also be required to get this rolling.

Dr. Pepper had a break-down of the components of the rules and scenario etc. for a milsim that he mentioned in IRC the other day, which perhaps he'll post here.

evilrobotshane

I've put together a trial version of a template for writing up milsim scenarios, the intent being that they'll be generic enough and complete and legible enough that anybody can take them and run them at their own site. If anybody thinks something should be changed, amalgamated or added, please say so, and if anybody'd like to write up some stuff in the template format (or something like it) that'd be great!

Next thing to do will be compile a standard set of rules. Oh, the arguing that should provoke.



CATCHY EXCITING MACHO TITLE

BLURB
Like the back of a video box, usable for people choosing what game to run and for advertising the game to prospective players.

OVERVIEW
A one- or two-sentence run-down of the type of game and anything that makes it different and unique.

REQUIREMENTS
Things the site needs to have in order for the game to run. For example, "building that looks a bit like a firebase" or "bomb that's too big for one person to carry" or "guy pretending to be the president" or "night time".

TEAMS
Outlines who the various sides represent ("anti-government rebels with U.S. Special Forces advisors", "El Fusador's drug cartel enforcers", "citizen militia of the post-apocalyptic remains of Swords") in enough detail to brief each side on who they're portraying. This section also includes the requirements for each team. For example, "one captain and two lieutenants and six section leaders", "divided into groups of three", "one medic", "someone designated as the parent of the kidnapped kid", "no comms" "grey or tan uniforms". One paragraph per faction is probably best.

GAMEPLAY
The objectives of each faction, and how the game can be expected to go. This could be any combination of prose, flowcharts, maps or anything else that gets the idea across. Ideally each faction's objectives and potential objectives will be listed in bullet-point format for easy reference. Again, one section per faction.

RULES
Any modifications to standard game rules, be they additions, removals or changes go here. For example, "the Marines are limited to half standard ammo load-outs", "the VIP can only move at walking speed", "the safecracker must stay in the same room as the bank vault for 10 minutes to access the loot", "once they recover the intelligence documents, the commandos may listen in on the enemy comms frequency".

BRIEFINGS
In-character briefings for each faction. These might be read out, enacted by the folks running the game, emailed in advance, handed to leaders, sent by SMS during the game or any number of options, which should be specified. They don't necessarily contain all the information, they don't necessarily happen only before the game, they're not necessarily complete or even true. This section will include briefing updates that may be given out while the game is in progress.

PROPS
Intelligence documents, photographs, maps, letters, newspapers, audio or video clips, anything that'll exist in the game that can be electronically distributed. For site-dependent stuff, instead provide instructions. For example, "take a photo of the bomb to give to the SWAT commander", "on a map of your site, mark an X near the opposite side of the site from where the game will begin, but far enough away from the real objective that the objective won't be visible from that point".

sliabh

I have an idea or two I might throw up. And perhaps some generous soul in a retailer or site might offer a prize to encourage contributions?

Hivemind187

Having looked at this thread we have decided to release the Rules of Engagement standard ruleset under free-licence (think Linux). I'll publish the precise details of this later (in college at the minute).

This means that everyone will be entitled to use the core rules for any game they wish and are free to alter the system to their own needs.

The RoE system will give anyone starting off a base line from which to work.

The one that is currently up on our website (www.rulesofengagement.ie) is a proprietary, copywritten version of this. I will have a generic version of the RoE system with simplified and generic components for everyones use.

Hopefully this will allow people to author their own modules to attach to the core system covering specific contingencies, classes, events, mission types etc.

If anyone has any questions please drop me a PM or email us at info@hivemind.ie

evilrobotshane

This is absolutely excellent and highly generous, thanks a million to Rules of Engagement.

Apart from saving the effort of building rules from the ground up, it also saves me coming up with a suitable beginning to a name of those rules. Something beginning with Y, so it'd be something-beginning-with-Y Expandable Rules for Milsim Airsoft, or YER MA. YER MA rules. We'll be using YER MA but with more ammo. YER MA encourages people to go down screaming "medic". The hilarity would never have ended.

But I digress. This is a huge step for this project, which as far as I can tell will be the first of its kind. Let's make it happen. Thanks again Ronan and Sean!

Hivemind187

If someone wants to generate an initial wiki for this project we can probably host it off our server until it finds it's feet properly. If there are going to be multiple varations on this it would help to have them all in one place for reference and credit purposes.

evilrobotshane

Wikis are so the-day-before-yesterday. It's all Google Wave now.

Hivemind187

What's a google wave?

sliabh

Hivemind187 wrote: »

What's a google wave?

The lastest maybe, possibly, next big thing from Willy Wonka's Google's Chocolate Factory.

100,000 with golden tickets Google invites can start using it from today. It is supposed to be a replacement for email, wikis, instant messaging and so on. It has features like showing everyone your characters as you type. Sounds incredibly annoying

Hivemind187

Rules of Engagement O/S
By Ronan James Lowe
Rules of Engagement Events (a Subsidiary of Hivemind Media).

The open source rules set for MilSim war gaming (airsoft specific).

Objective: To provide a common standard of rules freely available to everyone for the purpose of running MilSim games.

Notes

1)These rules are being kept deliberately simplified and generic to ensure the greatest possible compatability with other existing systems and encourage people to take up running games where they can.
2)These rules are produced free of copyright however, use of this rules system requires that the author of any game making use of the system aknowledges the prior artists with a credit line in their work.
3)Modularity is encouraged as is innovation. This is an open source document and as such it should be capable of evolving through various versions with additions, subtractions and manipulations based on the experiences of those who use it.
4)This work is intended to provide a common standard of rules for MilSim gaming. Where the RoE O/S system is used, participants should have a very good grasp of the basics in order to reduce (or eliminate) the need for additional explanations of new or additional rules.
5)The community is encouraged to develop its own versions of this or based on this core text (for Example the Rules of Engagement system, proprietary to Hivemind Media will in future be known as the RoE "Hardened" System). It is expected that those members of the community who develop a variant system will publicise its details through an appropriate medium to ensure the spirit of an open source rules set will remain at he core of this endevour.
6) The system is not intended to replace good marshalling, properly run venues or good writing - it is a tool to aid in the construction of enjoyable and emersive games.

Contents

Basic Hit Rules
Basic Medic rules
Respawn Protocol
Capturing and Arrests
Reclaiming Equipment
NPC Rules
Ammunition/Magazine Rules
Class Archetypes
Standard Calls
Safety Calls

Hit Rules
Any direct strike from a BB anywhere on a player (including web-kit etc) is counted as a hit.

A player who has ben hit must immediately either go to ground and call for their medic or remove themselves, without speaking (except to say "hit") to the designated staging point

A hit player enters "bleed time" while awaiting the attention of a medic. As standard this is set at 10 minutes.

Ricochets do not count.

Hits to a weapon do not eliminate the player. Instead that weapopn is rendered inoperable (out of play) and may not be fired until the player has returned to their base/staging point or has been eliminated and has respawned. A player is permitted to switch to their sidearm should their primary be eliminated.

Blue on Blue (aka friendly fire) eliminates friendy players just as hostile fire does. The same hit rules apply.

Any player who has been previously "captured" (see "capturing & arrests") who is shot while attempting to escape is subject to the normal protocol for a hit including bleed time. However, a medic attending this player need only apply a "first bandage" to the player. Should a first bandage already be in place the medic must remove this and move it to the opposite arm to signify that they have performed a revival action.

Any grenade device regardless of whether it produces shrapnel is considered to have a 5m (15foot) kill zone in the open (defined as being any area without a roof) and are lethal within the entirety of any specific room of a building in which it is set off. Smoke grenades are the obviouos exception to this.

Players who have been hit may not communicate any information or in any way other than to call "Medic".

Players who have been hit may not operate their weapons, reload or carry out any other action other than calling "Medic".

Basic Medic Rules

The basic medic system operates as follows:

A player is struck by a BB.
That player drops to the ground and calls "Medic!" and enters bleed time (standard of 10 minutes)
The medic makes his/her way to the hit player.
The medic ties a single bandage around that players right arm.
The payer rejoins the game.
The player is struck again.
The player goes immediately to ground and calls "medic!" and enters bleed time (standard of 10 minutes)
The medic makes his/her way to the hit player.
The medic ties a single bandage around that players left arm.
The player is struck again.
The player is eliminated and removes him/herself to the appropriate staging point to respawn.

If a medic has no bandages he cannot revive a struck player.

If a medic is struck while attending the hit player before the bandage is secured by a knot the proceedure is deemed to have failed and the hit player continues in his/her bleed time.

If a medic is struck while attending the hit payer after the bandage is secured by a knot the proceedure is deemed to have been sucessful and the hit player may return to the game.

Only designated medics are permitted to carry out revivals.

Respawn Protocol

The respawn protocol is that upon receiving a third "hit" and where both arms are bandaged that player must immediately leaving the vicinity of the active game zone and return to the designated staging/respawn point for his/her faction.

Respawning players may not communicate with other "active" players in any way (including via radio).

Respawning players must safety their weapons and remove the magazines, holding the weapon above their head where appropriate in order to signal to "active" players that they are not a target.

A respawning player may not use him/herself as a human shield nor provide any aid or advantage to either friendly or hostile factions.

Capturing and Arrests

Under specific circumstances it may be possible for one faction to capture or arrest a member of a hostile force. In the interests of safety and respect for fellow players the system for such actions is as follows;

The captive is either revived by friendly (to you not the captive) players or surrenders to your faction.

The player then declares whether or not they wish to permit a search. Should the player decline a search they must hand over all equipment/hard data etc on their person relevant to a search of their person – a player refusing a search may not, under any circumstances conceal anything from his/her captors.

A player who permits a search must be treated with respect and dignity and is not permitted to conceal any object etc upon their person in any location they would be uncomfortable being searched or their captor would be uncomfortable searching them. This includes underwear, crotch, buttocks, breasts, mouth, hair.

A player who has been captured or arrested may be disarmed. It is the captives decision whether they wish to allow their captors to hold their weapons/equipment or whether they wish to retain them. A player allowing their equipment to be taken must understand that hey are realeasing the bearer of that equipment from all claims of damage within reason.

A player who choose not to relinquish their equipment to their captors must remove the magazine, clear the chamber of all rounds and sling the weapon. That weapon is now out of play and considered no longer to be in the hands of the original owner.

Reclaiming weapons and equipment.

Should a captive player be rescued by friendly players he/she may reclaim their equipment if – and only if – they had relinquished it to the capturing forces. Should he/she be able to locate said equipment then it is available for use.

Should a player who has not relinquished his/her equipment be rescued their equipment is considered out of play until such time as they have returned either to their respawn point or until such tme as they have returned to a friendly HQ/ammo dump/magazine etc. Such players are not prevented from taking a weapon offered to them by a friendly player but are restricted from using their own ammunition allottment to re-load.

Executions – The Coup De Gras rule
Under certain circumstances it is possible to eliminate a player who is in bleed time but has not already received enough bandages to declare him/her eiminated. To do this the executioner must deliberately shoot a player in bleed time while close enough to inform them that they have been deliberately executed. Revival is not possible from execution and that player/NPC must immediately follow the respawn protocol. Any plot/game specific information/notes/equipment etc are lost once that individual has been executed. NOTE: Unless it is a deliberate act of execution a player in bleed time is considered immune to all hits until such time as they have been revived.



NPC Rules

NPC's are subject to the same hit rules as any player including those for friendly fire and revival. An NPC who is eliminated (bleeds out or is subject to the respawn protocol) or executed (see executions) is no longer available to players and all game-related influences are lost with them.

Ammunition/Magazine Rules

Players must use only the alotted ammunition total for their specific "class" (see class system).

All participants must carry either lo/mid or real capacity magazines except in the case of support gunners who are subject to special rules due to the nature of their equipment.

Class Archetype System

Rifleman
Riflemen may carry up to 1000 BB's in any combination of magazines, speed loaders, bags etc as they wish. May also carry up to 1 BB shower/MOSCART which may be used by the grenadier.

Marksman
Marksmen may carry up to 500 BB's in any combination of magazines, speed loaders, bags etc as they wish. May also carry up to 1 BB shower/MOSCART which may be used by the grenadier.

Gunner
Gunners may carry up to 3000 BB's in any combination of magazines, speed loaders, bags as they wish. Gunners are also permitted to make use of box-type magazines with capacities of 1000 BB's or more however these box-mags may not be distributed to non-gunner classes. May also carry up to 1 BB shower/MOSCART which may be used by the grenadier.

Medic
Medics may carry up to 1000 BB's in any combination of magazines, speed loaders, bags etc as they wish. Medics must also carry appropriate bandages/rags to simulate first aid. Medics may also carry up to 1 BB Shower/MOSCART which may be used by the grenadier.

Grenadier
Grenadiers may carry up to 1000 BB's in any combination of magazines, speed loaders, bags etc as they wish. Grenadiers may also carry up to 6 BB Showers/MOSCART type grenades for an appropriate launcher.

Standard calls
First whistle/Game on
Games start with a single, long whistle blow.

Three Whistles/Game over
The signal for a game ending is three long blasts from a whistle.

Safety calls
Blind Man
"Blind Man" should be called when a players eye-protection is removed or when any person is spotted in an active game zone without eye protection. Upon hearing this call all players must immediately cease fire and safety their gun. The game must only resume when the individual without eye protection is either removed from the zone or is supplied with adequet eye protection.

Emergency
"Emergency" should be called only when a player, spectator, staff or other individual has become physically injured and requires assistance. Upon hearing this call players should immediately cease fire and safety their gun, making a clear path for any assistance required to access the injured party. All players should comply with those providing assistance and stay clear of the injured party unless otherwise asked/instructed to do so.

Special Calls
Air Strikes
Air strikes are simulated by means of a marshal call (may include special effects) regarding a specific area.

Any player within the area designated by the marshal is considered to have been hit and is subject to the normal hit rules.

Any player who is currently in bleed time at the time of an air strike on their location is considered to have been eliminated and must follow the respawn protocol.

Buildings hit by air strikes are removed from play for a period of time not less than 30 minutes (potentially much long depending on the scenario).

Any player inside a building when it is hit with an air strike is considered to be eliminated and must follow the respawn protocol.

This is still an early version of the document I am working on. I'll be honest, I'm up to my tonsils between various other things but I genuinely want to see this become a reality.

The only hitch is it relies on the efforts of a community to make it happen. Like Firefox and Open Office, it will eventually be the efforts of the community adding and subtracting, testing and re-testing, finding flaws, reporting them and then someone providing a solution that will develop this from the skeleton I can provide into a fully comprehensive open source rules set that anyone can pick up and run with.

Looking for suggestions folks and I'm still looking for someone to volunteer to help set up a wiki/website to host the product.

Other things I'm considering;

Handbooks:
Specific "handbooks" similar to those of table top roleplaying games. For example, the medic system laid out is rudimentary and it could be so much more (indeed the RoE Hardened system has a beefier version of it). Someone could choose to write a handbook with specific rules for medics, pro's, con's, do's and do not's. What they can carry, what they can't etc etc. This would give a game more flavour and encourage players to adopt specific roles for the long haul which, by extention, will lead to them becoming better players.

I myself am rolling the idea of a "games writers handbook" compiling tips, concepts and how-to's for designing and running individual games.

Modules:
Entire games complete with plots, prop lists, NPC's and scripts, missions, numbers, logisitics etc that can be picked up and played out at any venue and by anybody.

I know there are a bunch of imaginative and talented types in the community already who could be producing games both on paper and in the flesh, perhaps if they have a forum to do it from we would see more and more of it?

Legals:
Simples! The RoE O/S system still needs a bit of legal care and consideration, not the smallest reason being we dont want someone to run off and copyright the whole thing snatching it out of the hands of the players right? If anyone can advise on this (Steve, I'm looking your way) it would be a huge boost to any developing community. No one wants to go unrecognised for their work - or worse have their work presented as someone elses.

TheDoc

Work has begun setting up the wiki site itself.

I'm creating it locally, so it just needs to be ported to hosting space.

EDIT:

Wiki is created and all it needs now is its content filled, and to be taken away off my pc onto a hosting site or pc.

My god its very hard to try add pages. It was easy to setup but I'm finding it awkward to create new pages and new pages, a bit of research should solve that.

Hivemind187

TheDoc wrote: »

Work has begun setting up the wiki site itself.

I'm creating it locally, so it just needs to be ported to hosting space.

EDIT:

Wiki is created and all it needs now is its content filled, and to be taken away off my pc onto a hosting site or pc.

My god its very hard to try add pages. It was easy to setup but I'm finding it awkward to create new pages and new pages, a bit of research should solve that.

Awesome.

We're off the mark anyway

sliabh

Has there been any further progress on this?

evilrobotshane

Well, since the end of The Jebrovian Conflict, the Rules of Engagement are going to have some tweaks, and the guys have said that while they're at it they'll be doing up the open-source-type document. I guess that'll take some time yet, but that's the big thing to get out of the way first.

I haven't been approaching folks to get them to submit scenarios yet because there's no game engine readily-available to run them on until the Rules of Engagement guy are done (I did ask one crowd for scenarios but they took the fair stance that they put too much work into their games to hand them out for free). I have been remembering your name though, and fully intend hitting you up for stuff if you're still on for that.

I've been writing a game of my own, which is allowing me to put the submission template through its paces, but unfortunately it's getting more and more elaborate so it's slow going.

Anyway, the short answer is "yes, a bit". If you think there's anything you'd like to lend a hand with please let me know!

sliabh

evilrobotshane wrote: »

Anyway, the short answer is "yes, a bit". If you think there's anything you'd like to lend a hand with please let me know!

Good to know it is still moving. I have two scenario's to hand. One is half written, not site specific, and the other is something I pulled togther for the Hellfire guys in Bray and is very specific to their site (though it is more of a mil-sim-lite). I am happy to put them in the public domain.

And if you need any other help I will do what I can. Just ask!