Taking the advice from this amazing community I spent down time at work trying to figure out way to incorporate the people who are fighting my imaginary battles. I had a few ideas, but the one that stuck was making sure each combatant had a face and a name. Those two things should remind me that it's not just equipment stats and vehicles. To try this out I decided to start putting together a new Bolt Action campaign, where human tragedy and folly played out on a grand scale. To go with it I started working on a new set of Maptool tokens to emphasize the people on the ground and try out the advice given about creating the narrative on the battlefields. It's a rough draft, but I think it emphasizes the person hood of the soldier and will hopefully inspire many stories. Random national name generators are going to be the real MVP of this project.
That's a neat idea. Also, the token is simple enough you can easily move it around during a battle, but it's detailed enough you know all info that's necessary about your unit.
ReplyDeleteI guess the whole naming process of your units makes them significant because it allows to you create empathy with them. After all, that's the most basic thing we humans do in our daily lives, and that's the reason why we have language. To give a name to something or someone is to make them part of our world.
This looks great! How many figures will be involved in the campaign? I typically play small skirmishes, but I guess that Bolt Action is more platoon-level than squad-level?
ReplyDeleteI haven't run up my British roster yet, but my German and Soviets each have about 30-40 infantry and a tank. I expect the Brits will be similar.
ReplyDeleteGeoff Osterberg There is a nice generic WW2 system by Too Fat Lardies (Platoon Forward) that should fit perfectly with that size. It has a few very "thin" RPG elements and a large set of randomised scenarios.
ReplyDeletetoofatlardies.co.uk - Platoon Forward – TooFatLardies