Tips for militaryRP events

[John Rico]

Quick thread with suggestions for milsim missions (basically anything with hl2rp military or paramilitary factions as the protagonists) I wanted to make since it seems that lately 90% of the events have you playing an OTA soldier/CP officer/conscript/or any kind of fighter from any of the rebel groups of the willard lore, and they are frankly very hit or miss most of the time, from what I've played and from what I've watched.

First issue I have is GMs seemingly having a problem with constricting themselves creatively to a very basic format of event:
"Military squad of X faction runs around Y map and completes objective while shooting at NPCs or event characters representing Z enemy faction."

Any variation to this tired formula will already help enjoyment a great lot. For the love of god, try giving your players something new; especially since, in military missions, it's easy to fall into the trap of making your audience fight NPCs for 3 hours and expect praise and positive feedback for it, but that's terrible content.

Creativity tips: give your players some variation

1. Not all objectives have to be entirely offensive: don't make your players run all over the map, keeping them static gives them time to roleplay, take a breather and focus on interacting with other characters. Even in PVE missions where you would need to get more creative with NPCs, but the way I have seen the CT and SS staff use event characters I'd say is more fitting for fighting players sitting in a defensive position than anything else.
2. Milsim events don't have to be combat 100% of the time: most if not all missions I've played consisted solely of combat sections that repeated one after the other; let your players have a breather at any good opportunity, this is a roleplay game.
3. Even better, you can have a good milsim mission without any combat, survival missions, deployments where you interact with civilians (OSF regulars have been asking for this for a while, please just do it already), or events where you mainly do logistical runs, just get creative, the milsim crowd's main enjoyment is playing a soldier's life, not simply shooting everything that moves.

Actual milsim tips: give the ArmA nerds some love

1. OSF had done a lot of special training that's been left redundant since no GM has ever bothered to take it into account, if you ever decide to train to become a Tank crewman in the 24th you're probably gonna be waiting for a while for a mission where tanks are ever used in a way where the sub-faction becomes actually relevant. This goes for any specialization and the toys they train with; make sure the combat medics, breachers, marksmen and engineers with everything they need before the event begins, that'll be appreciated.
2. The way WN works everyone will run out of ammo and meds halfway through the mission, if not earlier; GMs usually just end up dropping a random cache or ICly sending a supply drop that is just chaotically split between players and script whores. Starting off your event by having your soldiers establishing a FOB and having someone running supplies between there and the frontline would actually make any milsim enjoyer cum on their pants. Playing logistical roles is probably the most underexploited aspect of military roleplay in WN.
3. A good part of milsim is having players come up with their own tactics, I've played a couple of 'stealth missions', but honestly, the way Gmod works and the way they were planned it would have been better for the GMs to keep stealth as one of a couple of routes the players could have used to complete their mission. Trying to stay quiet for a whole mission is not really fun when helix makes raising and lowering your weapon such a dangerous hassle.
4. Difficulty is a tough one, but Frostbite is a good example that it is doable IF the players are always allowed to retreat from the mission without risking their lives for a lost battle. Just don't force your players to complete an objective, especially when staff is so adamant with their PK policy.

Misc tips: the rest I can think of

1. Don't use Willard's hard PK policy as an excuse to be lazy with your players, the death of character is a big event on its own and often it feels like the GM are over-eager to slap a PK on any character knock-out that fits the criteria. Problem is that death is usually the most boring possibility, especially in military missions. A soldier can get captured and an impromptu prisoner exchange can happen mid-event; they can get seriously injured, and recovered by his squadmates, requiring a medevac to survive, etc. Again, creativity is the name of the game. The straight PK is just the lazy option.
2. Keep your events local and relevant to the main server: CT has an issue of sending character from the main server on missions that are not relevant at all to them. Chernobyl mission comes to mind, Frostbite too. OSF missions that better fit the narrative were those that kept with events more relevant to main: the Operation in London, or even the raid on the French countryside which was perfectly enjoyable just because of its simplicity. Sometimes, less is more, and players are not necessarily impressed by bombastic storylines that try to appear important and fail.
3. Briefing your soldiers is important, just dropping them in the middleo f the map with only the context given by the event thread is a lazy introduction for the characters playing your mission. Even if with faulty intel, give your players information. A confused player gets frustrated easily.

To be continued?

Anyway, that's all that I care to type for now, be happy

 

[TheGoodHunter]

darkest hour was yet another generic short stories military event, and i’d say that it’s an even better version than Cengiz’s recent City-36 event. it’s literally a coverrup mission that was perfect.

it combined elements of horror and combat nicely well, along with incentivizing horror for factions like the CPRD. everything was dark and really fucking scary and that’s what made the event awesome. events should be like Darkest Hour if they wanna do a military event in a HL2 setting, because Cengiz did an amazing job setting an example.

 

[Rat King]

thanks a lot for this advice! it has a ton of actionable stuff im eager to help incorporate when contributing to planning events

 

[Donavin Jones]

I aint readin allat