Mgellis Posted January 19, 2013 Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 Okay, I was bored and I put together some tables for randomly generating scenario ideas. I figured I would share them with folks. Use as many as you need to come up with a good story. Enjoy! I hope they inspire many fun scenarios! First, we need to know when the story takes place: Year of Crisis 1-2: Cold War: 1970 + 1d20 3-4: Turn of the Century: 1990 + 1d20 5-6: Present and Near Future: 2010 + 1d20 (This gives us a range from 1971 to 2030, which is actually beyond the official range of the HUD-4, but allows for more historical and speculative scenarios. There are enough older platforms in the HUD-4 that one can handle a lot of the 1970s pretty easily. And one can always just re-roll if one feels a particular year is unsuitable, or shift the rolls to 1-3: 1980 + 1d20 and 4-6: 2000 + 1d20, for a range of 1981 to 2020.) Second, we need some good guys: Heroic Blue: The Usual Suspects Australia Brazil Canada E.U. France India Israel Italy Japan NATO Netherlands Norway Other (e.g., Morocco, Germany, etc.) or Roll Again Pacific Alliance (Mexico, Colombia, and Peru) Philippines South Africa South Korea Spain United Kingdom United States Heroic Blue: Other Possibilities Bangladesh Black Sea Nation (Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, etc.) Chile Denmark Finland Germany Greece Malaysia Morocco New Zealand Other (Uzbekistan, Estonia, etc.) or Roll Again Pakistan Persian Gulf State (Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, etc.) Poland Portugal Singapore Sweden Taiwan Thailand Turkey Third, we need some bad guys. In fact, I've got THREE tables here (the number after the country's name is a Wikipedia-based guesstimate of how many combat aircraft the country is likely to have available--this is a VERY rough estimate, and obviously the quality of the specific aircraft matters a great deal, but it at least provides some idea of the overall threat presented by the country in question): Concepts for Red Side: The Usual Suspects Algeria (200) Angola (60) Argentina (80) Belarus (200) China (1,500) Cuba (200) Indonesia (60) Iran (400) Kazakhstan (180) Libya (50) Myanmar (120) Non-State Antagonists (e.g., drug cartel, terrorists, pirates, insurgents, etc.) North Korea (650) Pakistan (500) Russia/USSR (1,900) Serbia (90) Sudan (70) Syria (300) Venezuela (70) Yemen (160) Concepts for Red Side: Alternates 1 Albania (30) Azerbaijan (50) Bangladesh (100) Brazil (220) Bulgaria (80) Cambodia (30) Cameroon (50) Chile (60) Colombia (40) Ecuador (60) Egypt (700) Ethiopia (40) Failed state or other nation in the process of civil war, rebellion, or collapse (varies) Greece (300) India (1,000) Iraq (varies) Jordan (100) Malaysia (40) Mexico (50) Mongolia (80) Concepts for Red Side: Alternates 2 Morocco (100) Nigeria (30) Norway (50) Other (or Roll Again) Peru (60) Poland (100) Saudi Arabia (280) South Africa (40) Spain (150) Sri Lanka (30) Thailand (100) Tunisia (50) Turkmenistan (80) Turkey (460) U.A.E. (80) Uganda (20) Ukraine (180) Uzbekistan (110) Vietnam (180) Zimbabwe (30) And, of course, we need a plot. Some generic country names have been used: Basic Storylines: Why Wars and Battles Happen 1. The noble and peace-loving country of Freedonia must position some of its forces in a disputed or hostile region to gather intelligence, conduct mine sweeping operations, establish or defend a territorial claim, etc. Freedonia must complete its mission and avoid serious losses. The evil and totalitarian nation of Bacteria will attack them. 2. Freedonia must move some of its forces—a convoy, a task force, etc.—through a disputed or hostile region. This may involve running a blockade. Bacteria will attempt to stop them. 3. Freedonia must defend its forces or assets against one or more air strikes conducted by Bacteria. Employing air defense effectively and/or maintaining air superiority will probably be critical to this mission. 4. Criminals and/or hostile nations are engaged in illegal activities (piracy, smuggling, violating Freedonia’s EEZ, etc.). Freedonia must seize one or more of the ships involved in these actions (i.e., Possess rather than Damage) and bring the perpetrators to justice. 5. Freedonia must locate and destroy hostile submarine forces controlled by Bacteria. These must be prevented from reaching their intended destination or completing their intended mission. 6. Freedonia must locate and destroy (or seize) hostile surface forces controlled by Bacteria. This may be a convoy or task force, possibly assisted by submarines or aircraft. These surface vessels must be prevented from reaching their intended destination and/or completing their intended mission. 7. Bacteria is believed to have supported terrorists, attacked neutral shipping, etc. Freedonia conducts a raid or a punitive strike. 8. Freedonia and Bacteria are at war. Freedonia must gain control of the skies over Bacteria and then destroy vital targets on the ground and/or at sea. This may involve air strikes, cruise missile strikes, naval bombardment, and/or the use of marines, commandos, and/or paratroopers. 9. Bacteria has attacked or is planning to attack Freedonia’s ally, Harmonia. Freedonia must defend its ally from this attack by destroying Bacteria’s aircraft, ships, and submarines before they can inflict a critical amount of damage on Harmonia. 10. Freedonia must conduct a rescue or extraction mission. This will either require getting a submarine or one or more aircraft on station for a certain period of time and then getting them to a safe destination, or gaining control of a ship being used to hold prisoners or hostages (i.e., Possess rather than Damage) and then getting it to a safe destination, all while evading or eliminating forces attempting to prevent the rescue or extraction from taking place. 11. Freedonia’s ally Harmonia has experienced a coup. The new government is hostile to Freedonia. Freedonia must invade and occupy Harmonia in order to restore the previous government or establish a new government friendly to Freedonia. 12. Failed state Dystopia has collapsed into utter chaos; Freedonia must occupy the country, prevent humanitarian crises and/or acts of genocide, disarm the warring parties, capture or kill pirates or terrorists or drug lords or warlords, and/or assist in rebuilding the nation. 13. The non-aligned nation of Neutralia is in the middle of a civil war or rebellion. Freedonia has decided to assist either the existing government or the rebels. The other side may or may not be receiving arms from Bacteria. Freedonia must protect its allies and/or attack its enemies. 14. Freedonia has decided to attack Bacteria’s ally Sylvania, its military assets (e.g., warships, etc.), and/or its merchant shipping. Bacteria will either attempt to stop the attack or to assist Sylvania after the attack has taken place. 15. Freedonia must maintain a no-fly zone over part or all of Bacteria to prevent that country from engaging in hostile activities against other nations or freedom fighters operating within its borders. 16. Freedonia must protect maritime assets such as oil rigs, fishing boats, etc. from hostile nations, criminals, and/or terrorists. 17. Freedonia believes that Bacteria is planning an attack; Freedonia must make a preemptive strike against some of Bacteria’s critical military or industrial assets. 18. Terrorists, pirates, drug lords, etc. are operating out of Neutralia. Freedonia intends to conduct a raid against them. Neutralia may or may not be assisting Freedonia, or may have even refused to cooperate (possibly because it feels this is an internal matter) and has threatened to attack any of Freedonia’s forces crossing into its territory, territorial waters, or airspace. 19. Freedonia must patrol a region (to defend its borders, enforce a blockade, help police the EEZ of an ally, etc.). Hostile forces entering this region and/or attempting to pass through it without authorization must be driven off, seized, and/or destroyed. 20. Other or Roll Again. Some more tables, listing possible locations for a scenario... 20 Places Where Things Can Go Wrong 1. Somalia 2. Democratic Republic of the Congo 3. Sudan 4. Chad 5. Zimbabwe 6. Afghanistan 7. Yemen 8. Iraq 9. Central African Republic 10. Ivory Coast 11. Guinea 12. Pakistan 13. Nigeria 14. Kenya 15. Ethiopia 16. Niger 17. Uganda 18. Myanmar 19. North Korea 20. Eritrea 100 More Places Where Things Can Go Wrong Syria Liberia Cameroon Nepal East Timor Bangladesh Sri Lanka Egypt Republic of the Congo Iran Cambodia Mauritania Uzbekistan Burkina Faso Kyrgyzstan Equatorial Guinea Zambia Lebanon Tajikistan Solomon Islands Laos Angola Libya Georgia Colombia Djibouti Papua New Guinea Philippines Comoros Madagascar Mozambique Bolivia Indonesia Fiji Tanzania Ecuador Azerbaijan Nicaragua Guatemala Moldova Honduras China Algeria India Mali Turkmenistan Venezuela Russia Thailand Turkey Belarus Morocco Maldives Serbia Jordan Cape Verde Gabon El Salvador Tunisia Dominican Republic Vietnam Mexico Peru Saudi Arabia Cuba Armenia Guyana Suriname Namibia Paraguay Kazakhstan Republic of Macedonia Malaysia Ukraine South Africa Cyprus Albania Brazil Brunei Bahrain Senegal Ghana Belize Jamaica Trinidad Romania Kuwait Mongolia Bulgaria Croatia Panama Latvia Oman Greece United Arab Emirates Hungary Argentina Italy Poland Spain In addition, on the off chance we need fishing or merchant fleets, either as good guys to play, bad guys to pursue, or hapless bystanders to protect and/or not kill by accident, here are a few tables based on the largest fishing and merchant fleets in the world: Nations with Major Fishing Industries (i.e., Blue ships to protect or Red ships to sink or capture) Bangladesh Canada Chile China Iceland India Indonesia Japan Malaysia Mexico Myanmar Norway Peru Philippines Russia/USSR South Korea Taiwan Thailand United States Vietnam More Nations with Major Fishing Industries (i.e., Blue ships to protect or Red ships to sink or capture) Argentina Brazil Cambodia Denmark Ecuador Egypt France Ghana Iran Morocco Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria Pakistan Senegal South Africa Spain Tanzania Turkey United Kingdom Major Shipping Fleets (i.e., Blue ships to protect or Red ships to sink or capture) China Denmark Germany Greece Hong Kong India Iran Italy Japan Malaysia Norway Russia/USSR Saudi Arabia Singapore South Korea Switzerland Taiwan Turkey United Kingdom United States And a few more possible locations for scenarios... 20 Maritime Choke Points Bab el-Mandab (Gulf of Aden) Bosporus English Channel Lombok Strait (East of Java) Luzon Strait Makassar Strait (East of Borneo) Mozambique Channel Oresund (between Denmark and Sweden) Panama Canal Strait of Messina (South of Italy) Straits of Gibraltar Straits of Hormuz Straits of Malacca Suez Canal Sunda Strait (East of Sumatra) Taiwan Strait The Nine Degree Channel (Arabian Sea, north of Male) The Six Degree Channel (Andaman Sea, north of Sumatra) Torres Strait (North of Australia) Yucatan Channel (between Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean) 20 Troubled Seas Adriatic Sea Aegean Sea Andaman Sea Arabian Sea Argentine Sea Baltic Sea Barents Sea Bering Sea Black Sea Caribbean Sea Caspian Sea East China Sea Labrador Sea Mediterranean Sea North Sea Red Sea Sea of Japan South China Sea Timor Sea Yellow Sea (An Exclusive Economic Zone might be the scene of all kinds of confrontations, any of which might escalate into a genuine conflict...) The Twenty Largest EEZs United States France Australia Russia United Kingdom New Zealand Indonesia Canada Japan Portugal Chile Brazil Kiribati Mexico Federated States of Micronesia Denmark Papua New Guinea Norway India Marshall Islands The Second Twenty Largest EEZs Philippines Solomon Islands South Africa Seychelles Mauritius Fiji Madagascar Argentina Ecuador Spain Maldives Peru China Somalia Colombia Cape Verde Iceland Tuvalu Vanuatu Tonga The Third Twenty Largest EEZs Bahamas Palau Mozambique Morocco Costa Rica Namibia Yemen Italy Oman Myanmar Sri Lanka Angola Greece Venezuela Vietnam Ireland Libya Cuba Panama Malaysia The Fourth Twenty Largest EEZs Nauru Equatorial Guinea Republic of Korea Thailand Egypt Turkey Jamaica Dominican Republic Liberia Honduras Tanzania Pakistan Ghana Saudi Arabia Nigeria Sierra Leone Gabon Barbados Côte d'Ivoire Iran 100 More EEZs and Nations with Troubled Borders Mauritania Comoros Sweden Senegal Netherlands Ukraine Uruguay Guyana North Korea São Tomé and Príncipe Samoa Suriname Haiti Algeria Nicaragua Guinea-Bissau Kenya Guatemala Antigua and Barbuda Tunisia Cyprus El Salvador Finland Bangladesh Taiwan Eritrea Trinidad and Tobago East Timor Sudan Cambodia Guinea Croatia United Arab Emirates Germany Malta Estonia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Belize Bulgaria Benin Qatar Republic of the Congo Poland Dominica Latvia Grenada Israel Romania The Gambia Georgia Lebanon Cameroon Saint Lucia Albania Togo Kuwait Syria Bahrain Brunei Montenegro Djibouti Lithuania Belgium Democratic Republic of the Congo Singapore Iraq Slovenia Jordan Bosnia and Herzegovina Kazakhstan Turkmenistan Azerbaijan Mongolia Chad Niger Mali Ethiopia Bolivia Zambia Afghanistan Central African Republic South Sudan Uzbekistan Zimbabwe Burkina Faso Uganda Laos Belarus Kyrgyzstan Nepal Tajikistan Malawi Serbia Bhutan Moldova Armenia Burundi Rwanda Macedonia Kosovo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mgellis Posted January 27, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2013 Quick note...I modified (and hopefully improved) the system slightly, adding a new table and changing the wording in other tables in a few places. Obviously, you don't use every table every time and not every set of rolls will give people a viable scenario (some results will be totally implausible or ridiculous) but I hope that, as a brainstorming tool, the system overall is helpful and fun! Anyone who wants to post scenario ideas they've generated from the system in this thread should feel free to do so. It would be fun to see what people come up with. And the whole idea is to encourage scenario design for Harpoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
broncepulido Posted January 27, 2013 Report Share Posted January 27, 2013 Your are not alone, thanks by the table Mark, it's not in the 169 pages of my personal main Harpoon theory working paper! (Secondary papers are about RCS, radar, sonar, submarines and sound signatures, determined plane types, armour ...). Some of the more strange tables are about infantry quality, weapons and size for fit it on transport planes and helicopters, artillery PH, with what amount of losses a country must lose the campaign, counting the historic period, nationality, fanatism and political system .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mgellis Posted February 2, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2013 I updated the storylines to make them a little more flexible for scenario design. I've also added a new player...the unaligned nation of Neutralia. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mgellis Posted March 6, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2013 I've added a new table, using locations as starting points for scenario-building..."100 Places Where Things Can Go Wrong (information based on the Failed State Index)." Enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mgellis Posted April 1, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 I've updated the tables a bit and added some additional information about some of the countries involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrench Turner Posted April 3, 2013 Report Share Posted April 3, 2013 I don't have any of the exotic dice Mark is using. But I was able to work up an alternate using a spreadsheet program and the random number generating function, RANDOMBETWEEN(X,Y). It lets you set the year in one step, RB(1960,2030). I also set up the main Blue and Red sections in columns that did not have to be limited to 20 entries. Picking the allies for Red and Blue was interesting since I sometimes got the same country on both sides (possibly a civil war, or insurgent proxies?). It would make things even more interesting if there were a column to pick neutral nations that clutter up the action and constrict the options of Blue and Red? I'm thinking about Sweden or Switzerland during the Cold War. They were ready to shoot down any plane that flew over their territory and didn't care which direction it was going. An island nation neutral might force a naval task force to sail the long way around in international waters, giving the enemy enough time and knowledge to set up an ambush. Mark, I noticed you had an entry for Red Non-State Belligerents (pirates, smugglers, etc.). What about neutrals and NGO's? Would it be too distracting for the Blue player if the orders included the protection of (but no control over) a Doctors Without Borders Clinic at the same time he attacks Red and Red's Ally(ies)? A Neutral (Green) ship might be a fool that sailed his yacht into an exclusion zone, or a CNN charter boat watching a carrier launch an airstrike. You can't order them to clear the area, and you can't sink them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mgellis Posted April 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2013 I don't have any of the exotic dice Mark is using. But I was able to work up an alternate using a spreadsheet program and the random number generating function, RANDOMBETWEEN(X,Y). It lets you set the year in one step, RB(1960,2030). I also set up the main Blue and Red sections in columns that did not have to be limited to 20 entries. Picking the allies for Red and Blue was interesting since I sometimes got the same country on both sides (possibly a civil war, or insurgent proxies?). It would make things even more interesting if there were a column to pick neutral nations that clutter up the action and constrict the options of Blue and Red? I'm thinking about Sweden or Switzerland during the Cold War. They were ready to shoot down any plane that flew over their territory and didn't care which direction it was going. An island nation neutral might force a naval task force to sail the long way around in international waters, giving the enemy enough time and knowledge to set up an ambush. Mark, I noticed you had an entry for Red Non-State Belligerents (pirates, smugglers, etc.). What about neutrals and NGO's? Would it be too distracting for the Blue player if the orders included the protection of (but no control over) a Doctors Without Borders Clinic at the same time he attacks Red and Red's Ally(ies)? A Neutral (Green) ship might be a fool that sailed his yacht into an exclusion zone, or a CNN charter boat watching a carrier launch an airstrike. You can't order them to clear the area, and you can't sink them. Another option for random number generation is to download one of the freeware dice rollers people have written. There are a bunch of them. I use Smallroller. Using tables with 20 items doesn't mean anything special; I set things up that way simply because I have a bunch of d20s in my house and it was an easy way to do it. In any event, the tables are really set up more as a brainstorming tool than anything else; you can roll on one table or all of them or anything in between and just use the results to inspire ideas and re-roll anything that does not make sense. As for neutrals, yes, absolutely. You can set up a "protection" mission by making another side (in H3) an ally (friendly posture on both sides). You can't control their units, but any losses against their forces will still count against you if you have a "Protect" victory condition where you have to protect a certain number of units. For example, you could set up "United Nations Peacekeepers" as one side (the side you are playing) and "Doctors Without Borders" as another Blue side. Your task force will follow your orders, but the DWB side (maybe a merchant being used as a floating hospital) will simply follow a pre-programmed mission...you still have to protect it if you have set up a Victory Condition like Protect/1 Unit/100%/Sub-Class: Merchant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mgellis Posted May 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2013 I just modified these again. I changed the plot lines (I wasn't entirely happy with them and I think the new version is better). I also added a couple of tables with more possible locations for scenarios...troubled seas and maritime choke points. Enjoy! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSF Posted May 18, 2013 Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 Very interesting stuff, Mark! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mgellis Posted May 28, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2013 I've added another brainstorming table, "100 EEZs Where Things Could Go Wrong." In this case, it's not the country itself that is in trouble, but the EEZ where a confrontation of one kind or another might take place. This includes all kinds of countries, ranging from those who might be particularly aggressive in defending their EEZ, to those involved in territorial disputes over borders, to those who have large EEZs that are hard to patrol and might look tempting to someone willing to engage in illegal fishing or similar activities. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mgellis Posted June 1, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2013 Just a quick update...I modified the EEZ table and added a second, shorter one with more options. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mgellis Posted July 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 I tweaked a few of the tables again, added a few more options, corrected a couple of minor errors, etc. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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