Ogre Meta-game?

[Buzzardo]

In the BatG thread, various folks have mentioned the idea of games that lead into other games. I think of that as meta-gaming* around the regular game.

A game of Ogre represents a situation that lasts no more than an hour. A game turn is four minutes long, and it's a rare (very rare, in my experience) game that goes fifteen turns. That's why units are assumed to have enough ammo, and no one needs to stop to eat, drink, pee, or sleep.

I wouldn't try to add those things to Ogre. Rather, I'd create a meta-game for the doings between games. Another way to look at it is as a separate game, where the smaller actions are played out as games of Ogre.

So, what would that larger game have to have?

* With a definite nod to the game label under which Ogre was first published. :)

[Buzzardo]

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to create a new game for publication. It's just an idea for us grognards to kick around between actual games of Ogre. :)

[Mack_JB]

Beyond the obvious points you've mentioned, my addition would be some way of rotating infantry out of battle, out of their powered suits, and getting them a hot shower before they have to re-suit and go back in the line.

Perhaps some form of mobile structure similar to the MCP wherein one could have racks for the suits, and trained personnel to help un-suit the men, meals, and a decontamination area for residual radiation from all those nukes they use. Definitely back-game stuff, but needed for morale. I've often wondered at the fan fiction where a man is in the suit for a week at a time, I can't imagine that would be in any way pleasant.

[FJCestero]

You know, I actually kicked around a few ideas for a campaign engine. This brings it back. The game was played as a sort of role-playing/campaign game in turns worth a week each. It was my tongue-in-cheek take on the silliness of an RPG in a nuclear war, played for laughs. You start at the beginning of the war.

Since there's no way anyone is going to survive 52 combats a year for the 40 years of the Last War (not with OGREs CRT!!!), the point wasn't to "level up" like other RPGs, but to _avoid_ combat long enough to collect fake passports and cash so you can retire in comfort somewhere in the south pacific. Instead of "hit points" (nukes, what's the point?), it tracked gametes, which start at 100,000,000 but only ever go down...

As my very incomplete write up put it:

Take two guys:

"Yeah, by Turn #307 my character was a Combine 87th Level 'OGRE-Buster' Five-Star General who commands his own Army Corps and found a +5 Plasma Rifle in a secret government research center. He's captured his own auto-factory and is going to start building a moon-base."

Or: "Yeah, my character high-tailed it out of the Army as a lowly 1st-Loey and is currently drinking cocktails on a beach in some remote Pacific Island with two-and-a-half million embezzled dollars. Oh, and unlike that other guy, he's not sterile."

So, who "won"? :)

You also score bragging rights based on your number of surviving children and on whether or not you managed to seduce the General's daughter (or son, depending on your character's gender and/or preferences...).

[dwalend]

Originally Posted by FJCestero

Or: "Yeah, my character high-tailed it out of the Army as a lowly 1st-Loey and is currently drinking cocktails on a beach in some remote Pacific Island with two-and-a-half million embezzled dollars. Oh, and unlike that other guy, he's not sterile."

Grand Theft: Ogre

[Jen]

Originally Posted by dwalend

Grand Theft: Ogre

I have not had enough coffee to process this idea.

Actually, I'm not sure there IS enough coffee...

Jen

[ldj00]

Hello,

I would love to play GTO!

Of course, they would need to be Ninja's...

[selenite]

Originally Posted by dwalend

Grand Theft: Ogre

Now I'm visualizing a Vulcan robbing a bank. No need to open the vault, just pick it up in one claw and drive off.

[Buzzardo]

Originally Posted by selenite

Now I'm visualizing a Vulcan robbing a bank. No need to open the vault, just pick it up in one claw and drive off.

Ogre meets Kelly's Heroes....

[AstralWanderer]

Originally Posted by selenite

Now I'm visualizing a Vulcan robbing a bank. No need to open the vault, just pick it up in one claw and drive off.

Looks like a good idea for a Vulcan scenario, but how could it cope with a "Hot Coffee" mod?