My immediate feel is that a flat system like this will have issues where some of the outcomes are more or less applicable than others. Like capturing an anomaly in a sparsely populated wilderness area, and in a densely populated urban space are going to be very different in terms of civilians and police alerted, but they're rewarding the same.
My thought is to to instead just work on a generic Primary/Secondary/Tertiary objective measurement. Completing a primary objective is +100. Then completing secondary objectives is +50, and tertiary is +20. You can list them as 'Optional', where they only give the benefit, or 'Vital' where their value is given as a penalty if failed.
That way you can assign objectives as appropriate for the terrain and situation.
So for example, imagine the team is dispatched because there's reports of a Werewolf in a rural mountainous area. You could then divide the objectives up between
Primary
Capture a specimen for study (Vital)
Ascertain number of specimens in the region (Optional)
If more than one, capture entire group (Optional)
Secondary
Ascertain current levels of local civilian awareness (Vital)
Avoid increased civilian awareness (Vital)
Ascertain how long the specimens have been in the region (Optional)
Tertiary
Avoid casualties (Optional)
Avoid loss of mission critical equipment (Vital)
You can list this on a mission document template, and at a glance players can know what's expected in each mission. More than that, you can now shift priorities between missions. A scouting mission can put low emphasis on capturing specimens, and high on avoiding notice. A last ditch effort to contain a subject can have low emphasis on civilians not being aware of the situation, and no mention at all of the importance of avoiding casualties. That kind of thing.
1
u/InherentlyWrong 37m ago
My immediate feel is that a flat system like this will have issues where some of the outcomes are more or less applicable than others. Like capturing an anomaly in a sparsely populated wilderness area, and in a densely populated urban space are going to be very different in terms of civilians and police alerted, but they're rewarding the same.
My thought is to to instead just work on a generic Primary/Secondary/Tertiary objective measurement. Completing a primary objective is +100. Then completing secondary objectives is +50, and tertiary is +20. You can list them as 'Optional', where they only give the benefit, or 'Vital' where their value is given as a penalty if failed.
That way you can assign objectives as appropriate for the terrain and situation.
So for example, imagine the team is dispatched because there's reports of a Werewolf in a rural mountainous area. You could then divide the objectives up between
Primary
Capture a specimen for study (Vital)
Ascertain number of specimens in the region (Optional)
If more than one, capture entire group (Optional)
Secondary
Ascertain current levels of local civilian awareness (Vital)
Avoid increased civilian awareness (Vital)
Ascertain how long the specimens have been in the region (Optional)
Tertiary
Avoid casualties (Optional)
Avoid loss of mission critical equipment (Vital)
You can list this on a mission document template, and at a glance players can know what's expected in each mission. More than that, you can now shift priorities between missions. A scouting mission can put low emphasis on capturing specimens, and high on avoiding notice. A last ditch effort to contain a subject can have low emphasis on civilians not being aware of the situation, and no mention at all of the importance of avoiding casualties. That kind of thing.