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So say your players are going into the breach, as it were. Not a saloon shoot out, not a forest ambush by wolfen, but the full press of joined battle where all kinds of random crap you never even see coming can kill you.

What kind of methods do you guys use to bring that sort of tension and excitement? Pure description? Exciting soundtracks? Random strike rolls from passing combatants or stray shots? Occasionally having the area blasted to hell be fireballs or missiles?

My group is in said situation, so I'm fishing for inspiration.

Graphic descriptions, Exciting soundtracks, Shared movie scene references, Playing clips from movies, Random strike rolls from passing combatants or stray shots, Occasionally having the area blasted to hell by fireballs or missiles. Any or all of the above are good choices, and in the over thirty years we have been playing together the group I game with has used them all. I have also read scene from books to set the stage. I like using the opening scene of 'Saving Private Ryan' with new or younger players.

Use smoke to limit how much of the battlefield they can see. Don't tell them which shadowy figures in the smoke are enemies or allies. Make the players realize that the smoke prevents their allies from seeing them clearly and puts them at risk of friendly fire.

Have a favorite NPC killed suddenly. Even better if it's caused by friendly fire.

Make the battle noisy so that they can't communicate well with each other and their allies, even via radio.

Players are used to have perfect information which is the opposite of what would happen in a real battle. Limiting their information will totally make them uneasy.

--flatline

Add to the above the same thing I do to increase paranoia. Roll some dice behind your shield, Have the players make counter rolls for no reason. Occasionally after rolling consult the second piece of paper on a notepad (so that it is covered and all secretive), once in a while add a note or scribble to the paper while looking troubled and/or shaking your head. If asked what your doing insist that it is nothing. Never do this consistently as it will then become regular and the players will dismiss it as nothing ever happens to them. In mass combat though with all the other rolls being made and the death that should be occurring around them and reports of garbled information and score being played to loud and (if you can get it) a battle scene sound track with the explosions or clashing swords played much to loud and the yelling around the table. Just add this in once in a while to add a little more to that "fog of war". Maybe make them start using hand signals around the table.

All that being said, drums and signal flags were used to give battle orders for a great deal of time.
Skipping our methods now with power and environmentally sealed armor the ambient noise of the battlefield is stripped or reduced from the concerns of the soldier allowing more detail to be received over radio communications and the HUD which should even be present in the non-"powered" armors should still present a lot more usable data to the trooper. When the panic from the cacophony of combat and the confusion of what is going on can be removed from mass combat the soldier is multiplied in his capability.

Hmm, this may have been another reason they could use for the CS beating Tolkeen. Many of Tolkeen's forces didn't use EBA or PA so would be assaulted by the battlefield noise and not comforted by the data provided by something as simple as compass with waypoints.

Yeah, dealing with the feed of information in their HUDs is a large concern. Insulation from chaos is my enemy.

Though there are ways of overcoming it.

Alrik Vas wrote:Yeah, dealing with the feed of information in their HUDs is a large concern. Insulation from chaos is my enemy.

Though there are ways of overcoming it.

Give them too much information and/or make it untrustworthy.

Disinformation is a powerful tool. They're storming a town with all tech defenders. The group has a TW as their mage. They don't have a lot of trickery going for them as a group, but the enemy has access to a lot of underhanded means. Traps and ambushes are great, leading them off mission could be disastrous, though.

They don't have much support, as soon as they get divided they're kinda hosed as it is.

For situations like that I use descriptions of the overall chaos. I focus them on their part and give occasional reviews of the greater situation to remind them of the bigger picture.

A customary acknowledgment of my acceptance of their surrender. Lol.

Plenty of Red shirt use.
Random bullet graze or explosion.
Suprise trench warfare ambushes.
A fraggin Sniper.

Coalition war campaign has a battlefield horror chart.