I've been toying with the idea of running a WW2 special ops PbP game, and instead of the normal SAS / Commando / SOE thing, I thought it would be cool to focus on the LRDG, a unit who's missions largely aren't well publicised so I'd be able to sidestep the history factor to a great extent.
However there is a significant problem - each LRDG truck commonly carried three men, which is good. But the LRDG usually operated in squadrons of five or six trucks, and I'm not up to handling eighteen players! Nor do I want to have a special-special ops group with one or two lone trucks wandering the desert.
So, do I have a handful of PCs and fill the rest of the squadron with NPCs, or do I give each Player the responsibility for three PCs in their truck?
Speaking only for myself, I think the idea of each player running a truck of three PCs is a really cool idea in general, and one that PbP is uniquely suited for.
Then again, I'm one of those GMs who doesn't believe in sharing authority so much as quietly delegating - every PC they run is one less NPC for you to remember is in the scene. :D
"PC and their truckmates" would work very smoothly with the Savage Worlds rules.
=
...choice of unit. It's non-obvious because the Long Range Desert Group usually avoided combat. They were road-watchers first and foremost, and often came into conflict with the more gung-ho SAS who hitched along for the ride. I could see an LDRG campaign being more about stealth and dealing with the extreme environmental hazards of the Sahara than bang-bang-boom.
Quote from: Samarkand...choice of unit. It's non-obvious because the Long Range Desert Group usually avoided combat. They were road-watchers first and foremost, and often came into conflict with the more gung-ho SAS who hitched along for the ride. I could see an LDRG campaign being more about stealth and dealing with the extreme environmental hazards of the Sahara than bang-bang-boom.
The LRDG did their fair share of fighting, their trucks werent festooned with guns just to give them something to hang on to as they drove across the desert ;). Plus they had a more varied role than the SAS did at the time.
An SAS mission would be pretty much "Go here, blow stuff up, run away quickly", whereas the LRDG can do the same thing, plus do recon, transport SAS raiders or SOE spies, or search & rescue.
On the harrassed GM front, with an SAS mission, I'd have 2 PCs per jeep and about a dozen jeeps, which would mean more players or NPCs, and with a straight up commando raid I either give the players command of 3 or 4 random PCs from the platoon or run thirty or so NPCs. 3 PC in five or six trucks works out nicely for me :)