raniE
Big Bearded Guy
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- Feb 10, 2019
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This post will contain spoilers for the films District 9 and Blackhawk Down and the television series Band of Brothers (although as the latter two are based on an actual event I don't know how much I can spoil them).
So, I was rewatching the end fight scene from District 9, like you do, with Wikus in the mech-suit killing all the mercenaries, and once again it hit me (as it does every time I watch it) that the mercenaries are portrayed with just inhuman morale levels. Everyone that goes up against the mech suit dies. Everyone. And not in particulalry ambiguous ways either. They get their heads exploded, get hit with a pig thrown at immense speedcs, get exploded, shot in the face etc. It's all very bloody, and yet the mercenaries just keep coming. at the end of the fight, they've suffered a near 100% casualty rate with the only survivor being their leader, who acts as though he's won (then he gets ripped apart by the aliens because he's the only soldier left and only has a side-arm). And these are as mentioned mercenaries. They're in it for the money, and they're used to picking on defenseless people and having a grand old time killing people (or aliens, here) who can't fight back. They're not fighting like cornered rats either as Wikus is in no way pursuing them, he is simply running away trying to get Christopher Johnson to the alien dropship. Wikus only fires when fired upon (or when people drive humvees straight at him).
Every time I watch the film this brings me a bit out of it. Now, I realize that this serves an artistic purpose in the film as the humans are all portrayed as inhuman monsters, while the aliens are very human-like and sympathetic despite looking like insects, but it still bothers me. Why are these mercenaries sacrificing their lives here?
I also watched scenes from Blackhawk Down, the film about the Battle of Mogadishu. This has a duality of morale. It clearly shows the Americans suffering during the battle, when their friends get killed or they get wounded etc. On the other hand the Somali fighters are pretty much portrayed as a mass of willing cannon fodder. I wasn't there, so I can't say how accurate this portrayal is but it feels off. Band of Brothers seems to give a very good portrayal of soldiers on both sides running away, retreating, breaking down and in general not always being willing to fight to the last man and bullet in every situation.
So, how do you feel about combat morale in rpgs? Do you have NPCs fight to the death, or do you have them retreat or surrender? Do you use morale rules or do you simply decide when a given enemy has had enough and runs? How complicated do you make the rules if you use them, and how much do you take into consideration concerning the individual combatants or groups of fighters?
So, I was rewatching the end fight scene from District 9, like you do, with Wikus in the mech-suit killing all the mercenaries, and once again it hit me (as it does every time I watch it) that the mercenaries are portrayed with just inhuman morale levels. Everyone that goes up against the mech suit dies. Everyone. And not in particulalry ambiguous ways either. They get their heads exploded, get hit with a pig thrown at immense speedcs, get exploded, shot in the face etc. It's all very bloody, and yet the mercenaries just keep coming. at the end of the fight, they've suffered a near 100% casualty rate with the only survivor being their leader, who acts as though he's won (then he gets ripped apart by the aliens because he's the only soldier left and only has a side-arm). And these are as mentioned mercenaries. They're in it for the money, and they're used to picking on defenseless people and having a grand old time killing people (or aliens, here) who can't fight back. They're not fighting like cornered rats either as Wikus is in no way pursuing them, he is simply running away trying to get Christopher Johnson to the alien dropship. Wikus only fires when fired upon (or when people drive humvees straight at him).
Every time I watch the film this brings me a bit out of it. Now, I realize that this serves an artistic purpose in the film as the humans are all portrayed as inhuman monsters, while the aliens are very human-like and sympathetic despite looking like insects, but it still bothers me. Why are these mercenaries sacrificing their lives here?
I also watched scenes from Blackhawk Down, the film about the Battle of Mogadishu. This has a duality of morale. It clearly shows the Americans suffering during the battle, when their friends get killed or they get wounded etc. On the other hand the Somali fighters are pretty much portrayed as a mass of willing cannon fodder. I wasn't there, so I can't say how accurate this portrayal is but it feels off. Band of Brothers seems to give a very good portrayal of soldiers on both sides running away, retreating, breaking down and in general not always being willing to fight to the last man and bullet in every situation.
So, how do you feel about combat morale in rpgs? Do you have NPCs fight to the death, or do you have them retreat or surrender? Do you use morale rules or do you simply decide when a given enemy has had enough and runs? How complicated do you make the rules if you use them, and how much do you take into consideration concerning the individual combatants or groups of fighters?