Edge released a new book for Genesys, Ships of the Shattered Empire, that includes a new version of the mass combat rules compared to the ones found in Star Wars. I felt like posting about how they are similar and different for peoples’ consideration if you don’t follow the Genesys line of products.
First, in Star Wars, the active force was generally the side aligned with the PCs, there was maybe some wiggle room to have them be the enemy force in some circumstances. In Genesys, it is explicit that the PCs are always the active force, regardless of the setup of the battle.
Second, Phases: Phases largely remain the same as they were, functioning as the turn for mass combat. The same basic idea of determining what victory and defeat look like, how long each phase lasts, etc. are all, broadly, the same idea.
Third, Building the Pool: In Star Wars, you have a force strength with a value of 1-6 that represented the relative size and ability of each side of the battle. You use that scale to determine the number of ability and difficulty dice for the pool, then upgrade both the ability and difficulty based on each active commander’s respective ranks in Leadership.
In Genesys, you have a force size value (0-5) and a force quality value (also 0-5), reflecting number of troops or vehicles and the relative skill level and morale of the force, respectively. These now work like a characteristic and skill does; take the greater value, upgrade by the lesser value.
In the case of merging two different force elements into one remains the same; establish whichever force is greater, and then increase its value by 1. This also now applies to force quality.
It also brings attention to comparing quality of skill vs quality of equipment. It recommends to find a middle ground that makes sense, but lean towards skill over equipment to determine the final value.
Applying boost and setback is basically the same, though there are now other factors which I will get to.
Fourth, commanders: Commanders are not left out of the equation entirely. A PC can Lead the Fight by making a Daunting Leadership check. If they succeed, in the next phase, you use the character’s Leadership skill in place of the quality value. If the values are equal, you increase by +1 (to a max of 6).
This rule may also be done by a nemesis commander for the enemy force, just applying to difficulty instead.
For other PCs, they have more stuff to do now. The first is Supporting the Troops, where the PCs can make various different skill checks to either add boost, remove setback, or, if they score at least 3 Successes on their check, add 1 Success to the next mass combat check. The second is by Getting Involved Directly, where a PC can make a Hard combat check appropriate to the circumstances; if they succeed, they add a Boost, but if they fail they can suffer wounds, and on 3 Successes can inflict a Critical on a vital target.
Naturally, enemy nemeses can also use some of these rules for the enemy force.
A new rule is crisis points. These are an expansion on the “dramatic narrative moment” mentioned in the Star Wars rules, with more details and examples. These can happen on either double Triumph or double Despair, and are a vital moment that can often end a battle. They generally take the form of a combat encounter with a goal to capitalize on a moment or prevent the enemy force from doing the same. The GM can add one to a battle, but is generally recommended to save them for climactic battles otherwise they get stale.
The last new rule is casualties. At the end of a mass combat, each side suffers casualties, which isn’t just dead troops but injured, damaged, or missing troops and vehicles. The loser reduces its size by 1, plus 1 unless they did very well at the end (failing with advantage or triumph, basically, or maybe succeeding with threat/despair). The winner reduces its size by 1, unless they did very well in the same was as above. Dice results during combat can also inflict or reduce casualties, depending on circumstances. Recovering is possible but there’s no special rule for that.
The only other miscellaneous rule is that it uses magnitudes of Success to track certain objectives, using the example of evacuating civilians or destroying infrastructure, with each Success advancing that goal. There are also some talents that play with the rules.
Overall, the rules are close to the original. The dice pools are less reliant on a commander, and PCs have more concrete guidance on how to influence the battle directly.