I am running Band of Blades at the moment - they have just reached Sunstrider camp and are about to take on Elia the Passing Curse - and the team have a lot of specialists wounded and stressed even after quartermaster actions (they succeeded at a tough primary mission and failed the secondary at Plainsworth). For the next set of missions, if they leave a specialist or two back at camp, do these specialists recover in any way? It would make sense, but it might unbalance the game to some extent. Any advice would be appreciated.
No recovery or relief for those left in camp. Only two squads are sent out at a time because Camp must be protected from continual undead assaults. Even with the Chosen to help, it takes at least 3 squads to do that effectively. See Mission Creep hack on p439. So all the Legionnaires are under pressure during mission phase, even those left behind.
It’s meant to be hard. That way the players must engage with the game and optimise their choices. One way to get that healing is the Quartermaster spends Supply for extra actions, which will probably mean the Commander needs to prioritise Supply missions, and so the players will need to succeed on supply mission. Rolling sixes helps. The Medic also has abilities that can help, and a Mercy or two can make a big difference. And that’s playing the game.
Of course - I forgot about the threat to the camp. Yes, they have run out of supply - the failure of the secondary mission hurt them there, as success would have gained them 2 supply. But they have the opportunity to get some this time, so …
They did well this time - a couple of legion deaths, unfortunately, but both missions succeeded. They are in a lot better shape now, and they destroyed Elia the passing curse, although they spent reliquaries, black shot and alchemical supplies to do so. (Oh, and a lot of stress and special armour). Still tough, though - no intel left, which hurts secondary missions. I might have to write some stuff up about what happened.
More seriously, having the Specialists non sent on missions heal and recuperate a bit is one of the possibilities I envisioned for a bit less gritty game.
I think this has to be discussed at the beginning of each campaign, but it would also be unfair to deprive new BoB players of the “joy” of experiencing despair, powerlessness, scarcity, blight & death.
