D&D 5E Peasant Revolts in 5e

[Bohandas]

and for bonus points, are there any fantasy movies or novels that star peasants? I've done some checks already and noticing most peasant stories are essentially "secret princes" and thus disqualified.

The hobbits in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings seem to be middle class, does that count?

Also, Star Wars episodes 1-3, and 7-8 (I'm disqualifying the original trilogy since Luke is Darth Vader's son and thus sort of falls under the secret prince category, kind of)

 

[Zardnaar]

I don’t understand the sentiment in this thread that the peasants would have no hope. Due to bounded accuracy, any creature can be a threat to any other creature in large enough numbers. As long as you have enough peasants, they’ll stand a decent chance of winning, though they will certainly suffer heavy casualties.

It's more because they have clubs and improvised weapons vs something like a knight. 10 or 20 commonors might beat a knight but then said knight turns up with 3000 of his friends and 10k infantry.

Or 1000 archers using longbows or professional crossbow men.

Once the authorities rally your revolts doomed.

Look in the MM

Knight CR3
Veteren CR3
Archer CR3

Each one can be swarmed but see previous comment. A nobles personal guard might be 20 or 30 armed and armored fighter types probably CR 1/2 or 1/4.


Most commonors are commonors maybe a few thugs and scouts.

That's assuming the nobles can't really their own peasants.

The only successful one I can think of is Dithmarschen. Later ones came outside the D&D timeframe.

PC intervention of course could change things.

 

[Umbran]

... but then said knight turns up with 3000 of his friends and 10k infantry.

He probably doesn't. Remember, standing armies were rare. England didn't have a standing army until Oliver Cromwell in the mid-1600s. There aren't 10K infantry just waiting around to be tossed at local peasant revolts.

Go read up about the Peasant's Revolt of 1381. The revolt basically took London from King Richard (who was 14 years old, and had most of his troops committed elsewhere at the time). Key to its resolution was not 10K men in a great battle. It was the rebel leader being an idiot and getting himself killed during a parley with Richard. It was only after this that the king was able to put together a sizable force (4000 or so men) to pacify London.

 

[Zardnaar]

He probably doesn't. Remember, standing armies were rare. England didn't have a standing army until Oliver Cromwell in the mid-1600s. There aren't 10K infantry just waiting around to be tossed at local peasant revolts.

Go read up about the Peasant's Revolt of 1381. The revolt basically took London from King Richard (who was 14 years old, and had most of his troops committed elsewhere at the time). Key to its resolution was not 10K men in a great battle. It was the rebel leader being an idiot and getting himself killed during a parley with Richard. It was only after this that the king was able to put together a sizable force (4000 or so men) to pacify London.

I know but members of the nobility did.
. I used numbers from France, they could field 3k knights and 10k infantry circa Hundred Years war.

England wasn't the only place to have peasnyt revolts and England historically has a small army.

4k is still enough.

Peasant revolts basically don't work historically. They were crushed more often than not.

Even your example doesn't contradict my once the nobles rally line.

The numbers don't matter to much because the nobles control the money, weapons, armor and training.

 

[Tonguez]

The hobbits in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings seem to be middle class, does that count?

Also, Star Wars episodes 1-3, and 7-8 (I'm disqualifying the original trilogy since Luke is Darth Vader's son and thus sort of falls under the secret prince category, kind of)

Sam was the only peasant hobbit featured, the rest were petty bourgeios in the pastoral idyll.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

He probably doesn't. Remember, standing armies were rare. England didn't have a standing army until Oliver Cromwell in the mid-1600s. There aren't 10K infantry just waiting around to be tossed at local peasant revolts.

Go read up about the Peasant's Revolt of 1381. The revolt basically took London from King Richard (who was 14 years old, and had most of his troops committed elsewhere at the time). Key to its resolution was not 10K men in a great battle. It was the rebel leader being an idiot and getting himself killed during a parley with Richard. It was only after this that the king was able to put together a sizable force (4000 or so men) to pacify London.

Yep. The idea of the local lord having even several hundreds of knights to call upon is...a fun anachronism.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yep. The idea of the local lord having even several hundreds of knights to call upon is...a fun anachronism.

Each Lord had a few mean to call on but the Lord above them and them above them....

France Battle of Agincourt
13000

Crecy
France 20-30k

English numbers were 7-9000. Some estimates for the French were even higher.

Ottomans could field around 60k.

Armies in the Crusades were hitting tens of thousands.

Local Lord didn't have thousands eventually though the king or duke gets involved if the revolt is bad enough.

English used 4000 to crush the revolt. There were no national armies but there were plenty of men around.

Swiss mercenaries were also around.

Battle numbers were smaller in the dark ages espicially in England.

No peasant revolt was successful in the time period in Europe with the possible exception of Dithmarschen (in terms of overthrowing the powers that be). Most of the time the King didn't have to get involved.

Dithmarschen - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Hriston]

I’m sorry you found the peasant revolting. I thought it tasted great!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Sam was the only peasant hobbit featured, the rest were petty bourgeios in the pastoral idyll.

Not that petty in some cases. Pippin is the son of the hereditary ruler - when he is called "the Prince of the Halflings" it is not incorrect.

Bilbo didn't have to work for a living, even before he stole the dragon's treasure.

 

[Coroc]

Assuming a knight in full plate:
Well basically as long as the knight is mounted the peasants are like 1hp 4e minions. They go down like flies, with the only chance of pure luck or killing the horse. If the knight is on foot you need 20 peasants who coordinate their attacks well or it is 20 dead peasants and 1 unscarred knight.
Of course with heavy casualties involved and bigger numbers the knight gets overwhelmed at some point.
But you have to take morale into account, As soon as the knight mows down 5 or 6 of the twenty, the others run.
The peasant revolts in Germany were quite successful BUT they had professional elite mercenarys and knights who lead them and made some kind of soldiers out of them, and firearms were also in good use already , so many opponent soldiers would not be armored that heavy anymore and you had the whole allotment of pole arms already, like flails for corn improved with some long spikes, which is very effective also vs. plate armor.

A possible solution for 5e would be to treat them peasants like a swarm, saves loads of dice rolling.