D&D 5E The 5E Wargame, Wargamer, and You

[Halivar]

Adding on to this, a system that incorporates the PCs as adventures and have that effect all of this. I don't want an entirly different game, but a subsystem of dnd.

Well, this might sound like heresy here at EnWorld, but I think a system like how "hero" units (plot NPC's) worked in WarCraft III would be perfect for this.

 

[Mark CMG]

My solution? Develop a "Wargame and Roleplaying System" alongside a "Combat Miniatures Game" so the crossover is as seamless as possible between individual combat, skirmish level combat, and mass combat, while providing multiple methods to resolve mass combat in various levels of abstraction and individual games (GMs or groups) can decide how much time to spend on the process.

 

[Incenjucar]

I've never played a wargame, though I will be sitting on some tonight at the FLGS to study how they work. I think that, ideally, D&D should have rules for every possible level of play. Rules for tavern hopping, rules for one-on-one combat, rules for squads, rules for armies, rules for armadas, and rules for national and even planar politics. Similarly, make rules for all levels of things, from tiny creatures (Mouseguard is quite popular) to dragons to deities.

Make those all flow together and people will always be doing SOMETHING D&D.

 

[howandwhy99]

A simulation trap system, which stems from defining matter, transitions, movement, and their arrangement. Something simple, yet broad enough for most anything one can think up.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I want:

(1) Good rules & options for grid- or hex-based minis combat as an option for the game;
(2) Mass battle rules as an expansion;
(3) Vehicle and mounted combat rules (wagons, ships, airships, mounted combat, dragon riders, goblins on giant wasps, etc);
(4) A crossover module with Advanced Squad Leader;
(5) Death in the character generation system.

 

[Jack7]

I want a system for fighting mass battles, a system for handling entire military campaigns and a system for domain management, all things that D&D has lacked in most editions.

Me, too, Jack7! What did you play? I used to play Napoleon's Battles, Armati, DBM, Fire & Fury, and a bunch of others. The first thing I missed when I started playing D&D instead was the epic feel of pushing a couple thousand* fig's across the board in a giant conflagration of blood and steel.

I was a war gamer first, in the early 70's. I mostly played a combination of ancients using WRG rules, WW2 tank battles (using rules I don't recall - I think it was "tank battles in miniature") and some early sci-fi and fantasy tabletop wargames rules - certainly not mainstream ones!

Adding on to this, a system that incorporates the PCs as adventures and have that effect all of this. I don't want an entirly different game, but a subsystem of dnd.

I've never played a wargame, though I will be sitting on some tonight at the FLGS to study how they work. I think that, ideally, D&D should have rules for every possible level of play.

I started out playing mainly tabletop games with my great uncle and others who had fought in WWII (Pacific theatre mostly).

I played a number of scenarios and did things like battle recreations (Stalingrad, tank warfare, even ships and naval combats and battles).

Then I moved on to playing things like ancient battle recreations of the Greeks versus Persians, stuff like that. Later on my favorite battles became recreations of Byzantine and later Roman battles. Occasionally I played Napoleonic Battles or Civil War engagements. (At the time I was too young to realize just how modern the Napoleonic and Civil War eras really were as far as warfare went.)

Also played War in the East, Panzer Blitz, and that kind of thing a lot. I liked tank battles in Europe and really liked them in Africa but by far and away my favorite battle recreations were major tank battles in Eastern Europe and Russia.

Played a huge recreation of Stalingrad once which went on for a long time, and included fictional scenario elements that me and my buddies wrote into the main battle as we went along, most involving sniper actions, special unit encounters (Waffen SS and Russian Commando units), outlying tank skirmishes and resupply attempts, Luftewaffe attempts to resupply the Germans, etc. So, I played a lot of different rule systems and invented or devised a lot of my own rules systems, and so did the guys I played with.

I enjoyed doing that kind of thing so much in my youth, about 9 to 12 years old or so that me and a buddy built a mock up of a B-17 and B-29 cockpit off the second story of my grandmother's carport (complete with aerial stations and bomb-sights we created from old optic equipment, navigational charts we created, and salvaged aircraft guidance systems, etc.) that we'd use to sit on the carport facing the creek and pretend to do bombing runs over Germany. At one time I could name nearly every wartime production plane of either the Germans, US, or Britain of the entire war. That kind of thing was instrumental in me going into CAP and wanting to become an astronaut, til I broke my back.

Anywho played all kinds of systems and rules, including unit markers, miniatures, models, and games (everything from War in the East to Axis and Allies even down to Risk, and still do on occasion) until being introduced to D&D, which at first I took to be a Wargame (and you could certainly see the wargaming history of the original developers in the way it operated) with weird and interesting armies and force dispositions and weapon systems like magic. I'm talking mainly Chainmail and stuff like that.

When I got to AD&D I realized that D&D was evolving from a large scale wargame into a tactical wargame and RPG.

Still, in nearly every campaign I've ever DMed there has been, at least at some point, some huge war or at least one big, decisive battle. It's hard for me to think of D&D and not think of war at least in the background of the milieu and action.

I was however never really satisfied with the wargaming elements or structure of D&D. I thought them lacking, and really missed, when it came to big battles things like terrain modifiers, ballista and catapult advantages for well trained troops (versus green or inexperienced troops), cavalry troops (I used to fight Cavalier and Paladin and Knight and Ranger Equestrian units, all with special modifiers, in AD&D), etc.

I was especially dis-satisfied with Naval combat in AD&D, because we played a lot of Naval combats as well.

That being said with 5E being modular I think it will be very possible to develop or adapt in some great war-gaming systems and structures. Or for DMs to devise their own, as we did. Still, I'd like to see the game have some set of general rules or at least directions or suggestions for wargaming.

As for me this is some of what I'd like to see, and some of it has already been mentioned:

Ground and Special Combat: rules, systems, or structures for-

Siege Warfare
Main Army Encounters
Skirmishing
Movement
Special Weapon systems (ballista, catapults, magic, naphtha - Greek Fire, etc)
Special Units (Kataphractoi, Cavalry units, archers, etc.)
Special Training and Veteran Unit advantages - morale, charges, ferocity, terror on the field
Terrain modifiers, cover and concealment (man, this could go over big in D&D what with ruins, and siege warfare and forest warfare and guerilla engagements)
Espionage
Campaign Development
Army Management
Class Modifications
Racial Modifications
Supply
Training
Ambushes and Kidnappings and Assassinations
Equipment and Armoring
Logistics and Supply, everything from food rations to how much money does a unit or an army have to buy and equipment and arm and defend itself?
Command and Command structures - I have always enjoyed letting my Players/PCs, especially those with combat experience, earn or be given titles of Command and let them take on the training and command of units in combat, etc.
Exile and Nobility and Promotion - successful commanders and PCs get promotions, titles, holdings, etc, failures in combat suffer being POWs, ransom, torture and/or death (or escape and evasion), and/or disgrace or maybe even exile or banishment
Etc.


Naval Combat: I'd like to see some basic naval combat rules too

Maneuver and Piloting
Ship types
Naval weaponry
Special weapons - Greek Fire
Captaincy
Naval units - Marines
Training and Crew Advantages
Special Combat situations - during storms, uncharted waters, home shore advantages
Etc.


These kinds of things could be as simple, or as complex as the DM and his setting desired it to be.

By the way it's very good to see all of those who either have a background in wargaming, as well as D&D, or a desire to see D&D have some wargaming capabilities.