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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haltherrion" data-source="post: 2796169" data-attributes="member: 18253">I'd suggest using the siege and the presence of armies as a backdrop and letting the PCs focus on some portion of the siege that lends itself to party-size combat. Maybe they have to run a message through the lines for instance.If you do want to have the players fight as part of a larger battle, be very careful how you do this as it can either get very boring (as you march all the NPCs around) or seem very irrelevant (if the actions of the players really don't matter). One poster suggested abstracting combat with lots of NPC. This is a good suggestion although be careful that it doesn't take too much time (abstracting the action of thousands can still take a huge amount of time) and doesn't seem too abstract: you really need to be a good story teller to pull this off and be able to narrate the "off scene" stuff in a quick but colorful manner. Otherwise, it just sounds a little stiff and will detract from the mood.Better yet, if you want the players to be a small part of a big battle, put them in a contained part of the larger battlefield. They can be defending a tower, on the wall at the point of attack, in the siege tower, in the citadel, etc. Put them at a choke point. In real-life historical sieges, these often came down to typical D&D size party engagements.Another poster's suggestion to have good maps is a very valid one that I heartily agree with. Sieges are confusing. Without a map to guide your players, you may lose a lot of the impact. I fyou expect the players to guide the siege defense or attack you *must* have a map. How are they supposed to know do without understanding the battlefield?One last point, while I have had long and bloody arguments about what effect D&D-class magic would have on fortifications which need not be repeated here, histortically forces inside a castle were sometimes very small. King Edward I's garrisons in Wales were in the range of 20, sometimes less. As long as your attackers do not have magic or creatures to negate the basic utility of a stout wall (teleport, rock to mud, griffons, etc.) then you could have a small PC-ish party size group on the inside and leave the army on the outside. That will greatly simplify your task as a ref.</blockquote>

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