AEG's WAR supplement: First Impressions

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Does anybody have that final "Volturnus" module from Star Frontiers? If you do, could you post a run down of how the mass combat system worked for the final battle between the PCs forces and the Sathar horde?

 

[Psion]

Does anybody have that final "Volturnus" module from Star Frontiers? If you do, could you post a run down of how the mass combat system worked for the final battle between the PCs forces and the Sathar horde?

I have it. It's deep in the recesses of a box I just packed the other day so my wife could paint the room with el grande bookshelf... I only left stuff I plan on using soon (i.e., d20 stuff) out. With any luck, she'll finish it today or tomorrow and I can unpack.

 

[Kershek]

I guess I am looking for something more simple; an elegant mechanic to resolve mass combat quickly and abstractly so the PCs can get on with their adventure... but not so arbitrary as to just have the DM say, "this is who won" without ever rolling to see if maybe the other side might have won (regardless of plot inconvenience), or what kind of casualties each side took. In other words, I want to roll and resolve a mass battle or war in 10-30 minutes without much consulting of rules.

I'm looking for combat rules where I can pit the party against a tribe of perhaps 100 goblins. There's an adventure hook in the free download supplement Wilderness Areas of Rappan Athuk by Necromancer Games with this encounter, but I can't figure out how to run it in one gaming session without getting way too bogged down in rules. Plus, we only have 2 medium-sized crystal caste battlemats. That's not nearly big enough to run the battle.

Therefore, for now, I don't run that encounter

 

[mearls]

I'm looking for combat rules where I can pit the party against a tribe of perhaps 100 goblins.

I just finished designing a system for an upcoming AEG books that allows you to run skirmishes like that. It's designed to handle combat between about 100 - 200 creatures a side by combing loads of similar creatures into units, each of which is treated as an individual creature for purposes of attacks, movement, and so on. Rather than 100 figures a side, you end up with 10 or so. It makes bookkeeping and management much easier.

I have no idea on the release date, but imagine it will hit shelves in 4 or 5 months based on the standard production process.

- Mearls

 

[Kershek]

I just finished designing a system for an upcoming AEG books that allows you to run skirmishes like that. It's designed to handle combat between about 100 - 200 creatures a side by combing loads of similar creatures into units, each of which is treated as an individual creature for purposes of attacks, movement, and so on. Rather than 100 figures a side, you end up with 10 or so. It makes bookkeeping and management much easier.

I have no idea on the release date, but imagine it will hit shelves in 4 or 5 months based on the standard production process.

- Mearls

That sounds great! I'll be on the lookout for it. Hopefully it can handle just the PCs on one side (instead of 100 on each side) and still allow them to use the feats they have invested in.

BTW, quick props - loved Belly of the Beast

 

[Rune]

I'm looking for combat rules where I can pit the party against a tribe of perhaps 100 goblins. There's an adventure hook in the free download supplement Wilderness Areas of Rappan Athuk by Necromancer Games with this encounter, but I can't figure out how to run it in one gaming session without getting way too bogged down in rules. Plus, we only have 2 medium-sized crystal caste battlemats. That's not nearly big enough to run the battle.

Therefore, for now, I don't run that encounter

Since you've got two mats, why don't you do it in two different scales? One map could be the standard skirmish scale, while the other would be a larger scale with the pcs being repreprsented by one counter, and 5 or so goblins equalling one unit/counter, as well. You could do one round of skirmish and follow it a (simultaneous) round in the larger scale. Now all you would need is a set of rules for unit-based battle warfare (shouldn't be too difficult if the pcs are the only opponents of the goblins). In fact, you may wish to do the larger scale first, so that enemy archery and magic effects can be determined before the skirmish round is played. Another way of looking at this, is that the goblin army mostly acts in the larger scale round, but certain units may instead act in the skirmish round, while the pcs act primarily in the skirmish round (with use of archery and magic being possible exceptions). Just make sure that the pcs and the goblins don't perform actions in both rounds.

 

[bolen]

So AEG's War is not a miniature game for D20 ala Battlesystem?

 

[mearls]

That sounds great! I'll be on the lookout for it. Hopefully it can handle just the PCs on one side (instead of 100 on each side) and still allow them to use the feats they have invested in.

BTW, quick props - loved Belly of the Beast

Thanks! Glad you liked it!

The system handles combats with, say, 4 PCs v. 100 orcs. That's actually what I designed it for. It uses all the core d20 combat rules. It just abstracts some of the actions taken by big mobs of creatures. You could, for example, run a battle of 4 PCs vs. a group of 80 orcs, 30 ogres, 5 trolls, a 10th level wizard, and a 12th level orc druid. I explicitly designed it to work within the current combat scale, rules, feats, etc.

The entire concept was driven by my DMing style. You know that scene in the LOTR movie where Aragorn has that wicked grin before leaping to attack 50 orcs? That's my D&D campaigns in a nutshell. =) I love me some high heroic, epic-scale action.

EDIT: To avoid confusion, this system appears in an upcoming AEG book, not War.

- Mearls

 

[Kershek]

Oh, now you've got me enterely charged up to see it. Is there a title I can look out for?

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

I have just created a set of "Epic Battle Rules." These will work for 3e, d20 or any RPG system. Plus, they allow for total DM customization of the PC's encounters during the battle.

Check them out here!

http://www.enworld.org/messageboards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5203