Battle Participation

[fusangite]

I'm not really interested in mass combat systems or making large-scale battles part of my games as a regular thing. Nevertheless, there is going to be a clash between armies that my characters will be an important part of. Any advice on how to make the battle as a whole feel real while simultaneously giving the characters a bite-sized combat to participate in?

Also, any ideas on how to handle a bunch of very long-range arrow attacks on a party?

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Heroes of Battle has rules for mass archery fire and they will work against even a small party of adventurerers.

 

[fusangite]

Heroes of Battle has rules for mass archery fire and they will work against even a small party of adventurerers.

Let's assume I'm cheap and short of time. Could you give me a rough precis?

 

[Mark CMG]

I guess you'd have to wrangle them into the lynchpin portion of the battle and have some alternating descriptions of how the rest of the battle is progressing ready to account based on how they are doing.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I'm not really interested in mass combat systems or making large-scale battles part of my games as a regular thing. Nevertheless, there is going to be a clash between armies that my characters will be an important part of. Any advice on how to make the battle as a whole feel real while simultaneously giving the characters a bite-sized combat to participate in?

HoB is good for that.

Also, any ideas on how to handle a bunch of very long-range arrow attacks on a party?

Reflex save to avoid.

 

[genshou]

Heroes of Battle is really worth the cash investment, IMHO. It has rules for having the PCs go after specific goals to advance the army, and how well they do can affect the course of the battle by them gaining Victory Points. It's a really well-written product that really makes PCs have a place on the battlefield, and makes the DM's part of the job a lot easier. It recommends no longer than an hour be spent per session setting things up, and has a good outline of how to do it.

Maybe you should buy the book anyway... you might find yourself wanting to get the PCs involved in war more often.