Conquering the World

[Edgewood]

I had a war descend on the country that the PCs were in and they were drafted as they were willing to fight to defend the country. They had to save the country from an invasion. I decided that the group would become split up and each PC (I believe there were 6 PC at the time) had their own individual adventure. The ranger was sent out on a mission to destroy a dam with the intention of flooding the roadways to stall the enemy. The Gnome Rogue/Fighter was sent to train with a specialized unit of horse riders. He wound up saving the prince of the country being attacked. The Dwarvish Cleric was sent to defend a town at the front of the invasion with a small unit of Dwarvish fighters and human commoners. They decimated two legions of the enemy but unfortunately, they were eventually overrun, but most got away thanks to the selfless sacrifice that the cleric made. It cost his life but it saved the Dwarvish fighters. The Rogue and her Cousin the Sorcerer were posted to a coastal city. There they learned that the local Baron was in league with the invaders and was allowing them to ship supplies to be stored at the city port to be used for their troops. The plot was discovered and mayhem ensued, with the baron being killed.

All in all my players said they had so much fun. What went really well for them is that none of the players knew what the other players were going through. And of course none knew if anyone had died until they were all reunited after the war. We played like this for quite a while. Near then end of the war we had the final great last stand battle. Every major NPC the group had ever met were there fighting along side them. From the 30th level wizard to the 1st level commoner. This was when the players were reunited. Some played new characters.

In order to run the final battle, all I did was told the player what his/her PC saw. They said what they wanted to do and I simply narrated the result. No dice rolls, skills, feats, abilities, AC, hp or what not. We all simply narrated the final battle....man did we have a blast!!!

Anyway..that's how we did a full scale war in our game.

 

[Fenes]

We played the aforementioned Crusade as the final campaign arc. The PCs (level 12) were involved on a high level, first helping to gather troops, funds, and other support for it with several adventures and tasks, ranging from diplomacy to foiling assassins, and helping to settle the leadership question.

Then the war began, with the PCs doing key strikes during the campaign, taking out enemy leaders, and such.

The final assault on the town the enemy was holding split the party up, some assaulting the main gate in a commando style mission (dropped from giant owls whose riders they had persuaded to help earlier), the rest leading the deciding charge through the gate.

During the fighting in the city, the PCs reunited and took out a cabal of evil clerics beneath the city.

Most of the fights were narrated, unless the PCs were directly involved. Usually with a few set ups like "take out the enemy leader and your side wins" or "get the wizards there or you'll take more casualties" and so on.