DM'ing a mass combat from the PC's perspective

[wedgeski]

Hi all, in a few days there exists the possibility that my players will become embroiled in the defense of a fort under attack from a massed army of undead. The army itself is under the command of an NPC way too powerful for them to take on at the moment, but they should still play a significant part in the outcome. The fort may be overrun, or it may be saved, and I want the PC's to feel the sting of failure or the glow of success either way.

What can I do to keep the party's encounters small, but meaningful in the larger context?

What advice do you have for evoking the chaos and terror of the fight? (This will be the characters' first taste of war.)

How do I avoid them feeling that their actions are largely secondary to the equivalently-high-level commanders and knights of the keep?

How do I communicate that the point of the fight is *not* to engage the main enemy NPC, even though he will be pretty visible the entire time?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Switchblade]

For things to do:
There is a successfull enemy escalade and their commander orders them to blunt the attack and fight their way along the wall to the ladders/seige tower to drive the enemy from the wall before the fort is over run. The enemy commander is unlikely to be leading such a suicidal attack.
Countermining. A countermine has intersected an enemy mine, in the close quarters only 2 or 3 people wide quality beats quantity. The PCs are there to wipe out the sappers and their guards and fire the mine at a safe distance from the walls.
A sally. After "dark" the PC's sally forth to attack and spike the enemy siege engines. (Against undead/goblins etc it's more likely to be under the cover of sunlight...)
Hold the breach. Force back the horde before the enemy elite arive, clearing the way for their own commanders to cast a wall of X to fill the breach.
Have commanders screaming orders for them to always be reinforcing a different wall, keeping up the presure and not giving them time to look for the enemy commander.

 

[knightofround]

Well...it sounds like you have a too-high-level-BBEG versus very-high-level-NPC fight in mind. No matter how you spin it, the PCs are going are going to be secondary characters. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's cool to have ultra-powerful BBEG to inspire the party to level up for, and its good to have high-level NPCs the PCs can look up to. As long as you keep the presence of both types of characters rare, its ok. For example, if this is a one-shot to give them a "war experience" thats fine, let them be secondary actors. But if you're going to have a multisession campaign with both sides warring, its probably best to take the PCs out of the conflict and move them to a place where they can make a difference. Like carrying an important message, guarding an important dignitary, staging a rescue operation; something more independent than a meatgrinder battle.

To that extent, I would recommend something like rigging the battle so the BBEG wins out versus the high level NPCs, and the PCs have to escape the siege to warn X that the BBEG is coming. While the BBEG focuses on the high level NPCs, the PCs have to deal with the BBEG's elite henchmen. They don't necessarily have to kill them, but escape. (of course, if they succeed in killing them it will make the getaway easier if no one can report the survivors).

 

[ProfessorCirno]

The wonderful thing about a chain of command, is that there's the rank and file, there's the head honcho, and then there are those important guys in the middle who aren't at the very top, but are very important and, most importantly, potentially defeatable.

As for making them feel the war, I actually suggest against what the previous poster said: have them in the big battle at one point. Maybe that's when they're going after a lieutenant (good grief I spelled that correctly). Then you can do all sorts of fun stuff, like have mobs come at them in the middle of a fight. Oh man, you're not doing so hot, and you've almost beaten this enemy, but oh hello there small troop of zombies I forgot there were a whole lot of you around here. Maybe set up a few random not-quite-encounters while they're out slugging it in battle; roll the die, see a five, tell the party to roll reflex for the fireball that just came roaring at them from elsewhere in the melee. See a four, pepper them with arrows. See a three, one of them gets healed. A two gets a few friendly NPCs - probably best if they're on the weaker side - to help them out. Nothing too damaging from said friendly NPCs, mostly have them assist with flanking and the like. But you get the general idea - make the war interactive, so that battles aren't quite so simple as they normally are.

If you haven't decided the fort's fate, I suggest you let the players affect it. Maybe rig it so the lieutenant, for every round he's alive, has a negative effect on the Good Guy NPC; it'll help the party want to kill him as fast as they can. Or maybe send the party behind enemy lines; take out those evil clerics and stop the flow of undead! You don't neccisarily have to roll out the battle for the two NPCs, but set some vague standards for Things That Help (Kill the second in command in x rounds) and Things That Hurt (Take to long to kill the guy, botch on your mission to disrupt supply routes). If the party does enough of the former and avoids the latter, they win! (Make sure to include their accomplishments, but throw in a few things they didn't do to add to the scope. You can even use this to establish other NPCs for the party to talk to and perhaps get a few delicious plot/quest bits from. "Oh man, you're the guy who killed those enemy archers? They were hitting us big time!").

If you noticed there's a lot of mention towards events that would be timed (not in REAL LIFE time, though if you're mean you can do that), it's because that's the kind of stuff that adds tension. If the players spend two hours aimlessly whacking some guy, it's not really that tense. If they know they have to kill him right now, it pushes them to act a lot harder, and to really think about their resources before they use them. As a side note, in that kind of situation, 4e's power system shines. They'll never be more glad to get that brief breather between combats to grab those encounter powers and pray they wouldn't have needed that daily after all. This could also really help the pacing of the encounters - maybe to get the second in command, they have to go through a large group of enemy peons; they know they have to go through them fast, but they ALSO know if they spend too many abilities, they're not gonna do so hot against the big guy himself! On the other hand, their next mission makes them sneak out and sabotauge enemy supply lines; something more skill based could be a lot of fun here.

In the end, the best thing about having the PCs in a big war scenario is that there are almost COUNTLESS numbers of fun - or evil - things you can do with them. Almost any kind of encounter you want can be done here.

 

[roguerouge]

From Heroes of Battle: Types of Battlefield missions

Defeat Enemy Units: One battle of destroying tons of mooks is a must, in my opinion. And by that I do not mean mobs. Mobs are for when you want to challenge players and take the fighter down a peg or two with unbeatable grapples.

Cut/Protect the Supply Line: grab a wagon train, divert a food train, blow up an armory, poison or befoul a water cistern.

Hold/Take the Wall: may also include areas of indirect significance (such as a shrine or flag).

Protect/Take Maneuver Point: hold that road, pass, or ford.

Destroy/Protect Artillery: squads of archers count for this, methinks.

Provide Intelligence: Scouting and stealth and divination are worth lives to a commander: detecting troop movements, figuring out enemy plans, quality control on your plans from angels, find the cut-off troops, discovering unit weaknesses and strengths, uncovering saboteurs, and discerning useful features of terrain.

Hold Hamburger Hill: this is the standard waves of monsters.

Disrupt Enemy Communications: send false orders, capture wands of whispering wind, waylay enemy couriers.

Assist Allied Troops: instruct how to load a captured siege weapon, healing, giving them supplies, dig trenches, provide tactical advice, rallying troops and boosting morale.

Other: Put out fires, stop looters, craft necessary items, etc.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Break it down into small tasks, each roughly equivalent to an encounter. I like ProfessorCirno's idea of random stuff happening to emulate the chaos of battle. Give the players some control over what task they need to tackle, but on the other hand, some events might be thrust upon them; the wall may be breached right where they happen to be, for example. Don't worry too much about whats going on in the rest of the fight as the battle is going on - no one will have the time to tell.

Give the PC's a chance to fix problems that arise. Perhaps a subcommander on their side gets the wrong idea about what his orders are, and embarks on a foolish or overly cautious strategy, and the PC's are the only ones in position to solve it - maybe an officer is ordered to go over the breached wall and counterattack, but is freaked out and shell-shocked and can't take action - one of the PC's can step up and lead the charge.