Fun with Allies!

[Wik]

We had a good session today. Basically, the PCs decided they were going to attack the BBEG and kill her - they'd had enough of her crap, and they were going to storm her estate and finish her once and for all.

Then they realized that she had roughly two hundred guards, and decided they had to get some allies for the attack.

The entire session consisted of the PCs asking allies for help in the attack, planning the assault, and the like. And I mostly just sat back and let them go to work. There was no skill challenge. There were precious few die rolls. And I gave almost no input - I just responded to player queries.

They were able to get 40 Drow "Outriders" (basically, crossbow-wielding scouts) from the Drow Princess. They got 30 Eladrin Halberdiers from a watch captain ally who was willing to give some support. They got two druids to pitch in, which would help negate the BBEG's intelligent hedge that surrounds her house. They got a drow mage to help lead the attack. 10 Paladins of a martial order were willing to join as "non-combatant advisors". And another 10 of the order were willing to work as healers at an aid station. Another ally raised a mob of 100 common folk to deflect attacks and confuse the enemy. And the PCs were able to draw on their gang of loyal riffraff to distract the city watch.

The best part? All of this was player-driven. They would name the NPC who they felt owed them a favour, and they'd go talk to him/her. I would either have the NPC give what they could no problem, or set up a basic negotiation. Most of the NPCs owed the PCs, so it was kind of fun just letting the players pull in the favours owed them.

And the whole time, I kept thinking to myself all the other allies the PCs could have called on, but forgot about or ignored. Tiefling mercenaries. Half-Breeds loyal to one of the PCs. Mercenaries in the employ of a manipulative eladrin. And so on.

It was just really rewarding to have a session where very few dice were rolled, and all I did was say "yes" to the players, knowing throughout that everything I gave them was a result of months of play and hard work.

It doesn't even hurt knowing that next week, I'll probably have a dead BBEG to mourn.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Nice one. Proactive players are brilliant. It makes it all so much more fun. ANd yeah, it's good to see the bad guys go down when it's done like this. I raise a glass to your players.

 

[thejc]

This is awesome especially since it was player driven. There are few sessions like this bask in it! Encourage it.

Happy Gaming

 

[DumbPaladin]

This is totally awesome of you, Wik. Sounds like a great group, too.

Our group had a somewhat similar circumstance roughly 3 months ago, where we needed to raise a small army to take back a city called Sehen, whose entire populace (save 1%) had been slaughtered and raised, and which was being occupied by some major forces of darkness and a definitely creepy BBEG.

I'm sure our DM enjoyed it as much as you enjoyed yours. My paladin is the party leader, and while he rarely imposes his will upon others, once he was told "we need to raise an army", he did exactly that, suggesting some of the party hire mercenaries and others recruit allies we were sure would say yes.

For his part, my pally called in, with a heavy hand and liberal use of shaming, some markers that were owed and markers that were never given but SHOULD have been. In addition, when powerful potential allies said 'no', he went directly to the person who could order them to say 'yes', and managed to persuade these people to do so. We gained 2 very powerful allies that way alone. And lastly, he was very good about asking people who were likely to say yes, like the local paladin of Heironeous (whose actual response was, "Sounds fun. Let me get my sword.")

It wasn't exactly the most cohesive army ever formulated, but boy did we vanquish some evil. The BBEG himself went down in 2 rounds, to our DM's utter shock.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

That sounds like an incredible session! Get your players to post here so I can give them the XP the deserve!

...on second thought, don't have your players post here yet--I'm interested to hear what your next plan is. What will all of their hard work get them? Will you create specific encounters or skill challenges to highlight the different allies they've pulled in? Will the allies negate specific defenses that you had in mind? Or will you handle it in an exciting narrative?

I really hope my next game has a scene like this at some point!

 

[Wik]

That sounds like an incredible session! Get your players to post here so I can give them the XP the deserve!

...on second thought, don't have your players post here yet--I'm interested to hear what your next plan is. What will all of their hard work get them? Will you create specific encounters or skill challenges to highlight the different allies they've pulled in? Will the allies negate specific defenses that you had in mind? Or will you handle it in an exciting narrative?

I really hope my next game has a scene like this at some point!

Well, one of my players does post here, pretty frequently - Blargney the Second was one of the players who got the ball rolling.

And there are no "plans". I knew what the BBEG was doing, but I wasn't sure if the PCs were gonna go after her or follow up on some other plans (they have two days before there's a huge political announcement, and I figured they might take some time to pursue their own goals). But they went with the assault on her home.

As for the allies, they are essentially being used as a distraction to pull a good chunk of the BBEG's forces outside, so that the PCs are not fighting 100+ soldiers to get to her. As for how I'm handling it, essentially, I'm letting the PCs hear various results of the attack. Already they've seen a lightning bolt strike near where their forces are, but they have no idea if it's from their side, or the enemies...

As for what their hard work will get them - they've hated this NPC for a while now. She's done some bad things in the campaign world, including being indirectly responsible for the PC drow rogue getting infected with the abomination disease. This NPC has made attacks on multiple allies of the PCs (which was why it was so easy to get forces), and has generally screwed up the feywild. So, the PCs hate her.

I'm really enjoying where it's going, and I can't wait till next week!

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Very cool! Keep us posted on how the assault goes!

 

[Wik]

It wasn't exactly the most cohesive army ever formulated, but boy did we vanquish some evil. The BBEG himself went down in 2 rounds, to our DM's utter shock.

Very similar situation to the one my group's in! Although, I think the BBEG will take a bit longer to fall. The PCs are fighting their way to her rooms, and the longer they take (read as: the more short rests they take), the more allies SHE'LL have in the final fight.

 

[MarkB]

Sounds like a cool session.

I just hope all those allies are aware of each other and reasonably co-operative. As I was reading, I couldn't help imagining the drow and eladrin and paladin forces coming together in one almighty punch-up, with the druids on the sidelines telling them to try not to trample the grass, and the crowd of commoners cheering them on.

 

[Wik]

Sounds like a cool session.

I just hope all those allies are aware of each other and reasonably co-operative. As I was reading, I couldn't help imagining the drow and eladrin and paladin forces coming together in one almighty punch-up, with the druids on the sidelines telling them to try not to trample the grass, and the crowd of commoners cheering them on.

Well, in my campaign, the drow and eladrin are the same race, just with different physical manifestations due to which political party they support. And the Eladrin in question are actually lead by a former PC who has since started working with the drow queen (neither the drow or eladrin are fundamentally good or evil). The druids are another offshoot of the same race, with more of a "wild elf" feel to them, and are fighting to secure drow support in the new emerging government.

So yeah, all sides were more or less agreeable to one another, except for maybe the mob of half-breeds (half drow, half-eladrin, or basically "those on the fence") who have cause to hate the eladrin particularly.