Help with rules how to conquer other civilisations...

[Bayuer]

Hi,

I'm DM in campaign where my players are pseudo aztec warriors. Brutal and viciosu. They plan is to conquear enthire island and other civilisations. Here's the map I made:


How make this? I could make battles and so but it seems little boring in long terms. SC is too simple I think. Mayb someon will help me how to manage this. Making it like the board game or so. Simple rules only. Something like Risk could be good, but they want something more complex. They are on 15lvl now. One of them will be a Great Priest soon and other are military commanders. Over them in hierarchi is king and two generals. They already took Skill Challange and trainded some troops (gaing them a First Aid ability, Endurance, Agility). Maybe something like in Civilisation or so? Plz help.

 

[malraux]

Heroes of Battle from 3e had some rules for Victory Conditions. I don't have the book, but the basic idea was that the party has things to do to work toward the goal. If they hit enough of the points, then they win.

So you might design a few different things the party needs to do.
Train troops - 1 pt
Infiltrate a key guard tower to allow troop landing - 3 pts
Disrupt enemy supply lines - 2 pts
Capture a teleport circle focus in the main town - 1 pt
etc.

Then let them get to 10 pts (or whatever) to represent success. This breaks the goal down into something where you don't have to worry about simulating a large battle and focuses the adventure on where DnD rules shine.

 

[Drakmar]

Personally I would make it a serious of combat and non-combat encounters that they have to succeed at. Assign different countries with different difficulties and then they have to earn "points" to beat that country.

So, for them to beat Country A they need say.. 20 points.

To get 20 points they need to Assasinate a General (Success +5pts, Failure -5pts), Recruit Troops (+10, failure -0) um.... Capture a strategically important location (+5pts, -5pts) or successfully run a negative propaganda campaign in your own country (+5, -5), or in their country (+10, -10).

That gives them choice on how to do it.. ie some parties would object to assasination. Others wouldn't. Sometimes the price of failure isn't as much as the price of success... and other times the opposite. up to you really.

Another option is instead of points you make it experience points that they earn.. They have a choice in these encounters to either keep them for themselves or put them towards 'winning the war'. That way you can also choose to slow down their leveling if you want to draw it out some more. So say an encounter gives 1000xp, they might need.. 20,000 to beat Country X. etc etc.

Regards
D.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

That sounds like an interesting campaign!

There are basically four ways to overthrow a goverment:

• Freindly assimulation, creating alliances that bond the country to yours.
• Hostile takeovers, using diplomantic and economic means to force the countries leadership to accept your 'protection'
• Military action, using massive troops to destroy the countries means to protect itself
• Military coup, using a small group of troops to strike at key targets

The first question that needs to be asked is this: what are your players looking for? Do they want to be arimchair generals sitting back from the action? Do they want to be the 'William Wallace' of thier country and lead the battles from the front? Do they want to deal with national scale diplomancy?

The answer to that will drive the method used to take over the countries. As others have mentioned, the use of 'victory points' is the best way to represent national conflict while allowing the PC's to have a significant piece of action themselves.

One option for using victory points would be to design a skill challenge to emulate key battles that the PC's are not actually present for. This skill challenge would have to include a number of skills to represent knowledge of the layout of the battlefield, use of spells in combat, strength of thier enemies, and supporting the morale of thier side...to name a few options.

Additionally, each country should have its own unique feel to it, and have a 'better' way to overthrow it.



Hmm... that was a bit of rambling... I hope some of it was useful to you!

 

[Rafe]

This isn't exactly on-topic, but... Bayuer, how did you make that map? Did you only add a few things to an existing map, or did you create the whole thing? (I'm assuming the former but hoping the latter.) The style looks like 3.5 FR maps.

 

[Bayuer]

They are agressive tribe. Killa or be killed is they motto. They want to be a part o war and take over enthire island. So it's William Wallace thing.

This map. Heh. Scaned. Copy to paint and make all needed changes. Takes ma about half an hour to make it.

 

[nittanytbone]

The heroes of battle splat from 3.5 might have a bunch of good ideas for you. I think it'd be worth picking up. If for nothing else, it has encounter maps, campaign design notes, and a lot of useful fluff material. Used 3.5 splats are quite cheap these days so you can probably find a copy for ten bucks or so online.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Going William Wallace is the simplest option really... set up each country as a mini-campaign with strategic combat here and there.. and then run the party through combat encounters that are surrounded by the rest of the battle-field. Give them the chance to to wading through rows of minions to face the enemies big nasty troops.
Mix it up based on nation, perhaps one nation has perfected the pike, another using shield walls, etc..
Mix it up further with terraign features and weather.

And always keep your map all nice and pretty with a cascade of blood red showing how much the group has conquered!

Heroes of Battle {HoB} does have material that talks to running this sort of campaign. There are other options for running mass combat, as shown in this thread.

... I have a copy of HoB that is currently tying up space on my shelf, IM if interested in acquiring it. My GF says I need to make some room on my bookshelf....


[/edit]New thread in the General Forum here has a word doc by Morrus on warfare as well as some other recommendations...

 

[howandwhy99]

There are literally hundreds of wargames for conquering by war. If you want to include other factors, use a Civilization-like game. There are so many really great boardgames to help you with this, it isn't funny. Try boardgamegeek.com for help.

Computer simulation games could help too, but their biggest problem is reprogramming the game to fit your current setup. That's why I prefer roleplaying face-to-face than online as it's harder to build levels and house rule what you need changed for your specific setting.

 

[darkwing]

The first battle or encounter should be small. Through a combination of pure brutality and showing the population that you're actually a better/more powerful leader for them then their previous leader (who's freshly severed head is now on a stake), have them swear loyalty to you and have the surviving armed members join you. Work your way gathering tribes (and the warriors that come with them) to build a bigger and bigger force. Gradually change the campaign from tactical to strategic (some countries may surrender based on your reputation alone... and also you have 5000 troops at their border).