(MODS: Please delete, starting new Poll) Choose the best d20 mass battle rules

[Silveras]

I really like Fields of Blood as a whole, and the mass combat rules are great. I don't have it in front of me right now, but I seem to remember some sort of system where each player contolled a realm in a campaign world, and the rounds went by like seasons, or something to that effect. A group doesn't even need a DM. That's a different game entirely, though. But the basic mass combat rules are really good, too. Check it out if you see it.

The game was (is) Birthright and it was published by TSR.

It is still alive at the Official fansite Birthright.net.

As I read CaptainHowdy's post, it seems to me he was saying he recalled "Fields of Blood" having those traits, not that he recalled another game having them.

From what I've read of Fields of Blood it seems awful similar (bordering on plagerism - but I can't really say that since I haven't read the book yet) to the Birthright setting.

The Birthright setting had the old gods dying and imbuing the mortal survivors with traces of their blood. Granting them abilities (blood abilities).

There was also a system of ruling with domain actions and regency (a system of collecting something from those being ruled which aiding in performing domain actions.)

There was also a system for handling mass combat, since war was a common theme.

Read the info from the links I've provided and let me know how "similar" Fields of Blood really is.

Note that the BRCS-playtest was first posted Feb 2003 (and announced on this web site by the way).

The rest of the progression to the current 'product' has been posted constantly.

IIRC, Birthright is cited as an insipiration for Fields of Blood.

Plagiarism is generally when you take someone else's work and try to pass it off (with maybe a few words changed) as your own. While Fields of Blood certainly does borrow many concepts from Birthright, it does so with different approaches and new mechanics. 80% of the *concepts* may be from Birthright, but just about all of the rules that make them happen are new.

In that sense, Empire (from AEG) is also BirthRight-like.

However, for mass combat, BirthRight's "War Cards" are pretty poor. I participated in the beta testing of The Gorgon's Alliance (the BR computer game), and I recall one of the TSR people saying that they had hoped the computer game designers would come up with a better system, instead of reproducing the War Cards system as it was. I have not looked at the war section of the 3.x Birthright.net materials; if it is still War Cards based, it will be a good deal of work to come up with new cards that reflect the reality of another game setting.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

From what I've read of Fields of Blood it seems awful similar (bordering on plagerism - but I can't really say that since I haven't read the book yet) to the Birthright setting.

It's not related. It's a system for running domains and having Big Huge Mass Combats. There are no dying gods, no genocidal elves, no seafood-loving pork-hating dwarves, no bloodline powers, nothing that's truly Birthright-y.

In fact, there've been threads about converting Birthright to use FoB. FoB provinces seem to run about 8 to the BR province.

However, I am quite impressed by the BR 3.0 stuff. I hadn't had a chance to look at it before, and it's pretty nice.

Brad

 

[dreaded_beast]

Hmm, that's something I didn't think about, using Birthright.

I assume there is a conversion for Birthright into d20 rules?

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Hmm, that's something I didn't think about, using Birthright.

I assume there is a conversion for Birthright into d20 rules?

Just at the Birthright.net. The DM for our game used his own conversion, ramping up the power level to 11 or 12.

Brad

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I beleive that is actually from Seas of Blood, which is basically a retooled version of OMCS.

That is correct. And as the OMCS in Quintessential Fighter was updated in Stronholds & Dynasties so too was Seas of Blood updated in Book of the Sea.

The compatability between the mass combat and ship combat systems were part of what atracted me to the system. I recently ran a siege with ships attacking a castle in company with a land assault using the revised OMCS and ship combat from Book of the Sea. It went fairly smoothly - the fortification and one of the ships both being destroyed, while the ground troops ended up taking what was left of the fortress. The other ship was still floating, but not much else. (Cannon have a dire effect on both ships and fortifications...)

The Auld Grump

 

[pogre]

My second place vote goes for Wulf's system from the forthcoming "Slavelords of Cydonia".

We play tested these and I think they rock. Very, very clever stuff.

 

[Aristotle]

Reading through this thread Fields of Blood seems like the clear winner, yet Cry Havoc has a pretty decent lead on it. Would some of you votiing for it care to chime in on the actual discussion and explain why its a superior product in your eyes?

I'm one of those folks who has kept putting off buying a mass combat system, despite really wanting one, because I've never known which one would suit me best.

 

[irdeggman]

Hmm, that's something I didn't think about, using Birthright.

I assume there is a conversion for Birthright into d20 rules?

I thought I made that clear in my earlier post the BRCS-playtest is d20 (3.0) and is being updated to 3.5 and sanctioned by the fans so it will have the label "Official" Birthright d20/3.5 - something that WotC has granted "official" fansites in the contract they have with them. Check the FAQs on the Birthright.net boards for more details on the "contract", etc.

Check the links to the documents and troll around the site for suggestions, etc.

 

[irdeggman]

Dreaded Beast,
Maybe you should restart this poll since there have been several suggestions of products/system that were left off of the poll list.

 

[Arnwyn]

Reading through this thread Fields of Blood seems like the clear winner, yet Cry Havoc has a pretty decent lead on it. Would some of you votiing for it care to chime in on the actual discussion and explain why its a superior product in your eyes?

My own feeling of this is that people just see "Malhavoc" and vote for it...