"Terrorist network" antagonists vs. PCs?

[Funeris]

I agree with VirgilCaine on this matter...as long as you have a religion that isn't specifically followed only by one race, there's your terrorist sect. It would be quite difficult to wipe out all of the religious worshippers of one of these Gods.

The god/goddess can always just go and get more followers...

If the PCs manage to wipe out an entire church (with a BBEG leading the masses)...then another branch of that same church just moves in, creating a new cell...assuming of course they hear about the extermination.

~Fune

 

[carpedavid]

I ran a campaign where a demon was trying to overthrow a kingdom. His followers were organized in a "cell" like structure, so that when the PCs eliminated one cell, they couldn't follow a trail of breadcrumbs to the next.

They also used tactics like setting fire to row houses to cover their tracks, smuggling illegal drugs in order to finance their operation, and taking hostages. Overall, it worked out pretty well.

 

[WayneLigon]

Generally, I don't do it because all it does is encourage the PC's to become insular, disdaining all connections to the world and people around them. If you have no connections or don't care what happens to the people around you, you can't be hurt by hostage-taking, suicide attacks, etc.

As a tangent, there's a spell from RuneQuest I always loved called something like Ward Marketplace. It provided everyone within the area of effect with armor protection and made any weapons or hostile people glow a bright red. Very, very soon after terrorists start doing things like detonating a necklace of missles in the middle of the marketplace, someone is going to invent a spell like that.

 

[Mallus]

The Algerian War is also the subject of our play-by-post Modern military game, Wing and Sword.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll have to check it out.

 

[DamionW]

As an aside terrorism is nothing new. Alexander the Great wiped out whole villages in Afganistan becuase he couldn't distinguish who were the people that were conducting Guerrila/Terrorist attacks against him and who weren't. Both his actions and the actions of the people resisting him can be defined as terrorism. Religious fanaticism isn't new either. People always think whats happening today is new and different that it has never happened before. For example, countless times in history people have fought a war that they thought would be the war to end all wars (guess it wasn't huh?).

Yeah, I know, I wasn't claiming it was novel. I was just commenting on how I notice that the higher level the PCs get, I usually notice challenges scale in CR nearly 1-to-1. In the dozen orcs vs. 17th level PCs, everyone was discussing how this was almost a waste of time, or else the orcs should be on a hill with bows attacking the PCs. It seems to me even a moderately dumb group of antagonists for high-level PCs wouldn't try and attack them head on, they'd harrass all of the commoners that keep the players fed, equipped, supported. I also think there should be more suicidal enemies attacking the populace rather then the PCs. Sure a 1st level orc could attack a 10th level party and be considered suicidal. But what would get his cause? Not much. If he detonates himself in the players local tavern that's been feeding them the rumors of where his evil sect is active, that might make their next gather information check harder. This all could just be a lack of thought on my personal DMs, but I just wanted to start some discussion and see what other thoughtful DMs on here have done.

 

[genshou]

Gwaaah! I can't respond due to spoiler issues in my story hour! Curse you, conflict of interests!