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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheAuldGrump" data-source="post: 5707874" data-attributes="member: 6957">When the PCs are not directly involved it can be used to add a theme of human horror. I will assume that the bulk of the troops on both sides are either levies or mercenaries - I run a game set during a Reformation/Counter reformation, around the 1620s to the 1650s.Atrocities - a village burned, the women staked spreadeagled upon the ground and used in a most inhumane fashion, the men killed. The reason? The soldiers needed food and the village tried to turn them away.The joy when the PCs discover that the atrocity was committed by their own side, and that the village, likewise, was theirs.Mercenaries turned bandit when their wages are late, or when their patron refused to pay following a lost battle.Mercenaries that claim a town as their own, defying the noble that holds the title. (And what do the PCs do if they are hired by the noble, only to find that the soldiers are defending the town, not pillaging it? The 'noble' wishes to squeeze more taxes from pockets already emptied by war.)A city that switches sides every time a new army approaches. (Very common.)A faction that either uses the war as a means to claim independence, or to forward a claimant to the throne.A 'free city' that has declared itself neutral in the war - think Casablanca.A 'neutral party' that profits from the war, or a faction that claims allegiance to one faction, but materially supports  another. (Cardinal Richelieu was very good at this - using the 30 Years war to secure French independence.)A war fabricated to unite assorted factions under a single banner. (The Iron Chancellor Gambit - the Franco-Prussian War was largely to unite the Germanies at the expense of Napoleon III's France.)Make it a religious schism and you can add that to the fun as well....The Auld Grump - we'll go walking in the green grass, hush, hush, hush.All you pretty fair ones, won't you walk along with us?So pretty and so fair do you take yourselves to be,Come and be my partner, won't you walk along with me?Well, I'll never be a farmer, my face all covered in dirt.I'd rather be a soldier, with bright buttons down my shirt.If ever we are married, then a soldier's wife you'll be.Come and be my partner, won't you walk along with me?CHORUSWell, I'll never be a miner, who toils down under the ground.I'd rather be a soldier, when the guns begin to pound.If ever we are married, then a soldier's wife you'll be.Come and be my partner, won't you walk along with me?ChorusThe Auld Grump</blockquote>

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