War in the 3.5ed Forgotten Realms

[Angelus789]

As a GM, there's a few things that players will say that puts the chill in you.

One of them is: "We want to start a war!"

Right right, at low levels (1-6) this don't matter... "starting a war" at these levels will probably not exceed more than a village rebellion). At mid levels (7-13) things might get a bit more interesting, the players are still mortal, they can command certain forces and the opponents might be warchiefs of barabarian orc/goblin/gnoll/barbarian tribes.

Things start to pick up speed at high levels (14-20). At these levels the players might be nobles, hold high military ranks, maybe even both. Apart from the looming danger of a spellcaster going el loco on enemy troops there's not to many issues that will give the GM a headache.

However, at the epic levels, things start to change. And the epic level players in my group now want to "start a war!".

Now that this is out of the system I'll turn my attention to actually writing a challenging (political and military) campagin for my group of players. I'll be using the 3.5ed sourcebook Heroes of Battle as well as the adventure Shadowdale. Hopefully something good will come out of it.

Any ideas or suggestions will be welcome, as well as using this thread to toss comments and thoughts about wartime in the Forgotten Realms.

 

[Angelus789]

Story time....

The background:
I think the very first time I tried my hands at a campaign focused on war was in the old Mystara setting. At this time I was around 10 years old and had barely had a year of GMing under my belt. Still, I've been playing with the same group of friends during the entire time and knew about their motivations: become nobility!

The plan
Having the players take the initiative for war was a thought that never struck our minds. Instead I knew that they were on friendly terms with the King of Alfheim. So what I ended up with was having the players be the Generals / Assassins of the elven army. The troops were unspecified ("You command around 1000 elves.") and the strategy simple: "The King wants you to invade this nearby country". With equally simple way of solving combat "Your army lay siege to the large capital, after 4 months they capitulate."

The conclusion
Truth be told, all the player had fun. They got to call themselves 'General' and ended up marrying various female relatives of the elven King. As a long time effect the elven kingdom became the undisputed ruler of the entire world and the players could just bully other people around as they saw fit.

Lesson learned
Working with the players by designing plots that take into account their motivation is always good, it will help to progress the story.
Overdoing a war is NEVER a good thing, unless you want the war to be a campaign ender.

 

[JoeGKushner]

War against who?

What's the end desired result of the war?

 

[Angelus789]

War against who?

* anyone or anyTHING (religious or political belief) that the players have a personal interest and motivation to support

What's the end desired result of the war?

* the end result of the war is to help create a memorable event that will have a long lasting effect on the campaign


Note! The above is extremely open for personal customization. All GMs need to tailor a "end desire result" to fit his or her campaign.

Still weekend, but I'll give another post to share some more experience on Wargaming in an RPG, how you can avoid the mistakes I did as a fresh GM and give you some pointers that will help you in planning and preparing for a war.

 

[Sigurd]

Starting a war without a cause is either the action of an amoral profiteer or a simply insane act.


You make your own life difficult as a DM when the actions have no reason because you don't know the factions, the allies and enemies.


S

 

[Angelus789]

The second big war

Fast forward from Mystara and enter Forgotten Realms, 2nd ed ADnD and the great Combat and Tactics book from TSR.

The background
We had been playing every weekend for about 2 years time. The players had worked their way up from level 1 to the high levels. Along the way they had made some enemies with the Zentharims as well as random brigands of bandits etc etc. Most importantly was the romantic interest towards an elven female wizard with ties to the War Wizard of Cormyr.

The plan
In her youth, the female wizard had been forcefully separated from her father and neither had no idea what happened to the other after the separation. Over the years, the father had developed a strong hate towards Cormyr, the country he (wrongfully) accused for the separation. As a High Priest (Clr 18) he had managed to gather a horde of fanatical (and suicidal) followers to wage war against Cormyr. The starting point of this horde was Amn and they intended to go through Scornubel for supplies before crossing the mountains of Cormyr's eastern border. Other high level NPCs also joined in the "crusade".

The players would hear about this horde from their contacts in Cormyr. Since the horde was far away it was not yet deemed a threat to the Kingdom. So instead of sending the entire army, a small group of spies (the players + efm wiz) was sent.

The conclusion
Once the players realized who the leader of the opposing horde was, things got more interesting. The efm wiz got torn between helping her new friends and helping her father. The players got a bit more cautious since they now knew they were not just up against 295720357230 1st level Fighters.

As the players realized this, they hired bands of mercenaries to deal with the lowlife while they started hunting for the big fish themselves. The use of the Mass Combat Rules from the Combat and Tactics rulebook was used when some of the players decided to lead from the front. It worked well, thanks to the rules outlined in the book. We had tried mass combat with separate rolls before and it was like dragging a wheelchair through a swamp.

Lesson learned
As a GM, focus on the upper echelon of the army, these are the ones that the players will be facing, not mr Leon the level 1 fighter with a sword his father gave him on his 18th birthday.

In the heat of battle, a level 1 warrior with 40 of his friends is nothing but a bug that a Flying wizard will blast off the planet with his Fireball. In the starting phases of a war, it's OK for the players to wield such power, but remind them quickly that this can go both ways. As the PC's wizard lobbed Fireballs into the opposing horde they also made a clear target for the wizards of the opposing force to single them out with 7th and 8th level spell.

However be sure that you have some good rules to back you up when two armies collide. You want to have the dice have some influence on the outcome if the players aren't around to save the day.

Don't hold back with your army when going against the players. Have the wizards gang up on the lone player ranger who is out scouting. Have the pet demon of the high priest go after the player wizard.

Do remember to make some agenda for the enemy leaders. What are they fighting for?

• bloodthirsty rampage through foreign land?
• conquering of new land?
• some fair lady that needs to be impressed?
• an old feud that has escalated?
• someone insulted the wrong person?
• to preserve status qou?

Also, make sure you justify how the army was formed. Using the old "charismatic leader" gets old after a while.

Last lesson learned from this war:
- always have a clear idea of the "end battle" in mind. For this adventure I wanted the last battle to be between the players and the High Priest with the fm wiz between them. In the end what happened was that she Teleported both her and her father away. When she returned she never told the players what happened to her father. They remember this episode to this day, several years later.

 

[Angelus789]

3.5ed and character level 18+

One thing I learned during 2nd edition was that wars between hundreds or thousands of creatures does sound pretty awesome! Hey, we've all seen the big battles from Lord of the Rings, Gladiator and Alexander, right?
Which Dungeons and Dragons player haven't had a secret dream about leading thousands of men into the heart of Thay, or to lay siege to Cormyr?

All this is a really nice fantasy... until you, as a GM, realize that...

• the wizard of the party has enough spell slots to chain-nuke Fireballs for the next 70 rounds
• the cleric can Gate in Balors
• the fighter of the party has DR 10/-, Greater Cleave and magical items with Enlarge Person
• the party as a whole have a note saying "I owe you one!" from Halaster, Alustriel Silverhand and Elminster
• the party has played through the 2nd edition adventure named For Duty and Deity and is playing the "We saved your Goddess!" for all it's worth
• the amassed raw GPs of the party is a 8-figure number

For good or worse, this is what you can end up with by playing with the same group for 6+ years

If you are one of those that are saying "Hey, that's your own fault that it came to this!". Well, all GMs run their different style.

BUT, enough of that... over to the story.

The background
One of the players (a fighter) is the Lord of a Large Town just on the southern edge of the Stormhorn mountains and has been there for the last couple of years. One day he announces that he wants to bring his army (about 200 archers, 120 heavy cavalry, 600 heavy infantry and 300 light) out into battle.

I've been playing with this guy since 2nd edition and know that what he means is that he wants to conquer a nearby city. O'headache!

A quick summary:

• one of his previous campaigns have left Scornubel in ashes
• in the same campaign he have angered the Lord of Elturel
• he has a good standing with the Kingdom of Cormyr due to some adventuring in said country
• the Harpers view him as suspicious due to his dealings with the Zentharims
• the Zentharims view him as an enemy after the party raided Darkhold Keep
• he is on good terms with the efm wiz I've written about previously
• he is on good terms with the clergy of Tyr, due to significant donations to the church

• the player isn't in the possession of any Artifacts or special magical items (his level considered)
• he has an ally up north, Baroness Sarwin from the adventure The Thunder Below
• the player, as a person, is interested in military history and tactics, however as he has always been a Warrior-focused player he does not see the potential of spellcasters
• as a high level character with the feat Leadership he has a loyal cohort who oversees the day-to-day operation of his army

Some information about the PC is now on the table.

"Know thy enemy!"
- Sun Tzu or some other dude who knows way more about warfare than me

I consider it VITAL for the GM to have a good and clear understanding on who the allies and enemies of PCs, especially when they start brewing for war. As in all successful adventures a proper planning and preparation without over-planning has a direct effect on the final outcome.

Some of the experienced GMs can probably already see several possibilities for a war game based on the information above. I'd love to hear some ideas from the rest of you guys on what you would have done in my place.

Next time I'll go in depth on the setup of his army.