Warfare for D&D4

[mattcolville]

I've long been a fan of D&D games with enough politics to support big engagements, Battles. To that end, I was the head designerman on Eden Studio's Book of War, but that product was way too complex. At the time, it reflected my attitudes and the robust design of D&D3, but I think I made a couple of core mistakes, including the assumption that a Battle should have it's own rules and be as complex as an Encounter.

When D&D4 came out, I wanted a simpler system that reflected the depth and style of design in the new edition of D&D, and one that didn't act like its own separate game, without being TOO abstract, like...an extended skill test.

This is the result.

Warfare for D&D4 | SquareMans

It's a long post because I walk you through the rules as my players experienced them, so it's the rules and advice on how to deploy them.

These aren't even really an Alpha, they need someone to make dozens of units with special abilities and that's not something I'm willing to do for free. But that's the beauty of the web. Anyone can take this and monkey with it as long as they attribute the original author.

 

[Zinovia]

Your system sounds very interesting and well thought out. I am running a War of the Burning Sky game, with a significant battle coming up in the next module. I will compare this system to the combat resolution rules provided in the module. I like the feel of yours, and may run it this way instead of what was suggested. Given our infrequent gaming schedule, it'll be awhile before we get there, which leaves me more time to prepare.

I can see that it might be difficult to tie the combat the players are involved in to the flow of the ongoing battle, especially if they are fighting in different areas. An obvious one is taking out an enemy commander to reduce the morale and organization of the enemy forces, or performing a ritual to counter a necromancer controlling undead. A rousing speech could increase the morale of your own units. Yeah, I have some ideas.

Your system sounds fun and fairly easy to resolve, which is nice. I agree with the design goal you stated; they are already playing D&D and shouldn't need to learn an entire complex wargame on top of it. None of my players are serious wargamers, and several would flat out dislike anything too complex and rules-heavy.

Thanks for posting this! Have some xp.

 

[eriktheguy]

I make my large battles run in the normal battle system. I run a unit of soldiers as a single creature similar to a swarm. You can add this template to any creature (I think)

Units:
Gain the unit keyword
Double HP, XP
They can make two basic attacks as a standard action. They lose this ability when they are bloodied (fewer attacks as members die).
Reduce movement by 1
They generally occupy at least 2x2 squares
They have vulnerability to area attacks (5 per tier)

Units get one or two basic attacks:
Melee basic attack: change range to close burst 1
Units with spears or polearms: Foucs Attack: make two melee basic attacks against one target within close burst 1, cannot target the same creature with this attack twice in one turn.
Units with bows: Volley attack: Same range as creature's ranged basic attack, but change to blast 3 within range.

So a unit of archers could attack all adjacent enemies and fire a volley. A unit of spear men could attack each adjacent enemy once, then attack one of those enemies again twice. Once they are bloodied they could only do one of those two actions in a turn.

Feel free to come up with more abilities for axe, sword, flail users.

 

[eriktheguy]

I really like the ideas in your post. The mustering phase is the most interesting to me. The idea that the players can decide how a massive battle plays out because of what they did beforehand (be it a single skill check, a skill challenge, an adventure, or even the entire campaign up to this point) will give them a real feeling of importance when the time comes.
I should mention that in your post you mentioned Frodo escaping from Mirkwood and taking part in the battle of five armies. I think that is an amazing feat for a lad that was so young at the time.

 

[Chris Knapp]

You also might want to take a look at One Bad Egg's Hard Boiled Ideas: Armies. It basically treats each unit as a monster. You adjust the stats & map scale depending on the scale of your battle. Uses normal 4E rules otherwise.