Wartime Campaigns

[haakon1]

My last several campaigns have all had the same war in the background.

It gives a reason for PC's to need to take charge at low-levels -- everyone important is off at the front, they're the only 7 samurai to hold off the bandits/monsters who are taking advantage of the power vacuum.

Later on, the PC's can go on missions to acquire McGuffins to help the war effort -- like the healing apples from the sunken citadel, or food making magic, or a magic weapon (less intereting and war related, IMHO).

And you can mix in commando missions against the enemy, and escorting resupply missions.

One adventure I'd definitely add is being under siege. That's really fun to play!

 

[Luthien Greyspear]

Life During Wartime

My own campaign has been (up to now) based in and around Cormyr in 1371, which is currently undergoing the invasion of the ghazneth and the goblin armies of the Devil Dragon. Two of the party members are Cormyri, one is a mercenary, and one was a mercenary before she ran afoul of a curse that took her memory away. The party tank comes from a long military background on Evermeet, giving her a good reason to want to participate in a wartime adventure.

The problem is, the party is not military as a whole, nor is the group well suited to mass-combat scenarios (except for the tank). The group started as follows (the first two characters are the Cormyr natives and the asterisked characters have memory problems from the aforementioned curse):

• Human Fighter 4/Rogue 1 (swashbuckler concept, heading towards house-ruled Duelist PrC)
• *Air Genasi Rogue 5 (career thief)
• *Elven Psychic Warrior 3/Wizard 2 (mercenary heading towards Bladesinger)
• *Wood Elven Cleric 3/Ranger 2 of Rillifane (former mercenary, but doesn't remember)
• *Elven Fighter 4/Wizard 1 (tank, heading towards Weapon Master and her Moonblade)
• *Human Bard 3/Rogue 2 (a circus performer that can do EVERYTHING. No, really.)
• *Half-Elf Bard 5 (another circus performer, heading towards Lasher)
• Halfling Psionicist (Shaper) 5 (Gond-worshiping tinker/inventor/gun-wielding nut)

While the two Cormyri characters were certainly willing to stay and fight the war, and the elves wanted to help for their own reasons, the party just didn't fit any sort of military mold. So I instead set them on the campaign's main quest, which was trying to sort through the shared curse and what happened to their missing memories, while using the
war and the turmoil surrounding it to give them XP, magic items, and clues about their past.

Here's a small list of the adventures they've had as a result of the Cormyri war. With one exception (as noted), none of these adventures had anything to do with any actual military actions.

• Fighting several ghazneth on the roads (and discovering that they can't be killed)
• Exposing a corrupt nobleman to be a Malar cultist (encountered while using the nobleman's town to avoid the invading ghazneth)
• Chasing down and saving a rival elven adventuring party in Cormanthor
• Extracting an enslaved azer weaponsmith from the Iron Throne (arms dealers seeking to profit from the conflict)
• Retaking a vital keep on the western border from an overzealous orc tribe (done in cooperation with the mercenary character's unit, the only real military action the party has seen)
• Fighting a duel in Sembia to prevent the loss of several thousand acres of vital land over an ancient bet between noble families (requested by the crown)
• Taking down a temple of Kossuth hidden in Arabel (it wouldn't comply with the orders of the crown to stop using magic, as that attracted and strengthened the ghazneth)

Recently, the party was asked to stay out of Cormyr, as most of the party is afflicted with a magical curse, and the ghazneth eat magic. While the party kind of wants the ghazneth to eat the curse, they have a tendency to kill anyone they meet, and the party has had enough deaths for their tastes.

Overall, I find that using the existence of a war to be a good framework for a campaign, but only if you don't force the players to be military themselves. You can have them cleaning up the messes that the military or the government would normally deal with, but can't spare the time for. That makes the characters important without shackling them to a chain of command, and provides you with plenty of role-playing opportunities.

 

[xnosipjpqmhd]

The campaign I just finished (for now ;-) ended with a climatic battle defending the town that they had been roleplaying in for over a year (RL). The campaign covered 2 months and ended with an invading army coming down south to "pacify" the town. The heroes and their peasant allies were vastly outnumbered. But before the battle I created a list of all of the NPCs and groups the heroes had encountered throughout the campaign that could conceivably show up on either side of the battle.

Oh, the look on my players' faces as I told them that the side each NPC group showed up on was based on how the players had treated them during the past year of gaming... ;-)

If your players are a bit careless on how they treat various groups in your campaign world, try the above idea to teach 'em a lesson.

(In case you're interested, my players made enough powerful friends to just barely turn the tide of the battle and defeat the invaders.)

ironregime

 

[ForceUser]

Have any of you evey set your campaigns during wars? How about civil wars or wars of succession? I was wondering how these types of games worked for you. I'd love to hear stories and any problems that you may have encountered.

We're three sessions deep into a campaign revolving around a mercenary company involved in a war between two neighboring kingdoms. So far, the war has stayed in the background, used by me merely as a springboard to adventures that occur in the downtime between engagements. This changes next session as I launch the PCs into the middle of a pitched battle in the streets between their company, which is defending the town, and an army led by a BBEG. Should be fun; the chaotic nature of door-to-door fighting should allow me to string together small engagements without having to worry about describing the full scenario. The fog of war is a DM's best friend.

 

[sfgiants]

I am currently using Heroes of Battle quite a bit to help in my war styled campaign. In my campaign I have ripped a few ideas from GRRM as well (which really has just lifted ideas from history). All the characters serve on a wall (more Great Wall of China than GRRM's wall) and are fighting off hordes of beasties from the other side. Has worked well so far and the group has gotten into the idea of following orders, gaining promotions etc.