What is a simple war game to simulate, well, a war in D&D

[Xethreau]

It's that time again. The Evil Man is locked up in his super-fortress surrounded by undead. The Heroes can either Teleport into his base... Or they can aid the army in the final strike against the monstrous horde and the evil citadel.

Provided the later choice is selected, I need a way to simulate the field of combat - something short of stocking the the table with hordes of individual characters, but more substantial than hand-waving the whole issue of the characters being in war. I think a simple war game could be used to simulate this, but I am really open to ideas.

Anyone, help!

 

[Siberys]

Risk.

No, Seriously. Do up a map of the battlefield done up in rough sections. Have each of the PCs start controlling certain areas, and break the enemy into parts controlling others. When certain conditions are met (such as 'a PC takes the gatehouse', or 'an enemy takes four sections in one turn') run a set-piece, standard D&D battle, and have the outcome affect the risk game. Otherwise run as Risk.

The biggest benefit is that the players probably already know how to play Risk, and if they know what they're doing, Risk is a fast game.

 

[S'mon]

The War Machine rules from the Classic D&D Companion set (also in the Rules Cyclopedia) can be used this way (instead of a single abstracted roll) - you break the area & the armies down into eg flanks, centre and reserve areas, and roll the % to see which force beats which. Because each engagement is a single d% roll with set modifiers for PC actions (heroic tasks, assassinations etc) it never slows down the core game.

 

[willows]

Stat up army units as biggish monsters. Dunno what size is most appealing to you.

They all have an ability that triggers when bloodied: They go down to the next lower size category and replenish some HP. Their attacks recalculate based on the new size. They also get faster. Heroes can occupy spaces inside a unit.

The players control friendly units as well as their heroes, and the DM controls enemy units and heroes.

 

[Meatboy]

This is what I use for my games. d20 + bonus for each "unit". Do opposed rolls the unit whose scores higher take the difference and compare it against the units "Heart" (sort of a combo of health, toughness, and bravery) if the remaining number is higher than the units heart that unit is pushed back and suffers penalties to their roll and to their heart. REgardless of the outcome of the rolls any unit in combat loses heart and bonus everytime they engage or are engaged.

 

[Quickleaf]

It's that time again. The Evil Man is locked up in his super-fortress surrounded by undead. The Heroes can either Teleport into his base... Or they can aid the army in the final strike against the monstrous horde and the evil citadel.

Provided the later choice is selected,

If your group is anything like mine, that's a big IF. Players love going toe-to-toe with the BBEG and circumventing his minions. In your scenario is there a clear advantage to devoting PC resources to the mass combat vs teleporting to the BBEG?

I need a way to simulate the field of combat - something short of stocking the the table with hordes of individual characters, but more substantial than hand-waving the whole issue of the characters being in war. I think a simple war game could be used to simulate this, but I am really open to ideas.

The scenario you've set up has the PCs an an allied force laying siege to a citadel after dealing with some banners on the defensive. That's the key thing to remember, that the monsters are trying to be as entrenched as possible - creating choke points, holding the line, forcing attackers through deep water, maintaining higher ground, using arrow slits to fire from, etc. If the troop numbers were even then the defenders would have the advantage being fortified.

The PCs' allies are trying to break the siege, and while the PCs might give some commands, the rank and file fighting probably won't involve the PCs very much.

Why? Because they are needed to break entrenched enemy positions. Missions would involve sapping, taking out a ballistae, killing an enemy leader whose forces the PCs' allies can't break past, capturing a spy/noble who knows a secret route into fortress, etc. When I've run these scenarios I prefer to focus on those heroic missions rather than mass combat per se.

However, I do flavor fights to give a sense of a larger conflict occurring around the PCs. For example, here were some things I added to a similar scenario I ran:

* A group of cavaliers - the last survivors of their unit - were fleeing the field of battle and were trying to escape a rout. The bard PC convinced them to fight onward with the PCs' help. I gave the bard PC control of 5 minion cavaliers and then sent the party against an entire military unit (a L+1 homebrew solo that also spawned minions).

* The artificer PC (whose player couldn't make the session) provided Trebuchet support that the PCs could call in with a magical smoke signal. Basically it was a massive damage area encounter power any PC could call upon...with risks.

* Crossing the field of battle to aid a fallen allied commander was a hazard which took healing surges and/or HP from the PCs. This represented artillery fire, random blows, and generally getting knocked around.


Just remembered I also wrote up simple rules for running a battlefield as a skill challenge where successes/failures were determined by certain types of encounters. I could dig that up if you're interested...

 

[timbannock]

Fields of Battle from Troll Lord Games is pretty awesome. It does not require Castles & Crusades, and spells everything out, along with how to use the abilities of the PCs -- regardless of system -- in the massive combat.

Integrating with 4e would be a breeze, and your PCs would really feel like they are trouncing an army of goons.

 

[Doombybbr]

this is my idea
ALL characters in the war are minions and ALL attacks hit
SWORDSMAN
can move 5 squares
can attack 3 nearby enemies at any point of his move action.
BOWMAN
can move 2 squares
can attack 1 enemyup to 6 squares away
lancer
can move 4 squares attacks 2 times in a 2 square line(anyone in the line is hit, this can be done with diagonal counting as 1 square.

 

[The Monster]

First, decide what your focus really is: if it's just about what the PCs are going to do, then you really are better off just narrating/handwaving the rest of the battle. SPend your time creating encounter maps and NPCs, and preparing fllavor text to describe the battlle around them. This is pretty much how it's done on TV/movies, where anything that isn't focused on the stars is for show and/or plot device.

If you want to have the players thinking and dealing with the flow of battle, that's a different thing. I'm pondering t his kind of thing myself, since I'm running a Big War campaign. The best idea I've had so far is to use a Risk-style map like Siberys describes, with the battlefield marked off in general areas. Then each area is a kind of skill challenge, with various TNs depending on how well-defended, the terrain, quality of troops, and so forth. The NPC allies of the PCs have certain default skill adds, varying by race, training, experience, etc. If the PCs do not intervene, the NPCs will simply make skill checks against the area TN and succeed or fail according to normal skill-challenge procedure.
What the players do then is decide what they're going to help with. When they're in an area, they can swap in their skill for the round; doing so costs a surge. This is kind of a generalized leadership/expertise thing, where the PC is dashing about helping the troops out, inspiring them, or lending their (presumably superior) skills to influence the battle. Note that there's no requirement they all go the same place! They can go different places, depending on what skills are needed in what locations.

If they decide to do a Heroic Spearhead effort, then they all get together and go after a particular target - the bad guys' HQ, a particular item or defended site, or to stop an enemy attack which is succeeding too well or from a surprise direction. Then you get out the regular encounter map and revert to round and roll initiative. If they do this, however, all the NPCs are left to fend for themselves, which may mean that much of the battle goes poorly for the good guys.

That's my thought in brief - I haven't worked out details, but at first glance I think it could work, providing the opportunity to make strategic and tactical decisions without getting too bogged down in the kind of wargame that leaves many roleplayers cold. Just thought I'd offer it as an alternative approach.

 

[braro]

Here is what I do for war:

1) Get a hex map of the area, and try to break it in to .5 mile squares.

2) Stat up Legions for both sides. These should function as, essentially, individual creatures (they are a variant of swarms for mass battle purposes). Legions should have no ranged attacks, but an aura counter attack if they are attacked by a melee attack (from an adjacent hex). If a Legion has a "ranged" attack it should be given the Effect that the target's counter-aura, if any, does not trigger. Also, give each legion some flavorful abilities (elven guerrila squad can hide, dwarven shield-guard gains +2 defenses against attacks that do not trigger their counter aura, go crazy). When a legion is bloodied, it is also weakened.

3) Figure out what your PCs are doing. Give each of them a leadership power that buffs their legion if they are leading one, or is really effective against enemy targets. Warlords, War-wizards, and the like should love this.

4) If they aren't leading a legion, have them move around on the map trying to get to the boss guy, essentially as their own mini legion with a bunch of interesting powers; they lose 2 healing surges if an enemy legion attacks them. This works best if you are trying to do the end of LotR, where Aragorn is holding enemy attention while Frodo and Sam try to destroy the ring.