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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bedrockgames" data-source="post: 8245230" data-attributes="member: 85555">I am not familiar enough with this setting to really walk through the process on it (and I am quite unclear on many of the events, causes, etc to run that through the procedures and process I would use). I think you need a high degree of familiarity with the setting. For example there was a time when I had a strong enough command of Ravenloft (pre-3E era) to run through situations like you seem to be describing: alas no more! Now I am focused primarily on my own campaign setting. What I can say is if a region in my world for whatever reason was struck by an even that caused a massive death toll, I would try to look at things like what institutions are in place to respond, what are the consequences given the location itself (and the specific nature of the event would determine if this were some kind of expanding threat or just an isolated instance: is it a zombie plague, is it a massive natural disaster, is it a supernatural catastrophe like you describe above--or seem to describe). I would also ask what sects might become involved etc. But lets take a much simpler example: an invasion on the border of a major empire. Let's say the Kushen tribes finally decide to invade the Empire via its client kingdom Li Fan which serves as a kind of buffer in the south. The way this kind of event might play out in my game is I would look at the map, look at the size and quality of the invading army, the size and quality of the defenses (in this case how many thousands of men are stationed in the forts along the border) and I would assign d10 dice pools to each side. I might break this process up into stages that represent increments of time, or I might just simply and roll to see whether they manage to take Li Fan (generally for an earth shaking event like this it is going to play out more slowly so there can be a shifting of the 'front line' and an ongoing background changing war). I might also think about things like how is this handled in the capital of the empire, how does Hai'an, a potential enemy south of the empire react, how do the various martial orders react. Much of that is going to be dependent on how successful the Kushen are. This could eventually become a situation where the capital is taken by the Kushen and a new imperial order established and Kushen rule over the people of the empire (which might have an analog in the Mongolian or Jin invasions of the Song Dynasty). But it is also hard to know exactly how this might play out because in a wuxia campaign martial heroes are worth hundreds of men, and player characters can have significant impacts on historical events (this is something Jin Yong actually breaks down into numbers in Legends of Condor Heroes and Return of Condor Heroes, where characters are involved in historical battles and as martial heroes they kind of serve as tanks that just radically imbalance things). But to answer these questions: Procedurally, how do you answer those questions?  All extrapolation?  Some dice? In the case I outlined above (which I used simply because I am more familiar with the setting and more comfortable making decisions about it): extrapolation and dice for sure. I would definitely want dice involved in something like determining the outcomes of major battles. I would probably chart the course of the Kushen invading forces and try to track the movements of the imperial forces (consider alliances and such as well, and the role of major sects that get involved). Some diplomacy might even be handled by dice because I would still want that x factor (I think I know how Hai'an would respond, but lets put a 10% chance on me being wrong). This probably is akin to the setting solitaire you described earlier, but it is very much in service to the creation of a canvass should the players become involved (and it is up to the players if they want to). Let's say the players don't get involved. Again, it could result in many different things based on how many men each side is losing with each step (they could repel the Kushen, the Kushen could take just the client kingdom, they could just take the client kingdom and some imperial prefectures, they could reach the capital, they could conquer the empire but crumble and quickly be replaced, or they could assert control. The dice will have a significant impact here. Sects and PCs would also potentially have a significant impact (and for sects I would look at how many oppose and how many support the empire, what the levels are of the disciples and leadership, etc). For me the key is I shouldn't know if the Kushen will reach the capital or not. And I shouldn't particularly care if they do. I should try to either figure things out logically and/or resort to dice rolls to chart how that pans out. And there may be other things that arise from all this the more I think of it (for example the empire may put out a call to all martial heroes and offer clemency to everyone who answers the call, supernatural forces such as gods could become involved: if the emperor has the mandate of Heaven, then the empire would get bonuses on its rolls, if the emperor doesn't have the mandate of heaven (for this particular emperor I would  have to check my notes on that), the empire would get a penalty (or possibly in both cases, if I think it warrants it, because it is a heavenly mandate: Kushen get a bonus/penalty, the empire gets a bonus/penalty). If some dice, when, and how is that informed/what does it look like?I believe I described this above but generally I use dice when there are lots of unknowns or I am unsure or it is something like war (where you can never simply say "logically this side will win----there is always a chance things go another way). I have a few simple systems and procedures for handling war. The simplest is the opposing dice pools I mentioned. I like having various procedures to draw on. But I also have this, which I sometimes use (and I have about three or four variations on this--this one is written with player characters being present in mind, but I use it all the time for conflict where they aren't there, and I have about two or three sect war-sect conflict systems as well): [ATTACH=full]135444[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]135445[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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