Early in a war, there is the tendency to avoid killing. American Civil War. the series of war to unify Germany etc. The reason is that one side wants the other to think very carefully about really starting a war and to reduce casualties. Sun-Tzu: "What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins but excels in winning with ease. " This is not always the case, but it is a decision.
Well another thing on the not in the command structure of the War but still being in a War Setting can go as the Witcher Serie, the characters have goals of their own but have to deal with the war constantly as it affect everything around them is omnipresent back drop, or even a threat to the characters.
It's a valid point - the question I raise then is - is that a war setting or a survival setting? The idea of the war setting is the characters are part of the war as soldiers. Where the war is the background in my opinion shifts the game to survival setting with war as the backdrop. It's a small shift, but I think an important one. I could overthinking here though :)
I'd love some advice on how to DM a witcher-like setting, my current project is a setting with all the racial, political, and religious tension of the witcher, the noodle gods of HP lovecraft, and the monsters of kingdom death.
I think when it comes to having war as a backdrop setting is that what it truly does is that it upstarts the otherwise static social and political order of the region, keeping things more fluid, and therefore creates more opportunities and dangers. War represents an opportunity for lowly peasants to break free from their social bonds to become renowned warriors and mercenaries, sellswords(or sell-spells too if fantasy) flourish. War is an excellent way to carve out a little piece of your own because the monarchs won't necessarily have the extra resources to deal with you, and then enforce your rule over that area by simply aligning your loyalty to whoever wins, which also might give you a stake in the war. You can be mercenaries, constantly selling your services to the highest bidder, and then turning on them Italian war style once someone outbids them, again and again. Even if characters try to actively avoid becoming entangled up in the war, it might still affect them. A knight might assume they are working for the enemy and set upon them with his soldiers whilst the adventurers are out traveling. The party might become stuck in the city they are in when the invaders suddenly besiege it. And it's also always an excellent moral test for the party if they pass a village where one side is committing unspeakable atrocities towards the local population, but there is no direct need for them to become involved. War as backdrop offers opportunity and throws 'stability' out the window, unlike peace time where things change far less.
I find the major problem with doing intense, realistic war scenarios is that there's a large proportion of players who refuse to accept that they can die and get the ideology they're some type of special forces and the "good guys always win". I've done several total war scenarios such as a homebrew system known as the Europan Conflicts (alternative World War I similar to the anime/manga of Full Metal Alchemist) and I had a player leave because they died on the first mission because they believed they had plot armour so they basically kamikaze with several satchel charges in a small enclosed warehouse. Following a very realistic but understanding digression of the consequences, the entire building collapses either killing outright or severely wounding the rest of the party as they had little to no warning to their one squad mates actions and basically the game was ruined because majority of the group refused to accept something I had stated from the beginning. This is a true war. You WILL die. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when and how. Iterating off that, there was in the 40k scenario a time where this worked stupendously before I ended up having to leave for deployment in which a player who was unable to continue playing through NPC botting went out in a heroic last stand poetically written to emphasize their decision and acceptance leading to a heartfelt moment for the rest of the survivors to commemorate their squad mates decision and restore their morale to finish the job. It just seems that it's a hit or miss emphasis for the main plot. Everyone likes action but doing the complete and utter classification that entails a true war, is something a large portion of players and game masters find hard to comprehend. Historical wars are one of the more annoying ones as when someone gets injured like in a Hundred Years War setting, you can't just get on up and partake in the next mission right away depending on the injury. You could be out of action for weeks let alone months or even permanently as was the case for one player whose character had their leg amputated to avoid extreme infection. I think one of the better ways to illustrate the war is finding the balance between how the war is going and not participating in the larger versions particularly if you're big on realism like I am. There's times where for flavor or because it is truly too harsh to stick with realistic courses of action but outside of fantasy or super advanced tech, injuries and death are very hard to avoid and how the session continues once you find out that your main character isn't up to par anymore creates a lot of player conflict. Any suggestions on how this should be solved? Particularly in heavy realistic settings both in contemporary and fictional.
What has worked for me is trench warfare. My players already understand that if they go out into the open they're going to be targeted by all kinds of MM, arrows and fireball's. I tend to put them in a position of mid-level command and make it clear whether or not they need to stay put or move away through description. Also it tends to work better if you do treat them like special forces working behind the scenes. The other thing I like to do is not go to war until they're at least lvl6 and give NPC's lvl 1-3 health pools. Your players think they have plot armor? Well they have 20 more hp than everyone else and that's the best they get.
I'm actually running my campaign where the players start on the outskirts of a massive war and they're slowly and gradually getting more and more involved with the war.
If you are quite interested in war plots, I would recommend reading "The All Guardsmen Party" which is written version of a Warhammer 40K RPG running on the Dark Heresy System. It's a very comical, but also very dark, SciFi War Campaign
When you talked about references there was a movie that popped up first in my head. Because I dont know the english name of it im gonna use the german name. The movie is called "Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben" or in english "Dogs, would you want to live forever" its a great movie about Operation Barbarossa.
I started working on a campaign where my players had to raise an army and unite/take over the world in order to save it from a worse fate. the thing i found was i had to create NPCs to run things if the players felt like stepping away. It's been very interesting. But it does favor players how like talking over ones that like combat.
Sounds like a fun campaign to be sure! And yes one must always tailor one's campaign to the players style to avoid frustrations and the like. What system are you using for mass combat or does that not really happen?
My players are still building their army for the most part. But when i get there I give all my players there intel and have them come up with a battle plan for the army. The better the plan the better the army fairs. I try to encourage clever tactics when i can. (Once my players mined out the area under a battlefield so when the enemy walked on it. they fell through) Haven't had enough large battles to really perfect my system thou.
Yet again a great video, thanks and keep up the good work =) I think this will help me alot with the ShadowRun Campaign i'm currently running, since events there will seemingly escalate into a kind of war setting eventually and I always tried to prevent that because I didnt know how to really GM that properly.
This video was great, also love your Russian accent xD I just joined the patron and did the tier where I can campaign with you, I am sooooo excited and I hope you guys get more and more followers!
That's awesome! I hope to live up to your expectations comrade! Glad to have you on-board. Are you part of the FB group yet? We're getting ready to start looking at systems and characters.
+How to be a Great Game Master I don't have facebook, but I do have Skype, but my vote is mostly D&D if we get to choose the system, otherwise I'm up for mostly anything! My favorite setting is the typical mid-evil with the knights, magic and dragons etc. If we're starting characters now, what kind of setting are the others deciding?
I have created artillery... my players fear it... because there is so much to it that will F*** you up. Because it makes you roll a DC 14 dex save and on a fail does 2d20 fire and 1d10 slashing, it also throws you 50+ feet away from the center of the center of the explosion. But also got with that, if you hit anything along the way, you take another 1d10 or more bludgeoning damage. On a success you take half damage and are not thrown. A tree burst does the same thing, but can do 3d10 slashing damage instead of the 1d10. On top of that, it causes you to fall prone and you are stunned for one round. You are considered deaf until you are not stunned. Also... almost forgot to mention, it happens in a barrage. So, that was just one. Imagine a full barrage of that around a player. Though you only need to roll one Dex save for a barrage. The dm decides how many are in the area. If the player is moving in a Barrage, they make multiple Dex saves if they pass through multiple artillery zones of damage. Have also created gas artillery and incendiary. War is hell in my campaign 😅.
A great way one of my dms handled mass combat was with 'squads' where after we rolled our hits and damage, the damage got multiplied by 4 and spread across the enemies in the squad. In that case each enemy only had 20 hp and 17 ac, so an attack that hit for 80 damage (20x4) would represent our awesome highly trained characters (lv 16 or so) taking out 4 people in quick succession. And with many characters having extra attack damage was around 30-40 before multiplier so it served the purpose of working through mass combat quickly as well as letting us feel the glory of our OP characters at the end of a 2yr campaign.
I know this is an old video and this comment is semi-relevent, read at your own risk: I've been bingeing your videos after recently discovering your channel, each one is helpful in it's own way. So thanks for that. This video cemented an idea for later in a campaign I'm running (we haven't even had session one yet, I'm still fairly new to tabletop rpgs) in pathfinder. I've always been in love with the "big horde necromancy" that the game can provide, and one of the potential bbeg is a necromancer sorcerer who they will see several times throughout the campaign and maybe want to stop. Anyways, I was thinking of one of the times they see him he is fighting a wizard who also has an undead horde, and the party chooses a side and that swings the battle in either sides favor (they will probably either pick the wizard's side or just ignore the combat altogether). Your ideas about mass combat seem like they could fit in this circumstance, like if they go after the sorcerer he calls his minions to retreat or something of the sort. Thanks!
Im planning on making a halo style tabletop using on the savage worlds game. I want some kind of halo 3 ODST syle campaign but im not sure how i would do it. I am asking if anyone has any idea's for plot? Would greatly appreciate all ideas
I'm pleased to find your series, especially this! I'm looking to run Call of Cthulhu No Man's Land and this has given me some interesting ideas to expand things for my player base.
I'm personally a big fan of a "partisan" setting, where the characters are part of an allied militia unit. This way, the game can drift between survival ("War has devastated the countryside, and poisoned the land for miles. The party stumbles upon a farm house, standing alone against the torn sky, with a single light in the window, and the faint sound of music from inside..."), war ("Link up with the army for this offensive."), and something in between ("The army has fallen back, leaving your ragtag band trapped behind enemy lines. Radio transmissions call out for guerrilla fighters still operating to sever rail lines, destroy fuel reserves, and seize initiative.") . It's this middle ground I, and my players, tend to enjoy. They can be 'mildly military', as TVTropes would put it, and not worry about who outranks whom, but they can still 'form in' and take part in the big battles. As a DM, it also gives you a TON of flexibility on a longrunning campaign, to take a tonal shift or break. That can make all the difference in the world.
Already had this added in my own campain, I do always keep to a standard line for the commander to hand out missions: Who, What, Where, When and How. A friend of mine who actually is in the army told me they get briefings this way.
That is the major goal of all games My group was even a bit shocked that when we started i sayed it's about having fun and a good time, and i was not out to kill ther'ye characters... well unless they make me. :P
Mentioning a command structure, I'm running a game atm where one of my NPC's stepped down from being in command, and a PC took his place. The differences are night and day. I'd be interested in others opinions about the pros and cons of letting a player put on the leadership hat, and how to help guide the players while not outright telling the leader what he or she should be doing, and also what to do if there is a mutiny, or other players begin to disagree with the leader. It seems that NPC's have this "I'm controlled by the GM so I know better than you do' aura about them, and when a player takes on that role, there seems to sprout up much more in-fighting (for better or worse.)
Hey Zombie... been a while since you posted! Hope you been having fun. Yes sadly that is why it is critical that the players AGREE to a command structure first and accept bad decisions as being bad decisions and follow them anyway. If they don't then the whole thing falls apart. For me it was the reason why Star Trek Enterprise was so poorly received. The crew didn't respect the chain of command. If it's already happened, I'd bring in an Admiral or Commander who can give bigger orders down to your new leader.
I know exactly what you mean with the NPC's having the "I know more than you" attitude. As a leader player in more than a couple campaigns I have had to deal with this. Unfortunately this sentiment among NPC's 'seems' to follow and never stop. I'd be interested if anyone had a solution. Talking to the GM in my case did not help, and it is an inconvenience I deal with, as opposed to a game breaker. Though I have noticed significantly more infighting as well.
*Sorry, the *"I know 'better' than you attitude."* Small change to my phrasing, but this bit is quite important. I realize the NPC's will probably 'always' know more than me. But its the I know 'better' attitude that is kinda ridiculous.
as for reference I'd recommend my country's finest: "How I Unleashed World War II" (1969). A very good and incredibly humorous war movie (actually 3 movies/parts).
Legend of the Five Rings has a really good for mass combat that I ported to D&D 5e, basically a player picks how engaged in the combat they would like to be, then the gm inflicts damage directly to the character based on how heavily engaged the pc is (no roll to hit, just oh you're not engaged, take 0d6, you're standing with the archer, lightly engaged, take 2d6, oh my, you're front and center of the infantry line, take 5d6). After the pc take their damage, then they get to roll on a chart adding a modifier based on how heavily engaged they are, individually, the chart gives them special events that occurred during that hour of combat like a friendly npc standard bearer has fallen beside the pc and the pc caught the standard. As the pc hacks through enemy after enemy, pc's sword bounces off of plate armor, this enemy is a lot more skilled then the others, the pc have found an enemy champion. As the pc is fighting, the battle lines open just enough for one miracle shot at the enemy general.
Wtb a video about war as a backdrop, playing around political unrest, occupation, etc, the in the moment consequences of prolonged war without the characters playing as active combatants on any side (thinking primarily medieval/fantasy personally)
okay but what about war but not from a soldier or officers perspective. Like players stuck in a country at war dealing with plague, famine, trying to avoid conscription, as well as trying to flee to a safer part of the world. what are your thoughts on dealing with that?
Any chance for advice on a Steampunk setting? I'm currently running a campaign based on the setting of Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura (video game). In any case, great video as always!
I loved that game! Until I disintegrated the giant skeleton that had the key to the elvish caves and stopped me dead in my tracks... Steampunk is most certainly on the list of things to make. I'm just not sure when :(
"Two Mamelukes held 3 Frenchmen; but 100 French cavalry did not fear the same number of Mamelukes; ... 1.000 French beat 1.500 Mamelukes. Such was the influence of tactics, order and maneuver." -- Napoleon Bonaparte A campaign set in the Napoleonic wars would be exciting, but also very frustrating. There's not much an individual can do other than getting shot unless they're high up in the chain of command. Plus I don't think very many people nowadays have an intuitive grasp of musket warfare, in which you have a choice between 3 highly inaccurate shots per minute or trying to stab with your bayonet.
I made few scenarios from ww2 from commandos to wehrmach sturmpioneers, one time sessions, but I have not worked out the combat system yet 😔 any advice on the combat mechanics?
An RPG called "The Riddle of Steel", for all its faults, has a great system for mass combat in a supplement called "The Flower of Battle". It puts the PCs in the spotlight, with lots of interesting options for influencing the outcome of the greater battle raging around them. Recommended read, if you can find a copy!
Yeah I love the "spiritual attributes" system, but I think our group sometimes misinterpreted it. And when a new GM took over, he tried to formalise every D&D spell into a TRoS spell, which made the magic system a lot less interesting. I think this is a good game for GMs who are ready to relinquish some control. :-) If you have trouble finding the Flower of Battle, I can help you out.
That'd be cool, but Idk if I'd ever use it. As great as it was, TRoS needed a second edition to be a truly usable system, and the publisher's been out of business for decades. Blade of the Iron Throne seemed like a good successor, but I think that project has stalled as well.
I use a simple d6 system for allied/enemy contingents or NPCs to determine their fate. Lower values are bad, higher is good. Party actions before/during battle, preperations made, battle conditions, morale, etc either adds or subtracts 1 from the die roll value as battle goes on. By the end, either at a phase of battle or the end entirely, that final d6 result determines their fate. Players can observe the battle and see if someone has a low value beforehand, because I will narrate "so and so are surrounded and wounded, desperately fighting" and they can ignore or assist. As an example, after helping them, players could persuade them to withdraw or something, removing them from being factored into the d6 and keeping them safe but unable to contribute.
I always tend to get very frustrated with GMs because there often is a mass combat scenario somewhere in the campaign and I often make characters who have military backgrounds (Since I'm a military history enthusiast) So I'll spend time making these elaborate plans and clever strategies that by all historical accounts should work, then for narrative reasons all are doomed to failure... but I'm never given a satisfying reason for why my plans have failed. I think much as with the political game, the GM should know a thing or two about war before doing war-themed plots or campaigns. There's nothing more obnoxious than playing a pirate game where you've fooled the Spaniards into locking their ship in irons, giving you perfect opportunity to rake their stern... then losing the encounter for purely narrative reasons... when there is no logical reason you should lose.
Let me ask you something...if you were in a game with me, and had set up the perfect inaccessible fortress on an island. And than along comes me, who says you've done a great job Ralph, but I'm afraid I am going to have to try to destroy you now. You've spent your time training your bowmen to guard the fort. But you're very low on ground troops, though, from the sneak attack that you tried to pull on me. But have enough sedge weapons to kill a medium sized Godzilla. You command Humans, 3,500 well trained archers and have a contract with the trolls of a near by island for aid. But they might betray the contract or betray you should your number get too low. But you know I tend to do wild things, think out side the box, magic, etc. But the character can't use the knowledge of exactly what I have done before. There is not exactly time to come up with or train a lot of solders, 5 days game time to prepare. Actually, you do know about the large obsidian balls with exploding seal/runes on the outside set to trigger when one is broken. Considering your men killed my dragon and kidnapped my ward and your commander killed him... You would do something to prepare for it, correct???...not just grab your fort from corner, plop it on to the table and say "I'd lie to see you try."
I think I understand this... you are concerned that players did not attempt to do anything even though they had 5 days to do something? They just sat and waited for the attack? I'd consider that foolish and arrogant. And I'd crush them like a bug - because with the Trolls comes a vast horde of Goblins who have kites that allow them to drop down into the fortress whilst on fire causing chaos and death. No fortress is impenetrable. Krak De Cheviliers castle was never taken, but it was given through deception and misdirection.
Think Vlad Dracula's Castle, in team of being inaccessible, not impenetrable. And do believe me, not only did I kicked his ass, I decimated his well trained and skilled archers with the first thing. He chose to stay in the castle. Moronic move on his part. And not laying traps, or planning any ambush is simply disappointing But what would you have done if you were playing against me?
Oil pits on the paths up to the castle to flame with the archers. Rebuilt the interior access into a maze of walls so archers can rain down fire on those entering. But most importantly of all - left the castle with what few ground troops I had. Siege weapons come with us and under cover of darkness rebuild them on nearby cliff-face to bombard your army when you march to the castle. You must now split your troops or get blasted to hell. Well assuming many things of course lol.
That actually might have stood a bit more of a chance of working. It's rather hard to say because I took out your fleet right after I sent my ambassador to call for your surrender or to announce our "little tiff", they left some small winged spies and recruiters behind. He focused the ground troops and weaponry on protecting a cave entrance that I had absolutely no intention of fooling with.
Five days to turn the entire Castle into a death trap coffin every road and wall, every surface covered in alchemist's fire on a timer, only one ally stays behind to kick off hell while the others open the gate and retreat, letting the enemy "take" the castle...except for that second ally who seals the gate after the enemy has "won"
I have a question. My universe takes place in a post-apocalyptic North America involving some fantasy elements. Wizard Land, a realm of magic. Here is the history. In 2020, people from Wizard Land (known as Visardlanþs in their native language of Hæ Visarþ (pr. High Vee sahrdz, you can just call it High Wizard) have appeared in Omaha through a portal. The US troops, thinking they might pose a threat, attacked them and almost killed them, but people riding a griffin saved the visitors. Quickly, all of what was once known as Louisiana Territory was conquered by Visardlanþs. America and Canada split into Djekvari, or countries, and there was a cold war between the Djekvari (led by Volkatlands or Wolcottia), Russia, China, and the EU. No side won, and they all split into tiny countries. Now this takes place in a post-apocalyptic north America in this timeline, in a battle between the Thurrén Clan and the city of Errulijje, yet the players aren't at any side. DO you have any advice?