Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Hello again.

I'm not exactly the best at rules design so this may be a complete mess but I'm going to give it a go anyway. My original idea was to have both Mass Combat rules and Domain rules in the same section but I think they deserve their own threads so I'll create a separate thread for Domain management and creation rules.

Brainstorming

Mass Combat happens between groups.
Rounds in mass combat last for longer than a usual round.
Break the round up into Move and Attack phases. So a unit can move and then attack or attack and then move but not attack and then attack again or move and then move again.
Have to take into account magic and what effects they have on groups.
Hit points for units or groups are possibly equal to number x hit dice.
Damage is equal to the number of hit dice of damage you do.
Could make it complex and have units having to respond to orders but that seems a bit boring to me.
Have to use the old Morale is to the Physical as 3 is to 1. So Morale checks are important otherwise units break and flee where they get slaughtered.
Have to have Morale checks to actually get a unit to fight maybe.
What happens when people are fighting in or around a castle or defensive structure.
Need to account for siege weapons and damage to walls etc.

also need to allow for fear effects from dragons and such, modifiers to morale checks?
area effect spells and weapons
terrain effects on movement
check out Book of War by Daniel R. Collins
deltasdnd.blogspot.com

Here are few questions for you. I have quite a few mini wargames. What scale do you want? Do you want the units to be 10 or 20 men units or a whole regiment? Do you want a skirmish style or grand armies sweeping across the land? Just a few things to think about.

What is the scale of historical armies and battles? That'd probably be a good place to start.

The role of the PCs in all of this may influence the sale a bit. If PCs matter in the mass rules, it's probably going to favor modest-sized units.

hjmartin70 wrote:also need to allow for fear effects from dragons and such, modifiers to morale checks?
area effect spells and weapons
terrain effects on movement
check out Book of War by Daniel R. Collins
deltasdnd.blogspot.com

Good points. Also would it be a single saving roll made by the unit against the fear effect, spell etc?
Terrain would be a negative modifier and in some cases it would disallow certain units to operate there, I mean you can't really use cavalry in a swamp unless they are giant lizard cavalry maybe.
I'll check out that link when i get a chance.

jackel wrote:Here are few questions for you. I have quite a few mini wargames. What scale do you want? Do you want the units to be 10 or 20 men units or a whole regiment? Do you want a skirmish style or grand armies sweeping across the land? Just a few things to think about.

I think it should be able to scale up or down. What I'm imagining is that you can use the rules to run a grand army campaign against the armies of the Overlord of Var with units with 1000s of men or fight out a border skirmish between a band of Ruorn Rangers and Bonegnawers Tribesmen with each group containing 100 men at most.
Of course the focus should be on the PCs so they should be at the centre of the action, be it leading units in battle or conducting targeted strikes against the enemy generals.

Joe the Rat wrote:What is the scale of historical armies and battles? That'd probably be a good place to start.

The role of the PCs in all of this may influence the sale a bit. If PCs matter in the mass rules, it's probably going to favor modest-sized units.

Yeah the PCs have to be the focus but I'd like the rules to be able to scale to whatever size of battle the GM wants to run. Most GMs are probably just going to narrate the battle, and have maybe a focus on the PCs fighting enemy champions, but I kind of like to fight the whole thing out because I like the randomness of it and I'm a big believer in giving the bad guys a chance to win!;)
That's not for everybody though so I have to keep in mind the mantra of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) and not add a lot of unnecessary rules that will add more complexity than is needed.

I'd really suggest Hard Boiled Armies for some good rules ideas for Mass Combat. I've taken part in a local game that focused not on individual characters (unless we were in individual events), but on our characters leading units in a couple mercenary campaigns.

Hello, I'm new. Wanted my first post to be something helpful to someone.

Eohelm92 wrote:Hello, I'm new. Wanted my first post to be something helpful to someone.

Welcome!