Thread: Good Mass Combat System?
-
April 22nd, 2010, 09:23 #11
Yes the Mass battle rules in the SWEX book are deadly but then in a battle with hundreds if not thousands of people fighting I think it's not unlikely that a hero would be killed!
Kalan was right to point out Showdown this may be less lethal for your PCs...My players just defeated an army, had a dogfight with aliens, machine-gunned the zombies, stormed the tower, became Legendary and died heroically
Yours are still on combat round 6
Get Savage
First GM to post a game for the original FG Con!
-
April 25th, 2010, 21:31 #12
mass combat
I have successfully used GURPS mass combat in a fantasy game with character integration in the past.
Savage Worlds has an add on.
Although many years out of print War Law was a good wargame add on fopr Rolemaster and I still drag it out and use it.
On the PC front UMS can be found for download.
PeterBorusa32
-
April 26th, 2010, 03:53 #13
Here are a couple of options for you Bookwise
1. AEG's War (for 3.X)
2. WOTC's Heroes of Battle (for 3.5)
3. Troll Lord Games Fields of Battle for Castles & Crusades (not out yet, but coming shortly - boxed set)
4. WOTC's Miniatures Handbook (for 3.5)
5. Mythic Vista's Testament RPG in the Biblical Era
Another option is go the miniature route for your game.
Field of Glory - miniature game is a great way of doing it. Since they've gone digital as well with turn by turn, in PvP mode this might work for you all.Fantasy Grounds II Ultimate License Holder
Castles & Crusades Ruleset
Savage Worlds Deluxe Ruleset
Mutants & Masterminds 3e Ruleset
Dungeons & Dragons 5e Ruleset
Pathfinder 1e Ruleset
Dungeons & Dragons Classics - AD&D 1e/2e Ruleset
Dungeon Crawl Classics Ruleset
Swords & Wizardry Ruleset
Currently Running: S&W Complete (Blackscale Lagoon)
-
April 19th, 2011, 18:32 #14
- Join Date
- Apr 2011
- Posts
- 33
I found an awesome post that really discusses the problem with mass combat and offers a hell of a solution.
https://trollitc.com/2010/09/mass-co...ons-as-swarms/
and the follow up article
https://trollitc.com/2010/09/mass-co...-war-at-large/
I forget if its covered in the article, but i read somewhere else another idea that really ties in with 4E, being swarms can be moved through if a hero character (i.e. pc's and particular npc's, good or bad) is in the swarm unit or i would even say 1 to 5 squares from it ( your character leading the charge dives into the enemy units and then falls back or something) give a bonus to the swarm. Defender: +1/5lvls defenses, Striker: +1/5lvls damage, Leader: +(?1%?)/5lvls hitpoints, Controller: +1/5lvls attack .
Was part of an "epic battle" encounter one time and it was fun but ground down way too much for it to be repeated. took some crafty use of earth to mud and mud to earth scrolls to take out a couple of hill giants that were clearly beyond our level at the time (once trapped we stood at distance and balisted them death, he he). our dm was dumbfounded and never let us choose x number of scrolls at x lvl before certain big battles ever agian. It was a riot though.
-
April 20th, 2011, 00:31 #15Originally Posted by bigbsonnier
Thanks for those and some great ideas come to mind, lol
-
April 20th, 2011, 15:55 #16Originally Posted by ronnke
https://www.warehouse23.com/item.html?id=SJG01-6197
Originally Posted by Spyke
And there is an interesting Pyramid magazine issue devoted to Mass Combat from a fantasy angle -featuring different kinds of crunchy and fluffy articles: Pyramid #3/04: Magic on the Battlefield."We adore chaos because we love to produce order."
M.C. Escher
"Let's face it: for some people, roleplaying is a serious challenge, a life-or-death struggle."
J. M. Caparula / Scott Haring
"It emerges that physics is basic but inessential; that is the crucial fact."
Wolfgang Smith
-
April 20th, 2011, 23:52 #17
I've tried the Savage Worlds version for Mass Combat a couple of times. It is pretty good. I only had one gripe with it.
It gave high toughness characters an advantage in the system, which is good. It did not take into account the benefit of extra agility for high agility style characters, however.
I was playing a character at the time that was specced like a high agility striker rogue type that wore no armor, but in individual combat is tough to lay a hand on.
I really got the short end of the stick under the mass combat rules.
-
April 21st, 2011, 01:28 #18
Battlesystem used to be great for AD&D mass combats. Not a "simple" system though, but much simpler than proper wargames, and most of the complexity was blending the character powers into the mass battle ruleset.
Pendragon also had quite a nice system where you have "the battle" with morale and how it's going, and characters using leadership like skills to win "the battle", but then I think you had individual fights hero-on-hero which could help swing the battle, or maybe the fights were tougher when the battle was going badly... in a nutshell, you could win by having high battle skill or high personal combat skills, but it was easiest with a sprinkling of both !
I only played in the Pendragon game though, so less sure about that.
-
April 21st, 2011, 01:52 #19Originally Posted by phantomwhale"We adore chaos because we love to produce order."
M.C. Escher
"Let's face it: for some people, roleplaying is a serious challenge, a life-or-death struggle."
J. M. Caparula / Scott Haring
"It emerges that physics is basic but inessential; that is the crucial fact."
Wolfgang Smith
Thread Information
Users Browsing this Thread
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks