I had a bit of inspiration for my far-future-maybe-never-happen Dark Ages domain-heavy game, Shit & Shieldwalls.
I had a bit of inspiration for my far-future-maybe-never-happen Dark Ages domain-heavy game, Shit & Shieldwalls.
When two shieldwalls face off, how can we make the outcome something other than the luck of the rolls or sheer numbers? How might you simulate the momentum of battle, or the determination of the warriors?
I’m thinking of a variation on Stress from Perdition which gives escalating bonuses. But here we’ll call it Battle Joy. It has six levels.
Battle Joy
1. Will defend in a shieldwall
2. Will attack in a shieldwall
3. AC bonus
4. Morale bonus
5. Critical Hit on 19-20.
6. 2nd attack
I haven’t decided on a method of mass combat, so this is just spitballing. I have a more concrete idea of what increases your warband’s Battle Joy.
These can increase Battle Joy one time each before battle starts:
Defending Home – at a local, not national level.
Greater Numbers – If your warband is at least 50% larger than your enemy.
Getting Drunk – also induces some sort of penalty, but useful for unmotivated troops.
Ritual Insults in Parley – probably like reaction roll.
Single Combat of Champions – winning side gains 1 level, losing side must make morale save or lose a level. (dangerous!)
Rousing Speech – another reaction roll type deal.
In battle:
Killing a champion or leader – forces morale save on other side or they lose a level.
Breaking the enemy line
Enemy wall-depth reduced by one.
I like this, pretty neat. How do you get to level 2 though if you start a battle at level 1? Can't break the enemy line if you want attack. Because it's mass combat right so the Battle Joy applies to the whole unit?
ReplyDeleteYeah, this is for your warband, not PCs. And you can do a bunch of the beginning things, each can only work once though. Get your troops drunk and give them a good speech and they'll march to meet the enemy.
ReplyDeleteit should have rules for mud and disease affecting effectiveness.
ReplyDeleteI plan on it, Wayne Snyder!
ReplyDeleteHave you seen, Hard to be a God?
ReplyDeleteI watched about half of it, but it's so long I had to quit and haven't gone back to it. The visuals are freaking amazing though.
ReplyDeleteYeah, your, "far-future-maybe-never-happen Dark Ages" made me think of it.
ReplyDeleteAaah there are PCs distinct from the warband. I wasn't sure what level of control or abstraction it was for the players. This makes more sense now. I dig it.
ReplyDelete