Post/Author/DateTime	Post
gospel357 04-17-07, 07:55 AM	I'm gonna be putting together a large scale war, as it has gotten to this in my campaign. How should i DM that. Were looking at like 2000+ troops that are gonna end up fighting in this war (all NPCs mind you) but i don't wanna roll my 20 2000 times each round, know what i mean. you guys know a quick or easier ways to doing it?
Red_Wizard 04-17-07, 02:36 PM	Roll play through what the PC's see, only roll for the area the PC's are in, and roll one D20 per 10 or 20 NPCs for a small scale skirmish. Anything like this will greatly speed up play.Other suggestions can be found in the book specifically for war (Though the name of said handbook escapes me at the moment) Also, if you are familiar with DnD minis, maybe use some of the simplified rules from that.
rolig 04-17-07, 05:38 PM	heroes of battle seems to be the book for you
thedude72 04-20-07, 06:30 PM	Definately Heros of Battle.
Empirate 04-30-07, 11:27 AM	At this scale, the larger battle is actually "scenery" from the perspective of your PCs. Even if they happen to be in on the battle plan, they couldn't efficiently control that number of troops. So have the larger battle have the outcome you desire story-wise. I assume you will want your PCs in an important spot, undertaking a crucial mission or whatever. They don't need to know, and neither do they have a way of knowing, what transpires in the several square miles of battlefield around them. You basically only need to know what happens close to the PCs, and even this you can decide as you see fit without the need for rolling any dice. Now the PCs will probably have an impact on the overall outcome (if not, what's the point, right?), so all you need to do is decide beforehand what conditions they have to meet in their part of the battle to effect what kind of outcome.
wtf_thats_my_head 05-04-07, 07:01 PM	o yea heros of battles
Ramenth 05-12-07, 03:49 AM	I'd say it depends alot on how your party is effecting the battle. If they're taking a major roll and controlling companies and the like, I'd say switch over to a D20 Turn Based Strategy system for the battle and go back to normal D&D play afterwords.
lightcwu 05-14-07, 05:35 PM	I'm gonna be putting together a large scale war, as it has gotten to this in my campaign. How should i DM that. Were looking at like 2000+ troops that are gonna end up fighting in this war (all NPCs mind you) but i don't wanna roll my 20 2000 times each round, know what i mean. you guys know a quick or easier ways to doing it? Also it's important to think about where you are and who you're marching on because depending 2000 troops really isn't going to do it. I mean the Forgotten Realms really cut army sizes down by comparison to real life war fair of the same time period, but even in the realms 2000 troops really isn't enough. You can annoy some people enough to deal with you, and you can be a great distraction for the real invasion force to come in and take what ever while the army is dealing with the 2000 man folly, but 2000 men at arms isn't going to bother most anybody.
Kelmech_Ra 05-14-07, 07:48 PM	Also it's important to think about where you are and who you're marching on because depending 2000 troops really isn't going to do it. I mean the Forgotten Realms really cut army sizes down by comparison to real life war fair of the same time period, but even in the realms 2000 troops really isn't enough. You can annoy some people enough to deal with you, and you can be a great distraction for the real invasion force to come in and take what ever while the army is dealing with the 2000 man folly, but 2000 men at arms isn't going to bother most anybody. Well actually, 2000 men is quite a force if your not taking on kingdoms. For instance in the campaign i'm playing, my PC is a noble for Neverwinter, and got drawn into conflict with a powerful noble from Waterdeep. (I'm helping another PC who is a lord of waterdeep). My PCs total forces amounted to about...what was it...like 200-300 men, but I recieved sizable reinforcements from allies, so my total force was about 1500 (a little less, i think), and the other noble's forces totaled about 3000 men, that was one hell of a fight! My pc commanded troops (as he was defending his land), so had agood view of the battle and my DM gave lots of information about the battle until my PC actually engaged in it, and then I only got info about my immediate surroundings. So, if your going to DM large scale battles, just give your PCs info on their surroundings and sculpt the battle the way you want it to go, but make it losable for your PCs to add excitement!
thedude72 05-20-07, 03:51 PM	wow...i thought the mercenary company of 4000 i have was small...