B/X (or similar) combat with lotsa participants

Bill · April 12, 2013, 03:25:02 PM

Quote from: gleichman;645310D&D? Please. It's a game who's strongest supporters here advise not using the rules whenever possible.

This is a good case to not use the rules.

I can't speak for everyone, but I advocate not using the rules only when the rules are not needed, or unable to reasonably handle a situation.

Whenever possible would be all the time, and thus may as well play freeform with no ruleset.

jeff37923 · April 12, 2013, 03:37:52 PM

GDW's Striker has a combat system that allows you to use melee weapons in small to medium size unit combat. You should use that.

gleichman · April 12, 2013, 03:38:07 PM

Quote from: Bill;645323Whenever possible would be all the time, and thus may as well play freeform with no ruleset.

My point completely. If one wants the rules to get out the way, then throw them away.

If one needs them to simulate in-game reality, then use them- always.

This is a case where the middle of the road just gets you ran over. Here we have a guy who's tied up in knots trying to handle what for me would be a skrimish level combat but has hit a roadblock because the game makes it too boring. Time to ignore/replace the game.

But really I shouldn't be talking about that in this thread. So I'll drop that and go with my original suggestion- only have the high levels fight it out and determine the course of the battle from there.

Spinachcat · April 12, 2013, 03:49:05 PM

Quote from: KenHR;644967Morale rules will also do a lot to make a combat take a lot less time.

Yes! The morale rules will cut that fight down after a couple rounds.

Quote from: gleichman;644986I'm a fan of letting the high levels on both sides fight it out; then the low levels of the winning side get to gleefully slaughter the opposing low levels in celebration.

This is a good suggestion. Once the big guns are down, its doubtful that the low level guys would still hold their morale.

I suggest giving monsters the same ability as AD&D fighters, then you will certainly get a nasty and fast mop up of the 0 level and 1-1HD creatures.

I personally would not run a 70 v 70 combat with the rules UNLESS this was the big culmination of the story arc AND if the players really wanted to play a multiple hour minis heavy battle. I'd talk to the players first.

I have run big battles, but much of my crew were Warhammer guys so they really liked to do a big smash and crunch that ran all evening.

RPGPundit · April 14, 2013, 05:49:14 AM

This would be an edge case for me.

S'mon · April 14, 2013, 07:28:17 AM

Quote from: Spinachcat;645331I personally would not run a 70 v 70 combat with the rules UNLESS this was the big culmination of the story arc AND if the players really wanted to play a multiple hour minis heavy battle. I'd talk to the players first.

From the OP it did sound like the big culmination of the story arc.

Doing it with minis it would take a couple hours and run like a wargame, but it could be run very quickly minis-less - while the PCs fight the enemy leaders, give the mook armies eg 10 attacks/round each on each other, or whatever seems reasonable re frontage etc. If you have 5d20s that's 2 rolls per side per round.

RPGPundit · April 16, 2013, 01:11:43 AM

It would depend a lot on the level of the PCs involved and the edition you're using, but really if its old-school D&D the whole thing isn't that terribly difficult to do.

It would be one of those exceedingly rare cases where I would use miniatures though, to keep track of where things are happening (if only to avoid the whole "I can just run straight to hit the magic-user, right?" syndrome).

RPGPundit

B/X (or similar) combat with lotsa participants

Bill

jeff37923

gleichman

Spinachcat

RPGPundit

S'mon

RPGPundit