So I have this idea for an event.

The PC have been called to a meeting in a stronghold when a magically powerful force attacks.  Besieged on all sides, the PCs have to protect (or not) the important people they are trapped with and manage to either weather the assault or escape as the magical defenses protecting them drop one by one.

I envision it kinda like the scene from Aliens, where the marines are hunkered down at night waiting to hear from Bishop as the insurgent aliens overwhelm their defenses one after the other.

Of course, that looks great on the screen, but how to turn that into an effective roleplaying scenario?  Has anyone else done this?  What worked?  What didn't?

Tom

Quote from: Blusponge;873278So I have this idea for an event.

The PC have been called to a meeting in a stronghold when a magically powerful force attacks.  Besieged on all sides, the PCs have to protect (or not) the important people they are trapped with and manage to either weather the assault or escape as the magical defenses protecting them drop one by one.

I envision it kinda like the scene from Aliens, where the marines are hunkered down at night waiting to hear from Bishop as the insurgent aliens overwhelm their defenses one after the other.

Of course, that looks great on the screen, but how to turn that into an effective roleplaying scenario?  Has anyone else done this?  What worked?  What didn't?

Tom

I definitely think you need a big table of events that you can roll dice on and consult. Something like: each turn, roll a d6. On a 1-2, one of the following events takes place:

1 - Assassins burst through a nearby window
2 - A psychic blast hits everybody in the group
3 - The corpse of a giant monster crashes through the ceiling
4 - etc. etc.

(Hopefully more applicable and well-thought out than that, but you get the drift. Probably a d30 table so there's lots of variety.)

This really keeps the players on their toes and provides a sense of dramatic tension.

I would totally run a scenario like that. Slaads would be the invaders.

But I actually did play in a scenario at a con like 20 years ago. I think the RPG was Battle Lords of the 23rd Century. We had pre-gens, of course. We were all playing cops on vacation. When suddenly the hotel is under siege by terrorists. It's a good bet that this was inspired by Die Hard.

I will say I had a lot of fun playing this. I'd never played that RPG before. Or since. I was running a few AD&D adventures and a couple of basic D&D adventures at the con. It was an unpopular time slot. I think I had zero people sign up for my game, only 2 signed up for Battlelords, so a few of us GMs with no game helped fill some seats so the two people who paid to play could have more fun.

The GM was awesome, though. His style was to add a lot of descriptive gore which we found more funny than terrifying. So it was a lot of laughs.

I did a big siege arc from April - August 2014 that was based on the historical 1622 Siege of Bergen op Zoom. Unfortunately I haven't gotten that far with publishing the adventure write ups though. The most recent write up is for the February 1, 2013 session so there is still a ways to go before I get there.

I'll dig out some highlights of the siege events that affected the PCs. In the meanwhile, I think the random table idea noisms mentioned could work well, though I didn't use random tables a lot for the siege. I did use a random battle table from Flashing Blades for a sortie outside the walls that occurred towards the end of the siege.

Random tables are good for providing the feel of the siege being a big event (possibly large beyond the capacity of the players to control the overall outcome) with the players as smaller actors within the larger situation. To use an example from popular media, in the Star Wars movie Empire Strikes Back, nothing the heroes do will stop the Rebel defeat on Hoth, but their actions can affect aspects of the battle e.g. delaying the Walker attack to allow time for evacuation, rescuing Princess Leia, etc. Depending on the power level of the PCs and the tone of the campaign that may be exactly what you are looking for.

I think The Hare Clan scenario from L5R 1e is my favorite version of this kind of scenario, but I also think being '90s era L5R it's pretty railroady.  

With that said, what I'd do is use a clock like in the Apocalypse World or -- more specifically -- Blades in the Dark.  Every time the clock ticks, the PCs get an action, and every time the PCs get an action, the invaders can respond.  At certain points on the clock, the siege has events occur -- a sortie at the bridge, assassins sneaking over the walls, an sortie through the sewers...and if the PCs either succeed at their own actions or resist the invaders for the life of the clock, then relief comes.  On the other hand, if the invaders are successful at two or three of their four events, or capture or kill the PCs, then they succeed.

Alternately, you could have the final tick of the clock be the invaders breaking through, and the actions the PCs get are about getting out of the city with a bank's gold or what have you.  Kelly's Heroes instead of Kingdom of Heaven, if you will.

Quote from: Bren;873303I'll dig out some highlights of the siege events that affected the PCs.

Please do!

QuoteIn the meanwhile, I think the random table idea noisms mentioned could work well, though I didn't use random tables a lot for the siege. I did use a random battle table from Flashing Blades for a sortie outside the walls that occurred towards the end of the siege.

I think its a great idea.  I just have to figure out the defenses of the place.  I also need to give the players something to do during the siege besides escape.  If all they have to do is run to the nearest fortified room and sneak out the secret door, that's going to be pretty anticlimactic.  

I can see time keeping being important here too.  How far can you move in X time and tick things off as they go.  Especially when things start moving fast.  The stronghold I'm considering isn't very big.

The real trick for the random encounters/events is how can things move past the established defenses?  Hmmm...

Tom

The setting I have in mind for this is a secret sanctuary beneath the city streets, accessed by the sewer system.  There are multiple points of entry and a secret (and a well kept one) means of entry/escape.  It isn't a big complex, but spread out enough that running around within it will take a bit of time.  The enemy would be closing from all sides.

At least, that's my thinking right now.

Oh, and surrender IS an option.

Tom

Quote from: Blusponge;873314I think its a great idea.  I just have to figure out the defenses of the place.

That's one advantage to using an historical siege. I had a good map of the town including the defense works and an idea of the numbers and commanders on each side. Since your location is fantastical the historical option won't really work for you. Since you have an underground sanctuary location I'd be tempted to use an old fashion dungeon crawl as a model for the assault with the turnabout that the opponents are the adventurers entering the dungeon and the PCs are the monsters inhabiting and defending the dungeon.

If you have tactically minded players, especially ones with experience dungeon crawling consider putting the PCs in charge of the defenses for a section of the complex. Not just them doing the defending but them leading and organizing part of the defense.

Adventure 25: Siege of Bergen op Zoom

Chapter I: Blackened Windmills - PCs are captured by Spanish forces moving to encircle the town of Bergen op Zoom. This introduced a new villain, a  Spanish Don and colonel of an infantry tercio. It also gave them a grudge against the villain who would be an opponent and a target of the PCs later in the siege.

Chapter II: Pursuit - The PCs manage to escape, but lose their luggage and become separated. They are pursued and take refuge in the town of Bergen op Zoom just as the Spanish complete their encirclement of the town.

Chapter III: Under Siege - Inside the city, the PCs meet some locals, find quarters, try to negotiate bank loans to replace their lost luggage and pay for expenses. Several PCs take jobs with the local milita so they can obtain food and shelter. In this and the following sessions I included some color to show the increasing cost of food and paranoia of the defenders under siege.

Chapter IV: Sabotage - PCs foil an attempt by Spanish agents and saboteurs to explode the town's powder magazine. The chief saboteur is "the Crazy Man" (players' name for the NPC) a religious zealot and mad bomber.

Treachery is one of the most common and the least costly ways that a besieger can take a stronghold. It comes up several times during the siege. The Spanish have agents (a fifth column) within the city. Finding out how they communicate with the besiegers and foiling or co-opting the communications could be the central aspect of a session.

This session set up two enemies (the mad bomber and the Spanish spy and mastermind) who would bedevil the PCs throughout the siege.

Chapter V: Mad Bomber - The Crazy Man tries to destroy the will to resist of the civil authorities by bombing the homes of town council members. The PCs foil the bomb at the town Steward's home (the Steward is like a town Mayor or governor) and capture the Mad Bomber, but they learn that a dangerous Spanish secret agent is a mastermind behind the mad bombers actions.

Chapter VI: Punch 'em in the Stomach - An NPCs attempt to get the PCs to help with harsh interrogation fails so the PCs fake a rumor that the prisoner is going to talk during his trial and stage a transport of the mad bomber known as the Crazy Man to prompt a rescue by the mastermind. Guy uses his mastery of disguise to pretend to be the prisoner. The plan works, but the mastermind gives them the slip.

Chapter VII: The Play's the Thing - A secondary plot where one PC has to smuggle his newly written play past the Spanish siege lines. The useful part is sneaking past the siege lines. Delivering a request for help would be a more general reason to sneak through the defenses rather than a playwright wanting to deliver his play on time.

Chapter VIII: The Bastion - The PCs and their fellow militia members hold an important bastion known as Kicke in de Pot against a Spanish tercio led by the Spanish Don from the first chapeters. This prevents the Spanish from moving their artillery close enough to breach the main defenses.

Chapter IX: Night Sortie - The PCs persuade the NPC Captain of their militia company to lead a night raid on the Spanish trenches. The PCs targeted the section of trenches held by their foe's tercio. They succeed in blowing up a blockhouse delaying the advance of the Spanish earthworks.

Chapter X: Treason - Based on their success capturing the Mad Bomber one of the PCs is given a job as unofficial chief of counterintelligence. In that capacity the PCs investigate a consortium of unscrupulous merchants who create short term shortages to raise prices for the goods they have stockpiled. The discovery of the hoarded supplies relieved the shortage and restores order to the town.

Chapter XI: A Shot in the Dark - PCs try to find the Spanish mastermind inside the town.

Chapter XII: The Wooden Fish Part I - The PCs efforts lead to the kidnapping of an young boy as a hostage and threats by the mastermind, but the PCs rescue the boy. (The Wooden Fish is an inn used by the Spanish mastermind as a hideout and meeting spot.)

Chapter XIII: The Wooden Fish Part II - Using what they learned in the last session the PCs make some deductions that leads them to eliminate many of the mastermind's men yet he once again escapes.

Chapter XIV: Tide of Battle - The PCs along with a Venetian siege engineer (guest PC) lead a group of militia in a desperate mission to blow up a dike to flood the Spanish trenches and delay the siege further. I used the battle tables from Flashing Blades for some of the events in this action. The Spanish colonel is again seen here.

Idea: With an underground location you might be able to use flooding as an action of either the defenders or attackers. So the PCs could either need to create a flood to hamper the defenders or prevent a flood that would drown the defenders. Similarly, in the period, sapping, mining, and underground bombs is an important aspect of siege warfare. You might be able to use mines and countermines in your situation.

Chapter XV: Treason at the Gate - The PCs find a coded message and one of the PCs breaks the Spanish code. They learn that the mastermind will arrange for a gate to be opened before a Spanish assault. The PCs propose using the attack on the gate to ambush the Spanish and their trap succeeds. The battle contains many of the usual swashbuckling elements: knives in the dark, flaming oil, dropping a portcullis, holding a stair against multiple attackers, grapeshot, and using a cannon to blow a villain to hell. In the battle the Spanish mastermind is killed. In the usual dramatic coincidence that one sees in swashbuckling fiction, the assault is led by the Spanish colonel who wants to regain the respect lost by his tercio's failure to capture the bastion earlier.

Chapter XVI: Victory - The siege is lifted by the arrival of Dutch troops on October 2. The PCs help the town celebrate their victory by writing the words to a famous song that is still sung today. I mentioned the song in a post about period music. It's about half-way down the post.

While this comes much later, the last couple sessions I posted on my blog (here and here) cover the PCs under a short siege and assault in a manor house. The scale is much smaller with forces of only a couple of dozen or so on each side. If your underground sanctuary is smaller that might be a better model than a siege with a cast of thousands like Bergen op Zoom. The final session at the manor should be posted later this week.

There was a siege scenerio in one of the Dungeon Magazines (#33), Siege of Kraty's Freehold if my memory is working today.  While lower level, it was rather well written and if you can find a copy of it, might be of some use.  I've run it twice for different groups of players.  First time, the players were sucessful and scored a solid victory.  The second time, the players lost, but did manage to fight their way out with some of the freehold's noncombatants during the final assault.

Quote from: SionEwig;873428There was a siege scenerio in one of the Dungeon Magazines (#33), Siege of Kraty's Freehold if my memory is working today.  While lower level, it was rather well written and if you can find a copy of it, might be of some use.  I've run it twice for different groups of players.  First time, the players were sucessful and scored a solid victory.  The second time, the players lost, but did manage to fight their way out with some of the freehold's noncombatants during the final assault.

Thanks for the tip, Sion.

This adventure would have been very helpful a couple of years back when I was running my Savage Worlds of Solomon Kane campaign.  It was set in India (Hindoostan) and a major arc would have encouraged the players to travel north through the Himalayas and into Tibet.  I had an adventure semi-planned where they would have defended the Dalai Lama from the armies of a Tibetan warlord (this is right out of history, folks!) and endured a siege from within a massive Buddhist temple.

Unfortunately, there just aren't a lot of good examples for running sieges in RPGs.

The adventure I'm planning now is a much smaller scale, not nearly as epic.  It's set early in the arc and its purpose is to introduce the heroes to the scale of the conflict going on around them as well as introduce a few villains.  That doesn't mean its stilted for the players to "win," only that there are a lot of potential endings that can impact the game world in different ways.  If I manage to get enough of the players pissed off at one side or the other, I've done my job.

Tom

My favorite is Soft Bunk, a Traveller adventure about WTF happens when the Zhodani fleet drops on a planet when you are just hanging around. Suddenly the PCs who were just on planet for some R&R and trading find themselves on a planet under siege.

Perhaps not that useful, but there's Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13", a small siege and about small enough for a typical party.