So with the new Ultimate Combat book coming out in the future, I want to start putting together a War Campaign. I've read through the Heroes of Battle book and mined it for some interesting ideas. I'm going to pitch you what I'm thinking, what I need are some neat ways of using stuff found in Pathfinder in a full blow World War scenario. The setting revolves around a massive war going on (trenches, island hopping, etc. etc.) Magic is very common. It wouldn't be too far-fetched to see most soldiers wielding +1 swords and the such (specifically because these countries have realized it's more effective to field a few soldiers who are well armed than a lot of soldiers poorly armed.
The players begin as a Strike Force. Each of them a Corporal (to begin with, they will gain ranks in the military structure as the game progresses) and they are essentially a fantasy A-Team. It's their job to tackle the hard jobs with unconventional weaponry.
Some of the things I've been thinking about are the morale checks from Heroes of Battle (the first adventure's going to start with the PCs bolstering the morale of a breaking squad then leading that squad to victory)
I hope to capture a big hero flair in this game, like The Pacific or Band of Brothers with elves and swords. Right now I'm merely mulling over potential missions or things I may include in the game (like tactical use of instant fortresses and the like) What are your thoughts? What books should I reference?
This morning I thought about a few more things I'm going to include.
Eventually the players will receive an attachment of soldiers who they are in command of. I figure I'll base this on the Leadership feat. Once they reach around 3rd level (and get promoted to sergeant) they are going to have an attachment of cohorts assigned to them (A squad of 4-5 2nd level NPCs)
My group is big on props in our games. So my plan is to develop medals to hand out. There's going to be a series of Wound Medals (think the purple heart) and valorous medals (think Bronze Star, Medal of Honor) and of course these bad boys are magical. But the best part will be that I'll bestow them on the players and the players will get to pin them on their shirts. I just need to think a little bit about how I'll do that. What sort of boons do the medals give?
Banners were a cool magic item added to the Heroes of Battle, and in these attached squads I hope that the players make one of the guys the Banner bearer. I'm not sure if I like all the banners in the Heroes of Battle book, I hope to come up with one that they utilize, and maybe it's power grows with them (like a legacy weapon) and as they gain honors for their country.
Invest in miniatures now, otherwise combats on the scale you're going to be running will become completely unmanageable.
You might want to check out Eberron for ideas as it was a high magic world set 5 years after what would have been the worlds version of WWI.
Invest in miniatures now, otherwise combats on the scale you're going to be running will become completely unmanageable.
Of course this is a good idea. In my DnD group we have a lot of miniatures, but for this game I will more than likely only be illustrating small portions of a much larger battle.
The plot of the game revolves around two competing factions:
The first is the Allied Kingdoms, which is a collection of countries that have combined their forces (like the Allies in WW II.) The players will be transported all over the face of the country to take care of all the hard jobs (they are basically the A-Team pulling off crazy plans and winning the day for the Allied Kingdoms) This alliance is composed of several countries that represent the player races found in the Player's Handbook.
The enemy is the Savage Legions (name might change) which is composed of a large Imperial Nation with plans to conquer the world and several smaller monstrous nations (like a kingdom of vampires, some orcs/trolls/giants, a collection of barbarians, etc. etc.)
The conflict is not going to be between Good and Evil, rather it will be between Chaos (savages) and Law (civilization) both sides are good and evil, but it is really more about the conflict between what we see in our world between the Western Civilization and Third World Countries that are less developed.
You might consider giving the PCs a small amount of fatigue, maybe 1/2 of their current HP in fatigue when they get into a fight. Being able to shrug off a few hits before going into hit points would give them the impression of being the sort of awesome A-team type force you're going for.
And if you want an encounter to be particularly memorable consider giving the bad guys fatigue if they warrant it. You'll relish the looks on their faces when the realization hits for a long time.
Are there any real good resources in the pathfinder books that I could utilize?
i recommend picking up Warpath, which is available through Paizo. it make mass combat a little bit more in depth and allows the players to play true heros in the mass battles. and will give you the use out of the minis youll need to buy.
now i will list a few of my favorite movies that i think you should watch that will give you plenty of good ideas. some like LOTR and Braveheart will not be included in the list, not because they arent good, but because almost everyone has seen those. im gonna list ones you might not have seen yet but are worth watching, not only for ideas, but because they are awesome.
kingdom of heaven
red cliff (extended international 6 hour version)
troy
gods and generals
master and commander (if your war campaign will involve ships at all, the pirates of the carribbean movies are also good, but those were no brainers like LOTR)
gangs of new york (more gang wars but the "politics" rolled into this is very good)
300 (duh)
Coins or tokens are going to be your friend in massive battles, allowing you to have large scale conflicts if you want without too many miniatures. Also, Eberron is definitely a good setting to research if you want to see the effects of high magic in war. While it's impossible to truly know what impact magic would have, stories set in Eberron and some of the books have details of different common tactics that magic aided in.
Maybe read up on history of the Crimean War, or other 19th century conflicts, for ideas, rather than World War I. Or maybe look at the Eastern part of the conflict, where battles of maneuver were still possible. The machine gun changed war so much for World War I that there wasn't much maneuvering going on in the relatively small western front, which would make for a boring campaign in my opinion. Nobody wants to role play a conflict where they fight over the same ground for years, living in filth and seeming to accomplish nothing. The Crimean War showcased how things like the telegraph(message spells) and railroad(any transportation spell) affected warfare, and had the same basis of a coalition of forces arrayed against a single empire that you are looking for, though obviously less clear cut than being Law against Chaos.
Finally, Harry Turtledove, an alternate history writer, wrote a series about a war similar to World War Two fought in a sort of medieval Europe with magic. It might have ideas that you can mine as well.
Anyways, hope any of these suggestions help you out and good luck with the idea, it sounds like a really interesting campaign idea.
I'd be a bit worried about your player's confusing the alignment of your respective sides. If you really don't want the good/evil axis to be a factor, make sure there are PC races on both sides, as well as "evil" races on both. Throw some devils, hellknights, and inevitables in on the lawful side and put the gnomes, elves, and proteans on the chaotic side. If you keep the factions as they are, it will become near-impossible to sympathize with the chaotic side.
I'd be a bit worried about your player's confusing the alignment of your respective sides. If you really don't want the good/evil axis to be a factor, make sure there are PC races on both sides, as well as "evil" races on both. Throw some devils, hellknights, and inevitables in on the lawful side and put the gnomes, elves, and proteans on the chaotic side. If you keep the factions as they are, it will become near-impossible to sympathize with the chaotic side.
That's kind of the point. As a history student, I find that there is rarely an evil empire fighting against goodly rebels like in star wars. Rather it is the conflicts between the civilized and non civilized. Part of the conflict in this campaign is more than just that between countries, this campaign should also strike at the hearts of my players and make them question what they are doing. If it doesn't I'm not doing it right.
It makes me think about the miniseries The Pacific. Where Band of Brothers was very much about heroism and goodness (I would argue) the Pacific makes you walk away really questioning the pains that mankind inflicts upon itself.
So I am going to stick with the Law and Chaos divisions. There will be PC races on both sides like you suggested, but I definitely want to make the enemy a little sympathetic.
The Law vs. Chaos line
To me, Law represents a more civilized way of doing things. On the law side we have a country founded and still ruled by a Gold Dragon (the oldest dragon on the planet, he is worshiped as a god by his peoples) a magogracy (What I like about this idea is that they utilize magic in all its forms, including necromancy and other types of magic most would find unsavory) Their country fields a lot of zombies and magically engineered clones. In the more civilized nations its very common to see a lot of magic. Your average person is going to have Wizard, Sorcerer class levels and magic is everywhere.
What powers this magic is a substance called Mysterium, it is essentially liquid magic. It is devoured as fuel by the machines of the civilized world, it makes spells more permanent, and has many other uses that sees it used all over the world in all manner of functions. The Allied Kingdoms are the number one consumer of Mysterium. But they have since depleted any sources of the substance within their borders.
But the nations of the Savage Legions are sitting on top of the largest reservoirs of Mysterium, making this war of bringing order and civilization to third world countries a war of resources.
I see you mentioned it's a high magic game. What level range is your target?
Having run a couple of high level, long term games where wars were fought the "math" totally changes with a Wish Spell, or similar reality altering magic. Make sure that factor that into the over-all story unless the palyers are just going to suspend belief..
Another possibility is the Eberron approach to high magic. Magic is common, everyone and their dog can have a +1 sword, magebred animals are used by elite units, and close air support is provided by airships and wizards, and so on. On the other hand, high level magic is rare. Most priests can't raise the dead, Wish and Miracle are almost non-existent, and the majority of spellcasters are of the low-mid level variety.
I'd recommend reading Steven Brust's "Dragon". The main character is an assassin who joins a company on the front lines of battle (where no self-respecting assassin ought to be, I might add). Apart from the main plot, there's a great many ideas and nuggets one could slide into a war campaign, including disrupting enemy supply lines, how important communication is in war, and how mind-numbingly boring slogging through miles of mud can be. If nothing else, you might pick up some good flavor text. (Actually, if nothing else, you'll be in for a cracking good read.) :)
ChrisO - Giving a shout-out for his favorite author once again... :)
I see you mentioned it's a high magic game. What level range is your target?
Having run a couple of high level, long term games where wars were fought the "math" totally changes with a Wish Spell, or similar reality altering magic. Make sure that factor that into the over-all story unless the palyers are just going to suspend belief..
In my campaign, it is the Mysterium that is the limiting factor to using a lot of high level magic, rather than having a lot of low level magic and not a lot of high level magic. When it comes to wish spells, they require at least a 17th level wizard or an 18th level sorcerer, which would be some of the very most powerful NPCs, the Top Generals. From what I understand of the Wish spell while it can produce greater effects than what's listed, they are fairly restrictive. So I wouldn't necessarily allow a player to use a Wish spell to completely change the entire outcome of the war because the war is so broad being fought on so many outcomes.
Now then there is the Treaty of Remesia, a signed agreement between the Savage Legions and the Allied Kingdoms (mostly the Allied Kingdoms) which essentially outlines the Rules of War in the conflict. Things like attacking civilians, genocide, rape as a weapon, messing with the time stream, biological weapons, etc. The idea between the Treaty of Remesia is that both sides agree, no matter how the war goes, they still want to have a world left afterwards. What enforces the Treaty of Remesia? The coalition of Devils and Angels who oversee the Long War.
It's a magical treaty bound in the very natural laws that bound the world itself.
I suggest being Very Clear on the source material for your game, to the point of having a group reading/watching session with your players. War, as a genre, has many, many subgenres, and highly subjective ones at that. I suggest this from (unfortunate) personal experience. I also suggest this because phrases like "fantasy A-Team" are subject to misinterpretation.
Another note is that a lot of the material still remains geared around blood and trumpets large scale combat - another genre awareness consideration you should consider, especially if you have an old school playerbase. You may want to think about starting closer to there, rather than a walk-up, because you may find that the players aren't game for the shift.
I suggest being Very Clear on the source material for your game, to the point of having a group reading/watching session with your players. War, as a genre, has many, many subgenres, and highly subjective ones at that. I suggest this from (unfortunate) personal experience. I also suggest this because phrases like "fantasy A-Team" are subject to misinterpretation.
Another note is that a lot of the material still remains geared around blood and trumpets large scale combat - another genre awareness consideration you should consider, especially if you have an old school playerbase. You may want to think about starting closer to there, rather than a walk-up, because you may find that the players aren't game for the shift.
I think that over the course of a long campaign one can turn to a lot of different war subgenres. I know one of the adventures is going to be a defend the keep style game like the movie Zulu where the enemy will be coming in waves and they will have try to keep the fortress defended and such.
One adventure will require them to sneak into an enemy camp like the wargame in The Dirty Dozen.
One adventure will require them to attack a well defended set of trenches to destroy a set of artillery guns like the trench episode of Band of Brothers.
There will be a couple of full scale really big battles, but generally I'm going to focus in to show that they are a small section of a much bigger war. The player's might have a task to complete that allows for victory of the over all battle. By allowing for several different types of war scenarios it allows me to cater to the desires of all my players. One of the tricks my DM showed me is having the Players write down on a sheet of paper what they want to accomplish which allows for source material for me.
What was your unfortunate personal experience J.S?