Let's say my players learn that an enemy force, a huge one, is marching toward an important city. It's one thing to have the PCs run toward the city, warn the guards about it and have them prepare the siege weapons and defenses... but what about the army? What can a DM, like myself, do to run a siege properly?
Sure, once per X rounds, the enemy's siege weapons fire at the walls and deal damage as usual, but what about the units? Let's say they breach the walls or the main gate and start invading the city? What's the best way to deal with battles without having the PCs single-handedly blocking the invasion?
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You could:
* Make a timeline/eventline of "stuff" going on in the background (or direct action scenes) during the siege. Depending on how tight the time frame is you could tie the event progression to player actions (when X happens, advance to J point on the time line of events), or a flat rate of time (rounds, days, minutes,etc).
* Adopt your favorite mass combat rules (any system will do, even shooting rubber bands at action figures from accross the room to represent the fall of entire units...anything goes) and slug it out between the defenders and besieging army.
* Adopt a narrative approach to the siege, with player actions focused into various encounters, whose outcome is designed to help or hinder the progress of the siege.
* Some combination of the previous.
* Any other ideas that keep things lively and fun because sieges should be memorable.
* OR, just skip past the siege if you can't come up with something you like, and let the PCs know how it worked out.
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You could make a large battlefield map and break off the heroes on special missions during the siege, like stealing ammo caches, poisoning horses, disrupting re-suply routes etc. And have the overall seige be affected by how well they complete these tasks.
I too have been thinking about doing a Siege sernerio, but I haven't quite figured out the logistics. How do you game play a Siege, but don't overwhelm players with all the details? I read about all these great Sieges in fantasy books and it sounds like it would be a great campaign setting, but....
If you need an example of the cinematic approach in play, check out Red Hand of Doom. It's a 3.x module, but there's a pretty good siege battle in it that could help give you some ideas.
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a trend in recent adventures I've played is to award points to both sides for actions that help their cause.
if you award +1 for a beneficial action, +3 for a significant action, +5 for an awesome action, you'll go a long way with very little work.
i.e. the bad guys have 10 cannons on their city wall? +2 for city wall, +1 for each cannon = 12. The bad guys have 10000 soldiers; 1 point for every 100 soldiers = 112 total.
good guys have enlisted a dragon? +15 points. They have 7000 soldiers (70 points) but also 10 archmages (3 points each = 30 points). looks like it will be very close, but the good guys will win in the end.
The party will probably look at you for some indication if they are ready to push forward, and you'll be able to tell by looking at the total.
indeed, red hand of doom is a great example of a siege, and book 1 2 and 3 of Way of the Wicked also have great suggestions on how to run an event that takes a lot of time.
Check out the 3.5 book Heroes of Battle. It is awesome. It shows a great way to run PCs through wars (sieges) without turning it into a wargame. I use the system presented to design most of my adventures these days.
The system presented, not the spells, feats or classes, is completely rules independent. You could use it with any game's rule set.
If you wan to use the other stuff, feats etc. you will have to convert it.
Happy gaming.
Oh, that system is kind of like what increddibelly stated but opposite. Design a few encounters for the siege. Say, destroy a siege engine, turn back a wave, take out a leader and bolster defense of a wall section.
Now assign each encounter points for winning and negative points for failing. 0 for not trying.
Decide upon a total number for victory.
Award points each time the PCs 'beat' an encounter. When they achieve enough points, the siege ends.
For a more advanced play, assign levels of achievement. If the party barely wins, many people died, town in ruin. Moderate win equals strong victory with manageable deaths and destruction. Great victory equals limited damage and few deaths.
The book explains it much better. My web site has a section, Adventure Achievements, that modifies the system and give an example for use in regular adventures.
Check it out if interested. www.dragon-scales.com
Have you read the Red Hand of Doom? Chapter 5 is pretty much all siege. The first half is setting up the resources and defenses, while the second half is a few key encounters that the PCs partake in to try to break the siege. It was intense and tons of fun!
I would think of "what defines a siege" and then paint this out.
Things which come to my mind:
- restricted acess
- small space
- starvation / supply shortfall
- permanent battle/threat
If you're able to read german you can also look into the "Das Jahr des Greifen" Adventures from "Das schwarze Auge", it's an adventure which plays in a sieged city, including a crime story wihtin the walls, betrayal, quests to get relief forces etc.
The advenutre has no special mass combat or siege rules, most of the stuff is done by storytelling and player (inter/re)action.
I think the first question is "how long did the siege should last"? (Month or Years? or a "Minas Tirith Style Siege" (a few days)).
For the combat part I would go with the other suggestions here, give the players a few "key point" battles (hold, recapture the gate; kill the enemy elite troop/commander etc.).
You could also look into the "Heroes of Battle" from 3.5 it's all about how to handle PC actions in big battles.
Another idea to consider is asking the PC's want to approach it.
Will they be the type who want to go on missions behind enemy lines like Spec Ops, or will they rather turtle defensively and try to help keep things under control in town (managing the citizens, assisting supplies, building defenses), would they maybe lead some frontline troops in combat?
Depending on the player's approach they may answer the question for you. Keep in mind, ancient combat usually revolved around champions. A champion death ruined morale and could lead to a route (after all, your lord is dead, what's the point of a win if your pay cheque isn't getting signed? So maybe let the PC's pick up a detachment of troops as they wade into battle, the nameless mooks fight the soldiers while the PCs square off against siege captains. Wins/losses/retreats affect morale and influence the siege. PCs have some agency, but in the end, it's not a case of 5 guys fighting off an army.
I don't like having the characters involved in the whole battle. They simply can't be everywhere at once. I do however LOVE war scenarios and sieges and the like.
I have two scenarios that I like to play out:
1 - I create a few infamous NPCs that have some minor backstory that show that they are awesome and good at fighting. They are the anti-heroes. The battle happens all over and the characters each participate in a combat against one of these NPC's in small fights instead of full on battles. Maybe a brave warrior from one side or another will step in and get shredded, but ultimately the fight is between the small groups.
A fun example is that one party I had running had hired a mercenary to fight for them before, and he is ALL about being a mercenary. He turned out to be one of the invaders of thier island. When the party came to fight him, they were afraid because they knew he was pretty much awesome. It was three characters vs the mercenary and a very powerful demon of ill repute. The mercenary approached them, and gave them the opportunity to pay him higher than the invading force. They did, and the three characters, and the mercenary turned against the demon and won that fight. It just cost them a lot of thier gold.
2 - I create a goal that the characters must accomplish. This may be sabotaging the artillery, holding a choke point, assasinating a high value target, or simply just fighting in the defense or assault of a particular area. As the characters can't really be everywhere on the battlefield, giving them the opportunity to do something important in the fight is good. In this way, you can break down what they need to do in missions that can be accomplished, and these missions may be seen as minor dungeons or encounters. The city streets and alleyways can look a lot like a dungeon when the passages are blocked off by fires, or rubble from artillery. These fights may appear to be mundane at first, but when you come across some general or high ranking officer to put in thier way... and it turns out to be like... a prince from the other side, or a high value capture... the heroes can still be heroes.
