An open and a closed question from a neophyte GM :)

[GureiKun]

Hey all, two questions that would be helpful in my prepping for game night next week. First off a little background. I'm a relitively green player/gm; wet my teeth growing up on baldur's gate etc... Graduated to table top gaming this year. I've played one long term campaign for 6 months as a player. GMed a couple of short campaigns that never got to far off the ground due to people's time constraints, and done a couple of one shots with ALL FLESH MUST BE EATEN!!

I'm currently running a game with some tottal newbie players, we're all loving it. Its currently basically "the goblinblood wards 2.0" + a conspiricy that they are unearthing. At the end of our last night a week ago the party saved the hometown and father of one of the PCs. From the party chit chat its a fair assumption that they will be escorting the remaining peasents (and the father who has wound sepsis) a couple of hundred miles to the nearest city.

My open question is a general call for ideas relating to combat, skill and roleplaying challeneges to throw at them during thier travels.

My closed question is about managing the large scale. Last week the PCs helped plan the stratagy the peasants used to fight off the goblins using a map etc. It was fun roleplaying and skill rolls thrown in! When the time for the battle came i kinda had to admit that i wasn't sure how to run a large scale battle. My players were understanding, and we metagamed the idea that while the peasants followed the stratagy they would take part in a small but tactically vital skirmish. All fun and games!

However... for next week i would really like them to be making decisions that cost or save lives and maybe even have a few larger scale (like 50-200 participant) battles. Thoughts?

[BzAli]

For roleplaying challenges, I like to have my players make hard decisions; If they're in a hurry, have some of the refugees (remaining peasants) slow them down. A wagon breaks, and the elderly townspeople in it can't make the jorney on foot. Are they abandoned, do the heroes take the time (here comes a chance to use craft:carpentry) to repair it, do they perhaps even venture into the woods to cut down trees to repair it with? Meanwhile the wounded gets slowly worse. Make them make continous heal checks to keep the wounds tended. Make diplomacy or perform checks to keep up morale amongst the peasants, make survival or knowledge: geography (perhaps knowledge:local) to find the fastest track. You could invent a mini-game, where the wounded father only has so many days to live. Success at checks prolong that period (heal) or make the journey faster (navigation). Dilemmas along the way make them waste time or chose a less-than-heroic response (kid gets lost in the woods. Search for it?, etc.)

[Chief Cook and Bottlewasher]

Ultimate Campaign has a system for large scale battles. You can find it in the PRD here

[GureiKun]

Had a look at those rules and there's some good stuff here. Am i missreading them or do they seem... a little dry? Seems to me that we just count up the tottal numbers then roll the dice till one side or another is depleated without a few tactics thrown in along the way?

anyone got any experience running these rulls able to explain how i make it entertaining?