RTS in your RPG

[Adjule]

Anyone done this?

I ask because I have begun to play some fantasy/"historic" RTS games again (Age of Empires, Warcraft 2 & 3 mostly), and the idea of doing such sounds interesting. I realize I am probably not going to get much from this, as more than likely something like this would appeal to an extremely small section of those who play rpgs. Some may even say "Just play an RTS."

Along with playing RTS games again, I play in a kingdom building game on Friday nights, which led me to replay some of my favorite RTS games. It also made me realize that something like this would be something I would really love to do in a TTRPG.

So, has anyone included any RTS elements in an RPG campaign? Was it a success or a failure? Would you do so again? Would something like this even interest you or those you play with?

[MagusJanus]

RTS and RPGs both have the same origin: Tabletop war games, such as Warhammer 40k. That's why miniatures have always had a place.

And, I do this for when the group feels like playing a kingdom game. Mainly, to keep track of moving armies. It saves time and, so far, has worked perfectly well.

[Matt Thomason]

Any RPG that comes with mass combat and kingdom-running rules (I'm looking at you, BECMI D&D and Pathfinder Ultimate Campaign) tends to be sorta in the ballpark here. Especially when there's resources to manage and rules for recruiting new troops. I always enjoyed BECMI's War Machine system for a nice army-level game on a hex map alongside a running campaign.

[davidvs]

Have you played the board game Diplomacy?

It has a mechanic that allows simultaneous game-turns without a real-life time crunch.

A similar mechanic could replace the Pathfinder initiative cycle to create a better RTS feel.

[Yuugasa]

I've played a game based in the Warcraft world where we used lower level characters and monsters as a sort of retinue for our heroes. They were purchasable with a resource pool separate from the heroes treasure and it duplicated some of the aspects of Warcraft 3 well. It was less about kingdom building and more about being a warlord though.

It was fun, the stats of each creature and its cost were printed out ahead of time and although they didn't gain xp we would characterize many of them and let them have mini adventures at the behest of our main characters in addition to just using them as bodyguards and battle fodder.

[Snorri Nosebiter]

R(eal) T(ime) Strategy is going to be hard to combine with a Turn Based combatsystem as most RPG's use. TBS though is part of the Pathfinder universe, both with single model units (regular combat) aswell as troopbased combat (ultimate campaign I think? Wrath of the Righteous has a bit of it)

[Drejk]

Meh. Turn-based strategies are much better anyway!