spotmarkedx
2007-02-06, 03:05 PM
Greetings! So, I'm dusting off my DM's hat and starting to run a d20 campaign. Since my group has been (or is currently) involved in a number of various "standard" ruleset D&D, as well as a few homebrew, I thought I'd mess around with the system a bit. I've GM'ed in a number of different systems, as well as having been an active player in a number of games, some of which are still running. So, I'm not coming at this cold, at least.
The concept I have has basis in some way on the Dynasty Warriors line of console games. For those that are unfamiliar, Dynasty Warrions is a fairly over-the-top game, in which the player is a Chinese general in ancient China based off the book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". The player is of course capable of tearing through huge mobs of enemy units, duelling enemy generals, and generally turning the course of the battle.
So, I've devised a mass combat system in which a good general could easily tear up masses of regular guys, command units to do specific tasks, etc, hopefully without getting too bogged down.
Yes, I'm familiar with Heroes of Battle, but it doesn't quite have the same flair I'm going for.
Ground rules of the world:
Magic is not in the hands of many. It is assumed that one makes pacts with demons or evil entities to gain their powers. Thus most classes are adjusted to remove magic either mostly or totally from them. Any that retain magic retain things that can be explained in a mundane fashion. Mages, Clerics and the like are out from starting classes. Pact magic is in (though nobody took that class in my player group so far). I haven't thought terribly much about how magic will work in this battle system, something I'll work on later as I need magic or once everything else is done.
Generals (i.e. PCs or important NPC enemies or allies) are significantly beyond the skill level of line soldiers. As such, a unit of troops will act like a single character on the field of battle. A character will never be subsumed as only "part of this unit".
I'll be posting the rest in sections and editing as necessary. Any thoughts on improvements, giant gaping holes of cheese, or even just running commentary would be appreciated.
Battlefield Combat Rules
Scale
To give space for my units of mooks to move around, scale had to be changed. To make things easy, I multiplied by 10. Squares are 50 feet each. Each battle "round" is a minute (60 sec). I put units at groups of 20 men (so each unit starts with 20 hps, which can eventually increase). I allow two allied units to "stack" within a square without penalty since a single unit certainly does not take up all the space in the square. I need to figure out what will happen if someone decides to put more units in a single square anyway
Unit Basic Rules
>Units have threat range of one square on either cardinal or diagonal.
>Units act as characters would for purposes of movement, combat. Each 5' of normal move becomes a single 50' with regards to battle movement.
Single Character Basic Rules
>Characters have a threat range of only the square they occupy
>Characters cannot keep an enemy unit from passing through their location (though they would get an attack of opportunity)
Character Within a Unit Basic Rules
>Unit acts as normal
>The character within may threaten a single square that is in a cardinal or diagonal direction that he chooses
>The character may choose not to threaten a square, in which case he is also safe from attack unless the unit he is with becomes decimated or destroyed. A character so hidden still provokes attacks of opportunity.
Characters in Units
>A character in a unit adds his Wisdom bonus (if any) to the unit’s morale value.
>A character, as a move equivalent action, may add his charisma bonus as a morale bonus to the unit’s to hit value. If the unit has access to power attack or expertise, it may use this bonus as additional base attack bonus which can then be converted to additional damage or AC. A unit may not gain additional attacks from this increase.
>A character, as a move equivalent action, may add his charisma bonus as a morale bonus to the unit’s morale. This bonus lasts through the current term and until the end of the unit’s next turn. This does not affect any morale checks that must be made at the start of initiative for the current turn, but does affect them for the next round.
Unit vs. Unit Interaction
>A unit may attack or be attacked by multiple enemy units in different squares. Each unit that is attacking (or being attacked) has the possibility of both dealing and taking damage. A cumulative penalty of -2 will be imposed to both attack and defense values to the outnumbered unit for each opponent after the first that attacks (or is attacked)
>Two allied units may share the same square. These units are considered a single unit for purposes of outnumbering penalties.
>A unit may be attacking two (or more) units in the same square. If it is not attacking the side or rear, then the defender chooses which of the defending units is in “front”, and that unit determines the defense value for the stack, and takes the casualties. If more casualties are inflicted than remain in the unit, the overflow is inflicted on the second unit in the same square.
>The “front” of an engaged unit consists of three adjacent threatened squares. The defender may choose the three squares.
>Flanking a unit is per normal D&D rules and requires two units directly opposite to gain a bonus to both units’ attack values. Otherwise units only gain the outnumbering bonus listed above.
Single Character(s) vs. Unit Interaction
>A character may move through a square of threatened area and generate no attacks of opportunity from a unit, if he ends his movement in the next square and his next movement is into a unit (either a friendly unit to join, or an enemy unit to attack)
Unit vs. Single Character(s) Interaction
>A unit attacking a character by himself is always considered to be flanking him and gains the +2 flanking bonus to hit.
>An undamaged unit may attack up to four single characters for free as part of an attack action
>A damaged unit may attack up to two single characters for free as part of an attack action
>A decimated unit may not attack any single characters for free
>A unit may choose to use its attack action to attack a character as well (essentially getting two attacks on the same character)
>If a unit is attacking a character twice in the above way, it may instead choose to sacrifice one of their two attacks as an “aid another action” to get an additional +2 bonus to hit.
Unit vs. Character(s) Within a Unit Interaction
>A unit attacking a character within a unit is only considered flanking if the unit is flanked.
>An undamaged unit may attack up to four characters for free as part of an attack action
>A damaged unit may attack up to two single characters for free as part of an attack action
>A decimated unit may not attack any single characters for free
>A unit may only choose to use its attack action to attack a character if it is decimated (essentially it may never get two attacks on the same character by using free attacks)
Weapon Types
Ranged Combat
>For purposes of ranged combat, the first square of range is only considered 10 feet. Each square thereafter is the full 50 feet
>To make point blank shot even vaguely useful, point blank range is extended to 60 feet
>Firing missile weapons at an enemy unit will never count for outnumbering effects, and is therefore always at the opponent’s full defense value
Reach Weapons
>Units with reach weapons still only threaten the adjacent squares around them.
>A unit with reach weapons that is in the same square as an ally may choose to allow the other unit to be attacked (i.e. the other unit is the front line unit), but may still attack
Thrown Weapons
>Unthreatened units with thrown weapons may throw them as an attack of opportunity when a unit enters their threatened zone. Damage from thrown weapons used this way is reduced by one size category (i.e. small instead of medium)
>Unthreatened units with thrown weapons that move to attack range of an opponent may choose to use their thrown weapons instead of melee. If they do so, the opponent so attacked does not make an attack at the throwing unit, unless they also otherwise unthreatened and also have throwing weapons. These attack(s) do not count for purposes of outnumbering effects, and are therefore always at the opponent’s full defense value. Damage from thrown weapons used in this way are normal.
The concept I have has basis in some way on the Dynasty Warriors line of console games. For those that are unfamiliar, Dynasty Warrions is a fairly over-the-top game, in which the player is a Chinese general in ancient China based off the book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". The player is of course capable of tearing through huge mobs of enemy units, duelling enemy generals, and generally turning the course of the battle.
So, I've devised a mass combat system in which a good general could easily tear up masses of regular guys, command units to do specific tasks, etc, hopefully without getting too bogged down.
Yes, I'm familiar with Heroes of Battle, but it doesn't quite have the same flair I'm going for.
Ground rules of the world:
Magic is not in the hands of many. It is assumed that one makes pacts with demons or evil entities to gain their powers. Thus most classes are adjusted to remove magic either mostly or totally from them. Any that retain magic retain things that can be explained in a mundane fashion. Mages, Clerics and the like are out from starting classes. Pact magic is in (though nobody took that class in my player group so far). I haven't thought terribly much about how magic will work in this battle system, something I'll work on later as I need magic or once everything else is done.
Generals (i.e. PCs or important NPC enemies or allies) are significantly beyond the skill level of line soldiers. As such, a unit of troops will act like a single character on the field of battle. A character will never be subsumed as only "part of this unit".
I'll be posting the rest in sections and editing as necessary. Any thoughts on improvements, giant gaping holes of cheese, or even just running commentary would be appreciated.
Battlefield Combat Rules
Scale
To give space for my units of mooks to move around, scale had to be changed. To make things easy, I multiplied by 10. Squares are 50 feet each. Each battle "round" is a minute (60 sec). I put units at groups of 20 men (so each unit starts with 20 hps, which can eventually increase). I allow two allied units to "stack" within a square without penalty since a single unit certainly does not take up all the space in the square. I need to figure out what will happen if someone decides to put more units in a single square anyway
Unit Basic Rules
>Units have threat range of one square on either cardinal or diagonal.
>Units act as characters would for purposes of movement, combat. Each 5' of normal move becomes a single 50' with regards to battle movement.
Single Character Basic Rules
>Characters have a threat range of only the square they occupy
>Characters cannot keep an enemy unit from passing through their location (though they would get an attack of opportunity)
Character Within a Unit Basic Rules
>Unit acts as normal
>The character within may threaten a single square that is in a cardinal or diagonal direction that he chooses
>The character may choose not to threaten a square, in which case he is also safe from attack unless the unit he is with becomes decimated or destroyed. A character so hidden still provokes attacks of opportunity.
Characters in Units
>A character in a unit adds his Wisdom bonus (if any) to the unit’s morale value.
>A character, as a move equivalent action, may add his charisma bonus as a morale bonus to the unit’s to hit value. If the unit has access to power attack or expertise, it may use this bonus as additional base attack bonus which can then be converted to additional damage or AC. A unit may not gain additional attacks from this increase.
>A character, as a move equivalent action, may add his charisma bonus as a morale bonus to the unit’s morale. This bonus lasts through the current term and until the end of the unit’s next turn. This does not affect any morale checks that must be made at the start of initiative for the current turn, but does affect them for the next round.
Unit vs. Unit Interaction
>A unit may attack or be attacked by multiple enemy units in different squares. Each unit that is attacking (or being attacked) has the possibility of both dealing and taking damage. A cumulative penalty of -2 will be imposed to both attack and defense values to the outnumbered unit for each opponent after the first that attacks (or is attacked)
>Two allied units may share the same square. These units are considered a single unit for purposes of outnumbering penalties.
>A unit may be attacking two (or more) units in the same square. If it is not attacking the side or rear, then the defender chooses which of the defending units is in “front”, and that unit determines the defense value for the stack, and takes the casualties. If more casualties are inflicted than remain in the unit, the overflow is inflicted on the second unit in the same square.
>The “front” of an engaged unit consists of three adjacent threatened squares. The defender may choose the three squares.
>Flanking a unit is per normal D&D rules and requires two units directly opposite to gain a bonus to both units’ attack values. Otherwise units only gain the outnumbering bonus listed above.
Single Character(s) vs. Unit Interaction
>A character may move through a square of threatened area and generate no attacks of opportunity from a unit, if he ends his movement in the next square and his next movement is into a unit (either a friendly unit to join, or an enemy unit to attack)
Unit vs. Single Character(s) Interaction
>A unit attacking a character by himself is always considered to be flanking him and gains the +2 flanking bonus to hit.
>An undamaged unit may attack up to four single characters for free as part of an attack action
>A damaged unit may attack up to two single characters for free as part of an attack action
>A decimated unit may not attack any single characters for free
>A unit may choose to use its attack action to attack a character as well (essentially getting two attacks on the same character)
>If a unit is attacking a character twice in the above way, it may instead choose to sacrifice one of their two attacks as an “aid another action” to get an additional +2 bonus to hit.
Unit vs. Character(s) Within a Unit Interaction
>A unit attacking a character within a unit is only considered flanking if the unit is flanked.
>An undamaged unit may attack up to four characters for free as part of an attack action
>A damaged unit may attack up to two single characters for free as part of an attack action
>A decimated unit may not attack any single characters for free
>A unit may only choose to use its attack action to attack a character if it is decimated (essentially it may never get two attacks on the same character by using free attacks)
Weapon Types
Ranged Combat
>For purposes of ranged combat, the first square of range is only considered 10 feet. Each square thereafter is the full 50 feet
>To make point blank shot even vaguely useful, point blank range is extended to 60 feet
>Firing missile weapons at an enemy unit will never count for outnumbering effects, and is therefore always at the opponent’s full defense value
Reach Weapons
>Units with reach weapons still only threaten the adjacent squares around them.
>A unit with reach weapons that is in the same square as an ally may choose to allow the other unit to be attacked (i.e. the other unit is the front line unit), but may still attack
Thrown Weapons
>Unthreatened units with thrown weapons may throw them as an attack of opportunity when a unit enters their threatened zone. Damage from thrown weapons used this way is reduced by one size category (i.e. small instead of medium)
>Unthreatened units with thrown weapons that move to attack range of an opponent may choose to use their thrown weapons instead of melee. If they do so, the opponent so attacked does not make an attack at the throwing unit, unless they also otherwise unthreatened and also have throwing weapons. These attack(s) do not count for purposes of outnumbering effects, and are therefore always at the opponent’s full defense value. Damage from thrown weapons used in this way are normal.