My PCs will be joining a rebel camp that is holed up in the mountains. Without going in to detail of the reason, the rebels are a small number- maybe 3 dozen at most- of mostly farmers. In comparison, they are being blocked from escaping the mountain by about 200ish government soldiers. Obviously, the soldiers are much better equipped, more skilled, and higher level than the farmers, which are level 1.
How do I run a session where the PCs must either defend their small rebel cave, or bring the attack to the government forces at the bottom of the mountain? I do have some small scout camps that the PCs can take out going up the mountain that can slightly change things, but how do i run when the big battle comes?
This sounds like an opportunity to let your players solve the dilemma. Some of the best dnd comes from situations where the DM presents a problem without railroading a certain solution for the players, and instead remains open to player ideas.
If I were the players, I might suggest finding a way to help the Rebels escape the cave by diverting the army's attention, I might suggest trying to tunnel out, I might suggest trying to bluff the soldiers into coming to some kind of terms, I might suggest trying to contact any other pockets of rebellion in the land for reinforcements (if only a single messenger could get out), etc.
So there's ways the players might come up with, as long as you make it clear to them that their decisions in this situation will matter.
I agree. Im not necessarily trying to railroad one or the other, just want to be prepped for if/when the battle does come.
Some of those options arent viable. In this situation, the rebels are seen as terrorists, and WILL be slaughtered. No negations, as the rebels have a very big government secret they learned (hence the hiding out). Others, such as distractions, are fully doable.
I'd say stall the session a bit. As you play through, find reasons to delay the party -- toss in a random combat encounter (maybe one of those army scouting parties), let them find something shiny and chase after it, that kind of thing. Then have them reach the rebel camp near the end of the session and present them with the problem. Let them spend the closing parts of the session figuring out what they are going to do, and save the doing of it for the following session. Then you will only have to prep for that one course of action, instead of the nearly infinite options of things they could potentially do.
Thats not a bad idea actually, stalling the session and building off that.
Might roll with that.
I always try to have big decision points at the end of sessions to avoid some giant branching narrative I'd otherwise have to prepare.
The corollary to this is, if they start that following session and try to do something else, you have to guilt them about how you already prepped for this, and you aren't ready to run them through some other course of action.
Yeah, i do that frequently. I have a very open world campaign with a hand-made world map. I have them pick out the locations they will go next time, and plan around that. The few times theyve tried to do something else, i do pull that card of "i already planned for this today, this is what you wanted to do last time, so we are gonna go with this".
Ok, so it sounds like we're considering an all-out battle between the Rebels and the soldiers as the "lose" scenario, so I would bear in mind that, even though we're conditioned to think of failure in terms of TPK's and death, losing a battle, historically looked a lot more like losing a portion of your forces while the rest get taken prisoner either through capture or surrender.
This isn't to say that the soldiers will show mercy and let them live, but rather that these are rebels, and if rebels are not made an example of, then they could inspire more rebellion, so therefore the soldiers may want to march the rebels back into the town square and start executing them in batches on the hour every hour where everyone can see what happens to rebels in this kingdom.
That way, in the battle, while still enacting the losing scenario, you can still offer the players an opportunity to escape with a small fraction of the rebels in the confusion of the battle, and then maybe a third of the Rebels are taken prisoner, and the rest who didn't end up with the players or taken prisoner or killed, are scattered uselessly in small groups around the countryside, and now this presents a gameplay opportunity: do the players decide to track down and reunite the Rebels who survived the battle, or do they want to follow the soldiers and try to rescue them before they're all hanged? Up to the players.
As far as the rebels knowing some great secret that they all have to die for; I'm assuming the soldiers are all totally loyal to the king (or what authority they serve), otherwise the rebels could've just let the soldiers in on the big forbidden secret and flipped them to their side. So, given that the soldiers are probably not susceptible to whatever secret knowledge the rebels have, I don't see why it would be so hard to keep the prisoners gagged and isolated from any of the populace, under strict guard and not allowed to speak to anyone, while they're in custody. No need for the "lose" scenario to be "TPK or bust".
...I love a lot of this. I can see this becoming a large side event where not only trying to free the captured rebels, but trying to expose the secret in the process, while safe-guarding the remaining rebels. One of the rebels is the sister of one of the PCs so maybe her getting captured and then having to rescue family before a tightly guarded execution could be a great sub-plot
...I love a lot of this. I can see this becoming a large side event where not only trying to free the captured rebels, but trying to expose the secret in the process, while safe-guarding the remaining rebels. One of the rebels is the sister of one of the PCs so maybe her getting captured and then having to rescue family before a tightly guarded execution could be a great sub-plot
I've been reading a lot of Wheel of Time lately, and big battles in those books always have big fallout along those lines, with far reaching consequences that are still being felt like five books later.
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My PCs will be joining a rebel camp that is holed up in the mountains. Without going in to detail of the reason, the rebels are a small number- maybe 3 dozen at most- of mostly farmers. In comparison, they are being blocked from escaping the mountain by about 200ish government soldiers. Obviously, the soldiers are much better equipped, more skilled, and higher level than the farmers, which are level 1.
How do I run a session where the PCs must either defend their small rebel cave, or bring the attack to the government forces at the bottom of the mountain? I do have some small scout camps that the PCs can take out going up the mountain that can slightly change things, but how do i run when the big battle comes?
This sounds like an opportunity to let your players solve the dilemma. Some of the best dnd comes from situations where the DM presents a problem without railroading a certain solution for the players, and instead remains open to player ideas.
If I were the players, I might suggest finding a way to help the Rebels escape the cave by diverting the army's attention, I might suggest trying to tunnel out, I might suggest trying to bluff the soldiers into coming to some kind of terms, I might suggest trying to contact any other pockets of rebellion in the land for reinforcements (if only a single messenger could get out), etc.
So there's ways the players might come up with, as long as you make it clear to them that their decisions in this situation will matter.
I agree. Im not necessarily trying to railroad one or the other, just want to be prepped for if/when the battle does come.
Some of those options arent viable. In this situation, the rebels are seen as terrorists, and WILL be slaughtered. No negations, as the rebels have a very big government secret they learned (hence the hiding out). Others, such as distractions, are fully doable.
I'd say stall the session a bit. As you play through, find reasons to delay the party -- toss in a random combat encounter (maybe one of those army scouting parties), let them find something shiny and chase after it, that kind of thing. Then have them reach the rebel camp near the end of the session and present them with the problem. Let them spend the closing parts of the session figuring out what they are going to do, and save the doing of it for the following session. Then you will only have to prep for that one course of action, instead of the nearly infinite options of things they could potentially do.
Thats not a bad idea actually, stalling the session and building off that.
Might roll with that.
I always try to have big decision points at the end of sessions to avoid some giant branching narrative I'd otherwise have to prepare.
The corollary to this is, if they start that following session and try to do something else, you have to guilt them about how you already prepped for this, and you aren't ready to run them through some other course of action.
Yeah, i do that frequently. I have a very open world campaign with a hand-made world map. I have them pick out the locations they will go next time, and plan around that. The few times theyve tried to do something else, i do pull that card of "i already planned for this today, this is what you wanted to do last time, so we are gonna go with this".
Ok, so it sounds like we're considering an all-out battle between the Rebels and the soldiers as the "lose" scenario, so I would bear in mind that, even though we're conditioned to think of failure in terms of TPK's and death, losing a battle, historically looked a lot more like losing a portion of your forces while the rest get taken prisoner either through capture or surrender.
This isn't to say that the soldiers will show mercy and let them live, but rather that these are rebels, and if rebels are not made an example of, then they could inspire more rebellion, so therefore the soldiers may want to march the rebels back into the town square and start executing them in batches on the hour every hour where everyone can see what happens to rebels in this kingdom.
That way, in the battle, while still enacting the losing scenario, you can still offer the players an opportunity to escape with a small fraction of the rebels in the confusion of the battle, and then maybe a third of the Rebels are taken prisoner, and the rest who didn't end up with the players or taken prisoner or killed, are scattered uselessly in small groups around the countryside, and now this presents a gameplay opportunity: do the players decide to track down and reunite the Rebels who survived the battle, or do they want to follow the soldiers and try to rescue them before they're all hanged? Up to the players.
As far as the rebels knowing some great secret that they all have to die for; I'm assuming the soldiers are all totally loyal to the king (or what authority they serve), otherwise the rebels could've just let the soldiers in on the big forbidden secret and flipped them to their side. So, given that the soldiers are probably not susceptible to whatever secret knowledge the rebels have, I don't see why it would be so hard to keep the prisoners gagged and isolated from any of the populace, under strict guard and not allowed to speak to anyone, while they're in custody. No need for the "lose" scenario to be "TPK or bust".
...I love a lot of this. I can see this becoming a large side event where not only trying to free the captured rebels, but trying to expose the secret in the process, while safe-guarding the remaining rebels. One of the rebels is the sister of one of the PCs so maybe her getting captured and then having to rescue family before a tightly guarded execution could be a great sub-plot
I've been reading a lot of Wheel of Time lately, and big battles in those books always have big fallout along those lines, with far reaching consequences that are still being felt like five books later.