I'm looking to throw some ideas around on how to handle a city siege for the opening of a new campaign I'm running. For context, this is a city siege that the party is caught up in and one party member has been ordered by his order to defend. The siege has caught the Kingdom off guard and the enemy nations (one a human kingdom and one a Triton Kingdom that comes from the depths) have begun to advance on small settlements and working their way up the ladder until they get to the capital city. This is by the seaside and some of the navy of the Kingdom is stationed here in this town (it's called Seaford).
This is at level 3 and I know the limitations of what the party can even do in this situation, but for narrative reasons the party is very excited that this is their opening session for the campaign as the events here will meld together the party's backstories just like any other DnD party. However mechanically, I want to do more than just smoke and mirrors and say the party repels the invasion or the invasion is too much for them to handle. I want their actions to have impact without making this too complex, and avoiding it being not complex enough if that makes sense. The caveat here is that Seaford is caught off guard by this invasion and they don't have much time to prepare, which gives the party and the NPC's not much time to think. I had a couple of thoughts of what I could do to run this in the opening while emphasizing the narrative that I have planned:
Small and easy skirmishes that are happening regularly with -1 CR (like the soldier has a 1/2 CR so for a lvl 3 party they can reliably take on a few small skirmishes worth of these guys) humanoids
Potential for the party to creatively use resources to slow down the invasion until reinforcements can get there such as explosives, crumbling buildings, etc.
A possible save/abandon scenario depending on their actions. This means they could abandon the city or potentially save it if they can stall for enough time (remember the Alamo).
I have very limited experience running sieges and I don't want this to get too complex for them considering they don't know each other, have limited resources and limited time. There is a bit of theater of the mind that will happen here as the PC's meet each other, their NPC allies get involved and eventually decide if they want to face off against a "boss encounter" that would be scaled for lvl 3 or if they want to cut their losses and abandon the town. But at the same time, I want to decide if they engage in enough skirmishes that this can actively sway the narrative if the city gets saved or not.
tl;dr looking to make a watered down city siege where the players can have impact on the outcome of things within reason
I read a few siege dungeons recently where there were numerous encounters that the party could undertake. If they were successful in 5/7, the siege was repelled entirely. 3/7 the attacking army was weakened and the party participated in the battle, 1/7 or none and the invading army received reinforcements before the large battle commenced with the defenders now being outnumbered.
You could use ideas like....
Reconnaissance (scout without being discovered noting the types and number of troops) Sabotage an enemy siege engine Deliver a message to a nearby castle for reinforcements Destroy or stop a tunneling expedition (tunneling under walls to cause them to collapse was a often used medieval siege technique) Poison the enemies water supply -or- protect the town's water supply Build a siege engine Assassinate a high level officer (officers and other leaders may or may not be high level characters, they could simply be a level 0 NPC but they would be well guarded) Deliver a message/be an envoy (good chance to RP)
I don't think any of these missions require the party to be high level, except perhaps the last one.
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Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
Hey everyone!
I'm looking to throw some ideas around on how to handle a city siege for the opening of a new campaign I'm running. For context, this is a city siege that the party is caught up in and one party member has been ordered by his order to defend. The siege has caught the Kingdom off guard and the enemy nations (one a human kingdom and one a Triton Kingdom that comes from the depths) have begun to advance on small settlements and working their way up the ladder until they get to the capital city. This is by the seaside and some of the navy of the Kingdom is stationed here in this town (it's called Seaford).
This is at level 3 and I know the limitations of what the party can even do in this situation, but for narrative reasons the party is very excited that this is their opening session for the campaign as the events here will meld together the party's backstories just like any other DnD party. However mechanically, I want to do more than just smoke and mirrors and say the party repels the invasion or the invasion is too much for them to handle. I want their actions to have impact without making this too complex, and avoiding it being not complex enough if that makes sense. The caveat here is that Seaford is caught off guard by this invasion and they don't have much time to prepare, which gives the party and the NPC's not much time to think. I had a couple of thoughts of what I could do to run this in the opening while emphasizing the narrative that I have planned:
I have very limited experience running sieges and I don't want this to get too complex for them considering they don't know each other, have limited resources and limited time. There is a bit of theater of the mind that will happen here as the PC's meet each other, their NPC allies get involved and eventually decide if they want to face off against a "boss encounter" that would be scaled for lvl 3 or if they want to cut their losses and abandon the town. But at the same time, I want to decide if they engage in enough skirmishes that this can actively sway the narrative if the city gets saved or not.
tl;dr looking to make a watered down city siege where the players can have impact on the outcome of things within reason
Looking to toss some ideas between posts!
I read a few siege dungeons recently where there were numerous encounters that the party could undertake. If they were successful in 5/7, the siege was repelled entirely. 3/7 the attacking army was weakened and the party participated in the battle, 1/7 or none and the invading army received reinforcements before the large battle commenced with the defenders now being outnumbered.
You could use ideas like....
Reconnaissance (scout without being discovered noting the types and number of troops)
Sabotage an enemy siege engine
Deliver a message to a nearby castle for reinforcements
Destroy or stop a tunneling expedition (tunneling under walls to cause them to collapse was a often used medieval siege technique)
Poison the enemies water supply -or- protect the town's water supply
Build a siege engine
Assassinate a high level officer (officers and other leaders may or may not be high level characters, they could simply be a level 0 NPC but they would be well guarded)
Deliver a message/be an envoy (good chance to RP)
I don't think any of these missions require the party to be high level, except perhaps the last one.
Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
I actually love this. It would be watered down for a low level party but enough for them to have impact with. So this can be fit perfectly