I'm DMing for a party of 6 level 10's. And I wish to try something new with the large scale battle type of campaign, where the focus is not really individual troop movements, but more on turning the tide of the war through many more, smaller battles. (Pg 40-41 DMG) The players need to focus on capturing certain locations, magic items, fighting high commanders of the other armies, and so on. My ideas right now include:

• War of elements: Fire, earth, air, and water.
• War between races.
• War between kingdoms with varying military styles.
• War between 2 noble houses (Which I'll describe in just a moment)
• War between exotic creatures (Such as Merrow and Merfolk)

The players will choose their side depending on the morals and values of each, but it will be a free choice.

But the war between 2 houses, it would be more of a social, mystery, and murder type of campaign, which is much different between a Hobgoblin army marching on the largest city in the kingdom. Now here are the questions:

• Which sounds like the easiest campaign option that also sounds like the most fun? (It doesn't have to be on the list either)
• What type of optional rules should I use? (ie. Flanking for troop movements)
• What type of war technology would be fun? (Cannons? Ballistas? Trebuchets?)
• How would I incorporate the PC's backstories into this war theme without being the normal "My father served in the military. So I will pick up his tracks and be as successful as he!" Don't get me wrong, that's a solid backstory, but I can't do that for all 6 of them.

Thanks!

Go Game of Thrones and make it a war of noble houses. Give the players the quest to go spy on the enemy early on so that they have to disguise themselves and get in good graces with the enemy. Their end goal is to assassinate someone, sabotage something, or send messages that will aid their side in the war. Then as their quest ends, they're figured out and you move on to the next quest to kill someone or discover the enemy spy that murdered one of their people. Ballistas and trebuchets would be a good combination because during a siege, the defender has ballistas on the wall, and the opposer has trebuchets in the field. And one PC could be the traditional backstory, another could have no other foreseeable future for himself, another two characters committed a crime together and changed their names, hiding out in the war together, another one was drafted, and the last seeks revenge on the other house for the murder of such and such.

Quote from Kalifraz >>

Go Game of Thrones and make it a war of noble houses. Give the players the quest to go spy on the enemy early on so that they have to disguise themselves and get in good graces with the enemy. Their end goal is to assassinate someone, sabotage something, or send messages that will aid their side in the war. Then as their quest ends, they're figured out and you move on to the next quest to kill someone or discover the enemy spy that murdered one of their people. Ballistas and trebuchets would be a good combination because during a siege, the defender has ballistas on the wall, and the opposer has trebuchets in the field. And one PC could be the traditional backstory, another could have no other foreseeable future for himself, another two characters committed a crime together and changed their names, hiding out in the war together, another one was drafted, and the last seeks revenge on the other house for the murder of such and such.

 Ooh... I like this idea... But one drawback: I haven't watched the Game of Thrones. I know enough about noble houses and thinks of the like to make a relatively effective campaign like that, but the idea of GoT evades me.

Just look up the War of the Roses and base it off of that.

I will most definitely consider it.