Hello all. I’m part of a gaming group at a university and I would love to DM a war campaign. Does 5E have rules for war gaming? I’m talking about battles between armies. If not what have you guys been using for rules? Thanks in advance.
The board game Empires in Arms had a system of offensive and defensive tactics or formations that would have different modifiers against each other. I forget the names and modifiers, but basically each formation had advantages towards some, and disadvantages towards others. So each player would pick a formation and reveal, and then combat would be resolved based on that.
That's what we do. Like, assaulting a fortified position requires at least a 3:1 advantage in the attackers favor, so that's already a factor, and then specific tactics will improve on those odds. And then we roll a die. Bam. Interpretation of the dieroll falls to me as GM. So it the attacker had 3000 swords to the defenders 1000 (that's a 50/50 chance of succes), but also brought battlemages and wyverns, that might grant them 60% chance of succes. So if they rolled 65, I might call that a partial succes, breaching the walls without taking the castle - and if they rolled 55, I might say something like 'your attack on three fronts was a succes, although the eastern forces took heavy casualties and withdrew. However, the southern advance was able to breach the walls, and push the remaining defenders back to the inner keep).
And of course all sorts of modifiers might apply. For commanders, famously impregnable fortifications, historical banners or whatever.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
For 5e rules you can look into the MCDM "Kingdoms & Warfare" rules set to find something that is workable.
If you want to stay inside the D&D house, the best answer is the Birthright campaign setting. Which was written for 2nd ed AD&D. You can buy the rules in PDF format (and that'd be better than finding an old copy and paying extra).
There have been some attempts at official 5e Unearthed Arcana, but none have stuck.
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Hello all. I’m part of a gaming group at a university and I would love to DM a war campaign. Does 5E have rules for war gaming? I’m talking about battles between armies. If not what have you guys been using for rules? Thanks in advance.
The board game Empires in Arms had a system of offensive and defensive tactics or formations that would have different modifiers against each other. I forget the names and modifiers, but basically each formation had advantages towards some, and disadvantages towards others. So each player would pick a formation and reveal, and then combat would be resolved based on that.
That's what we do. Like, assaulting a fortified position requires at least a 3:1 advantage in the attackers favor, so that's already a factor, and then specific tactics will improve on those odds. And then we roll a die. Bam. Interpretation of the dieroll falls to me as GM. So it the attacker had 3000 swords to the defenders 1000 (that's a 50/50 chance of succes), but also brought battlemages and wyverns, that might grant them 60% chance of succes. So if they rolled 65, I might call that a partial succes, breaching the walls without taking the castle - and if they rolled 55, I might say something like 'your attack on three fronts was a succes, although the eastern forces took heavy casualties and withdrew. However, the southern advance was able to breach the walls, and push the remaining defenders back to the inner keep).
And of course all sorts of modifiers might apply. For commanders, famously impregnable fortifications, historical banners or whatever.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
For 5e rules you can look into the MCDM "Kingdoms & Warfare" rules set to find something that is workable.
If you want to stay inside the D&D house, the best answer is the Birthright campaign setting. Which was written for 2nd ed AD&D. You can buy the rules in PDF format (and that'd be better than finding an old copy and paying extra).
There have been some attempts at official 5e Unearthed Arcana, but none have stuck.