Heyo! I’m trying to figure out how to put a large battle into a campaign and I would love to hear if anyone has input or ran this kind of thing in a game. Thanks!
Although, judging by your choice of section, being Story & Lore then I gotta ask exactly what aspect of the large scale battles are you inquiring about?
If you are concerned for what level of narrative to deliver in words throughout the battle, then only concern the players with immediate threats and objectives. After the battle, face your players with the immediate results of your battle and have any survivors communicate with them their take on long-scale effects to come. Perhaps this would encourage the players to press on with an objective or leave satisfied they had left their desired mark.
If this is a classic army vs army conflict, then concern the party with an immediate unit that they are supporting/supporting them on an objective. If an objective is simply to spearhead a charge, then assign a foreseeable goal and then address the obstacles between the party and that goal.
Akin to the most common problem with new sandbox DMs, try not to allow much room for players to feel they don't know what to do. Then, the event will not come out nearly as memorable as you ideally want it to be.
As a matter of fact, my most recent session called for a large-scale battle between the party and about 30 allied paladins against an attacking army of several hundred enemies. I handled it through two skill challenges. Then, based on how the skill challenges turned out, it ended up with a traditional battle between the party and a few main bad guys from the enemy force while the larger battle was raging around them. I represented the battle around them by way of lair actions.
It also came up again earlier this week with a player asking how to work a large battle into his campaign and there was some good discussion, especially by DMThac0 talking about breaking the large battle down into smaller component parts. There is enough going on that you could have an entire story mini-arc about the battle itself if you wanted to emphasize it that much.
Mass combat can be a lot of fun for the players and for the DM and it can give you an uncommon opportunity to approach it from a creative standpoint and encourage great roleplay and let the party make use of aspects of their characters that may not get used all that often, which is very refreshing.
My preferred method is to treat the battle as a dungeon, where each narrative stage includes an encounter. Skill challenges would be good to supplement with too.
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Heyo! I’m trying to figure out how to put a large battle into a campaign and I would love to hear if anyone has input or ran this kind of thing in a game. Thanks!
EW out~
Here is a good thread exploring this idea mechanically. It was posted in the Dungeon Master's Only section of these forums. I think they had done a good job at going into it.
Although, judging by your choice of section, being Story & Lore then I gotta ask exactly what aspect of the large scale battles are you inquiring about?
If you are concerned for what level of narrative to deliver in words throughout the battle, then only concern the players with immediate threats and objectives. After the battle, face your players with the immediate results of your battle and have any survivors communicate with them their take on long-scale effects to come. Perhaps this would encourage the players to press on with an objective or leave satisfied they had left their desired mark.
If this is a classic army vs army conflict, then concern the party with an immediate unit that they are supporting/supporting them on an objective. If an objective is simply to spearhead a charge, then assign a foreseeable goal and then address the obstacles between the party and that goal.
Akin to the most common problem with new sandbox DMs, try not to allow much room for players to feel they don't know what to do. Then, the event will not come out nearly as memorable as you ideally want it to be.
"Aye lad, High Haspur.. has fallen" -Shavr Battleheart
As a matter of fact, my most recent session called for a large-scale battle between the party and about 30 allied paladins against an attacking army of several hundred enemies. I handled it through two skill challenges. Then, based on how the skill challenges turned out, it ended up with a traditional battle between the party and a few main bad guys from the enemy force while the larger battle was raging around them. I represented the battle around them by way of lair actions.
I wrote a thread about it here. The players loved it and everyone had a great time.
It also came up again earlier this week with a player asking how to work a large battle into his campaign and there was some good discussion, especially by DMThac0 talking about breaking the large battle down into smaller component parts. There is enough going on that you could have an entire story mini-arc about the battle itself if you wanted to emphasize it that much.
Mass combat can be a lot of fun for the players and for the DM and it can give you an uncommon opportunity to approach it from a creative standpoint and encourage great roleplay and let the party make use of aspects of their characters that may not get used all that often, which is very refreshing.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
My preferred method is to treat the battle as a dungeon, where each narrative stage includes an encounter. Skill challenges would be good to supplement with too.