#Advice on managing a war in my campaign

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

wooden pasture
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Hey, so I'm currently worldbuilding for a homebrew campaign. One of the on-goings in my world is there's currently a war going on, well rebellion against a tyrant king.

One of the goals of the campaign is to help resolve the war, how they do it is up to them through play.

There'll be ways to attempt to help the king and bring him back from his blights if the players choose.

The war isn't the main focal point of the campaign, however I still want it to be engaging. Between warfare, sabotage, smuggling things through to oppressed villages/peoples, espionage, politics, etc.

One thing I'm struggling with is how the players will push back the forces in each region the control.

One of my thoughts is:

In each region, there will be a command hq, there will be 2 outposts, and several encampments, supply outposts, with supply lines running through the regions, etc.

Also in each region there will be a noble house, some nobles are loyal to the king, others aren't, and some may be playing sides deceivingly

The players can ignore everything and rush the hq, but it'd be a much harder dungeon.

The more events the players complete in the region, the easier the hq dungeon will be.

After a few it'll bring the kings attention and we'd go from there.

While this sounds fun, I don't want it to feel like a chore, running around to each region working up to the hq dungeon and moving on.

Any suggestions would be great.

wooden pasture
wise umbra
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The war isn't the main focal point of the campaign, however I still want it to be engaging. Between warfare, sabotage, smuggling things through to oppressed villages/peoples, espionage, politics, etc.

In each region, there will be a command hq, there will be 2 outposts, and several encampments, supply outposts, with supply lines running through the regions, etc.

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You see how these two things are in contradiction, right?

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The plan you're coming up with is very video game-y in a way that I do not think will translate nicely, especially when it's not supposed to be the focus. Video games have scripted quests as the main things and "clear the camp" missions as a secondary thing, which can mostly work because a video game lets you move quickly through those camps

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D&D doesn't do a great job of players quickly chaining abilities together to clear a zone, so requiring them to clear a number of camps/dungeons in order to make regional progress is going to very quickly result in the whole campaign being those missions

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I would instead set up one (maybe two) missions per region that are unique to that place. Coastal region, put a boss on an island HQ so mission 1 is stealing a ship and mission 2 is taking down the island fort. Mountain region, do a volcano or ice field or dwarven ruins, whatever works

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The core concept of reducing the king's influence region-by-region is good, but finding that right balance where it doesn't eat the rest of the campaign and is interesting will be the challenge

wooden pasture
wooden pasture
wooden pasture
scarlet wind
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What would you use that book for?

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Like, what is the specific benefit you're trying to get from it?

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You may not need to buy a whole book once we really narrow what you want support for.

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Because I can tell you right now that the free version of Worlds Without Number already has some abstracted mass combat rules.

If you really want domain level play that may be hard to juggle with the players managing their individual characters.

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In old school D&D, you pretty much played your characters until they got to a high enough level where they were able to start their own thieves guild, get a castle, stuff like that. Then at that point you were mostly managing the domain, only bringing out your primary characters for "Avengers level threats".

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Kingdoms & Warefare is like 1/3 domain level play, 1/5 wargaming, and the rest is items, monsters, and an adventure.

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If you really want to focus your game on toppling an evil empire, it may not be worth getting the book.

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I think of your evil empire like a web.

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It has a bunch of nodes that represent strongholds and settlements, the connection representing what supports what.

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Your players then want to sever as many connections to the nodes as possible, because that removes its support.

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That is likely the most straighforward way of representing the player's progress in a prolonged war scenario where you want them to strategize how to take it apart.

wooden pasture
# scarlet wind It has a bunch of nodes that represent strongholds and settlements, the connecti...

Yea, I agree with this. I definitely like the web idea.
I just don't want the war portion of the campaign to feel like an open world ubisoft game. Going through different zones doing the same tasks.
I gotta get creative and find Intriguing ways to accomplish the this.

The players should fill kinda like a spec ops role, sabotaging supply lines,and supply deposits, encampments, outposts and garrisons, rescuing hostages, smuggling supplies behind enemy lines, etc.

Perhaps each region has a different kind of task that needs to be completed to push the armies out of there

As for the book, i was reading its a good resource to learn how to effectively run wars during a campaign.

scarlet wind
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See, if you do that you're going to make it feel more like a video game.

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Players already have (effectively) infinite freedom.

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You tell them "topple the kingdom" and you don't tell them how, then they're going to do whatever their hearts desire.

wooden pasture
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If I do what? Have different objectives in areas?

scarlet wind
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Correct. At least, don't make them "You must do this to proceed".

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You can make a shiny glowing weakpoint, but try not to tell them what to do, if that makes sense.

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Perhaps each region has a different kind of task that needs to be completed to push the armies out of there
This is basically what I'm warning against.

wooden pasture
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Yea, so still create hooks
"Spies indicate the army is transporting supplies to camp x" and see if they take it.

Basically create the forces and whatnot, but let the players run wild on how to deal with it

scarlet wind
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Correct.

wooden pasture
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OK yea, I see what ya mean.

Basically I was looking to create different ruleship/ occupation in each region

scarlet wind
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I see that you want to make this as complicated as possible.

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Very good.

wooden pasture
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Not Intentionally, lol

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I struggle with putting concepts in terms that will fit a ttrpg

scarlet wind
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Technically this will all fit, but you are making this on a huuuuge scale.

wooden pasture
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Yea, I should tone down on a regional basis

scarlet wind
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You want

  • multiple regions
  • each with several points of interest
  • and each with multiple factions
wooden pasture
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Yea, it's a big scale

scarlet wind
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Likely too big.

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If you simplify it down to a single region it will be much more managable.

wooden pasture
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As in my whole campaign into a single region of the kingdom?

scarlet wind
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Yes

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Or rather, abstract the entire kingdom into a single region.

wooden pasture
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Yea, I can do that, I was thinking a region the size of Europe, roughly.

scarlet wind
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Do you understand how incredibly large that is?

wooden pasture
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Yea, I'll retcon that back

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Good point

scarlet wind
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From what you described, in a single region there are maybe 11 points of interest, a noble house with a variety of NPCs, likely multiple smaller factions, and sttlements to liberate.
Now multiply that by at least 3 and your work becomes tremendous.

wooden pasture
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What size of an area would ya suggest?
A size of a singular country?

scarlet wind
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The actual area of the kingdom isn't my real concern.

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Its simply how much stuff you intend to put in it.

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For a proper sandbox campaign, which it sound like you want to run, you have to create all this stuff before the campaign even begins.

wooden pasture
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So finding a balance of the region feeling full, while not overwhelmingly crowded

scarlet wind
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Essentially that is the issue.

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You don't want to make more work for yourself than necessary.

wooden pasture
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Yea, I'm up for that challenge creating the environmental, political, cultural, etc aspects of my world