Varatta
August 17th, 2020, 08:52
Hello everyone, I've been struggling with how to run a WAR in my game - especially in FG. But I think I've found a way.
The Unearthed Arcana on MASS COMBAT is pretty good, but I wanted to find a way to operationalize it in FG. After a LOT of toying I found a way. And it's pretty easy.
WARNING: Now I am not a super-coder for FG, I am VERY remedial so there may already be better solutions or refinements to my amature-hour stuff here, but have a look. It works and it's easy to do!
Onto the Goods:
If you aren't familiar with the mechanics, this will be VERY confusing, so I recommend reading the linked article below.
I tried making Units out of NPCs and found making Units out of PCs much easier. This also makes it easier for my players to command units directly by letting them play the unit as a PC.
So the Unit PC needs very little. Three stats and four abilities!
Stats as Ability Scores:
A Unit Needs: The Battle Rating (based on total CRs), a Morale Rating, Initiative, and Speed.
For Battle Rating I just used the total CR rating of the unit x2+10 and made that the Con Score - which gives the unit a CON bonus equal to what their BR should be. Example BR 60 = Con 130. I also added the BR value (CON modifier) to the PCs Max HP for ease of tracking (will make sense in a minute)
For Morale Rating I just took the base rating and added the Commander's Charisma score and slotted that into the WISDOM Stat Block. Example 0 morale rating and a Commander with a Cha bonus of +6 (16) = Wis 16.
For Initiative I simply made the Dexterity score the same as the Wisdom as it's basically the same calculation.
For speed I just wrote in 300' (30' basic movement x10 'cause rounds are now minutes).
Abilities We Need:
1) Battle Ratings for Attacks:
We need to be able to attack another unit and provoke a counter attack for our opposed checks. To do this (and some of you may know easier ways, but I like this) I simply made an melee attack using Ability: CON and a SAVE htat used CON, 8+ Ability CON with -8 in the bonus. There is probably a better way to do this but it works. Basically to use it you attack then make your target save and voila you have an opposed BR check system for attacking and defending.
Next I added four effects to that attack: -4 Con and -10 Con effects, as well as 2 damage and 5 damage effects. So if an attacker beats the defender they can reduce the BR through the -con and deal damage in HP to reflect that making it much easier to see the status of an army on the tracker.
2) A Forced Morale Check:
If a unit significantly beats the enemy by 10 or more in the opposed check, they force the enemy to do a morale DC 10 check. So this is simply a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw ability. If they lose the check the unit breaks and flees and is removed from the board so I add to this a damage effect that deals 10,000 damage, for an autokill.
3) Morale Boosters:
Different events and training can boost a unit's morale, so I simply created a self targetting ability with a series of effects that boost Wis and Dex by +4, +8, +16, +20 (Morale effects initiative, remember). This gives us a second way to reflect a Unit's training at the start of battle rather than having to add it to Wis & subsequently Dex but it also lets us change it through the course of battle (I for one use Crits passes and fails as morale boosters/diminishers.
4) Morale Diminishers:
Same as above but -stats not +.
And THAT IS IT!
Just create a PC for each unit, let the PCs control their side, you control the other and ...go... to... war with your players!
What it Looks Like
So here is a link to some images to show you what it looks like including a sample of the shortest war in history - 2 minutes! Lets just say the Die did NOT favour the Good Guys today!
https://imgur.com/a/Y59yKc6
Unearthed Arcana on MASS Combat:
https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/2017_UAMassCombat_MCUA_v1.pdf
PS: Time Difference and Big/Small (zoom in zoom out) play:
I make two maps for each war battle - an atlas scale map for the army unit combat and an encounter map. The combat tracker can have all the PCs and Units if I want, so I can set up each map with a different set - one for unit-scale 1 Round = 1 minute on the atlas style map; and a normal map for individual zoom in Character encounters within the war.
The Unearthed Arcana on MASS COMBAT is pretty good, but I wanted to find a way to operationalize it in FG. After a LOT of toying I found a way. And it's pretty easy.
WARNING: Now I am not a super-coder for FG, I am VERY remedial so there may already be better solutions or refinements to my amature-hour stuff here, but have a look. It works and it's easy to do!
Onto the Goods:
If you aren't familiar with the mechanics, this will be VERY confusing, so I recommend reading the linked article below.
I tried making Units out of NPCs and found making Units out of PCs much easier. This also makes it easier for my players to command units directly by letting them play the unit as a PC.
So the Unit PC needs very little. Three stats and four abilities!
Stats as Ability Scores:
A Unit Needs: The Battle Rating (based on total CRs), a Morale Rating, Initiative, and Speed.
For Battle Rating I just used the total CR rating of the unit x2+10 and made that the Con Score - which gives the unit a CON bonus equal to what their BR should be. Example BR 60 = Con 130. I also added the BR value (CON modifier) to the PCs Max HP for ease of tracking (will make sense in a minute)
For Morale Rating I just took the base rating and added the Commander's Charisma score and slotted that into the WISDOM Stat Block. Example 0 morale rating and a Commander with a Cha bonus of +6 (16) = Wis 16.
For Initiative I simply made the Dexterity score the same as the Wisdom as it's basically the same calculation.
For speed I just wrote in 300' (30' basic movement x10 'cause rounds are now minutes).
Abilities We Need:
1) Battle Ratings for Attacks:
We need to be able to attack another unit and provoke a counter attack for our opposed checks. To do this (and some of you may know easier ways, but I like this) I simply made an melee attack using Ability: CON and a SAVE htat used CON, 8+ Ability CON with -8 in the bonus. There is probably a better way to do this but it works. Basically to use it you attack then make your target save and voila you have an opposed BR check system for attacking and defending.
Next I added four effects to that attack: -4 Con and -10 Con effects, as well as 2 damage and 5 damage effects. So if an attacker beats the defender they can reduce the BR through the -con and deal damage in HP to reflect that making it much easier to see the status of an army on the tracker.
2) A Forced Morale Check:
If a unit significantly beats the enemy by 10 or more in the opposed check, they force the enemy to do a morale DC 10 check. So this is simply a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw ability. If they lose the check the unit breaks and flees and is removed from the board so I add to this a damage effect that deals 10,000 damage, for an autokill.
3) Morale Boosters:
Different events and training can boost a unit's morale, so I simply created a self targetting ability with a series of effects that boost Wis and Dex by +4, +8, +16, +20 (Morale effects initiative, remember). This gives us a second way to reflect a Unit's training at the start of battle rather than having to add it to Wis & subsequently Dex but it also lets us change it through the course of battle (I for one use Crits passes and fails as morale boosters/diminishers.
4) Morale Diminishers:
Same as above but -stats not +.
And THAT IS IT!
Just create a PC for each unit, let the PCs control their side, you control the other and ...go... to... war with your players!
What it Looks Like
So here is a link to some images to show you what it looks like including a sample of the shortest war in history - 2 minutes! Lets just say the Die did NOT favour the Good Guys today!
https://imgur.com/a/Y59yKc6
Unearthed Arcana on MASS Combat:
https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/2017_UAMassCombat_MCUA_v1.pdf
PS: Time Difference and Big/Small (zoom in zoom out) play:
I make two maps for each war battle - an atlas scale map for the army unit combat and an encounter map. The combat tracker can have all the PCs and Units if I want, so I can set up each map with a different set - one for unit-scale 1 Round = 1 minute on the atlas style map; and a normal map for individual zoom in Character encounters within the war.