ninja_penguin
2009-12-09, 10:08 PM
So, I'm currently working on the later adventures of my current gaming group's Eberron campaign. It's going to be a major throw-down in the Feyspire of Shae Joridal, against the armies of Darguun. I've already got the main early fighting encounters and non-combat prep/setup things down pretty solid. And during the course of designing the encounter, I realized that in some ways I'm pulling parallels the the big battle in Gondor from the Lord of the Rings movies. I'd like to try and avoid copying and pasting it verbatim, but I think certain aspects of it are going to be in it, and as long as I'm not just copying the movie entirely, I'm okay with it.
So, I'm looking for any sort of suggestions over what I've already got, and a little help on the end-games.
1. Pre-battle. I've got the city divided up into a couple of zones. there are NPC troops stations in all zones, and the PCs decide which zone they are stationing themselves at (and this is the zone where the encounter takes place). If there are enemy troops in a non-PC zone, the NPC and enemy troops just wear each other down by X amount until the PCs run to that zone for their encounter, or one of them die. I'm letting the PCs add in various traps, alchemical items, etc. that will help out NPC troops. Their airship will also be providing air support/artillary, which can help either the PC's or another region.
2. Actual battle. I've got various encounters set up, plus a few ambush encounter for when they're traveling through the city (especially if things start going badly). This is end of tier and end of campaign (we're not going to bother with epic just quite yet), so I'm willing to throw tougher challenges at them. They basically are given a boon from the Eladrin council that will let them pretend they just had an extended rest between fights instead of a short rest, so I can keep the battle momentum going. Any suggestions as to how to keep from overwhelming them to the point of unfairness, but keeping them pressured?
3. End-game. I can see this going two ways: First, the player's either smash their opposing forces or manage to keep things about even. I figure the leaders show up, maybe with his pet super-monster, and climactic showdown. I'm not sure what to do if player's try and push out into the field, or have totally cleared the city. The second way I can see it going is the characters being pushed back to a final hold out position in the center of the city. I'm a bit at a loss as to a good string of encounters where they can win, but need to fall back anyway to help protect other people/themselves, and funnel the enemy into a bottleneck.
So, any comments, suggestions, tips from other DMs?
So, I'm looking for any sort of suggestions over what I've already got, and a little help on the end-games.
1. Pre-battle. I've got the city divided up into a couple of zones. there are NPC troops stations in all zones, and the PCs decide which zone they are stationing themselves at (and this is the zone where the encounter takes place). If there are enemy troops in a non-PC zone, the NPC and enemy troops just wear each other down by X amount until the PCs run to that zone for their encounter, or one of them die. I'm letting the PCs add in various traps, alchemical items, etc. that will help out NPC troops. Their airship will also be providing air support/artillary, which can help either the PC's or another region.
2. Actual battle. I've got various encounters set up, plus a few ambush encounter for when they're traveling through the city (especially if things start going badly). This is end of tier and end of campaign (we're not going to bother with epic just quite yet), so I'm willing to throw tougher challenges at them. They basically are given a boon from the Eladrin council that will let them pretend they just had an extended rest between fights instead of a short rest, so I can keep the battle momentum going. Any suggestions as to how to keep from overwhelming them to the point of unfairness, but keeping them pressured?
3. End-game. I can see this going two ways: First, the player's either smash their opposing forces or manage to keep things about even. I figure the leaders show up, maybe with his pet super-monster, and climactic showdown. I'm not sure what to do if player's try and push out into the field, or have totally cleared the city. The second way I can see it going is the characters being pushed back to a final hold out position in the center of the city. I'm a bit at a loss as to a good string of encounters where they can win, but need to fall back anyway to help protect other people/themselves, and funnel the enemy into a bottleneck.
So, any comments, suggestions, tips from other DMs?