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QueenCaryatid
2011-02-27, 05:28 PM
I have an idea for a one-off 4E adventure that I’d like advice/suggestions on. It’s for 4 paragon-level characters and takes place in the middle of a massive war. The PCs have been chosen (for whatever reason the players decide for their back stories) to be part of an elite, autonomous fighting unit (essentially they are G.I. Joes). The adventure starts with the PCs meeting up at a stronghold with an NPC general who is going to take them to the site of the next major battle. On the way, they are ambushed by enemy infiltrators and the general is assassinated. By the time they make it to the battlefield, the battle has already started.

I plan to set up the main fight like this:

There are five encounter areas of the battle they can decide to tackle in any order: (1) the front lines; (2) the enemy artillery (archers and mages); (3) the enemy war machines; (4) the enemy base camp; and (5) the allied base camp.

(1) If they decide to head straight to the front lines and stay there, they probably won’t win; minions and skirmishers will keep respawning (within reason; if they head to the middle of the battle and kick some serious ass, I will pull out some big war elephants or giants or something they can slay to make them feel like they really accomplished something. Or I’ll have the enemy general ride out to deal with them and they can kill him and put his head on a pike and ride around on a dragon with it. Or something.)

Successfully completing the missions in any of the other four areas will affect the battle on the front lines. Successful encounters will add allied soldiers, and decrease the number of front-line enemies that the PCs have to defeat to win. Failed encounters will cause allied to soldiers die, and if too many allied soldiers die, they lose.

The other areas will be built as follows:

(2) The enemy artillery and mages will be positioned across a river and up a steep cliff, so this encounter will start with a skill challenge involving crossing the river and scaling the cliff (and helping your fellow PCs do the same, if they need it). Once they reach the area, they’ll fight the archers and mages and some perfunctory troops stationed there to protect them.

(3) Sabotaging the enemy war machines requires them to sneak behind enemy lines using stealth, bluff, dungeoneering, or the like. Some of them will have to engage in fighting while one or more of them makes skill checks to disable the machines.

(4) Reaching the enemy base camp will also require sneaking behind enemy lines using. If they have already sabotaged the war machines, I will consider them already behind enemy lines, and they can skip the skill check, and vice versa. They will still have to sneak into the enemy general’s tent, however, to assassinate him. Then they either have to sneak out or fight their way out. Completing this encounter will have the most dramatic effect on the battle at the front lines.

(5) The healers at the allied base camp are under attack by enemy infiltrators, and driving them back will add allied soldiers to the front lines. Maybe I’ll also throw in some kind of charisma-based skill check in here to rally the troops’ spirit or something.

Opposing Army Mechanics:
Right now I’m thinking of assigning each army numbers. The allies will start at 6 and the enemies at 12. Each encounter will be worth 1 ally point except for (4), which will be worth 2. So, for example, if they successfully complete every encounter, they will have earned 5 ally points, and the forces will be 11-to-12, which is pretty good. They don't have to fight that many enemies on the front lines to win. If they only earn 4 ally points, the forces will be 10-12, which means they’ll have to fight twice as many front-line enemies to win. If they only get 3 ally points, it’s three times as many, etc. If allied forces fall below 3, (because they attempt but retreat from encounters) they lose. They also lose if they die, obviously.

Whew, that was long. So, will this work? Do you see any red flags that make this a terrible idea? Any suggestions on how to work the opposing army mechanics? I also want to add something where they can heroically sacrifice themselves so that their army can win even if one or more of them dies.

Land Outcast
2011-02-28, 12:08 PM
Well, know nothing 'bout 4E, but I'll try to help:

First, you will want to make sure characters know which the different encounters are, and that the characters know that they have the time to sneak around and do stuff (or they would just go to the front line and try to stop the onslaught... also, once there, I doubt they'd go for any other objectives).
Discaimer: complicated idea, I'm not expecting you to use it but perhaps you can get some inspiration from this.

If you want to play with time:

Give the players an allotment of "stages" representing the time they available to operate before the decisive point of the battle and a map showing the time from point to point of the battlefield (moving by land towards an encounter would cost stages depending on the relative distance).
Facing an encounter would cost 1 stage (front lines would cost 2 stages).

I'm thinking something like:
{table]|(4)|(4)|(4)|
(2)| | | |(3)|
| |(1)| | |
| |(1)| | |
|(5)|(5)|(5)| |
[/table]

Distance from (5) to (1): 1
Distance from (1) to (2) or (3): 2
Distance from (2) to (3): 3
Distance from (2) or (3) to (4): 1

Example: They have 11 stages available and start at (5), they can:
Stay in (5) and face that encounter at cost of 1 stage
Move to (1) & face it at the cost of 3 (1move+2face) stages
Move to (2) & face it at the cost of 4 (3move+1face) stages
Move to (3) & face it at the cost of 4 (3move+1face) stages
Move to (4) & face it at the cost of 5 (4move+1face) stages

On the war machines: cutting ropes and placing stones on gears should have good enough effect. I'm not sure if skill checks should be required unless they intend to rig the machines rather than make them unusable.

On the scoreboard: I don't know how your group rolls, but I'd find it a given that they'd face all the encounters, wouldn't ever retreat, and get the score up to 11.
Besides, if they find an encounter too difficult and need to retreat, that means they would find an even harder front-lines to deal with. I think something's wrong there.

kaiserthe3rd
2011-02-28, 12:34 PM
You might want to think about what would happen if the PCs try to use the war machine for their own side. Would it be possible? and what would the effects be?

QueenCaryatid
2011-02-28, 11:22 PM
"Give the players an allotment of "stages" representing the time they available to operate before the decisive point of the battle and a map showing the time from point to point of the battlefield (moving by land towards an encounter would cost stages depending on the relative distance).
Facing an encounter would cost 1 stage (front lines would cost 2 stages)."

I really like this. My original idea was to go with a time dimension rather than the encounter-point thing. The idea of counting down to a decisive point in the battle works really well. I'm going to play around with this idea. Thanks!