Large Scale Encounters

[Rethmar]

After reading the SilverClawShift campaign log, I decided that I would run my own version of it for my players. I really want to see how they will handle it as opposed to the original players.

After 3 sessions, I have caught them up to the point where the campaign log begins. Yes, the kython attack. I'm really excited for it, but there are so many of the buggers.

I was wondering, does anyone have any advice for a combat in which I am handling this many creatures?

[Edge of Dreams]

Mass rolling. Get several different colors of dice, and roll a bunch of attacks and damage all at once. The red d20 goes with the red damage dice, green with green, blue with blue, etc.

[Immabozo]

My first DM would roll one save for a whole group, so either they all made it, or all didn't. He also would use dimes, nickles, pennies, quarters and written numbers on tiny pieces of paper to keep track of the specific one in the group corresponded to his notes on who took damage.

[yougi]

I ran a siege once in my group: 5 PCs, 5 sergeants, and 50 lowlies (War3's) vs. 25 Ogres and 5 meaner monsters, or something like that. Took 6-7h (more than we had planned for the session), and was fun for 1. Then it was "wait, this guy is still up? On my sheet, he's been down for 5 rounds!", plus 2 guys texting.

The main problems with large scale encounters are (1) length, and (2) paperwork, leading to (3) errors.

More recently, they were on a ship that was attacked by enemies from another faction, and here's what I did differently :

- I fluffed it as a mass encounter, but only played what the PCs took part in. I described what went on around, but I didn't roll every single attack. Describe what goes on, make them react to it, but don't play all of it. I went with a d% to give me an idea of how well it was going: "*97* You notice one of your sailors bull rushing an enemy off the ship, and two others finish off their men with lucky shots". The players didn't notice what was going on, as if I'd really make the NPCs in the sideshow do special maneuvers.

- I did not use the battlemat. I went with vague description, and I had numbers on my side. "Fred, you have 3 soldiers on you. Mart and Kevin, you have 5 on the two of you. Vince, none of them have reached you yet, but one of them just spots you and starts charging." I gave them a rough sketch on the battlemat ("The O's are you, here is the Bard, here the Cleric, the Barb, the Wizard and the Rogue; the X's are enemies, the C is for the enemy Cleric.") to make them feel safe. However, in the sketch, I only put things in their direct vicinity: I did not put the other 20+ people fighting amongst themselves, only those related to the PCs' actions. Plus, in your case, not using the battlemat enforces the horror of it: it's not a tactical game anymore, it all lives in how you describe it, and it makes your words much stronger.

- I made sure stuff happened. Most encounters last 3-4 rounds, but a large scale one could go up to 10ish. 10 rounds quickly goes from "I dive into the sea of orcs, swinging my axe wildly, not at one in particular, but at the large mass of green flesh!" to "17+8 is 25, so 21 damage". In the siege I talked about, the forces were clear from the beginning. However, in the naval combat, at some point the Rogue, who was staying behind and shooting at people, was hit by a scorching ray from a flying sorcerer who just came into the battle (large scale battles are rather chaotic, and so no, you don't notice everything). At some point, the PCs' ship started sinking.

- I gave myself a way out. In the siege, the fight had to last until all the Ogres were dead, or at least until it made sense for them to flee. With the naval battle, whenever I felt like it was taking too long, I just said "your ship is starting to sink", and suddenly, it wasn't a battle, it was problem solving with human obstacles. If you do the Kython thing, I suggest not telling them, or even not writing down how many Kythons there are. Of course, that's not possible with a battlemat.