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Sidmen
2013-05-09, 12:36 AM
Hi everyone, first time visiting this section of the board.

I've been working on a homebrew system for about a year now (obviously not constantly), and wanted to share one little piece of it for criticism and feedback. The base of the homebrew system is Green Ronin's Dragon AGE, which fuels the combat and task resolution engine. In short, the base engine has you roll 3d6 and add your character's Ability score (usually 1-5); with a bonus +2 if you have a focus in the particular task. This is then compared against a Target Number (TN) and success or failure is determined.

The most important modifications (for the purposes of the mass combat system) that I've made are as follows: Initiative slots are earned by a test, much like D&D, but anyone can claim them on any turn (max once per turn). And I got rid of the Major/Minor divide in actions and just classed them all as Actions - with a limit of 1 attack (of any type) per round per character.

Anyway, on to the show. In this PDF (http://www.freeuploadsite.com/do.php?id=11474), I lay out a mass combat system for the game. After looking at about twenty Mass Combat engines to pilfer from, I started to hate all of them. Then I remembered a game called Suikoden 2 from my childhood (and ended up buying it again... it wasn't cheap...) which had a mass combat system that I adored.

I then set out to model it in an RPG. I think I did fairly well with it.

A quick definitions of terms that are explained elsewhere in my homebrew game that appear in this document.

Resources: these are vaguely defined assets that a House (which is a noble family/merchant guild/etc.) uses to buy things such as castles, territories, settlements, etc.

Glory: These can be used to automatically succeed on a roll, or to increase a house's resources by 1 each.

Philemonite
2013-05-09, 01:01 PM
I loved Suikoden 2. I'm definitely reading the rulebook.

Sidmen
2013-05-09, 10:30 PM
Thanks! Sukoden has to be my favorite series of all time. Have you tried Sukoden 5? 3 and 4 were alright, but they suffered by spending too much on graphics, whereas 5 looked to be identical to 2 - I spent the entire 20+ hour game in a nostalgia trip.

When I run this mass combat system, I give my players unit cards, then place little cocktail swords into them when they take damage.

Philemonite
2013-05-10, 07:12 AM
Actually, I like 3 the most, and that is the first Suikoden I played. I just love the Trinity Sight System. Also, Tactics(Rhapsodia) is amazing.

Anyway, I read your rulebook.
I like the idea of limiting damage to 1, making the attack just hit or miss, it makes things less complicated.
I was kinda expecting some magical units, but adding mages to squads works well. I have one advice, expand the list of magic actions by adding buffs/debuffs.
Everything else looks good, I would play it.:smallwink: