How to run a city under siege scenario

[Bane-Wordsmith]

Greetings forum! I hope you can help talk me through an idea. It's one thing to write a story, it's another to balance the Encounter Level and not get a TPK.

My campaign is starting to escalate into a full blown war, and I hope hopping to gather some tips from the wise folk here?
I was looking at starting it off in a city under siege, something along the lines of 'hold the wall' as well as having to withstand siege engines and the other nuisances that war seems to bring along.

One of the ideas I was playing along with was having the party defend a section of the wall. Ladders would continue to come up with the enemy below. The party would have to knock the ladders down, and slay the enemy as well as stopping them from making their way down the walls.
(The battle at Helm's Deep comes to mind, though not nearly as grandeur.)
I try to include an essence of randomness in my games, but I really want to showcase the chaos of war. I was thinking to let a D6 control how many ladders fall and how many men come up it.
If I control the CR so that they average roll is an average EL, the party will have to trust fate that they are not overcome (high roll) , a may pray for a respite from the battle (low roll)

Any thoughts or tips?

[ArcturusV]

Spock: ... shows two dimensional thinking.

In particular, not knowing how your campaign works, and the various details, I have to wonder why it's so conventional seeming on this "Siege". With people going ladders and hooks, climbing up and trying to push over ladders. This might be good if you're running a low level world/region.

But it strikes me as... well... not as interesting as it could be.

It seems like your stated goals are:

A) Relatively balanced Scenario that the players can overcome.

B) Frantic action where the tides of war come into play rather than letting players choose the pace.

C) A bit of luck being involved rather than cold calculated precision.

Now... I'd almost ignore the wall. I know the Helm's Deep image from the movie is really powerful and you want to evoke it... but it turns the fight into a joke (Just knocking off ladders), or just a huge cluster**** as you got 40 enemies crammed on some 10' wide space.

This is really one of those things where I wished I knew the scenario better, because it would tell me how I'd set this up. Particulars matter.

View the wall as a speed bump. The wall isn't there to deal with an army. It's not a strong point. The wall keeps random riffraff like warg packs from the wilderness out of the city, makes it harder for wanted criminals to escape the city, etc. In DnD.. a wall can't really hold an enemy unless you got some serious mojo backing it up. Siege engines will just pound the wall into the rubble before the enemy even tries it. Or someone will just cut lose with some arcana to bring the walls tumbling down. They have no real reason to go for a frontal assault on the walls (Since you did mention siege engines into play, if it was some goblin nation without such firepower, maybe).

So the fighting should probably take place in the city itself. What I like to do for it is go for a "Fire Brigade" style. This fits the hard pressed or reprieve swing that you want. Say there's 4 major breeches in the wall. The player characters can't be everywhere at once. Have them jump from combat to combat. "Over to the Temple to help the priests!" "No, over here towards the armory, we gotta hold that building so that the militia can be armed!" "No no, they're going for the keep, my duty is to protect my lord!" Remember no matter what they choose, other stuff is still going on. If they choose Option A, then B, C, and D are all progressing. Maybe give it something like a 1/6 or a 2/6 option the defenders hold (After all, the enemy wouldn't attack if they weren't certain they could hold it, but luck matters, and they might hold out). Situations keep getting worse, the players hear things after a battle clears out, a messenger going "The armory has fallen and they're moving onto the residential district, we need your help!" and such. It gives a sense of urgency to the defense. Doesn't let them rest and lick their wounds more than it might take to quaff a healing potion the temple priest gives them, or reload ammo at the armory, etc, before going off to the next point.

Schedule it so that they can win, and they can lose. Something like... if the enemy army is defeated in X battles, they cut their losses and regroup for the day, maybe fall back to positions they have won already like the armory they kicked over, the temple they sacked, etc, to renew the assault the next day. Because they'll keep coming if they got a foot hold. Calculate out time until friendlies may arrive, because if an army showed up, probably a good chance some cleric cast "Animal Messenger" or the like to go tell the next fort over to send some troops to break the assault. So if they can hold out for say... 10 days they might win as the incoming reinforcements drive off the army. Or if they really rambo up and end up killing off all the thousands of enemy troops. Or if they manage to completely destroy their command structure (Especially good against "Horde" groups like barbarian orcs, etc) and demoralize the enemy army.

[Brookshw]

You could run all sorts of things with this. Enemies sneaking into the city, find out how and stop it. Find traitors that are working to sabotage the defense. Non-combat encounters involving different political factions in the city, some that want to flee, some surrender, others fight to the bitter end. You could do things with city moral and supplies.

For strictly battlefield encounters there's a lot you can do. Holding positions is the easiest to build, that's just waves of things to kill. I'd recommend having parts of the city over run. This causes movement by the party and opens up opportunity for variety. Example: you held your portion of the wall but others fell, you need to get to duke whomever to help rally and coordinate the remaining defenses. To get to him you're wading through defenders, invaders, and possibly regular citizens. Pick a number of encounters appropriate and roll a d10 for what the party encounters enroute:
1) citizens under attack by invaders, defend them or keep moving?
2) enemy cavalry
3) mass volley of arrows incoming, spot checks to notice and get to cover, fail and reflex saves as dozens of arrows rain down on each party member.
4) defenders position is about to be over run, help hold for 5 rounds until reinforcements arrive.
5) enemy forward position, take it out!
6) beast of war, they brought something big and nasty in, take it out!
7) fire! Put it out quickly before the city goes up.
8) enemy champion spotted, show the invaders toughest guy they're not as bad as they thought they were, -moral to enemy.
9) pitched battle, try to sneak around or wade through the middle of the clash?
10) elite cleric unit raising the dead and turning them against the defenders, stop them!

You can do plenty with a siege, but as stated without knowing the setting hard to say what would work best for you. Enemies sending in hundreds of bound demons that teleport, attacks via gate/ethereal, so many different things that could happen.

Plus my phones about to die so no more time to type :smalltongue:

[Amphetryon]

What level of gameplay is this siege taking place in? It's important because magic can really trivialize the cinematic siege feel you seem to be after; Dimension Door and Summoning spells can make setting up defensive 'choke points" fundamentally impossible, and BFC can lock down vast swaths of either side's forces.

[Red Fel]

Consider this as an idea.

The players can choose four locations to defend: The Gate The Wall The Streets The Keep
Each location plays out as follows.
The Gate: The Gate will be the first spot to fall. Players defending the gate do so alongside a list of armored NPCs with spears and shields. Each turn, make a roll of siege weapons against the gate's hardness. On a failure, nothing happens. Describe the sounds of impact, the tension of waiting, build atmosphere. After a certain number of successes, the gate cracks open. Describe the battering ram breaking through. Here your players will start fighting off the vanguard as they clamber over the debris. If the Gate is overrun, players should fall back to the Streets.
The Wall: The Wall will play like a game of whack-a-mole. Players on the Wall are overlooking the invading army. NPCs on the wall will be archers and trapmen, armed with bows and boiling oil and rocks and so forth. Each turn, the defenders will roll to keep ladders away and dodge the occasional projectile. The archers will roll en masse to deal some slight reduction to enemy numbers. Players on the roof will either snipe enemies (generic shots, if they hit a mook goes down) or fight off those enemies who scale the wall. If the Gate or Wall is overrun, players on the Wall should fall back to the Streets.
The Streets: The Streets are a multi-faceted scenario. Players in the Streets, unlike at other locations, do not have NPC assistance. Their primary goal is ushering civilians to safety. Roll each round to see if a ballista or catapult projectile lands nearby. Have players roll a simple reflex save to avoid the damage from the impact. Then have them conduct rescues. In addition, players in the Streets will observe looters, vandals, and escaped criminals. They can choose to prevent or ignore this. If (or more likely, when) the defenders at the Gate are overcome, that combat will reach the Streets. If the Streets are overrun, players should fall back to the Keep.
The Keep: The Keep is the last line of defense. For the early part of the siege, it is likely to be exceedingly slow. Players there will be aiding in tactical decisions. The Keep has a high overlook that gives players visibility over the entire city, along with signals that allow them to communicate with party members in the Streets, on the Wall, and at the Gate. Let them make Spot checks (with a bonus from a convenient spyglass for that purpose) to aid other party members at those other locations. Periodically, civilians evacuated from the Streets will arrive in the Keep - players should be prepared to receive them. Players should also be on the watch for brigands sneaking in to steal during the confusion. Players will be assisted by the noble's personal guard NPCs, with swords, shields and medium armor. If the fighting fills the Streets, it is likely to spill over into the Keep. Roll to break through the doors to the Keep as you did for the Gate. Finally, if you plan on there being an internal betrayal or boss battle, the Keep is where it should happen.

The outcome should depend on your goals. If you simply want the players to rebuff the siege, most of the "action" should happen at the Wall and Gate. Players in the Streets will deal with rescues, players at the Keep with logistics. If you anticipate that the city will be (in part) overrun, the climactic battle should happen at the Keep.

[Psikerlord]

just wanted to say I am about to run something like this and this thread was a massive help! Cheers

[Goaty14]

Generally I would direct you to Heroes of Battle; a book dedicated to this sort of thing.

In the event the City is being attacked, you don't have to limit the players, for example...
If the enemy (lets just assume an Orc tribe with primitive siege weapons and ladders and such) is attacking the city, then let the mooks fight each other, the PCs have to be over 1st level right? Instead of ideally fighting them on the walls; have the PCs go out and take the fight to the enemy, at least make that an option, and then go at their tribe leaders, catapults, and such.

TL:DR Give the PCs the option to go outside the city and take the fight to the opposing force.