rs2excelsior
2014-09-28, 09:14 PM
Hello all! I've recently (about half a year ago) gotten into roleplaying games, and I've played some D&D/Pathfinder, as well as GMing for another system a bit (only a couple of sessions so far). I've had an idea bouncing around in my head for a while now, and I want to run it by the Playground to see if you all think it's workable or not.
Before I was introduced to roleplaying games, I was a wargamer. Have been for years. I've even designed a few systems, to greater or lesser degrees of completion. I've been working on a fairly (hopefully) realistic but reasonably (again, hopefully) simple fantasy wargame--and yes, I know, "realistic" fantasy is in many ways an oxymoron, but I want it to look pretty much like historical medieval combat if you take out all the magic and non-humans and such. So then I had an idea--why couldn't you combine the two?
Here's the basic idea: each of the players is the captain of a mercenary company of 1500-3000 men (roughly, the units in the game are about 500 strong each). They design their character, who would have both personal combat statistics, as well as other things pertinent to battlefield leadership. Individual combat could be done, but it's simpler and not really the focus of the game. Most of what the players do is based around their forces--they start with a certain amount of gold, with which they hire and train soldiers, and buy equipment and supplies. So with a given amount of gold you can have a horde of poorly trained and equipped peasants, a small band of elite, well-equipped veterans, or something in between--even a few of both. Most of the combat, then, uses the wargame rules, focusing around army combat.
I decided to do mercenary groups because it'd give players a bit more free reign outside of a strict military hierarchy. Units would have a purchase and an upkeep cost--the former representing buying the equipment and training the men, the latter including things like pay, supplies, and replacement gear. That way we avoid tracking every arrow and sack of grain.
I think the biggest hurdle would be balancing everything. Trying to come up with costs such that forces bought with a certain amount of gold are roughly equal is a bit daunting, and frankly something I'm bad at.
So I'm sure this idea has been had before (or at least something along these lines), but how does this sound? Is it something I should go forward with?
Before I was introduced to roleplaying games, I was a wargamer. Have been for years. I've even designed a few systems, to greater or lesser degrees of completion. I've been working on a fairly (hopefully) realistic but reasonably (again, hopefully) simple fantasy wargame--and yes, I know, "realistic" fantasy is in many ways an oxymoron, but I want it to look pretty much like historical medieval combat if you take out all the magic and non-humans and such. So then I had an idea--why couldn't you combine the two?
Here's the basic idea: each of the players is the captain of a mercenary company of 1500-3000 men (roughly, the units in the game are about 500 strong each). They design their character, who would have both personal combat statistics, as well as other things pertinent to battlefield leadership. Individual combat could be done, but it's simpler and not really the focus of the game. Most of what the players do is based around their forces--they start with a certain amount of gold, with which they hire and train soldiers, and buy equipment and supplies. So with a given amount of gold you can have a horde of poorly trained and equipped peasants, a small band of elite, well-equipped veterans, or something in between--even a few of both. Most of the combat, then, uses the wargame rules, focusing around army combat.
I decided to do mercenary groups because it'd give players a bit more free reign outside of a strict military hierarchy. Units would have a purchase and an upkeep cost--the former representing buying the equipment and training the men, the latter including things like pay, supplies, and replacement gear. That way we avoid tracking every arrow and sack of grain.
I think the biggest hurdle would be balancing everything. Trying to come up with costs such that forces bought with a certain amount of gold are roughly equal is a bit daunting, and frankly something I'm bad at.
So I'm sure this idea has been had before (or at least something along these lines), but how does this sound? Is it something I should go forward with?