Castle Defence

[dropbear8mybaby]

Need some inspiration for a castle defence scenario. I don't want it to be something that takes up more than a couple of hours of game play and I'd like it to be something more than just shooting things from the parapets. Actually, I'd like it to be more interesting than even the standard ideas which tend to be put out a fire, stop the gate from crashing in, repel a siege machine breech, etc.

Which is why I'm having trouble coming up with anything.

The scenario will be to defend a castle (Caer Moray) against werewolves, wereboars and wererats (Tribe of the Black Blood). This is for a group of five playing 8th-level characters. Other than that, I've got nothing.

[arrowed]

It might be cliché, but the wererats could invade from the sewers. The PCs could be fighting werewolves on the ramparts and suddenly wererats snipe from behind! Then the PCs need to find and block the tunnel the wererats are exploiting.
If your PCs are Good Guys, you could have a hostage situation: the werepeoples do a conventional siege, where they try to starve out the castle, but they also have several innocents or relatives of the castle's defenders, and they've said they'll slaughter them if the defenders mount an attack. The PCs need to infiltrate the siege camp, save the hostages, and maybe assassinate the leader so the other defenders can freely attack the werefolk.

[nrg89]

Need some inspiration for a castle defence scenario. I don't want it to be something that takes up more than a couple of hours of game play and I'd like it to be something more than just shooting things from the parapets. Actually, I'd like it to be more interesting than even the standard ideas which tend to be put out a fire, stop the gate from crashing in, repel a siege machine breech, etc.

Which is why I'm having trouble coming up with anything.

The scenario will be to defend a castle (Caer Moray) against werewolves, wereboars and wererats (Tribe of the Black Blood). This is for a group of five playing 8th-level characters. Other than that, I've got nothing.

Well, they're lycanthropes so they could always use infiltrators. People who pose as someone the castle should let in.

Just don't make it unfold like a movie, if the players don't want the strangers to be let in, even though they're promising their hosts all kinds of things, give the players a realistic shot to convince the authorities not to let the lycanthropes in.
If the infiltration fails, maybe tunneling. Again, give the players a decent chance to react, but now that it's combat don't give them too much. Players already have the advantage.

[Pugwampy]

I am not sure we can tell how to make it more interesting until you tell us how you usually run it . Show me yours and I will show you mine .

The fact that this is a rather complex scenario for DM having to keep track of all the monsters running amok . You should make it as simple as possible . Your players are shooting at a mob from behind a wall is the interesting thing .

[Martin Greywolf]

Old but still gold, the 6 "S" of attackers:

• Subverting key defenders (so, assassination, bribery and so on, key defender may be someone who commands the defense or someone who has keys from the side gate)
• Scaring the garrison (propaganda, making loud noises, misinformation)
• Sapping the walls (kinda boring for your purpose, but can put a time limit on the scenario)
• Starving the population (not great for TTRPGS unless PCs are smuggling in stuff)
• Shelling the defenders (making a rock fall down on something once in a while, roll reflex to avoid damage)
• Storming the defenses (history tells us you need at least 5:1 numerical advantage, and you better starve the defenders a bit too)

And 5 "S" of defenders:

• Stripping the countryside of resources (if they have time to prepare, have them figure out how to get rid of a lot of forest or a pile of rocks, or perhaps even poison the water sources)
• Sallying forth (don't have them wait until the siege tower is at the walls, take it out before it's even properly constructed)
• Sapping the sappers and machines (again, somewhat boring)
• Subverting key attackers (assassination, sowing discord and mistrust, political alliances, the list goes on)
• Shelling the attackers (especially consider that a rock doesn't care what side you're on, so if your PCs are infiltrating enemy camp, they are in danger of being hit with an own goal)

What exactly you do depends on your players - some may like stealth missions, some political intrigue, others want to make glorious counter-attacks.

[dropbear8mybaby]

You know, I genuinely spent a few hours trying to think up what I would do for this situation and then, after posting this thread and reading the responses, I realised that I'd already decided what I was going to do.

It's funny how that works. One minute you think you have no idea what you're going to do, and then the next it all coalesces into a coherent whole and you're left wondering why you needed help in the first place. Then again, sometimes it's also the act of asking that kicks the imagination into high gear.

Thanks for the responses.