The or-or challenges

[HoboKnight]

Hey guys,
I have a situation, where PCs will find themselves in a besieged town. Town is actively being besieged as bresiegers are launching incineary projectiles into town and setting it on fire. In this situation, I would like to present the PCs with a few situations, where they may contribute to the town being saved/defended by picking between several choices, given to them by the local leaders.

I have in mind simple things like:
- Hey, wise adventurers, should we place the militia on the town walls or assign more men to put out the fires?
- Hey wise adventurers, the town orphanage and granary are on fire. Which one should we save? We can only save one.
- Hey, wise adventurers. We have a number of badly burnt victims in a local temple - should we distribute potions of healing evenly, or give all of them to those who can man the walls?

Disclaimers: PCs may find solutions of their own to these challenges, but I would like for then to be properly conceptually challenged - not just "we split the party, one third sets out to put out the orphanage fire, the second third the granary fire, the remaining third of the party will help man the walls".
There will be no "muahaha, the granary has burnt down, hunger sets in", but I would like some challenges that challebge party a bit, so the duality might be needed to be written a bit smarter then an average CRPG style "sell the child or kill the mother" with a 60 sec timer. Even if PCs find the solutions of their own, I would like to give them the run for their money as much as I can.

Any other ideas on what choices I could present to them?

Thanks!

[Dalinar]

Hey guys,
I have a situation, where PCs will find themselves in a besieged town. Town is actively being besieged as bresiegers are launching incineary projectiles into town and setting it on fire. In this situation, I would like to present the PCs with a few situations, where they may contribute to the town being saved/defended by picking between several choices, given to them by the local leaders.

I have in mind simple things like:
- Hey, wise adventurers, should we place the militia on the town walls or assign more men to put out the fires?
- Hey wise adventurers, the town orphanage and granary are on fire. Which one should we save? We can only save one.
- Hey, wise adventurers. We have a number of badly burnt victims in a local temple - should we distribute potions of healing evenly, or give all of them to those who can man the walls?

Disclaimers: PCs may find solutions of their own to these challenges, but I would like for then to be properly conceptually challenged - not just "we split the party, one third sets out to put out the orphanage fire, the second third the granary fire, the remaining third of the party will help man the walls".
There will be no "muahaha, the granary has burnt down, hunger sets in", but I would like some challenges that challebge party a bit, so the duality might be needed to be written a bit smarter then an average CRPG style "sell the child or kill the mother" with a 60 sec timer. Even if PCs find the solutions of their own, I would like to give them the run for their money as much as I can.

Any other ideas on what choices I could present to them?

Thanks!

Speaking as a player here: the first campaign I was ever in had a fairly similar situation come up a few times. When the town was under direct attack, we essentially ran it as a combat encounter on a very large map, but that may or may not be feasible for your table/workflow. Particularly memorable was the flying archer who shot fire arrows into the roof of the nursery. Twice. You bet we tracked that guy down and buried him. (The party was low enough level to not be reasonably equipped for dealing with that sort of thing.)

To throw another idea out there for a hard choice, provided you have an already-established NPC this works for: the PCs run into a local dignitary, maybe a baron or whatever, who selfishly demands to be escorted out of town to safety. This will waste the PCs' time with helping someone deeply unlikeable that ought to be used for greater purposes. On the other hand, if they refuse, it risks their reputation being run through the mud by this guy--especially if said NPC bites it during the fighting and some ally of theirs steps up to do the trashing. Or, worse, the NPC takes it out on the townies later.

If it's the party-splitting that has you worried, here is another possible wrinkle to add: gang violence. There's been a problem with opportunistic crime since the siege started, as the self-centered look to enrich themselves before bailing out. Presumably the PCs will make obvious targets. Splitting up is therefore a risk to their safety. Let them take said risk, though what the follow-through looks like is up to you.

[lall]

- Hey, wise adventurers, the besieger leader has extended you an invitation to parley at the recently set on fire S’more Store while some of the militia are discussing strategy at the recently set on fire Pigs in a Blanket R Us and would like your input. Both sides have declared that If one party member attends, all must. The meetings are each 30 minutes in length and both start in five minutes. It’s just now you notice all of your remaining rations have been firebombed to a crisp. Your move?

[HoboKnight]

@Iall I chuckled 😄

[Vahnavoi]

You should allow the party to split, if that is their consideration. "Do we focus all our strength on this one concern or spread it across multiple concerns?" is a conceptually valid choice for them to make. A siege is not a dungeon. "Don't split the party" is tactical advice for navigating a hostile, unknown territory, where player characters have no other backing and are liable go get lost or picked off one-by-one if separated. By contrast, being a defender in a siege takes place in what's ostensibly home territory, when a party splits, they're spreading to known locations, with backing from friendlies.

For example, if enemies have a choice to attack from multiple directions, the question naturally arises where to place the defending troops. Granted, not all of these are true dilemmas - meaning there are better and worse options, the challenge is in correctly assessing them. But that's normal for any game with non-trivial strategy.

[Unoriginal]

Hey guys,
I have a situation, where PCs will find themselves in a besieged town. Town is actively being besieged as bresiegers are launching incineary projectiles into town and setting it on fire. In this situation, I would like to present the PCs with a few situations, where they may contribute to the town being saved/defended by picking between several choices, given to them by the local leaders.

I have in mind simple things like:
- Hey, wise adventurers, should we place the militia on the town walls or assign more men to put out the fires?
- Hey wise adventurers, the town orphanage and granary are on fire. Which one should we save? We can only save one.
- Hey, wise adventurers. We have a number of badly burnt victims in a local temple - should we distribute potions of healing evenly, or give all of them to those who can man the walls?

Disclaimers: PCs may find solutions of their own to these challenges, but I would like for then to be properly conceptually challenged - not just "we split the party, one third sets out to put out the orphanage fire, the second third the granary fire, the remaining third of the party will help man the walls".
There will be no "muahaha, the granary has burnt down, hunger sets in", but I would like some challenges that challebge party a bit, so the duality might be needed to be written a bit smarter then an average CRPG style "sell the child or kill the mother" with a 60 sec timer. Even if PCs find the solutions of their own, I would like to give them the run for their money as much as I can.

Any other ideas on what choices I could present to them?

Thanks!

Personally, as a player, having choices during a siege be presented as "either X or Y, the one you don't choose is screwed" would ruin the flow and take me right out of the action.

If the PCs are in charge, then they get to make some choices/give orders before the siege, like "people who fight have priority for the healing potions" or "protect the food over buildings, we can't win if we starve". You can even have a military aide ask them those specific either/or questions, since the aide would know which issue needs to be decided.

During the siege, the things the PCs can't perceive themselves would need to be told to them by various messengers, and they're not likely to meet each other, synthetise what the issue is, then present an either/or choice to those in charge. The situation, IMO, should more be "first messenger shows up, give report, wait for orders, and the next messenger shows up either before or after the first left", which keeps the situation changing. Sometime the PCs will have to change their orders after giving them, contributing to the chaos and stress of the siege.

Also, it should be possible that some things aren't reported because no one is able to witness the thing, or becsuse the messenger is blocked before they can tell their intel. Or, sometime, the messenger carrying the PC's orders back to the troops would be the one getting blocked, meaning the troops will have to work with what their immediate leader think should be done, or break into chaos if the situation is dire enough.

Of course if PCs notice the order hasn't reached its place, they can do something about it.

[Segev]

In addition, rather than presenting binary choices and solutions that explicitly apply to each, present the problems as they arise. Tell the PCs how many healing potions are in the town supply, and let them decide how to distribute them. Then, when the burn victims come in, if the PCs remember the potions, they can decide if they want to divert some or not, or they can come up with something else.

Word reaches them that the granary is on fire and that the orphanage is on fire at roughly the same time, but you don't tell them this is an either/or situation; you tell them both are on fire and let them figure out who to send where and what to do about it.

Present them resources they know of, and remind them of any that they might be reminded of, but don't tell them where to use them. Present them with problems, and let them decide how to use which resources to solve them.

[KorvinStarmast]

In addition, rather than presenting binary choices and solutions that explicitly apply to each, present the problems as they arise. Tell the PCs how many healing potions are in the town supply, and let them decide how to distribute them. Then, when the burn victims come in, if the PCs remember the potions, they can decide if they want to divert some or not, or they can come up with something else.

Word reaches them that the granary is on fire and that the orphanage is on fire at roughly the same time, but you don't tell them this is an either/or situation; you tell them both are on fire and let them figure out who to send where and what to do about it.

Present them resources they know of, and remind them of any that they might be reminded of, but don't tell them where to use them. Present them with problems, and let them decide how to use which resources to solve them.

This is the way.