Zornhau Forums

Just wondering whether there is intent to include mass combat rules in Band of Bastards? For some reason, I have it in my head that there was, but at the same time, it doesn't seem to be something that would be essential to a game of this style.

I ask primarily because I'm toying with the idea of running a Game of Thrones-esque campaign with players in control of a minor house, pretty much what the Green Ronin A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying game lets you do, but frankly, I like your rules much better.

Stempest wrote:For some reason, I have it in my head that there was,

Correct, check the sidebar on page 9. You'll just have to wait for this. Or maybe try to use the Full Contest rules?

Stempest wrote:Just wondering whether there is intent to include mass combat rules in Band of Bastards? For some reason, I have it in my head that there was, but at the same time, it doesn't seem to be something that would be essential to a game of this style.

I ask primarily because I'm toying with the idea of running a Game of Thrones-esque campaign with players in control of a minor house, pretty much what the Green Ronin A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying game lets you do, but frankly, I like your rules much better.

Yep. Especially early in our development, GoT (the show and books, not the RPG) was a source we went back and compared everything to as a bar of what we wanted to be able to do in 'Bastards. So there will definitely be mass combat rules. We just need to get the core book taken care of. On the plus side, I just finished a chapter for Henri to edit. Working on the healing rules now. Exciting!

Great to hear. And I can be patient.

But while we're on the topic, do you mind me asking how you intent to approach the mass combat rules, generally speaking? I mean, RPGs deal with mass combat in a variety of styles, from the quite abstract Savage Worlds where you just trade tokens, to Adventurer Conqueror King which lets you deal with every minute detail of assembling an army and fighting with it. Then there are those games like Ars Magica that use the heroic foray concept, focusing on the heroes while resolving the rest of the battle somewhat abstractly (but, of course, allowing the actions of heroes to impact the battle).

Stempest wrote:Great to hear. And I can be patient.

But while we're on the topic, do you mind me asking how you intent to approach the mass combat rules, generally speaking? I mean, RPGs deal with mass combat in a variety of styles, from the quite abstract Savage Worlds where you just trade tokens, to Adventurer Conqueror King which lets you deal with every minute detail of assembling an army and fighting with it. Then there are those games like Ars Magica that use the heroic foray concept, focusing on the heroes while resolving the rest of the battle somewhat abstractly (but, of course, allowing the actions of heroes to impact the battle).

I hate to get into specifics simply because every time I do that, I wind up putting my foot in my mouth when those specifics change prior to the thing's release, but in general, we are probably closest to the Ars Magica concept in that the camera stays on the players and their actions and resolves the overall combat in the background. That said, we still want to give players the ability to make meaningful decisions on how they assembled their army and what they do with it, as well as giving commander/general type characters some tactical options on how the battle is actually fought so that if player's aren't in the thick of it for some reason there's still some kind of game being played.

You have my mind racing down the path of a commander getting a dicepool that is proportional to the size of the army you command, which you split between Tactics and Ferocity. You select manoeuvres like Flank, Charge, Reinforce, Retreat, Take Prisoners, Hold Ground and Bolster. Each army has a Morale that is damaged and tracked like Stress in a Full Contest. Non-commanders can use Skill tests or Simple Combat in order to grant bonuses to their commander or directly influence Fallout. Fallout is a "wound table" you roll on that determines what happens to your army and characters based on the result of the battle and what Manoeuvres are selected.