|
Post by jonas on Apr 17, 2016 2:05:21 GMT -8
Hi.
Do people have any good guidelines on when it's good to start use the Mass Battle rules? It's an easy decision when it's two armies facing each other, but what about two motorcycle gangs? Or two violent football teams?
If you only have player characters on one team, it can be fun to do a normal combat against a huge group of extras, but what do you do if the players have their own followers as well?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2016 8:06:20 GMT -8
It really does tend to be a GM judgement call. I would use mass battle rules when the sheer numbers of extras and followers make a normal combat ungainly. If you notice that each round is taking the better part of your gaming session, mass battles can be used to streamline the process. While plowing through extras can be fun; the more bodies on the play mat, the more cumbersome things become. Followers/allies of the pcs just add to this.
To avoid going into mass battles, you can always have extras and allies cancel each other out, maybe making one roll for the whole group and adjudicating where necessary. This allows you to focus on the pcs instead of henchmen #2.
The last combat I ran had a few different groups; a contingent of security, a couple of bodyguards, an executive target, a group of freedom fighters, the staff of a restaurant, and the PCs. The security cancelled out the freedom fighters, trading covering fire and hand to hand, which i narrated when their cards came up. Restaurant staff retreated to the kitchens. The executive made a break for it as soon as possible with the bodyguards focusing on his safety vs combat. Only when an extra broke ranks to accomplish something story related (try to kill the PCs benefactor or grab a mcguffin) or the PCs targeted them specifically did their rolls come into play. Sped things up quite a bit.
|
|
joegun
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 249
Preferred Game Systems: Savage Worlds
Currently Playing: Just GM'ing right now.
Currently Running: Rippers Resurrected, and Savage RIFTS!
Favorite Species of Monkey: Baboon
|
Post by joegun on May 2, 2016 9:00:03 GMT -8
I've done it a couple times. Once when the group was wading through a massive battle, I had them make the rolls against me to determine the ebb and flow of battle, but it was more to decide the course of the narrative, as they were not contributing to the battle, just trying to get past it.
The second time I used it, I had a player playing an Orc Commander that had a bunch of the Leadership edges for his team ( 2 PCs and 4 NPC allies he could order around. ) He was arrested in a human occupied town where they had numerous orcs and goblins locked up for petty crimes. He did a massive jail break, and we used the mass Combat rules with him in charge attempting to break out of the prison. That worked really well, and handled the epic scale of it really nicely. From what I found, unless one of your PCs is playing that "Leader" roll, the mass battles aren't really something I would use..But if they do have it, it is a nice spotlight moment for them from time to time. He got to give a great rousing speech to get them fired up and the whole nine.
|
|
|
Post by savagedaddy on May 3, 2016 18:37:54 GMT -8
I like using Mass Battles to support In Media Res. I ran a space marines campaign and used a Mass Battle as the opening scene... think the Klandaktu Landing in Starship Troopers. As far as too many extras or followers/allies, count them as advantage tokens and losses.
|
|
|
Post by OFTHEHILLPEOPLE on May 4, 2016 6:05:53 GMT -8
I feel like if you are unsure about the size of the army involved and whether it's mass battle rules then you should try just using the Quick Combat rules and narrate it out. If it's a battle that is decisive and will be bloody then just do the Mass Combat rules for three rounds.
|
|