OOC IX

[thirdkingdom]

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[thirdkingdom]

So, I rolled out the rest of the combat that happened offstage at work today. The forces in the Keep lost a little over a third of their total forces, and then the morale rolls started falling for them and monsters began to flee. So, as of now the siege is officially over.

Everyone, take 1000 XP for participating in this. You also have three chests taken from the respective goblin camps. The above XP award is separate from any XP gained from treasure, is not modified by ability scores, and is awarded to PCs only. Each henchman gains 100 XP for participating in the battle, not to be modified by ability scores.

My view of the combat is this. I think it went alright, once everyone, myself included, got the hang of rules. I think I should have changed the following:

1)Unit sizes were too small. I should have doubled, if not trebled them. The unit size we used worked with the ACKS creation rules for monster tribes (i.e. each unit was a "gang") and it scaled with the biggest monster on the field, the troll. Also, I wanted to provide a buffer of cannon fodder units so the PCs had less a chance of dying.

2)The distances were too great. I should have scaled everything down and treated Threshold and Tarnskeep as two separate encounters, instead of trying to incorporate everything into one battlefield.

3)I should have refined the rules a bit, especially regarding melee. I think it would have made sense to use some sort of initiative, but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible and initiative seemed like something we could do without.

4)I would like to have given the various commanders some special actions they could take per round, such as the ability to feint, flank or whatever.

Overall, I can see how wargames could be fairly complex to run in a pbp medium, as well as time consuming. I'd like to thank y'all for working with me on this, and perhaps we'll do something like this again, now that I've learned some things.

[Wyzard]

I have some of the in-character stuff to do when I get back to my computer, but for now could we get a list of treasure and stuff? I think we'll stay here until everything gets IDed.

[Wyzard]

Also, I think that makes Bruno first level.

[thirdkingdom]

I have some of the in-character stuff to do when I get back to my computer, but for now could we get a list of treasure and stuff? I think we'll stay here until everything gets IDed.

Yeah, I just, uh, want to know who's going to be opening the chests. <twiddles thumbs innocently>

[Wyzard]

*puts finger on nose*

I got the last one.

[Wyzard]

600 silver coins,
200 gold coins and
300 GP: thirty small ivory figurines, each carved in the shape of a goblin.
500 GP: Several pelts from what appear to be unusually large weasels.
900 gold coins.
1960 GP.

Less than I was hoping for, but not terrible.

And of course, we've still got a bunch of magic items to ID. For the sake of argument, let's put the figurines in a pile with the troll's rings when we Detect Magic.

EDIT: I'm going to move that once we get XP for this, we use a big chunk of it to pay out in shares to all of those who went out to fight with us. I think a reputation for generosity is going to do us a hell of a lot more good than a couple hundred GP apiece in the long run.

[Wyzard]

So, do you need to roll a new HD for Bruno, or does he just keep 6HP?

Also, we're going to need to sell a magic item. I'm 700xp away from leveling, and I want that new hit die real goddamn bad.

[Alethan]

I'm 945 from level, so if we sell something, it needs to have a value of 6000gp or more.

[thirdkingdom]

So, do you need to roll a new HD for Bruno, or does he just keep 6HP?

Also, we're going to need to sell a magic item. I'm 700xp away from leveling, and I want that new hit die real goddamn bad.

We'll keep the same hp. Have you picked a class for him?

[Wyzard]

Fighter. I didn't want a o mess with it.

[Wyzard]

Well. I guess we sit down and start studying analyze.

[thirdkingdom]

Well. I guess we sit down and start studying analyze.

I've got a pretty big IC post to make tonight that will address some of this, but want to wait until others have responded to the direct aftermath of the battle.

[Atlictoatl]

My apologies for being somewhat silent of late. Work has been very demanding.

My regrets, again, for the difficulties I caused by missing the existence of the maps and creating my own.

4)I would like to have given the various commanders some special actions they could take per round, such as the ability to feint, flank or whatever.

Overall, I can see how wargames could be fairly complex to run in a pbp medium, as well as time consuming. I'd like to thank y'all for working with me on this, and perhaps we'll do something like this again, now that I've learned some things.

An Echo, Resounding has a system for conferring Champion abilities on PCs in Mass Combat. It would need to be modified, but could serve as a starting template were we to do this again.

I had fun with it, and would enjoy doing this again. I'd recommend considering either a shared map that everyone could make troop changes to, or assigning a player the responsibility of making the PC troop changes on the official map. It's already a labor-intensive effort on TK, so spreading out some of the responsibilities would be beneficial.

I'm 1500 XP away from leveling, for what it's worth, so I'm with Alethan. Big lootz!

[Alethan]

I don't have any real complaints or suggestions for the mass combat; all I have is my honesty. It wasn't terrible, but it still isn't really my bag. If there were more mass combats in the future, I would limp through them as best I could in hopes of getting back to individual character interactions as soon as possible.

It was understandable, given the circumstances and resources, but having several units of 1-hit-kills was the biggest detraction on my end. Rhys would be loath to do anything other than move his unit into melee and leave the others to flank or range, as long as they are zero level peasants or townsfolk. He wouldn't want to use them as cannon fodder, so to speak. He would never make it as a high-ranking British officer in the War of Independence.

[Wyzard]

Yeah, Severi was completely willing to let those level-0 guys die in defense of their town. It isn't HIS home and family being threatened by the siege; they should be thankful he's agreeing to lead them at all.

[Wyzard]

600 silver coins,
200 gold coins and
300 GP: thirty small ivory figurines, each carved in the shape of a goblin.
500 GP: Several pelts from what appear to be unusually large weasels.
900 gold coins.
1960 GP.

My count is six PCs and two henchmen at half-shares, so seven shares. So, 280 for each PC, and 140 for Semele and Bruno.

Also, unfortunately, it appears that Severi did not get any of his townsfolk killed, which means that he needs to pay them. Severi should have 36 soldiers under his command (Bruno already gets a half-share), and he'll pay them 5gp apiece for the day's work, totally 180 gp. He keeps the remaining 100gp in order to have the money to copy Analyze into his spellbook and/or buy a big celebratory dinner.

[Alethan]

Rhys had 23 townsfolk and town guards under him.

He pays each of them 10 gp for their services in defense of the town. This includes a 10gp donation to each of the families of those townsfolk in Unit 1 who were killed.

He will pocket the remaining 50gp.

[MonsterMash]

Thurgan only has one unit of dwarves left.

[phil285]

Sorry I wasn't posting yesterday. Stupidly long day at work.

My thoughts on the mass combat from PbP is that it has to be intention-based and fairly abstract. If it goes down to counter-moving, then it bogs down quickly.

Vanco's similar to Rhys -- getting units wasted without a really good reason would just stick in his throat.