4 thoughts on “Playing around with some ideas around mass combat and warfare in DW.”

  1. I like the direction you’re going with this – channeling Diplomacy really implies focus on the fiction and relationships, not the rolls or mechanics. And this is the heart of DW.

    I, too, have been thinking about mass combat within DW. Looking for balance between simulation and narration, I was directed to the mass combat system in Legend of the 5 Rings. Highly recommend taking a look based on your comments about hero participation and battlefield events. There’s a whole bit about how to handle each of those and have them interact.

  2. I really really like this.

    My current campaign is set after a Fantasy First World War and I’ve been wanting to do a prequel campaign set right in the middle of the conflict. But I could never figure out how to have a continent-scale catastrophe alongside small influential missions and this seems like a great start!

  3. I have done mass combat modelling each side with a “usage die” mechanic from TBH and similar.

    A small squad has size d4, a gang size d6, an army unit has d8, etc.

    When a battle happens, both side roll dice. On a 1-2 casualties are severe enough to drop the die size (d4 drops to nothing, squad gone). Otherwise, the highest number gains ground, has an advantage, or otherwise achieves some reasonable goal.

    Character actions can provide an advantage (roll two dice, take the highest) to their roll, or a disadvantage to the enemy’s roll (two dice, take the worst). Characters that are part of a unit taking casualties need to Defy Danger or suffer damage or debility.

    This worked pretty well. I only used it in one session, but it was fun.

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