How to roll out a War?

[Justthis Guy]

Never ran a full on war, just some large battles, 6-8 players versus 40-50 opponents. But here is how I would most likely do this

it really depends on just how many troops each side will have. Lets say each army is roughly equal in size and say you pick 2500 total troops. Break them into groups of 25 each and treat it group as an individual. so, 25 mounted knights- assign HP AR and SDC of the average of the group to represent the group as a whole, then roll once for the attack- defenders treated the same.
So now instead of having to track 2500 stats, you are only tracking 100. I would have your players commanding the various troops under their command track the group stats and do those rolls, you deal with the other army.

You could scale the armies accordingly and then adjust the group sizes as needed to accommodate the scenario. Regardless, you will need a large battle board, many tokens, and a couple of days of serious gaming to fight a single pitched battle!

hope that helps

[The Beast]

There were a few Rifter issues that dealt with having armies go to war. My books aren't with me ATM though, so I can't look up which one was geared for PFRPG.

[MaxxSterling]

Gurps has a book dedicated to this. But you could always just do it simplistically and roll % dice.

[The Dark Elf]

One of the Rifters has large scale battles rules.

[Hendrik]

One of the Rifters has large scale battles rules.

'Tis true and IIRC they were not bad at all (--> RIFTER 23, pages 77 ss). Although, I seem to remember that there was a fantasy mass combat version of such large scale battle rules.

An early Rifter also had the idea to give a battle field a horror factor. Not a bad idea at all if you want to resolve "morale" issues for the troops (and especially green heroes). (--> RIFTER 14 and/or 16 according to the Nexus Nine Rifter index)

Sorry, cannot look it up any better from where I am at the moment.

Cheers
Hendrik

[St. Evil]

One of the Rifters has large scale battles rules.

#22 Just bought it last week locally cause you could not get it in Palladium bookstore. I plan on using those rules in a little bit cause of the larger conflicts that are going on around the PC's.

[Specter]

Why roll when you can role? In a game where the players are part of a war... the war itself is just background. It's part of their story but there is no need to have random rolls to see how the war is going. The GM can determine that themselves right?

[JuliusCreed]

Why roll when you can role? In a game where the players are part of a war... the war itself is just background. It's part of their story but there is no need to have random rolls to see how the war is going. The GM can determine that themselves right?

This is probably one of the best options to use here because it does indeed focus more on the role playing aspect. However, players can often see this as a sort of subtle railroading of the storyline ("Oh, you planned on having side A win the war the whole time") A few rolls here and there at some of the more critical times of the battle can determine if the tide sweeps a different way, possibly in such a way that direct action from the players is necessary in order for their side to win. This also helps keep your players interested as integral parts of the battle whose actions have a direct effect on the outcome. Perhaps a cavalry charge breaks through at the front lines or a sneak attack from the flanks by a company of archers against an already vulnerable side is particularly successful at weakening the lines, and the players and any men they are commanding are the only ones close enough to reinforce the line and hold until backup arrives... that is, IF it ever arrives. But, that's another scene. Otherwise, the characters are just riding along on a plot wagon in a story about how side A pummelled side B and won the war.
A war is basically a delicate mix of both Roll playing and Role playing. The GM just needs to find that comfortable medium where the outcome of a battle can remain uncertain, while at the same time letting the players' actions, successes and failures, rather that GM determination, have a direct effect on that outcome.