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Mass Combat

Quick and Dirty D&D Mass Battle Rules Even Non-Gamers Can Understand

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One of the hardest things for me about higher-level play in D&D is that, inevitably, we’re going to war. At that point, either I need to present the war as a bunch of solo, special-forces vignettes – which is an OK approach, but misses something for me – or a bunch of players who never had much interest in wargames are going to have to grasp a unit-level wargaming system. So over the years, I’ve come up with a quick and dirty way to put player characters in charge of units in a way that isn’t too far removed from regular D&D play. We just had one of these sessions, and the players all grokked it easily and said they enjoyed it. Here’s what we did.

When DMs Go to War: How to Run Mass Combat in D&D (and similar RPGs) and Not Bore Your Players

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Most DMs come to a point in their campaigns where they want to run The Big Battle! A real war: Storming the beaches of a fantasy Normandy, the Siege of Winterfell, the Battle of Pelennor Fields from Lord of the Rings. But when you go to set the battle up, you realize just how clunky mass combat is in D&D and most RPGs. In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave answer that and more as they break down what happens when DMs go to war.