BIG BATTLES AND PLAYER CHARACTERS

Something I have been doing quite a bit lately, mostly in the interest of keeping everyone involved as we veer into larger and larger combats in our Celestial Plume Masters campaigns is having the players take on the the role of NPCs during big battles. I've also been doing something I blogged about a while ago, which is weaving individual character duels and small skirmishes into a much larger fight. This allows for us to have a massive city-wide conflict between multiple sects but still enables two sect leaders or two heroes to face off amid the burning rubble and destruction. It is a bit on the cinematic side, a bit of a reductive approach (it doesn't capture every detail of mass combat) but it does a good job folding it all in together. 

Today I want to discuss how I handled this in my most recent session of the Celestial Plume Masters campaign. I am a big believer in having a tool box filled with different approaches and being fairly transparent with my players about how those tools are used. This makes it easier to tailor everything to a given situation, without being forced to impose a sub-system or strict mechanic upon it (sometimes individual moments require more flexibility in my opinion). This doesn't mean core rules are ignored or cast aside, but more often that they are adapted and adjusted to the situation. Here you will see I am drawing on existing rules in the Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate rulebook and tools established in other books, but tweaking them, occasionally sidestepping and replacing them with other tools. 

The above image is my very bad rough sketch of the Guan Manor in Mai Cun, where the initial attack by the House of Paper Shadows in last session occurred. Here is a map of Mai Cun itself: 

Map by Francesca Baerald 

Importantly we didn't use the map of Mai Cun (we just went by memory because it has been such a common location). But individual ground level tactics weren't as important as politics, dialogue and individual fights, because the larger battles were abstracted into dice rolls. 

The method was a simplified version of what is in the Lady 87 book, except I eyeballed the different factions involved in the fight, assigned d10 ranks to each based on size and power, and combined them to give each side a total. Also before the session I went over the players forces with them and talked about what rank each of their factions should be (their input was important here). The result, which I felt matched the present situation in the campaign was their side, the Celestial Plume Masters, had 9d10, while the 87 Killers had 7d10 (this number would change due to events at the start of the battle). 

Combat was taken in phases. Each phase, if all the leadership on both sides commanded and didn't venture too far from their men to fight individually, maintained their side's dice pool at its present rank. If anyone decided to take on an individual foe or venture off to achieve an objective they lowered their sides dice pool by 1d10, to reflect the lack of command. 

Prior to the battle itself, was the attack on Guan Manor by the House of Paper Shadows. This gave a mole in the 87 Killers an opportunity to attack and kill Lady 87, which lowered their rank by 1d10. Had the attack resulted in the death of Guan Nuan, then it would have been lowered by 2d10 total. 

So the battle began with the celestial Plume Masters having 9d10 and the 87 Killers 6d10. But the player controlling Wang Haoyang went to assassinate Guan Nuan during the first phase, and the player controlling Iron Tiger sought out White Browed Demoness, resulting in the Celestial Plume Masters rolling 7d10 against 6d10. 

During the attack on Guan Manor by the House of Paper Shadows, because this would take roughly an hour or so of time, I allowed all the players not present (only one player character was present at the battle) to play individual NPCs on the 87 Killers side, while I controlled the House of Paper Shadows. This worked really well because it gave the 87 Killers more of a fighting chance, but also kept the players engaged. It is a bit of an odd technique because they are playing NPCs whom they are at war with, but I've found this approach to work pretty well when I want to conduct a large battle, and one every sword stroke to count, but don't want to just have the players watch me roll dice. Granted this could also be done before the session, but events in the session itself were going to affect what happened. 

The rough sketch in the first image gives my general overview of the 87 Killers forces. This is how I imagine a typical sect guarding its leader on important occasions. So she was fairly well guarded, and it was really only the presence of the traitor, Li Pu, that led to Lady 87 herself being killed. Since the battle was cut short once the House of Paper Shadows believed that Wei Ziying, their target, had been killed, this would otherwise have not impacted the battle between the players and the 87 Killers. 

I also found allowing the players to engage opponents one on one during the battles very effective. It really did create a sense of cinematic drama that didn't feel forced or out of place (the players were choosing to seek out these foes and it naturally flowed from the events around them). I quite like how this feels in practice. It also feels very wuxia to me. But importantly it doesn't ignore the larger conflict unfolding around them.