Mass combats in gamebooks

[Solo]

Then play it like Risk, allowing individual PCs to do their thing as well.  What the PCs do can affect the modifiers, and the results from the rolls affect the PCs (like the ideas stated above).

Just thinking out loud here.

Thinking also is appreciated ;) And seriously, I'm not familiar with Risk (although I know it's one of games' canon) so what's going on with this "play it like Risk" thing? How do you alter the modifiers? And what's after?

[Solo]

And what if you ASK your players ''At what scale do you wish to make impact in the battle?" Then they roll something about "battle" or "tactics", not plain "weapon skill" and then they can narrate HOW they did what they did.

Or, the scale may be a choice from three possible ones: "battle", "partial", "personal". The first meaning the whole battle depends on them, the second meaning they don't decide the battle itself but a whole lot of people's lives, the last meaning they do some duels and generally try to survive.

At the "battle" scale the outcome depende on the players.
At "partial" and "personal" scale the GM rolls for the two armies (groups) and modifies the players' rolls based on whether they are on the final winning side or the losing one.

I'm not following you. Not entirely, at least. How a single, give it a warrior, could decide that he is going to to change the outcome of the battle being waged for e.g. 1000 people? Throw in an additional die roll to determine what effect his current action wuold take. It wouldn't change your conception much but could give a bit more realistic effect. In my opinion, of course.

Besides, "battle" roll, "tactics" roll?

[Precious Villain]

Check out the squad combat rules for Godlike.  They give a really good effect in actual play (I've used them several times).  PCs can strongly affect the outcome of action, but big groups can and will wear down the unwary.  Of course, given Godlike's unique mechanics this solution won't be easy to copy. .  .



http://arcdream.com/godlike/resources/rules.htm

[dewey]

How a single, give it a warrior, could decide that he is going to to change the outcome of the battle being waged for e.g. 1000 people?

By "Heroic opportunities". See L5R, by John Wick, not the d20.
A heroic opportunity is, for example, when a player or the party gets a clear line to the opposing leader, or ...
... a character suddenly finds himself the leader of unit, all the higher-ranking having been killed, or ...
... they're ordered to "Hold the line", or ...
These do have an impact on the battle, and the scale ot it is as great as you and the players want it to be.

Besides, "battle" roll, "tactics" roll?

What's the problem with them?

[Solo]

Check out the squad combat rules for Godlike.  They give a really good effect in actual play (I've used them several times).  PCs can strongly affect the outcome of action, but big groups can and will wear down the unwary.  Of course, given Godlike's unique mechanics this solution won't be easy to copy. .  .

Yes, that's an interesting solution. Haven't tried it yet but... I will, promise.


dewey, those rolls simply don't get through to me:(