Running group combats

[Narf the Mouse]

What things does Narf need to know to run mass combats?

 

Thanks.

[Old Man]

Re: Running group combats

 

Hopefully each participant will have their own weapons and armor. It'll be really expensive if you have to provide them. Also make absolutely certain you have each of them sign a waiver, and if possible, you'll want to have some EMTs present.

 

...

 

In Fantasy Hero, assuming we're still at skirmish level and not actual mass combat level, the typical shortcuts are:

 

 

- Stunned, Impaired, or Disabled combatants are considered dead.

- Ditch Hit Location if you're using it and go with average armor value.

- Stun--forget it.

- Use morale--have badly wounded or isolated combatants attempt to flee, and have one side give up after taking 50% casualties or so.

- Lock in everyone's combat levels (if any) and work out the the fixed to hit rolls. Then roll all the to-hits in rapid succession or even use sets of different colored dice to roll them all at once. I find that using d6s with pips, you can quickly spot clear hits and clear misses, and you'll only have to count the borderline cases.

 

This, again, is for skirmish level RPG fights. True Hero System mass combat goes further and treats entire units as individual combatants with CVs of their own, combat maneuvers more suited to units, and morale as well as physical damage. But that is beyond the scope of this post.

[dmjalund]

Re: Running group combats

 

if you want to allo stun (and enemy damage is standardized) - before play, divide STUN by the typical amount that gets by defenses and use it as a number of hits before the target is down.

don't count recovery - he is counted down until the end of the combet.