"Battles. Run! How?" - Richard

There are a few aspects of GMing where I get consistent praise from my players; one of them is running large battles. This is the result of many experiments in running these types of adventures, which includes lots of dreadful failures. I've used lots of different systems from heavy in the dice rolls to more narratively driven, what I have found is that a little of this and a little of that seems to work best. For my next two, maybe three, articles I'm going to share the techniques I use to successful GM big battles and by extension wars. What I am talking about specifically are those big engagements, where the PCs represent only a small part of the battle.

Goals

Good GMing always begins with having clear goals. When I run big battles I usually have three goals: advance the plot, empower the players, and provide spectacle. They all sort of weave together in execution, yet I find it useful to keep all three goals in mind when preparing and running the adventure.

To advance the plot you need to give the battle context and provide consequences that derive from the outcome. RPGs are often all about conflict, with most campaigns a string of small engagements. You do not want your important battle just being a compressed string of small engagements or one really long, drawn out engagement. What you want is something that has significance, ideally emotional impact.

To empower the players you need to give them control, this can take a lot of forms. Sometimes the PCs might actually be in command of their side of the conflict, more often the PCs have been given some critical task. In either case you need to give the players time to plan and the ability to make that plan their own. In the end whether their plan succeeds or fails should be decided by the actions of the PCs, though whether their plan turns the tide of the battle is a different matter.

To provide spectacle you need to spend time preparing for this adventure. With RPGs the GM has an unlimited special effects budget, anything you want to put on the screen you can put on the screen. However for anything to have impact you have to connect it to the players, you have to show not tell.

Specifics

1. Provide a foundation and lay the groundwork. You need to buildup to a big battle, it shouldn't just materialize out of nowhere. Okay sometimes that might happen, yet usually you need to be dropping clues in previous adventures. There's a few reasons for this, primarily you need to give the players a heads up and you begin to set the stage. You see the players need to have an idea what they're about to get into, this helps them assess the stakes and strategize.

2. Make an impact by showing/involving not telling. Here's an example - the PCs are in an army facing a force of giants. Now you could describe this pretty well, focusing on the imagery and ground tremors from their thunderous foot steps. Great! But how can you make this real. You ask the PCs to make some sort of check to avoid stumbling from the tremors as they await the advancing giants. This really doesn't matter to the PCs tactically, yet you add in this - many of the soldiers in the army stumble and this terrifies many of them. Now the ball is in the PCs court - how to they rally their troops before battle begins?

3. This is an important technique. You introduce something that conveys some of the scope or stakes in the situation then you build upon that to create a problem the PCs have to solve. The best sorts of scenarios for this are situations that don't directly involve combat. There's a hull breech in their starship that needs to be addressed. The archers in the east tower are out of arrows. The town you are defending has caught partially on fire, citizens are in danger! You set up a scene to showcase the drama of the situation and compel the PCs to do something about it.

4. Avoid relying upon the big showdown. I have found that drawing up potent adversaries for dramatic one-on-one fights just doesn't work. More often than not these fights sort of fizzle out. The better approach is a series of interesting engagements, ones that test the endurance of the PCs.

5. Pacing is everything, you need to keep things moving. Now sometimes you do add lulls in the fighting, this adds some breathing space - both for the players and you. Yet most of the time you need to keep things rocking, toss one challenge at the PCs and then when they are in the middle of that introduce another challenge.

6. People make mistakes. PCs make mistakes and this can produce real problems, daresay disasters. That's great, sometimes the PCs should lose. However, and this is important - sometimes the bad guys should make mistakes too. I do this for a few reasons, one it gives the PCs a chance to exploit an opportunity, two it makes the enemy more real, and three it provides cover from when you as the GM make a mistake. You didn't make a mistake you just were roleplaying your NPCs who made a mistake.

7. Understand the battle! Have answered for the following questions: Why is it being fought? What are the strategies of both armies? What are the secret weapons of both sides? What are the conflicts within both armies? What do both armies know and what don't they know? When you can answer these questions and other that evolve from them you will get a clearer picture of when and where the key action will occur during the battle. Having a heads up on this helps you maneuver the PCs to where the critical moments will be decided.

Next time I'm going to break down two examples of how to run big battles.