So years ago I designed and ran a few sessions of what I called a "Multi-character RPG". Essentially it uses WHF as its base where each player controlled a singular unit that made up part of an army. The players together formed the force.
The PCs would have a their own main units, which would have individual members stated, who would come together and form unit stats. An individual unit had anywhere between 5-20 units in it.
So as it went I had the following: >Unit Sheet This included your unit, it's war equipment, its leader, and a list of names for its members. As well as its XP, unit skills, advancement, etc. >Army Sheet This included the resources of the army as a whole, any siege weapons, war machine, monsters, etc. that the army had access to. As well it had "Army Relations" essentially people who might employ your army, people who have taken an interest in you, and the relations there of. >Unit Breakdown Sheet This had very simple stats on each member of your main unit, except the leader who got a bit more (and possible the banner holder, musician, or other unique attached individuals to your unit).
As units participated in skirmishes you got experience on three tracks. The army got experience, which the players decided what to spend on together. The units got experience, which you decide on individually, and the individual members who participated got experience.
This made a lot of book keeping, but was generally good fun as you would spend individual piece's experience mostly on the same skill for multiple, and occasionally upgrade an individual to be a banner holder/musician/etc.
What I'm getting at is I am thinking of refining this further and making my own system for it.
What I want to know is how bad of an idea is this? Are there any RPGs that currently do something similar? Would anyone be remotely interested in a game like this?
Eli Bell
I ended up rambling so I'll summarize.
The idea is a game where instead of controlling one character you and the party control units part of a large army. The campaigns tell the story of said army and its exploits. Individual characters are still tracked, but many can be abstracted so as to ease play.
I personally loved the idea because of my love of strategic combat, resource management, and fantasy war stories in general. I just am wondering if anyone else finds these topics remotely interesting.
Hunter Torres
I wanted to run a game of something similar for a long time, i always wanted to see some of my friends in command of an unit to see what kind of dumb shit they would come up with to get supplies
Landon Lewis
Yeah. I like the idea of it mostly because I actually don't know of a game where you control more than one character normally.
Jaxon Hughes
sounds interesting, but goddamn that would be hard to impliment
Landon Young
give us your notes already!
Christian Baker
Isn't that like football? Everyone wants to be Cavalry charging motherfuckers down, nobody wants to be infantry guarding the siege engines and baggage train?
Zachary Bennett
look, you didnt give us your notes and now your thread is dying!
Austin Barnes
The notes are from years ago and since lost. I was going to recreate them but with my own system essentially. I was just wondering if I was wasting my time.
The idea is that the people who guard the siege engines are not the player's units, but additional army units.
Ian Williams
crazy, I was actually looking into developing a milsim tabletop game as well. would be neat to get attached to soldiers in your unit only for them to die in combat. characters within the unit can get enhancements and promotions when characters of a higher rank die or are themselves promoted
should be able to control individual units somehow too
map? if so, gridded and enough space to incorporate a large town or c ity but not large enough to be an entire county or state
Nolan Campbell
Essentially Company of Heroes or Men of War, the tabletop. Would play 9/10
Xavier Cruz
The idea is one of the promotions a member of a unit can get is "Specalist". These include stuff like making him into an accountant, scout, physician, etc. the moment you do this his stats are no longer identical to the glut of the soldiers (often you'll eventually have all members of a unit be specalista in some way). When you have to make use of their specialization you can use that one guy.
So the number of promotions for units is large and promotions change their stats. You can change stats of groups of individuals by ranking up in their current "job".
Daniel Rivera
Personally I'd love to run the unit that has the shit details. Digging in to sap a wall, guarding a big & slow siege engine, being the poor bastards who need to weather the cavalry charge...shit like that leads to good drama.
Jayden Lee
bonuses would obviously be given to the specialist units
if theres a fluctuating resource pull then the account could stablize it scouts have increased LOS and maybe help Sniper units Physicians decrease wait time to return injured/recovered characters back to the battlefield.
what would the resource pull be like?
Samuel Gray
It sounds fun, looks like a decent way to run a Fire Emblem campaign. Playing with whole units and armies can be pretty great.
Joseph Phillips
Another question: How would you handle multiple races/classes in a unit? Would ranks come into it? what is the maximum unit size?
Jason Hernandez
I recall a xbox game that had a similar concept. I believe it was called... Kingdom Under Siege, or something to that effect. It was a top down rts, but when opposing units got close enough, it would move down to more of a Dynasty Warrior view, where you'd take control of the unit leader, and start wrecking the other unit. After battles You'd be able to spend the xp and upgrade the units gear, or the unit itself to a better unit. Archers to Crossbowmen, or Soldiers to Knights to Paladins.
I always really enjoyed the idea of the game. I haven't heard of any game similar, which is sad.
Point of the post I suppose. You could try to get inspiration from the game.
Jacob Hernandez
So the plan is that race only factors into what specialization a and jobs units can take. Which effects their stats which each job effects a unit's total stats. So races don't have different base stats but there is an inherent opportunity cost.
I'll look into it. Thank you.
Parker Clark
I have been thinking about resource management. How I did it before is different titles, specialization, and equipment had special types of consuption. Without it they fall into disrepair. What type of consumption (vats of oil being a rare one) depends on the kind of area you're in.
Cooper Brown
Archers need good wood. Forests Martials need weatstones. Mountains Calvary needs triple food. Farmland Spell casters need arcane scrolls. City. Don't know if you even want magic or if this is a gun game.
Everyone needs 1 unit of food base. Maybe more depending on specialty (ex. Cavalry)
Juan Barnes
Im imagining a modern military tech tree so my terminology may be shifting that way In order to get an idea on your resources, you need to figure out what kind of tech were talking about Mechs and modern military vehicles are gonna need lots of oil Horse calvary and swordsman probably, not so much
Landon Reed
I'm honestly surprised there aren't more rpgs known for allowing you play an organization or army of some sort.
I wonder if board and war games just scratch that itch easier.
Henry Thompson
Personally my favorite part of civ is the combination and specialization of armies. If someone made that into a game, they'd get my money. It'd be great to go from large scale battles, to the leader of a fire squad at the snap of a finger to add your own personal finesse on the mission.
Aiden Anderson
I always try to make squads in any game that allows it. I am just obsessed with small unit tactics.
Youd just need a skeleton of a game and then put whatever military tech skin on top. When i was developing my pokemon tabletop, i changed out the Pokemon theme with a broader, less license-reliant theme. If you could develop a core mechanic, you could branch out into whatever tech trees and classes you want as long your resources translate
David Sullivan
Wish I understood mechanics. I've only played a bastardized version of 4e, and a lot of vidya.
