So my party's soon to be on the march with an army, and since it's quite a long journey I'm not entirely comfortable just skipping ahead to an entire season later with just a quick narration of time passing.
Can we brainstorm some sidequest ideas that can take place amidst an army on the march?
Outsourcing for food or a hunting thing.
Soldiers vs regulars in a tavern
Deserters
Sexual assault hearing
Make them do paperwork
Smugglers in the army are stealing supplies from the logistics train, stashing them on board a specific cart tended to by army servants who are in on the scam. The idea is they'll desert somewhere on down the line with a cart full of spare weapons, armor pieces, pay for the soldiers, shit like that.
Skirmishes with enemy outriders and patrols.
Humanitarian aide such as rebuilding homes razed by the enemy, or dealing with monsters that have become displaced and violent due to the (i assume) wartime.
Finding cures for a fever that has broken out in the army.
Hunting in order to help feed the army they're traveling with (And themselves) can lead to an interesting session, rather quick though. Throw a few random encounters in with it.
You could also do some combat or tense skirmishes with enemy advance scouts/ saboteurs/ pickets that you'll need to deal with before the actual fighting starts.
Another option is to make put a Dungeon in the wilderness on the flanks of the army's advance, with a raiding party of monsters having tried to raid the supply caravan that's travelling with you you're sent to clear them out of their dungeon, with loot from the Dungeon used as a kind of bonus to you for clearing it out.
Not him, but an expansion on that last one and one I used personally: The army comes to a large, raging river that can be stopped up by a Dam.
Fighting with an entire army, in such cramped quarters, would lead to trampling and a slaughter. So the party has to assume their roles as heroes and act as a small, strategic strike force to enter the Dam, eliminate hostile threats, and close the floodgate so the army can resume its march.
>Can we brainstorm some sidequest ideas that can take place amidst an army on the march?
Sure.
-There's a pack of Gnomes/Kobolds(if you do dogbolds)/a Troll following the war path your forces is on in an effort to kill and eat the people you displace and the corpses you leave behind. Put a stop to it as soon as possible, lest they start coming after your own sick and wounded or grow into a larger threat.
-A small tribe of Dryads and or Naiads have taken offense to our passage through their forest/river and have used Druidic magic to not just obstruct the movement of your forces, but draw it out and prolong it for as long as possible at our own expense. Stop them.
-A few small bands of Orcs & Ogres have noticed the movement/motion of your army and have been hovering around it for a few days- it isn't until they send a peon with a missive that it's made clear they wish to offer their services in exchange for looting/scavenging rights after the conflict.
-Some of the Men have begun to dessert (desert?). Find out why and bring them back either dead, but ideally alive.
-A Peryton has been encircling and stalking your army and it's men for weeks now and it has finally gotten brave enough to start picking off the carriers, peasants, and slaves: waiting 'till they're by themselves before it swoops down, guts them, and engorges itself on entrails and meat before flying off with the carcass. Kill it.
-A Griffon has -through bizarre happenstance- actually managed to eat the (head guy in charge's(?)) horse, HIS HORSE. He demands that your party track it and kill it. Immediately.
-You've been asked to negotiate with the Troll guarding the bridge over the river: he is prepared to SMASH the fucking thing if our army doesn't pay him a certain amount of money per set of feet on his bridge and double that per each horse, obviously.
>There's a pack of Gnomes
>Gnomes
Meant to say Gnolls, sorry, kek.
OP here. Got a few ideas from this thread so far. Thanks! Wouldn't mind if we kept it up for myself and any other bored GMs out there.
>-Some of the Men have begun to dessert (desert?). Find out why and bring them back either dead, but ideally alive.
A squad of the army stopped at a local village and ate some dessert with the accommodating locals. Subsequently, the entire squad deserted, and the last thing anyone remembers them talking about was the amazing dessert they had. The party is to go back and investigate why this dessert inspired desertion.
What system are you using? Have you considered promoting your PCs to centurions or their equivalent and having them command their own groups using a mass combat ruleset? D&D 5e has two separate ones.
That said, some sidequest ideas:
>Scouting
>Sabotage of an enemy encampment/military
>Assassination of enemy officers
They require a lot of stealth though, so if your PCs aren't stealth oriented you could do something else like
>Clear a path [example: there's a band of ogres in the way. The general doesn't feel like wasting his men on them so he lets the ragtag band of murderhobos take care of them]
>Defending the camp (while the actual army is fighting, the PCs protect against enemy raids)
>Securing positions [example: there's a strategic hill on the battlefield the general wants to drag his siege equipment to. The PCs need to hold the hill until the siege weapons and their escort get there]
>Investigating leads [example: a local shepherd claims that you can easily catch the enemy army by surprise by passing through a highly suspicious valley. The PCs go ahead to see whether or not the shepherd is talking out of his ass]
Also, most importantly
>IM-FUCKING-PLYING Caesar was the hero
>Implying it wasn't based Pompey
>Supporting the guy who killed the republic
>Nigga didn't even have a valid excuse like Napoleon did, Rome was safe
My HD that had 3.5 complete warrior died, but they have 3 handy tables I use.
>mission type
>supporting elements
>complication.
Can i sugest that they don't join the army? Or atleast the the rank and file. Ive tried running and playing in what you are saying and every time it leads to hard core railroad. The entire structure of the army is to not think just act. Make them a specal force or a recon party where they can kinda do their own thing.
>Tribe of cannibalistic gnomes using illusions and trickery to ambush bigger, delicious creatures in the night
Thanks for the idea, user.
Marching alongside an army doesn't necessarily mean joining it, in the sense of being part of its formal command structure.
Just remember that, if they're at war, there's probably an enemy army marching to intercept them before they reach their destination, unless you're far far behind enemy lines.
Consider the idea stolen
>The PCs are tasked with giving them their just desserts
>Nigga didn't even have a valid excuse like Napoleon did, Rome was safe
>safe in the hands of an oligarchy of rich senators who would rather ignore the needs of the populus in order to profit from their hardship and hide behind "muh republic"
Caesar was many things, but at least he was honest about his motives.
Just desserts are just what they deserve.
>caesar in gaul
a man of taste I see