Dungeon Command and Control

This is not completely worked through, but I'm gonna throw it out there to see if anyone likes it...

Characters have control characteristics as defined in Domains at War (with slight modifications):

Leadership: As in Domains at War.  Basically, maximum number of henchmen.

Zone of Control: (2 x Level x Leadership Ability) in feet

Strategic Ability: As defined in DoW.

Morale modifier: As defined in DoW

 

In addition to their other traits, npcs have a "listening to" trait.  npcs who are "listening to" someone use the base initiative roll of that person, modified by dexterity (as usual) and the strategic ability of their commander.   NPCs who are not listening to anyone at the moment will fight (as morale allows) if engaged by an enemy, but will otherwise hesitate around the edges of the battle.  Taking damage or not being commanded in one round will cause the npc to stop listening to their commander until the commander reestablishes the connection.

Characters attempting to control npcs on their side of the battle may do so at a cost of APs, assuming the npc hasn't already acted.  They have a number of APs equal to their leadership ability with which to command henchmen and mercenaries.

AP Cost to command:

1 AP: command unengaged npc of lower level who is listening to you and in your ZoC.

+1 AP: npc is outside ZoC

+1 AP: npc is not currently listening to you (this will change them to listening to you.  If they have already acted, this is all it will do)

+1 AP: npc is engaged by the enemy

+1 AP: commander is engaged by the enemy

+1 AP: npc is of equal or higher level

-1 AP: npc is your henchman

npcs can also be "grouped together" into teams.  A commander may command teams of size up to 2^level members.  (1st level = 2 member teams, 2nd level = 4 member teams, 3rd level = 8 member teams, etc.  This extends up to 5th level = 32 member teams/platoons, 7th level = 128 member teams/battalions, etc)  These teams can be commanded as one npc, except

+1 AP: per factor of 2 team is larger than natural command size for level.

I like this, except maybe for the "engaged" penalties.  Anybody find this interesting?

(also, I seem to be having trouble with posts being moderated out of existence... I'm a real, good person.. honest!)

This looks like something I'd like to try in my campaign. It nicely scales from small engagements to DoW battlefields.

I don't know if I'd go as far as using battles, but the idea of using campaigns to treat a dungeon as a sieged fort intrigues me.  Perhaps around platoon level when the PCs can collect a handful of mercenaries and are trying to secure hexes, it might be easier to play a siege than to have them delve into every single beastman lair.

I have used DaW campaigns to run wilderness lair clearing, it's really good for beastman villages  

 

[quote="James K"]

I have used DaW campaigns to run wilderness lair clearing, it's really good for beastman villages  

[/quote]

I've done this as well. And you could absolutely treat a dungeon as a stronghold and play it as a D@W Battle.

Cool idea.

On the C&C thing, I was thinking about 2 things… od&d had this intimate connection to chainmail. In some sense, it was an adaptation of the unit wargame. I was thinking about what a modern iteration of that process would look like.

The other thing I was thinking about was a hireling combat reaction table in the ready ref sheets. I was thinking about how these hangers-on tend to adopt very “pc-like” attitudes and reactions to danger. Maybe a better way is to make them less… well, like additional pcs. Make them less reliable and independent.

[quote="DrPete"] The other thing I was thinking about was a hireling combat reaction table in the ready ref sheets. I was thinking about how these hangers-on tend to adopt very "pc-like" attitudes and reactions to danger. Maybe a better way is to make them less... well, like additional pcs. Make them less reliable and independent. [/quote]

I make morale rolls for my players' hirelings when they're in combat. The core rulebook technically only mentions PCs and Monsters in the Morale Rolls heading, and doesn't explicitly say which non-monsterous NPCs count as... But I figured that if merchants and bandits and nomads and elves can be listed in the Monsters chapter, NPC humans and demi-humans probably count as monsters.

What I have been doing is cribbing from Savage Worlds and simply letting players run NPCs in combat.  I still make morale rolls, and take over if someone tries to do something suicidal or out of character.  But the thing that surprised me was how rarely the latter comes up.  All else being equal, players want their followers to survive.

I really like the core idea of a "listening to" factor, though.  I'm likely to steal that for my own purposes.  I suspect I'll boil the modifiers and points down even more, but possibly not.  I'll have to give that some thought.