tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post438892226060683862..comments2023-05-27T11:14:02.426-04:00Comments on Some Space to Think: Skill Challenge Hubris: The Siege of FallcrestAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14216103531396452644noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-90317253823303110572010-09-10T10:09:26.929-04:002010-09-10T10:09:26.929-04:00I used this skill challenge as a basis for somethi...I used this skill challenge as a basis for something I ran the other night. Different city, but the same premise: skill challenge to represent a long-term, large-scale battle. There were four players, and each commanded a battalion of 1000 soldiers. The enemy armies numbered 8000, 8 battalions of 1000, each led by a minor NPC baddie known to the PCs, and, ultimately, under the command of a major enemy boss they'd faced before. The PCs were vastly outnumbered and had to rely heavily on their wits to hold out for a week until reinforcements arrived. I created army sheets, which divided the battalions into companies of 100. Each success in the skill challenge, in addition to whatever effects of their actions, the players chose an enemy company to destroy. When an entire battalion was wiped out, its commander was slain. Each failure, conversely, the players had to destroy one of their own companies. Use of the Heal skill or other clever means would allow them to regain a company. I divided the combat into multiple phases triggered by failures, and divided each day into rounds (morning, day, afternoon, evening, night). They also accrued battle fatigue (penalties to skill checks) as the days wore on unless they made Endurance checks or spent a round in the skill challenge resting. It worked out wonderfully. They managed to destroy all but one enemy battalion by the end of day 7, at the same time they were down to a couple hundred exhausted men and desperately trying to hold out. When reinforcements arrived, they faced off against the sole remaining minor baddie as well as the major baddie. Had they been less successful, they would have had to face more of the minor baddies.Matt F.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01974923093981075469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-86465242396771687092009-10-25T08:54:32.152-04:002009-10-25T08:54:32.152-04:00D'oh. Yes, good point about upper and lower.
...D'oh. Yes, good point about upper and lower.<br /><br />Yeah, the river was something I gave a bit of thought to and in the interest of brevity I went with the simplest solution: The gnolls aren't great with the river (maybe they have no boats, maybe it's high this time of year. it's fakeable), so it's an obstacle to them. That said, the river could probably be used in a fashion like athletics to get behind enemy lines as they approach, but that does suffer from the fact that it's a bit further outside of the penumbra of the 4e skills, so it would feel kind of forced to make it a thing unless one of the characters already had some river-related color in his background. <br /><br />-Rob D.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14216103531396452644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-16459003172369203702009-10-24T20:26:55.288-04:002009-10-24T20:26:55.288-04:00A great skill challenge, though you did mix up the...A great skill challenge, though you did mix up the lower city and upper city. The gnolls enter the lower city after the first failure and half to climb the bluffs to reach the upper city and the keep. The challenge also assumes that Fallcrest has completed the reconstruction of its south wall.<br /><br />The riverbank is undefended to the west of town, though it makes a natural obstacle that the gnolls--coming from the Moon Hills--would have to cross then cross again before they entered the lower city.Kameronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04457219206246387217noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-41170994638462602982009-10-24T16:08:40.562-04:002009-10-24T16:08:40.562-04:00I love it. If my 4E campaign was still running I m...I love it. If my 4E campaign was still running I might have even have used this. <br /><br />One problem with defending Fallcrest though - the river approach. I don't think upper Fallcrest had any defenses along the riverside. It did not appear as if it did on the map in the DMG. <br /><br />One of my wargamer friends pointed this out shortly after he joined my campaign...Marknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-19407495200383399962009-10-22T18:39:59.255-04:002009-10-22T18:39:59.255-04:00I love this so much that I'm changing the cour...I love this so much that I'm changing the course of my campaign just so that I can use it. A chart would make it much easier to use at the table.ZeroGainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03122409469631926274noreply@blogger.com