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Post by Stormcrow on Aug 28, 2013 11:10:02 GMT -6
I'm a little unclear as to how the (pre-D&D) elements of the Blackmoor campaign, and any similar, contemporary campaign, were put together. For instance, how were armies placed on the campaign map? Did some players decide they'd like to hold a battle between, say, orcs and lizard men on one side and men and elves on another, in a swamp; so lo! they'd fight the battle and Dave would place it on the map? Or did Dave decide on complete orders of battle all over the map and make players move them, and you could only fight the battle that resulted? Were players assigned armies, or did players play whatever was available in a given battle? Did all armies have to be raised by command figures? Were new players given standard starting armies?
How'd it all work?
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Post by jmccann on Aug 28, 2013 21:34:09 GMT -6
Have you read First Fantasy Campaign? That has several pages describing the economic/ military aspects of the early Blackmoor campaign.
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Post by Stormcrow on Aug 29, 2013 5:45:20 GMT -6
I have not, and I don't have it.
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Post by Finarvyn on Aug 29, 2013 9:23:10 GMT -6
Basically, players played the parts of barons and rulers of towns and castles. Adventures with player-characters were tangential to much of the campaign. Some of the players were the "good guys" (law), some the "bad guys" (chaos) and some neutral. The players built armies (based on allowed alignment choices) and could attack each other. When rulers would attack each other they would decide which troops to send, but Dave would determine where the battles occurred.
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Post by Stormcrow on Aug 29, 2013 9:53:38 GMT -6
The players built armies (based on allowed alignment choices) According to what factors? How did you know, for instance, how many orc units you could field, or how many wizards you had? |
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tec97
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 157
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Post by tec97 on Aug 29, 2013 11:37:40 GMT -6
The players built armies (based on allowed alignment choices) According to what factors? How did you know, for instance, how many orc units you could field, or how many wizards you had? Haven't pulled FFC out in a while, but I believe armies were point-based and had to do with relative wealth of the "kingdom" fielding them. |
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Post by havard on Aug 30, 2013 8:28:45 GMT -6
According to what factors? How did you know, for instance, how many orc units you could field, or how many wizards you had? Haven't pulled FFC out in a while, but I believe armies were point-based and had to do with relative wealth of the "kingdom" fielding them. There are quite detailed tables with costs for units. Prices also seem to vary depending on which barony you recruit them from. Presumably you could only recruit them from a barony under your control. -Havard |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2013 17:02:12 GMT -6
All of which is pretty much bog-standard "wargame campaign" stuff, by the way.
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Post by cooper on Sept 1, 2013 19:27:22 GMT -6
According to what factors? How did you know, for instance, how many orc units you could field, or how many wizards you had? Haven't pulled FFC out in a while, but I believe armies were point-based and had to do with relative wealth of the "kingdom" fielding them. 0d&d gives some insight into what arneson did. Take the population and divide it by 3. This is your available fyrd or millitia you can raise. Depending on how magical your country was beetween 10% and 25% of your budget could be spent on "specials" aka heroes, wizards, ogres, giants etc. Depending on your culture you had to have a certain ratio of infantry to calvary to ships etc. For number of heroes generally it was 10+ 1 new hero every 6 months and superheroes were about 3 +1 every 2 years. This isn't the number you had in your army, just the number available to recruit. This number depends a bit on how big your barony is as well (dutchy of ten started out with 8 dragons, 5 heroes and 1 more per year per 10 villages). With a budget of 120,000gp the Earl of Vesfold could spend 12,000 on specials, which could be like 2 units of ents (8000gp) 1 unit of dwarves (3000), and a super hero (1000gp) How many dwarves, ogres and ents depends on how big their clans population was in your barony (and assuming good relations) |
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Post by Red Baron on Sept 1, 2013 20:04:37 GMT -6
Haven't pulled FFC out in a while, but I believe armies were point-based and had to do with relative wealth of the "kingdom" fielding them. 0d&d gives some insight into what arneson did. Take the population and divide it by 3. This is your available fyrd or millitia you can raise. 1/3 of the populace? Assuming your militias were entirely male and the average life expectancy is 40 or so (which is very generous compared to any time period in european history up to the late nineteenth century), that would mean every single man over the age of twelve is drafted, regardless of if their crippled, sick, or missing an arm. Besides the loss of 1/3 of your tax income from a region, the loss of half your labor force would completely shatter your economy and cause famine. As seen after the plague, the smaller labor force would drive up demand for labor, raising wages, and thus further cutting into your purse. I'd say possibly 10% can be recruited to go campaigning abroad, and an additional 10 - 15% can be gathered to defend the local area. I know this thread's about what Arneson's campaign was like, not what is realistic, but this is an issue. |
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Post by cooper on Sept 1, 2013 22:04:07 GMT -6
Arneson stated that fyrd was 30% of population, but no more than 1/2 of this number could be recruited at one time. So you are right, about 15% of the population maximum.
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Post by Red Baron on Sept 1, 2013 23:37:28 GMT -6
Didn't check the FFC before posting my angry letter
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