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Team mechanics

These rules are for running large scale combats that consist of multiple parties. As well a general overview for the resources it will take to run an ongoing campaign with these parties in the same universe. 

Bear in mind that multi party combat is intended as a big crossover event and isn't necessarily designed to be something to be done on a week by week basis. And the social encounters leading up to these crossovers will likely need a lot of preparation and multiple dms to run multiple story threads side by side.

Team combat rules

Conditions for team combat

  • Party combat engages with multiple allied parties, or with a high number of enemies present 

    • Optional: can use party combat for every encounter

    • Optional: party actively decides to engage in party combat

    • Optional: can also use for engaging in ambushes but cannot use when being surprised

    • Optional: only parties that have fought through at least two levels worth of combat together can fight in party combat

Initiative: 

  • Each party have their own initiative based on the party’s average initiative at the beginning of combat rounded (ex: if the party individually has initiatives of 1, 2, 2, 4, and 5 then their party initiative will be 3)

    • If one party member dies, or else breaks the group dynamic, each player reverts to their base initiative (A dm can choose to maintain or break the party cohesion on a situational basis. Such as a character intentionally sacrificing themselves so the others can escape.)

    • (note: side that goes first will be able to bring more strength to bear than they otherwise would over a single turn. Observe this in balance. [minions get max health to make more balanced??])

Ability checks

  • Uses pre determined averages between all the players for group ability checks

Horde rules 

  • For every 1 of a specific unit over five enemies the players get +1 to hit and +5 to damage against the enemy

  • Average enemy damage rolls

  • Initiative count 12 or 15 for any minor units

    • Optional: Have initive be 10 for minions, 15 for lieutenants and 20 for bosses (10, 20 and 30 for epic level fights)

  • Optional for time: Have 1 quarter of minor units succeed saving throws 

  • Optional for time: All minor units use the same attack roll at the beginning of their collective turn then decide who to attack (If too low it can take a different action)

Player roles (roles to make sure all the players are included

  • Face- one who announces the party plan for combat (maybe switch the individual each round depending on the group) 

  • Quartermaster- keep track of loot

  • Tactician- track initiative

  • Scribe- record in game events

  • Archivist- record in game lore

  • Cartographer- record important places

  • Coordinator- coordinate multiple actions and help settle inter party disputes

  • Patron- request the dm award inspiration

  • Socialite- record information about important npcs 

  • Parliamentarian- make sure everyone at the table has a chance to contribute

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Miscellaneous 

  • Cover fire: Ranged attacks and dex throws that misses or fails can implement -2 to ac against the next melee attack that turn 

    • Alternatively it can impose -2 to attack against the targets next ranged attack if they are behind cover

  • Rules of engagement: Melee attacks grant +2 to the next ranged attack roll that turn

  • Faint: you can have an attack automatically miss to give the next melee attack from a different source advantage

  • Simultaneous dex saves cancel out evasion on one of the attacks of the target’s choice 

  • Conservation of ninjutsu: some minions will have 1 hp, some have average, and some have maximum depending on the situation. 

    • 1hp when fighting unorganized hoards

    • Average when fighting organized or with a commander

    • Max when fighting organized and with a commander (or for lone boss monsters)

    • (Conceptually: when fighting individual one must fight reserved and defensive but as a team they can rely on one another’s ability to survive)

  • If they go from one encounter to the next keep initiative of the previous encounter

    • Pre-roll initiative for monsters

  • Auto success on certain group ability checks for expediency​

Story group rules

Story group positions

Macro (if the campaign is simple enough each role can be filled by a dm)  (bear in mind these are just outlines of their duties, if one is too bogged down in work then two others can help by making that map he didn’t have time to finish, )

  • Director

    • Jobs: provide the greater plot, run major npcs (like the main villain), provide the details for specific npcs the dms have to run, 

  • Time keeper 

    • Jobs: keep the timelines in order, being in charge of keeping track of the scheduling of each group, deciding when and how to cross over the different groups, running certain important npcs(like the one that connects the groups together), 

  • Lore master 

    • Jobs: knowing the lore of the setting, providing the dms with the lore they can use and devising it when the dm needs it, record any new lore created by the dm that was on the spot,

  • Map maker(optional)

  • Stat maker(optional)

Micro

  • Dm

    • Duties: running the games and coming up with the immediate plot

  • Note taker (optional)

Mechanics 

  • Retcon

    • While keeping a vast comprehensive continuity between dms is exciting the reality is only certain groups will be able to do so seamlessly. And even then only a handful of them would consider the act fun. Don’t feel embarrassed if you need to employ some retrospective continuity to manage. 

    • It would probably be a wise idea to establish the rules of retconning before hand to prevent any complications.

  • Cross over

    • Use scheduling conflicts to facilitate crossovers if necessary

  • Guess star 

    • to supplement the duties of the story group they can play play npcs and villains behind the scenes and when the time comes play them in session. ​

    • (this is to give the story group fun things to do as well as potentially run the in world politics behind the scenes without a significant amount of dm fiat)  

  • Time dilation

    • In the setting presented here specifically there is a time dilation where certain events don't sink up perfectly on a timeline or there are events that people know happened but have no idea how exactly they got there, where they went when they left, or even how it could have happened when they remember being somewhere else at the same time. But because of the very active lifestyle of adventurers only they really notice these sorts of time dilation.​

    • (while there is an in universe explanation for this phenomena it is also intended as a way to give leniency on timekeepers. That being said it probably shouldn't be overused if you are looking for consistency in your game.)

Council topics

  • Voting to change a character’s alignment(dm of the player, director, time keeper and lore master)

  • Democratic vote: if the story has not been entirely agreed upon beforehand you can have these roles filled via democratic vote. (If this route is taken the people must know that they can be voted out at any given time)

New CR system

(link)

The CR system that has been linked to will be more adaptable for this style of play. 

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