How Would You Run This Adventure?

[phindar]

My current campaign is a 3.5 updating of a Basic D&D module. One of the things I like about updating old modules is that they were written when gamers were still figuring everything out, and so you end up with encounters and situations that a module designer today would structure differently or not include at all. This module, CM-1 "Test of the Warlords" is a good example of that, as it's not really a module but a campaign blueprint. The PC's are assumed to be landed nobles and the events of the module are designed to be interspersed with other adventures and cover a year or more of in game time.

One such event is titled "Raiders in the Snow" and it details one of the major dangers of the campaign, the threat of raids from the frost giants of the north. 2000 frost giants are on the march from their arctic home of Frosthaven, and mean to lay siege to the civilized lands to the south.

Keep in mind, this is 1 page out of the 32 in the module. (Considering the module details the lands and NPCs of fairly significant area and includes various events to happen over the course of the campaign, it's a surprisingly slim volume.) It includes the basic tactics the frost giants will use and about how long it will take them to get places, and that's about it. The frost giant army will split into 20 bands, so no more than 100 frost giants will be encountered at one time. This, I guess, is the module being nice to the 15th level characters meant to be going through it. They head south raiding the isolated dominions, then combine forces to attack the kingdom's main city.

I don't have a mass battle system and my group aren't war gamers, but I still want to run this. I'm going to try to tackle it using 3.5 rules and keep to the module's intent of presenting a large scale threat. If you were going to include something like this in your campaign, how would you do it?

[Roxoff]

The way I'd handle it is to create a time-line that gives the progression of the Frost Giant forces, where they attack and the progress they make each day as they move through the map. I'd plan out approximate casualties for both sides and how long and how many giants are left at each stage.

I'd have a rough outline of which battles are fought by the giants, the size of forces on each side and any notable NPCs that would take part in the battles. I'd try to attach to each battle the rough reports that would pass down the lines of communication from the outlying cities back to the capital. I'd want to know who in the lands knows what and when - just another rough outline.

I'd also shuffle the figures as necessary so that the giants win, possibly only just if nobody intervenes. I'm not sure what the giant's end-game is if they win - whether it's to sack the civilised lands or to take over - it doesn't matter, 'cos if they do win then the party's adventures will become very interesting as they become insurgents and freedom fighters... but I'm digressing.

This plan becomes the 'de facto' occurrence if nobody intervenes.

Against this plan I'd drop the party of adventurers into it - you say they're about 15th level and landed nobles, so they could probably muster forces of their own. I'd plug them into the stream of information that I'd planned, maybe give them direct but non-specific instructions from their feudal masters to just go and deal with it (and perhaps at first only allow them limited forces until the full size of the threat becomes known) and let them make their plans.

As they'd be building their own strategies, I'd allow their input to influence the march of the giants - to affect the enemy progress as the raids develop. They'd be able to intervene in some of the battles and raids, intercept enemy forces based on the information/messages they'd receive, and then get into the hand-to-hand fighting (which is probably what they'd relish the most).

The important thing is to allow their activities to change the course of the big plan you developed earlier. As they turn back forces and win battles that would have been lost before, they'll affect the numbers in the fight and cause the giants to re-plan.

Between sessions, you'll have to revisit your main plan and adjust it to take into account the effect a party and their army/fighting force has upon the raiders. There should come a tipping point upon which the giants will turn and flee - even this should be a planned withdrawal, 'cos if I were a PC in this I'd want to chase them down and finish them off.