[OOC] The Horde of Evil - Tresspassing through treacherous tribes' territory! (RP closed)

[knighthawk]

Tinkerhel: "PUSSY!"

@Genni

Shut up.

@Genni

[Cyclone]

I think I'm going to start the IC either tomorrow or the day after that. I've kept everyone waiting long enough.

[Takashi]

I think I'm going to start the IC either tomorrow or the day after that. I've kept everyone waiting long enough.

@Cyclone

Woo! Time to suck the sanity out of peaceful rural townships and have the inhabitants destroy themselves.

[KabenSaal]

I think I'm going to start the IC either tomorrow or the day after that. I've kept everyone waiting long enough.

@Cyclone

Woo! Time to set fire to peaceful rural townships and have the inhabitants run around on fire.

[Cyclone]

Something I'm still undecided upon is how I'm going to divide out the time IC. Would you all rather the majority of the time be spent in the dungeon interacting with each other and such, or spent attacking villages and out doing the Dungeon Keeper's bidding? Perhaps a fairly even split?

[KabenSaal]

A good split would be good. Can't exactly kill things while in the dungeon, but can interact with each other while attacking villages.

[Genni]

Something I'm still undecided upon is how I'm going to divide out the time IC. Would you all rather the majority of the time be spent in the dungeon interacting with each other and such, or spent attacking villages and out doing the Dungeon Keeper's bidding? Perhaps a fairly even split?

@Cyclone

Personally I'd like to always be 'On Mission' for the Keeper, but with a variety of objectives which would sometimes keep us indoors while at other times sending us out into the world. How quickly the minions perform their tasks (both in-world and in real life) would be taken into account when calculating how much of a reward they would get. People who are prompt and eager would be able to complete more missions and get greater rewards, while people who disappear for a week without posting at all would fall by the wayside, rather than everyone else having to wait for them.

If someone knows they're not going to be able to post for a while the Keeper can send their character on a 'special assignment' which would take them over the mountains to distant parts until they return, allowing them to still gain a measure of progression to help them keep[ up with the other active players.

Some examples of missions I'd like to see handed out would be:

• Destroy the local farms to draw soldiers away from the town/castle
• Raid a mine for rare resources
• Investigate an abandoned dungeon for secrets and treasures
• Capture a lord's son/daughter for ransom
• Corrupt a hero to join the Keeper's forces
• Trick Octi into giving a cabaret performance to improve troop morale
• Interrogate prisoners to discover weaknesses in the town's/castle's defences
• Bribe a local trader to provide new equipment
• Perform a dark rite to summon a powerful new minion
• Use dark arts to forge a new weapon
• Research new spells and technologies to aid the troops
• Infiltrate the local barracks/taverns to learn about enemy troop movements

And so on.

I'd see actually capturing a town or castle to be a drawn out affair, where we'd have to carefully sap their defences and discover their weak points before planning a battle strategy and finally invading. Depending on how much legwork we'd done, and how successful we'd been at our tasks, the final fight could be a huge conflict which would take days to complete, with waves of reinforcements arriving from other towns and castles slowly weakening our own armies until we either managed to wipe out the defenders or were driven back by the combine forces of our enemies.

Time would be a major factor, since if we started a campaign to take a town we'd have to act fast enough to weaken them with a string of successful missions before launching the assault without giving the defenders a chance to call for reinforcements. If we left it too long the lord would begin to worry about the rising darkness and would call to the city for heavier units or heroes to help defend the town, not leaving it long enough would mean the town itself would be stronger and harder to take down through direct conflict.

Of course, infiltration and espionage missions could assist us greatly, since we'd be able to find out all sorts of useful information (types and strengths of defending troops, state of enemy supplies, favourite sexual position of the lord's daughter, etc.) which would make breaking the defences easier.

[Cyclone]

@Genni

Good ideas. I might use some of those.

The thing about issuing out individual orders is that while I see its merits like you mentioned (namely everybody not stuck waiting on one person), I'm going to have to avoid it at times because thinking of a mission for each of you would take forever, and it would also be ten times as hard to keep track of what everybody is up to. It might happen on occasion, but for the most part I reasoned that major things like taking a castle would involve everybody, with lesser missions being assigned to small groups.

[KabenSaal]

Could also take into account everyone's special abilities. Like, Emily could lead a team into the Castle's courtyard with her Earth magic, bypassing the walls and striking from within, allowing the rest of them to come in and attack the distracted guards.

[Genni]

...I'm going to have to avoid it at times because thinking of a mission for each of you would take forever, and it would also be ten times as hard to keep track of what everybody is up to.

@Cyclone

The trick there would be to get the characters to put in requests for new missions by mentioning something to the Keeper which may be of interest to him. In other words, get the players to think up the missions themselves and then let the Keeper decide whether to let them try it or not.

As for keeping track of everyone, what you need there would be a spunky, high-spirited co-GM who'd be able to keep up-to-date with the comings and goings around the dungeon and make sure people were on track with their tasks and assignments. They'd have no authority to actually do anything other than record who was where when, but they'd be able to let you know when someone was running late or had failed to check in.

And when I say 'spunky' I do mean hard-working, dedicate and driven, not... y'know, the other thing.

Could also take into account everyone's special abilities. Like, Emily could lead a team into the Castle's courtyard with her Earth magic, bypassing the walls and striking from within, allowing the rest of them to come in and attack the distracted guards.

@KabenSaal

But would we have needed someone to do a recon mission underground, to make sure the castle wasn't built on solid, undiggable granite first?

[knighthawk]

[quote=@Genni][*]Trick Octi into giving a cabaret performance to improve troop morale[/quote]
Octavius: You, have GOT, to be kidding me...

Tink: You keep saying you are the most charismatic person in the whole damn army.

Octavius: Thats intimidation... not this.

Tink: I'l do that thing you like with the fire ants and honey.

Octavius: On my three count...

[KabenSaal]

<Snipped quote by KabenSaal>
But would we have needed someone to do a recon mission underground, to amke sure the castle wasn't built on solid, undiggable granite first?

@Genni

All well and good if they where digging, but this is Earth Magic, not mattock and shovel.

[Genni]

From what I know about military tactics (in other words what I read off the back of a cereal packet ten years ago) there are six main stages to a successful invasion:

• 1: Infiltration - Invaders send spies, saboteurs and provocateurs into the target area to recon and weaken defences
• 2: Insertion - Forward troop move into the area and establish a beachhead for forward operations
• 3: Isolation - Invading troops attack the lands and transport routes around the local strong points (towns, cities and castles) to cut them off from external aid
• 4: Assault - Troops attack the strong point directly, breaking the defence and taking hold of them
• 5: Consolidation - Invaders secure their position, ensuring no counter-assault can retake the strong point and establishing transport routes for their own supplies and reinforcements
• 6: Assimilation - Invaders convert local populace to their side, either through re-education or by wiping them out and replacing them

Once the population is on your side, the troops are free to move to the next area and start again. In fact you can start infiltration actions while still awaiting for assimilation to be completed, but you have to be more careful about counter-intelligence operations while working against a potentially hostile native population.

If you simply used Earth magic to burrow straight into the middle of the enemy stronghold you'd find yourself facing a well-armed, well-supplied garrison force who would probably have detected your approach with their own magic-users. If I was them I'd have cleared out the courtyard and started boiling the oil waiting to pour it down on the invaders as soon as they broke soil.

[KabenSaal]

Well, obviously Emily is not just going to charge streight into a castle. She would use that while it was under seige with the rest of the Keeper's Minions.

[Didos]

• 1: Infiltration - Invaders send spies, saboteurs and provocateurs into the target area to recon and weaken defences
• ...
• 6: Assimilation - Invaders convert local populace to their side, either through re-education or by wiping them out and replacing them

@Genni

Got it.

[Takashi]

I would also recommend reading Sun Tzu's Art of War. There's some pretty good information on how these kinds of wars are waged.

[KabenSaal]

I would also recommend reading Sun Tzu's Art of War. There's some pretty good information on how these kinds of wars are waged.

@Takashi

'Know yourself and Know your enemy, and you need not fear a thousand battles'

[Genni]

@Takashi
"Watch the skies and know their nature when planning troop movements. Heavy rain may slow your troops, but not enough will leave them parched and unable to fight."

[Takashi]

@Takashi
"Watch the skies and know their nature when planning troop movements. Heavy rain may slow your troops, but not enough will leave them parched and unable to fight."

@Genni

This alone made Kongming (Zhuge Liang) legendary.

[Cyclone]

The Five Rings is another really famous military tome. Honestly, most of what Sun Tzu wrote seems to be common sense, but the Five Rings was written by arguably the greatest samurai who ever lived.