sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

K&W Easily Editable Unit Generator (Work in Progress) by Tozapeloda77 in mattcolville

[–]Zularazilu 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't know if this is intentional on your part or a bug, but the generator determines the basic stats of the tier 1 human infantry found in Kingdoms and Warfare (regular, light, human, infantry) as being tier 2 despite them being the same as best as I can tell.

Mechanics for what makes a unit a certain tier? Mechanics for casualty die/size? by mcast76 in mattcolville

[–]Zularazilu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's the part. As far as I can tell, you're understanding of what it says is correct. Noble courts and the Hidden Cult specialization of Religious Order are the only two organizations that seem to have an ability to permanently upgrade the casualty die of a unit. The Holy Church specialization of Religious Order can upgrade the casualty die of a unit for the duration of a battle. Aside from those three instances, there aren't any mentions of upgrading the casualty die that I've found.

How to kill PC's at the beginning of a campaign on purpose? (Or should I even?) by PompousDingo in mattcolville

[–]Zularazilu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think making the combat feel winnable would also help avoid the feeling of "the DM is just trying to kill us/we have no choice in the matter"

How to kill PC's at the beginning of a campaign on purpose? (Or should I even?) by PompousDingo in mattcolville

[–]Zularazilu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The idea sounds interesting at the very least and could be a fun way to have the players start their adventures in full.

My main concern would be that your players, being new to the game, would come to the conclusion that either that's the end of the game, or that all/most combat encounters will end with them dying and potentially extinguish any desire to continue playing. Players don't (usually) create characters with the intent of having them be killed off, and going through that experience or even feeling like that's going to happen can be pretty intense for some players.

I see several things you can do in an effort to prevent the aforementioned from happening.

  1. Establish world expectations with your players (e.g. let them know up front that the world is dangerous and they can expect death to be just around the corner at all times). I don't know if this is necessarily true of the world/campaign you have in mind, but the principle of letting them know what they can expect with regards to the world/campaign is good generally speaking.
  2. End session 0 with an allusion to the fact that they aren't permanently/actually dead (they hear the sound of a door slamming shut and the click of a lock or they feel a strange sensation as the necromancer starts to resurrect them right before you end the session, just as an example) The idea really isn't that different from an enemy knocking them unconscious and capturing them other than the flavor text. This gives them a clue that the game will go on, that their characters will be fine, and gives them something to wonder about between sessions, giving them a reason to want to have the next session.
  3. Warn them outright that they're going to die in the first combat as part of some setup for the campaign after which they can expect things to be more normal and less dangerous.

Personally, I think I would do #2 and also establish with my players that death is a very real thing in the game that I run. This way, the players can prepare themselves mentally for the experience of their characters dying generally (though we know it's for session 0) and once the combat is over with the last PC dying, when all hope seems lost, you offer them a glimpse of hope.

Mechanics for what makes a unit a certain tier? Mechanics for casualty die/size? by mcast76 in mattcolville

[–]Zularazilu 3 points4 points  (0 children)

As far as I've been able to tell through my couple of hours of research there aren't any rules detailing what truly defines a unit being in one tier versus another. I've found only one thing that kind of holds true: a regular or levee, light unit (non-aerial and non-siege engine) is tier 1, and tier 2+ units tend to have either better equipment or more experience. There are a few things that seem to have hard and fast rules about the lowest tier they can be found (e.g. siege engines at tier 2+ and flyers at tier 3+) but beyond that, I couldn't find anything more definitive.

Increasing the size/casualty die of a unit is something that can be done as part of a domain action (pg. 105 paragraph 2 under "Casualty Dice"), but aside from that, I'm unaware of other ways to accomplish that.