Horde Reaction Roll

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1

A beastmen and/or chaotic horde is a difficult thing to manage. The leader of such a thing has to balance his objectives and his will to get them done versus corralling the natural tendencies of his troops to wander off, disobey orders, and, most certainly, their penchant for pillaging.

When a chaotic army (most often a plot device) conquers a domain, the army as a whole makes a reaction roll. The result of this determines if the leader is able to control the horde, or if he or she must step back and let them sate their natural urges.

These would be minimums; the leader can easily decide to pillage more than indicated. The troops won’t mind.

Horde Victory Reaction

2- Our bloodlust remains unsated!
The conquered domain is pillaged until nothing remains. If the army is capable, 1d4 neighboring domains are also pillaged completely.

3-5 We’ve barely drawn our swords!
The conquered domain is pillaged until nothing remains. If the army is capable, 1d4 neighboring domains are pillaged once.

6-8 The humans/elves/dwarves/… will never forget this day!
The conquered domain is pillaged until nothing remains.

9-11 Grab what you can! We march!
The conquered domain is pillaged 1d2+1 times.

12+ Greater treasures await in the next town!
The conquered domain is pillaged once.

Modifiers:

Too easy! (Outnumber 5+ to 1) : -2

They have no chance! (Outnumber (2-4) to 1) :-1

As if we fight children! (Casualties < 10%) :+2

They shall pay for their insolence! (Casualties > 50%) :-1

Vengance! (A major commander is slain): -2

Thoughts? I’d welcome more ideas for modifiers, especially positive ones. For some reason I’m having a hard time coming up with those.

Thanks!

2

I’m not remembering the pillaging rules off the top of my head, but I’d suspect a low ratio of reward/time would incur a positive modifier, possibly also something to the effect of “you fought well” if the beastmen have some kind of respect for powerful warriors. possibly include the commander’s charisma modifier if they are actively trying to prevent pillaging.

3

Yea, I’m cogitating some sort of “this place sucks anyway” modifier for really small domains. I expect it will come as some sort of ratio on the domain size versus the army size.

The CHA bonus of the leader is a good idea, thank you.

4

I would assume there would be bonuses to the roll for some sort of ‘we need to get out of here before someone comes and kills us’ expectation.

Perhaps a scale of fear of reprisal ranging from +1 for a normal army expected to show up, and +4 for Charlamagne leading the Round Table at them (it’s a collaboration between King Arthur and Charlamagne, the entire army is leveled paladins).

5

Heh. That’s a fun idea.

An army of leveled paladins - I’d expect you could see it coming at night for miles away from the holy glow.

6

I think it might depend greatly on the specific beastmen group. Some might be more interested in true war than fighting civilians while others would focus more on the profits of pillage.

7

Oh, certainly. I’d expect this for those sorts of hordes that happen every few years like El Nino, or cicada broods.