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hi guys Friday I'm going to be taking over for our weekly game....
i want to run a post unsuccessful full scale attack story arc were for whatever reason the bad guys attacked the big human city and lost
my group of players are a scouting party that may have witnessed the final moments of their army being routed at the cusp of their foes destruction....
now they're about 2-3 weeks(months?) away from the nations boarder

i know what races will be mostly up to the players but this will be like a travel home crawl instead of a dungeon crawl

what kind of things do you think they will run into?

i figure farms, militia units, destroyed familys human adventures


any other suggestions to systems (i was thinking ether 3.5 or 4e dnd)

thanks
Alex

Wait so the bad guys attacked the human city and lost?

Does that mean the characters are bad guys or are the characters good guys trying to make it back through the retreating ranks of the bad guys?

It means the characters will be bad guys like a group of ork scouts for example or
a gith raiding party that crashed their astral skiff

trying to get through the nation of humanity and other good races maybe elves or halflings

the supply lines will be severed so no food brought to them or income from the army at the moment

just stranded out i figure they would be able to see the loss but be far enough away to not easily get to the main force maybe a chasm or river baring direct connection

hi guys here's the update it looks like the players are digging the idea

they're going for a fiendish invasion and so-far the player vote is 3.5 (which works for me i usually am the one to introduce my players to obscure games so id be surprised if they asked about something odd :O )

so it will be some kind of demon gate or something that was opened to the nation to the random direction and something to trigger the IRE of said realm to start the invasion

one player wants to be a little dragonish thing or drake
another is tossing the idea of a gnoll but we'll see how it fleshes out

i wonder how much of the land scape will be intact or how much is burnt(just as a rule of thumb when dealing with a non-conquering invasion attack)

and after that what the players find will fall into place

I like this a lot!

I would have a stock standard enemy unit build for the guys they lost against ie

6 man unit led by a cleric/fighter ect. the 6 guys would be fighters who carry a basic kit (This will stop your PC's gaining easy goods from them) and maybe leave the occasional goodie on the unit sgt.

As for creatures I would give them plenty of cross roads...They could try and sneak through that city OR they could take that deserted looking mountain pass infested with giants ect.

Forcing choice on them will give them a great feel to the game in that they can try and sneak through a city jumping alleyway to alleyway, steal some hooded cloaks and hope they can outrun the city militia or they can try there luck as orcs in the mountains.


It also mean you will be able to play to players preferences. In my group we have some hack and slash and we have a few blokes who think they're master rogues (Often they are the worst rogues ever) ... but giving the two choices makes everyone happy and means that if you have a full hack and slash party they will actually get a challenge having to not just kill stuff.

Undead can also be fun to play with, because as scouts they won't really be equip to quickly dispatch them!

Any just my two cents and good luck!!!

Brother had some good input.

I really like the idea of a campagin that is more survival horror esque than a chop and slash or go and grab the treasure. It brings out a lot of the lesser used skills and roles for characters. An example would be a party rogue stealing food over stealing raw gold. Craft and profession are good when you need goods or services in a place you can't just go to the store.

Since they will be in civilization more often than not, most enemies will be exactly what you said. Have a template ready for townspeople, militia, military, cops, farmers, merchants etc. As brother lern said make sure they can't abuse the equipment they find on them. Armor is not likely to fit(and orks in a village of elves will stick out, so no going to an armorer) particularly if your a different race. Or it fits poorly, etc.

That said, don't make it all about sneak and hiding so characters with poor stats in these skills are not hosed.

Choice is also important. Have at least 3 ways to beat each obstacle that you can think of, your players will often find their own. The 3 general methods to get past things are evasion, force or politics, and each of those has varying approaches. I would like the aspect that your "enemies" are not the only enemy, that survival, etc is a constant threat. Finding the right way is just as important as beating the guards between you and the gate.

If the party has an alignment or magic that could be detected, have some enemies that can detect said things.

As for a system, I really like pathfinder or 3.5, but it is up to you.