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I will be GMing a Campaign of Shadow of the Demon Lord and am hopping to end it in a large battle between armies and the Heros facing a formitible Demon in an a final showdown.

Now, the system doenst have rules for fortress building and I haven't used a system that does. Also, I don't want it to be a number crunch.

The basic idea is to begin the Players in a large group of travelers (3 towns worth) leaving their homes in response to (probably a drought). Game begins with a bandit raid and while the Players interact with that the travelers find a ruin. They decide to settle there.

I'm curious as to if you guys have any ideas on how I could weave the building up of the settlement into the story without making it overly obvious as I want the Demon army to be a bit of a surprise. What kind of quests would not only put the Players on grand adventures, but also build it up? The system allows long passages of time between adventures so timewise the building can make sense.

Planing on having 3 authority figures. A Priest, a big time livestock owner, and a corrupt businessman. (it's a classic fantasy setting though there is a bit if a steampunk feel to parts of the world. Such as very rare muskets and clockworks who are spirits bound to machines.)

I'd m assume the players would naturally want to build up their home base, so it shouldn't be a problem for that. As a little bit of goading you could have an attack or two on it from whatever suits your fancy-ogres, orcs, goblins, dragons, or whatever. Would help them understand they need to build up their community if they want to keep it.

Makes sense. I was going to hint at Wargs being a threat in the first quest and by extension Beastmen. A raid of some sort would defiantly push rebuilding.

If I want to have a grand battle though, Ill need to have them rebuild castle walls, build catapults or ballista's, ect. I wouldn't want to just say, "Oh yeah. the wall gets rebuild" or "You want a catapult? Boom, someone hath made one!"

Well, just have a ballista or two in some villain's lair.

Could also have a dragon or wyvern attack while they're off adventuring- the villagers lamenting they have no way to defend themselves might get them to brainstorming.

Of course, having something worth defending would be key here imo. Something the PC's can't really move around much, or watch 24/7. Families, ancient relics, or even a large vault that's already in place they would want to make use of.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Are you wanting them to quest for matierials/supplies? Perhaps try to recruit an engineer of some sort to assist with rebuilding their fortress?

I see what you're saying. Ill have to think of something within the ruins that is more precious than the lives of its occupants

The raid while they're off is a good idea to make it a big deal. People lose family, Rancher loses livestock, Priest loses some of his congregation, businessman complains its too dangerous to set up anything decent here.

Going off of him, setting up a trade route could open up options for the group, hmm. Then, while negotiating it they can try to pick up an engineer in the neighboring settlement.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Maybe instead of a ballista in the evil lair, there could be some old armaments buried within the ruin (probably in the vault as you suggested) not all the answers to their troubles, but something.

Be careful with the attack while they're gone- it can backfire if the PCs feel like it was totally out of their control. Definitely lead off with the mention of Beastmen in the vacinity like you said, and possibly add in someone either complaining about the lack of walls/lamenting it would be hard to defend this place.

Also let the PCs have their vengeance upon those who attacked them as well-just drop a hint or two around the place.

Maybe instead of bandits they get attacked by a small beatmen outpost. Some sort of scout camp. Then, when they go off for the next quest the beastman attack on the settlement would be provoked. It would require me to redesign the quest a bit but it could work.

Will definitely add some talk about the walls.

This can also be supported by NPCs rescued in missions. Perhaps one turns out to be an engineer and, in gratitude, stays to help with some deficiencies he notices in the settlement. Maybe he points out the need to locate a skilled masons to build and repair sturdier structures. And towers don't build themselves- plenty of manual laborers will be needed not to mention haulers for the stone. Only way that will happen is if the town and roads to the mines are safe. Likewise, this will increase food demand, so the farms must be kept safe.

But a conventional army doesn't sound like the best way of matching a demon. Armies are for repelling other armies and seizing territory. Heroes and wizards fight demons, dragons, and the like who invariably prove invulnerable to common weapons, inspire abject terror in normal mortals, etc. Of course two armies clashing makes a dramatic background....

 jmurph wrote:
This can also be supported by NPCs rescued in missions. Perhaps one turns out to be an engineer and, in gratitude, stays to help with some deficiencies he notices in the settlement. Maybe he points out the need to locate a skilled masons to build and repair sturdier structures. And towers don't build themselves- plenty of manual laborers will be needed not to mention haulers for the stone. Only way that will happen is if the town and roads to the mines are safe. Likewise, this will increase food demand, so the farms must be kept safe.

But a conventional army doesn't sound like the best way of matching a demon. Armies are for repelling other armies and seizing territory. Heroes and wizards fight demons, dragons, and the like who invariably prove invulnerable to common weapons, inspire abject terror in normal mortals, etc. Of course two armies clashing makes a dramatic background....

So heres my plan for running it. The final chapter in the story will have two parts. The Siege and The Showdown. In the siege, what they have done to prepare for the Demon army will take center stage. In this part the players will work as generals, reacting to the army of Demons. They can place their characters in the fighting, but they wont be controlling the turn by turn combat, more so the movement of troops, where to fire artillery, evacuating citizens. Its ambitious but I think it would be a nice alternative mission to what is usually done.

After this, The Showdown occurs, where the Demon Champion challenges the Heros to combat. If you set your character to fight alongside the men he might start the battle with some injury or fatigue, if you kept him directing artillery he might miss the first round of combat to catch up, Did the walls hold? Yes, minimal casualties while you fight Champion. Did you focus on artillery? Now you can have a ballista fire into your combat. By the same token, if your army was poorly prepared, this battle can take place in the Keep as oppose to out in the field and you could suffer even more casualties.

I would try to weave as much of their preparation as possible into the actual game, but it will be very prevalent in the "credits." Think of how the Fallout franchise goes over how the protagonist effected different factions during his story, something to that effect.

Clearing a mine for materials is another good one. Ill have to find a way to integrate an engineer rescue, probably find him in another settlement to set up trade. The use of labor is also important, hmm