Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - [Mass Combat] Discipline, Law, Order and Preventing Atrocities

phayman53 · 11-15-2015, 11:04 AM

I think a key point in this situation is that the city surrendered with relatively little fighting. From what you said, it seems like the port was taken and a counter attack was repulsed, but the PC army marched into the city proper only after it surrendered. If your setting has the same "rules of war" as most of the historical ancient and medieval world, then that would mean there would have been very little in the form of atrocities like rampent murder, looting, and rape. An army marching into a city in good order and occupying it can be controlled (even in the ancient world) as long as the command structure is maintained and soldiers are not simply turned loose.

I would say in this situation you can expect rates of murder, rape, and looting from the PC army commensurate with the normal rates of those crimes committed by the various troop types of the PC army when they are in friendly or neutral territory. As the GM, those rates are up to you because they depend on the specific societies in your game world (there is no one, correct historical rate of such things). Because the PCs in charge of the army are actively trying to reduce these crimes, I would make Influence rolls for the various groups within the army (probably against leadership for the PC commander, with complimentary skill rolls against administration, psychology (applied), etc). And then reduce the rates of these crimes by 5% on a success, ruduced by a further 5% per MOS (and vice versa on a failed roll).

As for what the baseline rates shoud be, as a rule of thumb I would say that for irregular and levy troop types, use twice the rates for that troop type's civlian population of origin (this is not scientific, I don't think any scientific statistics exist for this sort of thing, it simply represents that local populations didn't like having their own armies of this type around so there probably was a significant increase in bad behavior due to their presence). For professional, disciplined troops, I would be the base rate as the same as their civilian population of origin. For pirates I would say at least triple the rates, maybe more. I would say the same for Fanatics and the intolerant, but only against the groups that they oppose.

11-15-2015, 11:04 AM	#33
phayman53 Join Date: Dec 2012	Re: [Mass Combat] Discipline, Law, Order and Preventing Atrocities I think a key point in this situation is that the city surrendered with relatively little fighting. From what you said, it seems like the port was taken and a counter attack was repulsed, but the PC army marched into the city proper only after it surrendered. If your setting has the same "rules of war" as most of the historical ancient and medieval world, then that would mean there would have been very little in the form of atrocities like rampent murder, looting, and rape. An army marching into a city in good order and occupying it can be controlled (even in the ancient world) as long as the command structure is maintained and soldiers are not simply turned loose. I would say in this situation you can expect rates of murder, rape, and looting from the PC army commensurate with the normal rates of those crimes committed by the various troop types of the PC army when they are in friendly or neutral territory. As the GM, those rates are up to you because they depend on the specific societies in your game world (there is no one, correct historical rate of such things). Because the PCs in charge of the army are actively trying to reduce these crimes, I would make Influence rolls for the various groups within the army (probably against leadership for the PC commander, with complimentary skill rolls against administration, psychology (applied), etc). And then reduce the rates of these crimes by 5% on a success, ruduced by a further 5% per MOS (and vice versa on a failed roll). As for what the baseline rates shoud be, as a rule of thumb I would say that for irregular and levy troop types, use twice the rates for that troop type's civlian population of origin (this is not scientific, I don't think any scientific statistics exist for this sort of thing, it simply represents that local populations didn't like having their own armies of this type around so there probably was a significant increase in bad behavior due to their presence). For professional, disciplined troops, I would be the base rate as the same as their civilian population of origin. For pirates I would say at least triple the rates, maybe more. I would say the same for Fanatics and the intolerant, but only against the groups that they oppose.