I'm slowly warming up to that new-fangled Mandolorian TV show. I just finished the… I think 4th episode? The eponymous character is in the fishing village under attack by bandits with an AT-ST, that one. Anyways, that inspired me to write up some tables to generate an interesting “base under siege” adventure. Have fun, and happy gaming.
BASE SIZE (feel free to round)
1 2d8 people
2 1d20+10 people
3 1d10+40 people
4 2d100 people
5 1d100 x 10 people
6 The base is the size of a city
ENEMY SIZE
1 Solitary (perhaps the most frightening of them all)
2 2d4
3 2d10
4 d10 x 10
5 The enemy is an army
6 Roll twice, these are different enemy forces (this can stack)
BASE VALUE
1 Scientific [Something important is being studied]
1 The behavior of a nearby astrological or cosmological body
2 The physiology of some remarkable creature
3 The properties of an ancient artifact
4 The relics of a bygone civilization
2 Agricultural [A vital food product is being produced]
1 The food stores for a massive area
2 The key ingredient in a valuable drug
3 A a cyclical ranch-slaughterhouse system
4 It’s actually people… peeeeeople
3 Military [A large cache of weapons and soldiers]
1 The last outpost of an anti-imperial rebellion
2 A weapon stores for a powerful military company
3 A cobbled-together mercenary base
4 An experimental weapon-testing range
4 Defense [The base is protecting something important]
1 The last of a particular species
2 A source of a rare good or lots of income
3 Some volatile and strange anomaly
1 An artifact
2 A ripped ley line
3 A temporal distortion
4 A strange new type of creature
4 A tactically or scientifically significant location
5 An anthropologically significant site
6 A portal or passage
5 Production [Something vital is being manufactured or collected here]
1 A Shatterstar mine carving into a fallen meteor
2 A weaponsmithy or munitions factory
3 A craftperson's guild or factory
4 A library collecting very specific knowledge
6 Population [There’s a lot of civilians here]
ASSET (Roll once for both base and enemy)
1 Weapon
1 Heat-seeking
2 Metal-sundering
3 Wide area
4 Instant death
5 Intelligent
6 Structure-killer
7 Virulent
8 Elemental
2 Trap
1 Pit trap
2 Meddlesome terrain
3 Hidden siege weapons
4 High walls
5 Force field
6 Magic glyphs (activate on contact)
3 Spy
1 Animal compatriots
2 Mole
3 Scrying/surveillance
4 Capable of hypnosis
4 Ally
1 Monstrous protectorate
2 Powerful mage/engineer
3 Charismatic politician
4 The real native residents
5 Movement
1 Flight
2 Climb
3 Jump
4 Burrow
6 Something truly weird
LIMITATION (Roll once for both base and enemy)
1 Poor vision
1 Only capable of detecting movement
2 Cannot see color
3 Can only perceive one target at a time
4 Can only see thermal signatures
5 Can’t see FAR or farther
6 Can’t see any farther than NEAR
2 Poor weapons
1 Easily broken
2 Only melee
3 Only ranged
4 Have a habit of exploding
3 Poor mobility
1 Moves half speed
2 Cannot jump, fly, or go vertically
3 Takes a ROUND to change direction
4 Easily tripped or knocked over
4 Poor stealth
1 Brightly colored
2 Large
3 Noisy
4 Constantly emits…
1 Smoke
2 Sparks
3 The ice cream truck jingle
4 Lights and lasers
5 Poor skill (cannot add bonuses to non-attack rolls)
6 Poor adaptation
7 Poor communication
1 Only communicates through visual signals
2 Only communicates through touch
3 Speaks different languages
4 Missing key vocabulary words
8 Uncreative
RUNNING A BASE UNDER SIEGE
Advice. Each bullet has two points that run counter to each other, yet both sound. Read them, and choose what feels right to you. Play to your strengths.
Give the players a strong motivation to help the base. Be it money, reward, or an emotional hook, you want your players to buy into the base as fast as possible so you can get to the fun stuff. Use every dirty trick you can to get the players invested. // Distance the players. The players might wander in the side of the invaders. They might have to choose between a monetary reward or a moral high ground. They might decide the residents of the base aren’t worth saving, and want to cut their losses and run. Paint in shades of grey, and let the players’ minds wander outside of the genre.
Lay your cards out onto the table. Reveal all the variables ASAP, in simple terms. The barracks has the laser crossbow, while the reavers at the gate can summon their Hellfire Dragon at a moment’s notice, and carry atlatls, there’s a medbay and a stocked pantry, now go forth and figure it out. // Have a trick up your sleeve. Surprise the players with a new variable or two and watch their plans get rearranged. Get the panic going as a couple well-placed reveals can shatter the hero’s ideas of what’s about to go down.
Add twists and reversals. Keep the players on their toes by throwing a wrench into the mix every so often. A new force shows up, the enemies cleverly overcome traps laid, the mole reveals themself. Don’t let them rest on their laurels, they should be on their toes throughout the siege. // Keep it embellishable. The PCs will already bring a lot of creativity and dynamism to the mix, and often their actions alone will provide enough variables that you can take your hands off the buttons. Push the marble, but just watch it travel down the course once it’s moving- don’t change the boundary conditions.
- Make choices matter. The player’s actions should make or break the siege. The base shall fall or remain standing by their hand and theirs alone. Agency is key in every adventure, but especially here. // Embrace inevitability. How will the players face down an army when they’re backed up by a 4-strong team of academics with a rusty golem and a psychic sword made of crystal? The sheer absurdity and hopelessness has great potential to spawn novel reactions and emotions, and generate stories told for ages.
This is great.
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