So I'm new to RPG design and I'm trying to get my feet wet by working with something I'm comfortable with. I'm currently running a 5e campaign and there is a lot of maddened hordes of monsters, people, etc. due to the cultists ever creeping influence. I've been working on this mechanic and have sort hit a standstill as to finessing it. Its not fully baked yet and I was hoping to get some more experienced individuals eyes on it. Like I said I am new to this, so if there are any obvious issues I apologize:
When facing a horde or mob of any sort, that the party could easily dispatch of individually, but in a grouping could cause serious if not deadly damage, we created the Bedlam Mechanic. It was made with the intention of facilitating the sensation of being overrun and fighting through a mob of overwhelming numbers. In order to achieve this, we have made the rules as simple as we could, with as little math as possible, and a very quick paced action economy.
Here’s how it works:
1) The horde/mob has a fixed Hit die/dice but are utilized as difficult terrain rather than a monster. The party starts with zero movement and must roll an “attack” against the mob, just as you would normally, minus the AC target number. This is not to cause damage but to determine their movement (cutting through the mob of enemies to escape or gain ground).
A chart is provided at the end for damage and movement depending on the success or fail of the roll. These are the baseline blocks and are intended for players lvl 3 or higher. However, the baseline bonuses to damage should be adjusted with higher levels. The suggested amount being 1 or 2 per tier, since the hit die pool should increase with more dangerous enemies.
The survival outcome for the mechanic is the party manages to make it through to the desired area or create enough distance to escape. It can work for armies in a battlefield condition, but it is our opinion that it works best when the party is traversing the battlefield to a specific target, which then transforms into regular combat.
2) The action economy for each round has been trimmed to near bare bones. There can be an initiative order if you choose, but only the players will roll. The enemy horde never rolls to attack, move, or cast spells (more on that later).
In its simplest version the party rolls a Movement Roll (Attack Action), GM references chart and dolls out allowed movement and damage obtained. That’s it. It is our opinion that in order to promote the feeling of expediency in a chaotic situation, that you allow players to roll all at once and rapid-fire list off results based on the chart at the end.
The party has two options to move through this “Difficult terrain”.
~First:~ Each player rolls separately and references their individual movement speed and take damage individually. As previously stated, we would recommend the party roll all at once rather than in an initiative order. You then rapid fire dole out damage and movement according to their rolls and have them roll again. The results are extremely simple to compute, as there are brackets of success and failure, to help keep the momentum going. In our opinion, the sound of multiple dice hitting the table in a slap dash clacking and rolling lets the table feel the sensation of chaotic combat better than the methodical logging of each individual in a sequence.
~Second:~ Move as a unit. Two or more party members can pick a formation where the “leader” is the primary driving force. In this scenario the “leader” rolls for the movement. The unit’s movement speed is based on the lowest movement speed being used of all the party members within the unit. Ex. Three elves and one gnome without anything increasing base level movement speed equals a unit with a 25ft movement speed.
This also offers the opportunity to keep the squishier members protected, offering them 1/2 cover (-2 to damage taken as the baseline). For the 1/2 cover to be provided there needs to be at least two people per squishy in ~addition~ to the leader. Smaller parties will need to implement house rules to compensate.
Members offering protection or moving with the unit (including squishy), can roll a movement roll as well, offering a maximum of +2 if they succeed in rolling 10 or higher (+1 if half of those rolling roll 10 or higher). If anyone rolls a 4 or lower it becomes a -1, and this stacks to a maximum of -2. House rules dictating greater bonuses/penalties for particularly large groups can be utilized.
A unit can be broken. If half the unit members roll a 4 or lower the unit is broken. Each member is pushed to a different square, maximum 10 feet away from their original placement, in any direction the GM chooses. Each party member now rolls individually. The party can reunite or create a unit after having started individually, by every member moving within five feet of each other and then each member’s movement check being a 10 or higher.
What follows are rules for spells and items, what actions are allowed and what they provide, as well as enemy spellcraft use.
3) Bonus action attacks do not offer an extra “Movement roll”. It is assumed every party member is utilizing everything at their disposal to fend off the frenzied mob all at once. A Monk’s Flurry of Blows wouldn’t be too far off from a panicked Warlock’s rapid fire of eldritch blasts in a case where it doesn’t matter how many you kill, there are many more ready to take their place. The only thing you can do is keep moving and try to not get pulled down.
Dash actions do not work in this situation. All party members are expected to be in an immensely outnumbered situation that if they were to stop fighting to solely run, would be carried under far sooner than their desired movement. The only way you can move is to constantly be cutting through the mob and continue moving at all costs.
You cannot disengage and avoid attacks of opportunity in a mob.
Bonuses that offer increases in movement due to fighting style work as written.
Magic items/spells that increase individual or group movement speed work as written.
Leaping requires an ability or enhancement that allows the individual to jump higher than the height of the horde and then they are free to leap the length of the leftover distance provided. An attempt to leap will require the same Movement Check and the allowed distance and damage results are the same as normal. Landing will require an athletics or acrobatics check (GM’s discretion depending on enemies) to land safely. A failure means they are now overrun (see overrun condition at the end).
Being knocked prone equates the same effects as being overrun.
If a party member reaches 0 health they are not unconscious but beleaguered, disoriented, and overwhelmed. They get one death saving throw or they collapse unconscious and a Coup De Gra is immediately performed. A help action can be used to save an ally in this condition. A fellow party member must carry them (Carrying rules apply as normal) and the one carrying, rolls their movement checks with disadvantage and their movement is halved. If more than one party member helps with carrying the party member they both must roll with disadvantage but can use full movement. If a party member reaches 0 HP within a unit, an ally must use a help action to carry the player at 0 or they are left behind.
5) Spellcasting/magic items (Here we go. . .): If a spell (or item) has an AOE that pushes enemies away, explodes, or generally has an AOE of some effect that disperses enemy combatants to some degree, the spell offers guaranteed success of movement for the individual/unit in the direction the spell was cast equal to the range of the spell. This free movement does not stack with total movement speed per turn, but does stack with allowed movement based on the results of the movement roll. If a player roles a 1 for their movement check during this circumstance, they are allowed the free movement but must take the consequences of the roll in the first five foot square after the spell’s range. If the spell’s range extends past their movement speed they take the consequences within the last square of their total movement.
Spells can be used as many times the spellcaster has spell slots available and spellcasting action economy works as normal.
If the enemies are not mindless and they or their master have the cognitive capacity to understand the level of threat this spellcaster possesses, the spellcaster is now the primary focus of the horde’s ire. They now make movement checks with disadvantage. If the party is moving as a unit, any spellcaster who used an AOE that allowed free movement of more than 5ft, cannot roll to support the following round. If the party is moving as a unit, the leader and those providing support must succeed at a movement roll of a flat 13 or higher in order to avoid a -2 penalty. Squishy still gets 1/2 cover (-2 to damage baseline) as long as the unit is intact. If more than one spellcaster is utilizing some form of AOE the potential “free movement” stacks for that round. However, in a unit the -2 penalties increase by -1 for every additional spellcaster utilizing an AOE spell in a round.
The only AOE ~condition~ that will work is frightened, since they actively avoid you and it doesn’t have a stated effect to end the condition outside of a Wis check. Any condition that can be ended by taking damage, or being “shaken out of it” will not work. However, the bonus from the frightened condition only lasts 1 round. Due to the remaining forces continuing the violent pursuit. All AOE spells work as written and that includes allies in the vicinity of unprejudiced effects.
Spells that attack one enemy can be used and burn the spell slot but do not provide any bonuses.
Any spell, bonus action, magic item. . .etc. that allows for teleportation works as written. If the party is moving as a unit and can no longer maintain the 2 to 1 ratio to offer squishy their ½ coverage, the coverage is lost, but the unit is not broken.
All spells that offer a bonus to damage or AC or otherwise hinder the enemy (Hex, Bane) give the specified bonus to movement rolls and only for the player who has cast them, unless otherwise specified.
The Clever spells: We all know the Forever GM. We all know how excited the forever GM gets when they actually get to play. We all know what its like when it turns out, the forever GM is brutally good at outsmarting, out maneuvering, and generally being a better GM than you, while massacring your BBEG and its once thought mighty minions. So, it’d be fair to assume that this kind of player would have a character who knows that a simple use of the Prestidigitation spell to project the Symbol of the Orc clan’s new God will have them all bowing in reverence, eyes on the floor, even at the expense of their own lives. And you know what, they’re right. If you didn’t see an exceedingly glaring or clever loop hole in your encounter and the party sweeps the rug out from under you with a simple cantrip, oopsies, better luck next time.
6) Enemy Spellcasting: It should be noted that in the beginning we described the monsters for this mechanic as one that the party could “~easily dispatch of individually”~. This is key. Setting up your party to fight through a horde of Pit Fiends who can light up the sky with a cloud of fireballs from behind their numerous Walls of Fire really serves no purpose other than a TPK. Which in this example is awesome, but there are better, more clever ways to feed the maniacal sadism that creeps inside you when holding the omniscient title of GM. Unless you’re raising your party to be all-powerful demigods capable of taking on legions of high ranking devils and the like, make the enemy’s spellcasting capabilities as simple as possible.
If the case does come up, where you do decide to use some monsters that emit a noxious cloud, paired with spellcasters that can shoot fire, and beastly meatshields with magical weapons that propel their targets 10 feet back, treat these “attacks” more like “traps” than actual individual attacks. Again, these hordes are utilized more like difficult terrain with a set hit die. There are no safe spaces within the enemy horde. So moving to a space that offers a clear line of sight for the enemy Warlock’s Bane makes sense. But it should be an occupiable square rather than a type of attack the table needs to roll for every round. The action economy should be fast paced and heart racing. This mechanic can suffer greatly with too many options. Keep your ingredients simple, and use them mercilessly.
Here is the Baseline table for success and failure:
20 – Full movement no damage
19-15 – Flat Hit die roll -5ft of movement
14-10 - Hit die +1 -10ft of movement
9-6 - hit die +2 -20 ft of movement
5-2 - hit die +2 – no movement
1 - hit die +3 - no movement and if they roll a 1 two times in a row they are overrun and must be rescued.
Overrun- Being overrun is utilized in the same manner as death saving throws. After being overrun, if they roll a 9 or lower three times, they have been swallowed up and killed. They can be rescued by a party member within 5ft of them who must make a successful Help action (DC GM's discretion) to rescue their party member. If the ally trying to help fails their Help roll the overrun party member loses a death saving throw. This does not negate the required death saving rolls each turn.
