Waging Guerilla Warfare in Arvendon
Battles have raged across Sanctuary for hundreds of years. Large and small conflicts against the Empire of Illumination continue to this day, many smaller skirmishes have occurred with bandit lords and pirate kings that have tried to carve their own territory from the Union of Mortal’s control. When groups of heroes gather together and fight back against these aggressors, they do so either by severing the head keeping the faction together or in little bite sized chunks, nibbling away at the enemy’s strength through hit-and-run encounters, sabotage, and subterfuge.
These rules will help quantify how a small group of powerful individuals can conquer an overwhelming foe, one step at a time.
The Objective
The goal of any guerilla war is to break up a foe that is significantly more powerful than yourself and your allies. To do so enemy troops will need to be destroyed, strongholds demolished, supplies disrupted and leaders removed. Once an organization can no longer feed, house, or arm their forces and they lack any cohesive direction or drive they can be dismantled piece by little isolated piece and victory can be declared.
How it Works
Small groups of heroes and adventurers have the advantage of being hard to find and highly mobile, without the needs of a large base of operations to house and feed them. While the patrols and scouts of the larger force have to spend their time trying to hunt for their foes’ location, the heroes have the ability to choose their engagements and strike when and where they deem most effective. To represent this, each day is separated into three Rounds, each roughly representing an eight-hour period of time. During the first two rounds, (morning and afternoon) the heroes will make their activations unimpeded. At the start of the third round, (night) the enemy forces will activate, and then the heroes may activate after the enemy actions have been resolved. The only exception to this is in a region in which an Alarm has been raised.
Activations
Each hero may activate once per round and they may do so in any order. During an activation a hero may take an Action and they can Move to any adjacent region. They may do so in any order.
Moving
Traveling across dangerous or rugged terrain can be taxing on the body even for the most fit of adventurers. When moving into a region that is difficult to traverse the hero will need to roll an athletics check to determine if they get winded from their journey. The more difficult the terrain, the more difficult the check.
Should a hero wish to move farther in a single activation they may do so, but the endeavor is guaranteed to cause a great deal of exhaustion. Each additional move adds two levels of exhaustion to the character. Should the hero reach the point where their exhaustion would be enough to kill them if they continued they can no longer move any farther.
Actions
There are many roles a hero can fill in the pursuit of victory against a greater evil. Sometimes a scout will be necessary to find your foes, other times a pathfinder will need to blaze a trail for a successful ambush. You may hunt a larger group’s member’s, picking them off one at a time until they become weak to a decisive attack.
Most actions will not require a pitched battle to take place. Those that do are resolved with victory or defeat depending on the outcome of the battle. The other actions require skill checks and the expenditure of resources. When any action other than Rest is resolved and does not result in a battle the hero taking the action expends half their total hit dice, rounded down, half their spell slots and gains a point of exhaustion regardless of the outcome.
Becoming Injured
When a hero begins an activation with two or fewer hit dice remaining, they are considered Injured. An injured hero may still move during an activation and take the Attack action, but may not push themselves for additional movement or take any other action besides Rest or Attack.
A hero is no longer injured when they start an activation with all of their maximum hit dice remaining.
Actions
Attack
As the most direct method of conflict, a hero and any others in the region that take the attack action engage a revealed enemy group within the region. Should there not be any revealed enemies occupying the area, then the group they attack shall be randomized among those available. If there are no enemies present in the region the action fails and the heroes expend their resources as per any other action. If they succeed in finding a foe a Battle will ensue and the enemy will be Destroyed if more than 75% of their total starting Strength is removed. The attack action reveals any heroes that took it once the round is over.
Pathfinding (Survival)
A hero may use their survival skills to assist the endeavors in a region by blazing trails, tracking foes and hiding tracks. A successful Pathfinding action can reduce the difficulties of nearly every other action taken within a region that day. Depending on the skills of the pathfinder terrain can be traversed more easily, patrols can be hunted more efficiently, enemies can be spotted in more detail and camping locations can be more hidden.
A hero may take the Pathfinding action targeting any region they occupy or any adjacent region
Success
10+ Reduced Athletics check DC for movement in the region
15+ When taking the Rest action heroes gains +5 passive perception
20+ When taking the Scout or Survey action heroes gain +5 to the skill check
25+ When taking the Hunt action heroes gain +5 to their stealth check, monsters are half as likely to Intercept heroes moving through the area
30+ When a Hunt action is successful it causes an additional point of damage to the target’s Strength
All effects are cumulative and only effect the region targeted by the Pathfinding action.
Scout (Perception)
Making a sweeping surveil of the area a character can reveal the topography of the region, what forces occupy it and in what number. If have exceptionally keen eyes they may also see notable landmarks and possibly hidden locations.
A hero may take the Scout action targeting any region they occupy or any adjacent region.
A hero cannot roll lower on the skill check than their passive perception, any roll lower will consider the passive perception as the result.
Success
10+ Reveals the basic land type and geography
15+ Reveals enemy groups and monsters
20+ Reveals the Strength of each enemy and any notable landmarks
25+ Reveals the exact enemy force composition
30+ Reveals any hidden features of the region.
All effects are cumulative and only effect the region targeted by the Scout action.
Hunt (Stealth)
A hero stalks his prey, whittling down his foes one at a time, striking from the shadows and retreating quickly to avoid retaliation.
Hunting is a contested check between the hunter’s stealth and the enemy’s passive perception. Should the hunter meet or exceed the passive perception of his target he causes that enemy to lose one Strength.
When taking the Hunt action the hero may target a revealed enemy group, otherwise the target will be randomized between those present in the region.
When Enemy groups Hunt heroes successfully they remove half of their target’s total hit dice, rounded down
Search (Investigation)
The hero spends time investigating any revealed landmarks, points of interest or discovered hidden objects. They attempt to glean the exact location, possible uses, potential guardians and historic origins of such places.
When taking the Search action, the hero must be within the region of a revealed point of interest or hidden object and choose a target for the action.
Success
10+ Discover the name of the target
15+ Discover the location of the target, required to interact with it further
20+ Discover the uses for the target
25+ Discover any potential Guardians or Garrison
30+ Discover the history and origin of the target
All effects are cumulative. Once the location of the target has been Discovered heroes may travel to it by using an action in the region it occupies. Once there they may retrieve the item or occupy the area after defeating any guardians or garrison that may be present.
Survey (Nature)
A hero can use their botanical knowledge to find uses for a region’s flora and fauna and spend time examining the terrain. If successful they can discover the terrain’s difficulty, special modifiers, unique uses and even enable passive benefits or mitigate regional detriments.
A hero may take the Survey action targeting any region they occupy or any adjacent region
Success
10+ Discover the difficulty of travel
15+ Discover any special modifiers
20+ Discover any potential reagents or spell components
25+ Discover any potential special actions
30+ Enable or Disable any regional passive benefits or detriments
All effects are cumulative. Once a special action is Discovered any hero may take that action within the region. Some special actions are limited in the number of times they can be used or how often they may be used.
Ambush
If a hero wishes to surprise their enemies, catching them flatfooted and unprepared they may take the Ambush action. Once the ambush action has been taken the hero may no longer move for this round. Should an enemy group in the region attempt to hunt, rest, or attack during the next round then any heroes that took the ambush action in the previous round will attempt to Intercept them, preventing the action from taking place and initiating a Battle in which they have the element of surprise. The enemy will be Destroyed if more than 75% of their total starting Strength is removed at the end of the battle.
In order for an ambush to succeed all ambushing heroes must meet or exceed the passive perception of the group they are attempting to ambush. Any heroes that fail this check may join the battle in initiative order after the surprise round is over. If more than half the heroes attempting to ambush the foe fails the check then the ambush has failed to intercept the enemy and they continue their activation.
Should several enemy groups take the hunt, rest, or attack options in a region at the same time then one group will be selected at random as the target of opportunity. The Strength of the enemy and their force composition will be revealed, heroes may then choose to continue or withdraw from the ambush.
Request Aid (Persuasion)
Some regions have population centers that are sympathetic to your cause. They can be contacted to contribute resources and build support. A population can only provide aid once per day, regardless of how successful the request was.
Success
10+ Gain 1 Support
15+ Gain 2 Support
20+ Gain 3 Support
25+ Gain 5 Support
30+ Gain 7 Support
Rest
May only be taken if the hero has not moved and forgoes their movement for this round. The Rest action allows a hero to complete a long rest.
Allies and Support
Just because a band of heroes is outnumbered and outgunned does not mean that they need to act alone. Along their travels they may discover powerful champions willing to lend a blade to the cause, populations willing to provide much needed supplies or shady black-market arms dealers willing to exchange information for coin. These individuals have their own motivations and priorities but with enough goodwill they can be given tasks or even brought to a battle.
Support
Support is used to quantify goodwill, money, leverage or anything that can be used to obtain an advantage in the struggle against a larger foe. Support is generated by your heroes and allies every day as well as your controlled resource stockpiles and strongholds. It is spent by requesting tasks from your allies or obtaining items, resources or even temporary blessings from your available sources. Support is generated daily at dawn.
Each hero or allied hero generates 1 Support
Each Resource Stockpile generates 2 Support
Each Stronghold generates 5 Support
Allied Heroes
Allied heroes are powerful individuals that are fully invested in your cause. They fight beside you and share a common goal, the destruction of your enemies. They activate every round as you do, if no Request is made of them, they will act according to their own priorities and will activate after all other heroes have resolved their activations.
Making a Request of an allied hero requires 1 support and will allow you to direct their activation for that round. If you request the hero to take the Attack or Ambush action that will require an additional 1 support.
Blessings, Items, and Control
Once a region has become completely free from all enemy groups it falls under your control until an enemy occupies that territory again. Support may be used to purchase things that are available from regions you control, such as healing potions from an alchemist, or grenades from an engineer. Blessings can also be beseeched from the gods by making a divine tribute or support. Powerful temporary buffs can be received from these blessing, especially when you control a shrine to the deity you are receiving a blessing from, but all gods can be beseeched, even without an altar.
Monsters Groups
There are four types of enemy packs: scouts, patrols, warbands and monsters. Each type of enemy group behaves differently.
Scouts are the smallest groups made of fast, perceptive creatures. They move between regions and assist patrols and warbands by increasing their abilities to hunt, ambush and adding to their passive perception. Should an Alarm be raised they are the first responders.
Patrols compose most of the enemy forces. They are collections of warriors that roam within a region Hunting. They attack revealed heroes. Should an Alarm be raised, they may attempt to Ambush any heroes present in the area until the alarm subsides.
Warbands are large throngs of warriors, often occupying a stronghold or encampment. They do not hunt and only move to attack strongholds held by enemy forces. They are led by powerful individuals and serve as a rally point for reinforcements.
Monsters are groups of mindless predatory beasts or undead that occupy a region. Dangerous creatures that have a chance of intercepting a hero moving into or out of a region they reside in. The chance is 5% per strength of the monster group.
Strength
Strength is the number used to determine how large or dangerous a collection of enemies is. Some groups may be many smaller threats traveling together, others may be a large single creature, the strength number rates the overall lethalness of everything combined together. As a group loses strength, individuals may die or creatures may be injured, making the pack easier to defeat in battle. As a group rests, creatures heal and warriors return to the pack.
Alarms
If the heroes are not swift in their battles, or if too many foes escape an encounter, an Alarm may be raised in a region. When an alarm is raised patrols begin ambushing, scouts begin hunting and stop moving between regions, depending how the alarm is raised scouts may even join a battle as reinforcements. There are three ways an alarm is raised
When a battle with a patrol or scout lasts more than 4 rounds
When more than 25% of an enemy groups strength escapes a battle
The dawn after an enemy patrol is destroyed in the region.
Alarms will persist for three days after they have been raised. On the dawn of the fourth day the alarm will be silenced.
