Go on...

The players are going to be playing in essentially mid-level command and special operations missions. They’re going to be in command of roughly 50 to 60 soldiers and a few artillery guns - they will have to control moral, equipment, food, and strategy. The army is going to give them a budget every so often which they can use on weapons and armor for themselves or things for their men.

The setting obviously includes some handwavium to bring it up to WW1 levels. This is most noticeable in the rapid fire crossbows and the flamethrower.

So yes. Any ideas at all would be appreciated. In return, scribblefaggotry and descriptions if there is an interest.

Human Guardsman:

A medium-height human soldier stands before you with a defeated expression on his face. Slung over on his slumped back is a short spear and a crossbow. He carries a dagger and spare bolts on his worn belt - the dagger's holster has seen much use. He wears obviously insufficient padded armor - no more than a heavy jacket, and ill-fitting at that. It has a large hole in the side red with ancient blood. The "armor" would appear to have belonged to a former patriot, possibly a friend. His boots, and in fact everything he wears, are dirty where they are not caked with mud. Hanging on his hand is a primitive black leather mask with two tinted pieces of glass for eyes and a strange bulge with imperceptibly small holes for a mouth.

Elven Soldier:

A tall, haughty elf stands before you with an expression of disgust on his subtly tired face. This is an inexperienced Elven warrior, but he has been fighting for longer than most humans have been alive. His polished leather armor stands out against the dirt and grime of the scene behind him, and his spearhead glistens. The shortbow on his back has seen much use, and you notice that his quiver is nearly empty. A dagger hangs from his belt, its handle stained red with the blood of the 'mongrel races'. The badge on his shoulder showcases the symbol that all humanity has come to hate. He has a preserved leaf of some kind tied in his hair, no doubt a gift from a far away elven maiden - nothing green grows here.

Green zones.

Due to range considerations, most cities, populations, and important services have pulled themselves away from the front lines if possible.

So, soldiers being shipped out will see idyllic and green peaceful meadows on their way from the expansive cities and stinking farms... That will slowly fade and wither the closer they get to the muddy war cities they call home.

Thanks to magic, many amenities can be delivered straight to the battlefield, allowing logistics and support to be done away with! However, thanks to magically enchanted bowmen, most wizards and logisticians have been killed. So malnutrition and privation are rampant across the trenches, as most wizards capable of bringing supplies use their status and connections to keep from being sent out into the trenches (And the range of the magic hunting bolts) to summon supplies. This has also had the effect of making the command trenches practically luxury resorts.

Basic Dwarven Soldier:

Before you stands a filthy dwarf conscript. His face is expressionless and his eyes are glazed over. The dwarf seems to go through life in a daze, always a moment away from collapsing in defeat and never standing up again. Only the ever-present threat of violence from his immediate superior motivates him, and even that is losing its edge. The dwarf is wearing little more than bloodstained dirty rags – nothing that could considered armor. This dwarf appears to have been a lucky one – he was able to scavenge a crossbow from a dead comrade. He clutches his sole misshapen bolt in his left hand, and a crude walking stick in the right.

Elven Captain

A strong, confident Elven leader stands before you. His presence radiates strength, but there is certain weariness in his eyes. He has been fighting for hundreds of years in a war he is beginning to lose faith in - he has seen more suffering then ten humans could hope to in a lifetime. Despite this, his hatred for the enemy has not dulled, and his experience has sharpened his skills and wits. His men follow him with fanatical devotion, confident that he will see them through to the end of the war. He is devoted to them as well - he has seen his men grow from boys to stalwart soldiers over long decades cowering in the mud, a lifetime away from the beauty and nature they are ostensibly fighting for.

Germany had nothing to do with nazi's in ww1

>>4139668
learn your history.

>>4139668
Hence, "thrown in from other settings and time periods".

>>4139610
I like this. I was going to have anything near the front be a war-blasted wasteland, but the transition would be very effective, especially if I throw in some corrupt officers for diplomacy/intrigue missions.

Underwars.

When the dwarves were drawn into the wars of trench and mud, it was with a degree of surety and smug confidence. After all, if above ground is filled with danger, why not go below ground? They were experts in this matter after all, it should be a cinch.

They gained a good three miles with shock tunneling, before they were stopped.

The problem is, is that dwarves were not the only masters of subterranean tactics. It didn't take long for an enterprising goblin to make offers of a way to stymie the dwarven forces.

To be sure, dwarves may make their tunnels surer and swifter, and may be the stronger fighters...

But they weren't willing and able to dig flare shafts to signal for magical bombardment to collapse the tunnels.

The losses in those first few pitched battles were atrocious. The goblins, thanks to their collective beliefs and amoral masters, did not mind their casualties as compared to the dwarves, who felt each loss to be irreplaceable. And aside from that, even if the dwarves were loathe to admit it, the goblins had lost less than the dwarves in each confrontation.

Tunnelers are still being used; they're simply too effective to throw away. But now they are cautious, far less armored, and armed with far less hope.

They say that when dwarves die, over the course of a hundred years, their bodies harden, and turn to iron, or if they were particularly noble, gold.

A century later, there maybe some very rich mines in these battlefields.

>>4139705
itt people who know nothing about the great war

So not so much Third Elven Reich as the Elven Kaiser and his forces.

Here are some hasty stats for barbed wire. Feel free to criticize.

Barbed Wire:

When a creature moves into an area with barbed wire, it must make a dexterity check (DC 15) to determine if it is caught in the wire. If the creature is caught in the barbed wire, it takes 1 point of damage each turn it is caught and cannot move until it frees itself. The DC for freeing itself increases by 2 every turn trapped up to DC 20. If another creature aids it, the DC is reduced by five. Alternatively, the creature can take 1d6 points of damage and roll to see if its armor is destroyed (50% chance) to instantly free itself. Freeing oneself from barbed wire is a full round action. If a friendly or dead creature is trapped on barbed wire, a creature can choose to use that creature as a bridge over the wire.

Obviously, if a character is caught in barbed wire, it's a near death sentence given the amount of fire they are going to take.

This isn't a bad idea, of course why would you bring a spear in a trench war? Takes to long to thrust, need a short sword to do the trick especially in tight areas like a trench.

What put it into trench warfare? In WWI the reason it went to trench warfare because of Old tactics failing with new weapons. The machine gun cut down charging enemies who's command were use to the times were you gather in large numbers and charge. So it boggled down to trenches and trying to dig/run your way through a minefield & machine gun fire to get to the enemies trench for Hand to Hand combat.

What eventually overcame this was the Tank, it could cross Barbwire, take machine gun fire, and blast opponents. Is it a free for all? Each side shooting each other or is it like the Central Powers & Allies?

>>4139747
we could do magic wire!
imagine the possibilities

>>4139712
This is a very good idea. Maybe a shadowy corporation is behind several major dwarven losses in areas which will make good mining for someone who will live long enough to see that day come - a lich, perhaps?

>>4139755
I gave them a spear because it's cheap - the equipment given to a human conscript is worth more than his life.

It will be loosely based on the Central Powers and Allies.

rolled 99 = 99

Here's a rundown of WWI points of interest mate.

This is a whole lot of shades of gray right here. The Germans sided with the country that had a bigwig and his lady assassinated. The Triple Entente (France, Russia, Britain) sided with the ones who killed the Archduke.

The Germans were the first in The Great War to use Chemical Warfare- they started with Chlorine gas, then moved to mustard, and finally Phosgene. Here's a quote I've got written down:
“I wish those people who write so glibly about this being a holy war could see a case of mustard gas. . . could see the poor things burnt and blistered all over with great mustard-coloured suppurating blisters with blind eyes all sticky. . . and stuck together, and always fighting for breath, with voices a mere whisper, saying that their throats are closing and they know they will choke.”
Vera Brittain (Winter, 142)
Not too nice. Phosgene or mustard, can't remember which, was utterly invisible and odorless- you didn't know you were exposed until you were, or until the warning was sent out from a forward position. The Germans also pioneered the flamethrower. This didn't use napalm back then, but rather creosote and benzene mixture with some other stuff. Runny, very fluid, didn't stick like flaming glue.

To be continued.

Artillery.

Usually, wizards and sorcerors do not actually find themselves fulfilling these roles- surprisingly, the greatest fit for these are druids.

Although one may audibly wonder (As a great deal of covens have) as to WHY those who swear themselves servants of nature have gotten involved in such an unnatural war, even the opponents have admitted that, if not particularly moral, it has been lethal to enemies.

First presented by the Leaflords in the Battle of Cherrywine Creek, it helped end the three month old battle almost immediately. The soldiers across the ridgeline were torn to pieces by animated roots, blasted by lightning called from above, and slaughtered by flights of falcons.

At first, this was a cultural choice of the Elves; despite having many arcane masters, it is felt that druidic mastery is somehow bound to the Elvish character. However, over time there have been a great deal of other noted benefits- reconnaissance is unnecessary when the artillery piece can simply view the field with the eyes of mice. And wooded canopies can be created to protect one from flying wizards and sorcerors.

Thus, the devastation wrought on the more permanent battlefields is for tactical purposes. To deny the druid's greatest weapons.

Thus, druids that are not part of the Elvish nation's armies are also pressured to join the armies; to give reason to prevent a mass purge of nature.

Others express their displeasure in more traditional ways, of course... Forcing the armies of the realms to act in domestic areas more than the kings would like.

you can't do this in d&d 3.5. too much high magic flung around. teleport + divination means most wars would be decided by telefragging the enemy commander.

>>4139859
This is really useful. I was wondering how to do the elven artillery.

As for the human artillery, I wrote this up:

Ballista Artillery
Damage: 5d8(19-20) + 10d6 for fireball
Crew: Two magic user with 3 crewmembers
Special: Artillery bolts have a specially designed glass jar for containing a delayed blast fireball. A crew magic user will cast delayed magic fireball (Level 10) via a scroll into the jar, with a delayed time of one turn. The other magic user will use a flying familiar, such as an eagle, as a spotter and fire the ballista with the help of the crew. The delayed blast fireball will then explode on the bolt, dealing 10d6 points of damage to everything in a 20 foot spread.

>>4139823
So which are which?

So far we know that Elves are Kaiser (Germans) and we have Humans & Dwarves. Are we going to have Orcs, Halflings, Gnomes, Kobolds? I could see Orcs being the Ottoman Empire.

>>4139873
While ballistae have existed for longer than any human alive remembers, only in the past few hundred years have they become the most feared weapon of the war. A simple bottle strapped to the side of a bolt changed more than any elf or man could have guessed. The art of magic has been harnessed by military efficiency in this deadly war machine. Thousands of skilled mages serve their country and avoid front line duty by producing scrolls of great explosive power by the cartload. These scrolls are then read by lesser mages, imbuing the bottle with great power. Another warmage then fires the ballista with the magic affixed with deadly accuracy, delivering a devastating blast to the heart of the enemy. The ease and simplicity of this system allows for hundreds of “artillery” batteries to be deployed along the trenches, allowing for simultaneous bombardment of miles of enemy trench.

>>4139868
Mind blank negro, do you speak it? There are a thousand ways around everything, including what I just wrote.

>>4139888
I was actually going to have Orcs be Americans with the appropriate historical attitude, and a black ops mission with the players where they destroy an Orc ship with a captured submarine.

Goblins could possibly be Turks, and the other nationalities will be mixed unless someone comes up with a good idea.

>>4139868
This is true - but it can be countered, and I'll probably say that most mages of sufficient skill avoid combat duty by making scrolls by the cartload for the war effort.

>>4139919
Dough Boy Orcs? Must see.

>>4139934
That's the idea. Not too bright, fresh, impossible to wear down, and it's a nice reversal of stereotypes.

>>4139947
Good thinking.

Guy writing fuckhuge paragraphs here. Like your idea, hope it keeps going, but I gotta go about now. Hope this thread keeps up so I can keep tossing thoughts.

Quick thought though- would there be any sentient species in the seas? An Atlantis, or something like that? Would provide an excuse for submarine warfare- only this time, it's more "fucking deep ones sapping mah arcane barges!"

>>4139974
Yes, and there are going to by flyers (sentient and airship) as well, to fill in for dogfights. I might have the players take control of some weak dragons for a session if the trench combat gets dull.

What about Caster Guns or something equivilant? Just strap a wand onto a crossbow, aim and say the magic word.

>>4140011
That would work, though it might be restricted to elite troops due to high cost, limited ammunition, and the dismal survival rate of the average soldier.

>>4139991
Hmm, in the naval arena, have several pegasi riders with repeater crossbows serving as general aerial recon/raiders. Fly in the sky and throw bombs at enemy ships while attempting to ward off similar eagle-dragon/etc. riders, and magic missile gatling wands. (Basically 6 wands of magic missile and a crank).

rolled 28 = 28

>>4139823

Not too smart with the spear thing. Give them knives or spikes. Failing that, the humans would just snap off a good portion of the spear and use the jagged leftover as spikes put in the wire during the night when there's odds they won't be shot trying to go over the top.

The Brits and the French used Chemical Warfare as well- it wasn't one sided use of gas. Artillery was both the massive, well-known pieces, like the Big Berthas and the Paris Guns, but also small little pieces, good enough to be used as counter-sniper direct fire pieces. I believe it was the French 37mm, but I'm not certain.

There was sapping. Massive Triple Entente assaults, such as the Second battle of the Somme (in response to the Battle of Verdun and all its forts) started with a bang- several. Mines were placed in tunnels covertly dug underneath the German front lines. Boom. Lots of TNT used. And that's after seven days of nonstop artillery barrage, if I recall correctly.

Oh, and there's no Axis or allies here. Just in case you get that little thought. I'd argue that there were no traditional protagonists. Britain was looking for an excuse to fuck with Germany before their industry far outstripped Britains.

>>4140041
>magic missile gatling wands
Hell yes. Definitely using this.

Thanks for all of the ideas guys, it's a lot of help.

>>4140011
The Maxim 08 Wandgewehr ?

So you say that this war has been going on for hundreds of years and the casualties have been massive all throughout. . . how close is every race total extinction at this point then?

>>4140048
Would a punching dagger be a reasonable replacement for the spear?

if ww1 happened to DnD world, then necromancy would be the be all end all somewhere around year 3.

needs moar necromancy

>>4140048
Also, I'm well aware of how grey everything was. I personally sympathize (barely) with Germany in the actual war.

>>4140090
I'm going to handwave that particular risk and say that the various empires got their various wizards together and dramatically increased the birthrate, especially for elves and dwarves.

>>4140132
Avitus here, more corpses

>>4140103
A normal dagger would be fine.

>>4140132
Necromacy is going to be a big player for some of the less scrupulous nations, but widespread use of flamethrowers is going to make zombies and such pretty useless.

>>4140103
The ubiquitous entrenching tool.

A short shafted or folding shovel, in other words.

>>4139868
except for the commanders with nondetection.

>>4140090
>>4140135

Another way to deal with the ongoing slaughter:

Since many/most of the dead can be resurrected, and trained soldiers are expensive, the standard practice early in the war would be to retrieve bodies and return them to life.

But, as the war grows to WWI proportions, untrained, cheaper, conscripted troops come into play. Whether they're worth the cost of bringing back gets a little more questionable. But it's good for morale, so both sides keep doing it.

Until some friendly necromancers points out to the commanders that if all they need the soldiers to do is fight, they've got a cheaper means of getting the dead back into action...and as a bonus, feeding and morale with those "resurrected" troops isn't so much of a problem anymore. They'd get a horrified reaction at first, but as the war goes on, one side gets into a temporarily desperate situation and raises some zombies or skeletons. It escalates from there, since the other side can't let their opponents get that advantage, and gradually there's more dead than living in the trenches...but the dead are still fighting.

Start partway through that chain of events, and there's plenty of interesting stuff to do - investigate the first reports of undead, hunt down and capture some enemy necromancers, maybe find out that the necros on both sides are working together with bigger plans in mind...

>>4140178
Oh fucking yes. Sharpened entrenching tool, counts as a handaxe.

How about Crystal Shard power it would be like bullets. It's d6 compared to the D4+1, and a "gun" could have certain number of bullets which would be pp. The ammo could be just additional pp. So a ML of 2 for 2d6 dmg for just 2pp. That would be like double tapping. Unless your going to do minions for the conscripts so that they'll have 1hp.

>>4140236
Infanterie-Regiment Markgraf Carl (7.
Untote) Nr. 60

>>4140236
That's a better way to handle undead than I was thinking. A good old-fashioned undead apocalypse would be good if the players don't respond well to moral grays. Which is possible, as it is a newish group and we've only done basic 'kick down the door, kill everything' campaigns in past.

Orc scribblefaggotry.

>>4140389
Stupid 4chan.

>>4139755
the british when things got tough actually equipped their troops with a bayonet welded to a metal pole which falls under spear so not like it hasn't actually been done

OP, long spears would be kind of useless. But short spears/axes would be good. They're small, cheap, and effective in trench combat.

Both are cheaper than any kind of sword. A short spear could be mass produced easily.

Orcs breaking their neutrality enter the war as a mercenary army. The Orc country still suffering from a massive Civil War that threaten to destabilize the entire country. No strangers to war Orcs rallied at the thought of going to war again, however the Orc government called for a halt and isolation period. Selling their goods to both sides the Orcs got rich, waiting no longer the Orcs jump feet first into the War. They hire themselves out to the Highest Bidder which happens to be the Allies.

Fresh faces and arms are a great morale boost however the Orcs wanting to draw out the war for their own profits sabotage all attempts to end the endless trench war.

Characterized as stupid, dense, and warmongering. Only the stupid part is incorrect, while the average solider on the trench is no more intelligent than a 12 year old human, the Orc commanders are as every bit intelligent as a Human or Elf commander.

Orcs are the clear winners of this war, profiting from battle and gaining morale support to launch their own form of Imperialism.

Orcs look for war to thin out their numbers, mostly the lower caste of Orcs the less intelligent more bestial caste. The higher ups that look like 4e Half Orcs are a different caste. Segeration isn't based on skin color but on caste type. As with Americans in WWI, Orcs are the ones profiting from this war. They sold their arms with whom ever paid the most first, which was the Allied side. However most of the money isn't going towards the war & ending it but prolonging it.

Bump. Takan breakfast, will return eventually.

I don't have terribly much to add to this thread, but first I'd like to say that this idea is AMAZING and I demand (inasmuch as I'm capable of demanding) updates!

Taking the trench war angle to a fantasy setting is pretty interesting, and fairly reasonable if your wizards are using magic in lieu of projectile weapons. Especially considering that trenches have been used in warfare for thousands of years, only initially their purpose was to redirect cavalry and slow down infantry, rather than the reinforced fieldworks they'd ultimately become.

Still, having some Orc lieutenant patrolling the trenches, stumping his way along the duckboards and inspecting the troops, only to look up as he hears a sound as of distant windchimes. Suddenly he bellows, "MAGICAL BARRAGE, INCOMING!"

archived

Human Necromancer:

Shockingly young even by human standards, this child protogy would stand like a beacon of hope amidst the muck of the trenches if not for her unholy abilities. She wears a green and Grey cloak and looks no older than 11 years but she commands the dead to rise and fight again.

Animating entire divisions to fight again as lurching Zombies, this child monster is both the greatest strength of the Allies and their most hated ally.

What Unholy gods created this lethal grim Reaper in children's cloths are unknown, however her lethal power is a fact of existence on the western front. Even the Elves fear her, they seem to believe that if they die by her magics she will destroy their very souls.

um, read first post, not the rest, so had to rage at "elven third reich" and "Wwi"
You realize, I'm sure, that WWI and WWII are very different, right? WWI germany was probably more in the right, there was no racial motivations just raging patriotism, and there wasn't any semblance of nazis.

thought I'd point that out and ignore the rest of your elf-hating BS.

Mana pollution/storms. If too many spells are cast in a short time or in a small area, Shit Gets Fucked.

I'm running dry.

Just one suggestion:

One of (but by far not the only) causes of trench war fair was a commander's inability to exploit breakthroughs. Trenches were such that, even if the line was smashed, the enemy could mobilize a counter attack faster than the attack could consolidate on their position. There were actually a number of break throughs all throughout the western front in World War I, but the opposing commander was typically able to use rail or other such mass transit to reinforce and retake the position before the attacker could march troops in and fortify. Just some food for thought as to how to prolong this war.

>>4142415
Elves have serious magical advantages but they don't have Necromancers. In a WW1 type siduation Human Illusionists and Necromancers would become the most valuable resources on the planet.

Especially Necromancers, they would be treated as Gods.

Even a 1st level Necromancer can cast Exterminate and Animate Dead Animals, if nothing else they can keep the troops from getting bothered by rats and amass a few dozen animal zombies within a few weeks.

>>4142415
Yeah, that's nothing specal, the standard orc solider would be about 14 years old. And kobolds are ready to fight at 6.

And that is ignoring the ones that would lie about their age so they could get to fight early.

>>4142415
>child protogy

It's protégé. The more you know.

>>4142484
"special" dammit I need to go to bed.

>>4142492
I thought he meant prodigy?

>>4142496

...actually you're probably right.

I am now imagining 1 year old sorcerer kobolds who have been heavily hit with aging magic in order to provide a steady stream of biological artillery pieces

If your going to run it as per WW1 then so far we have, from what I've read is Human, Dwarf and Ork in the allies, but only Elves on the other side. While we all love a good bit of Elf bashing, they're going to need some proper allies, else they're simply going to be overwhelmed.

>>4142484
Um, you seemed to forget the Whole NECROMANCER part of that.

>>4142496
.>>4142529
>>4142492
>prodigy

Meant prodigy, my bad.

>>4142534
Or better yet, a demiplane where time flows at 24x speed (the kind that all the hax wizards are supposed to have) that is used as a selective breeding and training facility for said kobold sorcerers.

>>4142547
So she is level 5? Assuming that you did the smart thing and did a cleric necromancer for total undead domination that is.

Seriously, level 5 is going to happen if you can survive long enough.

>>4142559
I am now fapping to the idea of armies of Kobold sorcerers fighting a eternal trench war against hordes of Undead lead by preteen Loli Necromancers.

To be fair, Necromancers and the Undead are all well and good, but no living creature would want to fight by them. Nor would they want to be stationed anywhere near a Necromancer, for fear they would be the next to join the ranks of zombies, rather than be recovered for Raising. Given the massive damage to morale being anywhere near an Undead unit would inflict on your own troops, it becomes far more advantagious to use Undead to counter Undead. Perhaps it only started out as a counter to an Undead threat, but eventually you would end up with miles of trenches manned soley by corpses, their ranks being fulled by the remains of soldiers who are too far beyond calling back by any other means.

SO FUCKING STUPID IT HURTS

>>4142577
1st level wizard would be enough to create hordes of rats,7-14 a week 5th level cleric would be good for 35-70 zombies a week, anything higher level is creating a small army per month.

If you got 30-40 Necromancers together for a month you are talking close to a quarter million zombie rats and @25,000 zombies/skeletons. Assuming there is a "Skeleton rifleman" version of the "Skeleton Archer" you have a rather large and effective undead army that is effective against both Elves and bear cavalry.

Delicious alchemical warfare.
Gas! Gas! Gas!

>>4142603
Dear fucking christ that is grim, miles of trenches manned by corpses, zombie rats and skeletons bashing themselves into other undead.

A handful of Necromancers keeping the front active and a few squads of living bodyguards who also serve as communications specialists, running telegraph wire through the wall of corpses back to the command center.

Fuck, those guys need medals and a fuckton of postwar therapy.

>>4142621
With that number of undead vermin, wouldn't you be better off using swarms?

Also, where is this spell that lets them animate rats?

Watch/read "All Quiet On The Western Front." Awesome story about a german soldier who fights in the trenchwar from beginning till end, written by a german not long after the war and made into a movie in the 30's and later remade in the 80's. Both versions are good.
Find source material about WW1 on the internet, especially firsthand accounts from soldiers. Ive been collecting books about this subject ever since I wanted to incorporate elements like these in a steampunk D&D campaign. Especially stories about 'the last knights,' the pilots, during WW1 are great stuff to use. Also, the crazy machinery like the first tanks are great inspirations for wacky vehicles to use. Just remember that none of them can really break the status quo.

>>4142626
Paper thin wooden boxes with Fire trap cast on them as land mines. Entire barbed wire factories where someone used wish, enchant item, shocking grasp and permanency to create a unending supply of Electrified razor wire.

>>4142661
1st-2ed DnD, Animate Dead Animals was a 1st level spell. Gave you 1/2 HD of undead per level, it was damn usefull. It always animated at least one creature so if you found a dead bear you suddenly had a 6 HD minion.

Gave your 1st level necromancer purpose in your party without having to abuse your ability to cast "Create Crawling Claw" which created minions who were immune to non magical weapons.

>>4142668

In WW1 the defenders had the upper hand in everything. With some barbed wire and a few machine guns they could mow down every attacker.
The only reason they kept charging at each other despite being slaughtered was because of blunt stupidity and stubbornness on the side of the commanders who usually sat safely behind the lines.
There is even a true account of a honest-to-god cavalry charge by knights with lances who attacked a trench and got butchered like animals by gattling fire.
Remember that WW1 was all about stubborn idiots shouting orders at the only people who truly saw what was happening in the war: the soldiers in the trenches.
The accounts I read of some of these are truly horrible. Watching dead comrades decompose only a few yards from their trench and not even being able to scare the rats away from eating their corpses, stuff like that. The use of gas and flame, being forced to charge into certain death, the diseases and the shellshocks, WW2 might have been a bigger war, but WW1 beats it in cruelty.

Halfling spies. Tiefling OPERATORS. That is all.

>>4142814


Gnomes in biplanes, Orks as stormtroopers, Bugbear paratroopers.

Because 7 foot tall silent Goblins landing on your roof at 3AM are freaking awesome.Especially if they have guns.

just make the Necromancers generals commanding individual stretches of the front, pure hellholes which the living parts of the army refuse to get close to.

you can give your players a mission to deliver a message to Necromancer telling him to stop sending his forces into the other parts of the warzone to get fresh corpses, completely shattering the morale of the troops stationed there.

they should be pretty arrogant, because they keep large parts of the front in control all by themselves, going a bit power crazy.

>>4140236
Dude, if you're gonna parallel WW1, you just handed yourself a way to get the "Russia equivalent" out of the war.

See, how would folks who /know/ they're gonna get drafted, or relatives of the guys in the trenches, feel if they knew death was not the end?

As a soldier, how would you feel if you knew that even if you got chopped up by enemy fire, or died in an artillery bombardment, some necromancer is gonna come to your area of the trench, resurrect you, and the horrors of war will NEVER END?

So, one of the nations has a massive uprising- we're talking huge moral outrage here- back home. The old government- King, Parliament, whatever- gets booted out and replaced with a government that wants out of the war, and sues for peace with the Elves.

The Elves are only too happy to accept, because they have been fighting a two front war for centuries now.

>>4143038
THIS. IS. AWESOME.

James stopped walking. His heart was thundering in his chest, but not from fatigue. He had a meeting with Sir Paul Darland, a necromancer.

Famous for holding his line for forty days while being completely surrounded. The man was a hero and a monster at the same time. They say he used undead orcs and other evil creatures in his army, and has enchanted his artillery with sickness and fear.

James got himself together and started his motorcycle. These papers had to arrive in time, and this was enemy territory.

I was thinking about the idea of fantasy WWI, although in a Low Fantasy novel.

Anyway, gasmasks for horses.

Not OP here or the other guy who wrote the paragraphs but the guy who wrote the Orcs. First how did everyone like the grim darkness of the Orcs? Driven by hunger of glory & riches I think is a semi-accurate view of America during WWI.

So we have:

Austria-Hungary: Open
2nd German Reich (German Empire): Elves
Ottomon Empire: Goblins
Bulgaria: Open

Allies we have....

US: Orcs
British Empire: Humans?
France: Dwarfs?
Russia: Open?

(Yes there was others in the war but who cares about small fries?)

This needs a better system to work imho, something simple and fast to workout. Without the hassle of going through 10000 rules and rolls.
SW has a good mass combat system, and good combat system in general. All the races can be included and it's fast you can have mustard attacks...etc. Everything is simple to stat out in SW.

>>4143626
I vote britain is halflings.

>>4143626
IMO, making creatures an complete empire is stupid.

Better combine creatures.

I imagine Britain to have all kinds of creatures, and the United States to have outcast-creatures.

Stuff like France and Germany need to be human-only, as they have an old history.

>>4143381
Necromancers would be illegal in the state I would presume. However on the battlefront the casualties lost to those who are not quick breeders would have to resort to that kind of thing. No one besides the guys in the trenches and Military commanders know that Joe the conscript who had a lifespan of 15hours is now Joe the Zombie who's lifespan is 15years.

>>4143652
Just don't fling the Necros' on one side to make them "evil".

Due to the level of risk in tunnel fighting, I suspect the Dwarfs to employ necros as well, at least for tunnel zombies. Who would know the difference, if they normally die anyways in the dark, twisting corridors?

I saw Jimmy recently, he wasn't the same since the last time. Looked awful, like he hadn't had anything to eat in days.

I walked over to him and inquired how he had been, expecting some smart-ass comment. He didn't say a damn thing, just stared, stared like, like hell itself was of no concern to him.

I don't think I like Jimmy anymore.

There is a Steampunk PnP game I adore quite a bit called Victoriana

In that game, it's on Earth and it is during the years of the Crimean War, which was Russia vs. England/France/Sardinia/Ottomans

All sorts of fantasy characters and creatures involved in it

Ogres walking around with underslung cannons firing them like a guy would fire a pistol

Dwarves in biplanes

People parachuting out of cargo holds attached to wyverns flying around

>>4143652
It actually would make sense that the United States would have a shitload of Necromancers.

Hell, make the United States founding fathers summoners, alienists, necromancers and warlocks...

>>4143797

I just had an awesome vision of the draft; conscription not gathering large groups of young peoples, but bringing back enormous groups of the dead.

>>4143838
Instead of crying moms, you'd have grumbling necromancers with top-hats whining about having to spend time resurrecting dead in service of the US Army.

>>4143864

Exactly. Delicious undead armies.

Well, you could use the normal form of conscription too, but undead serve in that role much better, while the living are trained volunteers for other, specialized things which require actual thought and tactical intuition other than "Stab/shoot the guy in front of you; Sit in trench, repeat, sometimes charge into No Man's Land"

Bump.

>>4143626
Fuck you, Canada was in the war long before the pussy American's joined in. Shit got owned at Vimmy Ridge where both the British and French had epic failures before. Billy Bishop and Will Baker were two of the best Ace's during the war and had one of the highest kill counts.

>>4143683
Agreed, they'd be a viable military tactic for both sides to replenish lost troops while waiting for reserves to come in.

>>4143626
>(Yes there was others in the war but who cares about small fries?)
>Canada
>Canada was a small fry in WW1
>who cares about the country that produced underaged, untrained soldiers prone to such notorious fits of berserker courage that they are still talked about today for having broken through several seemingly unconquerable strongpoints?

Hmmm...

Let's not drift too far into the necromancy here goes- though a sweet concept, at game start it should be in the middle/beginning phase of necromancer militarization.

As time goes on of course, it gets into the nightmare scenario of pointless corpses butchering one another on the field- then the thought of what would happen if (God protect) one of those undead armies SUCCEEDED in breaking through the lines.

The worst part is the mud.

It gets everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. You'd think the nerve-wracking waiting, the brief and terrifying action, or the horrific, painful death would be worse. But they aren't. You learn to ignore those. You learn to cope. Can't cope with the fucking mud. I've had to change my socks and scrape filth out of my boots four times today. My squad buddy Larquen lost most of his foot to the chirurgeons after gangrene set it. All because of the ever-fucking mud. Let me tell you, you haven't known suffering until you've had to scrape muck and weevils off your lembas rations for a month of Sundays straight.

You'd think the druids would care more about it, but half the time they're the ones causing it. Says it mucks up the NML something fierce, which I don't doubt. But with the bloody dwarves sapping left and right you get all sorts of contaminants in there, and then it just rushes back down on our faces. I fucking hate it here.

>>4144471
Canadians represented as Berserker Vikings? I like this concept. Molson in one hand, Axe in the other

>>4144423
>>4144471
apparently this guy

>>4144544
I've never been over the top. At this point the trenches are about ten feet deep with stairs and duckboards about half-way up. My view of the war has been sepia print framed in barbed wire and smoke. I haven't had to worry about enemy Wandegher guns or sinkhole traps set by the fucking, fucking dwarves. Just the occasional boom-bolt barrage or Cloudkill offensive. You ever worn a gasmask for three days straight? Lemme tell ya, the whole world becomes a foggy pinpoint, tinted in varying shades of toxin. My buddy Larquen, the one with the foot? Yeah, he bought it in the last gas flood. Couldn't get his hood on in time. Fucking magic does terrible things to a man. His tongue turned black. Not blue or whatever color you'd call a bruise, I mean BLACK. Like charcoal. You could hear the fluid in his lungs, just sloshing around.

And you know what I thought, lookin' at him? I thought "God damn, I'm thirsty." I'm not too proud to say I nicked his canteen. Water's water. 'Specially when it isn't full of all that fucking mud.

>Cloudkill

Obvious, in retrospect.

So someone should take a level in bard so they can be famous for writing "Dulce et decorum est" in their language.

BUT WHO WAS AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE...
The actual humans? Hobbits? Half-orcs?
And if the Germans are the Elves, what does that make the French? Lizardfolk?

>>4144618
You join up thinking it's gonna be steak and sausage seven days a week, wall-to-wall parades and all the pussy you can fuck. I tell you, when they gave me my armor and my Shard-Thrower I was the happiest man alive. Back then I looked damn good in that uniform. When I made brevet corporal in basic I hardly took the pips off to shower. Good gods, I haven't showered in damn near seven months. Haven't slept in a proper bed in nine. Haven't had steak OR sausage in a bloody year.

I hate it here. Everyday I wake up a little worse than the day before. A little less stable, a little more numb. I used to vomit every morning from the fucking smell. I used to cry every night because the artillery noise wouldn't let me sleep. I cut that out pretty quick. Don't have the food or water to waste. I've been trying to roll this same damn cigarette for twenty minutes now. My hands are shaking too hard to handle the shag. I hate it here so much.

>>4144471
Canadians are part of the British Empire.

>>4144835

Were, and even back then they were at arm's length from the British. Saying "oh well they were part of the British empire anyway" is disingenuous, because fucking India was part of the British empire.

>>4144835
Canadians - were - part of the British Empire.

>>4144889
During WWI they still were part of the British Empire. They still "are" just more independent never fully breaking off but never truly apart.

Canada is UK's Puerto Rico, they have their own government and semi-independence. However they still have ties to the mother country, as seen with Canadian Bank notes have the English Queen...etc.

English Empire during WWI were, Australia, India, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the British Isles.

British would have the most diverse racial groups in the war. Canadians could be Halflings, S. Africans could be Lizardfolk, Indians could be elephantfolk...etc. They all flew under the same flag, the British Empire.

>>4144709
>>4144618
>>4144544
You guys want me to keep going?

>>4144974
Yes please. I'm following it at least.

I just, y'know, never really sure what the proper response reading fiction is. Hurring "MOARRRR" just makes me feel retarded, while "This is good, do go on," makes me feel annoying.

>>4144709
In Response, the Orc Lieutenant:

We got 'ere t'ree munts ago, give 'er take. The 'Umies an' Shorties 'ave been fightin' dem damn Elfs fer a long time now-- 'ell, dey's been fighting since before me grampy was born. O' course, dat's how me grampy made all his fortun'; he owns ships an' factories dat made armor and weppins an' sold to the Shorties an' dere pals.

If my pa caught me talkin' like dem lower orcs, he'd beat me till I wuz raw. It kinda catches on, tho'. Dere's so many o' dem, an' so few of us uppers over 'ere fightin'.

O' course, dat's kinda da point- ya know? I mean, whut's dis country fer? Da best types, dat's who. It was founded by uppers, fer uppers. Sure, ya got lotsa lowers all over da place in our country, dats' always been 'nevitable. Heh. Inevitable. Comp' lumints of a 'Umie education. *grins*

Anyway, dat's one of da reasons we uppers got in dis war- it chews folks up, like dey's ground meat. And da lowers, dey've always gotten krumped in our wars. But this war can krump 'em more an' faster den we ever could'a done back 'ome. Soon, dere ain't gonna be enuff lowers to do anyfing.

And our country will be by uppers, fer uppers. Like it wuz meant ta be.

Elves should ally with kobolds. And BEARS.

The reason the Elves had such longs lives in The Lord of the Ring was because J.R.R. wanted to make them seem more pure. In the western utopian genre, the good society always had incredibly long lives. Taken to an extreme, J.R.R. makes the perfect race almost undying and not even human. In this setting, why are Elves so awesome? Why do they never get dirty, and why do they live to be 700 still? I know that it is just a continuation of DnD archtypes, but have a reason, thematically or locally, as for why the races are set up the way they are.
There are some really good ideas in this thread.

The Kobolds or the Turks were one the first to ally with the Elves. At first the Elves didn't like idea of serving side by side with bunch of lizards, however as time wore on the soldiers in the trench deeply appreciated the little tykes. Nearly all Sorcerers and Magic users that are in the Trenches today are Kobold. Why you ask? Elves wanted it this way, it was the only way to keep their magic users out of the trenches.

Kobolds control an Ancient Empire, dating back thousands of years. They've been the enemies of the Dwarves since time begin so they tell. Master Diggers and architects they build elaborate trenches some even stated that they have underground cities near the front. Of course any Dwarf would tell you that they would been the first to know.

Kobolds don't have nearly the number of the new incoming Orcs, however they make up for it with traps. It wasn't the machinebolter that turned this into a Trench war it was the Kobolds.
... Continued.

>>4145266
Kobolds covered "no man's land" with millions of traps all cleverly hidden amongst the mud. Just to name a few theres the Pitfall in which the poor sap falls through what would seem to be just another muddy surface into a 10' deep pit with sharpen sticks on the bottom. Another is the foot grabber, in which it's no deeper than a human's knee or a Dwarf leg, like the pitfall it has sticks on the bottom, however whats more ingenious is the door it self traps the saps leg like a bear trap. Unable to move he's perfect target for a sniper or better yet just let the scum cut off his own leg and bleed to death. Should he survive infection would surely set in.

Another tactic use by the Kobolds is to dig under the enemies trenches and burrow upwards enabling the Kobolds & Allies to assault the soldiers directly. Nothing is full proof though, as the Dwarves quickly caught on to this tactic by erecting magical barriers underground.

This is an all or nothing for the Kobolds seeing that every man, most women, and able bodied children has been conscripted into this fight. Should their side loose they'll surely become extinct, and give the Dwarves the last laugh.

>>4144709
I mean, what are we fighting for? The posters say your fighting for the Motherland and the glory of the elvish race. It's bullshit. There isn't any glory or decency here. The officers sit in their gilded, force-shielded tents and move us around like chess pieces. Chess pieces don't scream. Or bleed. Their tongues don't turn black when they're too slow with the gas-hood.

This isn't what I thought the Erlmacht would be like. I grew up with tales of Colonel von Quarlen's last stand, campfire tales of Crimson Duke; greatest dragonrider who ever lived. I was told that with my schola grades I could qualify for the officer-training program. That I might be leading a battalion within the decade. It's been four years and I'm still a fucking brevet corporal. I eat the same maggoty rations as everyone else, I sleep in the same diseased muck as everyone else. I get a better 'Thrower than my fireteam, but all that does is make me a target.

They tell you war is hell. They're wrong. Hell, I could deal with.

Writing is awesome. I could read a novel of this shit.

>>4145271
I didn't think kobolds were smart enough to construct punji traps.

>>4145427

Tucker's Kobolds.

'nuff said.

>>4145435

If we're talking the bear trap type one instead of the ones simply angles downward, which I think we are, it requires knowledge of tension, crafting, etc. Tucker's were resourceful, sure, but they used such things such as simple crossbows and poles and metal armor. Kobolds don't simply have the skill needed for this kind of trap.

>>4142723
I don't think you know very much about the great war by which I mean it sounds like you watched a movie or two centered on the western front. The war was extremely diverse and took place all over the world.
Though if we are going to talk about the western front it was not about being stubborn but about trying to adapt to modern warfare. All armies were trying to adapt and "stubborn" people had a habit of dying or being relieved of command. Attacks continued because if they didn't everyone might has well have gone home. Attacks were done at night when possible and artillery support was almost always used, be it a week long preparation a short dense bombardment or a creeping barrage. The problem wasn't taking the enemy trench, after a year into the war everyone got pretty good at doing that, the problem was that now the enemy could call in backup and artillery making holding ground difficult in addition to a new tactic known as defense in depth.
apart from that Gatling fire was something of a lulwut because Gatling guns were long obsolete by 1914 and ww2 was a much crueler war. More soldiers died in ww1, more people died in ww2 the difference was made up in civilians. In ww1 about 75% of the deaths were military personnel in ww2 it was only about 50%. While miserable in the trenches ww1 was only rougher on some of the soldiers while ww2 visited greater horror across a wider population.<steps off soapbox>

>>4145397
Why thank you, good sir.

>>4145358
I never thought I'd say this, but thank Correlon for the fucking kobolds.

It's not just because they're the best trappers, sappers, and siege engineers in the bloody world. The little bastards are FUN. They've always got some gallows joke going on, and I've yet to meet one that didn't have a pack of cards or a set of dice handy. And they've saved our asses more than once. I used to hang with one of their engineers, a little fellow named Krik. The fucker won most of my schnapps rations, but I don't begrudge him for it. He's good company. So we were dicing away guard duty, drinking beer and telling dirty jokes, when Krik takes a good, long look at my drink. I was going to make a crack about the sexual proclivities of his mother, but I got this -feeling-, you know? So I ask him what's the matter, he just picks up his spear and tells me to grab my Shard-Thrower. Next thing you know there's an explosion of dirt and duckboard and fucking, god-damn mud. DWARVES. EVERYWHERE. DOZENS OF 'EM.

I emptied my charge pack into the hole, the two of us screaming at the top of our lungs. Then it was all knife-work 'til backup arrived. Apparently there was a druid down the line that heard the squaties tunneling. And let me tell you, the treehuggers are gods-damned terrifying when they get going. I got out mostly fine, some bruising and a few loose teeth. Krik wasn't so lucky. If the druid hadn't been there, he'd a died. As is he lost most of his legs and got a free ticket home. I miss the little squeeker. I still write him sometimes.

>>4145556
Fuck you, we're having fun.

>>4144958
>Canada is UK's Puerto Rico, they have their own government and semi-independence.

Canada has complete governmental independence and is recognized as a sovereign nation. The only tie they have to the UK anymore is the fact that they technically pay fealty to the Queen, making her the monarch of multiple nations rather than a bunch of almost-nations lumped together into one.

This is where the phrase "constitutional monarchy" came from. Canada has all of its own laws and is entirely legally independent, but there's still a monarch up at the top of the chain of command, represented by the Governor General (who technically has supreme power over damn near everything in Canadian politics but God help her if she tries to do anything except veto the occasional really bad idea)

>>4139868

The rules nigger, are written on paper and not in stone. you can do whatever the hell you want, including saying that some kinds of magic do not exist.

wouldn't the necros end up pretty crazy from lack of human contact?

Also /k/obolds. That is all.

Stop a group of elves from perfecting a new alchemical/magical effect that replicates Cloudkill, but is species-specific.

Stop the Ogres from establishing a foothold that will allow their new 'bombard' weapons from lobbing artillery across several hundred square miles.

Sabotage a food convoy on the way to resupply a major stronghold.

Infiltrate a dwarven stronghold and escape wth the secret weapons development data. Something called 'project powder' (dwarves developing firearms).

A new siege engine is seen being fielded by Kobold forces. Solidly armored with a quarter foot of steel, this tracked monstrosity is resistant to most attacks, and its compliment of kobold sorcerors/dragonfire adepts use it as protection to break enemy lines. Yoy must infiltrate and destroy the construction yards producing these machines (Germans invented the tank in WW1)

The Illithids have begun fielding massive zeppelins, using them to deploy their slave-troops and alchemical bombs. The bulk of the massive vessels shields them from the worst effects of the sun. You've got to develop some form of anti-air defense system, and most magic is out because the blimps are too high up, and out of range.

(get a little comic book geek on) The hobgoblin state has developed an alchemical process that will permanently augment any hobgoblin exposed to it, raising them to peak physical condition. (+6 to all stats [as per the Chasing Perfection spell], plus DR 4/-, and the effects of Accelerated Movement spell from Complete Adventurer). You must infiltrate and appropriate or destroy the research.

>>4145920
across several hundred square miles.
a)square miles is an area measurement not distance
b)assuming a) no arty can do that even today

>>4146054

LOLFANTUSEE

have some more scribblefaggotry

>>4146076
ill forgive b of course
but what of A? distance is miles area is miles squared

>>4143038
>>just make the Necromancers generals commanding individual stretches of the front

Or you could have them integrated. Attached to a conventional, all living unit. As that unit experiences casualities, they are added to the undead contingent of the unit, until the unit is nothing but undead and an increasingly paranoid and desperate necromancer.

>>4146326

>>4145604
And the necros. Sehenine's blood, the fucking necros.

See, about fifty miles northwest of here the trenches peter out, turn into scrubland. My platoon was tapped for a routine recon mission about a month ago. So we packed up and headed out there. Total clusterfuck from beginning to end. We had barely enough supplies, maybe four capacitor crystals apiece and no extra food. Not to mention our intel was shit. We were told there might be some humans digging around, looking for one of our crystal dumps and foraging supplies. We didn't find any humans. Not of the living variety, anyway.

It's fucking unnatural I tell you. A whole bloody battalion marching in lock-step. Every man-jack of them dead as a doorknob. I... I don't wanna talk about it. It was... it was worse than the mud. Well, maybe not worse. But about as bad. And the god-damn lieutenant had some kind of death wish. He sees these walking corpses headed at us and orders us to set up an enfilade and open fire. We weren't gonna, but then the bastard killed Paxel. Just shot him in the fucking head, pal. So we stepped up and started shooting. We made a pretty good account of ourselves. Stiffs can't shoot for shit.

>>4146605

Now, remember when I said we only had four crystals apiece? Yeah, those run out pretty damn fast, especially in a target-rich environment. So Lt. Requist says "fix bayonets and charge." That's where the buck stops. I'll shoot at a zombie all the live-long day. But if he gets up in my face and starts clawing at me... You know their fingertips wear away in a few months. After a bit they don't have nails anymore, just bits of fingerbone, sharpened like razors. So Requist goes charging at them screaming blood and vinegar at the top of his lungs. The rest of us decided that we were perfectly comfortable in the scrub. I one five silver, he lasted over a minute.

Then, and this is the part that wakes me up screaming, the actual necromancer saw us. Looked straight at us. At me. He looked at us like ants. Like we were just some kind of insect that disrupted his perfect little worldview. Not ashamed to admit we ran like hell. You would have, too.

>>4145266
so what about the kobold breeding deimplane?

Bumping this shit.

I'm tempted to archive the thread, but don't feel like I have proper seniority to yet.

Spoiler: Eberron already did it.

I dub this WWI reenactment All's Quiet on the Western Front. If the party is made of elves.

Writefag here. Working on something short with this setting in mind. Will post tomorrow.

>>4146054
I'm fairly certain that howitzers can cover massive amounts of terrain in hails of lethal firepower. Not ot mention battleships and shore defense guns. If the ogres are building massive cannons (Where'd they get the tech? Possible covert alliances?) then I think the 'bigger is better' design would fit them. Imagine the danger of a fortified mountain, with the entire surrounding countryside as an easily struck killing field. Tell me that isn't an opposing general's nightmare. Anything in that area would be at their mercy.

>>4146607
>>4146605
>>4145604
>>4145358
>>4144709
>>4144618
>>4144544
This guy here. Any stories anon particularly wants to see/hear?

>>4147014
Just do it its awsome archive it on sup/tg/

>>4147238
Something with Warforged in it. If i remember right, isnt there some kind or warforged made with wood? Couldnt druids make those?

>>4147238
How about something about surviving a hellish inferno of artillery? Shell shock , having to dig ones self out of the ground, people evaporating ect..

>>4147395
Can do. Gimme a minute.

Does the resident writefag mind if I post some of my own stuff?

>>4147570
You can always trust the humans to figure new ways to blow shit up. And that's even when there are perfectly good ways of doing so. Example: the ballista. It's a perfectly good siege weapon. Take a crossbow and make it huge, do the same with the bolts. And I know I don't have to tell you that wizards and such can throw fire around in large, painful ways.

Leave it to the humans to put them together. See, none of their higher-powered spellslingers want to go to the front lines, who can blame them? So instead they fulfill their civic duty by making scrolls and shit of big explosive spells. Grunt-casters then use them to enchant glass jars strapped to ballista bolts. You fire the bolt, the arrow comes down, hits some poor fucker, then explodes. We call them boom-bolts.

>>4145556
It's loosely based off of the Great War, it's fantasy based so it can be anything the OP wants.

We have freaking lizardguys running around, Elves, Dwarves...etc.

Op here, back from class.

Godamn I love you guys.

>>4147673
By all means.
>>4147682
The good thing about boom-bolts is that the jar produces a bunch of extra drag, creating a distinctive whistling noise as they fly. It's nice, because you have ample warning to get into cover and keep your fucking head down. Or they did until recently. Apparently some fucking genius got the idea to put silencing magic on the bolts. Now you have maybe a second or two to avoid pointy, fiery death.

This was about five months ago. I was shooting the shit with Krik, remember Krik? This was before the sapper incident, so he still had his legs. So we were sitting there on the firing platform playing cards with a few others. For once, I was even winning. So I'm having a cigarette, counting my winnings and planning the best way to stay as drunk as possible for as long as possible. Krik is telling me to go double-or-nothing, but the key to good gambling is quiting when you're ahead. Snikrot, he's this gobbo that comes around, a whatchacallit, a psychic. He came around every now and again to recharge the capacitors for our Shard-Throwers. Good guy. So he picks up the deck and starts shuffling, taking a moment to impugn my family line in the process.

>>4147673
(Secondary writefag work)

Command decided to parachute a caster (think he's a sorcerer, doesn't talk much) in today- evidently we're about to do a huge offensive. I think the only reason he managed to go down here is that all this damned smoke blocks anything you see for more than five meters or so. And you know what Command did? They didn't send him with a Shardthrower, any crystals, any leather, any food, not even a godsdamned canteen! Command says he's "low upkeep" and able to fend for himself, but what about the fucking rest of us? He's no earthmover, there's no way in the abyss that he can make his own food, and we barely have enough provisions as it is! The only reason he can even sleep is because of that spell. You can see the terror in his eyes. They wouldn't have sent such a green soldier out here unless things were really getting bad. Davian said that shit couldn't get any worse, and now look at him. Or what's left of him. On the plus side, he knows fireball. As long as he doesn't hit any of us, this should well make up for the lack of crystals. If he survives. If any of us survive.

Ok we got a few things running I just want to clear things up.

Rifles are they crystal throwing crossbows? Or do we just still have repeating crossbows? Perhaps both?

Who do we have left to give background stories to? I still need to know what are the humans and dwarves. So far I've guest that Humans are British and Dwarves are French. We still have Austria-Hungary left for the Central Powers.

>>4147759
Poor Snikrot never got a chance to finish. Quick as a fucking thunderbolt a god damn boom-bolt lands not fifteen feet up the line.

Anyone ever tell you about fight-time? It's this thing when adrenaline and terror and exhilaration reach some kind of alchemical balance in your head. Time jumps around a lot. Instants can last for days, and you find yourself loosing hours of running and screaming and bleeding. Well out of the corner of my eye I see that bolt coming over the lip of the trench and fight-time hits HARD. I have just enough time to register that it's not making the right noise before the world turns into fire.

Snikrot was closest to the blast. Have you seen what a fistful of sharp rock shards can do to a skull? It's like watching a cantelope explode, only stickier. The back of his skull deformed, then I get a faceful of teeth and viscera. Krik and Snikrot were close, so Krik is freaking the fuck out, trying to scrape the remains of the goblin's head back together and keep 'em that way through sheer force of will. I grabbed the scaly little squeeker and started running for the lip under the trench.

>>4147837

I've imagined the shardthrowers as a kind of modified, magical crossbow/gun thing. The capacitator crystal top-loads, puts "energy" into the expansion chamber, which solidifies into shards, and the pull of the trigger uses more "energy" to both propel the first shard and create a new one.

>>4145556

Anon you referred to here. This is a thread about the interesting bits of WW1 as they may be used in OP's campaign, I may have gotten facts wrong, and I don't intend to act like I'm an expert.
That said...
Yes the war wasn't only about the Western Front, but in all honesty, you're not going to shove a history book into your player's faces, especially if they hardly know about WW1 at all.
I honestly hope you don't DM, because it must be boring as hell the way you bring it. And for god's sake cut the crap about more civilians dying in WW2 and it thus being a crueler war, what do you think most of those soldiers were before they got sent into battle with false hopes? You act as if soldiers' lives are worth less than another person. Those people endured some of the worst humanity could do and if that doesn't make for interesting stories then nothing does.
And sure there are interesting stories from all over the world too, from Japan to Russia to Austria, and feel free to recount them to the OP if you got 'em instead of going on about the facts.
Now do us all a favor and act like we're making up fantasy games here and don't to be a wise-ass.
My apologies to the rest of you for getting sidetracked.
Hope the pic makes up for it.

>>4147863
>>4147863

>>4147911

Wait, shit, wrong button. Sorry.

>>4147837
I've been assuming that at least the elves have crossbows that replicate the Crystal Shard psychic power, fueled by capacitor crystals. That's what I'm talking about when I say Shard-Thrower.
>>4147855
So I dragged our asses under the lip, and not a moment too soon either. Right where we were, like some kind of pinpoint, another fucking boom-bolt hits. Now they're everywhere. The noise is deafening. No, it's worse. Eventually your entire skull just goes numb from the constant shocks. You can feel your teeth rattle. It's like having your head inside a bell while an over-caffeinated orc wails on it with smithy hammer. I can't describe it unless you've been through it. But it just keeps going on and on and on and on until you're ready to dive out into the holocaust just to get it to stop.

So there's me and Krik, and another guy Parvel under the lip, holding muddy blankets in front of us to ward off the heat, screaming prayers at the top of our lungs, but we can't hear them, let alone the gods. And suddenly there's the burst from above and behind us, like all of a sudden gravity decided to swap directions for no reason.

>>4147837
I was originally going to go with just repeating crossbows, but the crystal bows are a cool idea.

Races don't have to be tied to nations (though they will be in some cases). Austria-Hungary could easily be a mix of elves and others. They were anything but a mono-ethnic empire.

I think that Britain would work as a nation of humans, but you will probably find a human population in any country except the 'pure' elven one.

I would like to hear anyone's ideas for Russians. I'm drawing something of a blank on them, though I'm pretty sure I want to parallel the Lenin's revolution.

>>4147863
That's a brilliant idea.

Oh what were Goblins again?

>>4147935
Well for simplicity sake lets just say they are all independent nations filled with one race. Wheres the link to the other thread or threads? I need to check my work before heading on. Plus I don't want to steal anyone's thunder.

Russians = bugbears maybe?

>>4147919
My bad, then. This is why I should get more familiar with psionics.

>>4147788
People are dying left and right, and nobody's quite sure why. No puncture wounds, no traces of magic past background contamination, no nothing. Until we found out what was really happening. We got the physician/field medic/guy with the potions/whatever to take a look at what's happening, and Doc's come up with a new theory. You know how you 'think' something, and your body does it? Well, your brain is really good at interpreting what you want. Some of the guys here just gave up- didn't want to deal with it anymore. Their brains saved them the trouble of killing themselves. They just go to sleep with the rest of us like nothing's wrong, and then they just don't wake up. Zombies wake up and just tear some guys to pieces instead. Fuckers bailing out on us deserve to be executed if they weren't already dead. I'll write more in the journal tomorrow, my shift's over.

*END OF JOURNAL*

>>4147974
As far as I'm aware, this is the only thread. I made it last night and posted the sketches and descriptions at the top.

>>4147919
The three of us go flying through the super-heated air in a shower of mud and blood and body parts. I landed hard against the other trench-lip, I think. I could feel at least one of my ribs shatter like porcelain. Didn't have time to think about it, though; as soon as the world stopped spinning it collapsed. Remember the mud? The god-damned, thrice-cursed, ever-fucking, bloody, bloody mud? Turns out it doesn't take well to shocks like that and starts sliding back into the bloody-fucking trenches. Now everything's dark and tastes like shit and I can't breath and I'm starting to panic. There is nothing, NOTHING like being buried alive in an artillery storm. You can't see, you can't feel anything but the slime and the occasional limb that you hope to whatever god you hold is still attached to someone, you can't hear anything but the constant, overlapping shocks of impact.

>>4147988
(Also by Secondary Writefag- I don't know where the tripcode came from in my shardthrower post. It must be getting late)

>>4147991
k
>>4147978
I had the same idea, Goblins being Russian/Eastern European.

Give me a sec I'll give you guys something about this. I was writing something like this earlier but I quit for some reason.

>>4147935

Yuo've already done Goblins but they would have worked well for russia. Hybridise classic goblins with a touch 40K Orks to get a race of incredibly fast-breeding overpopulad peasants. They're all grim bastards because at least half of the peopel every goblin knows have been killed in the war. They continue war not for military reasons, but because their empire was having problems dealing with the crippling overpopulation and growing rates of breeding due to having vastly more available food because of the recent upgrades to their farming infrastructure purchased after the revolution, and they view the war as an effective population control method, as well as a way of keeping their own population under control, and easing technology out of their allies by pretending the neccessity of war. Most goblins are somewhat aware of this, but just don't care to do anything about it, because even if every second goblin male child gets sent off to the war to die that's more than used to live until the ruinous reign of the Elven Tsars and the constant famine. Also, they've only been industrialised for a few decades and are behind everyone else, but try to make up for it with 'goblin ingenuity'. Their technology looks ridiculous and ramshackle and doesn't work very well at all but they are still immensely proud of it and become offended when it is challenged.

What would be the magic equivalent of the nuclear option, I wonder?

>>4148050
Unshielded Sphere of Annihilation?
Polymorph Bombs?
Gate?

>>4148027
Maybe eastern europeans being all the different types of goblinoids?

>>4148050
Locate city?

That said, WW1 didn't really have a nuclear option, or they probably would have used it.

>>4148079

Oh christ, what if they came up with the Locate City nuke /in-game/?

That would work well, and represent the ethnic conflicts they had.

>>4148089
Probably because WWI didn't go on this long. Also magic.

thread tl;dr

op, check out iron kingdoms rpg, you can probably find the books on amazon if you look around a little. they probably did everything you want to do, but better.

>>4148103
That's actually how I got people to stop using it in my game.
You use it, someone scrys you, figures out how you did it, the entire setting goes postapocalyptic and you die.

>>4148116

WWI + 3.5e, lots of fluff and writefaggotry.

>>4148107
So
Russian=Goblin (the most populus)
Ukrainian=?
Poles=?
Latvians, Estonias, Lithuaninas=?
Finns=?
Armenians, Georgina=?
Turkmens, Kazakhs=

>>4148115

Or because the theoretical knowledge needed to make the theories that would allow someone to speculate on the possibility of constructing a nuke with extant materials didn't exist.

War advances the speed of technological application, but does so by slowing research into the theoretical frameworks behind them into a crawl at the fastest.

reading these retarded ideas actually causes me physical pain

>>4147939
I had the goblins as a marginally unaligned sect, selling intelligence and equipment to both sides. The handle logistics, especially for the Shard-Throwers, given gobbos' greater preponderance of psionic power over magical power. Just my thought, though.
>>4148015
I've said it once and I'll say it again: thank Correlon for the fucking kobolds.

Here I am in the ooze thrashing around like a man possessed, and all that's doing is making it worse. Every inch of space I open is instantly filled up again even thicker. I'm panicking and screaming and the muck is getting in my mouth and nose and I am going to DIE.

Then I feel a scaly little hand grab mine and pull. At first it just feels like he'll slip away, or my arm will pop from the socket; but slowly the little bugger keeps pulling and digging and then BAM I'm free. If my lungs hadn't been half-full of the god-damn mud, I'd of kissed the little guy. Well, maybe not kissed but you get the idea.

The line was a wreck. The druids and the earthmovers were trying to put things back together again. Half the place was on fire, the other half was flooded with blood and limbs. Remember how I said that I don't throw up any more? Well I broke my rule. Me and Krik found what was left of Snikrot and stuck him a hole, said a few words. It was the least we could do for the poor bastard. This fucking war...

>>4148154
Then hide the thread and fuck off.

Goblins were once respectable a respectable race having great empires that lasted for hundreds of years. Those times are long gone, not even the ancient Elves can remember first hand. The dying empire is held together by the Romanov Hobgoblin Family, the patriarch of this royal family is Nicholas II, a pitiful ruler he stands on the ground of Autocracy and ignores his people. Over trillions strong Goblins are the lowest of the low, the peasants which are serfs basically slaves the the land. Facing great food shortages a force nearly of nearly million peasants marched up to the Emperor and demanded food and more rights.

Disgusted by this notion he had the rebellion put down. Which marked the start of the great fall. When the Great War rolled around every able bodied male from ages 5+ was conscripted. Leaving the state behind to lead the army into a "glorious war", Nicholas II was the first Goblin to die. What happened? Cannonball blew his head and good part of his torso as well half his royal guard to bits. His wife Alexandra was left to govern the state, with trusted Holy-Goblin the Bugbear Rasputin. The peasants supported this holy man, seeing this as the begging of new freedoms. The Nobles Hobgoblins were disgusted at this so called Holy Man. They offered him one night poisoned food & wine, cheap whores, explosive muffins. He ate all the poison and muffins as well enjoyed himself with the whores.

However he was still alive and kicking come midnight, they decided more direct approach. Several of the Nobles got their Shard Throwers and shot the Bugbear several times, still alive he fell into the River nearby. However he still was alive, seeing his attack as the last straw he gather up a young Goblin revolutionary leader named Lenin and his best friend Stalin.

Part 1

Part 2.

The Goblin Empire had to withdraw from the Great War, as a civil war began shortly. Eventually the Reds won, but not without the loss of Rasputin and Lenin. Stalin took the title of President, and re-entered the war to bring down the enemies of the Goblins, the Elves, Kobolds, and Allies. Everyone is equal under the rule of Stalin, and his most trusted allies became the Generals of the Military.

Borrowing tech from that of the United Orc States they quickly were caught up in the war. Stalin called for a call to arms to all able bodied Goblins, most answered and all were put to work one way or another.

Despite the borrowed tech they were still short of weapons, gear, and rations. The Red's use the greatest number of Psionics to ease the minds of his "slave army". In deed tactics is not needed for many goblins, who see themselves but martyrs and which the great Stalin will remember each of their names.

Indeed the Union of Goblin Republics help as well as hinder the war. Their bodies choke no man's land and are easy targets for both enemy and allied necromancers. There are woe days ahead for the young state.

>>4148175
that was awsome!

They say it's something in the cold, something in the north air that makes them that way.

First came the rumbling. Volley after endless volley of boom-bolt fire, crashing and gutting the earth like some infernal beast as it ravenously clawed it's way closer to us. I'd barely enough time to shit my pants before everything around me became a spinning collage of brown and slightly more red-ish brown, followed by a rough hit to the chest that would've made me wretch if I had an ounce of air left in my lungs.

It occured to me long after the fact that I'd been sent flying.

A member of my platoon, a Kobold whose name escapes me, was quick to grab a hold of my arm and pull me under the lip of the trench as the firestorm continued to hammer down all around us.