I’ve got an inkling to do a really huge project. Mostly for my own edification, but naturally I’ll publish the results once I get them into something approaching fit-for-public-consumption.
Regular readers will recall that I was an avid wargamer before I was a role-player, and I think that the wars surrounding the Great Kingdom would be excellent fodder for an old-fashioned, SPI-style wargame. Hex maps, cardboard counters, different scenarios… the works. (And, once again, if anyone from WotC is reading, consider this a product pitch!)
Picture this; a large (22″ x 34″) map depicting the area of South Province, Idee, the Iron Hills, Irongate, parts of Onnwal and Sunndi on a much larger scale than the Darlene maps (maybe 10 miles per hex; I haven’t done the math). Lots of colorful counters depicting units of the Iron League and the aforementioned South Province. (Check out the counters here to get an idea of what I’m talking about, oh ye benighted non-wargamers.) Rules would include supply, magic, morale, wizards and heroes, magical artifacts, raising new troops, etc. Scenarios… ah, the scenarios. The Revolt of the Iron League in 455. The attempts of Herzog Chellor to harry the League in 577/8. Scores of attempts to shatter the League in-between. Conflicts between the dwarves of the Iron Hills and both sides. The hordes of Wastri emerge from the Vast Swamp to wreak havock.
Hell, you could even have an alternate combat resolution mechanic that encorporates that Men & Magic update / System 7 Napoleonics fusion I posted about earlier. But that wouldn’t be necessary. I think this could really work, and would open up the door for a whole series of games; the wars of Imperial Keoland, Nyrond/Almor vs. the Great Kingdom, humanoids of the Bone March vs. Ratik/North Province… And of course the Shield Lands could warrant an entire game unto themselves.
Interesting! For a game I plan to run sometime next year, I plan to use the mass combat rules (and program) from Farland World and some of the domain management rules from Greyhawk on a campaign starting in the Bandit Kingdoms. I plan to zoom in and out from party-level adventuring to more of a board game feel. I still have a lot of work to do on it.
But yeah, I’d pick up a game like that. 🙂
A new Greyhawk Wars game would be awesome. I was only able to play the old Greyhawk Wars game once (lack of interested players) but it was a blast. Good luck getting the project going!
I'm not affiliated with them, but there's the Micro d20 group that are dedicated to recreating OD&D. Somewhere on their site they have created a set of rules for large skirmish groups, that might be tailored to fit a mass combat setting perhaps.