Massive World Wars

One of the biggest issues with trying to execute a world war in your game world is keeping everything together and allowing as few plot holes as possible.  If you think you can avoid all plot holes I suggest you start reading some of the fan theories on Game of Thrones.  GRRM had years to write each book, and yet the plot holes are everywhere, as pointed out by his fans.

So what can you do?  Well, I think the most important thing to do is to try and reduce the plot holes by thinking about each corner of your world individually and role-playing out how they will react to the news of this massive war, even if you are only “role-playing” in your head.

Let me give you some examples of how I handled Fletnern during the Conquering War as examples.  I usually work through groups of power.  Most commonly I will think about every major city - at first seeing them as a cohesive group.  Once I know what the city in general is planning (typically the city’s government), then I can think about other factions within the city and whether or not they deserve to be treated differently or called out in any special fashion.  Here’s some of what I worked through:

Council of Baronies                                      Political

When the Conquering War erupted in 626P, the Council was not an economic power; that came later.  Garnock needed to move through the Council to get to Parnania, and likely to get to Nanerette, but they did not want to have to conquer 28 separate baronies, each with multiple castles, armies, and likely to have partisans once captured, etc.  So they bribed several of the Barons to let them march through.

 But what did the Council think?  Well, they were pissed.  They were racially and culturally related to the nobles of Parnania and their first reaction was to side with Parnania against the Lats from Garnock.  But that would have been suicide!  Cooler heads prevailed and they decided to sit tight, make some coins, and see how things turned out in the end.  If things turned against the Lats, they would claim that they were not bribed, but instead threatened with hostages.  End result - stay neutral.

Brinston                                    Political &Economic

Brinston hated the idea of Garnock taking over the center of the continent, especially Nanerette.  Not only was Nanerette a long ally of Brinston, but the city served as an important hub in getting trade goods to Brinston.  But Nanerette never asked Brinston for military help.  Granted, Brinston’s army has never been that impressive, but their fleet is vast.  Though these battles were decidedly land based.  Nanerette surrendered almost immediately, leaving Brinston with no hope of coming to their aid.

So as the war raged, Brinston led by its noble merchant families built more trade ships.  Why?  So they could send ships to various ports to collect the trade goods that might not be floating down river because of the loss of Nanerette.  In summary, the merchant houses looked out for their own profits instead of committing their military to the aid of their longtime ally.  End result - stay neutral.

Myork                                                             Military

Myork had been looking for an opportunity to attack Garnock for centuries.  They see their military rival as evil and would love to wipe them out.  But Garnock has a much larger infantry, and Myork did not have enough ships to transport their army across the sea quickly.

So they started staging troops in Scaret (their ally on the right continent).  These troops were there to bolster the defenses of Scaret should the war come to that.  As Garnock forces took Parnania and laid siege to Rhum, Myork began sending forces farther north to Helatia to bolster their defenses as well.  End result - prepare for battle.

Slyvanian Nation (elves)                              Political

The elves really did not believe the war was going to happen until there were troops parked in Nanerette.  Up to that point, they believed that the Lats were going to use their army to raid other cities, like they had done with Villai.  Too late they realized this was not the case.

But the elves have long tried to stay out of the affairs of humans and other races.  They saw no benefit in entering into a war with Garnock and had no treaties that might have forced their hands.  End result - hide behind trees.

An unnamed secret society                       Economic

War is good for the economy.  Nations buy up all sorts of military hardware and then go about burning stuff that other people are using, necessitating rebuilding and new purchases.  So in general, war is good.

But shortly after Parnania was taken, they realized that their longtime rivals were allied with the Lats of Garnock.  These may be wise businessmen, but there is a line they would not cross, and if their rivals were in this thing they were in on the other side.  As long as they could keep their involvement secret, they were going to help Rhum.  End result - secretly enter the war against Garnock.

We can’t go through every single group or even city-state.  Some remained neutral; some chose a side.  But in knowing which they were doing and some of the reasons why, the world was better managed.

If for example, some massively powerful organizations should have joined the fight on one side or the other but didn’t, you have a plot hole.  Now plot holes can be mended, sometimes with retcon, sometimes with see-through tape.  You don’t want to use see-through tape if you can avoid it, but it will happen.  Sometimes, you just forget about some group, and therefore don’t plan their involvement.  Most often you can later say, “Oh they were helping, you just didn’t notice.”  This can be difficult if you try to pretend this is true but the powerful group you forgot is the wheat growers of the world and their main customer city-state was starving to death.  Still, you can often rely on things happening in the world that your players / audience were unaware of.  After all, they can’t be everywhere and see everything.

This post was written as part of the soon to be released Paladin vs. Paladin aka All About Holy Wars, the latest in our Small Bites editions.  Each Small Bites book looks deeply at one subject, a character archetype, a race/monster, a style of questing, or some other role-playing/world building subject.  This one details everything having to do with paladins aka holy knights as well as the holy wars they fight in, even if those wars are against other paladins (which is when they are the most fun!).

To get the full Game Masters’ edition when it is published, you will need to be a part of our Patreon project.  There will be no free version of this edition.  Seeing as this is a double sized edition (80 pages +) and the culmination of most of the last year (plus), anyone who has been getting involved in our Small Bites project is going to want to have this edition.  Interested?  Click the link here.