The Quintessential Barbarian
The Quintessential Barbarian cover
| Author | Robert Schwalb |
| Series | Quintessential Series |
| Publisher | Mongoose Publishing |
| Publish date | 2003 |
| Pages | 128 |
| ISBN | 1-903980-92-5 |
| OGL Section 15 | qbbn |
The material below is open game content
Raiding Rules
Aside from engaging in conflicts with enemies on the open fields of war, hordes regularly strike at villages, towns and other communities. It is through these raids that horde leaders are able to support the heavy demands of a chaotic army. The rewards for these conquests include food, gold, water, horses, weaponry and more. Most of these settlements are relatively unprepared for the sudden appearance of a warhost of rampaging barbarians, hungry and bloodthirsty to a man. Even if they are, to some extent, they usually can offer only minimal resistance. This, of course, is only true in smaller communities, where higher level characters are less likely to dwell. Raiding rules offer a quick and dirty system detailing conflicts between a horde and a town.
Communities of village-size or smaller are prime targets for the depredations inflicted by a horde. This is true for a number of reasons, the first being there are just not enough high-level characters to defend the community properly. The second, lower population numbers are easier to overcome. Lastly, these villages are usually on the edges of civilisation, thus proving to be easy pickings.
If a horde decides to attack a town, the result is usually the same as when two units face each other on the field of war. Several differences occur. For example, towns are non-mobile, and hence cannot move around. Most civilians will lock themselves in their homes, while local militia, mercenaries and Non-Player Characters move out to engage the attackers. Hordes are usually not large enough to assault a sizeable city and hence a foolish assault will almost always end in ruins. These rules are an abstraction; they are designed to achieve fast results. For more protracted conflicts, the OMCS is by far the superior mechanic.
A town, for the purpose of raiding rules, has many features, just as units have a number of defining attributes. Each of these sections explores the exact qualities and variables for constructing towns. Following the explanation is a blank town defence sheet and following the description an example town.
Town Defence Sheet
Name:
Size:
Population:
Resources:
AC:
Atk:
Damage:
Notes:
Size: A town's size is critical for determining the remaining features. Consult Core Rulebook II for details on town size and the larger implications for present non-player characters and resources. The sizes for towns for the use of the raiding rules include the following: Thorpe, Hamlet and Village.
Population: Population of the town serves two functions. First, it describes how many people dwell in the community. Second, it functions as a Hit Point value for the people dwelling there. Damage inflicted on population has three results. One-third of the damage kills the population. Another third captures the amount, while the final third destroys resources. If the population drops to 0, either through capture or through destruction, the town is destroyed.
Available Resources: Like population, resources have a dual purpose. Essentially, resources represent the inherent value of the town, including such things as coin, gems, jewellery, food, horses and other equipment. The secondary effect is barbarians may choose to inflict resource damage instead of population damage. Double all damage rolled when inflicted against town resources. The barbarians receive the standard amount in gold and equipment. In addition, halve the amount of resource damage again to determine the amount of casualties on the population. If at any time the Resources drops to 0, the town is considered sacked. A town's total resources (including equipment and materials) is equal to the amount of ready coin the town can normally generate as defined in Core Rulebook II.
Armour Class: This number reflects the quality of defences available to the community. A town has a base AC of 5 modified by the presence of the following structures.
AC modifiers for Towns
| Structure | AC bonus |
|---|---|
| Barbican | +1 |
| Bastion | +1 |
| Gatehouse | +1 |
| For every 5 wooden structures | +1 |
| For every 3 stone structures | +1 |
| Wooden wall | +1 |
| Stone wall | +2 |
| Keep | +1 |
| Castle | +2 |
| Tower | +1 |
Other factors may influence the town's AC at the Games Master's discretion. However, for a fairly well defended community, buttressed by significant arcane and divine spell-users and a sizeable military, Games Masters should determine the results of the raid either through the OMCS or through the regular combat system.
Attack and Damage: The town's defenders are capable of inflicting damage on the barbarian horde stealing away their livelihood, burning their homes and abducting their womenfolk. Defenders receive an attack bonus of +1 for every size category. Thus, thorpes have a +1 attack bonus, +2 for hamlets and so on. These scores are independent of the defenders' individual abilities and assume the town defends itself as a whole.
As for damage, towns deal an amount of damage dependent on their size. For every size, the damage die increases by one. Thus, a Thorpe inflicts 1d4 damage, hamlets 1d6, villages 1d8 and so on. For every war engine the town has in its arsenal, the town inflicts an additional +1. Therefore, a village with one catapult has an attack modifier of +3 and inflicts 1d8+1 damage each round on a successful hit.
Town Defence Sheet (Example)
| Name: | Anytown |
|---|---|
| Size: | Hamlet |
| Population: | 250 |
| Resources: | 1,250 gp |
| AC: | 7 |
| Atk: | +2 |
| Damage: | 1d6+1 |
Notes: Wooden wall, Tower, 1 ballista
Combat Round
The raiders automatically win initiative, and so they may act first. Each round is an exchange of damage until the raiders withdraw or until the town is either razed or sacked. As these are literally fast and dirty rules, anything requiring more strategy should automatically refer to the OMCS or the standard combat round of the d20 system.
An example of combat is as follows: On the fist round, Zoltan's raiders (see above example) strike at night and raids Anytown. They roll to hit the town's AC, which they easily do by rolling a 10+5 =15. They inflict 1d8+4 points of damage, and they decide to attribute those points to the town's resources. They roll maximum damage and inflict 12 points of damage. The town's resources drop by 24 gold. The barbarians steal 12 gp on the first round, destroy another 12 gp, and kill 6 people in the process reducing the town's population to 244. If the barbarians had opted to attack the population, they would have captured 3 citizens, killed 3 more, and dropped the hamlet's gold by 3.
The town responds by rolling a d20 and adding +2. Their total roll is a 14, which is just enough to hit the barbarians. They then roll damage, 1d6+1, and inflict only 4 points of damage, barely damaging the horde at all.
