Orcs in the Webbe

Each member of your Unit which survives the battle is then eligible to fight again in the next, and his name should be carried forward to the next column (and Battle) unless he is dead, released (see below) or recovering from Wounds (again, see below). You may well also wish to promote a character following the death in battle of a higher ranking character, in which case you should move him up to the appropriate number on the roster (see example below).

Characters killed in a battle should be identified by drawing a circle around their name (or drawing skulls it out in and crossbones next to their name, scribbling black marker pen or even writing 'Stiffy' in big letters in the margin with an arrow to the unfortunate victims name). Individuals’ wounds are indicated by marking a 'W' next to their name. Should a character survive more Wounds, this should be indicated by an appropriate number beforehand, e.g. 2W

Death From Wounds

As the state of medical science is not very advanced in the world of Valon during the timetable of this game, sadly there is a possibility that characters not killed in a battle may still. die from the effects of their wounds.

To see if this is the case you must make a die roll immediately following the battle (but before any wages are paid out, see 'Maintaining Your unit).

The wounded characters chance of survival depends both upon their racial type to what unit type they belong. The player must roll a D100 and score higher than the percentage outlined below, modified as follows to survive (for example, an Elf Militia soldier suffering two Wounds has a (5%+10%) = 15% chance of dying after a battle), or that soldier dies.

The Really Painful Lingering Death From Wounds After The Battle Table*

*and let's face it that's the bloody, screaming and generally unpleasant face of real war...

Recovery From Wounds

If any of your troops are wounded in battle but survive you will want them back at full health as soon as possible (or at least, in time for the next battle anyways!) Recovery from Wounds suffered in a battle occurs at a rate of one Wound prior to each fresh engagement.

Any extra Wounds are carried over, and these Wounds are cumulative with any received in the next engagement. Wounds carried over into another battle will affect a characters effectiveness as if they had been suffered in the present game.

A player may decide that a character will not fight the next battle in order to further convalesce from multiple Wounds. To show this on the Unit Roster, do not write the characters name in the forthcoming battle box, but instead simply draw an arrow from left to right in it. Thus time spent convalescing from wounds does not speed up the process, but does ensure that valuable badly wounded characters are not exposed to life threatening situations when operating under reduced effectiveness.

Character Development

The Unit Roster is also designed to denote the status of an individual. Characters are defined as Raw, Average, Experienced or Veteran when it comes to fighting. Remember, the number of each type available to players is stipulated when you raise your unit.

If a Raw or Average character survives three battles (in total, not necessarily consecutive battles), then they will move up to the next experience level, i.e. Raw troops become Average and Average troops become Experienced.

If an Experienced character survives six consecutive battles without having either routed from the table (see Morale) or having missed a battle in order to convalesce from Wounds, then they move up to Veteran status. However, if an Experienced character either routs or misses a battle before reaching Veteran status they lose all accumulated experience, and must start adding up their consecutive battles again from scratch.

However, a Veteran Character that heroically (or otherwise) survives six actions on the battlefield (regardless of whether he routs, but not including ones he misses convalescing) will then automatically become a Hero of his Country, and must retire from the game, going home to great public acclaim and a new life as a politician, Lord of the Manor, farmer or whatever. The Commander of that characters' Unit must also pay the character a pension equivalent to five times his regular pay after his last battle, and must also allow him to keep all the equipment he currently has.

An easy way to indicate an individuals current status is to highlight their name on the Unit Roster by using a highlighted pen of an appropriate colour (we would suggest green for Raw (obviously), average orange for Average, bloody red for Experienced and a cool blue for Veteran). This enables a character's status to be seen at a glance and will help speed up play.

Maintaining Your Unit

Your responsibilities as a Unit Commander do not end once you have raised and equipped your Unit, or even after you have guided them (hopefully successfully) through a battle, because after every action you will also need to pay your troops (and perhaps even reequip them) to ensure that they turn up the next time..!

After every battle you must pay each fighter an amount equal to the amount paid to them when they initially joined your Unit, but do not take into account any money spent on their equipment (e.g.  after his first battle Gorbage must pay Private Goatshed Nineteen Groats). These wage costs can be found under the heading Raising Your Unit in the Forming Your Unit section. Remember that Average, Experienced and Veteran fighters cost you more than a Raw fighter (like Private Goatshed). The player must also pay his own character in the same way, to reflect his living expenses, clothing etc. This is not optional, and the Player may not decide to waive the cost and 'make do'.

If a character has accumulated enough experience to move up a level of status (say from Raw to Average) then he is paid the higher wage following the subsequent battle, and will be until the next level is reached. A fighter that is killed, routs or misses a battle to convalesce from wounds need not be paid for. However, if the player wishes to hire a new fighter to replace a casualty, then he must pay this fighter the appropriate amount (as he did with all his other fighters when raising his unit). This replacement may not be of a higher status level than the character he is replacing.

Following his victory at the Battle at Deadman's Hill (where he captured 250 Groats of treasure - see Rewards and Treasure) Gorbage needs to pay his fighters. He started the battle with six Raw, three Average and one Experienced fighter. This would normally cost him the grand sum of 228 Groats, but fortunately for Gorbage's purse, Private Pervurtz, a Raw fighter ended up with an unwanted sword in his guts and was killed. This will save Gorbage 19 Groats, and as none of his other fighters advanced a level of status his maintenance costs this time will only be 209 Groats. However, in view of the minimal costs involved Gorbage decides to replace Pervurtz with a fresh and enthusiastic Raw Goblin, Private Tiglitz. This costs him the 19 Groats he would otherwise have saved and thus the total of his maintenance costs (Unit Cost on roster) and hiring costs (Additional Expenditure) is once again 228 Groats. As the Goblins won the battle, they were able to recover Pervurtz's equipment and pass it on to Tiglitz. lf Gorbage's Goblins had lost the battle, then he would have needed to equip Tiglitz as well, which would have cost another 30 Groats.

Maintaining a Cavalry Unit

When you raise a cavalry unit, you must hire the fighter, equip him and also buy his mount. To maintain a cavalryman, you need to pay him twice the amount you would pay a similar infantryman, to compensate the costs of maintaining the mount in addition to its rider.

Releasing Fighters

You may (occasionally) find that following a battle your finances are not in a strong enough position to pay your unit entirely. and you do not wish to raise further Groats by selling equipment or taking out a Loan (see Raising Further Finance below). In this case you can always 'release' a fighter Should you decide to do this you need not pay him following the battle. and he should be removed immediately from the Unit Roster. You cannot release fighters if you have the money to pay them.

Also, you must always release the least experienced fighters first. You may not rehire released fighters.

Improving Your Equipment

If you wish (and your finances permit) you may upgrade your troops by purchasing them more, or better equipment. The prices for new equipment is the same as those when you raised and equipped your unit.

Gorbage (now feeling a bit flush following a couple of successful battles) decides to buy himself a nice new Hand-and-a-half sword, and a crossbow each for Privates Goatshed and Bakur, costing him an additional 55 Groats. This is shown under Additional Expenditure, the same column Gorbage has already used to show his outlay on hiring additional fighters (following the deaths of Pervurtz at Deadman's Hill,
and Shagbat, Runnibumz and Pukzee at Blood Meadow - see Unit Roster).

Equipment surplus to requirements (such as Gorbage's original sword) can either be passed to another member of the Unit stockpiled for future use (note this carefully down on the reverse of the Finance Roster) or sold (see Raising Further Finance below ).

Raising Further Finance

Given the continual expenses that a unit Commander must endure, he will need to find ways of raising more Groats. So here are a few suggestions...

Rewards & Treasure

The main way that Commanders can receive extra funds is by collecting loot from battlefield. Exactly what rewards are available (or treasure can be discovered) is left up to the GM and the design of the scenario Additionally, the GM may wish to award extra finances in a manner similar to the awarding of 'Experience Points' in role-playing games (i .e. the harder the task, the bigger the reward) With our example unit, the GM has seen fit to award Gorbage's Goblins 120 Groats of loot for his success at Deadman's Hill, 200 Groats for the hard fought battle at Bloody Meadow and 500 Groats for their stunning victory at Pigpenz. These amounts are entered in the Groats Gained/Lost Column of the Unit Roster next to the name of the Battle Fought. lf things had gone badly, Gorbage may well have lost Groats by way of losing treasure or a penalty fine for not fulfilling a contract. Equipment lost to the enemy should also be recorded in this column.

As noted above, a character who fails in his allocated task should get little, if any reward. Conversely though, one who succeeds well should be equally well rewarded. For this, the GM will need to consider the point of the particular scenario he has designed and work from that. For example, a scenario to rescue a princess alive from an large Orc band in inhospitable terrain should result in a much larger reward than a smaller scenario where the unit has only been charged with ensuring a small number of enemy forces do not cross a ford. GM's should however note that starting finances are not very high, and if a Unit is to advance and improve equipment, then rewards will have to sufficiently high (and, of course. consequently worked for). Ideas on designing scenarios are addressed below in Designing Scenarios Other ideas for appropriate rewards may be found in the Scenario section, later.

Selling Equipment

One quick way to raise Groats is to sell either your own equipment, or other equipment that your Unit has 'liberated' from defeated enemies. Any items you sell in this way will raise half of the full purchase price of that piece of equipment for your Unit, e.g. if you sell a 10 Groat Sword your Unit will get 5 Groats for it.

When selling equipment - fractions are rounded doom, e.g. you get 2 Groats for a spear.

Loans

Another way of raising money (but only for the desperate) is to approach the shadowy and dangerous Money Lenders to take out a loan, This is not really recommended, but sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures...

A loan may be taken out for any amount (subject to the permission of the GM), but it must be repaid immediately following the next battle, along with an additional 10% interest (i .e. if you borrow 100 Groats, you must pay back 110 Groats). If you have the money, you must repay the loan first before paying your troops.

If you cannot pay back the loan, then you MUST pay the interest. Failure to do this will result in several scary hard men (in the form of the GM) seizing equipment in lieu of this payment and/or sacking fighters (see 'Releasing Fighters' above). lf you cannot pay the loan or the interest and you can find no way of raising it at all then your Unit is disbanded and the aforementioned Big Scary Men take you into a darkened back alley, smile once in a very uncomfortable way, and that's the last anyone ever sees of you...

If you can only pay the interest back but not the loan the same rules apply after each battle, i.e. 10% interest must be paid back after each battle for as long as the loan (or part) remains outstanding. If part of the loan has been paid pack, interest is still calculated on the original amount borrowed, not the amount outstanding (as the Money' Lenders so often say, what's fair got to do with it?'')

Death of the Unit Commander

Sadly, war has its risks and it is just possible that you could get an axe in your head instead of giving that uncomfortable honour to the next man in line. If your Character is killed in battle you can either disband your Unit or take on the role of the Second-in-Command and attempt to hold the unit together from that position. However, to see if this happens, the other characters must make a Loyalty roll, which if they fail results in their leaving the Unit, Roll a D100 for each Character, and modify the roll by the experience level of your Second-in-command.

If the score is equal to or less than the percentage below then the Character passes the Loyalty test, and stays with your unit. For example, if you are now a Veteran Second-in-command of a unit of Halfling Bandits (a chilling thought at the best of times) then each of your men would have a (60%+ 10% ) = 70% chance of following you instead of their dear, departed leader.

The Loyalty Table or "I'm not following you, you're just a Halfling!"

Modifiers

Raw -20%
Average -10%
Experienced 0%
Veteran +10%

Webmaster's Notes

The above rules were first printed in the original Dresda rulebook in 1996 and they are included here with the kind permission of the authors.