The chance of a lifetime
BATTLESYSTEM™ project was a designer’s dream
by Doug Niles

The opportunity to design a mass-combat
system for the AD&D® game was one of
those chances that a game designer gets
once in a lifetime. From the moment I
received the assignment, I began to wrestle
with the multitude of problems that the
BATTLESYSTEM rules would necessarily
overcome.

The original concept was first seen as a
small folio system, but it grew quickly.
Everyone had ideas about the potential
utilizations of the game. The project finally
crystallized into a series of ambitious objectives,
and I was locked in an office to hammer
out the first design draft.

Among the objectives that "Bloodstone
Pass," as the game was then called, was
supposed to accomplish were the following:
to handle fantasy battles involving
troops numbering anywhere from a
few dozen to several thousand;
to use a scale that allowed individual
action by high-level PCs and NPCs,
yet handled large numbers of massed
orcs, peasants, and low-level types in
general; to maintain the spirit and, as much as
possible, the letter of the AD&D game
rules throughout;
to make the supplement equally playable
with or without miniatures; and,
to make it useful for streamlining the
encounters of a normal AD&D campaign,
as well as adding the new dimension
of mass combat for any
players who wanted it.

The list went on and on, but those were
the high points. Although a little taken
aback by the extent of the project, I had lots
of aid in the form of suggestions and playtesters,
and the rules began to take shape.
One point that stood out throughout the
project was the strong feeling that an
AD&D world is not simply a medieval
world with magic slapped over it. Instead, it
seemed that societies which had evolved
with the common use of magic spells, items,
and creatures would have become significantly
different from the medieval societies
of history.

Naturally, these fundamental differences
would affect the way these societies waged
war. Supplies, formations, tactics, heroic
combat -- even the terrain of the battlefield
would have to be re-evaluated in the
light of a magical world. Obviously, simply
adding magic rules to a standard set of
ancient or medieval miniatures rules would
not reflect these changes.

The BATTLESYSTEM supplement does
not dilute any of the fantastic 'realities' of
the AD&D universe. Magic, in a concentrated
dose of high-enough level, will determine
the outcome of a great many battles
-- just as it has decided the outcome of a
great many smaller-sized AD&D gaming
encounters. This assumption underlies
every rule in the set. Players who want to
recreate an accurate depiction of a battle
between a Roman cohort and band of Huns
might not find what they're looking for in
these rules. But if you wonder what would
happen to 1,000 orcs that try to overrun a
forest protected by 250 elves, you?ve come
to the right place!

Creating the system

The first problem to resolve, fundamental
to virtually all games, was the question of
scale. How big should the counters and
miniatures bases be? How many of each
creature should be represented by a single
figure? How much 'real time' would the
events that take place in a BATTLESYSTEM
turn require?

I selected counter sizes after a few meetings
with the miniatures sculptors in our
3-D department and a look at the typical
miniatures base sizes throughout the industry.
Because of the variety of creature sizes
used in the game, three different dimensions
were employed. The S, M, and L
designations in the AD&D game provided a
nice reference to all creatures. Since the
degree of flexibility allowed by individual
counters or figures works well in the context
of a role-playing game, the structure of
massed formations grew from the idea of
individually mounted, separate figures
instead of large bases containing many
miniatures.

In determining the number of creatures
represented by a single figure or counter, we
dealt with the problem of varying numbers
of hit dice. This was solved with a sliding
scale; at one end, creatures of 4 HD or less
are represented at a 10:1 ratio, while at the
other end those with 9 or more dice use a
2:1 ratio. Individuals, especially PCs and
major NPCs, are represented at a 1:1 ratio.
Ideally, players can use miniature PC figures
from their campaign on the field of
battle, whether the rest of the forces are
displayed with counters or miniatures.
Finally, a time scale was needed. Although
the AD&D game provided some
time referents ? turns and rounds ? neither
seemed to be the best length of time for
a mass-combat turn. Melee rounds, at the
AD&D level of lethality, would yield battles

that were unrealistically brief and far too
bloody. Turns, on the other hand, diluted
the effect of magic spells too drastically,
unless one allowed magic-users to cast 10
spells in every BATTLESYSTEM turn.
The deviously simple solution, perfectly
in keeping with the sliding scale of both
units and figure ratios, was to create a
?game round? of unspecified duration. A
game round is longer than a melee round
but shorter than a turn. In a battle between
a few hundred troops, a game round might
represent 2-3 minutes of real time, while a
battle involving thousands of warriors calls
for game rounds of perhaps 7-10 minutes in
real time. This ratio is built into the rules
and has no deleterious effect on play.
The next issues that reared their ugly
heads were the rules for unit organizations
and formations. Once again, the assumption
about the far-reaching effects of magic
prevented a simple adaptation of historical
unit formations. Imagine the results of a
fireball dumped into the middle of a close
formation of swordsmen or archers!
An analysis of the use of artillery-type
spells ? fireballs, lightning bolts, ice
storms, and the like ? yielded the conclusion
that AD&D warfare would have as
many similarities to modern warfare as it
would to medieval combat, even to the
extent of having airpower and poison gas!
This conclusion indicated that the use of
massed, tightly closed formations would be
of much less value in the AD&D world than
similar formations had been historically.
Thus, every regular unit has the option of
opening up its formation to minimize losses
caused by such attack forms.
Similarly, the attrition caused by enemy
missile fire can be extremely lethal in the
AD&D world, especially if halflings or elves
do the firing. This provided another incentive
for open, flexible formations.
Units still needed to have the shockattack
potential provided by tight concentrations
of fighters and large masses of
troops. There is a place for heavy infantry
and cavalry forces, which are especially
effective in a low-magic environment ?
i.e., a battlefield where magic spells of the
5th level of power and above are rare or
nonexistent. In a high-magic environment,
however, infantry must be able to move
quickly and open up formations in order to
survive and close with the enemy. Once
again, the flexibility of the AD&D system
provided the solution: Players can design
their own forces with the armor class (and
corresponding movement rates) desired.

Two areas of particular interest in the
supplement were the role of player characters
on the battlefield and rules for command
and morale. Heroic combat — the
one-on-one fighting of two high-level characters,
or of a character and a monster —
was another area that required special attention.
The BATTLESYSTEM supplement,
with its roots in role-playing, needed
to provide solid rules for the use of both
PCs and NPCs.
The command rules evolved easily. The
AD&D charisma rating provided a ready
measure of a character’s innate ability to
command, and experience level provided a
good approximation of rank.
Heroic combat went through a few more
convolutions before ending up in the relatively
simple state that it is now. Originally,
a system was designed having detailed
morale benefits and penalties for the victor
and loser of heroic combat, as well as penalties
for declining to accept challenges. Playtesting
soon proved these rules to be
unnecessary. Because of the importance of
commanders and the power of high-level
characters operating alone, high-level PCs
naturally tended to seek out powerful opponents
and engage in duels of heroic combat.
In the context of a role-playing campaign,
where inter-character relationships can
provide additional motivation for seeking
out and engaging in these duels, the original
rules proved even more superfluous.
The simple fact is that a reasonably balanced
battle will often be decided by the
actions of a few heroes or villains. Additional
rules to motivate characters to fight
these duels seemed heavy-handed.
Certain campaigns, of course, might call
for morale effects to result from heroic
combat. DRAGONLANCE® module
DL-8, Dragons of War, provides a good
example of these effects. If a major PC
accepts a duel with a dragon, the morale of
the PC’s forces can be improved significantly
— even if that PC dies in the fight!
DMs are encouraged to create these kinds
of modifiers in their campaigns, where
appropriate.

The basic melee combat system would
normally have been the hardest part of the
project. Here, however, I was fortunate to
have the use of a Combat Results Table
designed by Bruce Nesmith and Zeb Cook
during a previous stint with the project. (As
Michael Dobson has mentioned in the
article that accompanies this one, the
“Bloodstone Pass” project had been on and
off the schedule for several years.)
This table provided an accurate conversion
of average AD&D combat damage
applied to large numbers of troops and
creatures. We started by converting
THAC0 (the base chance to hit AC 0) to
something called an “Attack Rating” (AR),
which is affected by the ratio of creatures to
figures, and may also be modified by certain
factors as per the AD&D combat rules
(such as striking from behind). Once the

AR of a certain combatant (which may be
an individual, or may be a large group of
creatures) is determined, the result of a roll
of 2d6 is added to it. This number is crossreferenced
on the Combat Results Table
with the column corresponding to the
amount of damage done by the weapon
type(s) being wielded. The table was structured
so that AR plus 7 (the average result
of a 2d6 roll), when read on the appropriate
damage column, results in average damage
for the attack. The damage figure determined
for a certain attack is simply multiplied
by the number of figures attacking
and immediately applied to the enemy
force.
The 2d6 roll works very well in this context,
providing consistency plus the potential
for variability at the same time. Results
will tend to average out when many different
creatures or characters make attacks.
On the other hand, the chance of extreme
results on the 2d6 roll (2 or 12, to name the
most extreme) still allows the prospect of a
highly successful or unsuccessful attack.
The other nice thing about this system is
that you only need to roll 2d6 once for each
side for each game round to determine the
outcome of that attack. There are
arithmetic computations to be made, of
course, but most of them are simple and
come easily to anyone acquainted with the
AD&D melee system.
By utilizing the BATTLESYSTEM Combat
Results Table in conjunction with the

AD&D concepts of armor class, variable
dice of damage, bonuses for flank and rear
attacks, number of attacks per round, etc.,
plus THAC0, the BATTLESYSTEM rules
can easily be added to a campaign.
At this point in their development, the
rules practically began to design themselves.
So many of the AD&D rules date back to
the game?s origins in miniatures gaming --
the Chainmail rules, to be specific -- that
concepts for missile ranges, movement
rates, field artillery (ballistae and catapults),
modifications for charges and meeting
charges, and even maneuverability ratings
for flying creatures, could be taken right
from the Players Handbook or Dungeon
Masters Guide.

Finally, specific spells and magical abilities
had to be addressed. Playtesting showed
that I had a bigger job ahead of me than I?d
originally thought. For example, Zeb and I
were playing one of the first games to employ
the magic rules. I commanded the evil
forces and made a strong push with several
units of goblin and orc infantry, opening
what I thought was an ideal hole for my
killer force of mounted orcs on war boars.
Zeb could only muster a feeble force of 0-
level humans backed by a wizard of only
middling level, and I gleefully prepared to
trample his rabble into the dust. Sure, he
might drop a fireball or lightning bolt into
my ranks, but orcs mounted on war boars
are tough. I anticipated a few casualties but

knew that I would give far more than I got.
To make a long story short, you won?t
believe how big an area can be affected by a
simple rock to mud spell. My entire war
boar unit ? the spearhead of my army ?
sank into the ground right in front of Zeb?s
feeble line of humans. All of a sudden, the
battlefield had a very different look to it.
After I retrieved the dice I had thrown
across the room, we sat down to discuss the
implications of this magical potency. After
all, it wasn?t a 50th-level magic-user that
sank my unit ? he was only 10th level! The
problem was how to determine whether or
not the ground on the battlefield was rock,
gravel, or dirt. This determination was
needed before deciding the success of the
spell, of course.

Several more experiences with potent
magic spells, including the likes of hallucinatory
terrain (and illusions of all types),
charm plants (How much damage does a
lilac bush do?), and wish convinced me that
a referee was necessary to adjudicate highmagic
battles. Otherwise, because of the
open-ended nature of the AD&D game, too
many battles would break down into fruitless
arguments between the gamers.
Of course, the referee can be the DM in a
players-vs.-DM type of battle. In this case,
the DM holds the same responsibilities as
he has during a normal campaign, and the
players fall into their normal roles of cooperating
to combat the forces of evil, which
are run by the Dungeon Master.

However, a battle that is not part of a
campaign or that occurs between different
player-controlled factions within the same
campaign requires a neutral referee in order
to run a smooth battle. How would you feel
if your opponent suddenly produced an
invisible cavalry force, directly behind your
carefully fortified lines? The referee can see
that such events (which are quite possible,
by the way) are handled fairly and within
the rules.

We put this idea into effect immediately,
adding a referee to all playtests where spells
of 3rd level or higher were employed. This
considerably speeded up play and allowed
the characters to attempt things that would
not be allowable otherwise. The use of
invisible troops and movement through
other planes are two areas where the referee
proves his worth. The manipulation of
terrain and weather soon became common
as well. In all of these cases, the use of a
referee allows players to attempt all sorts of
tricks to deceive and surprise the opponent.
In cases involving invisibility or illusions,
where the opponent has a reasonable chance
of detecting the strategem unbeknownst to
the sneaky player, the referee makes all such
detection rolls secretly. Thus, both players
remain in the dark as to the extent of the
opponent?s battlefield intelligence.
The culmination of this testing was the
grand battle described in Michael Dobson?s
article, utilizing three planes and a host of
strange creatures. Bruce Nesmith refereed
that melee, and afterward he provided
many more constructive suggestions for the
rules. (Of course, after he was subjected to
a full day of harassment and rules-lawyering
by eight moderately berserk gamers, several
of Bruce?s suggestions were not only unconstructive
but unprintable!)

By this time in the game?s development,
favorite tactics were beginning to emerge.
Hardly a battle went by without dig spells
fortifying the front. Hallucinatory terrain in
all its manifestations spread across the
battlefields. And, of course, the reliable
fireball remained ever popular. As the rules
drew near to their final shape, final adjustments
for the effects of control weather
spells and night battles were added. More
special magic considerations appeared, each
receiving its treatment in the everexpanding
?Magic? section of the rules.

Altering the rules
The BATTLESYSTEM supplement has
undergone a steady evolution into the form
finally released. Naturally, this evolution
continues during the playtesting of the
modules and adventures using the
BATTLESYSTEM rules. During this testing,
a few more procedures have shown
themselves useful in streamlining the game.
I?ll make some suggestions about these, but
don?t regard them as official rule alterations.
If everyone in your campaign prefers
one of these options, feel free to use it to
amplify or replace existing rules systems.

Morale penalties for small units: Morale
penalties apply to all units that do not include
at least twelve figures. Although this
works fine for preparing armies for a largescale
battle, it often inflicts a harsh penalty
on the character who wishes to create a unit
for campaign purposes but cannot afford to
pay the wages of 120 troops. Thus, this
morale penalty can be ignored when troops
are organized into smaller units for use
during a campaign.

Simplifying leader rosters: When a player
must record a roster block for a relatively
generic leader, this can result in bookkeeping
that could otherwise be dispensed with.
For example, 180 orcs arrive at the battle,
led by an orc chieftain as described in the
Monster Manual. In cases like this, do not
fill out a separate roster block for the leader.
Instead, under the unit?s roster entry for the
unit commander, simply note the name and
command radius of the leader and mark its
location with a 1/2? counter.

Small numbers of figures in combat:
When one or two counters of relatively lowlevel
creatures engage each other in combat,
several game rounds can pass before either
side has the opportunity to wound an opposing
figure. To increase the chance of
these small units taking damage, and consequently
speed up battles between skirmishers
or within confined spaces, allow damage
equal to 10% (instead of 25%) of the victim
?s hit dice to cause a wound. This rule
adds greatly to the excitement of small-unit
combat.

Multiple weapon types within a single
unit: The rules require all members of a
unit to be armed with the same weapon
type. This simplifies and speeds up combat,
but multiple weapon types can be used
without a great deal of added complexity.
Allow players to arm different ranks of a
formation with different weapon types. For
example, the first line of figures might be
armed with swords, the next with spears,
and the third with pikes, to get the most
melee power from the unit. This option
carries a restriction, however: Units designed
this way cannot alter their frontage
so that figures employing different weapon
types end up occupying the same rank of
the formation.

Getting a campaign started
Players should have little difficulty learning
the BATTLESYSTEM rules, since they
draw so heavily from the AD&D and D&D
games. Nonetheless, the idea of moving a
hundred or more pieces around during an
encounter might be a little foreign to many
role players. A few suggestions are offered
here to make the transition easier.
Play a small, low-level battle first. This
acquaints you with the BATTLESYSTEM
combat rules without trouble, allowing
players to become familiar with the Combat
Results Table and figure movement without
having to worry about more complicating
aspects of mass combat such as spells, invisibility
and so forth.
Play a few battles in which the highest
level of a PC or monster is no greater than
4. Use about 4-6 units per side and be sure
to include at least one cavalry and one
missile-firing unit on each side.
After playing one or two battles at this
level, use your judgment to decide how big
and how complicated you want your
BATTLESYSTEM encounters to be. Remember,
a large battle with low-level characters
is not very complicated, whereas a
small engagement with 15th-level magicusers
on one or both sides can become very
complicated, indeed.
Dungeon Masters should consider
Michael Dobson?s suggestions for working
BATTLESYSTEM into your campaign.
Certainly, there are an infinite number of
scenario possibilities, and some of the circumstances
within your own campaign will
lend themselves to mass combat situations.
Allow your players to select and design
their own units, if this is appropriate to
your campaign. This will get the players
more involved with the fate of their units on
the field and more likely to make reasonable
decisions in a role-playing sense. All in all,
everyone will have more fun with the system
if they are allowed to create the types
and sizes of units that they desire.
Allow characters to advance themselves
and their units upward in levels, as explained
under BATTLESYSTEM rules
Case 16.0, in the campaign rules. This
assures that the players gradually move into
more complex levels of battle after learning

the systems and gaining experience at using
their troops.
Of course, caution is necessary when
allowing players to design their own units,
especially in the area of troop availability.
For example, a player should not be able
recruit 180 5th-level fighter/magic-user
to
elves, just because he thinks they would
make a good unit. The DM must ascertain
how many elves are available for this purpose
in this area of the campaign world,
what levels they are, and why they would be
willing to serve this PC.
With mercenaries, of course, money
provides the motivation for the troops.
Many humans and demi-humans, however,
will need a more significant reason for
joining a unit, usually involving a special
cause that the unit is supporting. Other
possible incentives for troops include the
repayment of a debt of gratitude owed to
the unit commander (he saved the whole
village once, so everyone has to serve a term
in his army), feudal duties to a liege lord, or
simply the loyalty of a large band of henchmen
and hirelings.
Once a few military units exist in your
campaign, the dynamics of PC and NPC
interaction will probably bring about reasons
enough for battle. Depending on your
philosophy as DM, you may wish to allow
or disallow PC-vs.-PC battles, which can
become very costly to the characters involved.
A situation more in keeping with
the cooperative spirit of the AD&D game is
to structure battles between a force of good
units, controlled by a coalition of PCs, and
the ?forces. of evil? run by, of course, the
DM. When constructing encounters and
adventures such as this, give serious
thought to having one or two extra players
help you run the bad guys. This greatly
speeds play, and you will find yourself having
a lot more fun than if you try to run an
entire army alone against a collection of
PCs running an army of equal size.
If you enjoy fighting mass-combat encounters,
they don?t have to be tied directly
in to the fate of your PCs. Perhaps you?ll
want to set up a BATTLESYSTEM engagement
that occurs ?offstage? in your
campaign world. With no PCs present and
thus no players having a great emotional
stake in the battle, you can simply divide
the players (yourself included) into a couple
of teams ? and have at it!
 

From first draft to last gasp
. . . Wherein the editor gets the final word
by Michael Dobson

The idea of doing a new set of miniatures
rules for the AD&D system had been
around for a while, but the project (originally
called ?Bloodstone Pass?) had been
on and off the schedule. This phenomenon
is not that unusual, since there are always a
lot more great ideas than there is time to get
them done.
Finally, the project was placed back on
the schedule, and assigned to Doug Niles
(the designer) and myself (the editor). Doug
had created the Knight Hawks game for the
STAR FRONTIERS® system, and I had
been the editor of the DRAGONLANCE  module series.
We started meeting on the
"Bloodstone Pass" project in March 1984,
almost a year before the game would reach
the market.

When TSR staff members create a new
game, module, or accessory, the first thing
that happens is a series of meetings to create
a concept and a plan. Harold Johnson,
TSR?s Director of Design, helped create the
concept and approve the ideas that Doug
and I were proposing. Early in this process,
the design team realized that this project
had a great deal of untapped potential.
Although several previous AD&D miniatures
rules sets existed (going all the way
back to the venerable Chainmail game,
where it all started), none of them were up
to date with the full, current AD&D system.
The new game would have to include all
new magic spells, new character classes,
and every monster in the entire system!
But something else ? something more
important ? came out of those early meetings:
?Bloodstone Pass? was going to be an
AD&D game expansion first, and a miniatures
game second. The design team felt
that it was more important to have a game
that kept the flavor and structure of the
entire AD&D game universe than to be a
traditional miniatures game. From there, it
was decided to use cardboard counters as an
option, and to add 3-D ADVENTURE
FOLD-UP figures for additional gaming
excitement.

That decision had many more consequences
that became evident as the design
phase began. Early on, the design team
decided that the name "Bloodstone Pass"
didn?t convey a feeling of what the game
was all about. After much discussion, the
name was changed to the Official
ADVANCED DUNGEONS &
DRAGONS® BATTLESYSTEM Fantasy
Combat Supplement. The "Bloodstone
Pass" name was freed up for other uses.
The management of TSR was very excited by the new game, and gave the project
its utmost support. Dennis Kauth, Dave
Sutherland, and Bob Maurus, of TSR?s
3-D Products Division, started coming up
with literally hundreds of ideas for cardboard
figures and miniatures that could be
used with the game. Dave ?Zeb? Cook,
Bruce Nesmith, and many other designers
contributed ideas.

Doug Niles created the first draft of the
rules, and then playtesting began. The
main conference room turned into a miniatures
battlefield for weeks on end. After the
first draft had been thoroughly tested, I
edited the rules, putting in all the changes
that had resulted from the playtests. Then,
the second draft got playtested, and a third
draft was required . . . and a fourth draft
. . . and a fifth draft.

With each draft, the rules became better,
tighter . . . and longer. Every day, it
seemed, people were thinking up new and
better uses for the game.

Finally, we held the ultimate playtest ?
eight people each designed their own armies,
using the recently developed ?Creating
Armies? rules. The TSR designers are a
sneaky, underhanded bunch, and they all
pored through the manuals trying to create
the nastiest, most powerful, most outrageous
armies they could find. The final
battle took place on three planes (Ethereal,
Astral, and Prime Material) with about
40% of the total forces invisible when the
game began. There were devas, planetars,
mezzodaemons, galeb duhr, and 10,000
gibberlings -- each with a sword and a
girdle of storm giant strength. There were
catapults firing mirrors of life trapping that
contained powerful monsters. There was a
force of 220 invisible shadow dragons.
There were three hundred-handed giants
(see the Legends and Lore volume for details).
There were drow cavalry on nightmares
(they didn?t last long). It took 8
hours of playing time (and 4 large deep-dish
pizzas) to get through two turns . . . but it
was an incredible amount of fun, and a lot
was learned.

That led to the sixth draft . . . and eventually
to the seventh.

The final edited rules were turned over to
TSR?s graphics department in December,
and John Meyers began work on graphic
design and presentation for the various
booklets, boxes, counters, ADVENTURE
FOLD-UP figures, and forms that went
into the game. With our release date looming
near, everyone was in high gear down to
the day it all went to the printers.

Doug and I, meanwhile, had persuaded
TSR to use the old "Bloodstone Pass"
name for the first BATTLESYSTEM game
accessory -- H-1, Bloodstone Pass. Because
nothing related to the BATTLESYSTEM
project was done halfway, Bloodstone Pass
became a ?supermodule,? with more
counters, roster booklets, adventures, and
an entire 3-D village using ADVENTURE
FOLD-UP figures. Bloodstone Pass is
scheduled for release in July.

Tracy Hickman, creator of the
DRAGONLANCE® series and an incredibly
prolific and talented game designer,
decided to bring the BATTLESYSTEM
game into the DRAGONLANCE campaign
world. The results appear in DL-8,
Dragons of War, also a July release. In
DL-8, the heroes of the saga command a
small army in the defense of a key pass. Not
to be outdone, Doug Niles has created a
huge aerial battle for DL-9, Dragons of Deceit --
in which the DRAGONLANCE heroes ride good dragons into combat!
There are other projects that will use the
BATTLESYSTEM rules.

I am designing
X-10, Red Arrow, Black Shield, a D&D®
Expert Set module, for November release.
This adventure uses both the ?War Machine
? rules from the D&D Companion Set
and the BATTLESYSTEM rules adapted
for the D&D game. Other designers are
thinking about what they can do with mass
battles, so in the coming months, you
should see quite a few adventures for these
new rules. If you?re going to attend the
GEN CON® 18 Convention this year, be
sure to see the BATTLESYSTEM Supplement
demonstrations.

Using the BATTLESYSTEM game
If you?re a fantasy miniatures buff, of
course, you?ll want the game right away,
since you can set up and run neat fantasy
miniatures battles with it. But what if
you?re not particularly interested in a miniatures
game?
The BATTLESYSTEM game is a lot
more than just a set of miniatures rules, and
there?s a lot that can be done with it even if
you don?t care about miniatures gaming.
For one thing, you don?t have to invest in a
large collection of figures to use it, although
painted miniatures make for a very attractive
battle scene. The cardboard counters
included with the game work just as well
(and also work in an ordinary AD&D or
D&D game), and they look pretty impressive
themselves when arrayed on a tabletop.
The most obvious thing you can do is to

run melees that are a lot larger than what
you could run previously. Want to have 200
orcs attack your PC party and still finish the
playing session by ten o?clock? No problem.
In BATTLESYSTEM game scale, there are
only 20 counters to be maneuvered, and a
single dice roll can take care of 200 separate
attacks.
At higher levels, most PCs accumulate
henchmen and hirelings. When they are
well played, henchmen and hirelings add a
great deal to the life and excitement of the
game, but they complicate things for the
DM. When they are poorly played, henchmen
and hirelings just clutter up the board.
If you use the BATTLESYSTEM rules, you
can handle a much larger number of hirelings
in combat. If your players decide to
hire a couple of hundred mercenaries to
help clean out the local dungeon, you?re all
ready for them.
With the BATTLESYSTEM Supplement,
PCs can enter military service or
become mercenaries. This can open up
entire new vistas in a campaign. Low-level
PCs can work their way up through the
ranks, earning experience points and seeing
the world. If the PCs earn enough money,
they can even recruit their own mercenary
forces and hire themselves out to the rulers
of your campaign world. This is a good
vehicle for getting your characters involved
with the political and military situations in
the campaign.
Wars shaped the history of the ancient

and medieval worlds. The AD&D game
campaign worlds, such as the WORLD OF GREYHAWK Fantasy Game Setting and
the world of Krynn from the
DRAGONLANCE series, also are concerned
with wars. Whether you?re using a
TSR-designed world or a campaign world
of your own devising, consider how the
ambitions of rulers, enmity between nations,
and other circumstances can lead to
big wars. With the BATTLESYSTEM
Supplement, you can get your PCs involved
in the wars, and so participate in the shaping
of history.

If you?re playing a D&D game campaign,
don?t forget the "War Machine" rules in
the D&D Companion Set. It?s not necessary
to fight out every single battle using the fullscale
BATTLESYSTEM rules. You only
have to create those battles that actually
involve the PCs. (The upcoming module
Red Arrow, Black Shield uses both ?War
Machine? and BATTLESYSTEM rules,
and has useful tips for how to integrate both
sets of rules into your campaign.)
D&D game characters who have acquired
dominions (also described in the Companion
Set) can use BATTLESYSTEM rules as
well as ?War Machine? rules to fight battles
that involve their dominions. Wars of conquest,
wars of defense, wars of revenge ?
they?re all possible.

The BATTLESYSTEM rules lead to a
wide variety of potential scenarios. Here are
a few ideas.

Your characters are exploring a dungeon,
but find out that the territory around the
dungeon is embroiled in a huge battle. The
characters can get involved on one side or
another, or they can just try to escape the
battlefield without getting killed.
After a few too many drinks at the local
tavern, the characters awaken the next
morning to find that they?ve been pressganged
into the local army and that they are
expected to march out onto the battlefield
and fight in the defense of some local baron
they?ve never even heard of. And, just in
case they get any ideas, the penalty for
desertion is death by hanging.

The characters are commanding a small
elite unit heading for the wars, but they
have to cross hostile territory. They are
pinned down in a small, abandoned fort by
several thousand goblins, and they have to
fight for their lives against an overwhelmingly
numerous force (also known as the
"Zulu" scenario).

The characters are again commanding a
small elite unit. This time, they have to
defend a narrow pass against a huge enemy
army, or their kingdom will collapse (also
known as the "Thermopylae" scenario).
A small band of freedom fighters (the
PCs) must recruit peasants and form them
into an army to attack the evil usurper in
his impregnable castle (the "Robin Hood"
scenario).

A strange invading army from the Outer
Planes is menacing the Prime Material
Plane. The invaders can be modrons, githyanki,
hordlings, or even slaadi. Because of
the opposition's alien nature, special
powers, and inhuman desires, the PCs must
develop new strategies to overcome the
threat.

Similarly, the invaders can come from
deep within the earth (drow or kuo-toa),
from beneath the sea (sahuagin invading a
coastal town), or from strange corners of the
world (norkers, xvarts).

The Emperor has decided to expand his
realm to include the barbarian tribes that
occupy the northern wastes. An army is
assigned to conquer the tribes and bring
them into the empire (the "Julius Caesar in
Gaul" scenario). The PCs can either be
leaders in the Imperial Army, or they can be
war chiefs of the barbarian tribes, trying to
resist the inexorable might of the empire.
This scenario emphasizes guerrilla action,
small-unit raids, ambushes, etc.

A time warp catapults an AD&D or D&D
army into Nazi Germany. This scenario was
originally created by Gary Gygax in an
article titled "Sturmgeshutz and Sorcery --
or, How effective is a panzerfaust against a
troll, Heinz?" (reprinted in The Best of
DRAGON® Magazine, Volume 1). You can
use the scenario presented in that article, or
create your own version.

Similarly, AD&D or D&D armies can be
transported into the universe of another
role-playing game. The DMG provides guidelines for translating
the AD&D system into the GAMMA WORLD® and BOOT HILL® universes.
You can also pit an AD&D army against a
STAR FRONTIERS army, or perhaps even
some characters from the MARVEL
SUPER HEROES game.

If the player characters in your campaign
have acquired dominions of their own, you
can promote strife between them, and let
your PCs fight each other in a series of
wars. To do that, you have to control dominion
income and troop costs to make sure
that each player character builds only reasonable
armies.

You can create a campaign environment
similar to the Old West, with orcs, barbarians,
or berserkers as the ?Indians.? This
can lead to supply-train or wagon-train
raids, caravan-guard battles, and literally
hundreds of other engagements.
You can adapt great battles from any
period of history to an AD&D or D&D
game equivalent. For example, D-Day can
inspire an amphibious assault on an island
controlled by a powerful wizard. The Trojan
Horse can be the foundation of an exciting
adventure in which a small force enters
an enemy city and fights from within. The
Battle of Britain can lead to a huge aerial
campaign involving dragons, pegasi, and
other strange flying creatures.

We've found that the BATTLESYSTEM
Supplement is particularly easy to design
scenarios for. An hour or two of creative
effort can easily produce a scenario that is
good for ten hours or more of playing. You
have to create a situation that leads to a
battle, create the terrain, construct the units
and prepare the Army Roster Sheets, and
lay out the tabletop. Then it?s time to play!

The release of the BATTLESYSTEM Supplement,
the new UA book,
the D&D Masters Set, and
the AD&D   Oriental Adventures book
later this year makes 1985 a milestone year for both
the AD&D and D&D games. Don't be left
out as fantasy role-playing reaches new
heights!