BE A BETTER BATTLE MASTER

Adding Cinematic Mass-Combat to Your Game

By Michael Barker

Writing: Michael Barker

Matt Click
James Kearney
Tim Kearney
Editing: Matt Click
Layout: James Kearney
Interior and Cover Design: Tim Kearney
Cartography: Joe & Sarah Bilton, Heroic Maps

Be a Better Battle Master is a supplement designed to bring large-scale battles to

your game table in a fun, fluid, and cinematic way. This supplement is suitable for
use with your favorite fantasy roleplaying game.

www.BeABetterGameMaster.com
Companion Video:
youtu.be/OW55vC7bQtM

Absolute Tabletop, LLC

PO Box 2493
Moriarty, NM 87035
www.AbsoluteTabletop.com

Copyright © 2015 by Absolute Tabletop, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
distributed, or transmitted in any form without the expressed written permission of Absolute Tabletop, LLC.
The Absolute Tabletop logo and all content herein are copyright Absolute Tabletop, LLC. Absolute Tabletop, LLC
is not formally associated with any other publishing house(s), and the use of any popularized or system-specific
terms does not imply affiliation with or endorsement by said publishing house(s).
The A Fistful of Dice, Be a Better Game Master, and Tabletop Terrors logos are copyright their respective owners.
 Heather Thank You

For Heather.

For being my big dream; for seeing behind all these walls and
not once turning away from what we found there.
 www.AbsoluteTabletop.com

Greetings, game-tastic gamers!

First off, I want to offer you my sincerest thanks for picking

up this supplement. You’re a baller human being. Yes, you. No,
not YOU. The OTHER one. The one who printed this out. Yeah! You!
Thank you especially, you baller human being! Also, you’re crazy.
Ink is expensive…

So, let’s move on.

When it comes to movies, books, gaming, and a whole bunch of

other super-dope stuff, battles rule.

Whether you’re reading/watching “The Lord of the Rings” for the

eleventy-first time, or you’re repeatedly rewinding “The Empire
Strikes Back” to watch the battle of Hoth unfold again and again,
the truth remains the same:

If you’re anything like me, you walk away from those films wanting
to run the most badass, memorable, mass-combat RPG session ever
to transfer through the human loins.

Ew. Gross.

But still, awesome.

That’s ultimately why this supplement exists. Because mass-combat

(one of the coolest RPG scenarios EVER) can easily become the
most boring and needlessly drawn-out exercise in the world of
tabletop gaming. Let’s fix that TOGETHER.

So, without further ado, let’s make our gaming sessions more
un-sucky.

Thanks again, and godspeed,

Michael Barker
BeABetterGameMaster

4
 GAME MASTER ADVICE
Let’s make your battles more awesome in just
four steps…
I. TAKE OUT THE TRASH
Many of the things we love about watching
battles in movies can actually make our RPG
battles boring. Seemingly endless waves of
enemies , each identical to the next, each
demanding more dice-rolling than roleplaying
or decision-making. These distractions are your
enemy – remove them!
SOME EXAMPLES:
Instead of rolling multiple dice for multiple
enemies attacking simultaneously, try treating a
group of enemies as a single entity or “swarm.”
Just like above, keeping track of each individual
enemy’s hit points can become tedious and
distract you from more important aspects of the
battle. Instead, use a “pool” of HP for the entire
group to speed things up a bit.
Instead of staying zoomed in too far (a boring,
repetitive, hack-and-slash) or zoomed out too
far (more like a tabletop war game than an RPG),
try alternating between both. Consistently
moving from the gritty, personal experiences of
the characters to a more narrative description
of the overall battle can give your game a more
cinematic feel, and keep the players aware of the
stakes.
You should use the companion video to this supplement! Find it on
www.AbsoluteTabletop.com by searching for ‘Battle Master’ under the ‘Videos’ tab!
II. BREAK THE BATTLE DOWN INTO A SERIES
OF SHORT ENCOUNTERS
Start looking at your battle as a series of
objectives that need to be met in order for one
of the sides to “win.” Perhaps there is a battering
ram at the main gate and ladders on the walls,
while an enemy scouting party has found a way
into the fortress through the sewers. Not only
that, but what happens if the battering ram gets
through? (Siege giants are in the courtyard!)
What if the walls are overrun? (Our defense
weapons are being turned against us!)
Plot all of these negative outcomes out using
the flowchart in this supplement. It will serve as
a fantastic visual aid to help you play the battle
out cinematically!
III. GIVE THE PLAYERS A CHOICE
A lot of these encounters will happen
simultaneously, and that’s sort of the point! The
players should know what’s going on (the overall
“sky-view” of the battle) and what’s at stake.
Give them a few specific options of things they
can do to turn the tide of battle (e.g., reinforce
the gate, fight back the ladders, or intercept the
infiltrators).
Ultimately, you want to make just enough
encounters for the party to deal with, and
then make one more. This way (at least at the
beginning of the battle) there will be at least one
objective that the players fail to meet. This will
not only help the battle evolve, but it will give
the group a sense of the consequences that their
choices bear. This will help them decide in no-
win situations which specific goals they want to
achieve in this particular battle.
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 GAME MASTER ADVICE
IV. MAKE THE PLAYERS FEEL THEIR CHOICES Even victory comes at great costs – and the
easiest way to show players the joys and woes
If the players fail, they should know it. Maybe of aftermath is through people. It’s surprising
they chose to help reinforce the gate against the how rewarding a simple “thank you” from an NPC
battering ram, but now the enemy infiltrators can be in a player’s mind – and how visceral it
have made it through the sewers and are inside can be to see the results of a battle through the
the city, setting fire to the food storehouses. eyes of a common soldier.
Conversely, players should feel their successes
too. Now they can rest assured that the gate
is safe because they were there to stop the
onslaught.

Use NPCs to show players the effects of their

choices, and the ramifications of their successes
and failures. Soldiers at the gate cheer as they
repel the invaders, while a breathless recruit
informs the adventurers that the storehouses
are burning.

Siege engines like catapults and trebuchets are

obvious objectives for adventurers to contend
with during a large battle.

A TIP FROM TABLETOP TERRORS

Watch some of your favorite battles from movies–
Barker mentioned a few of ours at the beginning of this
supplement. Here’s a quick way to get an idea of when
to zoom in, when to zoom out, and what to focus on.
Take a piece of paper, and write the title of the movie
or battle across the top. Then write ‘What Did They
Focus On?
What you’ll end up is something that looks like this:
O, I, O, I, C, C, I, C, O
So what the heck does that help with? Well, if you like
the tone and pacing of the battle you’re watching, you
can borrow that same format as a starting point for
what you’ll focus on in your battle.

Now, watch the battle, and write down in a row or col-
umn a letter for each thing that happens. For the times
the director zooms out on the battle write an ‘O’. For
the times the director zooms in on a battle write an ‘I’.
And for the times they focus on the main characters
specifically, write a ‘C’.
BONUS POINTS: If you have the time, jot down the
main focus of each shot in the battle you choose to
watch. ‘Troops marching’, ‘a tower exploding’, ‘an enemy
victorious’. This can give you basic ideas for what to
describe in YOUR battle.
www.TabletopTerrors.com

Narrative description is everything! When an adventurer slays an enemy, allow the player to describe what it
6 looks like as they are slashing through a squad of foes instead of just one.
 Organizing Your Battle
If you’re anything like me, you love the idea of
organization in your games, but you’re always
struggling to find the tools to help you do it. Over
the next few pages, you will find some awesome
tools to help you better stage fun, cinematic
battles. If you’re looking for more insight, or if
you’re a visual person like I am, you should check
out this supplement’s companion video here and
we’ll build a battle together!
THE ENCOUNTERS TABLE:
This whole supplement is about breaking
your battles into smaller, more fun, and more
manageable encounters. On the following page,
you’ll find 40 sample events that can have
a serious effect on the characters during a
battle. These encounters are divided up into
three sections: Phase One encounters (green),
which occur at the battle’s opening; Phase Two
encounters (yellow), which occur as the conflict
escalates and the fight becomes deadlier; and
Phase Three encounters (red), which represent
the most dire events of the battle’s final
moments, when nearly all is lost.
Get creative and throw some unexpected obstacles
at the players! Maybe the enemy has flying mounts or
war rhinos.
Battles are all about pacing. If you find that the session is becoming sluggish or boring, don’t be afraid to
THE FLOWCHART:
Use this customizable worksheet to help
organize your battles and give them a sort of
cinematic “flow.” Similar to the encounters table,
the flowchart is divided into the same three
phases. Choose three Phase One encounters to
place at the top of the chart. These represent the
opening events of the battle – the first hurdles
the characters will have to overcome. Go through
these three encounters, asking yourself, “What
if the characters are NOT successful? What
happens then?” Put those “negative outcomes”
into Phase Two of the worksheet. So for every
encounter that the characters fail to resolve,
two more serious (and perhaps more challenging)
encounters are created in the next phase. In
this way, the battle is always escalating, but the
characters can still feel accomplished. Do the
same thing between Phase Two and Phase Three,
and voila! Your battle is ready to be fought!
Ultimately, the most important thing to
remember here is that your flowchart should be
treated as a guide to help you visualize how the
battle might progress. Nothing more. Same goes
with the encounters table. These are not hard
and fast laws for you to follow like a train on
the tracks. They are meant to guide and inspire
you – not to tie you down. Have fun with it, and
remember:
If your players are having fun, you’re doing it
right!
blow something up (in-game, you maniacs)!
7
 ENCOUNTER TABLES
IN 3 DISTINCT PHASES
PHASE 1
Defenders
The enemy is at our gate with a battering ram. If we
don’t reinforce the gate, they’ll be swarming the
courtyard!
Ladders! The enemy means to scale our walls. We must
stop them or risk losing our primary defensive positions.
Look! In the distance! Our enemy is bringing forth their
catapults. We must send out a small strike team to stop
them or risk the destruction of our fortifications.
This siege could last far longer than expected. We need
more food and supplies for our citizens and soldiers in
order to survive the fight ahead. We should send out a
small force to collect what we can from our storehouse
beyond the walls.
The enemy is at the walls! Heat up the oil and pour the
cauldrons on their heads!
The enemy has shown up a full day before our scouts
anticipated! Get to the bell tower and alert the troops to
ready the city defenses.
The enemy is trying to sneak troops through the sewers
and underground tunnels of the city! We must reroute
the smoke from the blacksmith’s bellows to ensure they
have no fresh air to breathe.
Keep the enemy interesting! If the adventurers are fighting an army of orcs, include melee warriors, ranged
8 archers, and self-destructing, explosive orcs.
Attackers
Our battering ram is at the gate! If we can’t give those
men cover from the enemy archers above, they’ll be
helpless under the arrows.
Send forth the ladders to help our infantry take control
of their walls. If we can’t get inside, this entire assault is
forfeit!
Our catapults are in position, my lord. But they are
dangerously under-defended, and it looks like the enemy
is preparing to strike against them.
Without the food and supplies they need, our foes will
be forced into an early surrender. Secure the storehouse
outside the city walls for our own soldiers and defend it
from any possible counter-attack. We shall starve them
out.
Our soldiers can’t withstand the burning oil much longer.
Destroy those positions or otherwise find a way to
protect our soldiers!
Our scouts located a shorter, lesser-known path to the
enemy city. If you can stop the enemy from ringing the
bells and alerting the town to our siege, we’ll have the
element of surprise
We’ve found a way in through the sewers and
underground passages. If we can fortify our position
before the enemy knows we’re down here, we can avoid
a brutal fight in this maze!
 ENCOUNTER TABLES
IN 3 DISTINCT PHASES
PHASE 2
DEFENDERS
Our infantry needs time to regroup. Buy them a few
precious seconds by charging into the fray and slowing
our enemy’s advance.
With their ladders in place, the enemy is pouring over
our walls! We must slow their advance into the city and
protect our archers!
Our very own cauldrons of hot tar have been turned
against us! We’ve lost our defensive positions on the
wall. Get up there and save as many wounded as you
can, then regroup for battle in the courtyard!
Who would have guessed the attacking army would use
flying creatures to attack the city from above? Hurry! To
the ballistas! Shoot those beasts down!
What is this explosive alchemical concoction our
enemies have created? It looks to be some sort of black
powder or – wait a minute. They’re sending a sapper
towards the gate with it! We must stop them now!
The attacking army has brought reinforcements to our
flank, but they are scattered and unprepared for battle.
Now would be the perfect time to strike!
They’ve captured our siege weapons and turned them
against us! We must take back the weapons back or face
a much greater onslaught on the ground!
A great philosophy is to view yourself as the camera operator, not the director. The players are the decision-
makers. With the proper preparation in place, your job is to show the players the results of their actions
ATTACKERS
Their infantry is disorganized, but we need to press the
advance against them before they find their wits. If not,
we could lose our advantage.
We’ve made it onto their walls thanks to the ladders
you helped lift! Now we must assault the enemy
catapults to help further the advance of the rest of our
men!
Our efforts to protect our soldiers from the scalding
cauldrons of tar have failed! The burning oil has
disabled our battering ram as well. Get up there and
retrieve the wounded so we can get back to tearing
down the gate!
Our attack from the sky will secure our victory, but not
if their ballistas shoot our dragons down! Hurry! Take
those weapons out!
It is no secret that our enemies have created a new
form of explosive powder for their siege weapons. We
must find and destroy the warehouse where it is being
stored, or pay the price in blood.
Our reinforcements have arrived, but they are scattered
and underprepared, and they’ve failed to spot the small
enemy force looking to ambush them! We must alert
them before they are crushed!
Look out! Here comes the counter-attack! The key siege
weapons that we’ve obtained during our initial assault
are again in danger! Fight for them! Die for them!
and decisions. 9
 ENCOUNTER TABLES
IN 3 DISTINCT PHASES
PHASE 3
All is almost lost. It is time, my friends. Time for us to don our most sacred armor and ride out to meet our enemies.
We may die, yes. But we will die as soldiers.

The battle is lost. All we have left are the people that have fought beside us. Retrieve all the wounded you can and
prepare to retreat!

Many of our men are dead! If you can find a way to destroy the dam, we could flood the city. It will mean heavy
losses on both sides, but it may be our only chance of holding this city!

All will be for naught if we don’t call for aid! Hurry! Ride to the nearby village and light the beacons! At the very
least, it will warn our countrymen of this terrible onslaught!

The city is lost and we are preparing for retreat, but the enemy does not know your faces. Here – put on these
enemy uniforms and blend in. We’ll need some spies in their ranks if we are to survive the next battle!

A TIP FROM A Fistful of dice

So many game masters, including myself, make the
mistake of thinking too big when it comes to mass
combat. They futilely try to take every facet of the
battle into account, but forget the little moments. They
agonize over troop movements, but forget the handful
of heroes turning the tide. When it comes to war: sweat
the small stuff.
Battles, no matter how epic their scale, boil down to a
series of decisive moments. Victory or defeat comes
down to simple decisions made by men and women in
the field. A battle is: Aragorn and Gimli sneaking outside
to repel the Uruk-Hai from the gates of Helm’s Deep;
Captain Miller and his men taking out a German machine
gun emplacement on Omaha Beach; the Grey Wardens
lighting a beacon to signal for reinforcements; Dice and
Aerdon taking the watchtower in the ruins of Demeter.
The grandness and epic scale of battle doesn’t come
from a sterile bird’s eye view – it comes from the
heroism and sacrifice of individuals. Just as you would
highlight the tactical mind of an army’s greatest general,
you should highlight the tenacity of the low-ranking
spearman knee-deep in mud and blood.
For your next mass combat, don’t worry yourself with
the movements of armies – worry yourself with the
actions of a small group of courageous heroes.
www.aFistfulofDice.com

Use descriptions to make the small things matter! Yes, an epic battle is taking place. But that doesn’t
10 mean a crying mother won’t ask an adventurer to help her find her lost child.
 SOME BATTLEFIELDS!

# A VARIETY OF BATTLEFIELDS – ROLL A d12, or CHOOSE ONE

A small, hilltop village in the marshlands, defended by nothing but aged, wooden palisades, and exposed on all
1
sides to the swamp and an enemy army.

An ancient fortress, built to guard an otherwise impenetrable mountain pass. The walls are beginning to
2
crumble, revealing various weak points in the defenses.

3 A woodland riverbed, filled with deadly quicksand, where the only way across is a slender, stone bridge.

A large galley, anchored at sea due to the surrounding magical storms. The coming attackers will strike from
4
upon, above, and within the sea itself.

A sewer, foul in both sight and stench. The attackers strike at three distinct “choke-points” from various
5
openings in the ceiling.

A tavern, surrounded by torch-bearing brigands. They shatter windows and burst through the doorways. But
6
will they find the secret passage leading up through the floor?

A gladiatorial arena, with attackers surging through the side entrances. Defenders might take up positions
7
behind the wall surrounding the arena floor, as well as at the portcullises and stone benches.

Miles and miles of labyrinthian battlefield trenches, carved out of the earth into a defensive fortification.
8 There are dangers lurking both through the trenches and across the projectile-ridden “no-man’s-land” on the
surface.

An underwater city, attacked by amphibious creatures (or non-amphibious creatures using water-breathing
9
spells) from the nearby reef. The city utilizes the ancient shipwrecks surrounding it as defensive positions.

A city built into the canopy of a large rainforest. It would be completely safe from assault, were it not for the
10
climbers and axe-wielding “tree-choppers” attacking from the forest floor.

An open plain, littered with fallen soldiers and riddled with the charred scars of magical firepower. To the rear
11
is a roaring river with no bridge for miles.

A frozen lake between two steep cliffs. The slippery surface is nearly impossible to fight on, and everywhere
12
the ice begins to break.

A battle should feel different from any other environment in the game. Illustrate this by describing how the
once blue sky has turned gray with smoke, or how the ground has become muddy – not with water, but
with blood. 11
 www.AbsoluteTabletop.com

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SAMPLE BATTLEFIELD MAPS!
OUTPOST RED
Located in the Anderwood, Sur Salin

Map © Heroic Maps – For a printable, full resolution version of this map, click here

Raddika Pass
Located in Hallowhall, Enchea

Map © Heroic Maps – For a printable, full resolution version of this map, click here

15
 BONUS TIPS!

Weather can be as much of a danger as an enemy with a sword. Are the ramparts slippery with ice? Is snow-
fall obstructing the adventurers’ vision? Perhaps a massive dust storm is on its way. The possibilities are
endless.

What happens to a city under siege? Rioting. Looting. Chaos. The more of these sorts of things you can
include in your descriptions, the more immersed in the battle your players will become.

Remember that the adventurers aren’t typical grunts. They’re not cannon fodder. Let them feel powerful. They
can – and should – make a tangible impact. Show them how their actions are affecting the world around
them, and emphasize that their decisions are turning the tide of
battle for good or ill.

Thank you again for giving this supplement a look, and I really
hope it helped you in running some more immersive battles.

If you liked what you read, you can find more Game Master tips on
my website, www.BeABetterGameMaster.com.

Best of luck running amazing, cinematic battles!

- Double Tap Peace!

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BE A BETTER BATTLE MASTER www.AbsoluteTabletop.com

Adding Cinematic Mass-Combat to Your Game

By Michael Barker

An explosion rocks the castle walls, throwing debris into the air. The gates shatter
and split, and the orcish horde spills into the courtyard, falling upon the weary
guardsmen and hewing them down like blades of
grass. The sun sets as the castle towers burn. Only
heroes can turn the tide of this battle – and only the
game master can make it real for the players.

Written by Michael Barker of Be a Better Game

Master, this supplement gives the game master the
tools and inspiration they need to run sweeping,
cinematic large-scale battles using their favorite
fantasy roleplaying game. Inside you’ll find pages of
practical advice, interactive battle-flow worksheets,
tide-turning events to make combats feel visceral
and dramatic, and plenty of sample battlefields to get those mental gears turning.

Take up arms – there’s a war to be won!

www.BeABetterGameMaster.com

Thank you for supporting Absolute Tabletop!

Copyright © 2015 by Absolute Tabletop, LLC. All rights reserved.

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