Mass Murder

A mass of bodies throwing violence at each other. Iron and muscle, sweat and blood. Clamor and alarum. And in the end, there will be bodies bleeding their lives away.

Whenever groups of ven need to settle their differences with violence, the GM calls for the Mass Murder rules. Here’s how they work.

One Big Contested Risk

Mass murder is just that. One big contested risk. Everyone follows the same steps.

1) Pick a Side

Everybody picks a side. Us vs. Them. Us vs. Them vs. Them vs. Them.

You may choose “Me” as a side. Good luck.

2) Pick a Leader

Each side picks a Leader.

2) Gather Advantage

Now, we gather dice. Each side gets a pool of dice. Only the Leader can add his Name, Prowess, aspects, etc. Each additional ven on his side adds one die. That’s it. Just one die.

3) Wagers

When the Leaders have their total dice, each Leader secretly makes wagers.

4) Roll

All Leaders roll.

The victor (whoever rolled highest) keeps all his wagers.

The defeated (every side who rolled lesser than the victor) lose half their wagers.

5) Murder

The victor goes first.

a) He selects one ven on his side,

b) spends a wager, and

c) gives a rank 5 Injury to any ven or ork involved in the fight scene. Even one on his own side.

If you are targeted for murder, you may spend a style point—one of your own—to use a Maneuver. Usually this will be either Dodge or Parry. You cannot use the basic Maneuver “Defend.” You must use Dodge or Parry.

If a targeted ven uses a Maneuver to dodge the murder, the selected ven may spend a style point to counter the Maneuver. This continues as usual until one side can no longer counter. The loser gets a rank 5 Injury.

6) End of the Scene

When all the wages are spent, the scene is over. Any side has the opportunity to surrender.

Ven with rank 5 Injuries are one step away from death. A single action kills them. Not even a risk. Just an action.

If any side does not surrender, go back to Step 1 and start over again. If a character cannot contribute to the scene (she has a rank 5 Injury), she cannot contribute a die to the Leader.

The Point of It All

This mechanic kills characters. It should. I designed it this way for three reasons.

The first was to make these kinds of scenes lethal, dirty, messy, and chaotic.

The second was to make it as fast.

The third was to discourage this kind of thing.

I’m running into a stumbling block.

“Mass Murder,” the mass combat section devoted to multi-user fight scenes, is a mess. The Houses system works great with duels, but not with groups of bloodthirsty ven and/or orks.

I want a system that’s elegant. A system that doesn’t require a bunch of dice rolls and memory. And I just can’t find it.

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Clarification

I’m talking about “skirmish-level” fighting. Ten people. The typical “fight scene” in D&D.