Help with military style 4E game

[Mckma]

Hey all.  So I've been wanting to run a campaign set during a large scale war (on the lines of our World Wars), where I'm thinking an early decision of the players would be whether they would actively fight for a given group, or not (essentially making the war a backdrop and at times more pressing).  I have several random ideas for adventures/sessions, but am having difficulty with figuring first off, where to start, and secondly, how to get the players hooked.  I am obviously going to get a feel for what they actually want to do (actively fight, or use as backdrop), but I wanted to see if any of you had suggestions or could offer advice.

I'll be honest, the real reason I brought this up was that after listening to whichever episode it was that dealt with pacing, I realized that was one of my biggest problems running games, inconsistent/bad pacing.  So I wasn't really sure if I should just start them in an army of one group or another, or have them effectively get "draft notices."  I still have some significant world building, but I wanted to see if anyone had either experience with a similar campaign, or thoughts on the issue.

[clockworkjoe]

crossposting my post from a thread on the SA forums

I would start by figuring out what the victory conditions are - how do they win the war? Either let the players define it or as a group thing - you and the players work together to figure that out. They could decide they need to kiil X generals/kings/leaders - take over a number of cities/fortresses/planes/whatever - destroy the enemy's capacity to make war - or whatever

Then I would ask the players what kind of overall strategy they want to pursue - will they focus on one target at a time - go defensive - focus on tricking enemies into achieving their goals for them etc

Once you answer those questions, the individual missions should be easy to determine - if they want to establish an unbreakable fortress - they will need dwarven engineers, golems, food supplies, giants as masons etc - if they want to kill a fire god, they will need to recruit a lot of water/ice aligned creatures etc.

[Murph]

The one time I ran a mass battle, I gave my player's jenga blocks and told hem to build the fort they were going to defend.  I believe theres a New World AP where the players do the same with legos.  My players really liked defending their own fort.  They seemed to have a more personal stake in it.

If your going to choose the starting side for them, I would set the stage on the eve of a battle.  Maybe they all meet sitting around a campfire.  This would start with low tension, and quickly build to higher tension as the battle starts, followed by the release after the battle ends.

[clockworkjoe]

hmm - armies are bad for PCs when they aren't leading them - what PC wants to take orders all day from an NPC?

[Mckma]

The other question I forgot to ask opinions on was this:

What are your thoughts on the "morality" of the war, should it be more clearly defined with good vs. evil (i.e. a faction that wants to conquer and enslave and one that wants to protect), or less defined (with basically factions fighting for resources or territory).

There would obviously be a decent amount of moral ambiguity either way, but I can't seem to really decide between the two myself...

[malyss]

Just ask your players. They may not even want to play in a world where war is a major concern. Sometimes they just want to beat up monsters.

Don't do something that is uncomfortable for you or your players. It won't be fun, and then what is the point?